Friday, December 19, 2014

2014 Memorable Beer List---by NEIL(Tokyo)---PART 1/2

2014快结束,是时候回看过去12个月有什么啤酒是值得想念,值得期待再喝的。

跟去年一样,会有不同朋友上来跟大家聊聊喝了什么精彩的。第一位上来的是定居东京,本身有部落客,特爱去比利时喝酸啤酒的英国朋友NEIL。

and so 2014 is soon coming to an end, it's time to take a look back at what memorable beers were had for the past 12 month or so...just like last year, this year there will be friends of this blog giving us their list of memorable beers...
first up is NEIL from Tokyo--who is actually an English man who loves nothing more than drinking in Belgium. A blogger himself( his blog is listed on this blog), Neil is an avid beer drinker who also do ratebeer.com ratings for fun...

this is the original writing from Neil:-

It was a bit difficult for me to remember the best beers I drank this year. I had to use ratebeer to go back and check my ratings over the course of the year to jog my mind. So this is my list of the best beers I drank and I rated for the first time, even though I may well have drank much nicer ones multiple times and forgotten them. Probably means I should keep on rating on ratebeer, even though I have been losing enthusiasm for it a little recently. Still, it does provide me with a good guide to what I think about beer, even though my opinions may not be much use for the beer community as a whole. Anyway, here’s the list.

因为不能完整的记住所有好喝啤酒,NEIL“被逼”回看他在独立评啤网站RATEBEER.COM的记录来提醒记忆。以下是他的2014好啤酒:-
Y Market - Trinity Black 
This is basically a big thumbs up for Y Market, a new brewery from Nagoya. I picked Trinity Black, which was described as a Belgian Stout, as I had it fairly recently, so can remember it a bit better, but this could easily be many of their beers. They don’t seem to be worried about trying new things and mixing up styles. I am really excited to have them brewing and look forward to them making many more interesting beers.
Y-MARKET是来自名古屋,很有实验精神的小型自酿啤酒。TRINITY BLACK 是黑啤,当然这家还有很多不同类别啤酒。
Swan Lake - Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout 
This deserves a place in this list as I generally find Swan Lake beers to be pretty mediocre. However this beer knocked my socks off, and I’m not particularly a chaser of barrel-aged beers. It was so good that I had to go back and have it again a couple of days later as I was still thinking about it. In general I am moving away from these high alcohol beers (well, when I’m not in Belgium anyway…) as I prefer to avoid hangovers recently, but I have absolutely no regrets about drinking this multiple times.
SWAN LAKE也是日本啤酒,印象中酒不太怎样。不过,NEIL喝到的这陈年处理过的黑啤让他惊艳到隔几天又去找来喝。



Beachwood/Heretic/Stone - Unapologetic IPA
Again a beer that was a real surprise. I don’t think I would have picked it if my Danish friend hadn’t wanted to drink it, but I was really glad we had it. I like Stone beers, but they don’t generally wow me. In fact I’ve had some real stinkers from them, notably the Saison which was pretty horrible. Very interesting new hop varieties used in the Unapologetic which I hope make it into plenty of other beers next year.
这是不同美国酿坊合酿的印度淡啤。因为STONE啤酒并不特别吸引NEIL,如果不是因为当时一起的丹麦朋友想试, 就会错过这支因为使用新啤酒花组合带来惊喜的瓶子。


Siren Caribbean Chocolate Cake/Broken Dream Grand Cru
Two beers from Siren, but could have been many more. I brought these two back with me from the UK and they were just lovely when I finally opened them. Siren are one of the things I miss about living in the UK. Real innovators, and making lovely beers in all different sorts of styles. Looking forward to being back in the UK for Christmas and New Year and drinking a lot more of their beers.
英国CRAFT BEER新贵SIREN的两个不同瓶子。这是NEIL回去英国一定找来喝的酿坊啤酒之一。

Thrashzone Frontside Grind
Yokohama’s Thrashzone is a very popular venue with beer lovers in Kanto. Their own brews are some of the strongest and cheapest beers in Japan. Normally this combination is not necessarily a good thing, but Thrashzone get it right more often than they get it wrong. This beer is a Session IPA and therefore is something of an anomaly for them. It’s the lowest alcohol beer they have ever made (3.5%) and I hope it convinces them that not everything has to be loaded with alcohol. This evening, I realised when coming back through Yokohama, that it felt very different to be on that train line and not be absolutely smashed after ending a day in Yokohama in Thrashzone. It seems to be the normal way things work out.
横滨的摇滚主题撞意酒吧, 主要卖点是自家酿的高酒精度啤酒,不过NEIL喜欢的这杯是THRASH ZONE所有啤酒中最低度的,只有3.5%的低度好喝啤酒。


New Glarus - Raspberry Tart/Serendipity
Only available in Wisconsin, so it’s something of a miracle that I’ve been able to have a few of their beers. Thank you very very much to Kobayashi-san for this. I don’t know if a business trip to Wisconsin would be much fun, but if it means you can bring back these, I can’t see how it can be a bad thing. Fruit beers that are just indescribably delicious, even when it’s a fruit I don’t particularly like. The Raspberry Tart was just amazing. The Serendipity, not far behind. More business trips to Wisconsin please.
位于美国中北部的NEW GLARUS酿坊两支“果香”佳酿,是NEIL的日本朋友出差时候带回东京尝味的瓶子。


NEXT UP---Part 2/2 of NEIL's list

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