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The Hobby Drinker Blog
plainly labeled
Despite the temperatures, I cannot contain my hankering for stouts. I got one from Más Que Cervezas, thinking I would hang onto it for lazy Saturday. This isn’t quite lazy, but it is the kind of day that I would rather take to sit with a drink than do most other things. This one does have some fruit content, so maybe I can convince myself that it’s a healthier choice than a more popular IPA or sour. Well, sours do tend to have some fruit too, so I guess my justification falls apart. Oh well, Imperial Chocolate & Cherry Liqueur Stout will be a joy to taste anyway, I predict. This collaboration from The Garden Brewery and Nerdbrewing definitely promises.
It pours out like an otter after its favorite toy and hides under a pretty substantial, dark mocha head. It has mostly a toasty aroma, but there are notes of fruit, not as tart as I would expect a strawberry to be but still identifiable. It makes me think of the old Strawberry Shortcake toys, actually. The beer is stouty and bitter, with a good serving of toast, but also a touch of strawberry whipped cream. The pastry stout maintains its body, but it isn’t as sticky as some of them can get, and the strawberries have been tamed into something smooth and very comfortable in the throat. Even after warming up some, it’s a pleasant weight without going weird in sweetness/tartness/other odd flavors, and while it’s not the best choice (for most) for a seat in the sun, I’m very happy with it in the shade.
Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €6.05
under a cloud
It’s an odd kind of day – warmer than you want for the time, but also not sunny at all. We’ll be having colder days next week, though, so I guess I just have to be patient. A nice German dunkel beer will brighten up the day. It’s one of those classic breweries too, Augustiner. Somehow I imagine Munich with the opposite weather…
Extra fluffy head, and dark caramel color, but still somewhat transparent. It’s not very aromatic, but there’s a whiff of grain and grass there. The taste is surprisingly dry, tilting towards bitter but with a good base of malt. It’s clean drinking, although there is a clearly bitter aftertaste. It’s a typical German dunkles, malty and ever so slightly sweet, but without any stickiness that some sweeter beers and lagers from other places can suffer from. It’s a year-rounder for me, with enough lightness to be palatable in summer but also enough body to make a stand against winter chills. Would I prefer a stout? Sure, I always feel some preference for stout, but it’s good to keep your experiences varied. It’s not usually regrettable, and this time is no exception.
Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €2.40
arisen
Another rainy Saturday, and not a stout for me this time. No, I found something that seemed more appropriate, at least in name – Fruit Jesus! The label looks very similar to those fruit portraits from some Renaissance painter whose name I can never recall. It’s not too surprising that this comes from Basqueland, they have a record of interesting labels and names. It would be quite a shock to find that it’s anything but a sour, and there’s no shock in store. Will it be a transcendent experience, or just an earthly delight? Better open up that can and find out.
It has that sort of gassy puff that a lot of sours do, sort of sulfury, but probably not what you’d get by opening a grave. It has a very juicy appearance, opaque, maybe a shade lighter than orange juice. The head is not abundant, but it is bright white and resistant. Other aromas start to make their way out, a little citrus and pineapple, something smoother too. I’m not sure if it’s mango or some other tropical fruit. It’s supposed to contain passion fruit, and peach, but I think I don’t really know what passion fruit tastes like. The peach might be the smooth part I think I can sense. The taste starts out on the sweeter side, sort of a fresh fruit salad. Then the sour creeps in, leaving a sort of champagne tickle feel along with a lingering aftertaste of sour candy. Not a bad beer at all, not too crazy for a sour, but I don’t know if it would wake the dead.
Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €6.37
dark dreams
It’s unseasonably warm right now, although cooler temps should be on the horizon. That’s what usually happens around Easter anyway. Still, how do you say no to a stout? You know very well that I don’t! And this is a special one too, Drunken Bros Black Maiden Imperial Mocha Stout. It’s from the Nightmare series, with a touch of oak conditioning that ought to add some strength and body.
