Fuggled Beers of the Year: Dark

Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to sup with you again...

Having run a spectrum gamut of orange and brown, wherever those edges subjectively blur, we are back on more solid ground, good old fashioned dark beers. Let's dive on in.

Virginia

• Porter - Port City Brewing, Alexandria
• Midnight Train Porter - Superfly Brewing, Charlottesville
• Pro Seam Please - Selvedge Brewing, Charlottesville

Honorable mentions: Tweed - Selvedge Brewing, Charlottesville; Fritz - Superfly Brewing, Charlottesville; Leatherbound Books and Rich Mahogany Porter - Three Notch'd Brewing, Charlottesville.

I have had so many good porters this year, but in all honesty, there is one dark beer that I simply cannot overlook for the Virginia dark beer of 2024. It only had a single flaw, and that was being released in the middle of our gloriously brutal Virginia summer. Otherwise, it was a 14° tmavé that transported me back to one of the finest drinking dens on the planet, which out of respect for a friend I shan't mention. It's not surprising then that Selvedge complete the clean sweet of pale, BOAB, and dark beers from Virginia for this year, taking the accolades with Pro Seam Please. Influenced by Hostomice's superb Fabián 14° tmavé, which inverts the usual proportions of Pilsner and Munich malts, making for a thicker, more unctuous beer that is perfect for sitting by an autumnal fire, while the rain gently pours outside, Pro Seam was just as satisfying under the awning on the back day at the end of a summer's day once the heat had finally cooled off. Mrs V nodded appreciatively when she tried it, and that is always a sign of good Czech style beer.

Rest of the USA

• Dunkel - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC
• Tmavý - Notch Brewing, Salem, MA
• Rauchbier - Bierkeller, Columbia, SC

Back at Thanksgiving I needed to fill growlers, eight of them. Said growlers are the 1 litre kind that would usually just be traded for already filled ones, but seemingly the good folks of Columbia, South Carolina haven't got the hang of that eminently civilised practice yet. So as I waited for the staff at Bierkeller to wash out my existing growlers before refilling and sealing, I ordered a pint of Rauchbier and pulled up a seat at a table. Bierkeller had been open for all of 10 minutes at that point, and there was already a reasonable crowd of folks, all drinking beer (pet hate that I see all too often is groups in a brewpub with a single beer drinker and everyone else drinking some form of soda). Bierkeller's Rauchbier was one of the first beers I tried from Scott Burgess and co several years ago when they were brewing out of the defunct Swamp Cabbage Brewing - we had been talking about German beer and he graciously let me try some of his then soon to be release rauchbier from the lagering tank. Then as this year, it reminded me of a slightly darker version of the Spezial rauchbier in Bamberg, and there really is no higher praise than that, so I had a couple more while I waited as Bierkeller was by now pretty busy, a sight that's cheered my soul no end.

Rest of the World

Ummmm...well this is a touch embarrassing. Going through my records it seems I haven't drunk a single dark beer from outside the US this year that left a lasting impression. Sure I've had several pints of Guinness to varying standards, and maybe even an O'Hara's Stout, though I am not entirely sure. Rather than try to cobble together a short list for the rest of the world, I think I'll just resolve to do better next year, and hopefully get abroad again soon. A trip to Europe would be very welcome...

So with just a pair of excellent dark beers to choose from, the decision doesn't really get much easier, especially given both beers are apt to give me Anton Ego moments back to some of the best drinking experiences ever. Though as the immortals from Zeist would say, there can be only one, and that would be Pro Seam Please from Selvedge Brewing, I kind of wish I had a couple of crowlers in the fridge to tuck into before Hogmanay.