We pick our favourite A&H beer of the year and a favourite of a fellow brewery. We hope you enjoyed our beers this year and here’s to a brighter 2021.
Jack Hobday - Co-Founder & Chairman
From us: The Golden Bitter
In a year which can hardly be called Golden, one special from the A&H tanks at Croydon has stood out for me. It's been our Golden bitter. At 4% and the product of experimentation with revived and now celebrated English hops; Endeavour (pithy and earthy) and Ernest (citrusy and new-worldesque) we combined these two fascinating hops into a lighter bitter base and the result was absolutely stunning. Perfect balance and truly golden. One of my favourite can designs of the year too!
From them: Schlenkerla Kraüsen
This year, we have seen our Bar and Bottle shop The Pigeon, really adapt and change. Part of that has been a widening of the range of beers we buy-in for our locals in Camberwell - who it has to be said deserve a special mention, they have kept The Pigeon in business throughout the pandemic -THANK YOU! To bring in more beers, we teamed up with wholesalers James Clay, who amongst a great selection import in some of Deutschland's finest biers. One of the hard-to-come-by delights from James Clay was a Blended beer from Schlenkerla , The Schlenkerla Kräusen. This is a blend of fresh Schlenkerla Helles Lager with Marzen Rauchbier, its absolutely brilliant with far more depth and breadth of character than mere words can convey and yet at just 4.5% entirely quaffable. Next year we will have to get in more!
Paul Anspach - Co-Founder & Head Of Production
From us: The Rauchbier ‘20
It’s no secret that I love smoked beer, and my choices this year entirely reflect that. As is tradition, each year around the time of Oktoberfest, we brew a number of German style beers to celebrate the breadth and depth of German brewing. The one constant over the last six years has been the Rauchbier, and this year was probably our most faithful representation of the Bamberg classics to date.
For the first time we were able to brew the beer as a Lager, as it should be done, and our horizontal tanks afforded us the opportunity to mature the beer properly over a period of several weeks. The results were fantastic. Whilst intensely smokey, the beer was perfectly balanced, with the long term lagering time giving the beer time to mellow out, rounding off any rough edges the smoked malt may have contributed. For one of the first beers through our horizontal tanks, we couldn't have been happier with the results, and are proud to be promoting smoked beer here in the UK.
From them: Moor Beer - Smoked Lager
The truth is, I haven't drunk a lot of other people’s beer this year. It’s a shameful fact, but what with pubs being shut, and my own child-imposed social isolation, I haven’t got out much. Add to that the introduction of our own canning line and the endless wave of staffie cans that that has brought, I’ve not been left wanting.
However, a month or so ago Justin from Moor got in touch. As unashamed fans of traditional German styles, we’ve always admired Moor, so I was more than happy to receive the case of their new Smoked Lager when it was offered. I've always felt that smoke has place beyond dark beers, and this beer is a perfect example of that. A touch sweetness from the helles style malt base compliment the smoke perfectly, and really helped it to sit in the beer nicely. Effortlessly drinkable, yet rewardingly complex, this really is a great smoked beer.
Edd Clibbens - Head Of Sales
From us: The Patersbier
Plenty of people have no idea what a patersbier is, but they wish they did. An homage to beers which those beery monks would have brewed for themselves. A holy table beer of sorts. Our iteration is a sessionable dream. Subtle fruity esters from the Westmalle yeast couple perfectly with Citra and floral Loral hops. Understated, yet precise and unique. Everything that makes Anspach & Hobday beers so good.
From them: Boxcar - Golden Ale
I first tried this beer from one of my many same-day lockdown deliveries from Salthouse Bottles. The beer itself is a magical coming together of old and new. A traditional English golden ale, brewed with attention to detail and a clean, modern edge. Subtle hints of honey and spice followed by a super clean finish. An excellent showcase of English ingredients. Could drink lots and lots in one sitting.
Joe Hiscocks - Head Of Marketing
From us: The Cocoa & Oat Stout
Here at A&H we pride ourselves on our dark beers. Our first and arguably most famous beer is of course The Porter! For my beer of the year I’ve chosen The Cocoa & Oat Stout, which was an overnight success for us and came out of nowhere, becoming our fastest selling beer to date - it only lasted two hours on the web shop!
Don’t expect a big roasted stout here, this one is as smooth as they come. The oats lend themselves to a fantastic mouthfeel and body whilst the cocoa nibs add a touch of smoothness and gentle bitterness on the finish. Lots of chocolate, coffee and dark fruit flavours too. Yum.
From them: Burning Sky - Plateu
I was first introduced to this beer one warm sunny Sunday afternoon at The Southampton Arms in Kentish Town. Not overly soft or sweet, this Pale Ale has a zesty sharpness to it with a defined malt character. This cask only corker is incredibly drinkable and at only 3.5%, it won’t knock you for six. Sink a few of these in a sunny beer garden and you’ll see what I’m talking about it.
Daniel Gambino - Lead Brewer
From us: The Pfeffernüsse Stout
The beer of the year from us has to be The Pfeffernüsse Stout, a beer in the making for a long, long time. As far as I can remember it was an idea of Edd's to make it a more stable and easier beer to sell. A stout is the perfect vessel to showcase the rich malt sweetness and spices found in the biscuit it's based on. The previous incarnations, The Pfeff Saison were very good and varied year to year depending on the batch size, quantity of spices and also the yeast, how many generations (beers were brewed with it) of yeast it was on.
The task of creating the stout variant this year was a bit of a challenge. Trying to get a dry(ish) stout to still have rich biscuity sweetness and layers of malt complexity but not overpower the spices was the main hurdle we had to overcome. We didn't want to use crystals as they can be too heavy on the toffee and burnt caramel flavours, the malt sweetness had to be cleaner, more biscuit like. We went for a CaraGold malt to give some of those complex sugars but without cloying sweetness.
Anyway, enough about the process and back to the beer. I can't say how great it is, it is such a drinkable stout that happens to be very timely and festive. I'm glad we kept the Pfeff alive and am really happy with how this stout turned out.
From them: Villages - Heart and Soul (three-way collab with Brick and Lomond Coffee)
I found that I'd had hardly any beers from other breweries this year. With so much of our own available and not really being able to go out much I've not been particularly adventurous.
The one beer that did stand out though was an American Brown Ale that I happened to have quite a few of at the Villages Taproom. It was a pretty classic style American Brown, malty but not sweet, heavy on the hops but not a New England fruit bomb, a dry and bitter end leaving your mouth salivating and screaming for more. An exceptionally drinkable version of a beer style that not only didn't have too much of but wasn't really that fond of. The coffee working with the malts to give a rich, mildly roasted and fruity backbone.
A wonderful beer, well done guys!!!