Fuggled Beers of the Year: Pale

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in a while on here. In my defense I have been out and about promoting my book, "Virginia Cider: A Scrumptious History", and life has had a way of late of getting in the way of me writing much. As the year is drawing to its end though, the traditional reviews are in order, and while that won't save 2024 from being the complete year with the fewest number of posts in Fuggled history, it will at least be an outlet for some thoughts...and as ever, we begin with pale beers, as in those that aren't noticeably too amber or orange, a nice subjective line there for sure.

As has become my tradition, I will pick beers from Virginia, the rest of the US, and the rest of the world, eventually leading to a best in category beer which will go forward for the overall beer of the year. That said, let's go...

Virginia

• Coat Czech - Selvedge Brewing, Charlottesville
• Krypto Pilsner - Decipher Brewing, Charlottesville
• Found Artifacts - Wheatland Spring Brewery, Waterford

Honorable mentions: Pylon Pilsner - Patch Brewing, Gordonsville; Export Golden Lager - Devils Backbone Brewing, Lexington; Das Gut German Pilsner - Caboose Brewing, Vienna; Wharf Hill 1906 Pre-Prohibition Lager - Wharf Hill Brewing, Smithfield

Every year, this category gets harder and harder, mainly because more and more breweries in Virginia are stepping up their pale lager game, and that is, as you well know if you have followed me for a while, is my sweet spot. Said sweet spot particularly hones in on Czech style pale lagers, I absolutely love them, especially if said lagers are brewed to 12° Plato or less - personal bugbear is seeing breweries putting out beers labeled as "Czech Pilsner" or "Bohemian Pilsner" and it turns out to be a 14°, or more, lager. The vast majority of lager brewed and drunk in Czechia is 10° or 12°, so please can we have something akin to what your average Jan or Jana would drink in the pub?  Anyway, gripe aside, Selvedge Brewing brought out a 12°, double decocted, extensively lagered Czech style pale lager earlier this year that was right up there with the very best in Czechia, no that is not hyperbole, it was simply superb - I waxed lyrical here.

Rest of the USA

• Notch Pils - Notch Brewing, Salem, MA
• Central Artery Helles - Trillium Brewing, Boston, MA
• Urhell - Bierkeller Brewing, Columbia, SC

Honorable Mentions: Captain Jack Pilsner - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC; Sunshine Pils - Tröegs Brewing, Hershey, PA; Bavarian Pilsner - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT; Kellerbier - Bierkeller Brewing, Columbia, SC; Lollihop IPA - Tröegs Brewing, Hershey, PA.

Everything I just said about 10° Czech style pale lagers obviously points to winner for pale beers from outside of Virginia. I have had Notch Pils many times in cans, usually muled down to VA from friends in New England, but in May I was up in Boston for work and so took the opportunity to get to their Brighton venue to try out their wares on tap, and fresh from the Lukr, topped with a cap of glorious wet foam, it was an absolutely delight. Had it been closer to my hotel and conference venue I would have gone every night for more, and now I keep half a sneaky eye on Boston for work related stuff...in the interests of science I am sure you are aware.

Rest of the World

• Kaltenecker 11° - Pivovar Kaltenecker, SK
• Icelandic White Ale - Einstök Ölgerð, IS
• Martins 10° - Pivovar Martins, SK

A combination of having not had a work trip outside of the US this year, and the continuing improvement in pale lagers, ahem beers, in the US has meant that the international pale beers of the year are from really slim pickings. That's not to say they are second rate beers, just I have mostly been drinking American this year. That said, it is to Central Europe that we head for the international pale beer of 2024, and so obviously it is Slovakia, and in this case a brewery I had tried in Prague before heading across the ocean to live in Virginia. Kaltenecker 11° might not be the most well know beer on this side of the Pond - I only had it because my best friend effectively overloaded my suitcase with Slovak beer last year - but it is definitely an excellent pale lager in the pilsner vein. Beautifully bitter, using Premiant in addition to the classic Saaz, it is something that I wished I could bash pint after pint of. I only had one though and so I took it slow and savoured every drop.

Being an unreconstructed lover of all things Central European pale lager, this category is invariably the most challenging each year to settle on a winner. This year though, it is made a little easier by the fact that I can simply choose the beer I had the utter joy of caning for several weeks in a row, reveling, both in the tap room and at home, in some Czech based Ostalgia because the beer is that good...Selvedge's Coat Czech it is then, and it truly is not hyperbole when I say it is as good as anything in Czechia, including the sublime Únětické Pivo 12° that was its inspiration.

