Virginia
- 80/- - Decipher Brewing, Charlottesville
- Alt Bier - Devils Backbone Brewing, Roseland
- Franconian Kellerbier - Port City Brewing
Honorable mentions: 1872 Steinlifter - Devils Backbone Brewing, Roseland.
Goodness me, a selection of beers that are not all bottom fermented! How on earth did that happen? Quite simply I wandered into the Decipher Brewing taproom with some time to kill before meeting up with the crew from Murphy & Rude Malting to drink the version of my best bitter recipe I brewed with them, using just their malt. If I remember rightly, the 80/- was the only beer on tap that day which was session strength, and it was lovely, and unlike so many American beers monikered "Scottish" actually reminded me of something I would drink when I am back home in the Highlands. I have become something of a semi-regular at Decipher and 80/- has become one of my favourites of their range. Hopefully they take me up on my suggestion of using their Lukr tap as a facsimile of the traditional Scottish beer engine, the Aitken Font...It would be a fun way to serve the 2022 Fuggled BOAB Beer of Virginia.
Rest of the USA
- Vienna Lager - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT
- Copper - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC
- Pint ESB - Columbia Craft Brewing, Columbia, SC
Honorable mentions: Oktoberfest - Bierstadt Brewing, Denver, CO; Oktoberfest - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT.
Whenever Mrs V and I traipse back and forth from Virginia to her parents' place in South Carolina we make sure to stop at Olde Mecklenburg Brewing in Charlotte. Sure, it is not the mid way point of the drive, but the beer is superb, the food is grand, and they have an 8 acre biergarten in which to chill out and let the kids run about a bit having been cooped up in the car. Every time we are there I make sure to stock up on a range of their available beers, always making sure that I bring to whichever destination we are going at least half a case of Copper altbier, and several one litre growlers too. When I recently had to fly to a conference in Charleston, I deliberately suffered the ignominy of requesting a seatbelt extension on American Airlines purely because Olde Meck have a bar in Charleston airport and I could get my fix of Copper. Hence, the Fuggled Rest of USA BOAB Beer of 2022 is Olde Mecklenburg Copper, an altbier that is right up there with the best of Dusseldorf.
Rest of the World
- Oktober Fest-Märzen - Privatbrauerei Ayinger, DE
- Schlenkerla Helles Märzen - Heller Bräu Trum, DE
- Nut Brown Ale - Samuel Smiths Brewery, UK
From what I understand, Schlenkerla Helles Märzen is not something you will actually find in Bamberg, being a blend of their standard Märzen and delightful Helles which was done as a special project for B.United, their importer to the US. I have waxed lyrical in various other places about B.United's program for bringing superb European beers to the US in refrigerated tanks to be packaged in Connecticut before being shipped out across the US. The blend of Märzen and Helles was stunning, with the massive dollops of smoke you would expect, but the Helles adding a fantastic drinkability that saw me polish off 4 cans in a single sitting. Such a great beer to have as the Rest of the World BOAB beer of the year.
An old favourite, something new, and something unexpected, all cracking beers that make it pretty tough to choose a single winner. That winner though is one of the few beers I go out of my way to get my hands on, that I always make sure there is space in the car when driving home to Virginia to tide me over a few weeks. Olde Mecklenburg Brewing Copper then is the overall Fuggled BOAB Beer of 2022...which reminds me, my in-laws are heading up tomorrow for Christmas, need to get them to swing by and get me some more!
No comments:
Post a Comment