It pours thickly, but silky smooth, and settles like some sci-fi B movie monster in the glass. It’s black enough to pull your soul out through your tongue, and even the head vanishes in minutes, unable to contain the power. It is one of the heavier beers I’ve had for a while, like a barely melted shake. It plays on the mocha angle heavily too, with a dark roasted coffee coming on strong at the end of the sip. It has a very toasted grain flavor, with a mild chocolate undertone. While not excessively sweet or coffee bitter, it’s not the easiest beer to drink. It has a robust body and a little bit of crinkly texture that keeps your attention, but doesn’t exactly whip down the hatch like a whisper of wind. I happen to have some white chocolate on hand, and since it isn’t an extra sweet stout, it might be a good little helper….Well, it does cut through the body a little, but it lends a more sour quality to the flavor. Was not the best outcome. Oh well, there’s still beer in the can and more chocolate for another day.
Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €6.95
across the water
Although it seems like an American celebration with its consumption, loudness and flashy tradition, it’s the feast day of the patron of a completely different country. Sure, there are many millions of Irish-Americans, and when the world thinks of St. Patrick’s Day it’s the American style parade and green beer that come to mind. Even in Spain you find some examples of pubs and promotions for the occasion. Typically, it goes along with Guinness, but since I am consistently disappointed by that particular beer, I have myself another, more promising Irish stout – Galway Bay’s Ostara.
Very heady, cappuccino froth, and a touch of smoke and dirt in the aroma. Although dark, it isn’t a deep, deep black stout, or the purported ruby red of Guinness, more of an extra coffee color. The head vanishes within minutes, leaving practically nothing on top, even a little layer of foam. There is a lot of coffee in the flavor, very toasty and slightly dusty. There’s a touch of milkiness, but it’s more of a hint of lactose sweetness than a smoothness or creaminess in texture. It is actually a bit of a rough beer on the throat, although certainly drinkable. It’s stronger and more evocative than Guinness ever is for me, making me think of imagined Irish wind and landscape. Of course, if I ever I might find out that Galway Bay was exaggerating the experience.
Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €3.60
that stuff’ll kill ya
I saw it sitting on the shelf behind the bar, raising its glass, winking without eyelids. Burger Burger was not a beer to be rejected. I did have a moment’s hesitation seeing it was a sour, but it was also a milkshake inspired sour, and packed with fruit that make almost anything worth drinking – raspberries, black currants, even the strawberry. A black jacketed skeleton doesn’t seem like the most appetizing choice for the label, but the brewery, Fermenterarna from Sweden, might be making a reference to their ghostly lack of internet presence. There is a Facebook page, but their website doesn’t have much to speak of, except the posts from said Facebook page.
Slightly shocking color, although with the fruits listed I shouldn’t have been. It does give off a little puff of that fruity sour gas, along with some overripe banana. The top layer of flavor is pretty much strawberry milkshake, tangy fruit and fluffy creaminess, but there’s an undercurrent of banana and vanilla too. The raspberry and current are not immediately apparent but I suppose they add to the tanginess. On a relatively cold and wet evening, I might have preferred to pull out a stout that’s waiting in the wings, but there’s also a feeling of fun in a less common style and a creative can design. Also, skeletons totally go with windy, rainy weather. Early Halloween!
Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €7.30
so what?
That’s the beer, and there’s no need for any other title I think. It’s the call of a generation, several generations in fact. It’s the lament of those in the middle of a long road with no end in sight. That’s just the kind of design that appeals to me too, such a reminder of, well, all my past. You’d think Naparbier would have more optimistic offerings, being one of the most successful craft breweries in Spain in terms of longevity and reputation, but we can imagine a more positive interpretation. It’s the monster itself that elicits the phrase, from the traveler, not the viewers response to the situation. We may find difficulties in our way, but they might only be phantoms. We create problems for ourselves and use them as excuses to avoid making an effort. And that sucks, because there are real things that we can overcome if we actually invest some energy in it. Thanks for the push, Naparbier!