Top Ten Virginia Beers - 2024

Ah the final few days of July...

Back from the annual beach week in Florida, just a couple of weeks until the kids go back to school (how are they in the second grade already?), and Mrs V heads back to work soon too. All this means a couple of things, autumn is finally on its way, I have already seen plenty of Oktoberfest branded beers in the shops, and it is time to do my annual list of the top ten Virginian beers I have had in the past 12 months.

I say this every year, though I fear repetition has dulled people's ears, but this is a purely subjective list, and certainly not exhaustive. I don't get round to every brewery in Virginia each and every 12 months, and neither would I want to given the price of gas and pints these days. Being a subjective list, it is naturally heavy on bottom fermented beers, for the obvious reason that they are just the kind of beers I like to drink. Anyway, with all of that said, let's dive into the list...

1. Selvedge Brewing: Coat Czech - I will be completely open and transparent here, but I actually hemmed and hawed about making this beer my number one choice because I was worried about there being a very case of recency bias. Coat Czech has been my go to beer for the last couple of months while it has been available at Selvedge, whose new venue is also one of my favourite places to have a drink despite being the other side of Charlottesville. Coat Czech is a 12° světlý ležák, aka pale lager, that my first impression was that it reminded me on the magnificent 12° from Únětický pivovar back in Czechia. When I mentioned that to Josh, he let me know that the Únětický beer was indeed the inspiration, and boy did Selvedge nail it. Poured from the Lukr taps, with the pile of wet foam that entails, Coat Czech is absolutely redolent with Saaz hops, that lemony spicey bitterness is there, a beautiful meadowy hay character too, all backed up with the honeyed biscuits of decocted pilsner malt. I loved this beer and will be at a loss as to what to drink when I next head to Selvedge (actually that's hyperbole because I know what is being released on Wednesday and I am excited for it big time!), oh and one other reason this get's top spot for 2024? Mrs V loved it too and said it reminded her of drinking back in Prague, when she likes a beer, you know it is damned good beer.
2. SuperFly Brewing: Midnight Train - SuperFly Brewing in Charlottesville are a relatively new brewery, but one that is kicking it out of the park. Midnight Train is a London Porter that snuck into the final three for Fuggled Dark Beer of the Year back in December on the strength of a coupl eof pints just a few days before the post went live. It has become one of my go-to choices when I swing by, the taproom is conveniently located right opposite the homebrew store I use, as it hits every high note you would expect of a traditional London style porter, inky black, masses of coffee, unsweetened cocoa, and a biscuity base that makes it painfully moreish. It really was no surprise to me that it won the porter category at this year's Virginia Craft Brewers Cup, and also came in third in the best in show. Cracking beer.
3. Selvedge Brewing: Loden Vienna Lager - Before there was Coat Czech in my affections, there was Loden, which if I remember rightly was Selvedge's first beer brewed on their new system at the new location, and also the first double decocted lager they produced. Loden is a classic Vienna lager, and by classic I mean in the vein of the beers brewed by Anton Dreher in around 1840, using English malting technology to get a paler malt than had previously been regulalry available. Being brewed with 100% Vienna malt and hopped exclusively with Saaz, Loden was a stunning burnished copper, topped with several inches of firm white foam - another thing I love about Selvedge is their commitment to serving beer with plenty of foam, none of your all the way to the top of the glass, vaguest schmeer of scummy foam here thank you very much. Crusty toast and a delightfully spicy hop flavor mingled and merged to make this a beer I drank inordinate amounts of, and look forward to doing so again when it returns.
4. Tabol Brewing/Selvedge Brewing: Tabolcloth - the Franconian style vollbier that walked away with the overall Fuggled Beer of the Year for 2023, and a beer I drank a lot of when it was available late last summer and autumn. This was the first beer I had ever drunk, that I am aware of, that used the old Franconian yeast strain with the oh so sexy moniker, TUM-35. The beer itself was a lovely amber hue, with a distinctly rustic aroma and graininess that I could happily imagine drinking by the maß outside a country Gasthof, watching the world go by.
