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Let's Learn Beer!

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Let's Learn Beer!

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Let's Learn Beer!

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all for me

  • por

Let’s get a little more into the kind of beers I expect in my Advent calendar – stouts, dammit! Now, this is a Belgian stout, with the medieval name of Troubadour, but it fits right in. As much as I’m going to lean into darkness, Christmas beers can be admitted, and who makes Christmas beers? Most famously? The name of the brewery makes me think it would be a secret pastry stout, or at least a much sweeter stout than normal. But maybe The Musketeers are just about collaboration and solidarity.

Head is extra-fluffy coffee ice cream, and not prone to melting off fast. It’s not terribly strong in aroma, but there is a tiny bit of pleasant toastiness and dark chocolate. It feels creamy and luxurious, spreading hints of licorice as well as the expected coffee over the tongue. It leaves a tiny taste of char at the back of the tongue, otherwise sweeping down the throat easily and without the typical Belgian beer tang. I was afraid it would develop at first, but it’s another pretty standard stout, maybe a little bit thicker and smoother than Bidassoa’s. It gives you a slightly wooly feeling, being a strong and atmospheric beer, and maybe just a little nod to the well-known seasonal beers of its country.

Supplier: Lambeer
Price: €3.70

punching up

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Advent begins, but no calenbeer for me this year. There are some available, but even the most exotic looking ones are full of pale ales and/or lagers! It’s Christmas for chrissake! Isn’t it time for strong, dark, warming beauties? This year I’m collecting my own calenbeer, to ensure I’m not disappointed with anything. Well, since I like to try new things I guess I could be disappointed by something, but at least it won’t be the style. So, despite that little whine, my first beer isn’t even a stout or porter, but a barleywine. Hey, it’s strong, it has a seasonal kind of feel to it, it’s not a pale damn ale! This particular barleywine is a Sanfrutos creation, in a can that reminds me quite a bit of Garage designs. Maybe they share an artist. Maybe there’s some cross-pollination. Hopefully nobody comes to blows over Puñales.

Well, I didn’t promise myself black beers for my personal calendar, but it’s a pretty dark and toasty beer. Sort of a seared honey color with a sweet aroma that drapes itself in your nostrils. It’s the smell of Christmas liquors, I’d say, split between apple cider and rum. The taste is surprisingly subdued, not nearly as sweet and appley as I was expecting, much more woody in fact. Is there some oak involved? I’m getting more similarities to whiskey than to rum now. It also has a creamy kind of mouthfeel that I don’t associate with barleywines, but that makes it pretty easy to swallow without any syrupiness. The first calenbeer feels like a good start. I’m looking forward to what I have coming, and they might be a little less demanding than Beermas. But, you never know, do you?

Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €5.10

dark curtain

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Success! I have completed my month of darkness…even if it was only the Saturdays. As hard as it is to find black beers on tap most of the time, bottles and cans to take home and drink at your leisure aren’t scarce. Thankfully. A sentiment that fits the weekend. Most stouts you come across are a little bit extra, if you know what I mean, but there are still some that are plain Russian Imperial Stouts. Yeah, at one time that didn’t sound plain at all. How things change! What I trust hasn’t changed is Bidassoa’s product quality, since this is their work for their Dark Series.

As soon as the cap comes off little puffs of malty goodness fill the air. It has a warm brown-black color and quite a respectable head, one of the fluffier I’ve managed to get in a while. I seem to detect hints of woodiness in the aroma as well, like wet forest walkways. After some sweeter stouts, this one gets back to basics – toasty, smoky, a cloud on the tongue. The simplicity is even a little imposing. This is a beer that’s very sure of itself and you can tell. A sweetish woodiness starts to make an appearance once the beer gets more towards room temperature, but it has a very natural feeling to it, certainly not like sweetened or even barrel aged stouts. I feel like this is a little throwback to earlier days of stout enjoyment, when everyone was vying for the most representative result instead of the most innovative. Not that innovation is bad, it will come in handy later, I think.

Supplier: Lambeer
Price: €5.10

not left behind

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Half of the darkest month is over, although I think I’ll be able to keep a good shadow over December too. While last week was a can of surprises, this week looks like something a little more predictable, which should not mean unpleasant. Garage Beer Co. and Track both contributed to this imperial stout, a rich blend of coffee, vanilla and chocolate from the looks of the ingredients list. Blue Straggler has an unlikely label for this blending I would say, but who knows? There might be some unusual aftertaste that pops up unexpectedly when you look at those featured components.

