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Let's Learn Beer!

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back to basics, of a sort

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Beeeeeeeermad is here! I waited too long to pick up a ticket, so can’t go today. I’ll be there tomorrow morning, though, bright and early. Relatively. It’s probably a good sign; last year there was practically nobody at the gate when they opened on Saturday, although things picked up later on. You’ll have to wait until next week to here my fair details, so here’s just the usual solitary taste.

I don’t remember why I picked up this beer, maybe as a contrast to those pastry stouts. Also, since it’s Basqueland, a guaranteed good drink. I always think I’m really going to enjoy a fruited sour, even though past experiences have been mixed, but there must be some kind of unkillable hope living deep in my palate. I happily accept them when recommended and pour them out nervelessly. Then the smell is a little sewery, or the taste isn’t quite as balanced as expected, or the beer feels spikey instead of like a liquid for drinking…well, I guess I have had more pleasant experiences than unpleasant ones overall, and especially with Basqueland. This one is simply called Strawberry Lemonade. Why dump in unnecessary complications?

It looks berry-ish, not especially bright, but more natural that way. While not exceptionally bubbly, it does look thick, and produces a nice layer of head. It’s not a very aromatic beer. I struggle to pick out clear scents, there does seem to be a little bit of fruit, although if I didn’t know there was strawberry I wouldn’t think of it. There’s the tiniest whiff of gassiness that often comes with fruit sours, but not much. Flavorwise, it is sour as advertised, although it’s kind of a generic sour, not linked to any particular fruit. I guess it has a natural lemonade feel to it, without a lot of sugar to tempt the less mature drinker. It also has a certain dryness on the palate, not leaving a tingle or stickiness that candy sour might have, this is a little more sparkling wine-esque. I think I appreciate that, I don’t need to feel loaded down these days.

delightful indeed

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More stouts, gods in the heavens, give me more stouts! There are plenty to be had, from breweries known and unknown. This one in particular is a known one, Attik, although I haven’t had much experience with their stouts. White Delight sounds…a little suspicious based solely on the name, but seeing that it’s described as a pastry stout, flavored with coconut, almond and white chocolate, you can’t resist a taste. This is also one of La Mundial’s stock, having rested for a few cold months. Since it is a stout at 9.6%, it’s unlikely that much damage was done.

Soft and fuzzy pouring out, little head, just a little cap on top. It doesn’t explode with scent sensations, but the coconut makes a firm point of being noticed. Not much else comes through to the nose. There’s a natural feel to the coconut taste, very woody and scratchy. It’s sweetish, but not excessive. There seems to be a little vanilla lurking around, peeking out of trap doors or from the fronds of palm trees. Although full-flavored, the beer is not heavy or difficult, it goes down very smoothly and doesn’t have a lot of alcohol weight to it, despite being almost 10%. It has something of an ice-cream or fudgecicle feel to it, with a layered but clearly chocolate taste and smooth and cool texture. Since we’re coming close to summer now, with sun and temps and everything, it’s something to keep in mind. Especially since my beloved stouts seem to be having their moment in the sun. Or maybe more than a moment!

should i have studied judo?

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Beermad approaches! I went last year of course, although I did not have the spoons to write a review of it. But new opportunities! Before we get to that, though, there’s a lovely busy can of stout that needs seeing to. Another delight from La Mundial, it’s an imperial pastry stout from The White Dog. It’s a Dutch brewery, which I am not familiar with, but the label seems to be promising a lot. Like some other Dutch breweries, they are flamboyant with their names. This one is I See You Know Your Judo Well. Yeah. Isn’t that a movie quote?

