Friday Five: The Year's Best Beers

Today is the last day to vote for the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers from 2019. I have placed my votes, but I have also trawled through my notes from the beers I tasted over the last 12 months, and found my favourites. The GABS Hottest 100 is only for Australian beers, but I have included top five British and International as well. Obviously, I can only rate the beers I tasted this year, so there may be many other great brews not included here, but this is my choice.

Top 5 Australian Beers:

1. St Phoebe 2019 (Wildflower Brewing and Blending) - Raspberry funk and farmhouse flavours; sensuous aroma and all-round top brew!
2. Double Stout Barrel Aged (Holgate Brewhouse) 8% - Smooth AF. Chocolate and hints of vanilla. Exceptional.
3. Inside Voice (Little Bang Brewing Co) 5.7% - A superb foreign extra Stout - roasty bitterness tempered with dark fruit/ berry/ raisin sweetness. Smooth. Nice. What jazz should be, if it were beer.
4. Botanical Hoppy Sour (Burnley Brewing) 3.5% - Fabulously floral and botanical characters blend really well with the sourness. Extremely enjoyable.
5. Hang Loose Juice (Capital Brewing Co) 6% - Blood orange IPA - great pithy bitterness and hoppy citrus goodness. Very tasty - one of the better hazy IPAs out there.

Top 5 British Beers:

1. Gravity (Brakspear Brewing Co) 3.4% - same beer; different marketing - this is the Brakspear's bitter I know and love. I grew up with this malty English bitter and it is the taste of home; oh, the memories...
2. Cambridge Black (Turpin's Brewery) 4.6% - oatmeal stout; full on chocolate and intensity - excellent and enjoyable; perfect with bangers and mash.
3. Pheasant Plucker (Bowland Brewery) 3.7% - purchased the easy-drinking copper-hued English bitter from the brewery itself - superb English Bitter (also excellent service).
4. Landlord (Timothy Taylor) 4.3% - Nutty and creamy; just the business; a pint of Landlord is a thing of beauty.
5. Spitfire (Shepherd Neame) 4.5% - still beautifully bitter

Top 5 International Beers:

1. Trappistes Rochefort 8 (Abbaye Notre-Dame de St-Remy) 9.2% - Sooo good; rich deep and spicy; this Belgian strong dark ale is one of the best beers ever
2. Nath (2018) (Brasserie Cantillon) 5.8% - Wow! Tart and funky; rhubarb and pastry - absolutely delicious fruit lambic
3. Felix (Aged in Apple Whiskey Barrels) (New Belgium Brewing Co) 8.8% - Sour golden with strong apple characters and sweet vanilla from the whisky barrel aging in the single foeder. Superb.
4. Stone/// Fear. Movie. Lions. Double IPA (Stone Brewing) 8.5% - rich, strong, chewy marmalade
5. Mr Pink (2018) (To Øl Brewery) 6% - Beautiful dark pink IPA; soft buttering; subtle hops; slightly earthy beetroot aroma and finish