Topic: BEERS #2 - Beyond the Pale

[FerriswheelBueller]

I do not. I imagine I’d be able to get a better range of beers at a Yorkshire tesco metro there than here to be honest.

Still, we live in hope. Only just got started and going to the shops in a sec so I’m going to roll the dice again.

Just found a seriously good pale ale. Like properly, properly excellent. Delighted.

[phes]

In a turn of events I've been really enjoying juicy fruity pales since I discovered how much better this style of beer is suited to <4.5% draft beers. I still can't really get on with their stronger counterparts. The body, the alcohol hiding below the low bitterness, sweet, gloopy liquid. Urgh. But I am won over by some of the crisper, lighter, session versions, particularly those brewed by Deya, who I'm lucky enough to be around the corner from.

[robhug]

can you still get cans with a widget

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Achel Blond (8% Belgian Strong Blonde)  ****
De Achelse Kluis, Hamont-Achel

I thought I'd write this up as it isn't quite as common as some of the other accredited Trappist brewers. Achel will be a name Belgian beer fans will be familiar with, though they are a lower volume producer than Chimay, Westmalle etc and their two beers that are relatively easy to access are the Blonde and the Bruin (though they also do an Extra Bruin, a Quadrupel, which can be sampled at the brewery's café.)

Not blonde so much as light amber, with a bit of haze to it. It's difficult to know whether to call this a Belgian Tripel or a Belgian Strong Blonde. What's the difference? Well, the former can be sweeter and spicier, indulgent but hanging on a tightrope of bittersweet flavour, whereas the latter (Duvel being a good example) tends to be more bitter edged and grassy.

With Achel Blonde you end up with a bit of both. There's a clovey, spicy, and yeasty aroma which are also qualities that form the first mouthful. The quality of the foam and the carbonation in your mouth with the hops and spices creates a lingering tingle at the back of your tongue. A nice one - that very particular Belgian sensation. (One I miss dreadfully after a while, and as it happens, is more or less absent from the UK craft scene)

Good strong Belgian blonde ales hide a lot of booze behind the quite dramatic burst of flavours in your mouth. Although there are elements of candy sweetness the bitter hops hit back at them while the effervescence wraps it all up in a seductive package. Achel's blonde is one that's skillfully well balanced and would be up in the top 10-15% of Belgian beers of a similar style and strength I've tried.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

My next-door neighbour has just opened a brewery.

Me now:


Me by about October:

Update pls

[Norton Canes]

It's German week at Aldi (obviously every week is German week at Aldi, but you know what I mean) and I couldn't resist these zwei Damen



More for novelty value then anything - at 99p a pop I don't expect they're up to much. They also had 0,5l Franziskaner Hefe Weiss at £1.50 a bottle, less than it costs in other UK supermarkets.

Plenty more German delicacies too. Lots of Spätzle.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

No sign of those on Untappd, not an Aldi-UK commissioned creation, at least not one anyone has registered exists.

A 99p festbier certainly sounds unusual. What % abv is that?

[FerriswheelBueller]

Another strike against Good Robot here in Halifax (a brewery I desperately want to like as it will probably end up as one of my locals). Asked and paid for 2 tins of stout, “no worries scout” into the brown paper bag to comply with absurd liquor laws, got it home, they’d given me 2 tins of fucking pineapple wheat beer.

Despite their edgier than thou marketing, I am finding some good stuff at Unfiltered Brewing. The exploratory expedition continues...

[Norton Canes]

A 99p festbier certainly sounds unusual. What % abv is that?

5.5 the Fest, 5.0 the Wheat.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

5.5 the Fest, 5.0 the Wheat.

Ah dear. 0.5% weaker than both should be. I expect both will be baseline drinkable.

[Norton Canes]

Oh hang on it was Lidl. FFS, I can't tell the difference.

[Norton Canes]

Had the Festbier. 'Inoffensive' is probably the best compliment I can pay it. At least it didn't make me feel faintly nauseous like their Perlenbacher stuff.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Another disappointing IPA for me last night. Mediocre is the best review I can give. Propellor Brewery, you are so close (geographically) but so far (beer-ically)*

That said! It came in those tins that have huge ringpulls on that take the whole top of the can off (like cat food). It’s a lot more like drinking out of an aluminum “glass” rather than drinking from a tin.

So they get points for that, at least.

