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dvanactý

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On the twelfth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Twelve thunders thundering
Eleven drinkers drinking
Ten drug lords delivering
Nine priestesses priesting
Eight pirate maids a-sailing
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

It’s the end! Another Beermas drunk through! There were some stretches in meaning and metaphor here and there, but there’s always one that just doesn’t fit like you hope for. This final beer is a good finale. It was the label that caught my eye with the wild sky and moody color palate, but then I saw the brewery: Laugar. Hooray! And then I saw the style: Imperial Stout with marshmallows. Double and triple hooray! Nimbus carries a threat of rain and dark days, but with a sweet surprise, or maybe a consolation. The solstice is over anyway, so we’re on the way to brighter and brighter times.

Beautiful pour wit a sensible amount of mocha head. It doesn’t look quite as thick as number ten, but still presents body and substance. There’s a vapory whisp of marshmallow in the aroma, riding a stout dragon through the storm clouds of the can. The smell is disarmingly light so when you take a sip it’s a real wallop. While not the thickest beer ever, there’s a good amount of weight that floods over the tongue, and the touch of marshmallow sweetnes gives the whole thing an essence of s’more. It’s silkier than Midnight Call, really in keeping with the stouts from Laugar. Even though they produce some heavy hitters, and Nimbus comes in at 10.5%, the majority of their stouts are easy to pour down the hatch, even dangerously so. This is quite a climax to my Beermas; sometimes the stars, or the clouds, align.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €7.18

elfte

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On the eleventh day of Beermas I went and got for me
Eleven drinkers drinking
Ten drug lords delivering
Nine priestesses priesting
Eight pirate maids a-sailing
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

It’s close enough to a pipe, even though it isn’t a pipe by any means, that porrón. Things flow out of the spout and that’s enough for me. I don’t think a weiss is exactly the beer to pour down your throat like you would using that device, but maybe one with a good amount of syrup would be easy to take. As far as quality goes, it’s Garage, so clearly a quality beer. And from the right city for the style. I just wonder what P9 is supposed to refer to.

Are people just filling cans to the tippy top anymore? There is a little liquid escape as soon as there’s an opening, but nothing too serious. I was expecting a light orange or even barely yellow beer, what I remember from weisses, but this is a very floral rosy peach color. Even the head is barely tinged pink. Not like the flamingo from a few years ago, but a very happy appearance. It has a tangy and fruity perfume, sort of a strawberry scent, but from a sticker or a doll. I associate weisses with a sharper smell, somewhat acidic and grainy, but this one is soft and slightly juicy. Could just be my memory, I don’t often indulge in the style. The first sip is definitely tangy, like a sour candy. And much like those candies, the sour wears off and you’re left with a calming sweetness covering your tongue. On the side it says “fruited sour ale bursting with raspberry and passion fruit”. Ah, yes, it all makes sense now.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €4.30

décimo

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On the tenth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Ten drug lords delivering
Nine priestesses priesting
Eight pirate maids a-sailing
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

Hey…isn’t that a scene from a Tarantino movie? Not the famous one, that other one, less famous and sillier. Well, maybe not, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, or any Tarantino movie for that matter. Suggestions for holiday films? Ok, not only is it stirring film nostalgia, it’s an imperial stout (finally!) and from La Quince. A safe bet if I’ve ever heard one. Maybe I’m stretching the definition of lord, but I imagine people in illegal occupations do a lot of leaping. If not physically, then morally and philosophically. Collaborator Seven Island is a Greek outfit, so philosophy is almost certainly a part of this beer. I seem to recall an earlier collab with Yria that resulted in a stout that would leave you one the floor – almost literally, since it was a seventeen percenter. Midnight Call looks powerful, but manageable. Let’s find out!

First time in a while I don’t get a good head on the first pour, but there is a little beige crown there. While not pitch black, it’s a pleasing dark brown, hot fudge syrup if I had to compare it. The aroma is pretty standard stout, a little toast and earth. Wow, it’s a real mouth filler! The taste is surprisingly subdued for such thickness. It hits hard with bitter, but then there’s a support structure of something sweet. Could it be the oats? It has kind of a breakfast element to it. There’s a tingling to the sip, like a thousand teeny tiny bubbles at once. It does leave a sticky residue on the lips, although no unpleasant aftertaste or other problems. Is it one that you’d get a hankering for at midnight? A secret treat that has to come under cover of darkness? That might make it more exciting, but stouts are a pretty acceptable indulgence. I would call for this beer any time.

Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €7.50

ninth

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On the ninth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Nine priestesses priesting
Eight pirate maids a-sailing
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

There are fewer beer labels with women on them than you’d think, given how women are used to sell things. I’d say it’s a mark of the integrity of the craft beer sector, but we all know that is unfortunately not true. Yes, there are duchesses and queens, but this is the first time I’ve seen a priestess. Given the experience I’ve had with people from Segovia (which is little), it’s not such a surprise that Sanfrutos would find it fitting to name a beer after such a character. It is a West Coast IPA, so something light and sharp, connected to nature and spirit, is what I’m expecting to find. Let’s see what kind of fortune teller I am.

It’s darker than expected but still clear golden hue. The head starts out fluffy, but bubbles away rapidly. It smells like honey, like a hopped mead almost, which certainly goes with the color. The taste is bittersweet, a one-two punch delivered in a mouth-filling liquid. Knowing it’s a West Coast style makes me look for pine and spice, and in a ghostly aftertaste I think there’s a little pine forest there. In spite of its aleness, it feels right for the time, heavy and covering, with notes of field and forest, not as refreshing as some less, let’s say spiritual brews. Of course, less refreshing is not less enjoyable, and there are times when you want a little weight to let you know you’re alive.

Supplier: La Mundial
Price: €6.10

osmý

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On the eighth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Eight pirate maids a-sailing
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

I would like very much to have an all stout Beermas, but it would require a lot of stretching of the gifts. Maybe I’ll be feeling flexible next year. For the moment, we have La Grua’s North Shore, a DDH NEIPA. I’m not sure if there’s any history of pirates in the brewery’s area, although the community of Cantabria is on the coast. Actually, a golden beer is more appropriate for a pirate to be stealing, fossil fuels weren’t a thing when the romantic pirates were having their heyday.

It releases a tiny geiser of hop aroma, snappy, catnippy, jungly. No beer explosion though, and it pours very nicely. Not as heady as others, and cloudy like the past couple of weeks. There’s a wave of brightness in the sip, and an almost honeyed finish. Dry hopped beers in my experience have a bit more bitterness and edge, while this one has the NEIPA part of its background clearly coming out on top. If anything the dry hopping took off any edge a NEIPA can have. It gets more and more candylike, kind of like a flat soda, or a low-sugar lemonade. I guess I can imagine it’s sweet like pirate rum.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €5.91

siebte

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On the seventh day of Beermas I went and got for me
Seven boney swimmers
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

It’s not swans, but it’s definitely swimming. Or at least it’s something that used to swim, until being snatched up by undead hands. Somehow I think O Fortuna has several levels hiding in its name. It’s a complicated beer, DDH West Coast IPA, and to go with that it’s a collaboration between three, count ’em three, breweries. The magic of working together on a concoction has a fairy tale ring to it, three witches brewing up a potion that can only be counteracted by seven feathers of seven swans from seven seas, or some mystical folk numerology like that.

We’re back to clear, golden, blinding white headed brew, with a heavy and spicy aroma fitting of West Coast IPAs. There’s a mix of snappy hops and pine, and a sort of hot marmalade. The blend of perfume is reflected in the taste, although there’s more sourness and grain on the tongue. It dances and sparkles on the tongue, like fingerbones tapping. There’s a sweet center hiding in a ball of roughage and savory herbs, hard to identify exactly, but always peeking out. It’s like the setting sun in a mostly cloudy sky.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €7.40

sexto

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On the sixth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Six geese post-laying
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

It’s not every time that you can find the exact bird, but geese aren’t all that unusual. These geese have hatched after the laying, though. The name seems to be sarcastic; I don’t remember ever noticing geese flying in silence, or even walking that quietly. It’s just an IPA, from Barcelona’s Little Rain, no super hopping or extra zap, but it is a classic style. Classics usually hang around for a reason.

