27th August 2012

This blog seems to be getting more and more popular, with people from all over the world tuning in to read my amateur thoughts on great beers. Welcome to all of you. If you like the blog, please refer it to others whom you think will be interested. And feel free to like the blog's Facebook page.

Maredsous 8 (Belgium)

This weirdly bitter wheat beer had me a bit confused. At first I thought it was a little bit horrible, which isn't uncommon for me with wheat beers, but the more I drank, the more I liked it. It isn't as strong as Belgians usually are, which made it great for daytime drinking, while we were escaping the Great British rainy summer. Overall, not a bad beer. Cool chalice-like glass too.

Black Sheep Ale (England)

This is the beer that got me interested in real ale as a teenager. I remember stopping in a pub in the middle of nowhere and ordering a beer that I'd never heard of, which went on to become my favourite beer for several years. It still tastes as good now as it did back then. A great bitter which the British do so well.

20th August 2012

The start of the English football season was finally upon us over the weekend.  I almost feel sorry for my girlfriend, given the amount of football she will have to watch/listen to/hear about.

Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout (Norway)

Well I wasn't expecting this to be so good. I've had one Norwegian beer before and I didn't think much of it. But this is probably the second best stout I've had so far, after the Finnish Plevna Siperia. It's great that someone took time away from cross-country skiing to make this great beer. It is a bit of a shame that not many people will know how to order this as they won't know how to say Ø.

Old Crustacean (USA)

You'll have to accept this slightly rubbish picture of a beer tap as proof that I drank this beer. It's a barley wine style beer, which probably means something, I will check Wikipedia a bit later to find out what. I did rather like this though, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and it was slightly more sweet than the beers I would usually go for. Although it is a good beer, and I know a lot of people would like it.

13th August 2012

I've been celebrating a fine performance by Team GB in the Olympics. Well done. Now, if only they would add beer-tasting to the competition, I'd be willing to give my all for Queen and country.

JHB (England)

This is named after some medieval midget who used to Entertain an old King. And this beer certainly entertained me. A very nice bitter ale with a sharp taste that was great to drink after a summer barbecue.

Grolsch (Netherlands)

In Britain, Grolsch is classed as a fairly standard beer, lining up on supermarket shelves between the Carlsberg and Fosters. The difference is, though, that this is so much better than either of those. As lagers go, this is up there with the best. Which makes me wonder why this isn't as popular around the world as those that I mentioned above. It's baffling.

6th August 2012

It's been a great week watching the Olympics. Sometimes you just have to be proud to be British. But enough boasting, it's time for this week's duo of beers. Don't forget to click here to like this blog on Facebook.

Kirin Ichiban (Japan)

"Beer at its purest" claims the label. Which got me wondering, what does absolute pure beer taste like? If this is an example of it, then it's a mild tasting, slightly sweet summer drink. And it's not bad at all. 

XX Bitter (Belgium)

A quick word of advice: Pour this slowly. I tried to pour this regularly and ended up with a glass full of foam that I had to wait about twenty minutes for. So, was it worth the wait? Sort of. The first thing I noticed when I opened it was the smell, it smells delicious. But the taste didn't quite live up to that. Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't a bad beer, it was actually very nice, and the name is very appropriate: it is rather bitter.

30th July 2012

The first major landmark, one hundred beers have now been drank. To celebrate the occasion I've done something unthinkable... I've let a woman drink my beer. Here you'll get a review from my lovely fiancé, Tiia, as well as from myself. Enjoy.

Sinebrychoff Porter (Finland)

Michael:

I wanted my first milestone beer to be one from the country that I love. The only Finnish beer left in the book was this one. And for a porter, this is actually rather boring. There's just not enough power in the taste. Although that might be a blessing in disguise, because the taste I did get was slightly metallic. If the taste had been any stronger it might have felt like I was drinking mercury.

Tiia:

When I saw him bringing this my first word was "NOOOOO!". I hate dark beer, do I really have to drink that? But it's Koff, it can't be that bad. And it's not that bad. This is the very first dark beer I'm able to drink (actually I didn't have a choice, "you'll have to drink all of this", he said, I'm wondering if he's trying to get me drunk). There was a weird bitter taste at the end, but it didn't bother me. I'm so proud of myself that I drank this. It's an easy to drink beer for females who are afraid of weird beers, which is everything except lager.

3 Monts (France)

Michael:

Trust the French to create a beer that you need a corkscrew to open. It didn't really taste like much, but the aftertaste was rather strange, a bit like you're drinking something much stronger. Like bleach. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. Maybe it's a good thing that I gave half of it to the missus.

Tiia:

This had a mild taste at the start, but the aftertaste was like a cat had peed in my throat, which made me want to drink more of the stuff to get rid of the taste from my mouth. It didn't really smell like anything, which was good because then I wasn't afraid to drink it. Towards the end the cat pee taste didn't bother me... well, maybe a bit.