It’s that time of year again; it’s time for my Golden Pint Awards. If you’re new to the concept; it was a beer blogging movement started in the UK – where they challenged people to critically assess their best beer moments of the year. Basically it’s a celebration of best beers had during the year by people who know the most about beer, or at least think they do!

This is the ninth consecutive year I’ve done this now and, like I say every year, it’s getting harder rather than easier! After the ridiculousness that was last year, I’ve made a concerted effort to get this post up before February! As you might’ve gathered this is 2022, not 2020! I’m going back and doing a couple of these retrospectively, thankfully I did at least make a start on them at the time, as I think they provide a really interesting industry snapshot when viewed year on year. So without further ado, let’s get into the 2019 Golden Pints;

Best Australian Draught Beer – Balter Dimples In late February, just before shit hit the fan, I managed to escape up to the Gold Coast for work. We stopped in at the brewery the day Dimples was released. It’s a West Coast IPA, brewed in collaboration with Bale Breaker, utilising a still yet to be named trial hop (HBC 630). It ticked all the boxes I was hoping it would; it was bitter, incredibly dank with subtle notes of floral & orange. 

Best Australian Bottled Beer – La Sirene Age & Beauty I have been waxing lyrical about La Sirene for years; so when I say that this is their best release to date that should carry some weight! It’s wonderfully acidic, with some nice vinous & oak characters. There’s an almost marmalade sweetness to the beer, whilst there’s also some good old fashioned La Sirene funk on the back end. It won this award at a canter!

Best Australian Canned Beer – Mr Banks Idaho Feels I vividly remember having this beer in May, towards the end of Melbourne’s first lockdown, & thinking that this beer would take some beating for beer of the year. It was either the 2nd or 3rd release in the “Feels” series, a collection of 8.5% Single Hop Imperial Hazy IPA’s. Idaho Feels was a masterpiece, with pineapple, stone fruit & white wine beautifully melded together to completely hide the ABV. The series dropped away there after, but this beer made the whole thing worthwhile!

Best Cask Beer – Tallboy & Moose East Kent Face Melter As you’re all well aware, 2020 was different to most years. I often don’t have a whole heap of options to pick for this award, but normally there is at least a choice! 2020 threw up a grand total of 1 & that beer was this; Tallboy & Moose’s East Kent Face Melter. Thankfully it was a lovely ESB with loads of caramel malt supplemented by a beautiful marmalade character. 

Best Overseas Draught Beer – Stella Artois This may sound weird, but 2020 was a year like no other! In Melbourne we spent almost half the year in lockdown with most of the rest spent under heavy restrictions. This resulted in me having only 5 International Draught Beers for the year! Two of those were Stella Artois’ at Mahjong on a scorching hot Melbourne afternoon pre-pandemic. They were crisp, cold & good enough to scoop this award!

Best Overseas Bottled Beer – Brooklyn Black Ops A beer that I’d wanted to try for so long. A beer that for many years people thought was a myth. 2020 on the whole was a bit shit. One event that it did facilitate was Blackhearts & Sparrows being able to get Garrett Oliver on Zoom for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, whilst everyone tucked into a bottle of Black Ops – quite the undertaking by oneself… It was the most beautiful integration of bourbon & chocolate, one of the smoothest beers I can remember drinking despite its 12.4% ABV.

Best Overseas Canned Beer – Liberty C!tra I was so pleased in mid-2020 when Liberty C!tra turned up on our shores again. This beer has long been a favourite of mine & to see it make the move from bottle to can was incredibly pleasing. It’s close to the perfect Imperial IPA for me, enough body to balance some of the bitterness & a metric fuck-tonne of Citra hops! If you don’t know what Citra hops do, try this beer and you’ll know!