Just black as night pouring out, with that little whiff of Hershey’s chocolate syrup that some modern stouts take on. Not a very heady beer, barely a ring of chocolate milk bubbles crowns the glass. If you stick your nose in the glass there’s a balancing breadiness that takes the edge of the sweet. The taste is unsurprising if you trust the aroma, although it does have a pretty noticeable floor of licorice, which I haven’t run into for a while. With practically no carbonation, it packs a punch as a mouthful of a beverage. It’s slick and thick feeling, makes itself known, but also goes down without much of a fight. Thankfully the licorice calms down after a while, and it doesn’t develop a heavy or syrupy sweetness after sitting around a little. While not the most typical refresher beer, it’s comforting and cozy, definitely a stout right up my alley.

not-so-brave world

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My buried treasure of beer keeps on giving! This one came from La Mundial, happily still in operation. We are in days that absolutely demand a drink to get through, although some drinks might be in celebration, and an IPA goes with anything. Well, a stout also goes with anything in my case, but for most they need something a little lighter. This slightly retro can contains Soma’s Don’t Quote Me, at a respectable 6%. By coincidence, I’m accompanying my drink with a little media, a story on the magical and occult history of the brewery’s home city, Girona. Full of religious mysteries, just like a lot of European cities. For some reason they don’t get into the beer!

The aroma explodes from the can when the pouring starts, very spicy and piney, It has a little bit of sour orange to it as well. It smells like a West Coast and looks like a New England with its cloudiness, although it’s supposed to be just a plain IPA. The snowy white head doesn’t stick around too long, but there is a thin layer that resists. It definitely tastes like a NEIPA more than anything, much sweeter than you expect after a sniff, heavily fruited with orange and nectarine. It feels thick, although the texture is also very smooth and slides right down the throat. After the initial shock, the flavor seems to settle down a bit, although you really have to concentrate to think you might be detecting some bitterness. It’s a bright and summery beer, maybe just the thing to brighten up a rainy long weekend.

decadence

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It’s the end of an era…about a year late. But better late than never, we must agree. Despite the remaining beers being very Belgian heavy on the fast-emptying shelves of Labirratorium, there were still some that fit my typical tastes – chocolate stout! This is Vocation’s Triple Truffle Naughty & Nice Chocolate Stout, in a tall can and a subtle but suitable label. It’s been chilling for quite a while so I let it sit on the table for a bit before even opening, trusting that chocolate beer won’t go off very fast. At 8.4% it’s strong, although not the strongest I’ve ever had. Sounds like the chocolatiest I’ll have had, though.

It has a definite chocolate aroma, with a touch of liquor, kind of like those cherry liquor bonbons. While not especially heady, a nice layer of thick and lasting foam forms on the top. The flavor does not deviate from the scent clues, piling on in fact. It’s not heavy on the alcohol feel, but the chocolate is thick and dark tasting, very much like Möser Roth’s truffle. Actually, I think it’s a little sweeter than that. It maintains a pleasant texture, not getting to syrupy or heavy, and the flavor also stays constant. It’s quite an easy drinking beer for what you might expect from the description. The wait certainly didn’t hurt it, although I’m sure it was delicious from day one.

not so alarming

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A little spot of light after some dark drinks? A rosy spark of dawn, it seems. Like I say, every once in a while I feel like I should try something different, and The Rowdy Rooster looks like something different. It’s a raspberry kettle sour, not the type of beer I normally pick up, but as summer becomes more evident, it might be a welcome change. The Pine Ridge Brewery out of Sweden might be seeing summers more like Spain’s so a little lightness might go over well even up north. Not only that, I recently learned about more traditional beers of those latitudes being on the sour side, so maybe they’re getting back to their roots.

Rosy red and lightly headed, tangy sour fruit aroma. It seems a little heavy for raspberry, but it is identifiable. It’s one of those dry fruity beers, with little sweetness in the immediate flavor, although it isn’t over the top sour. While bubbly, it’s smooth and easy to drink, very summery. Still there’s a weight of body to it that would also make it palatable for a winter party drink. There’s no weird aftertaste like some sours, no sulfury taste or anything. Long ago I had a raspberry ale from a now disgraced brewery and there’s a certain similarity. I don’t know if the name quite fits, to be honest, but it’s bright and happy enough, perhaps a wake-up call for the afternoon, although not so much for the crack of dawn.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €3.90

waking up

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Many people think their favorite meal is breakfast, but that might be because their favorite flavor is sugar. There’s still something appealing about anything connected with breakfast food, though, including beer. A pastry stout, imperial at that, seems likes the most likely beer to tackle that particular sector of gastronomy, although some NEIPAs get there with their overwhelming orange juice spirit. Basqueland, proven maker of stouts among other things, has presented us with French Toast, looking very much like a breakfast mimicking dessert.

