Stella Lager

Stella Lager
Al Ahram Beverages Company (Heineken)

0,33l

4,5%

My friend Ramses managed to bring me this exotic baby from Egypt. From what I understand he had to do secret handshakes in back alleys to procure something alcoholic in that country. Ramses: Thank you!

It's also gonna be my last entry this terrible year... I can only hope that 2017 will be better. Whether this brew is a matching beer for the end of the year remains to be seen. 

Ratebeer gives this an overall score of 3.... which is possibly the lowest I have seen in a while. But hey... I drink almost everything for you, dear readers!

So this beautiful can is golden and blue and depicts a white-blue star on blue background. 

To match the festivity of new years eve I chose my stylish tasting glass. 

It pours with at first not much carbonation but then evolves to forming a nice head. It is of golden color and seems not fully filtered as it is not totally crystal clear.

The aroma is surprisingly floral and fruity with hints of raspberry and peppery spices... nice aroma so far. Let's see whether the taste holds what the aroma promises.

After a nice floral start, it turns into a surprisingly mellow but spicy yet pretty bland experience taste wise. The alcohol is recognizable in the aftertaste which is something I am not too fond of. Now there are some promises with this brew but in the end the attempt to appeal to the mass is -like so often- its downfall.

Still something I'd drink in a pub... which is something I wouldn't say about just every brew.

Thanks Ramses!

Prost!

DMW

P.S.: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Golden Monk

Golden Monk
AleBrowar
Brewed at Browar Gościszewo

0,5l
7,2%

So this beauty has been given to me as a present by my friend Marek Starosta whom I met at my first Larp and who proved a grand help! Thank you Marek!

Now the description of the brew is all in Polish and sadly my Polish isn't especially grand. I stole the following description from Ratebeer:

COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Although it’s not proper for a monk to admit – the power of magic numbers does work on me. That’s why, together with my brothers, we made an double effort with our 10th beer. We brew it with care and we made a strong, aromatic saison IPA…
Ingredients:

 malt – pale ale, wheat, Abbey, melanoidin, Acidulated; 

hop– Citra, Palisade, Willamette, Centennial; 

yeast Safbrew T-58; 

Candy Sugar Dark; 

water;

Ratebeer seems to like it and I am sure so will I. It does have 7,2% and I have a meeting later on about WoD Berlin but hey... I'm a big boy, right.. I mean... RIGHT?

Now I am not sure whether this description means that there is dark candy sugar added... something I would not be a big fan of, or if it simply means that the color of the brew is of dark candy...

Judging from the homepage I fear it means there is sugar added. I will be surprised to see how sugar goes along with an IPA.

Marek chose this because of my love for IPA and because I played a monk at the larp.... technically a friar but close!

I really love it when my friends bring me beers to write about! 

The bottle looks nice and has a fancy label, depicting a monk... or friar ;), holding a golden St. Andrew's cross. It is called a Saison IPA and the back holds a list of the ingredients... I ehm think as it is in Polish. 

The site calls for it to be drunk from a tulip so I cleaned my old Radeberger tulip... it wasn't used in a while.

Awwww the cap shows a ripped off hand with thumbs up.. so cute! Even the lil bone can be seen!

It pours without any foam and even with all kinds of tricks, I couldn't manage to get any head to develop. 

The color is darkish... a brown yellow - like cola mixed with orange juice. It isn't filtered.

The aroma is VERY nice. Floral tones with yeasty goodness intertwined, Fresh hay with soft nutmeg spice tones and a hint of pepper and candy.

Now let's see what the monk can offer...

It starts surprisingly sour, mixes with nice grapefruit and soft yeast notes and ends crisp with a very pleasant dark hoppish aftertaste (the one all IPAs should have).

I can see now why they added sugar to take the edge of the sour tones, alas the sourness still is the predominant factor. The alcohol content can't be tasted which is a huge plus.

All in all this really surprised me. I ended expecting something overly sweet but got something grapefruity sour-bitter.

The mix of the tart notes with the hoppish bitterness is something I can't recall to ever have tasted in this way and that is something that truly makes this brew special. I could go with a bit higher carbonation and maybe some foam but hey, that's the German in me. 

I wonder what this would have been like without the sugar....

THANK YOU Marek!

Prost!

