Hop Horizons

A truly outstanding beer. The flavour is candy fudge chocolate malt (and quite sweet, but not too much), and caramel vanilla roast.

The aroma likewise is a gorgeous vanilla caramel fudgey malt and sweet-smelling.

The body and mouthfeel is just perfect - warning and candy sweet roast, quite a complex caramel thing going on, and definitely the alcohol warmth comes through, but so balanced nonetheless.

Appearance is solid black, and decent enough head of amber foam.

A classic kriek that's been around just about forever. Nothing amazing, but good for one of the original fruit beers, before the scourge of the proliferation of modern fruit beers took hold. This beer is pure cherry, very juicy and sweet, and red in colour, sometimes with a decent head.

A full bodied IPA, with taste of orangey hops but some raw barley grain - surprising for an Azvex. It has similar aroma of orange barley and citrus, with again a surprisingly raw barley mouthfeel and body. Nice orange citrus hops though. Really good head of phone and medium golden - quite cloudy.

Taste is tropical smoothie with lots of mango and passionfruit (maybe other tropical fruits). Aroma is very creamy mango smoothie again and sweet-smelling. Body is just pure smoothie, very thick and tropical fruit. Seriously opaque - one of the most I've ever seen! Interesting beer, but dumping so much fruit into a beer - hmm!

This is a classic. Okay, by modern standards, it's not the best dark beer in the world, as it's long been mass-produced, but it's an excellent go-to for a tasty dark beer that has some reasonable strength to it. The flavour is quite a chocolate malt, and sometimes I've even got berries or dried fruit from it.

Lots of spearmint, and this pure mintyness lasts throughout. Basic, but fresh, however there's an artificial quality to it. It's refreshing though. In appearance, the head is really good, and it's light gold in colour. A basic summer beer.

Just so very thick, and brimming with cocoa! (Or maybe cacao - who knows.) The name is apt, as it's a demon of an imperial stout. Not the easiest of beers to drink, but I just had to score it high, as it's such a serious beer. I'm not sure if it's better than the first Cacaodemon, but I remember liking that one more.

Just a very standard and very average bitter.

This brewery kind of crept up on me. I didn't find many up until a few years ago, but now I'm coming across many - they've become quite prolific. Mostly cans, and lots of IPAs and pales. My favourite was the 2021 batch of American Barleywine (large bottle). Consistently good quite beers, and good american hops.

I've been finding new Tiny Rebel beers since soon after the brewery was established, and they've become extremely prolific. I find they're best at flavoured beers. Some of the pales and IPAs are really good, and there are some classics, but they're one of the few breweries (in my opinion) that do flavoured beers very well.

I've been having their beers since the days of Loka Polly and the Kernel-style beer name, with mainly the hops names. I've since had probably almost 500 of their beers. The very high quality and authentic American style IPAs and pales is astounding. They do delve into some stouts and fruit sours now and again. For their birthday, they released some very strong imperial stouts, and I wish they'd do this more often, but their IPAs are simply amazing.

This is my local - as local as it can get being at the top of my road. They have a good selection of craft beers on tap, with enough new ones each time to remain interesting. It's also great they have two cask pumps on. There's also a decent fridge stock - maybe not as plentiful as in their newer Rose Lane branch, but still good.

It's a very popular bar, although this and the quiz and other events can make it very loud sometimes. During the daytime it's actually really nice and quiet.

They have a food menu, but it's from next door - a collaboration.

When I was backpacking around Australia many years ago, I bought a bike and cycling up and deep into the hills, to many surrounding villages. One was Hahndorf, a real rural community, and I found this brewpub. It's nothing flashy, but they had five beers they'd brewed right there, and it's such a good memory. Good traditional place, but sadly it seems they might have since closed down. (I'm happy to be corrected.)

One of the best pubs in Liverpool, located on Dale Street. I've been going there since my late teens and have had probably at least a couple of thousand beers from there.

They've kept up the quality and range over the decades and have a very wide range of real ales and craft beers. They have local, national and international beers. The prices are decent. They also have a good range of craft bottles and can to have in or take out. The seating is ample, and it's one of those places with various different compartments within the large pub area to sit. Amazing place!

It's been so long since I've been there, but it's such a beautiful city. I remember looking out over the canals in awe at the beauty at night one evening, after leaving an incredible pub with so many not-so-common traditional Belgian bottled beers. There were also a couple of a craft beer pubs on a canal/lake while I was there. Such a good time!

As of writing, it's been a while since I've been to Chester, but it's actually not far away. The last time I went there, the best pub was the Cellar, pretty much the only craft beer bar, with several real ale pubs around too, mainly in the city centre. I know the craft beer scene has since exploded though. Well worth a visit.

I've been to Amsterdam for the craft beer scene many times since 2000 and earlier, and I have very fond memories. I need to go again, but honestly it just got better and better for the beers and craft pubs. There are of course still the absolute classics, like Wildemann. I love Amsterdam so much!!