19th May 2014

Welcome to another edition of my blog. It's getting easier to write it now, since I have more excuse to drink with the weather being so nice. I even had the opportunity to dust off the barbecue over the weekend. A word of warning though, next week's edition will be late, probably by a couple of days. But let's worry about that later.

Schneide Weisse Unser Aventinus (Germany)

This wasn't the worst wheat beer I've had, nor was it the best. The darkness surprised me a little, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But what I got was a rather nice beer that was very easy to drink. Even while I was watching some horror movie. If I gave beers scores out of ten (which I should have done from the start) then this would be a solid 6.

Bourbon County (USA)

As you may guess from the name, this stout is conditioned in bourbon barrels. Which gives it a bit more power in the taste, almost tastes a little like a red wine. It's also 15%, which reminded me of the Mikkeller Black I had a while back in terms of power of flavour and effects. This was so strong that it took me almost an hour and a half to drink it. But I'm glad I did, it was delicious.

12th May 2014

After a weekend of drunken Eurovision nonsense beer couldn't be further from my mind. But I'm determined to keep going. Another thing I've noticed is that I need to organise my notes and photos better, I've just spent an hour looking through my computer for a photo of a beer that I know I've drunk, but may have to buy another one just to get a picture. The lengths I go to for you folks...

Stouterik (Belgium)

Europeans don't generally make much stout, and after trying this you have to wonder why that is. This Belgian effort is really good. It isn't as strong as some of the imperial ones, but the taste is up there with the best of them. It also makes a nice change for the Belgians to make some normal beer, rather than making some insanely strong weirdness out of wheat and pears, or some such.

Old Stock Ale (USA)

Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Although I expected nothing else from an ale that weighs in at 11.7%. It's a strange one because it looks like a regular red ale. But they cranked the volume up to 11 on it. So it definitely packs a wallop, both in terms of flavour and the effect it will have on your thought process.

7th May 2014

Welcome to another edition of the blog. Nothing really to report in my intro this week, so let's get right to it...

La Trappe Dubbel (Netherlands)

As you can see, another beer I had over Christmas which is only just finding its way on to these pages. When I poured this I did so much too quickly, and the foam threatened to flow all over my kitchen. So the first taste I got from this was of the head, which tasted like some weird honey cake. The actual beer part doesn't taste like cake. I've always wondered why the Belgians make great beer, and the Dutch make... well, Heineken. This beer proves that the Dutch can do it just as well.

Fuller's Golden Pride (England)

Fuller's claim on the label that this is their finest beer. And you know what? I think they may have a point. This is a great strong ale, a nice beer to beer to drink in the evening while watching your favourite detective series (Columbo, by the way). It definitely tastes strong, and a little bit boozy, so don't go drinking too much of it in a hurry.