It’s a bright, happy yellow, with piney and citrusy scent to match, but doesn’t hold its head very well. Flavorwise, it’s also bright and bubbly, with a light sheet of bitter across the tongue rather than a rolling boulder that you might get from a stout. It’s very much a West Coast style, with little to no fruit in the taste but still maintaining a sunny and modern quality. It smooths out with time and warming, gaining a touch of citrus sweetness, and a little more weight in the mouth. If you’re fast it’s a good warmer weather treat, with the sharp bitterness to jab you out of lethargy, but if you’re patient it’s a little more of an all-year choice, sweet and summery but also warmingly full. No apathy at all!
Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €5.20
diva in a can
Nothing like a stout on a potentially rainy day, and nothing like a pastry stout for a relaxing weekend. Attik’s Soprano sings out to me with promises of delights and joys on the tongue. The cacao is pretty standard at this point, but I don’t recall seeing hazelnut in a pastry stout, although there was a Black Velvet version a few years ago. There’s something vaguely art deco about the design on the can, which is another plus for me, although I can’t quite make a connection with the song and the art. Maybe the beer is so good it makes you squeal those high notes.
It lives up to its style perfectly, oozing out of the can and trailing chocolate, vanilla and some kind of liquor through the air. It doesn’t build up a thick head, but looks almost jelly-like in the glass. A couple more careful whiffs tilt my perception more to chocolate syrup than anything else. It’s oddly not sweet at first, sort of a mild dark chocolate taste, but then fingers of orange and red berry grab at your tongue. It doesn’t quite go sweet, but more fruity-tangy. The pastry part becomes more and more apparent, sort of a raspberry pie drenched in chocolate. I may not be hitting high Cs, but I was always more in the alto range anyway.
Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €7.70
kernel of joy
Still winter, technically, but the temperatures might cause you to doubt just a little. Or at least doubt where you are. But I still have the hankering for the dark beers, so I can’t refuse a stout when it comes my way. It’s a little different from most that catch my eye, a so-called Imperial Brown Stout, but it comes from The Kernel, which has its fame and its fans. A simple brown rather than a more profound black should be welcome once in a while anyway.
It’s a good dark brown, not the lightest purported stout I’ve ever seen. It releases just a whiff of toasty malt aroma as it pours and produces a neat and not too thick beige head. In the glass, it has a little more of a grainy sharp scent, a little lighter than some stouts, to go with the color I suppose. It’s very toasty in flavor, and much heavier than I was expecting. In spite of the evident smoke on the palate, it’s a smooth and easy beer for drinking. It seems to have a tiny bite of hop, like a hoppy lager or a really laid-back black IPA. Despite its subdued feel, it’s quite a strong beer at over 9%, but it doesn’t quite drink so strongly. The overall feel might be what knocks people out first.
Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €7.40
last whispers
It’s not a black beer, but bocks do have the heavier feel to them that I generally like. This is not famous Spaten, but it is an authentic German bock, from Weiherer of Bavaria. Maybe I cold have picked out some red ale or fruited sour for the coming holiday, or saved that Mahou rosé, but sometimes it’s nice to rest on a standard. Like many classic things, there are reasons why some styles remain popular for decades and centuries. Weiherer itself is not a traditional, centuries old brewery, only having about 30 years under its belt, but it does make some big claims about its sustainability and care with the environment. Sadly, that’s not very traditional at all. But in the future, it may be that those attitudes will be the ones that survive. Here’s to trying, Weiherer!
Clear, golden brew, just a thin sliver of head, and not terribly aromatic. It has kind of a sour grass smell, not exactly what I expect from a bock. Flavorwise, though, it does line up. It’s not as heavy as Spaten bock, but it has a dark maltiness and a certain solidness of body. There’s a flicker of sourness, but it’s much more clearly bitter. It’s not quite a light summery beer, although it doesn’t go down the path of darkness either. It eases up on the bitter, growing some grainy sweetness, fitting right in with the typical bock character. I feel like it could go with some little treat, tart apple or mild cheese, but even on its own it feels nourishing.
Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €3.75
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