5. Wheatland Spring Brewing: Found Artifacts - Every January I take the month off the booze, however January 2024 was a little different as I was in the process at the time of researching and writing my upcoming book, "Virginia Cider: A Scrumptious History". One weekend, my photographer collaborator and I were doing the rounds in Loudoun County in northern Virginia and looking at the map I realised that we would be a mile from Wheatland Spring by the time we finished visiting cideries. I knew at that moment that I would be taking an evening hiatus from Dry January to finally visit a brewery whose beers I have been enjoying for a few years now. Their Found Artifacts Pilsner was on tap and I while I had a couple of intermission pints and other beers, it was this that I kept coming back to, it is such a wonderful pale lager. What John and the folks at Wheatland Spring as a farm brewery is fantastic, and all their beers are excellent, but for me this is the best find of the lot.
6. Tabol Brewing: Kelheim - Another trip with Mark for the book, this time to Richmond, and being in the neighbourhood of a brewery I have a lot of time for. It was their collaboration with Selvedge called Tabolcloth, mentioned above, that really put Tabol brewing more on my radar, I'd had a couple of bits and pieces of theirs previously though. When we got to the tasting room, where pints were $3.50 at the time, I instinctively picked up a four pack of Kelheim, their lovely, malt forward märzen to take home and enjoy over the Yuletide holidays. As I described it in an Instagram post, it is simply an "on the button" strong pale lager that has no right to be that easy to drink
7. Devils Backbone Brewing: Morana Tmavé - It's been about 14 years now since I designed the recipe for Morana, back when the hair splitters who love to advocate for the rating of beer wouldn't even accept that Czech style dark lager is a seperate tradition from either Bavarian dunkel or schwarzbier. Given the veritable tsunami of Czech dark lagers in US craft brewing since Jason and I brewed the first batch of Morana, I like to think we won that particular argument. From my own research, Morana was the first authentic Czech dark lager brewed definitely in Virginia, and most likely in the United States at all. You're welcome. Since that first batch, Devils Backbone have been able to invest in open fermentation and horizontal lagering tanks that have taken this 14° beer, styled on Kout na Šumavě's of the same strength, to ever greater heights. Whenever it gets brewed I make sure to stock up and savour every single drop.
8. Caboose Brewing: Slam Dunkel - I work from home, and have done since before the Pandemic. However, every few months I head up to Northern Virginia for some in-person planning meetings with my team, and when I am up there I try to get to a decent brewery or two. Caboose Brewing's Tavern in Vienna is one of my preferred places to go after a day of product planning and schedule horse trading. The chill vibe, excellent beer, and good food just hit the spot for me. At one of my recentish trips up there, they had Slam Dunk, a Munich Dunkel on tap and I think it was the only beer I drank that night. Rich, toasty, and with a delicate chocolate note in the background, it was lovely. I'll be back up in NOVa soon, and while I don't expect it to be on, I do hope their Oktoberfest lives up to Slam Dunk's standard.
9. Iron Tree Brewing: Pepper Street Porter - From the first cider research trip with Mark, we stopped in at Iron Tree en route from the far south west of Virginia to Lexington, as Mark is friends with one of the owners. Now, I love a good dark beer, and that's exactly what Iron Tree have with this American style porter. It is richly malty, with lots of nutty, coffee, and choclately notes - sure that's what you expect with a dark beer, but the layers of flavour here work really nicely together so it actually almost tastes like you have used chocolate milk for your morning coffee, and if you have never done that, give it a whirl. Hopefully promotional events for the book will take us back down to that part of Virginia, and you can guarantee we'll be stopping in for more.
10. Black Narrows Brewing: How Bout It - This was the beer that opened my eyes to the use of corn, in this case malted heirloom Bloody Butcher corn. If you've been following Fuggled for a while, you'll know that I wrote about Black Narrows for Pellicle last year, and then a post earlier this year about Josh taking the decision to close his brewery on Chincoteague Island. Thankfully Josh has a new beer project on the go, Upweller Beer Company, and he posted the other day that he was brewing a fresh batch of the beer once known as How Bout It. This corn lager is a delight, with a wonderful nuttiness, kind of like the very centre of an almond, and completely lacking the slick oiliness I associate with pretty much every other lager made with corn.

Fuggled Beers of the Year: Dark

Having meandered through the shades of ochre that makes up the spectrum from orange to brown, we move into the properly dark beer category. Let us then descend into the darkness...

Virginia

• Sláinte - Three Notch'd Brewing, Charlottesville
• Spire City - Wheatland Spring Brewing, Waterford
• London Porter - Superfly Brewing, Charlottesville

Honorable mentions: Break Out Your Wellies - Selvedge Brewing Company; Schwartz Bier - Devils Backbone Brewing, Roseland; Porter - Port City Brewing, Alexandria.