DMW

Hook Norton Flagship

Flagship
Hook Norton

0,5l
5,3%

Winter is sorta here and I survived my first LARP and got totally hooked. So no wonder that I asked one of my fellow Larpers to choose the brew from my current selection that I will write about today. Otso, this one is for you!

I chose this when it was still hot outside and I wanted an IPA.
I must admit that I never heard of the brewery but it is English so it must be decent.
I am not entirely sure whether the page of Ratebeer has the right beer in their database but it was the closest I could find.

The brew cites "Maris Otter, Pale Ale and Enzymic" as its malts and "Fuggles, Goldings and Admiral" as its hops... I am undecided whether I find a malt with the name Enzymic pleasing or not but hey...

Beeradvocate shows the bottle I have but they do not have as cool ratings as Ratebeer... though I still don't understand their rating either.

So the bottle is brown with a sky blue label on the front with a brown golden frame. Apparently originally brewed to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, Otso told me it is supposed to be good so I know where he lives if it isn't. (OK It's a lie, I do not know where he lives)

I actually cleaned my whole action figure and glass cupboard today as I am missing 3 distinct glassed from my collection... and they seem to be gone with the wind. So I instead chose a rather plain not exactly fitting one ... just because I can and because it can go into the dishwasher.. I know, I know I am losing my touch.

The brew pours with little foam of rather big pored bubbles and is not entirely filtered and gold brown of color.

The aroma is very sweet, freshly cut grass, fruits, faint honey and yeast. Heavy zesty tones couple with faint floral ones. I SO want to try this now.

It is surprisingly bitter on the first taste but the sweetness of zest and honey mix in instantly, painting a very nice painting of tastes.  It could use some more carbonation but that's English for you. The fruity tones tickle the front of the tongue while it then rolls off the whole tongue only to end in pleasant bitterness. I absolutely like the fruity, floral tones in it, especially when coupled with the hops.

I really, really, really think you should try this one!

Prost!

DMW

Chimay Blanche

Chimay Blanche
Bières de Chimay

0,33l
8%

As I realized I have had the blue Chimay but never the other ones. The Blanche appears to be the most hopped and driest of the three. I have learned to evade Triples recently as the alcohol usually knocks me down and gets me tired but this is in the name of science, right? I mean.... right?!

The bottle is a standard small brown bottle with the name of te Abbey cast into it. Though a nice move, I heard that it isn't too grand on recycling because this way only the special bottles can go back to the matching brewery.

Trappist beer is brewed in Trappist Monasteries so the only ones that can call themselves to be Trappist brews are Achel, Chimay,Gregorius, La Trappe, Orval, Spencer, Rochefort, Tre Fontane, Westmalle, Westvleteren, and Zundert.

Obviously this bottle has a white label and a white cap. There are discussions on whether one mixes in the yeast of which there is plenty or not. I usually try it once without yeast and then mix in the rest. 

For trying this I chose my traditional Trappist beer glass by Westmalle. 

It pours deep orange yellow with a super fine head od long persisting bubbles.. just how I love it. 

RateBeer goes high for the brew, not as high as for the Bleue but still high. 

The aroma is really nice. We can find honey mixed with fresh flowers and the smell of hay as well as herbs and fine citrus notes all ending in a very nice bouquet of pepper aspects.

The without yeast:

Very sweet start, mixing with fine hoppish tones that then take over pleasantly but allow the citrus tones to linger. Berries dipped in alcohol only to then be submerged into dark chocolate come to mind.

Yeast added:

The fruity tones are higher now and it generally tastes a lot sweeter, alas this dampens the crisp hoppish tones we had before although it adds a certain mellowness to it while chiseling out the overall composition.

I would say I prefer the without yeast added version a TAD bit more because of the confronting clash of sweet and bitter but that might be just imagination. 

Definitely still amongst the best beers around.

Prost!

DMW

Xirdalan

Xirdalan
Baltika-Baku

0,5l
4,8%

Well friends, Winter is coming, it is getting colder and thus the time for cheery sitting on the terrace with a brew in the sun is over... luckily as I hate the sun... :D
So today I bring you something special.... though I'd guess that it isn't special where it comes from...
My esteemed friend and Y Chromosome donor of my Godson Axel has brought me a brew back from his trip to Baku so that I can give you a (the?) beer from Azerbaijan. Wikipedia tells me that the Xirdalan is indeed the most common beer there (It even has a nifty customs/tax sticker thingy). The can informs me that the brewery is part of Carlsberg... seems one can't escape them.

