4th February 2013

So January is over, and now I can drink again. Technically I could still drink during January but I chose not to and I'm quite proud of the achievement. But to be honest, I missed sitting down on a Friday evening after work with a carefully chosen bottle of some wonderful craft beer. Let the good times roll from now on.

Duvel (Belgium)

I wanted my first beer after my self-inflicted prohibition to be something a bit special. This ticked all the boxes for everything I wanted to drink, strong, pale and fresh. It seems to be quite a popular choice too, at least among the people on Twitter, and it's easy to see why. The strength (9.5%) is well hidden, which could be dangerous if you're not careful. But this would be a good starter beer for those who are only comfortable drinking lager, but would like to become a bit more adventurous with beer. For example women and children. The taste isn't overly powerful, but several times better than that can of Carlsberg you're holding.

28th January 2013

Next weekend will already be February, meaning I will be able to enjoy beer again. I'm looking forward to it, maybe I have to create some kind of ceremony. Don't forget to follow on Twitter and like the blog on Facebook

Espresso (England)

Adding coffee to beer seems like such a brilliant concept, especially on a night out. While the beer makes you sleepy, the coffee perks you up. Sort of like a less disgusting vodka/Red Bull. It could also work as a hangover pick-me-up. It has other advantages too, the taste being the biggest of these. If you like strong tasting dark beers then you should definitely give this a try. The coffee taste isn't overpowering, but gives the beer a sharp edge, which makes it all the more delicious.

21st January 2013

This hasn't been an easy week for me. I gave up smoking five days ago, so my weekend was filled with anger, withdrawal symptoms and a lot of lollipops. But so far so good. They say that my sense of taste should improve, so my reviews of these beers might be a little more accurate.

Stone IPA (USA)

Sometimes deciding to stop in for a quick drink to escape the weather when you're walking past a pub can be a great idea. We found a nice little pub in Helsinki where I found this very nice beer. Stone brewery are really confident in the beers they produce, and with very good reason. Hoppy and strong-flavoured, this is exactly the kind of beer that I've grown to love during my voyage through this book. 

14th January 2013

Following the advice of a friend, I've created a Twitter page for the blog. @1001beerquest if you want to follow what I get up to. I'll try to post stuff there, if I can figure out what the bloody hell I'm doing on there. 140 characters seems a little bit short for me, so maybe I need to learn some teenage text speak... roflwtfzomgtbx. Or something. Also, don't forget the Facebook page.

Brugse Zot (Belgium)

Whenever I go to the pub, I always make sure I have a piece of paper and a pen with me, just in case I find a beer from my book. Unfortunately, living with a woman forces me to clean sometimes, and it would appear that I've thrown away my notes for this beer. But here is a picture as proof that I did indeed drink it. So there's no review this week, just a picture of a beer and me saying "I drank this beer, but I don't remember what it was like." I do remember that I liked it, but other than that... The glass was nice too. 

To be honest, I'm almost at 150 beers, and only one missing photo and now one set of notes is not a bad record for me. 

7th January 2013

Welcome to the first blog update of 2013. Because of the New Year, I'm going to introduce a new format to the blog; I will review only one beer per week from now on. This is to increase the longevity of the blog, as my stash is running quite low and the beers are getting more and more difficult to find.

In other news, I've given up alcohol for the month of January. But don't worry, I have enough reviews of beers that I've already drank to see me through until February

Juniper Pale Ale (USA)

I always get excited when I find these little known (to me, at least) American beers. Not only because they're hard to find, but also because they're usually amazing. This one kind of bucks the trend though, it just wasn't that great. To  be honest, I'm not sure what juniper tastes like, but I didn't get any special flavour from this. It just tasted like an average IPA. But still, it was hard to find, I found it, now I can cross it off the list and move on.

17th December 2012

I was in Helsinki last weekend watching a rather excellent performance by Muse. While I was there I managed to find a few beers to keep the blog ticking over the festive period. 

Also, since next Monday is Christmas eve, there will be no blog next week. Because I know nobody will bother reading it anyway. And the week after that is New Year's eve, so I won't be writing then either. 

So I will take this opportunity to say: Merry Christmas readers. See you all in the new year.

Coconut Porter (USA)

This was one of the beers that I most looked forward to trying after flicking through the book the first time. And after all the expectation I was left a little disappointed. The coconut taste is slight, and although I wouldn't want to taste like I was drinking a can of Malibu, I would have liked it to be a bit more obvious. The porter itself is actually quite good. I was just expecting more.

Eggenberg Pale Lager (Czech Republic)

Another strange brew from the chaps at the Eggenberg brewery. This pale lager didn't really taste like a lager at all, more like a wheat beer, which didn't sit well with me. Definitely not one of my favourite Czech beers, in fact, probably my least favourite so far. It even smelled weird. The Dark Version was one of the first beers I had from the book, and was much better.

3rd December 2012

This weekend saw my girlfriend add to her previous age, poor thing. Congratulations to her, though. And I'll be taking a break from blogging next week, as I'll be in Helsinki watching Muse. Hopefully I'll be able to find a few beers from the book while I'm down there.

Celebrator (Germany)

The things I do for you people, and this blog... After suffering from a two-day hangover brought on by the missus' birthday party, I was still one beer short of being able to update this page. So I soldiered on and chose to drink this on Monday evening. When I poured it I was frightened. Frightened that this 6.7% dark beer would make my stomach's somersaults even more vigorous. But strangely it had the opposite effect on me. It was smooth and light, but delicious, and made me glad I risked it. 

Budějovický Budvar (Czech Republic)

When I was younger this was my beer of choice, I would drink it in the pub whenever I could find it. Unfortunately, after trying all the IPAs and other stronger tasting beers, this doesn't have the same appeal to me any more. I do still like, and I definitely favour this over the Carlsbergs of this world, but it wouldn't be near the top of list. Brings back some fond memories, though.