All the recent beers have been very foamy and this one is no exception. It seems to have been filled right to capacity and there’s a threat of an escape when the tab pops. The head does not actually hang around very long, releasing a standard IPA hops cloud. There’s also some kind of rubbery smell lurking in there. The taste starts out like a more traditional bitter IPA with a light coating of more modern fruity hops, but suddenly it’s all wrapped up in a raincoat. And in rubber boots. I guess that’s to go with the name.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €6.31

fifth

  • by

On the fifth day of Beermas I went and got for me
Five gold nuts
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

While the birds are difficult due to their abundance, the rings are hard to match just because.  You’d think there would be more references to gold, but maybe craft brewers are just too modest.  With a little imagination, though, there’s enough out there to find something satisfying.  I feel like I will be satisfied with Nuts & Crosses.  It’s a stout, there’s peanut butter, I’m expecting some kind of liquid Reese’s.  It’s a little bit of a surprise to see the name Buxton on the can, since I don’t associate England with peanut butter consumption, but there have been quite a few peanut butter stouts put out there from a number of European breweries, so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising.  Sometimes a liquid snack is a very different experience than a solid one anyway.

Somewhat sunny head, lighter than you expect to see.  It’s a mocha with extra milk.  The beer is good and dark, a well brewed coffee or dark chocolate.  The aroma a vegetable tang, like the juice in canned green beans.  It’s slightly metallic, slightly earthy.  The flavor is deeper and richer than the smell, with a feeling of quality chocolate and a salty hint of peanut butter.  It’s quite and armchair of a beer, an invitation to grab a fat book and invest some time in it.  It’s a very light, maybe milked down, stout, at only 4.5%, but it has a power and presence and does not slip by unnoticed.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €5.90

čtvrtý

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On the fourth day of Beermas I went and bought for me
Four obvious non-kiwis
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

It’s a perfect match! Four calling birds! Actually, I can’t tell if they’re calling from the label, but they look like maybe swallows and I recall them being a bit vocal. But then the brewery – Doskiwis? Only two! And they don’t fly! And the beer name is just…Ideal. It’s not my ideal, not being a stout, but those hazy IPAs can be good drinking.

It’s somewhat of a lighter color, but still cloudy and heady, albeit with bigger bubbles. It has a more relaxed aroma, just a distant call of orange at first, with an aftersniff of pine. It’s also very quiet in flavor, no big IPA bitter or tropicality, kind of a melony essence. There’s a sharp feel to the beer that comes at the end of the sip and trails off like it’s supposed to raise an aftertaste, but it’s more feel than flavor. I guess there’s an airiness to it, something that pulls you up and out, inviting spiritual expansion. You feel like there’s a stronger sensation somewhere just waiting for you. Maybe this is a beer to encourage you to spread your wings.

Supplier: Lambeer
Price: €7.50

dritte

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On the third day of Beermas I went and got for me
A three-time remade masterpiece
Two guarding lions
And a crow glaring silently

Already it’s time to do some interpretation of the gifts, but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? Although later movie mythology gives vampires wings (sometimes), the old time monster Nosferatu didn’t transform into anything. Oh, maybe rats. But, it has been remade twice, giving it three versions to enjoy or not…I am not partial to the ’70s remake myself. Still have to see last year’s fluid filled one. See? Fluids! Just like beer is a fluid! Connections abound! Anyway, I’m surprised that it’s a hazy IPA, or any type of pale ale, really. Wouldn’t a red ale be more appropriate? Or a stout to reference the darkness. Even a rauchbier, given what happens to vampires in sunlight. That’s not a spoiler, the damn thing is more than a hundred years old.

Not as jumpy as the last one, and much cloudier. True to name. Still brilliant white head that hangs on for a bit, and a more perfumed opening. Very IPA, citrus and caraway and salt. The first sip is wildly fruity, with mango, mandarin and maybe a little pineapple. The beer is both light and filling, which is kind of an odd feeling, but it’s also clearly bright and perky. It’s such a strangely happy beer, very summery and with a suggestion of a Caribbean soundtrack. There’s really a clash between what you would expect from a beer called Nosferatu and what you get, but ’tis the season for surprises.

Supplier: Lambeer
Price: €6.50

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