Actually not, I despise every single Kozel beer I've had so far, but I will try it just because you brought it up
Kozel is Cezch though, I believe.

I think it's Slovakian; I have relatives in Czech Republic and I like to tell myself I have ample experience with Czech lager so I'm almost willing to wager it isn't Czech.

If you'd try it, might I recommend you do that while listening to Depresy (if death metal is your thing)?

It actually is, haha. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velkopopovick%C3%BD_Kozel
I am a huge fan of really strong (and thick) beers like imperial stouts and porters, as well as trappist beer and so on, so the Central/Eastern-European beers are never on my top lists. I don't have any experience with microbreweries here, although I have to say that even mainstream beers such as Zlaty Bazant (SK), Staropramen (Czech) and others are really good. Unfiltered Staropramen or Staropramen Granat is awesome!

And so I betrayed my own kin

Better google before you speak

Sorry for two posts in such a short period of time:

Monteith's Original Ale - I feel like this one was maybe an old bottle and far from fresh. It wasn't skunked but just had sort of a sour taste that wasn't super pleasant. Still quite drinkable and had a good solid malt base, but was overall a pretty bland, boring beer. I've never been to NZ but if this stuff is dirt cheap on tap there you're darned tootin' I'd drink it regularly, but I'd never pay much for It.

Hijos De Rivera 1906 Reserva Especial - Ok, this one is definitely skunked. I feel shitty saying much of anything about an obviously skunked bottle of beer but I feel like even if this one were totally fine it'd still be nothing much to write home about. Fairly decent Oktoberfest-style lager but there are clearly others in the style I'd rather have.

Faxe Stout - I got this because it was wicked cheap and it was strange to see imported Euro stuff be anything beyond the Korean standard lager/dark lager/hefe lineup. There's this sort of strange phenomenon here where all these mid-sized European breweries seemingly brew (or relabel) stuff exclusively for the Asian export market and there's just not a whole lot of information on them. Faxe seems to be fairly widely available swill in Europe but there's not much mention of this stout. Anyway, this is a pretty decent brew. It's a bit lighter on flavor than the Cooper's Best Extra Stout I just drank earlier tonight, but appearance-wise it's got the pitch black color and huge brownish head (with loads of lacing) that I've come to expect from bigger stouts. The nose is great, too. All in all this is actually a really damn decent stout and considering it's nearly dirt cheap and 7.7% I'll be drinking this as often as I can find it. Worth a shot even for people in healthier beer markets, I'd say.

They're basically 24 hours apart. That's .. like .. a whole day! Is this a problem? Beer deserves regular reporting!

Get outta here, you spammer!

It certainly shouldn't be sour. Monteith's original is pretty bland, like most of their "classic" range, which are sold by the 6 and 12 pack. But it's solid enough, and definitely preferable to a low budget draught, or a skanky green bottle lager, which is pretty much all you could get in NZ before Monteith's (and Mac's) showed up.

Yeah, the slight sourness had a definite "this ain't a fresh bottle" vibe to it rather than something intentional in the beer itself. You try to taste past these things, but you know how tough that can be.

tonight...


I do sometimes drink interesting beer, but I only seem to post the unremarkable stuff!

Hah, I drink that stuff sometimes! I can get the pils, the export and the wheat in 1L plastic bottles for like $2/liter. The export is actually somewhat decent all things considered.

yeah, its OK. But here it's strictly just the Pils in these 50CL cans. Never seen those others you speak of, let alone at anywhere near those prices.

Thanks batman for the review of Faxe! I've been debating whether to try it, and certainly will now after your positive words.

PS there's my 997th post. Time to put on Obtest's Tukstantmetis.

I've been drinking a shit ton of Lagunitas lately because it's cheap and I'm poor but tonight I sprung for something of a little higher class.

It's no life-changing stout and after drinking it (and writing the review) I noticed on the can that it does contain some bullshit ingredients like corn and coloring, but despite that it still managed to be a pretty hearty, tasty big stout. If it weren't for the fact that Cooper's Best is available everywhere here it'd pretty much be the only stout worth drinking that's available in stores here.