If you lingered around Fuggled for any reasonable length of time, you will no doubt have seen me comment about how Guinness was my first legal beer, on my 1th birthday at the Dark Island Hotel back home on Benbecula. Irish style dry stouts have long been one of my favourite styles, especially when watching the rugby - which this year included the World Cup, in which Scotland got the group from hell (seriously, Ireland AND South Africa in our group). Anyway, Derek, one of the owners of Three Notch'd is from Ireland, and a fellow rugby fan, all round good bloke, and randomly meeting him in a pub back in 2012 still counts as one of my favourite things since living in Charlottesville. So when we met at Three Notch'd to watch Scotland lose heroically to an excellent Ireland side in a magnificent game of running rugby, I was thrilled to see a 4.2% dry stout on tap, and once I had let it warm up to the proper temperature it was magnificent, I might even dare to say on a par with O'Hara's...

Rest of the US

• Schwarz - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT
• Karlův 13° - Schilling Beer Co., Littleton, NH
• Dunkel - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT

An example of each of the major dark lager styles makes up the final three from the US in the dark beer category, dunkel, tmavé, schwarzbier. But the winner is, in my mind at least, clear. Von Trapp are one of my go-to breweries in general, and when they brought out a schwarzbier as a special release way back in February I was a happy camper. I have long been a fan of the style in general, I prefer the roastiness and dry finish of a schwarzbier to the sweeter finish of a dunkel or the more classic iterations of tmavé. Von Trapp's Schwarz is a little stronger than the Köstritzer, the extra body being very welcome. I hope they release it again soon.

Rest of the World

• 14° Tmavý - Pivovar Hostomice, Hostomice, CZ
• Antidepressant Autumn Dark Lager - Klášterní Pivovar Strahov, Prague, CZ
• Svijanská Kněžna - Pivovar Svijany, Svijany, CZ

A clean sweep for Czech breweries and each of these beers was had with my best friends whilst wandering around Prague in November on an extended birthday shindig. The winner though is the one that I was most excited to see on tap, even though it wasn't listed on the menu when we arrived, is Strahov's lovely Autumn Dark Lager, one of the inspirations for the tmavě I designed for Devils Backbone back in 2010, called Morana. Lots of toasty bread, a subtle bitter cocoa note, and a nice sharp hoppy bite to snap everything back to attention makes this a far too easy to drink beer, and had we not had plans to meet up with friends later that day, I would happily have sat in the brewpub at Strahov and drunk it all afternoon and evening.

Friends and dark beers seems to have been a theme this year, indeed just yesterday I met up with a couple of friends here in Central Virginia, went to watch the Liverpool vs Arsenal match, and had the London Porter from Superfly Brewing mentioned above. The winner also ties in with a sporting event, in this case watching Ireland beat Scotland in the rugby world cup back in the autumn, Three Notch'd Brewing's Sláinte Irish style stout. A fantastic version of one of my go-to styles, and one that I wish were a regular part of the Three Notch'd lineup, especially if there is rugby to watch at the same time.

Top Ten Virginia Beers - 2023

It's been quite the jet-set month has July. At the beginning of the month, plus a couple of days at the end of June, my family and I traipsed our way up to and around Iceland for 10 days (quite possibly the best holiday I have ever had) and now we are down in central Florida. While my wife and kids have fun on the beach, I am working so as not to completely use up all my holiday time, still I can't complain as the view from the window is one of a couple of palm trees and the Atlantic ocean.

As usual at this time of year, I like to take a pause and decide on what have been the ten best beers from Virginia that I have drunk in the last 12 months. The list is entirely subjective, and likely doesn't feature hype breweries making hazies, bastardised sours with fake fruit flavor syrups, or pastry stouts simply because I don't enjoy that shit. This is, after all, the Fuggled Top Ten Virginia Beers, purely subjective, entirely my opinion, and I make no apologies for that. 

With that said, let's dive into my Virginian drinking highlights...