The can is white and blue and reminded me of some Finnish designs... mainly because of the color pattern. I actually like the design.

For the glass, I chose an old handmade round stein that I found on a flea market together with its twin which has gone missing for now.

Do I dare to check RateBeer?  Well I did and the rating is rather low... who would have guessed...

It pours really light and made me wonder whether it's not water after all, alas, once in the glass it was surprising gold with nice foam that didn't dissipate too fast. It is nice and golden and filtered.

The aroma is surprisingly fruity but with some side tones of ash and alcohol. Slight honey and amber scents mix with something weird that I can best describe as cough candy dipped in cheap honey. It isn't unpleasant, just very weird and unexpected. Once in the glass for a while the aroma dissipates and there is not much left.

Wish me luck!

It does start honey-cough candy-ish, then blends into a rather okish lager taste. The alcohol can be found in the taste which isn't hyping me but this is far from bad. There are faint apple tones and next to none bitterness. The taste is definitely better than the aroma. The grainy taste is a bit weird but it grows on me. Not the worst thing I ever sampled!

Thanks, Akseli!

Prost!

DMW

Viking - Schlossbrauerei Fürstlich Drehna

Viking - Schlossbrauerei Fürstlich Drehna

0,33l
7,6%

It's too hot and this is a high percentage beer... not a good combo but we shall see. I have never heard of the brewery (German only) though when looking at their page I realize that I did have their Odin at some point and I remember not liking it.

Ratebeer is low in their ranking like so often.

Viking is advertised as a Schwarzbier a typical German kind I usually like. I have never seen one with this high alcohol content, though.

Funnily enough I cannot find the beer on the homepage of the brewery... I wonder whether that's a good or a bad thing.

The bottle itself is brown and unremarkable with one label depicting a grim looking Viking in yellow and black with the Text "Viking Craft Bier" and an added Stark / Schwarz / Magisch (Strong / Black / Magical). Sadly no information about what Malts etc.. a bit surprising for a beer that calls itself Craft. Some advertising promises to AWAKE THE VIKING IN ME.... I doubt...

The cap depicts Mr. grim Viking again. This time in silver and black.

Untappd lists it as a Doppelbock... I see that they get that from the percentage but that's just wrong.

Standard tasting glass as I wasn't sure what else to chose.

The brew pours nice, very black and with mediocre amount of foam which vanishes super fast.

The aroma is meaty, tones of honey and umami faint pepper and clove aroma. All in all not a very strong aroma.

Carbonation is perfect, taste starts surprisingly strong and sweet with faint liquorice and pepper tones. I actually had to double check that there is no added sugar in it.
Decent chocolate tones with a hint of honey.
Aftertaste very nice and full with spicy aspects. Faint bitterness but very pleasing.

Maybe a TAD too syrupy sweet for me, but all in all a really good brew! I wonder why ratebeer goes so low on it as I do enjoy it a lot. The higher alcohol content can't be tasted which in my eyes always is a HUGE bonus.

Happy I found that brew!

Prost!

DMW

Crafty Loki - Wacken Brewery

Crafty Loki
Nordic Pale Ale
Wacken Brewery

0,33l
5,7%
IBU: 40

I stumbled across this when I recently ordered something from a shop and as I had to pay shipping anyways, I added 2 brews. Wacken is mainly known for the huge festival happening there and I had no idea there is a brewery... maybe they just use the name.. anyways. It seems that Wacken Brewery (German only) has a series they call Beer of the Gods and I chose to sample their Crafty Loki which they call a 'Nordic Pale Ale'. I am not sure about the Nordic part besides maybe the Loki name but hey.. it's a Pale Ale and me likey them usually so.

Like most of the beerses with a fancy name, this also has flashy labels. The front one shows us an old depiction of Loki the Trickster in his glory, the name of the brew and a text calling it something like 'a top-cool, top-creative, top fermented  beer'.

The back label holds some text about Loki and why the beer holds as many facets as the trickster God himself yada yada... let's give a personal relationship to it so we will like it more and buy more of it... I guess marketing is part of everything but I like my beers to have good taste not a good story, unless they have both but we will get to that.

RateBeer at this point does not have any scores for it, lacking enough ratings for it now.

I'm back to one of my standard trusty tasting glasses just because I can and didn't want to use the Widmer one again.

