The Beer Hunter - gone but not forgotten

August 24, 2008

The Beer Hunter - gone but not forgotten

August 30th marks the first anniversary of the passing of Michael Jackson - ‘The Beer Hunter‘. NOT to be confused with any other Michael Jackson with other leisure preferences.

Michael was probably best know in the USA for his ‘Beer Hunter’ Television Series (on the Discovery Channel I think) and for his various books, both on the subject of Beer, and on Malt Whisky. Check your favourite online bookstore or auction site.

He was probably the person most responsible for raising awareness of the different types of beer that are available worldwide. A veritable encyclopedia of Beer and Brewing from Ale to Zymurgy, Michael was a champion of the US microbrewery movement and was a regular speaker at US Beer festivals and conventions. He used to relate a tale of a microbrewers convention in California where he was invited to taste a ’special’ India Pale Ale, and he commented on a distinctive, but not unpleasant flavour. The hobbyist brewer explained that he’d run out of hops, but on checking his encyclopedia of plants, discovered that Marijuana is a close relative of the hop, so he’d used that!

Some observers have suggested that some more unusual brewing styles (such as Belgian ‘Lambic’ beers - which rely on ‘wild’ yeast and spontaneous fermentation) would have died out completely were it not for Michael’s informed, yet passionate support.

Michael was a journalist by profession, his first job was for a local newspaper in Tadcaster, Yorkshire. At the tutored tasting I attended, he explained that at lunchtime on his first day he was taken from the newspaper offices to the pub next door. Not just any pub, this was the ‘brewery tap’ for Samuel Smith’s famous Tadcaster brewery. He started the tasting with a pint of ‘Sammy Smiths’ explaining that this was a classic Yorkshire Bitter, and a s good as it gets.

In 1991 he famously observed  “No one goes into a restaurant and requests ‘a plate of food, please’. People do not simply ask for ‘a glass of wine’, without specifying, at the very least, whether they fancy red or white, dry or sweet, perhaps sparkling or still … beer is by far the more extensively consumed, but less adequately honoured. In a small way, I want to help put right that injustice.”

I was fortunate enough to meet Michael a few times, once a tutored tasting where he turned up with about a dozen beers for a crowd of us to taste and appreciate, and on another occasion when I visited him at home with a view to trying to preserve ‘Staropramen’ the Czech pilsner beer - that’s a story for another day.

In later years Michael suffered from Diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease and it was a source of embarrassment to him that it was Parkinson’s and not his drinking that caused his voice to slur. He died from a heart attack at home in Hammersmith, West London on August 30th 2007.

So, if you find yourself on August 30th with a beer that isn’t one of the mass produced fizzy pale lagers (and you know the brands I mean) then please raise a silent toast to the passing of the man who more than anyone else, promoted the art and craft of beer making… and drinking!

Bob the Brit

Posted in Other Stuff, Views from a Brit 1 Comment »

Hoegaarden Witbier Reviewed

August 22, 2008

We’ve been on a bit of a Wheat beer kick as of late here at The Brew Club!  We’ve had several wheat beers that have covered the spectrum of ratings from GREAT to eh.  This review is of the famous Hoegaarden Belgian White Beer.

This beer is unfiltered, and one can see that the very moment it is poured into a glass.  It is a  light straw color, and the head is large and foamy creating a good amount of lacing on the glass.  It is not overly carbonated.    The beer is translucent - you can not see through it, but what you can see is an interesting little show of cloudy swirls of whatever stuff is in the beer!  It’s an interesting effect actually - almost atmospheric!  If you hold the glass up to the light, you will see what I’m talking about quite easily.

The smell of this beer is different than the other wheat beers that also claim the “orange and spices” on the ingredient list.  One of the spices in the Hoegaarden Beer is coriander, and although the label suggests only a “hint” of this spice in the beer, my feeling is that it dominates the smell (and taste) overall.  The Hoegaarden beer has some citrus overtones, but the “spice” is definitely stronger than the “orange” in this equation.