This one also has some fruity aroma about it, but the head is less satisfying. Colorwise, it’s deep and dark, befitting my streak. It’s not as exciting as that old Diamond, really just plum on the fruit side and the barest whisper of chocolate tickling the nose. The chocolate was lying in wait for the drink it seems, giving a good wallop of bittersweet right up front. The fruit aroma might have been a ghost of my own making, influenced by the can design. Anyway, a very filling and fulfilling beer, with good body and subtle flavors after the initial impression. It has a bit of a dusty coat but is easy enough going down without stickiness or excess sweetness. I am not getting the vanilla or coffee to be honest, it’s actually a fairly simple flavor in that regard. Maybe the chocolate and tonka are asserting themselves a little too much; maybe those notes were only supposed to be suggestive anyway. In any case, it’s undeniably cozy and warming, just what you want on a dark, dark post-Halloween night.

Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €6.80

shiny, shiny possibilities

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It’s still the month of darkness, only the beginning in fact, and already I have a super cool stout. It’s even called a Glittery Imperial Stout, which makes me wonder a little about what color it ended up after brewing, and it’s a collaboration by Amundsen and Vault City, the latter from Scotland, so a good place for something strong and dark to get brewed, and the former a success at giving me what I want in the past. I’m hoping Diamonds in the Mud is chock full of diamonds, or be made of chocolate mud.

There’s a small explosion of tasty smells with the pop of the tab, liquory, vanilla-y, woodsy, coffee…y. While not quite pure black, the brown is darker than an early winter night and the beer is not letting a drop of light get through. Glitter? Diamonds? Maybe that’s what you see when you finish that can. Not terribly heady, but what there is is stubborn and clingy, a nice little cap. The flavor is a festival of fruit and chocolate, cherry, raisin, raspberry, grape? It’s a surprise as a stout, and not an unpleasant one. While a sour stout is not exactly appetizing as an idea, this one has a good balance with the fruitiness lifting up the dark earth of the black beer. There’s a creaminess that you don’t get with sours and I find it very nice, I don’t always appreciate having my throat stabbed by a beer on the way down. Of course, there are stouts that will take a chunk out of you with bitter claws too, but in my experience they aren’t quite as dangerous in that regard.

Supplier: Hop Hop Hurrah
Price: €10.50

opening the door to shadows

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Yes, Halloween and Day of the Dead have passed, but daylight is still winding down, and the darkness is more present every day. Might as well have a beer to go with it, right? Any excuse for me! I’m always slightly perturbed that stouts are not more prevalent in the winter (or ever), but maybe that makes the discovery more pleasing. Espiga has been more familiar to me for pale ales and the like, but I cannot resist a stout from anybody. If those ales were good, the stout will be too, I trust. It’s also a pastry stout, so the addition of that sugary shock just brings you right out of November Saturday doldrums. I wonder if Magic Cookie would play nice with Ben ‘n’ Jerry’s Cookie Dough, or if they would battle to the death.

It’s absolutely oozing with liquory aroma, vanilla, rum and cookie dough. While not exceptionally heady, there are quite a few bubbles collecting at the top. The initial taste is a deep dark…void, really. There’s a whisper of bitter and smoke, but once you swallow a punch of sweet bakery goodies covers your tongue. You might expect it to start getting syrupy quickly, but there’s a stronger bitter in the aftertaste than at the first sip and it balances the cookie part really well. The flavor starts to develop more of a planty element, reminding me of horchata. It’s actually not as rich and drippy as I thought it was going to be given the luxurious scent, but it is a scrappy and flavorful brew. Perhaps not as smooth as some people would like. There’s even some wood lurking around like it’s a barrel aged stout on top of everything. I’m not unhappy with it at all. Out of the shadows with you, Magic Cookie!

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €5.80

nicht zu spät

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Oh, the last beer of Oktoberfest, how quickly you come! I saved Spaten for last, which I might be thankful for, if it’s anything like their bock. Spaten is one of the oldest of the Munich breweries allowed to participate in Oktoberfest, with records from the end of the 14th century. The name comes from it’s 17th century owners and it has had a slow but steady growth over the years, to finally merge with Löwenbräu in the 1990s after a merger with Franziskaner earlier in the century. They are now under the wing of AB InBev, which certainly helps their availability, and at least with Spaten Bock still leaves a delightful beer.

