27th February 2012

This week I wanted to take a break from mad Belgian beers which are very probably killing my Brian.

Caledonian 80 (Scotland)

My favourite beer in the world, Old Speckled Hen, isn't in the book. But this seems like the Scottish equivalent which isn't quite as good. It is still very nice though, much better than some of the other beers that I've drank so far on my quest. I would buy it again, if I couldn't get Old Speckled Hen from anywhere.

Jenlain Ambrée (France)

Kindly donated to the Michael Beer Fund (I should make an official charity, all donations are gratefully received) by my friend Jean. My favourite beer in the world, Old Speckled Hen, isn't in the book. But this seems like the French equivalent. It really is a great beer, and it comes in a bloody massive bottle, which is always a good thing. A word of warning though, you will be drunk after drinking a bottle of this.

Pivovar Herold Bohemian Wheat Lager (Czech Republic)

Wheat beers would be great... if I couldn't taste them or smell them. It doesn't matter how many I drink, I'm never going to like the taste, and I hate this book a little bit for making me drink it. 

20th February 2012

Last week I had a trip to Tampere, where I was able to knock a couple more beers off my list.

Dale's Pale Ale (USA)

Apparently this is only available in cans, so I had to break the routine of taking photos of bottles. It tastes like a pale ale, but it tastes a lot like pale ale, and I mean that the taste is really strong. Which is absolutely a good thing. There was a really bitter after taste that left you wanting more. There's nothing much else I can say, except that I really enjoyed it. And thank you to Arttu for photobombing this picture.

Piraat (Belgium)

Arrrrrrreally powerful beer, you can always trust the Belgians for that. This was my first beer of the evening and it made my legs wobbly. It had a sweet taste, which really hid the alcohol content well. Shiver me timbers, and all that.

Plevna Imperial Stout Siperia (Finland)

I thought this blog needed some more sexy, so here's a picture of me having a drink of this great beer. During my trip to Tampere, I had to stop off at the Plevna brewery/restaurant. Their beers are not bottled or canned, so there are very few places in the world where you can actually buy this. I really liked the Siperia, it tasted like a slightly less bitter Irish stout, which made it so much better. This goes in to my top 3 beers from the book so far, along with the Anchor Porter and Paulaner Salvador. If you ever find yourself in Tampere, I really recommend that you go give this a try.

13th February 2012

Last week I had a rather expensive visit to a local pub, which has a wide variety of beers. Lucky me.

Brother Thelonious (USA)

Do not adjust your screen, it's just a really terrible picture. A terrible picture of a not so terrible beer. After the first sip of this I thought it was disgusting, it tasted a bit like Old Spice aftershave. But the more I drank it, the more I started to like it. It's a Belgian style ale with a lot of flavour, and once your tastebuds get used to it, it really is rather good-

Pauwel Kwak (Belgium)

I think it's nice that the people at Pauwel brewery decided to name this beer after the sound your arse will make the morning after drinking it. The fancy glass makes it look like this beer was created in a chemistry laboratory, and if it was, they were probably experimenting with red wine and digestive biscuits. And Seppo, the strange man who started talking to me in the gents', also approves of this beer. 

Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale (England)

And completing the trio of god awful photographs (I will start to use a proper camera, I promise) we have a slightly misleading "strong" ale. It was neither strong in taste nor alcohol content. Apparently the word strong has a different meaning in Suffolk. This is a blend of two different beers, and they have been mixed well to make a nice, but not extraordinary, ale.

6th February 2012

 Another basic weekend filled with new beers and lots of Football Manager 2012. Makes you happy to be a bloke.

Our Special Ale (USA)

The Anchor Porter was one of my favourite beers from the book so far, so I was really looking forward to this one, and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. This is Anchor Brewery's Christmas beer, but I don't understand what was so Christmassy about it, it's not even a Christmas tree on the bottle. They could sell this all year round and I would happily buy it any time.

Timmermans Framboise Lambic (Belgium)

I'm starting to think that Belgians don't really like beer, they try to make it taste like anything else. This one tastes like raspberries. It's not as nice as the cherry one I had a couple of weeks ago, but still quite nice. It tastes more like a cider than a beer though.

Fuller's ESB (England)

In case you were wondering, ESB stands for "Extra Special Beer". In my opinion it would need to be a bit better to earn that name. It is good, but no better than any of the other Fuller's beer. But I guess "Extra Normal Beer" wouldn't sell so well.

***BONUS BEER***

Redback Original Wheat (Australia)

This one isn't in the book. But I felt I should include it here because my lovely girlfriend had it shipped over all the way from the land down under for me. As the name suggests, it's a wheat beer, which I usually don't like so much. But this was more like a lager and the wheat taste didn't attack my taste buds like one of those angry kangaroos with boxing gloves on. Instead it was more gentle, like a half-asleep koala. I liked this a lot.