After trying to analyze the smell, tasting it was less of a surprise than I might have guessed.  As the coriander seemed to dominate the smell of the Hoegaarden Witbier, so did it in the taste department as well.  The beer has a medium kind of body, not that heavy, and it is rather wholesome and warm tasting, probably as a result of the spices in the mix.  This might even be a good wheat beer for those colder times of the year, as it leaves a warm afterglow in your mouth.

Generally speaking, I thought this was a good beer, but the spices are just a litttle bit too much for my taste.  I think that the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat is still the best I’ve tried in this category, although if you are into this style of beer the Hoegaarden Witbier will not disappoint.

Rating:

Posted in 3 Star Reviews, All Brews Reviewed, European Beers, Wheat Beers 2 Comments »

Our First Contest - Free Prize!

August 17, 2008

The Brew Club is happy to announce our very first contest to coincide with the end of Summer and the closing of our very first poll - “What’s your favorite lime-flavored beer?”

With 53 votes, the top vote-getter was Corona with Lime, even though you have to add the lime yourself to the Corona to actually make it lime-flavored.  Corona was still able to defeat the new challenger to the lime-flavored beer scene, Bud Light Lime which had a respectable 49 supporters.

With that victory for Corona, we decided to run a little contest that our visitors can participate in and  have a chance to win a Officially Licensed Corona Flared High Ball Glass Set, compliments of our friends at www.awesomedeals911.com.

Here’s the contest. Please read carefully!

• The contest will start August 18 and end on August 29 at midnight EST.
• All you have to do to enter the contest is finish the following sentence by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post.  The comment should complete the following sentence

“Beer is my favorite drink because…..”

• At the close of the contest, The Brew Club members will review all of the submissions and the best answer will win the prize.  By “best” we kinda like funny, creative, whatever - but you are free to complete the sentence however you like.
• The winner will then be contacted via email. (please leave an email address in your comment!) We’ll obviously then need a mailing address to mail you the prize, but we’ll send you the prize free of charge - no strings attached!  That’s it!

We’ll post the winning entry, and maybe we’ll put up some of the runner-ups too.

So whadda’ say?  Simply finish this sentence “Beer is my favorite drink because…..” in the comment section down below, (click on the little “comments” link) and you could get a chance to win some free Corona gear!

Posted in Contests, Other Stuff 1 Comment »

Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss Beer Reviewed

August 15, 2008

The end of the Summer season has brought The Brew Club to exchange “Fruit-Flavored” beers and one of the beers selected for review was Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss.  Recently, we reviewed Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat, and it was a very good selection indeed!  How would this Berry flavored beer do in comparison?

The Berry Weiss, according to the label, is “…brewed with honey and flavored with Blackberry juice and other natural Berry flavors“.  Sounds, good, right?

Let me go over some of the things I liked about this beer.  It poured out smoothly into my glass and created a huge white head with the slightest of a pink color.  The foamy head took some time to go down, and it really left some good lacing on my glass.  It wasn’t carbonated - beside the very foamy head, there was no noticeable bubbles percolating up in the glass.

The Berry Weiss also had a noticeable berry-ish smell (makes sense, right?) that really dominated the aroma department.  It wasn’t over-the-top, but it was the thing I noticed most about it.  I didn’t really notice any scent of honey.

So, what about the taste?  Very much looking forward to trying this beer, I was actually a little disappointed in it considering how much I liked the Sunset Wheat that was reviewed earlier.  This is NOT a bad beer, it’s just a little too sweet for my personal taste.  Berry Weiss is smooth, not bitter or anything, but a little too sweet for me.  The mouthfeel is OK, more on the light side and a bit slick feeling - there’s no sting or bite of hops, but it leaves a bit of a sticky sweet aftertaste that I really didn’t like.  A little bit of honey comes through in the aftertaste, but it wasn’t really that noticeable.

