A while back, I made the decision that I wanted our content to be ‘exclusively audio’, after all as a podcast, that’s what we’re most known for. There are many good writers and bloggers out there and me adding to that didn’t seem necessary, not when we already had an outlet for communicating. So this year, we made our Golden Pints awards across the last three Hopinions shows of the year.

Aware that some people might not want to listen to over 3 hours of podcasts to hear my Golden Pints, here’s a summary. If you want the reasoning behing my winners, you’ll have to listen to the podcasts, which I’ve included links to and time codes below…

Best UK Cask Beer | Magic Rock ‘Common Grounds’

Honourable mention | Hammerton ‘Life on Mars’

Best UK Keg Beer | Brew By Numbers ’21|03′

Best UK Bottled Beer | Buxton ‘Anglo-Belgique IPA’

Honourable mentions | The rest of the Buxton Belgian range and Cloudwater/Magic Rock ‘Three’s Company’

Best UK Canned Beer | Northern Monk/Little Leeds Beer House ‘Neapolitan Pale Ale’

Honourable mentions | Magic Rock & Northern Monk cans. All of them. And Beavertown/Boneyard ‘Bloody Notorious’

Best Overseas Draught |  (Joint winners) Omnipollo ‘Cassius’ & Cigar City ‘Jai Alai’

Best Overseas Bottle/Can | Cigar City ‘Invasion’

Best Collaboration Brew | Buxton/Omnipollo ‘Ice Cream Pale’

Honourable mentions | Northern Monk/Epic ‘Hops’, Magic Rock/Dark Woods ‘Common Grounds’ and Cloudwater/Magic Rock ‘Three’s Company’

Best Overall Beer (chosen from the above winners) | Magic Rock ‘Common Grounds’

The above categories featured on Episode 12 “Beer of the Year” from 15:00 >> 48:10

 

*NEW CATEGORY* Train Beer of the Year | Northern Monk ‘New World IPA’

Honourable mention | M&S/Adnams ‘Mosaic Pale Ale’

Supermarket of the Year | Marks & Spencer

Best Branding, Pump Clip or Label | Magic Rock

Honourable mention | Beavertown

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer | Rob Derbyshire / Hopzine

Honourable mention | Craft Beer Hour

Best Beer Blog/Website | Brew Geekery by Pete McKerry

Honourable mention | Beer Compurgation by Mark Johnson

*NEW CATEGORY* Beery Podcast of the Year | Beernomicon

Honourable mentions | The Irish Beer Snobs & Bushcraft Beer

The above categories featured on Episode 13 “Train Beers” from 12:24 >> 30:30

 

Best New Brewery of 2016 | Elusive Brewing

Honourable mention | Odyssey Brewing

Best UK Brewery | Buxton

Honourable mentions | Magic Rock & Northern Monk

Best Overseas Brewery | Cigar City

Honourable mentions | Omnipollo & Boneyard

Best Pub/Bar | The Draft House, Old Street

Honourable mentions | The Parcel Yard, The Alehouse in Chelmsford and all of Leeds

Best Taproom | (Joint Winners) Magic Rock & Northern Monk

Honourable mention | Wylam Brewery

Independent Retailer of the Year | Little Leeds Beer House

Honourable mention | Hop Burns & Black

Online Retailer of the Year | Beer Central

Beer Festival of the Year | Leeds International Beer Festival

Honourable mentions | Copenhagen Beer Celebration, Harwich Beer Festival and Manchester Beer Week

The above categories featured on Episode 14 “Trilogies” from 18:00 >> 29:30 / 34:45 >> 46:15 /  48:04 >> 58:40

You can also read Martin’s Golden Pints here