As you may or may not know, Craft Beer Newcastle gained a new recruit this year. His name is Miró. So we’re going to let him choose our Golden Pints for this year.

(By the way, he’s a cat).

Best UK Cask: Can’t comment

I haven’t been invited to any pubs yet. No cask for me (yet).

Best UK Keg: *makes angry face*

Stop this madness – you know I’ve not been to the pub.

Best UK Bottle / Can: Box Social‘s Imperial Campfire Porter

Loving both the whisky version and the bourbon version. Not a fan of the wax, though. That bit tastes a bit funny.

Best Overseas Draught: *hisses*

So you want to remind me Craft Beer Newcastle went to Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and New York without me this year? Say goodbye to those curtains. (Good job @TheAleTrail brought these back for us earlier in the year).

Best Overseas Bottle / Can: Fifth Hammer Solar Lemur

IPA from NYC. Yum.

Best Collabeeration: Abbeydale & Yeastie Boys

Spent my summer climbing trees, chasing hens, and drinking Creeping Brett. Heaven.

Best Branding: Wiper & True

Why am I not on any beer cans yet? Seriously – black cats rule. Put my face on a beer. Thanks. If I have to go with one, it’s going to be Wiper & True as the bird on their Small Beer lures me in with his shiny little wings. The rest of team CBN has picked Wander Beyond again. (Needs more cats, if you ask me).

Best UK Brewery: Almasty Brew Co.

Got to support my local breweries, and Almasty has been knocking it out of the park this year.

Best Overseas Brewery: Mikkeller

My very first beer was Mikkeller’s Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisse, back in March. The can was bigger than I was back then, too.

Pub/Bar of the Year: The Free Trade Inn

I never got to meet Craig David (Pub Cat, Esq.), but he’s a legend in the cat world, so I know this must be the best place to beer. They also collect donations regularly for Westgate Ark Cat Shelter, so give even more back to less fortunate felines. Second choice goes to the Mean-Eyed Cat, as it sounds like me when someone takes away my Lick-e-Lix.

Beer Festival of the Year: Peakender

Ok, so I had to stay home, but I heard a lot of people purring about this one. And Thornbridge cardboard boxes get the paws-up from me.

Best Beer Book or Magazine: Cooking with Beer by Mark Dredge

I picked Toad in the Hole from this book for Sunday lunch, and it was delicious. I like books – they’re nice to sit on.

Best Beer Blog or Website: Mashtun & Meow

Had to be M&M (hi, Tobin!). Also hi to @ourdoreen, Hannah, Neptune Brewery + @CraftBeerHour as I know they love cats like me, too.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: Arcadia Leeds

James tweets cat GIFs. I like cat GIFs. @beckyboogaloo also gets an honourable mention for her dedication to GIFs.

Best Brewery Website & Social Media: Cats on Tap

Not technically a brewery, but I’m not technically typing this (paws are too big). Thanks to Cats on Tap for featuring me a few times this year, and for sharing great pics of all of my fellow beer cats across the world.

So that’s it – my first blog post and first awards. Time to see what trouble I can get in to before the new year begins…

Disclaimer: Your #GoldenPints is meant to be a bit of fun – you don’t really need us to tell you what’s great – go forth and explore, dear beer fans.