So, if I knew someone who was into flavored beers, someone who wanted to try something a little less “beery” tasting, and maybe a little more “fruity” tasting, I would tell them to try this beer.  It’s certainly a quality brew - but unfortunately the Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss is just not up my alley.   A little too sweet for me.

I shrug my shoulders at it. Sorry.  Do you have a favorite berry-flavored beer?

Rating:

Posted in 2 Star Reviews, All Brews Reviewed, Flavored Beers, Wheat Beers 1 Comment »

The Great British Beer Festival 2008 - Pt 2

August 11, 2008

This is The Brew Club’s second report by “Bob the Brit” from the 2008 Great British Beer Festival. Enjoy!

At lunchtime in London on Friday August 8th, all eyes were focused on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. All eyes that is, except the several thousand people who were attending CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court, London !

As previously reported, this is the 31st GBBF and the third to be held at London’s Earl’s Court exhibition centre, just to the west of Central London. Earl’s Court is a massive barn of a place, built in the 1930’s covering nearly three acres; as such there’s plenty of room for what is, for the period of the GBBF, the world’s largest bar. Plenty of room for over four hundred beers and a great opportunity to stray from ones normal tipple and try something really different.

The GBBF is divided into a number of regional bars, so if your taste runs to Yorkshire Bitters, or Scottish Ales, then you know where to head. In addition a number of breweries run their own stands. There’s also ‘Bieres Sans Frontieres’ which showcases beers and lagers from around the world and Bar Nouveau which highlights newer breweries.

I met up with my son and his mate Paul; my son Gaz is in the RAF, and Paul left the RAF last years for a civilian aircraft maintenance role. Over the afternoon we sampled a number of fascinating beers, only halves you understand, and strictly for research purposes. These are the ones I remember making notes on:

‘Landlord’ (4.3%) Timothy Taylor - this is a classic british ale, and a personal yardstick. It’s a full bodied dark amber ale with a slightly nutty taste that distinguishes it from other bitters. I’d give this 5 stars every time and it’s a great beer to kick things off with, setting a high yardstick.

“Chocolate Cherry Mild” (3.8%) by Dunham Massey - a new micro brewery in Manchester. this won best beer at this summer’s Chelmsford Beer Festival. A classic, dark mild, The cherry and chocolate flavours came through nicely. I’d give this 4 stars, but if they were to brew the same flavour into a full bodied porter, then this would be a world beater.

“Clotworthy Dobbin” (5%) by Northern Ireland’s Whitewater brewery; I have no idea where the name came from - ‘Dobbin’ is a term often used to describe a cart-horse. This was a good, mid bodied dark ale, coming in at 3.5 - 4 stars. The same brewery’s “Solstice Ale” (4%) had a rich ruby colour, and was a classic bitter, again 3.5 - 4 stars.

“Eastern Spice” (4.5%) from Okells brewery on the Isle of Man was a bright, very pale bitter, which boasted flavours of Ginger, Coriander and Chilli. And it didn’t disappoint, the initial bitter taste brought with it the merest hint of ginger, followed by a strong coriander flavour, reminiscent of a classic wheat beer. I was wondering where the chilli had gone, but after a few minutes I noticed a slight tingle on my lips. This would be fantastic to go with Thai food, or maybe a midsummer barbecue. 4.5 stars.

Shepherd Neame from Faversham in Kent chose the GBBF to launch their new ‘Canterbury Jack’ (3.5%) ale, a pale hoppy ’session’ beer. They describe it as having citrus notes and the aroma of grapefruit, I found it insubstantial and unsatisfying. 2 stars.

I then decided to experiment with some darker beers…

“Comrade Bill Bartram’s Egalitarian Anti-Imperialistic Soviet Stout” (6.9%) - or just “Soviet” on the pump-clip from Bartram’s brewery in Suffolk - was, despite it’s socialistic protestations, a classic ‘Imperial’ stout. Full bodied, midnight dark and with a rich bitter chocolate flavour. At 6.9% this was deceptively dangerous, it didn’t taste as strong as it no doubt was, and one could easily find oneself far worse for wear than expected. 5 stars - no question.