Last night I tried a trio of Val-Dieu brews. The Triple was really tasty, alcohol totally masked by the huge peppery yeast, slightly tart upfront sweetness and nice hint of hops that cut through. Not my favorite beer in the style but real tasty. Next up I went for the Brune. This was more up my alley, with more figs and a general dark fruitiness that was just an explosion of flavor yet was nicely balanced. As it warmed up the alcohol started to burn a bit, which was actually sort of nice given the rest of the flavor profile. Both of these beers had massive, towering sticky heads as well. Last up was the Blonde, which was my least favorite of the three but still good stuff. Just a really straightforward, no-frills BPA. Definitely recommend trying some stuff by this brewery if you can find it.

I've been buying pilsners and wheat beers lately, few of which have been choice. Any recommendations on white or wheat beers would be great. Ballast Point's Wahoo White I know I like already. And Drake's Hefe is good. I like a Belgian blonde, too, and Leffe (though that's far too thick for what I mean at the moment).

HOWEVER, this post is actually about Limonata and how it makes an awesome shandy if you end up with a sixer of otherwise lame light beer that you'd rather not have go to waste. Holy shit these are great. I bought some to make mezcal and mint mixers, and those are damn good, but these make an awesome shandy. Don't settle for biting the bullet through to the bottom of a shitty half rack! Don't give it away, either! Buy Limonata and make shandies.

VVyrm, the wheat beers I've tried and enjoyed recently have been:

Weihenstephaner Vitus (weissbock)
Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen
Ayinger Brau-Weisse (hefeweizen)
Hoegaarden (Belgian white)
Franziskaner (hefeweizen)

All of these are pretty great, the last two being particularly easy to find and on the cheap side. Well honestly they're all on the cheap side.

Totally forgot about Hoegaarden. Thanks! I'll see if I can rustle up these others.

Schofferhofer is also a good no nonsense wheat beer. Hell, even Krombacher do a OK Weizen.

I love hefeweizen! Weihenstephaner is good stuff, I also quite like Erdinger. Paulander might be my favorite, it's nicely floral and has lovely hints of cloves and bananas that I always like in the style. I don't like Hoegaarden at all though, it comes off unbalanced with just just too much coriander and zest/rind flavour for me.

I looked back at the list of a local beer garden and jogged my memory. There was a Henhouse Saison that was quite good, and the Sierra Nevada Nooner Pilsner was refreshing and crisp. I was surprised because Sierra Nevada generally ends up being pretty watery and average on taste profile. Though their Torpedo and Narwhal are pretty damn good. Other than that I don't really touch the brand.

Anyone into sours? The same beer garden serves a really awesome Gose. Tart citrus and rich, like an amber, but easy to drink and strong. Whoo boy. I've heard about a bar nearby that serves exclusively house sours which I will be going to as soon as my semester is over. Hopefully I'll do a flight.

I want to get more into sour beer. There was a bar nearby that did a sour event a little while back where I tried a lambic for the first time. It was interesting, I would have been hard pressed to identify it if I didn’t already know what it was. I did quite like it though and recently picked up a bottle of rather enjoyable kriek (I forget what brewery it was from). I’d like to try more lambics but they are quite pricey and hard to find around here.

Absolutely love sours when done properly. Lambics and g(u)euzes, oh my. When done properly again that is, without added sugar. The fruited ones can be good too, depending on the maker. Cantillon usually are properly sour and not too sweet while still retaining the characteristics of the fruit though I don't think I've ever had a framboise that really emphasized the raspberry properly. Usually it's just a general berriness or an artificial raspberry soda. Flemish reds and Belgian sours can be great, but sometimes can end up too sweet and/or thin. I haven't had a chance to taste a lot of American sours though I really do want to try stuff from the likes of Cascade, Crooked Stave, De Garde and Jolly Pumpkin. I've had a couple from Crooked and Jolly and they've been pretty good, but not really up to the hype that I felt has been built around them. Finnish micros haven't really discovered sours yet. There have been a couple of attempts, but with varying results. Beer Hunter's did a lingonberry sour that was properly tart and Stadin panimo did a crack at a strong Flemish red that was a good approximation.

The upcoming/re-surfaced styles of Berliner weisse, gose, lichtenhainer and grätzer... Well, some American goses have been pretty great, but not really to style, I think. The original deal wasn't really as sour as they're made out to be, I guess. And definitely not as hopped up as they sometimes tend to be. But still, a drink to my liking: Low on ABV, high on sour and flavor.