It’s a much lighter straw color than the bock, on par with a couple of the other festbiers. Fluffy head and lively bubbles show the party is ready to start. I struggle to get much aroma out of it, I think there’s a little lemon in there but that might be the influence of the color, only after some focused sniffing does there seem to be a little bread hovering under the edge of the glass. The rounded maltiness of the bock must be at the forefront of my mind, since I can’t help but think of Spaten Oktoberfest as Bock Lite. It has a similar fresh grain taste right off, descending slowly into something more bitter and typically beery. It doesn’t have as much presence in the mouth as the bock, or even a couple of the other festbiers, but it makes its mark with the flavor. It’s strong and bright, oddly summery on a rainy weekend, and slips away cleanly with practically no aftertaste at all. It’s an especially bright sunset on a festival, and a big contrast to the coming months…when we will relish the darkness!

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €2.50

third chance

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Paulaner might be the easiest German beer to find in Madrid, if not Franziskaner, but it’s not one of my favorites. There are quite a few I would choose over it, sorry wheat beer fans. I do like a Salvator, though. According to their website, Salvator was the first beer produced by the monks whose labor would become the Paulaner brewery, with the more famous wheat beer coming later, and Oktoberfest, well, with Oktoberfest. Paulaner sponsors one of Madrid’s Oktoberfest celebrations, usually in some kind of sporting venue, although I think it was in the patio of the newer Príncipe Pío building once. I’m at 50/50 with my enjoyment of Paulaner, so I guess this will be a tie-breaker.

Even a little lighter in color than Löwenbräu, but with a slightly meatier aroma. There’s a little bit of spice, kind of a caraway bun scent that greets my nostrils. The head is abundant at first, but fades down to an adequate but not excessive cover. I am reminded of Paulaner’s wheat beer at first – there’s a tingle of sweetness and a good, rounded feel, but the aftertaste maintains a fresh and meadowy flavor instead of the smoky sour that I remember from that wheat. Heavier than Löwenbräu, more in line with the others, it’s a beer you would get comfortable to drink, not only because you probably have a liter of it in a glass mug. I am not disappointed.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €2.25

cat’s meow

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To begin the second half, Löwenbräu! The brewery has a presence in bars where import beers are prevalent. I remember it being a more impressive experience than Paulaner or even Franziskaner, but I haven’t had the pleasure for quite some time. Also, the normal import beers aren’t the Oktoberfest beers, just the normal lagers.

Back to extra bubbly and pale gold, but this one has a vanishingly faint aroma. The taste is also light and delicate, with just a teasing amount of sweet breadiness. This is one of the lighter of the festbiers, flowing in and down without fuss. While the last three had a good amount of weight and you get the sense that they will nail you to your seat (not such a bad thing at Oktoberfest, actually), this is a beer you could stand up and walk around with. It’s also lower alcohol than previous beers, but still more than 6%, which is stronger than what you would be getting from your standard evening lager.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €2.25

first half

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Ah, Hofbräuhaus, I remember you! Long tables, loud tuba, feverish enjoyment everywhere. Apparently once banned to women, although because service was only for the seated nobody would get up even to pee. They peed, of course, but not in a contained location, and certainly not maintaining a friendly environment for long skirts. Now Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier can be found at any of their restaurants, they have something of a franchise, but I believe I was told that was their original beer hall, or least the oldest one in operation.

Well-headed and bubbly, but not quite as lively as its brethren. Bright gold and clear as day, and with a little tang to the aroma. The taste is much fuzzier than the other beers too, although not overly strong – there’s some pretty clear malt and a little clean grain, but the feel is heavy and oddly powdery for the appearance. A kind of sour lining comes out over the tongue after a while, which would leave your palate feeling cleansed if the feel wasn’t as heavy. The flavor is delicate and well-balanced, but the texture is definitely robust. This beer is a whole drink in itself, demanding and center stage, which is probably what a festbier should aspire to be. In comparison with Hacker-Pschorr’s märzen, I prefer the märzen, but that’s definitely my personal preferences coming out. If anybody made an Oktoberfest stout, that would be my favorite out of principle.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €2.60

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