At the beginning of the year I arrogantly tweeted that this would be my “year of podcasts.” For various reasons I ended up managing to produce less than half of my target number of 20 episodes, but I hope that those who’ve been waiting for new episodes have enjoyed what we’ve managed to publish this year. 

This brings us to one of my favourite, and our most popular episodes, now in its third edition: our beers, w̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ and ciders of the year. Why are wines struck out, you ask? Simply because when recording myself talking about this year's favourites I didn’t find myself vibing with my selections. I don’t want to disappoint our listeners, and I didn’t feel there was enough conviction (or indeed, knowledge) about my favourite wines of the year to warrant including them in the show. This is something I’ll figure out in future years by hopefully bringing the rest of the team into this episode somehow. Either way, I’m considering shaking up this format a little next year. 

What this did give me is plenty of space to talk about my favourite ciders—as well as sharing a few thoughts on how my cider drinking has changed this year. I also reveal a handful of my favourite pubs in 2022, before ploughing into another bumper beer list—with no less than 10 beers—including announcing what I'll be awarding my coveted beer of the year prize. 

This being our third edition I also decided to hand out a few accolades, including cider/cidermaker of the year, brewery of the year, new brewery of the year, as well as naming the beer I enjoyed more than any other over the past 12 months. Initially, these will only be revealed on the podcast, so make sure you listen in to find out which beers really rocked my world in 2022.

Thanks to all of you for listening this year. Here’s to a fantastic holiday season, and a promise from me to deliver all of those long awaited episodes in 2023.

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