Special Features

US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

20/04/2013
US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

Follow @TheGuestAle San Francisco is possibly my favourite US city and I happened to be there on business this week. As well as being introduced to the impressive bar-cum-off licence, the City Beer Store, by my US colleagues, I also felt it would be conspicuous of me not to review beer from San Francisco’s most famous brewer, Anchor Brewery. Despite tracing its roots back to the 19th century, Anchor Brewing was at the forefront of the revival against the generic mass-produced beers of the 1970s. In the UK, we are probably familiar with the Anchor Steam brand, but in San Francisco I got hold of some other bottles to review… Liberty Ale Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale was first brewed...

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Australian Beer Review part 2: Great Beer in Melbourne

26/02/2013
Australian Beer Review part 2: Great Beer in Melbourne

Follow @TheGuestAle Following on from a look at the best beer in Sydney, I moved onto look for the best beer in Melbourne, somewhere where I lived for a while several years ago and which is still my favourite city in the world. The beer has massively improved since, although – for visitors – it has shot up in price. This makes having a really good beer even more imperative. We looked at a couple of great pubs and also drove out to the White Rabbit brewery in the Yarra Valley, more famous for its cracking wines than its brewpubs. The first place I went to was the excellent The Local Taphouse in the trendy St.Kilda suburb. Like many...

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Australian Beer Review part 1: Great Beer in Sydney

20/02/2013
Australian Beer Review part 1: Great Beer in Sydney

Follow @TheGuestAle Australian beer just goes from strength to strength. When I first went to Australia for a year on a working visa in 2002 I had to content myself with pretty generic lager brands and find a decent one to stick with, which for me was James Boag’s from Tasmania (which I still quite like chilled on a roasting hot day). Fast-forward 11 years and it’s a world away. The choice across the country is incredible, micros have sprung up all over and flourished, and beers are finding their way overseas. Two years ago I visited – and was blown away by – the Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle, Western Australia, famous for its crisp and fruity Pale...

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Video: A Day with Sambrook’s Brewery, South London

20/12/2012
Video: A Day with Sambrook’s Brewery, South London

Follow @TheGuestAle Sambrook’s Brewery in Battersea, South London, is one of the UK capital’s most recent – and fastest growing – breweries. Set up in 2008 by former Deloitte accountant Duncan Sambrook with a little help from ex-Ringwood Brewery managing director David Welsh, Sambrook’s Brewery beer is found throughout South-West and East London, with brands such as Wandle and Junction. Sambrook attended the Brewlab brewing start-up course (University of Sunderland) prior to setting up his brewery, a course I myself attended this summer and have been experimenting in the kitchen with increased success since. Someone I met on the course mentioned he had volunteered at Sambrook’s Brewery so I got in touch and asked them if they would mind...

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Pub Review: Brewerkz, Singapore

03/12/2012
Pub Review: Brewerkz, Singapore

Follow @TheGuestAle When the mercury nudges 30°C in the humidity of Singapore, it’s time to cool off with a nice refreshing beer. Surely the best setting in town to do this is down at Brewerkz on Riverside Point, a colourful setting on the water set up by two beer acifionados keen to replicate the North American brewpub scene in arguably Asia’s most liveable city. The brewpub’s onsite system now produces more than 2,500hl of beer every year and the company has won numerous awards across the globe. Unfortunately, alcohol is not cheap in Singapore, so it’s important to drink the good stuff. I set about with a tasting palate to sample as much of the range as possible. Here...

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Kent Beer Festival, Bricklayers Arms, Putney

27/09/2012
Kent Beer Festival, Bricklayers Arms, Putney

Follow @TheGuestAle If you’re based in or near London, make sure you get yourself down to the Bricklayers Arms in Putney before 30 September 2012 for the Kent Beer Festival. There’s a cracking selection of beer on offer. I went along last night (26 Sept) for the first night of it and some of the “green hop beers” – beers made with new green hops that have not been dried in the traditional brewing style – weren’t yet settled and ready, but there were still some awesome Kentish beers on tap. All under a wonderful canopy of hops! My highlights included: Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout (4.5%): This was by far my favourite. Top notch stout, wonderfully medium-full bodied, slightly...

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Sainbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012 gets underway

11/09/2012
Sainbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012 gets underway

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s a great time of year for beer fans because the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt is back! More than a hundred candidates from five regions have been whittled down by the experts to just 20, with four from each region. Breweries of all sizes are represented, from the huge S A Brain’s brand from Cardiff, to small craft and microbrewers. The 20 will go on sale in Sainsbury’s stores from 12 September for a period of three weeks, with the two best-performing beers from each region going into a grand final on 5 October. Two will then be guaranteed at least a six-month listing in Sainsbury’s stores from November. Ridgeway Brewing’s Bad King John strong black...

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Great British Beer Festival 2012: My experience

09/08/2012
Great British Beer Festival 2012: My experience

Follow @TheGuestAle I went along to the first evening of the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) 2012 this week with my friend Tony from The Alternative Tipple and – while the range of beer was, as always, impressive I couldn’t help feeling a little underwhelmed by the experience. The GBBF has returned this year to Kensington Olympia, just down the road from Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, which is currently hosting Olympic volleyball. It’s my fourth and least favourite GBBF so far and I feel that the space was a little too large. While Earl’s Court feels about the right size, with room to move while feeling a that it was a well-populated festival, GBBF at Olympia was a little...

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What I’m looking forward to at the Great British Beer Fest 2012

06/08/2012
What I’m looking forward to at the Great British Beer Fest 2012

Follow @TheGuestAle Are you going to the Great British Beer Festival 2012 this week? I’m going a couple of days this week and it’s the perfect opportunity to try out something away from the big brewers and sample some of the UK’s many, many innovative local brewers. Hopefully, a lot of our overseas friends here for the Olympic Games will come down. Personally, this is what I’m really looking forward to trying out: Hopdaemon’s Green Daemon: It’s partly the name, but it’s mostly the promise of aromatic hops and a fruity finish without being an IPA. Titanic Stout: I like Titanic’s beer from Staffordshire and I’ve not tried out its Stout yet. Now could be the perfect opportunity. Woodforde’s...

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What to drink in London

25/07/2012
What to drink in London

Follow @TheGuestAle Dear overseas visitors, Welcome to London, home of the porter style dark beer and a host of wonderful and creative breweries. While you’re here I would implore you to branch out away from those generic, multinational brands that you can acquire anywhere and try some of London’s greatest beer. I’ve listed just a handful of them below, but definitely try to attend the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia between 7-11 August to sample the true beverages of this fair isle. Have a great stay and remember, there’s much more to London than Oxford Street… The Guest Ale Golden Style Perfectly refreshing for the summer: Fuller’s Discovery: Sweet and thirst-quenching. Available across the capital Truman’s Summer Runner:...

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