A beer reviewer says there is one stout that’s the best you can buy in Britain today (Image: Getty)
A beer reviewer says there is one stout that’s the best you can buy in Britain today.
Jason Hackett has more than 145,000 followers on , where he dedicates his time to reviewing beers, stouts and porters he drinks on his travels. And even though he’s definitely a big Guinness fan, he says there is one newcomer to the market that is “the best pint of stout or porter you can buy in Britain”.
Jason was at The Arch House, the Bermondsey taproom for the Anspach and Hobday brewery. After being served a cracking pint of London Black, which is technically a “nitro porter”, during his visit on a Wednesday after a football game, he returned on the following Saturday to see if it was as good as he remembered. He found it was “even better”.
Writing on , Jason said he “felt the need to come back to see whether this astonishing level of quality had been kept up”.
He said: “When I arrived it was still drinking superbly, at least as good as on the Wednesday, an absolute creme de crème of creamers. I did review in other London pubs that weekend and, even though I had some great pints, nothing came close to this.
“I know kegs and pints can vary from day to day and you may or may not get a pint of this magnificent magnitude every day but I think only once on my many visits here to The Arch House has the pint been anything less than an absolute creamer, especially with the 80/20 nitro/CO2 dispense.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, London Black by Anspach and Hobday as served at The Arch House with the extra nitrogen is the best pint of stout or porter that you can get in Britain. In fact, anywhere I’ve drank outside Ireland.”
And he’s not the only one who thinks the 4.4% drink is “better than Guinness”. beer reviewer Dan One-Minute Beer Review said: “It’s chocolatey, it’s coffee-y, it’s vanilla-y. It’s almost like wafers. It’s got a wafer ice cream cone flavour to it, it’s gorgeous. I could drink a lot of that, it’s beautiful.”
Another reviewer, Glasgow Beer Guy, said: “On the nose, it’s very poter-ish, the malt’s there, the dark malt. The first thing to say is it’s so smooth it’s unbelievable. It’s got a wee bit of smokiness as well. Now those who have been following me a while know I don’t like smoke in beer but there’s a wee hint here and what I’m thinking is it’s more about the toasted malts. It’s really nice, really smoth to drink.”
London Black makers Anspach and Hobday started in Bermondsey, London in 2013. And their drink isn’t the only one out to steal Guinness’s crown. Drinks reviewer Dom Drinks Beer said on he had been recommended O’Hara’s Irish Stout “hundreds of times” and had “finally got hold of it”.
After a taste test, . And Glasgow Beer Guy also said of O’Hara’s: “I’d say this is better than Guinness.”
O’Hara’s is made by the Carlow Brewing Company, in County Carlow, Ireland, which didn’t make its first beers until 1998.