I might have a glass of beer

Well, here we are again, same procedure as every year: the Golden Pints. Skip to the end for the important one (assuming that anyone is interested in any of this stuff at all): the beers of the year. Best version of a terrible style: St Mars of the Desert Rotbier  For a few years now there’s been a bit of a buzz about a style of beer called Rotbier (literally, red beer), which supposedly is the historical local style of Nuremberg. Its signature features are a quite lurid reddish-gold colour somewhere between strawberry syrup and Campari, and a cloying sweetness in desperate need of hop bitterness, which is missing  in most of those I’ve tried. Schanzenbräu make a drinkable version, and the cherry-smoked Rotbier made by Schlenkerla in Bamberg works quite well, because the sugariness is balanced by the bitterness of wood smoke. The best Rotbier I have had, however, does not come from Germany at all – it is made by St Mars of the Desert in Sheffield and has a full malt body, flor...