1. Port City Brewing - Franconian Kellerbier (5.0%). - for the fourth year in a row, Franconian Kellerbier is either top of the list or second, though for 2023 it returns to the number 1 slot. Each spring I look forward to its release, and as ever I bought a couple of cases once it was available. The beer itself has a delightful rusticity that I find delightful, especially when I am sat on my deck dealing with the first harvests from my gardens, often shelling peas. If I had a single complaint about Franconian Kellerbier it would be that it isn't part of the permanent lineup, but I guess we all need things to look forward to in life.
2. Wheatland Spring Brewing - Found Artifacts (4.8%). - the number 1 beer in my 2022 list, I have enjoyed Found Artifacts several times in the last 12 months and it would have taken top spot again this year but for Port City. I love the work that John and the folks at Wheatland Spring are doing up in Northern Virginia, especially as a brewery growing the vast majority of the ingredients they use. Despite being an unfiltered beer, Found Artifacts showcases the very real benefits of extended lagering to produce a pale lager of such poise and balance that I would defy any central European friend of mine not to think it superb.
3. Devils Backbone Brewing - Yourn 10°. - I have said this many times, but Devils Backbone are still one of the best breweries in Virginia, full stop, end of story, I don't give a shit about your big beer business bogeyman arguments. Jason makes incredible beer, and his recent Czech inspired 10° pale lager was right up there with the very best beers that he has put out in 15 years on the brewing deck behind the bar at Basecamp. Decocted, fermented in an open fermenter, and then given extensive lagering in their horizontal lager tanks, Yourn is brewed with so much fidelity to its Czech inspiration that drinking it is like being transported back to rural Czechia, drinking in the villages, in the heartland of Czech beer culture, and there is not an ounce of hyperbole in that statement.
4. Port City Brewing - Porter (7.2%). - let me be honest with you, I probably only drink Port City Porter a couple of times a year, usually in the depths of winter, and if the weather is being favourably unfavourable, next to a roaring log fire, yet most years it makes my list of the 10 best Virginia brewed beers. Port City Porter is, in my unhumble opinion, one of the best porters being brewed in the world today, let alonge just Virginia or even the US. A complex beast dripping with unsweetened cocoa, espresso, and even an umaminess that reminds me of traditionally made soy sauce (forget your mass produced sachets from your local Chinese restaurant), all in a beguiling package that makes it too easy to forget that it is pretty hefty at 7.2%, not a session beer, but certainly a delight.
5. Black Narrows Brewing - How Bout It (4.2%). - A new brewery to the list, and a new kind of beer in some ways. I have never been a big fan of corn in my beer, I find it lends an oily, slick, sweetness that I just find disagreeable, the same could be said about bourbon. But, malt the corn and you get a very different beast, the sweetness dissipates and what is left in it's wake is a very subtle nuttiness, kind of like an almond. Now, put that malted corn in the hands of a true artisanal brewer like Josh Chapman up on Chincoteague Island and what you get is an American Light Lager that is quite frankly, fecking awesome. I love the story behind the beer, so much so I wrote an article about it for Pellicle, and I love the beer too
6. Decipher Brewing - 80/-. - Unhumble opinion time again. Most American brewed "Scottish" ales are shit, a riotous mess of crystal, chocolate, and black malts that would never see the light of the mash tun actually in Scotland, and we haven't even got around to talking about the use of peat malt (we don't, so feck off with your "traditional peated flavor" bullshit). Decipher though get it right, and get it right with aplomb. The star here is drinkability, a Scottish export is not supposed to be sweet, it is supposed to have balance, be something that lubricates the social setting, that looks glorious in the glass, and the Burtons get it. Now, I have to admit to a touch of bias, because anyone that is willing to do something daft like put an 80/- on a Lukr tap to try and replicate the old Scottish Aitken font because some loony Scotsman in Virginia suggests it must be a top bloke. It helps that they make such cracking beer too.
7. Reason Beer - Barrel Aged Inexorable Stout. - assuming that you have cleaned up the spillage from you choking on your drink at the presence of barrel aged stout weighing in at 10.5% making it onto this list, let me tell you story. Mrs V plays the fiddle, and once a month or so, her teacher invites her to take part in an Irish music session at a local restaurant/pub. If we can find a babysitter to look after the twins, I will tag along and allow myself a couple of hours of reading with a pint. Usually I drink whatever the best lager they have available is, but on this particular Sunday I fancied the porter on the menu. The barmaid told me that they were out of the porter, but that they had a stout, so in the absence of strength denoting adjectives I agreed. Along came this beast, and I thought to myself, why not, just the one. Just the one is all it took to remind me that done well, barrel aging an imperial stout can lead to a great drinking experience. A definite slow sipper rather than my regular chugging session beers, I sat with my book, a brew that unlocked more dimensions than a dungeon master as it warmed, revealing cocoa, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and a whole melange of tastes, all to the soundtrack of excellent folk tunes.
8. Devils Backbone - Alt Bier (5.8%). - I've been a fan of the altbier style of beer since having a half litre of Schumacher Alt at an arts festival in Berlin. Dry, bitter, intensely hoppy, and with all the sweetness you expect of central European malts (i.e. not the fecking syrupy mess of crystal malt), bundled into a very pintable package, it is a woefully undervalued style in the US. Thank goodness then for Jason and his love of central European beers, and his commitment to making them as authentically as possible, with open fermentation and horizontal lagering. Also thank goodness for Jason sending me texts to let me know when Alt Bier is on tap - come on marketing people of breweries everywhere, keep your websites and social media up to date with what is on tap. A couple of time this year we've made the 60 minute drive to Basecamp purely on the basis that Alt Bier was on tap, and both times I have sat there drinking great beer and being immensely happy that Devils Backbone is one of my local breweries.
9. Selvedge Brewing - Tweed (5.3%). - once upon a time there was a Munich dunkel style lager brewed in Charlottesville that I absolutely adored, then the brewery making it changed brewer, and the dunkel was no more. A good dunkel is a rare beast, a cracking one with a fascinating yeast strain that elevates the malts is worth chasing. Selvedge are a new brewery to this list, and I have really only started going there in the last 12 months, since they hired a former Champion Brewing brewer who started making the kind of beers I love - you know the drill, bottom fermented, extensively lagered, no silly shit. Tweed is very much a classic Munich dunkel, but with the added wrinkle of using the TUM-35 yeast strain, which originated in Franconia and was thought lost until re-discovered in a yeast bank archive. Perhaps it is purely a figment of my imagination but used in a dunkel, TUM-35 adds a character somewhat like rustic country style rye bread that you find in Central Europe, a basket of which accompanies practically every meal, add to that the crusty bread of Munich malts, and the subtle Nutella of something like Carafa, Tweed is a glass full of comfort and cheer, and I am already looking forward to its return.
10. Patch Brewing - CU Later Copper Ale (4.4%). - every now and again you have to disagree with the brewer of a beer. If you look at Patch's Untappd page for this beer, it is listed as an Extra Special Bitter, though purely on strength I would argue it is closer to a Best Bitter, but that is not my quibble. My quibble, which is purely semantic I am sure, is that CU Later is an excellent example of a mild ale - though of course if there is one beer style likely to cause more confusion among many than the notion of "bitter" being a good thing (bollocks to Keystone Light and their anti-bitterness marketing) is the very existence of Mild. While CU Later does tread a fine line between a mild and the kind of best bitter you find in London and the South East, it is definitely in the excellent, moreish, I need another pint of this camp. During December, I found several excuses to wander by the brewery, it's only 7 miles up the road, and have a few pints with mates, it's what beer is really all about after all.