“Bad Medicine” (6.3%) - by the Ulverston brewery in Cumbria was my discovery of the day, another rich, fully bodied porter, with a difference… this one tasted like it had a couple of shots of good espresso coffee added. Another 5 stars.

By now my palate was getting seriously jaded, and despite the Kangaroo burger I was starting to feel the effects, so I moved back to more mainstream beers, and concluded an enjoyable afternoon with a pint of
“Bombardier” (5.2%) by Charles Wells brewery is being marketed as ‘the beer of England’ and it’s another classic bitter, with a rich, dark copper colour and a fine hoppy taste. I finished the session as I’d started it, with a real classic. 5 stars.

All in all a great session that didn’t disappoint, I’ll be back next year!

Bob the Brit

Have you read part one of “Bob the Brit’s” review from the 2008 Great British Beer Festival?  You should!

Posted in European Beers, Other Reviews, Other Stuff, Views from a Brit 4 Comments »

San Miguel Dark Lager - A quicky review

August 8, 2008

One of the main problems I’ve come across since I started doing beer reviews for The Brew Club, is that I can’t really just sit down and chug a beer.  I always feel compelled to do “the” beer pour, wait the 10 minutes or so for the beer to lose that cold sting of the fridge, and try to turn my eyes, nose and tastebuds into beer-reviewing machines!

One one hand, its cool to sit and think about a beer in a more critical way, but on the other hand it takes a little of the spontaneity out of just enjoying a beer for the sake of it!

So tonight, I decided to try a “quicky” beer review.

Today’s quicky beer review.  San Miguel Dark Lager from the  Philippines!

Q.  How does San Miguel Dark Lager look?

• This beer is a very dark brown color and slightly cloudy.  When poured into the glass, it creates an enormous toasty-colored head that does fizzle out rather quickly.  It ends up with no foam head and no lacing on the glass.

Q.  How does this Philippino Beer smell?

• The San Miguel Dark smells more of  roasted malt than of hops, which is different for a lager (at least in my opinion)

Q.  OK, great.  How does it taste?

• Not bad!  It’s got a medium kind of mouthfeel, not too heavy, and not too light - and you can really get a taste of the malt flavors, and there’s also little bit of the hops that come through.  It’s smooth going down, and does not have any kind of bite, and only the slightest of a bitter aftertaste.

Q. Does it remind you of anything?

• This beer reminds me of the Negra Modelo in color, smell,  and somewhat in the taste.  The bottle is eerily similar also, but that could just be a conspiracy or something.  The San Miguel seems less carbonated though from what I remember.

Q. Would you buy San Miguel Dark Lager again, or recommend it to a friend?

• If I had friends, yes!  It is not a bad beer at all and I would pick it up again for myself.  San Miguel Dark is certainly not what one might expect from a Lager in the look, smell, or taste categories.  I’ve read reviews on San Miguel’s “regular” lager (the golden colored one) and that seems not-so-good, but this Dark Lager is alright in my book.

Q.  So what’s the verdict?

• San Miguel is an enjoyable beer that I think anyone might like.  While it doesn’t stand out as fabulous, it doesn’t do anything wrong either.  A perfect brew for turning off the brain and simply enjoying!

Rating:

Posted in 3 Star Reviews, All Brews Reviewed, Asian Beers No Comments »

Bob the Brit at the Great British Beer Festival

August 4, 2008

We’re very excited at The Brew Club to announce yet another first!  Our very first guest post from “Bob the Brit”, who if you can’t tell by his name, is from England where they oftentimes take a different view on Beers than we Americans do.

We look forward to hearing more from Bob the Brit, and hope that you do to!  This is also a reminder to all our visitors that we welcome guest posts from anyone who has an opinion about beer, and can write better than me!  (Who can’t?)  If you’d like to read more of Bob’s stuff, you can check out his blog.

Please welcome Bob the Brit!