Loadsa bubbles, very nice. Full head with very fine bubbles. As it is 36° Celsius outside I didn't want to wait till it dissipated so the pic has a bit much foam. It's a golden, unfiltered brew with slight red hues.

The aroma is very fruity. Fresh berries with fresh cut grass and faint fruity hops and lemon zest. It's basically ones good ole IPA aroma but a lot sweeter.

The carbonation is a tad bit overpowering, the hoppish goodness is semi muffled by some weird musky tones but they vanish fast and give place to fruity, flowery aspects mixed with very faint medicinal tones. The awesomeness of this brew comes from the aftertaste which perfectly masters to blend the IPAness with what I would call the dry hoppish aspects of a crisp good German Pilsner.

This is unlike any pale ale I have had before and though there are some minus aspects, all in all, I really like it. I was skeptical about this I have to admit but now I want to try more of their brews!

Prost!

DMW

Bourbon Barrel Bock - Welde

Bourbon Barrel Bock
Welde
0,33l
6,6%
IBU: 28

From the same brewery as the last entry, I saved this baby for a while. A friend had mentioned it to me months ago as one of his favorites, alas I have saved it because nowadays I'm not too grand to digest stronger brews anymore. It's kinda fitting that I'll use my Widmer Brothers glass again as they used to make an almost similar brew.

Ratebeer goes pretty high on that baby as far as I can tell.

Funnily enough, Bock used to be the poison of my choice when it was served in a local pub I used to frequent many, many years ago, nowadays I often dislike the sweetness of them, which is automatically coming with the higher percentage.

Anyways, according to the information on the label itself and on the web, the brew rests 3 months in Bourbon, Rum and Tequila casks, thus making it a Cuvée. The hops used, namely Green Bullet seems to be a New Zealand variety and according to my research is nothing special.

The label again has 2 parts, the front label showing a barrel and the name and some general information, while the back has ingredients etc. I like the labels though they are minimal.

As mentioned above, I will use the same glass as the last time, a Widmer branded tulip I brought with me from the US.

Now I had the beer in the fridge overnight, till I just saw that they recommend 12° Celsius for it. As we got 35° outside and 7° in my fridge I will have to settle for a bit colder than usual experience though I took it out to acclimate itself a bit.

I kinda dread to venture outside to take my usual pictures because I react to the sun like a vampire ... but I shall undergo extreme trials for you, my readers.

It pours a bit thickish with a nice copper red cloudy color, clearly being not filtered. A medium amount of head can be produced with small to mediocre sized bubbles, which dissipate fast.

The aroma is very rich, floral tones mixed with freshly picked berries and the distinct barrel smell of liquor and faint honey and cork.

Now the taste.... my mouth is watering from the aroma...
It starts thick and syrupy, the carbonation could be better, the barrel taste is definitely there. Sweet, medicinal tones, vanilla and the alcohol being recognizable in the aftertaste together with faint bitterness. The bourbon tones are definitely there but so far I must admit I am not a huge fan. I will let this get a bit warmer and then try again..... stay with me...

Still the wood/barrel overpowers the brew. I like my Whisky smoky and peaty and woody... but with beer I am not as convinced as I maybe should be. I can sense a grand brew under the layer of wood but it is buried too deep for me to find this grand.


Prost!
DMW

Badisch Gose - Welde

Badisch Gose
Welde

0,33l
4,6%
IBU: 10

I got 2 of the brews of this brewery, a Gose and a Bock. According to the brewery's site their Gose won a Gold Award at the International Craft Beer Award.

As it is another hot day outside I am hoping for something light, tart, summery.
As a regional speciality beer, Gose is exempt from the German Beer Purity Law as the ingredients usually include salt and coriander. The top fermented Gose originally was spontaneously fermented by wild yeast strains, much like the Lambic class of beers. It has a rocky history as it sometimes vanished for years as brewers stopped making it or lost the knowledge on how to make it, alas it has found a renaissance with the craft beer movement.

Ratebeer again is somewhere in the middle of their scoring system when it comes to this brew. (Not that I care...:P )

The bottle itself is rather standard. It holds 2 labels, both cream colored with black writing, but somehow it fits the whole design of it. It shows a salt shaker and what I guess to be coriander leaves and also has a description what it tastes like... which I didn't read because I do like to make my own assumptions and not rely on other people too much when it comes to that. The back label lists the ingredients and the useful information like IBU etc.