Fuggled Beers of the Year: Pale

As a fortnight of time off from the day jobs hoves into view, replete with weekday, and day time, drinking, it is time to look back at the best of the beers I have drunk in 2022. As in years past I plan to write a post each based on the capricious whimsy of colour, and then a final "best of' post to declare the Fuggled Beer of 2022.

My capricious whimsy of colour breaks down as follows:

• Pale - basically anything yellow or gold
• Darker than Pale, Lighter than Dark Brown - orange, red, brown, but able to be seen through
• Dark - very dark brown, or black

As usual I will offer up the highlights from Virginia, the rest of the USA, and the rest of the World, 3 finalists each, and honorable mentions where called for, culminating in a category winner, to go forward for the beer of the year post.

Let's get started with the pales then.

Virginia

• Krypto Pilsner - Decipher Brewing, Charlottesville
• Found Artifacts Pilsner - Wheatland Spring Brewing, Waterford
• Grill Method Grodziskie - Decipher Brewing, Charlottesville

Honorable mentions: Pylon Pilsner - Patch Brewing Company, Gordonsville; Downright Pilsner - Port City Brewing, Alexandria; Weekland Lager - Alewerks Brewing, Williamsburg.

Despite the fact that I am a terrible beer tourist, as I have openly admitted elsewhere, this year has actually been one with lots of new to me breweries, in most cases as a result of trading beers with fellow local beer fans. It was such a trade that brought Wheatland Spring into my beery orbit, a trade which included Found Artifacts, an unfiltered pilsner that rocked my socks off and I wished there had been more than a single can of in the trade, Even though that one can is the sum total of my Found Artifacts drinking in 2022, it was enough to be seared into my memory as the Virginian Pale Beer of the Year.