Best Collaboration Beer – Garage Project X Green Cheek Hāpi Sessions Vol 7 Just ‘Cause You Feel It These Hāpi Sessions collaborations are effectively a hop trial/exposé for New Zealand Hops. Garage Project team up with some of the World’s leading brewers when they are in town for NZ Hop Harvest to create these wonderful offerings. For those who don’t know; Green Cheek Beer Co is very much a hype brewery in California. It was probably the most drinkable beer I had all year! Dry, bitter, plenty of pine with an interesting herbal character – it just left me wanting more!  

Best Overall Beer – Brooklyn Black Ops It was my favourite beer experience of the year and for that reason it’s also my beer of the year!

Best Branding – Slow Lane A newcomer on the scene in 2020. They produce mainly traditional, older beer styles and their branding reflects this. They use the same modern gridline geometric pattern filled with different retro colours on all their cans. Individually they may not stand out but side by side I think they look amazing!

Best Label – Alefarm Desolate Dreams I really can’t explain why, but I love this label from Danish brewers Alefarm. I think the blue/orange colour palette really works for me in this desertscape. 

Best Australian Brewery – La Sirene I can’t recall any Australian brewery ever having as good a year as La Sirene had in 2020. Everything they produced was a winner. They’re producing genuinely world class Farmhouse & Wild Ales. I’ve effectively written them a blank cheque, I won’t be missing a release for the foreseeable future.

Best Overseas Brewery – Garage Project Overseas arrivals slowed in 2020 for obvious reasons. Thankfully our neighbours across the ditch still managed to get their beers over in excellent condition. Garage Project continue to go from strength to strength with consistently excellent releases.

Best New Brewery Opening 2020 –  Slow Lane I was so excited when Slow Lane Brewing started with a focus on “yeast driven European ales”. If they were half decent brewers I knew this was going to be a hit. Their opening trio of beers; a Kveik Pale, a Barrel Aged Brett Saison & Belgian Blonde were just the start of things to come. They’re brewing really good traditional & non-traditional beers & I can’t wait to see more from them in the future. 

Pub/Bar of the Year – Mr West I was very tempted to say that “home” won the bar of the year award, I clearly would’ve won Bartender of the Year if such a thing existed… In the end I stumped for Mr West, they were the first place I went out to after our long lock down ended & I felt that they deserved it for putting together an event as special as that Cantillon Drogone event.

Beer Festival of the Year – Carwyn Collaborational Originally this was to be an in person festival, COVID had other plans. The festival was originally going to pair an Australian brewery with an International brewery, who would collaborate on a beer & then serve said beer alongside others of their own in the street outside Carwyn. The festival ended up being delayed 6 months and went online. Beers were paired with videos from each of the internationals and whole host of other content that could be consumed safely from the comforts of home.

Independent Retailer of the Year – McCoppins Abbotsford With significant restrictions on movement in place through most of the year, I found myself at McCoppins Abbotsford more & more. The range is really good, the staff are friendly and the addition of a small grocery section really added to the experience in lockdown when people were trying to visit as few places as possible. Well done guys on a great year!

Online Retailer of the Year – Otter’s Promise Otters are getting the nod here. They do a wonderful job of ensuring that when they post a new product on Social Media it’s already available in their web shop. That sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how badly other shops do it! Being in their free delivery zone in the midst of a pandemic probably helped…

Best Beer Media – Heineken in Africa by Olivier van Beemen I was so excited when I learnt that Heineken in Africa: A Multinational Unleashed had finally been translated into English. This book, written by a Dutch investigative journalist, is a must read if you’re interested in beer. It is a fascinating, & at times horrifying, read as you track the wave of destruction that Heineken leaves in its wake across the continent.

I almost can’t believe that I’ve done it, but I’ve got 2 up in 3 days. Now to finish doing the notes for the podcast and we’re a chance at wrapping the last 3 years up in under a week! The year may have been shit, but at least the beer was good! You can listen to our 2020 Golden Pints Podcast here or you can find it on the podcast app of your choice. If for some reason you’re unable to find it, please let us know so we can look into it; angus@beeroclockaustralia.com. Cheers guys!

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!