Glass-wise I went for an old Widmer Brothers glass I brought with me from the US... simply because I couldn't find my standard tasting glasses... I have too many and yet they constantly seem to disappear...

The brew is cloudy and unfiltered and has a rather wellllll ehmmm ...let's say the color isn't the most appetizing but hey... I don't like my beers because of their color, right. So yeah slightly diarrhea color but who cares. Not much head to speak of. Just a small layer of mediocrely sized bubbles.

The aroma rocks. Very fruity, slight hop tones which are very well hidden behind salt and berry aromas. Umami and grapefruit come to mind.

The taste, now that is something.
The carbonation is good and the taste really awesome. It starts with rich sweet-tart gooseberry tones, evolves to salty mineral aspects only to give you the hint of hops and banana in the end, leaving a pleasant floral-fruity aftertaste without being sweet.
I especially like the fruit salty mix though that is something I usually never would like. To be honest I was sceptical about salt and beer but this works quite well though I am told that this particular Gose isn't even deemed to be very salty.

Now this brew is another example on how different beers can be. If you compare this to a heavy chocolate stout, one might thing that these are two totally different kinds of beverages.

A _very_ fine piece of brew-art. Thanks to the brewery for that!

Prost!

DMW

Brauerei Gusswerk - Steinbier

Steinbier
Brauerei Gusswerk

0,33l
5,6%

From what I could find out, this beer is brewed exclusively in a small  brewery  with attached brewpub (Site German exclusively) which is an Austrian certified ecological brewery so hey I'm doing a good thing for my health, right? Right?

Anyways, the special gimmick of this brew and why it is called Steinbier, meaning Stonebeer, is that it is cooled by hot stones being plunged into the brew... don't kill the messenger... which is supposedly giving it a supposedly special taste.

RateBeer is not giving it much... but as you know... I don't care about their rating and just include it for your reading pleasure and research.

The bottle and the included label is rather simplistic: A huge yellow dot with the name on it and the fact that it is ecologically brewed. They even have 2 little stones as dots over the 'i' on their label.

Glass wise I'd usually have taken a stein but to make a nicer picture I went for a stein-like glass instead.

It pours with a nice amount of caramel colored foam. The brew itself is unfiltered red-brown.

Aromawise we have a nice combination of yeast with nut and caramel, coupled with clemon zest and malt topped of with faint hues of honey.

I do like the warm honey caramel taste it starts out with, slowly changing to banana and hops. Really nice taste! The carbonation could be stronger. It does remind me of Finnish Sahti when it comes to the banana tones. The hop bitterness is decent and compliments the sweetness of ripe berries and caramel.

I _really_ like this brew! One of the cases when I am positively surprised! I also definitely think that RateBeer is wrong in their judgement of it.

Prost!

DMW

Steamworks Heroica Red Ale - The Air Canada Series

Steamworks Heroica Red Ale

0,33l
5,6%
45 IBU
Malts: 2-Row, Cara 20, Cara 45, Munich, Chocolate
Hops: Cascade, Citra, Simcoe, Amarilloe

As I explained in my last post, my friends from Air Canada made sure to give me something to write about. So today I will talk about the second of the Canadian beers I have gotten from them.
Steamworks seems to have a lot of interesting brews indeed and after the bit heavier baby yesterday, I am happy to tackle something I imagine to be crisp and summery... a nice red ale.

I am a bit weary as I never made the greatest experiences with Simcoe Hops but hey, I am here to be surprised, right!

RateBeer gives it more in style than in overall but as I also stressed last time, I have no idea how their points actually work.

The brown bottle again has 2 translucent stickers as labels that give us the impression as if they are painted on. Nice. This time -to go with the Heroica Red image- the label shows us a happy, heroic firefighter, rescuing a damsel in distress in his arms.... makes me wonder how he is gonna hold the beer bottle... The label on the back gives us the above-mentioned list of yummy ingredients and otherwise is rather minimalistic.

I went for a nice sturdy baby Guinness Glass for this as I somehow found it more fitting than my usual one.

Not much foam on this nice not totally filtered red beauty. It's red-brown like a watered down cola and not as red as I thought.

The aroma is very citrus heavy coupled with honey and hops. Faint flower and hazelnut tones mixed with grass.

