The Golden Pints Awards 2011

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It's that time again, folks where we reflect on a year in beer. It's been a cracking year, which made choosing my nominations for some of the categories very, very difficult. There was simply too many nice beers to choose from. So, I've listed, in some categories, the runners up but I could have easily extended it further and made a list as long as my arm.


Best UK Draught Beer

1. Hawkshead Windermere Pale - the perfect session beer
2. Fyne Ales Jarl
3. Tempest Brewing Long White Cloud
4. Millstone Tiger Rut
5. Redemption Brewery Trinity

Best UK Bottled/Canned Beer

1. Magic Rock High Wire
2. Fyne Ales Jarl

Best Overseas Draught Beer

1. Matuska Fastball 9
2. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

 Best Overseas Bottled/Canned Beer

Caldera Brewing IPA

Best Overall Beer

Hawkshead Windermere Pale

Best Pumpclip/Label

Magic Rock

Best UK Brewery

1. Hawkshead
2. Fyne Ales
3. The Tempest

Best Overseas Brewery

Matuska - Their beers at GBBF blew me away.

Pub/Bar of the Year

1. The Jolly Butcher's, Stoke Newington. Beer and Spurs. Spurs and Beer. Perfect
2. The Beer Hall, Staveley. It's got the lot. Great cask, excellent bottles and superb food.
3. The Southampton Arms, Kentish Town

Best Beer Festival

1. Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival - 2 gloriously sunny days and 70 of the best British beers. Bliss.
2. The Paisley Beer Festival - I put a few shifts in and enjoyed every minute
3. Tempest Tap Takeover at The Bow Bar, Edinburgh

Supermarket of the Year

Booths

Independent Retailer

The Bottle, York

Online Retailer

My Brewery Tap - the addition of their beer pick and mix selection was very welcome.

Best Beer Blog

1. Are You Tasting The Pith?
2. The late lamented Cooking Lager
3. Reluctant Scooper

Best Beer Twitterer

Simon Johnson

Best Online Brewery Presence

Magic Rock

Open Category - New Scottish Blogs To Keep an Eye On

The Three Sheets
Walking and Crawling

It's been a great year for beer. Here's to 2012 being even better.

Cheers.