Golden Pints: BV's best beers of 2022

Are 'Golden Pints' still a thing? Is beer blogging still a thing? Are things being a thing still a thing?

In my case, the answer to all these questions is 'just barely'. If that.

Indeed, it's probably not unreasonable to suggest that I fell somewhat out of love with beer during 2022 - a combination of beers being indifferent and me being clinically depressed.

I haven't blogged a whole lot either and even coming up with a handful of words to describe a beer for an Untappd check-in sometimes feels like too much effort. Again, it's probably the depression for the most part. Mopey old Ben, fishing for pity as usual.

But it's a new year and so I'll try to squeeze something out about my favourite brews of 2022. After all, with all the breweries that have shut up shop lately a positive word about beer might go a long way. Or it might not.

 

And the winner is...

Let's not beat furiously about the Siamese bush. My favourite beer of 2022 was Tiny Rebel Thai PA - an easy-drinking 4.5% Pale with lemongrass and coconut that somehow manages to be so much more than the sum of its parts.

It's very rare that a beer actually has a carnal sensuality about it, but this one does. It literally 'tastes like sex'. Disconcertingly good and very strange. I'm still not sure quite how they did it, because I'm not generally a huge fan of either lemongrass or coconut. 

Where did that arousing hit of umami come from? Did the Kentish Belle add some sort of MSG-Viagra-Crack to the cask?

A couple of pints

I shall probably never fully understand why this beer tasted so good, and how it managed to make almost all the other beers in the world appear pathetic in comparison.

Anyway...

Perhaps surprisingly, I had 564 other new cask beers in 2022 which brought me precariously close to the 11,000 mark since I started keeping records.

Bestest of the restest

Four of these scored 8/9 and, in chronological order they were: 

Tiny Rebel Press Start: Level 3, at the Radius Arms in June. I've enjoyed this experimental series and this was another hit from the Newport massive. Mosaic hops with Mandarin Merengue. 

Creamy, fruity and generally delicious but only 4.3%, and fantastically sessionable on cask. So many brewers don't put beers of this nature into the cask format and that's desperately sad because it can, and does, work really well.

(Incidentally, I drank comparatively little non-cask beer in 2022 and literally nothing worthy of troubling this list, which is perhaps strange, but quite encouraging from a pro-cask perspective!)

One of the more traditional beers I scored highly, again at the Radius, was Craven Black Angus Porter which I described as the 'best porter I've had in years'. And I drink a fair amount of porter. 

Dry and quaffable with roasty espresso and praline notes. Lovely stuff. And again, only 4.5%. Beer doesn't need to be Imperial strength to deliver a huge flavour hit. Sometimes less is more. Usually, in fact.

A beer that I've had several times in keg is the excellent Drop Project Lip Smack. But at the Hope's October beer festival, the local lads were persuaded to put a very limited quantity of it into cask. Which took it to another level.

It's a 5% contemporary-style sour with a lot of raspberry and blackberry added. And it's properly gorgeous and refreshing. There's just a tinge of sadness that this isn't a regular thing in cask. Is it only me that feels this way?!?

Completing the year we have Kent Chocolate Orange which found its way to the Radius shortly before Christmas. A lot of breweries have done chocolate orange beers in recent years, and, being partial to that particular variety of confectionary, I generally like them.

But this was particularly good. 5.6%, but almost sessionable given the underlying dryness, it delivers a big segment of dark chocolate orange that leaves you wanting more. A festive stocking-filler of a beer that warms the heart of the most Scroogesome Humbugger. 

You'll possibly be cheered to learn that recounting my favourite beers of 2022 has actually made this depressed chap feel a teensy twinge of happiness. Things weren't all bad, and maybe I didn't actually fall out of love with beer as much as I had thought!

Happy New Beer, everyone!