27th May 2013

Beer season has arrived in Finland. The weather has been amazing, and I really must force myself to do a bit more gardening. With a couple of bottles to help with inspiration, obviously.

Bishops Finger (England)

There are quite a few of these British red ales in the book, and they all seem pretty similar to me. This one is named after every pre-teen Catholic's worst nightmare, and is just too similar to the others for me to make any noteworthy comment. It's nice, but a little plain. However, after drinking sour beers and stuff that tastes like cherries, sometimes "plain" is exactly what you want.

Voll-Damm (Spain)

This is the Spaniards proving that they can do something other than play pretty football. This was a surprise for me, even though I had a cold when I drank this, I could definitely tell was a powerful beer. It was bitter and a little bit mediciney. Definitely better than that San Miguel rubbish they keep exporting.

20th May 2013

Last weekend was the Eurovision Song Contest, so we had a party to watch some men and women dressed as Christmas trees sing on the TV. So to pay homage to that glittering array of campness, I decided to review a couple of beers from two of Europe's powerhouse beer countries.

Hacker-Pschorr Weisse (Germany)

Oh no. I had started to like wheat beers, but I think this one was just a bit too wheaty for me. The taste reminded of a time a few years ago when I mowed the lawn at my mum's house, and left a pile of wet grass to rot for a couple of weeks. It smells and tastes like it might have been poisonous. But I'm still alive, and only one piss smelled like corn flakes.

St. Bernardus Wit (Belgium)

This one looks like Fanta, tastes a little bit like orangey too. It's also girlfriend-proof, because she doesn't like it. And I can definitely understand why. One time I accidentally drank some orange juice that had gone about a month passed its use by date (I had wondered why it was fizzy, but paid it no further mind) The taste was such a shock that I almost vomited, but managed to restrict it to a few minutes of dry-heaving. This brought that traumatuc experience back to me.Having said all that, the rapping pope on the bottle might like this beer. Although you probably won't.

13th May 2013

I experienced all the fun of the fair over the weekend. And now, as I type, I'm suffering from a stiff neck thanks to some contraption that spun me round at an unnatural rate. Thankfully that's over for another year, until I will undoubtedly subject myself to that again.

Galway Hooker (Ireland)

No, it's not named after that, get your mind out the gutter. The name comes from some rather boring boat story, unfortunately. In Ireland, IPA apparently means Irish Pale Ale, and is probably made from potatoes and Lucky Charms. On the plus side, it was nice to come across an Irish beer that wasn't a stout. This beer goes to prove that they are capable of brewing other stuff too. Well done Paddy.

Brooklyn Lager (USA)

Let's face it, lager is not the most exciting type of beer in the world. Which is probably why I delayed drinking this, and so it sat in a cupboard in my kitchen until I happened to notice it had gone two months past its best before date. I'm not sure it made too much difference, but I do regret not drinking it sooner. It was like a regular lager, only much better, and I can't put my finger on what the difference is. Maybe it's the quality that you can taste, and the fact that care has been taken to produce this. It was a very pleasant surprise for me, because I really wasn't expecting from a lager.

6th May 2013

My nerves have finally calmed down after a weekend of sports-related excitement (my football team, Barnsley, survived a rollercoaster afternoon) I'm ready to get on with the serious business of blog writing. Especially after I just noticed that I forgot to write it at all last week. Sorry about that.

Also, I now feel like having a change in font. Trebuchet is the future.

Punk IPA (Scotland)

I'm mad about IPAs. I love the bitterness and sharpness and slight citric flavour. So just because this is an IPA, it moves automatically in to my favourite top 50% of the beers I've tried so far. Although it's not really near to the best in class, simply because the yanks have some kind of magical power when it comes to making pale ales. I have to hand it to Brewdog though, this is definitely the best British IPA.

Boont Amber Ale (USA)

Anderson Valley has been voted the best brewery in the world a couple of times, apparently. And this Amber Ale was the first ever beer brewed there. I have to say that I don't get the appreciation. This is a good beer, a very good beer, in fact. But best brewery in the world? Granted, I haven't tried any of their other beers, but I was expecting something magnificent, and this just didn't quite live up to expectation. Like I said, a nice beer with a little bit of sweetness, but not too much, and nice for a quiet afternoon session, but this would never become my "usual".