Rest of the USA

• Malý 8° - Schilling Brewing, Littleton, NH
• Herald 12° - Cohesion Brewing, Denver, CO
• Kellerpils - TRVE Brewing, Denver, CO

Honorable mentions: Helles - Bierstadt Brewing, Denver, CO; Alexandr - Schilling Brewing, Littleton, NH; Paulus - Schilling Brewing, Littleton, NH; Bavarian Pilsner - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, VT; Helles - Von Trapp Brewing, Stowe VT; Pilz - Live Oak Brewing, Austin, TX; Pull - Columbia Craft Brewing, Columbia, SC; Captain Jack Pilsner - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, Charlotte, NC.

2022 picked up and ran with where 2021 left off in terms of being a stellar year for pale lagers from the rest of the US. The list of honorable mentions alone has several of my favourite beers missing, as well as several beers from breweries that make up a regularish part of my drinking. Imagine then just how difficult it is to separate the three finalists. Each of the beers in the top three I enjoyed on tap in their respective tap rooms, and even on that front it would be near impossible to choose a taproom I for singular praise, they were all wonderful places. Choose though I must, and so the Fuggled USA Pale Beer of 2022 is Schilling's magnificent Malý 8°, an 8° Plato pale lager with more flavour, complexity, nuance, and sheer delight in drinking than the vast majority of stronger beers on the market today, There is a reason I traipsed 2 cases worth home to Virginia.

Rest of the World

• Tannenzäpfle - Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus, DE
• Zwickel Pilsner - Radeberger Exportbierbrauerei, DE
• Hirter Privat Pils - Brauerei Hirt, AT

Honorable mentions: Organic Lager - Samuel Smiths Brewery, UK; Icelandic White Ale - Einstök Ölgerđ, IS

With such a wealth of US made pale lagers on the shop shelves these days, it is almost a wonder that international beers even get a look in. Having said that, we get Rothaus Tannenzäpfle on tap fairly often, and the Radeberger Zwickel Pilsner I picked up recently was unexpectedly lovely. However, Austria's Brauerei Hirt showed up at Beer Run not too long ago. Intrigued, I picked up a 4 pack as it seems that Austrian made pilsners hit my sweet spot, combining the bitterness of a southern German pilsner with the fuller malt body of a Bohemian. Hirter Privat Pils is thus a worth winner of the International Pale Beer of 2022.

Three simply magnificent beers, each of which would grace the tap list of the greatest beer bars of the world, but in the words of the Highlander, there can be only one. That winner then, whilst not being the reason I persuaded Mrs V and my best mate that a 4 hour drive to another state for a day trip to the town the brewery is in, it was definitely the highlight of the day. Huzzah then for Schilling Beer Co. and their majestic Malý, the Fuggled Pale Beer of 2022.

Top Ten Virginian Beers - 2022

This is the tenth iteration of my annual list of the top ten Virginia brewed beers that I have drunk in the last 12 months. I say this every year, but it is worth repeating, this is a purely subjective list of the beers I have enjoyed most. I have not tried every single beer in Virginia in the last 12 months. Neither is there some arcane, near gnostic, scoring system in place, just the beers I enjoyed drinking most, after all that's what this whole beer malarky is about surely, finding stuff you enjoy drinking. Anyway, let's dive in:

