Sometimes food bloggers can be utterly infuriating – there’s a huge buzz about celeb hotspot Chiltern Firehouse at the moment, which means mere mortals won’t get a table this decade. Thousands of words have been written about an experience that you can’t go out any copy, and I’m about to do the same. Not about some A-list mecca, but about a beer.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll be familiar with my penchant for homebrewing. I’ve recently started taking it more seriously and am loving the ability to customise my brews – I can indulge my passion for vast piles of hops. One of the standard bearers of the British craft brewing movement, Brewdog, share this philosophy and their own beers and bars are a temple to the humble hop. They’ve also made friends with lots of other brewers around the world which gives them access to some stunning beers.

There was a lot of excitement on Twitter when they announced their latest guest beer – “Stone Enjoy By 08.16.14”. Stone Brewing Co are a really exciting brewery from San Diego and their output is pretty rare in the UK. The date in the name is no accident, this is a special beer brewed specifically to have a short shelf-life. It has over ten different hops used at various points in the process and the result is mindblowing. It’s got a wonderful mouthfeel – silky, light and very smooth. There’s a delicate sweet malt backbone, but the real stars are the hops. There’s a huge amount of tropical fruit – mango, pineapple and passionfruit, backed up by strong citrus and some subtler piney notes. Despite being 9.4%ABV it doesn’t taste anything like that strong. It’s so easy to drink and in the sweltering London heat, wonderfully refreshing. It’s damn near the perfect beer, and certainly the best I’ve ever tried.

On the downside – it’s sold out pretty much instantly and may never be made again…