Not much head, but slippery dark liquid, and tempting and subtle aroma. It has a hint of cinnamon and toast that make you think of fancy breakfast. Breakfast carries over into the taste, with a thick syrupy feel and tingly sweetness. There’s some kind of preserved fruit carrying the flavor on its back, possibly blueberries, which leaves the beer with a slightly winey presentation. Not even brunch goes that far, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some people indulge in champagne cocktails or the like. It really feels more like an alcohol drenched cake than a slice of French toast, with that warm and burning sensation, and the kind of sweetness that comes through careful manipulation of ingredients. The fruit becomes more and more noticeable, and starts to remind me of a blueberry ale I had once. Not the kind of beer you expect to find in a southwestern hotel, but there you go. Anyway, French Toast pastry stout does not disappoint in terms of its name or its will to please, but I don’t think I could handle it for breakfast.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €7.65

all aboard

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Who needs a pastry stout on Saturday night? Me! Always! Every Saturday! I could do it too, I think, there’s always a new one out, but I do feel the need to sample something else at least some of the time. Not today, though, today is a pastry day. Today’s selection comes from Brouwerij Kees, apparently a whole chain of flavor experiences with Pastry Train. The can doesn’t actually have a train, oddly, instead there’s the promised focus of Black Forest cherry cake, in the moonlight, possibly around Halloween. That’s just the way that image strikes me, ok? It’s a strong one, almost 13%. Maybe that’s the kind of fuel you need to reach that goal of glory.

Oh waaaaait, the cake is on the train!

There’s only a hint of dessert in the aroma, but it’s right in line with the description. Maybe a little breadier than cakey, but there’s some clear cherry roaming around. It’s a little more candy flavored than I might ordinarily like, and an odd mix of fruit candy too. There’s some banana in there, less cherry and more lighter raspberry, but also notes of chocolate cake and donut glaze. Some pastry stouts don’t go all out on the sweetness, as I have recently discovered, and this one is not actually excessive on that account. While definitely an after-dinner sort of drink, it’s pretty clean drinking, and the sweetness does not weigh it down as much as you might expect. It’s not as solemn as dark chocolate or treasonous as less-sweet fruit (melons, I’m looking at you), but it is satisfying and pleasantly unsurprising after looking at the label.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €5.70

sneaky sophistication

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Back to the black stuff, it’s just a black hole for me, drawing me back in. Not that I fight at all, and sometimes I even get a running start. I collected quite a few examples for the next couple of weeks from Labirratorium, which seems to have piled in a few more stouts than the last time I was there. I feel like I have run across Redneck Brewing before, possibly when out and there’s nothing interesting on tap, but this is an Imperial Pastry Stout, so I can’t ignore it. It’s not the most alcoholic of pastry stouts that I’ve seen, but if you’re not careful Teniente Dan-Up could leave you legless.

Plummy, liquory aroma, and heavy appearance. Not a lot of head, though. It looks like a thick but slick liquid, although at 8.5% it might have quite a bit of heft to it. There is body indeed, although it’s not too prickly, but there’s more wood and toast than I was expecting. It takes a couple of sips before some of the expected pastry starts to come out, very fruity and earthy-berry tasting. The plum scent comes through on the tongue eventually, and the overall impression is of jelly donut filling. At first, I thought the whole donut was coming out of that bottle, with the roasted grain being very noticeable, but when it starts getting fruity the grain and bread back off. It rounds out in the end, gaining a little bit of roughage in the mouth and mild grain undertones to the fruitiness, but it’s more of a fruit tart than anything else. It might not be sweet enough for some, or thick enough for others, but it’s good enough for my Saturday night.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €3.45

plainly labeled

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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

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