24th September 2012

I can't think of anything to put as an introduction this week. So this will have to do. 

Racer 5 (USA)

If you can ignore the cheesy American bullcrap printed on the side of the bottle ("...the next generation of IPA. Racer 5 Go Go...") you will find an excellent beer. I found this in what must have been the world's loudest pub, in London. It would have been nice to drink this slowly, but because I wanted to leave before deafness struck, I had to down this quite fast. Didn't really make a difference to my opinion of it though. It was great.

Guinness Foreign Extra (Ireland)

There are three different types of Guinness in the book. And this must be the bigger, more psychotic brother of the family. It tastes almost the same as regular Guinness, only a little bit more boozy, which is understandable, as it's 7.4%. There was also a slightly smoky aftertaste, which I didn't like too much either. The big brother is slightly inferior to it's little sibling.

17th September 2012

Quite a nice weekend, which included football, birthday cake and, of course, beer. Here is this week's selection.

Coopers Sparkling Ale (Australia)

Luckily I read about this beer from the book before I drank it. It suggested that I roll the bottle before pouring, which would get rid of that massive blob of yeast you can see at the bottom of the bottle. This beer looked disgusting, like I'd just dunked my glass in to Australia's dirtiest river (probably called Chuzblahbawonga river). The taste however was like a rather nice lager. And I understand where the sparkling name comes from too, drinking this was like eating a packet of pop rocks.

St. Peter's Cream Stout (England)

Very smooth stout, which is probably what a cream stout should be like, I guess. The taste is quite tame for a stout, which would be great for those out there who are new to dark beers but want to give them a try, this would be an excellent starting point. Not the best stout I've had, but definitely not the worst either.

10th September 2012

After a weekend of crazy running activity, I was in the mood for a few beers, unfortunately my stomach wasn't, so here are a couple of beers that I drank a while back, which haven't made it on to the blog yet...

Efes (Turkey)

A rather good effort from Turkey. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad beer. It's better than a lot of beers, but there was nothing to really make it stand out from the crowd following some of the great beers I've had whilst doing this blog. Would be nice to be drinking this on a beach somewhere. Or maybe with a kebab.

Summer Lightning (England)

This is another beer that is more suitable to summer drinking, which makes the name rather appropriate. However, I drank this on a not so warm autumn day in Finland. It's still really good though, made me want to go out to a beer garden somewhere to drink a few more. Apparently this beer as won "over 70 awards", I never knew there were so many awards a beer could win. And I probably wouldn't give it that many. Maybe one.

3rd September 2012

So autumn crept up on us while I was still waiting for the summer to start. Not to worry though, here's a couple of great beers that will be sure to cheer you up... If you drink them. By the way, anyone who understands the beer counter picture on the right wins a prize*. 

*Prize may not exist.

Blue Moon (USA)

I had this a while back while I was on holiday in London. It was served in a generic glass, so again, you will have to make do with a photo of a beer tap. When I saw the barmaid put a slice of orange in this, I wondered what the bloody hell she was doing. But when I tasted it I understood. The beer was quite citric anyway, and the extra hint of orange made it the perfect summer beer, very sharp and crisp in taste. This one would head straight in to my top five, if I could remember what my top five list was...

Schiehallion (Scotland)

Thank god I have that picture there, otherwise I would never have been able to spell that, and don't ask me to pronounce it. Beers like this are the reason why lager is so popular around the world. Or at least it should be. It tastes more like a pale ale than a lager, which is definitely a plus for me, lagers tend to be flavourless and boring, but this one really packs some taste in to the bottle. This is from the same brewery as the amazing Ola Dubh and I'm beginning to see a pattern. This is a quality brewery.