14
Apr
11
Examiner.com
19
Feb
11
South Africa
So I recently returned from a 15 day trip to South Africa! It was a great trip and of course I had a few beers. Unfortunately there are too many main stream lagers but they are actually brewing some intresting beers with lots of British influence too.
One of the most fascinating things is that the Xosha tribe has been brewing beer for hundreds of years. In fact, it is such a part of their lives that they have constructed beer gardens outside their homes! They have structures that look like corrals where only men are allowed to enter and it is specifically designed for beer drinking! How awesome is that!? Unfortunately due to flooding our trip to the Xosha village was cancelled so I was unable to try the beer but I did get a pic if a beer garden!
I was also able to get into a small brewery called Mitchell’s. The beer was pretty decent and they had 4 varieties. A lager, a bitter, a scottish ale and a milk stout. The best of course was the bitter. However it only had 3.6% alcohol. Well below the 6-7% beers I’m used to drinking the states. Upon further investigation I learned that this is because it costs more in taxes if it has higher alcohol. I was also told this is also the case in the UK.
When most people think of South Africa they think of wine. Not that they don’t do great wine, but it is increasingly becoming known as a beer destination. Should you ever go and want to explore on of the beer routes here is a link :http://www.kzn.org.za/index.php?beerroute.
It took a long time but I finally did it. I shelled out over $15 for a bottle of beer. For most people this would be an opportunity to enjoy a fine meal with a nice high class bottle of beer, a Belgium sour called La Folie. Of course I bought it so I could create the ultimate food and beer pairing. Possibly a nice roasted duck? A seared halibut? A leg of lamb? Screw that! I was thinking a little more high class. How about……Sour Patch Kids! Yep, that’s right….Sour Patch Kids!
For those of you not familiar with sour beers let me be the first to tell you that you’re really missing the boat here. These are truly outstanding versatile beers. New Belgium has created a line up of beers under the title, Lips of Faith. La Folie falls into this group and is classified as a brown sour ale. It is aged in oak barrels for 1-3 years before it is bottled. They only make limited quantities so this is a very special beer.
On Thursday night I sat down with Dan Lux from the Brewdork Times and we put our taste buds to the test. Not only did we have Sour Patch Kids but we had some manchego cheese along with other bites. When we were ready we ate the Sour Patch Kids and drank the beer. After multiple attempts we decided it was kind of like the tequila version of lick it, slam it, suck it. Eat a sour patch kid, take a sip, then eat another. Eat, drink it,eat it. As weird as it sounds the sour patch kids really made the flavor of the beer pop! It was as if it jumpstarted your tastebuds. Hell, it made Dan Lux’s eyes twitch! When we ate the cheese the beer took on a completely different flavor. It just wasn’t nearly the same.
If you haven’t already guessed this beer is sour! Think of sour cherries or sour apples soaked in vinegar. You can definitely taste the dark fruits such as cherry, plum and prune. It also has a bit of a vinegar taste although that’s probably more because of the smell. You notice a vinegar smell right away on the nose along with the presence of the dark fruits too. It almost a bit like an apple vinegar. To me sours are very complex beers and it’s extremely easy to mess them up. I have had many bad ones. This wasn’t one of them. It was very well balanced and danced all over my palate. It’s such a treat to try a beer that is truly different. Think of a nice champagne or even a cider. It is a much more complex version of these but it fits somewhere in that realm. This is a great beer for people who think they don’t like beer too! Give it a try. I highly recommend it!
I rate this beer on the following scale; Taste- 9, Aroma- 10, Complexity-10, balance-8
Overall 9.25
21
Oct
10
Beer Bloggers conference
The Beer Bloggers Conference in Boulder Colorado is right around the corner! It’s not too late to register even if you’re not a beer blogger. Check it out at http://beerbloggersconference.org/
24
Sep
10
Andechs monastery
In an effort to break up 5 straight days of drinking non stop at Oktoberfest, we decided to get outside the city and see Andechs monastery where the monks started brewing beer hundreds of years ago.. It’s about a 50 minute train ride outside Munich and it couldn’t be in a prettier place. I can’t think of a better day trip if you’re ever in Munich.
The monastery complex is huge and you can spend an entire afternoon walking around and enjoying the beer gardens. They have several different types of beer and the doppelbock is fantastic. They even have a mini golf course below the monastery. So of course….what do we do? Yep, go play mini golf with a beer in hand! Who else can say they played mini golf at a moastery! Been there, done that!
After a beautiful day (and several beers later) we returned to the city. It was a great break from Oktoberfest but who were we fooling when we thought we might go easy on the beer!
22
Sep
10
Oktoberfest
After spending a couple of great days in London we finally arrived in Munich ready to celebrate the 200th anniversary in style! Having been to Oktoberfest in Stuttgart I had an idea of what to expect. The best way to describe what it’s like is to picture a state fair or carnival and add beer tents!
Each beer tent has its own unique style and most are named after breweries such as Hofbrau or Paulaner. After a brief stint in the Paulaner and Lowenbrau tents we ended up in the Hippodrom.