The amount of carbonation is perfect. It starts off rather sweet, then rolls along the tongue with nice spice tones only to reach the palate and the back of the tongue to fully develop the rich bitter hops taste.

It is one of the beers that get a totally new aspect once one opens the mouth and allows some air to join. I really like the tart citrus aspects which mix with the toasted malts t give the nutty feeling till the hops arrive.

Truly nicely done! This has about everything a good brew is supposed to have and is in addition exactly what I needed today.

A superb brew with enough bitterness to make me happy, alas allowing it to paint a whole composition with the other aspects.

Thank you, Air Canada!



Prost!

DMW

Steamworks Jasmine IPA - The Air Canada Series

Steamworks Jasmine IPA

0,33l
6,5%
60 IBU
Hops: Cascade and Galaxy
Malts: Premium 2-Row & Cara 20



As the title tells us, I'd like to thank my friends from Air Canada for providing me with (so far) 2 very, very interesting looking Canadian beers. So "Cui honorem, honorem" - "honour to whom honour is due" I dedicate this blog entry to my friends at Air Canada! Thank you! Now let's tackle that beer...

I shamefully have to admit that I never heard of Steamworks but this has changed now. Looking over their list of beers truly makes me interested for more as some of their brews sound super cool... for now, however,  we concentrate on their Jasmine IPA.

The bottle -like most of their bottles- is really funny. Besides the information about hops and malts that I cite in the introduction, it is covered in illustrations. In this case, it is Chinese themed. We find a Dragon/Lion being protecting Chinese style houses and entranceways. The labels are translucent stickers of the kind that, back when I was still actively collecting beer labels, would make me cry to get them off... it does have the cool effect of looking as if they are painted on the bottle instead of glued onto it. Me likey!

Ratebeer is convinced of the quality of the brew with a whopping 81 of their points that I will never understand nor try to understand. (If someone of you does understand it and can explain it to someone with the attention span of a squirrel, please do so in the comments.. oh look a butterfly, can I have candy. I wanna go out and play.)

Actually I just realized that the hops and malts mentioned on Ratebeer aren't the ones written on the bottle. Weird. Maybe I got some export version or they refined their brew... what does make this beer special, however, is them including Jasmine Flowers in it. As it has been a long while since I had a decent IPA I am indeed looking forward to this and -at least in my mind- the combination of the hoppy bitterness with Jasmine works fine.... we shall see whether it is so indeed.

I decided to go with a standard tasting glass for this beauty.

It pours reddish gold with not very much foam but then again I didn't expect an IPA to have a huge head.

The aroma is very IPAish with strong floral and fruit tones and decent caramel aroma. Tones of honey and hay can be found and I think this must be one of the best IPAs I have smelled. The normally strong hoppy tones blend into a rich honey aroma as if bathed in the golden liquid. Really nice and rich aroma full of nuances,

OK sadly the taste doesn't hold what the aroma promises. Carbonation is about perfect. The taste starts with strong bitter chocolate tones which when mixed with the jasmine flowers end simply being a bit weird. The bitterness blocks out most other facets, alas it is not unpleasant.
This might be one of the beers that grows on one with time.

The strong bitter tones stay present for a long while after a sip and leave a pleasantly dry, yet memorable image of tea and bergamot.

I am torn about this brew. I can see how it could polarize which is a grand thing for a beer that doesn't want to cater to the masses. If you like your brew bitter it is definitely for you!

I would have liked a bit more sweetness and probably was mislead from the aroma.
It's a good brew which could be better if the bitterness wouldn't drown a lot of the other aspects.

PROST!

DMW

Merlin's Ale

Merlin's Ale
Broughton Ales

0,5l
4,2%



I can't even remember when or where I got this brew. I also haven't heard of the brewery.

We are informed about different stats of it like: 1042° OG 30 EBU 18 EBC.

Apparently OG stands for the Original Gravity while EBU is the European Bitterness Unit and EBC apparently refers to the color in the scale of the European Brewery Convention.

I guess I learn something new every day... and this was a nice addition to the general Information given.

The hops used are Bramling Cross, East Kent Goldings, Citra & Perle while they are using their own Broughton’s Unique Yeast.

I chose this brew for today when the Scandinavian countries celebrate Midsummer -  the summer solstice - though it already happened on the 21st but hey... It is one of the cases when I fell for a beer because of the label and the name... so hey.. good marketing I guess?