_{*they have some good darker beers, to be fair}

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Those cans have made some stunted appearances in the UK. I'm not convinced. It feels instinctively weird drinking out of those such cans, and they're easier to spill. I guess the top has a sharp edge which comes completely off from the can. Not sure of the need, really.

[FerriswheelBueller]

It’s novelty bullshit, but it brightened my evening. Never seen one before and made me feel like I was camping (not sure why).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It’s novelty bullshit, but it brightened my evening. Never seen one before and made me feel like I was camping (not sure why).

I thought it was more of a North American thing? I had only seen them on US tv shows up to now.

[FerriswheelBueller]

I thought it was more of a North American thing? I had only seen them on US tv shows up to now.

Never even heard of them until I found one in my fridge last night. Technically booze has to be concealed as you leave a licensed premises (ridiculous), and most tins (in Nova Scotia, not anywhere else for some reason) have those joining 4 pack cap things on top like this:



So the surprise was doubly concealed until I went to open one.

[phes]

Definitely seen some of these cans in UK supermarkets, Co-OP I think and a Danish or Swedish brewery. The beer was decent enough but it was quite an odd experience. It makes sense if you're buying beer for the aroma and flavor because drinking it from something that dispenses through a 1cm^2 hole is counterproductive. If you're buying beer that tastes like water and old nails, the ring pull is well suited

[Blue Jam]

VERY tempted by this:

https://www.beerhawk.co.uk/advent-calendar

[spaghetamine]

Currently drinking some unidentified polish beer that came in a big plastic bottle, think this is what they call a 40 over in the states

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Unidentified?

[spaghetamine]

Unidentified?

there wasn't any english on the label

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

But it had some writing on though, like a brand name?

[bgmnts]

Currently drinking Morrisons Savers bitter shandy! Closest i'll get to an ale til christmas.

[spaghetamine]

But it had some writing on though, like a brand name?

just realized it definitely wasn't polish because it was all cyrillic characters, feeling foolish

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Probs Ukraine. Guessing Lvivske.

[Chedney Honks]

Feel like pure shit just wanna go to Framconio



Just popping in to say fuckin hell Shoulders, you changed my life, dawg. All I drink is this German stuff these days. Keller, Dunkel, Weisse, Jahrhundert. Ich auch!

Been beasting Schlenkerla Weizen like the shit's liquid bacon butties, because it fuckin is. Hope everyone is well, I'm praying I can get a visa soon and fuck offffff but TFD2.0 might scupper me til the new year. In the meantime, Framconio Life.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Beers available by region of Bavaria:

Franconia - Landbier, kellerbier, Zwickl, Rotbier, Rotweisse, vollbier, Maibock, Dunkel, Rauchbier, Steinbier
Oberpfalz - Zoigl bier culture, and the above
Oberbayern - Helles bier, Hefe and dunkelweizen, Maibock, Doppelbock, Fest bier and Marzen, and Munich Dunkel. Leichtbier too I guess.
Swabia - Like Oberbayern but not as good
Niederbayern - Helles, and Saaz based Pilsner, Dampfbier and Roggenbier started here I believe.

Finding many of these beers even in other regions of Germany is very difficult, in some towns seemingly impossible (on tap anyway).

Nord Rhine Westphalia - saved by all the Altbier and Kolsch. Outside of Cologne and Dusseldorf their pubs will usually serve at least Alt, Kolsch, Wheatbeer and Pils which is a fair selection. Dortmunder lager appears in the Ruhr which can very wildly in quality.
Brandenburg - Gratzer, Lichtenhainer, Kottbusser (though you won't find much of it about in normal pubs, they are making a comeback)
Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland - Shitpit of Bitburger and Krombacher. Apfelwein available.
Mecklenburg & Schleswig Holstein - Horribly gassy sharp joyless pils.
Niedersachsen - Rubbish pils mainly but greater variety of decent lager as you head south.
Saxony & Saxony Anhalt - Gose, Bockbier and Schwarzbier enliven things
Thuringia - Schwarzbier
Berlin - technically Berliner Weisse except you won't see anyone drinking it, however you will find loads of good Czech lagers for sale. A bad attempt at Pale Ale is commonly found too.
Baden Wurttemberg - Heavily reliant on and influenced by Bavaria.

[Norton Canes]

Seasonal bargain alert: Oktoberfest beers now on reduction at Booths (click to enlarge image for label legibility)



I guess the same might be true of Waitrose or whatever ersatz Booths you Southern types have.


Just don't be getting any of this shit

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Fucking Booths won't come nearer than Ilkley :(