Each beer tent seats thousands of people. If you don’t have a reservation make sure and get there early enough to get a good spot. We got there around 2p and sat next to a group of people from Liverpool. One of the cool things is that you’re always sitting with a big group of people. All the steins are 1 liter and have a high alcohol %. After downing a few you inevitable find yourself dancing on the benches. During the day it’s more traditional german music with tubas and accordians but at night it gets crazy. The bands play everything from Abba to John Denver and I’m sure there’s some David Hasselhof mixed in. Unfortunately the Hippodrom didn’t let us dance until 9p but when they did it was crazy! We met people from everywhere. Germany, New Zealand, Seattle and more. Picture 5000 people dancing on the benches and singing everything in drunk unison. It was great!
18
Aug
10
Highway to HELLES
So, its been a while since my last beer review. Although technical difficulties and a long vacation played a part I still have no excuses. Anyways, I’m back with avengance!
Today I am reviewing Charlie, Fred, and Ken’s Bock. This is the 2nd beer in the 30th anniversary commemorative series from Sierra Nevada. This is a beer close to my heart for the simple reason it’s Ken’s (one of Sierra Nevadas founders) collaboration with 2 homebrewing pioneers, Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhardt . Anyone who has ventured into homebrewing at some point should probably thank Charlie Papazian. His book The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is often referred to as the “home brewers bible.” Fred Eckahrd was also a true pioneer with his books on homebrewing and inspired many to venture into beer making. As a fellow homebrewer I an extremely excited to review this beer!
Charlie, Fred, and Ken’s Bock is an Imperial Helles Bock. This means that it’s a sweeter, darker lager. It pours a beautiful copper color. It has a nice sweet malty and apple aroma. It definitely has a sweet flavor, almost too sweet. The hops help balance this beer out as it has a crisp hoppy aftertaste but many hop heads may be disappointed.
All in all I think this is a very good beer but you need to be careful with it. On the wrong night it can be too sweet but with the right food it will be outstanding. One agin I cannot stress enough that good beer should be complemented with food. I can imagine drinking this with a nice pork mole.
I rate this beer on the following scale – 7.5/10 taste, 7.5/10 complexity, 8/10 aroma, and 7/10 balance. That gives this one a 7.5 overall.
16
Aug
10
Where are all my posts lately?
Unfortunately I had my camera and computer stolen! Hopefully I’ll get things back on track soon as I have 3 beer reviews to post!
I’m sure it would come as no surprise to tell you Spain isn’t really renowned for its beer. In fact, I might be the first person to actually write something about Spanish beer outside of Spain. Obviously there is a good reason for that. Spain makes some of the best wine in the world. Unfortunately I can’t really say the thing about their beer. Against my better judgement however, I bypassed my annual trip to a nice Spanish vineyard and went to the Mahou brewery just outside of Madrid.
Mahou has their largest brewing facility about 30-45 minutes outside of Madrid. In fact it is the 2nd largest brewery behind Heineken in all of Europe! The facility itself is pretty impressive but don’t expect the same thing you’d find if you were touring Heineken or Guiness for that matter. They have definitely gone out of their way to put together a tour but it pales in comparison to its counterparts. It consists of a brief history of the Mahou family and a trip back in time to a monastery to trace the roots of beer. After that you get to see the bottling line and other parts of the facility finishing up in the tasting room.
The tasting room is the real highlight as they give you food. You can pretty much skip the beer (half joking of course) as it sucks. They only have 4 beers with the best being the dark beer. Unfortunately it’s just too sweet for me. The tasting room is huge and I have no idea why it’s so big as it seats like 300 people and is out in the middle of nowhere.
All in all it was worth it because it’s free and they give you some nice glasses, but if you had to choose between the Mahou brewery and going to a winery in Spain I would definitely go to the winery. The wine is fantastic but the beer leaves something to be desired.
On our final full day in San Diego we went to Pizza Port in Carlsbad and then the original in Solanoa Beach. These places are a lot different than the breweries that we went to, because they are brew pubs (no bottling, just draft mostly consumed on the premises). Picture a giant family pizza restaurant that brews world class beer. In 2009 they won a staggering 9 medals at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival and Pizza Port Carlsbad was named Large Brewpub of the Year. This is the type of place you would go to after a softball game or in San Diego an Over the Line (OTL) game, for a pitcher of beer and a pizza. If you’ve never been to The OTL tournament held in San Diego every July, you’ve missed one of San Diego’s biggest social events. The team names are hilarious and the girl’s teams especially try to come up with the filthiest names imaginable.
There are now 4 Pizza Port locations and of course the Port Brewing brewery in San Marcos. The newest addition just opened in May in Ocean Beach, putting them right in heart of San Diego. The original location in Solana Beach opened in 1987 and started brewing beer in 1992. After much success, the Carlsbad location was opened in 1997. Both locations are close to the beach and we took advantage in Carlsbad and went down there for a nice rest. One of the cool things about all of the locations is that they compete against each other to see who can produce the best beer, as evidenced by their 9 medals at GABF.