The label holds a nice story and depicts Merlin the old sorcerer supreme himself.

An added sticker links to http://beerenthusiast.org/ so maybe my fellow Germans imported it through Scandinavia.

The bottle also holds nice stylized hops on the glass.... talking about glass.. the standard tasting glass it shall be for this beauty.

It bubbled nicely when I opened the bottle and pours with little bubbles which dissipate fast... well it is an English Style Ale so what did I expect. The color is reddish .. not as red as a red ale but definitely redder than a lager. (I know I'm not helping here...)

Ratebeer seems not happy about it with rather low scores.

How very fitting that his beer gave me the God Save The Queen Sticker on untappd on the day of the Brexit...

The aroma is honey-sweet with decent tart tones all in all a very mild aroma with very faint nut and hop aspects.

Carbonation is perfect, mouth feel very nice. The taste starts out fruity sweet and then develops more and more toward the bitter scale till it reaches an almost chocolate stout like after taste of dark chocolate and hops once air reaches the mouth. It is a decent ale I'd say and again I'm not sure why Ratebeer and I disagree ever so often. I do like the bitterness of it and the hops are very well developed, alas it could benefit from some more fruitiness in the beginning. 

Prost!

DMW


 

Hitachino Nest White Ale

Hitachino Nest White Ale
Kiuchi Brewery
0,33l
5,5%

I am not sure what EXACTLY the name of the beer is to be honest. I saw the bottle in my local store and thought hey it has an owl, how bad can it be.

The bottle is cute. 3 part label with an added 4t sticker because Germany wants all ingredients in German as well,

Now the ingredients do make me wonder... Orangepeel, Cilantro, Nutmeg and Orangejuice.... I expect something ehm... spicy? Herbal? I do not know and that is what makes it interesting. I wouldn't wonder if the Japanese writing on it says something akin to 'This is for stupid foreigners only' but hey... I shall have it checked. Tuuli.. expect an IM.

Aight so I said I like the bottle and the label design. It's up to date and made me interested...they did their job.

Today's glass is one of my standard tasting ones. Originally made for 0,2, I am confident it will hold 0,33 with pride as well.

This is VERY yellow. I mean pale Fanta yellow. The foam is very little and dissipates super fast. It's very cloudy and unfiltered. There was a huge amount of yeast in the bottle that I made sure was mixed with the beer before I poured.

The aroma is very appetizing, I can smell the orangepeel/juice and the cilantro with the yeast being present as well. It does have a bit of a medicinal smell but not in a bad way at all. The citrus aroma gives it a very fresh and crisp impression and I SO wanna try this now.

This is super interesting.
 The orange feel is strong with a carbonation that could be a bit stronger for my taste. The cilantro is a nice addition and compliments the citrus tones. Though it is fruity it also has a nice hoppy bitterness in the aftertaste. The medicinal tones I was afraid of aren't there really. The best I can compare this with is as if I first take a sip of nice orange juice and immediately follow it up with a Pilsener. This is definitely nice!
Do I dare to check RateBeer about it... Well I did and for once we kinda agree that this is absolutely in the top third of beers. I really like how they blended the nutmeg and the cilantro with the orange tones and made a worthy concoction out of it.

This does get my seal of approval!

PROST!

DMW

Löwenbrauerei Passau Urtyp Hell

Urtyp Hell
Löwenbrauerei Passau

0,5l
4,8%

And we are reaching the end of a kinda mixed series for the Reinheitsgebot anniversary.
I can' say that anything of the beerses gave me a taste orgasm but at least they got me to write again.

Todays Urtyp Hell apparently has won a couple of awards as the rear label shows a Gold World Beer Cup award in 2012 and Gold Beer Stars for 2009 and 2010.

The brewery (again only German) praises itself for how pale their beer is and says it can't be paler than this... we shall see... alas it is rainy outside so I doubt I'll get nice pictures.

Ratebeer once again in the lower area... seems they really don't like German beer.

The bottle is your standard brown beer bottle with 3 labels. I like the minimal approach they have with the label. Modern, nice clear lines, mainly held in brown red and black. Sadly no real information about the beer itself on the back label besides the usual advertisement.

The glass of the day is a Zischke Kellerbier glass that I might have bought at the brewery but to be honest I have too many beer glasses and I lost track...