The GBBF is now celebrating its 31st year, and from humble beginnings it is now a major event hosted at London’s Earls Court exhibition centre. Over 66,000 people attended the 2007 festival consuming some 350,000 pints of beer (that’s British pints too). This year’s festival boasts over 450 different British beers and over 200 foreign beers and lagers. I think that, for the duration of the festival it becomes the world’s largest pub.

The event is organised by Britain’s ‘Campaign for Real Ale’ (CAMRA) and while CAMRA was very parochial in its early days, almost exclusively promoting English Cask Ales, in recent years it has embraced other brewing heritages such as Lagers. There was some disquiet a few years ago when Budweiser Budvar first had a stand, but it’s now respected as a classic beer in its own right.

I always enjoy the ‘Bieres Sans Frontieres’ bar (Beers without Frontiers) which stocks a wide selection of beers from Europe, Asia and the USA, as such it provides an opportunity to sample a variety of brewing styles. My personal taste in beer is towards Lagers, but I love American speciality beers. I spent an really enjoyable couple of weeks working in Salt Lake City back in the mid nineties and enjoyed the beers there which were brewed for flavour rather than strength.

There are always surprises at the GBBF, last year it was ‘Lion Stout’ from Sri Lanka, a rich, dark stout with hints of liquorice in the flavour. But coming in at 8% ABV it needs to be treated with respect.

I will report back after Friday’s visit.

Bob the Brit

Read Part 2 of the Great British Beer Festival.

Posted in English Beers, Other Reviews, Other Stuff, Views from a Brit No Comments »

Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat Reviewed

August 1, 2008

I was happy to find during a recent Brew Club exchange that someone had picked out Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat!  I’d heard many good things about this Brewery’s products and I had also received several comments from visitors of to give it a try!

The Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat is a very cloudy, straw-colored brew that created a decent sized fizzy head in my glass.  This foamy head dissipated fast enough, and there wasn’t much in the manner of carbonation after that.

Sunset Wheat has a very different smell from other beers I’ve recently tried.  You can definitely pick up on the wheat and something of a sweet citrus smell as well.  Very nice.

When I first tasted this beer, I thought “wow - this is nice!”  It’s smooth in that there is no bitterness or bite, a little bit of the hops come through - and I could swear there is something orange going on in there!  I’m not saying this is an “orange-flavored beer”, no way!  Orange is however, a very strong component of the overall taste.  Again, very nice indeed.

It’s got a medium kind of mouthfeel - it definitely does not feel like you’re drinking water, but it also isn’t so heavy that is isn’t a refreshing drink.  I would say it was a step-down from the “crisp” category, and as a result I would even say that the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat would make an excellent Summer Beer choice.  Why?  Because to me, Sunset Wheat passes the “Lawnmower Test”.  (Would this be a good beer to have after cutting the grass in the Summer?) Yes! This is a satisfying beer that has something of a spicy/citrusy thing going on that would make for a very refreshing Summertime treat!

I know a lot of people seem to enjoy the regular Blue Moon variety beer with a slice of orange added.  If you are one of those people, you might want to try this Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat for a change and I don’t think you’ll even need the orange slice to spice it up!  It does well enough alone!  Another beer that we tried that is similar in concept to the Sunset Wheat is the Shock Top Belgian White which also had that Orange and Spice taste, but in my opinion was not as good as the Leinenkugel’s.

Would I get this Sunset Wheat again or tell a friend to get it?  You bet.

Rating:

Posted in 4 Star Reviews, All Brews Reviewed, American Beers, Summer Beers, Wheat Beers 2 Comments »

Anchor Bock Beer

July 29, 2008

One of the Beers exchanged recently in The Brew Club was Anchor Bock Beer from Anchor Brewing Company in San Fransisco.  I found the bottle, and especially the label a little unusual, so before I drank this beer I did a little sleuthing.

