Best Beers April 2021

Welcome to the Drink in the Sights best beers of April 2021 awards. It's only a couple of weeks before pubs open again properly!!!! Sure I could have gone to a beer garden by now but it's been cold and wet and well England really. That doesn't mean this has been a bad month for beer though and I've had some truly spectacular ales this month including possibly my new all time favourite, which we'll get to shortly. I've also had one or two terrible beers including the generally unpleasant Efes Draft, the flavourless Forty Niner from Ringwood and the citrus obsessed Over the Water from Taproom Craft Beer/Home Bargains. Anyway now that's the hall of shame out the way lets talk about the good stuff.

Before we get to the top 3 beers of April 2021 I'd just like to give a few honorable mentions to Batemans Brewery for the nice and chocolatey Mocha and the much less lavish but just as tasty Combined Harvest which is just full of grainy goodness. The beer that surprised me most this month was McEwan's Levy which was much smokier and therefore much better than I expected. Meanwhile I found a top class budget supermarket beer in LIDL's Purple Panther and you all know how much I love a good budget beer. On any given month any of these could have made my top three list, but not this month.

So without further ado the third best beer of April 2021 is...

Triple Choc from Saltaire.

Triple Choc from Saltaire Brewery in Shipley, West Yorkshire is really one of those beers that could just as easily pass for a dessert, so it's very much for the sweet toothed amongst you. This is a seriously tasty, chocolatey beer which you could have  instead of any chocolate cake and not feel like you're missing out. If you try hard enough you'll find a few hints of vanilla and coffee in there, but make no mistake this is all about the chocolate. Personally I really like a beer that delivers what it promises, and this one does that in spades. Why have one choc when you can have Triple Choc?

The runner up best beer of April 2021 is...

Devon Amber from Salcombe Brewery

Devon Amber from Salcombe Brewery pours a nice, slightly darker than expected amber red with almost no head at all. Don't worry though the lack of a good head is more than made up for by the lovely aroma. There's plenty of malts in there, but also caramel, chocolate and blackcurrant smells coming through, it genuinely smells amazing and the taste is exceptional. The toasty bitter malts are just perfect creating a really nice well balanced flavour. Sure the chocolate and caramel notes have to take a bit of a back seat to the malts and the fruity tastes which come from nowhere, but when the beer tastes this good I can live without the dessert flavours. I really am going to have to look in to finding some more Salcombe beers if they're all this good. I think it's my new favourite light beer.

Any other month Devon Amber may well have taken the beer of the month honour, but not this month as this month I found something truly spectacular...

The Best Beer April 2021

Jet Black Heart Nitro from Brewdog

Just look at that beer it's magnificent. For once the sequel is better than the original which was already an excellent beer. Brewdog Jet Black Heart Nitro is possibly the best beer I've ever had. The body is jet black as promised while the full just off white creamy head just lasts forever, which I love. Regardless of anything else this is one of the best looking beers I've ever seen. The aroma of rich dark chocolate, mixed with vanilla and roasted malts just leaves you desperate for that first taste. 

The texture is medium to full bodied but seriously creamy. You can almost feel the glorious nitrogen texture just roll down your throat, and it doesn't seem to matter how much you drink the head remains intact throughout. The taste genuinely is spectacular. There's the promised chocolate and vanilla flavours perfectly mixed with roasted malts and just a hint of coffee. The look, the texture, the taste, everything about Jet Black Heart Nitro is just exactly what a great beer should be making it a very worthy winner of any beer award.