It indeed is very pale/bright .. they did not lie there. Has the side effect that it evokes me thinking that it might be watery. Carbonation is massive judging from what I see. We shall taste whether the tongue thinks the same.

The aroma is faint but very nice. Fruity tones with floral undertones and a slight umami in the end. Not much yeast or hops detectable. One of the best smelling beers I have sampled.

The head is about perfect, fine bubbles, long lasting, just as it should be.

Carbonation is perfect.

The aroma didn't betray as the taste is nice, slightly sweet floral in the beginning with indeed ripe fruity tones that then evolve into a nice combination of umami tones with very small bitterness, the hops are hinted in the aftertaste but even then stay on the light side. For once I agree with whoever gave out the prizes. This is definitely a good brew. It's nothing super duper out of the ordinary but it is a nice made, rustic, high quality beer with a pleasant all in all round taste. Lover of hops might be sad but I am happy.

Prost!

DMW

Autenrieder Urtyp Hell

Autenrieder Urtyp Hell

0,5l
5%

And another post for the Reinheitsgebot series. The weather outside has been meh and so has been my mood but hey we want to finish this series.

I thought I'd keep the not yeasties for the end, alas Ratebeer has another rather abysmal rating for this brew....but what do I care. :).

The brewery (again only in German) claims to have been brewing since 1650 so beer with tradition.
The three labeled bottle looks rather standard if not a bit old fashioned even. The labels are red, white and gold and somehow it looks like a rather generic brew judging from the label.

For the glass I went back to one of my good ole classic tasting glasses.

It's pouring nice and crisp, looks like a lot of carbonation. The head is not especially much, very fine bubbles, dissipating quickly. Colorwise it is of a rich gold with a touch of red in it. Looks interesting at least.

The aroma at first is very lemony but then fades to a rather unappetizing generic Pilsener smell. Light tones of freshly cut grass and flowers.

OK the taste is off. At first it reminded me of dishwater, then sweet tones joined. The carbonation is good but that's about it. There is a definitive sweet, soap tone in this and it isn't very appetizing. Even the aftertaste stays soapy with very faint hoppish bitterness. It is flat and doesn't offer any full mouth.

Absolutly on the worse side when it comes to brews. I don't loathe it as much as I loathe  Karjala  but it comes close.  Meh.

Prost!

DMW

St. GeorgenBräu Keller Bier

Keller Bier

St. GeorgenBräu

0,5l

4,9%

Finally a Kellerbier. YAY. It is unfiltered and "unbunged," indicating that the maturation was in a vessel open to the atmosphere (ie not controlled by a pressure valve). This makes for a lesser carbonation. With a diminished gassiness, there is less carbonic "bite" on he tongue, so the drinker is more sensitive to the flavors in the beer. (I had to look this up and now I know... )

Alas I am still a bit plagued by allergy and I got my Larp character today so I am all kinds of hyped and not in my best mood to write... alas the brew is cold, it is waiting for me and as I have to work tomorrow, I better enjoy me brew.

The bottle is pretty plain and standard, just 2 labels, no back label. 

It depicts a genuine painted brewery interior, the Font is deliberately chosen to look old. 

The brewery page is in German only again but doesn't say much anyways. 

Ratebeer for a change thinks highly of this bottom fermented beauty. 

Under normal circumstances I'd drink this out of a stein but that would mean not being able to take a nice picture so I went with a small stein-like glass-glass. 

It is golden brown, actually browner than I expected, with very little head. Almost no foam, but a small fine layer of mix sized bubbles.

The aroma is very sweet, mouth watering with citrus tones in the aftermath. There is something in it that I can't describe very well and if I say dusty like flour it's a mere pitiful attempt to describe it. Very fine soap tones mixed wit fresh cut flowers present as well.

It has a very full mouth feeling, starting with slight sweetness that then mixes to bitter, yeast tones only to then explode in a little hop. The citrus tones are present throughout, albeit slightly drowned by the hops only to end in a marriage of bitter lemon. The carbonation is OK. I would have preferred a tad bit more but it's OK.

This is nice! I wouldn't have thought that this is a Kellerbeer as they are usually more umami, but this is definitely nice. Maybe even so far the best of this series. I really like how this plays with sweet, sour and bitter tones, mixing them together only to hold them apart. Maybe a tad bit too bitter but that could be simply my expectations which expected something else.

Grand brew!

Prost!

DMW