Their dunkelweissen is just glorious.




Cantillon is, well, they're the gold standard for sours IMO. The head brewer there refuses to join the lambic association because they let in breweries that take short cuts like using syrups and so forth. He's a purist, and given his output... well, it's hard to criticise his snobbishness on that part. Compare his stuff to Belle-Vue kriek? Not in the same league.

Have y'all had those New Glarus fruit beers? Wisconsin Belgian Red and the Raspberry Tart are god-tier if you ask me.

You're speaking to a native Wisconsinite. That stuff lines the shelves every time I visit my folks...

Founders Rubaeus is pretty good too.

Sadly few American sours make it over to Australia, like The Rare Barrel, New Glarus, Crooked Stave or New Belgium. So yeah, I admit I'm working from a relatively small sample size.

Can't imagine New Glarus would make it to Australia (outside second-hand transfers, obviously) since it's only legal for sale in Wisconsin, haha. Some bar in Minnesota got fined just for having one of their beers on tap.

Yeah I don't normally go for fruity beers but NG's Raspberry Tart is really good. Perfect as a dessert pairing with a piece of chocolate pie. ^Also, as a Wisconsinite, I've never understood this. We're known as a beer drinking state, so we should be sharing that golden nectar with the world. Germany is a beer drinking country, and you can get good German beer over here. And yes, I know, what you can get in Germany is probably miles better than the American version, but still, a Hofbrau in America is still a damn good beer.

grabbed one of these tonight as it was reasonably cheap, I think the store is probably trying to clear them...

I know I've tried each of them at some point, but it will be good to reacquaint myself with the good ones.

Until then, drinking Steinlager Pure

Probably about as good as macro brewery green bottle lagers get. Quaffable.

Canada sucks. Tonight I've either consumed 7 imperial pints or 8.44 US pints, so I don't know how far off my ass/arse I am. Drinking that fine Polish stuff Zywiec, btw.

These are my favourite german wheat beers:

- Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weißbier
- Weihenstephaner Vitus (Weizenbock)
- Kuchlbauer Turm-Weisse
- Kuchlbauer Aloysius (Weizenbock)
- Schneider-Weisse Tap 4 Aventinus (Weizenbock)
- Schneider-Weisse Tap 5 Meine Hopfenweisse
- Schneider-Weisse Aventinus Eisbock (Weizenbock)
- Hacker-Pschorr Sternweisse
- Unertl Weissbier
- Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen (smoked)
- Kapuziner Weissbier

And from Belgium, these ones:

- Hoegaarden
- Hoegaarden Grand Cru
- St. Bernardus Wit
- Blanche de Namur
- Britt Blanche (from Bretagne)
- Caracole Troublette

This is my tipple of choice. Love the way it tastes. Seems to always run out in the bar I most frequent.

Thursday through Monday will be the seventh incarnation of my friend group's annual trip to his cabin in northern Wisconsin, and I'm acquiring quite the excellent haul for that stretch. Just found a 4pack of Backwoods Bastard (non-marked up, no less) and my friend's gf got me a 4pack of Central Waters Barrel-Aged Cherry Stout. Hoping I can find some cool UP breweries to hit up while we're there too.

Drinking some Deschutes Obsidian Stout, this is a damn fine beer for sure.

If you're into westcost style IPA's check out their Fresh Squeezed IPA. Shit had me feeling like I was on a tropical island.

Oohhhh that sounds nice, I'll look around for it, thanks.

How big do you like your cans?

(its average btw).

We have a bar/brewery downtown here that cans their own beer on site, as far as I know it's the only way you can get it for home consumption, and they do 32z cans. So basically one litre.

Had a few last night:

Belgian De Dolle's Easter beer, Boskeun. A pale strong Belgian with a lot of complexity, dried fruit and apricot. A very nice sipper. Great Divide's Hercules, another sipper at 10% ABV. A DIPA with a lot of hoppiness, they've got it here in surprisingly fresh condition. Lime, blackcurrant and gooseberry and not overtly sweet. The third one was an imperial stout by Porterhouse, an Irish brewery, with pubs in England as well. A rather light one with only 7.5% ABV, felt more like an imperial dry stout with all the dry roast and coffee. Good definitely, quite dry in comparison to a lot of imperial stouts.



What's the name of the place?