According to the label, the term “Bock” has come to mean different things regarding beer, but for the most part the term “Bock” refers to a beer that is “stronger and darker” than a brewer’s “regular” brews.  Back in the day, Bock beers were typically brewed for special holidays or seasons, and were apparently quite popular with German Monks during times of fasting.  Talk about liquid lunches!

Anyway, I also was wondering why the label of Anchor Bock Beer has a goat on it.  Well, supposedly “Bock” is a corruption of the German word “Buck” which may mean goat.  So, the goat on the label makes some sense now even if the German word for goat is “Geiss”.  Hmmm.  Any Germans out there want to clarify this???

Well, enough of the background for this unusual beer.  Some things just peak my curiosity, but I’m sure you are more interested in the beer itself!

Simple answer?

I like it.

A LOT!

This is a great beer.  I’m actually in the process of drinking it while writing this beer review, so its hard to start with the looks and smells while I’m seriously enjoying the taste at this very moment!  To begin, its DARK.  Not black, but a very, very dark brownish rust color.  Very, very clear - but dark.  When pouring, it creates a huge, thick, caramel-colored foamy head that seems to take forever to go down!  It reminded me a little of a root-beer float kind of foam.  Thick and bubbly!

It ultimately took three pours to get the whole bottle of Anchor Bock into my standard testing glass (which is a cheap Guinness glass BTW - shhhhh!)

Regarding the aroma, there was a stronger smell of roasted malt than hops - a very rich smell.  There’s something else to it I can’t put my finger on (or nose in this case), maybe its just malt but it’s nice.

Now the good part.  This Anchor Bock is divine!  Richly flavored and soothing.  If it were food, it would be a comfort food!   Even though the Anchor web site says the beer is brewed to celebrate Spring, to me at least, Anchor Bock is a Winter kind of beer.  It isn’t “refreshing” or light, in “that” sense as in “gee, I think I’ll have an Anchor Bock now that I’ve finished mowing the lawn” but rather complex and warm.  Maybe in San Fransisco the seasons are not as pronounced as they are here in the Northeast, but I’m not seeing it as a Spring beer.  Whatever.  Still, its incredibly satisfying and I can see why the Monks had this over real food.

It isn’t bitter, and it isn’t “hoppy”.  It leaves something of a sweet, almost toasty aftertaste that is just great and very enjoyable.  It’s got a medium kind of mouthfeel that leaves the mouth a touch sticky, but nothing over the top.  Anchor Bock is just an all around very good beer.  Go try it!

Rating:

Posted in 5 Star Reviews, All Brews Reviewed, American Beers, Spring Beers 3 Comments »

Shipyard Brewery Summer Ale Review

July 25, 2008

The Summer Ale from Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland Maine is next in our series of Summer Beer Reviews here on The Brew Club.

The shipyard Summer Ale is a beautiful and perfectly clear amber color, that created a creamy colored head when poured in the glass.  If I were to rate this beer on color alone, I would give it 5 stars -  It was just beautiful! It wasn’t that bubbly and the head went down pretty quickly, although it did leave some decent lacing on the glass when it was swirled around.

The smell was sweet actually, and I looked forward to tasting it on this hot August day to see if it did the trick as a Summer brew!  So far, the Shipyard Summer Ale looked good and smelled good - but how did it taste?

As they say, looks, and in this case, smells, can be deceiving!  It was a mildly bitter tasting, maybe more than I would have expected or preferred, and it left a bitter aftertaste that lasted for quite some time and it also left a weird, dry feeling on the tongue.  Eh.  The beer itself wasn’t heavy feeling, but I wouldn’t say it was light, crisp, or refreshing either.  For some reason, it reminded me of an “IPA light” kind of beer if such a thing existed.

Generally speaking, I like Ales, but this Summer Ale from Shipyard didn’t really “float my boat”, (kind of sank it, actually) and I wouldn’t go out of my way to have it again.  To me, it looks and smells great, but otherwise not that great.  I just didn’t enjoy it that much.

Rating:

Posted in 1 Star Reviews, Ales, All Brews Reviewed, American Beers, Summer Beers No Comments »