1. Wheatland Spring Farm and Brewery - Found Artifacts Unfiltered Pilsner (4.8%). A new brewery to grace the list, and to take away the coveted top spot into the bargain. I had tried a couple of other Wheatland Spring lagers earlier in the year, so when I saw the words "Unfiltered Pilsner" on the label in Beer Run I just picked up a couple of 4 packs. While it may be unfiltered it is far from being some hazy mess, indeed it was an clear as you would expect from many a "filtered" beer. Found Artifacts is as good a German style pilsner as I have ever had, and sitting under our awning in the boiling Virginia heat it went down an absolute treat. I will be buying plenty of this whenever I see it in the store.
2. Port City Brewing - Franconian Kellerbier (5.0%). For the third year in a row, Port City's delicious Franconian Kellerbier is in the top 2 beers of the year for me. This year was a little bit special though as I was up in Northern Virginia for work and had the chance to try it on tap at the brewery itself. What a treat that was, and as usual it has been a regular in the fridge while it has been available. The only downer was that it came out a little earlier than previous years and so I had to find something else to drink while shelling peas in early summer. It's a hard life.
3. Starr Hill Brewing - Dark Starr Stout (4.2%). Something of a comeback kid here as Dark Starr is no longer a regular part of the Starr Hill constellation of brews, but this year they made a special batch, and even canned some. Fair to say that I got my arse to the new Starr Hill tasting room in Charlottesville and caned several. It was everything I remembered, roasty, smooth, and thankfully not adulterated with nitro. I would be thrilled if it were to complete the comeback by being a permanent again.
4. Devils Backbone Brewing - Alt Bier (5.8%). I can't remember the exact reason for heading down to Roseland to visit Devils Backbone, might have been because it was a Sunday or something equally meaningful. I don't need an excuse to go to the original Devils Backbone brewpub and grab a seat at the bar, but when Alt Bier is on tap you can guarantee I will be there. Not only is altbier a style that I love, but Jason knows how to do it properly and makes a moreish delight.
5. Port City Brewing - Downright Pilsner (4.8%). Another common visitor to my fridge that I have raved and written about many times before. There is a reason I spent 18 months bugging the beer buyers at my local Wegman's to stock this, it is just a great Czech style pale lager. The thing that keeps me coming back is that it is properly bitter and hoppy, without being over 5% abv. I don't know what it is about Czech style pale lagers that terrifies American brewers, but 44 IBUs at 4.8% is the right ballpark rather than 25 IBU at 5.5% that seems to be the norm.
6. Decipher Brewing - Krypto Pilsner (5.5%). The second new brewery on this list, Decipher is based on an industrial estate in Charlottesville, which is overlooked by Monticello. On my first visit to Decipher I noticed they had Krypto on their "coming soon" list, and they have a Lukr tap, so I wanted to make sure I had some when it was available. What came out of the tap was a lovely 14° pale lager, that went down with inordinate ease. I had several, and it cemented in my mind that Decipher's tasting room and beer garden will be a place I visit plenty. Have to admit though that this would be higher up the list if there were a decoction or two in the mix as the Maillard reactions involved would elevate an already good beer.
7. Basic City Brewing - Our Daily Pils (4.7%). We seem to have a slew of good pale lagers in Virginia these days, and I am most certainly not complaining! Our Daily Pils shares a trait with many of my favourite pale lagers, it is actually bitter, not shying away from the almost pithy  character that I just love. It also has a fuller, more pillowy body that makes it a delightful drink - and makes me wonder if they are using a different yeast strain than many of the other local breweries who use the Augustiner strain. Whatever yeast they are using, it makes a very nice beer.
8. Beltway Brewing - Fest! (5.8%). In my annual mass Oktoberfest tasting, Beltway's Fest! was kind of a surprise winner. I had it on tap one Friday afternoon at Kardinal Hall, when note taking is most definitely not on the agenda, and so enamored was I of it, I ordered a second to put some thoughts on my phone. Usually I prefer the paler modern interpretations of Oktoberfest beers, but when a darker märzen is not a syrupy crystal malt mess then I enjoy them too. Such was Fest!, not as dark as many US brewed Oktoberfest lagers, but with plenty of malt heft and a clean finish to make more than a couple a distinct possibility.
9. Decipher Brewing - 80/- (4.3%). Not only are Decipher a new brewery on the list, but Scottish Export as a style is making its debut too. Mrs V and I popped into Decipher for the first time, and given the place was empty just grabbed a couple of seats at the bar while we killed half an hour. Scottish Export ales are not something you see very often in Virginia, but served up in a nice dimpled mug it was a deep crimson reminder of home. In my experience many American brewers overload their Scottish ales with crystal malts and so you end up with intensely sweet swill that you just don't actually get in Scotland (hint, most of the colour comes of roasted barley). Decipher avoided that pitfall and produced a lovely session beer into the bargain.
10. Port City Brewing - Rauch Märzen (5.5%). Holding steady in 10th place this year, Port City's rauchbier reminds me so much of Brauerei Spezial's rauchbier that was such a delight when I visited Bamberg in 2019. I really don't like rauchbiers where the brewery waffles on about the beer having a "hint of smoke", and Port City has way more than a hint, smoke is the soul of the Rauch Märzen. Once the nights really start to draw in and the brewery release this again, my fridge will be well stocked.

So there we have it, my top ten beers from Virginian breweries in the last 12 months. It is great to see new breweries on the list, as well as the return of an old favourite. I say this every year, but this is a purely subjective exercise and I make no claims to having tried every VA beer out there. I am always open to recommendations of good beers to try, so leave them in the comments...