Toasted Lager

Toasted Lager - Blue Point Brewing Company - Long Island, NY

This beer was recommended to me by my dear friend Laura Derby. I take her opinions about beer pretty seriously, cause…well…cause I’ve seen her drink it. You know what I’m talkin’ about, Derby Derb.

The beer didn’t let me down. Good taste, Derby. I do not know what a “toasted” lager is, if it is even a real thing, but I like what this beer has going on. It is pleasantly light, sweet, and not very hoppy. In fact it is just the right amount of sweet that it makes you want just one more sip. It’s like how you can never just eat one Dorito, or one prepackaged/premade grocery store St. Patrick’s Day sugar cookie with an inch of green frosting and sprinkles on it. The beer leaves you wanting more, so good thing you probably only ordered/bought 12-16 ounces of it. Seriously, pitchers of it would be problematic because I feel like I could gulp this beer down and not take note of my consumption rate.

Perhaps this is the reason Toasted Lager has won the “World Beer Cup Gold Award.” Sounds like a good award, I wonder if they won a golden beer cup chalice trophy. Maybe they should serve this beer in a golden chalice from now on, so everyone can pretend they are in Indiana Jones drinking out of the Holy Grail. It’s that good.

This review got tangential. Just get this beer and like it.

PS - Happy New Year! May 2012 bring you many beer happy experiences.

Shiner Holiday Cheer - Guest Blog!

Holiday guest blog kindly provided by Danielle Bourguet! Thanks Danielle!!!

Spoetzle Shiner Holiday Cheer - Shiner, Texas

Foreword: Not being a literary charmer or word smith, I will attempt to entertain you as a guest blogger with juxtapositions related to the beer of subject and an emulation of the linking style of the author.

After catching up on this blog and avoiding a fairly significant decision, I was inspired to get a six pack after my bar method class this evening. Spoetzl Brewery is based in none other than, “Sveden?” you say, incorrect, Shiner, Texas. “Shiner Holiday Cheer” is the brewery’s seasonal brew. Many of you may have imbibed a beer of the Shiner legacy, with its unassuming label of non-metallic colors, reminiscent 50’s fonts, and English language and moderate price. My last Shiner experience was with their summer ale, which was brewed with ruby red grapefruit and ginger. Bizarre indeed.

I know nothing about Shiner, Texas, and chances are, neither do you, but the label has holly and stars on it. Holly, plus what I’m assuming are sunny and moderate Shiner December days seem unnatural, but let’s go with it. This seasonal is brewed with (unseasonable) peaches and pecans. While peaches are always great in concept, experience has proven them to be expensive and mealy in December, but what the hell. For technical purposes it is characterized as a Bavarian-style dark wheat (nope, no noun after that) on the neck label, an ale on the front label, and an old world dunkelweizen on the back label. Editing fail or conflicting win!

As you can see above, the color is darker than any beer I ever imagine brewed with fruit. It has a fruity peach/apple aroma with only a late hint of malt reminding you that it is indeed a beer, not a party punch served with a soup ladle. The carbonation is less than soda or any other bud-light-type beer i.e. if you drank it quickly your eyes would not water. Upon your first sip you are hit with a light and sweet peach flavor, next reminded that it is indeed a beer with some maltiness, and it finishes with a pleasantly mercurial bitter note. This is a stretch, but I may have earlier tasted some pecan flavor in the aftertaste, but 7/8 of the way through any sensation of that has vanished with the development of an incredible thirst. Assuming its high sugar content brings this on, combined with the heavier fruit flavor, I will conclude that this is one of those beers that people will say, “I can only drink one of them.” That being said, I applaud Spoetzl for not flavoring their holiday seasonal with cinnamon, firewood, reindeer, smoke, coriander, Santa, nutmeg or other cliché things. Peach might be a bit strange, but the beer is too heavy for a summer ale. Personally, I’d have two with a glass of water.

Afterword: Beer in a wine glass is a rarity for me, but I selected it as the only way to follow my empty-the-refrigerator-before-leaving-for-vacation meal of half a can of refried beans topped with cabbage and green enchilada sauce.

Tiger Lager

Tiger Lager - Singapore

This is one of those cases where the label on the bottle is what makes people buy the beer, or keep coming back to it, because it certainly doesn’t deliver any sort of special taste that I’d want to make sure I had every night after work. Except the label doesn’t make any sense? Where can tigers live where there are palm trees?? Where is this place in the world? Not counting tropical zoo locations.

I’m not reeeally trying to diss the beer, it’s a good lager, just another one that tastes like another countries version of Budweiser. There is a lot of tangy zest in each sip; in fact it is almost overwhelmingly carbonated, and to me that kind of takes away a lot of the “original flavor” the beer’s label talks about. I suppose if I were in Singapore I would order this beer, otherwise I’ll just stick with good ole Bud heavy when I feel the craving. As a wise man once said to me, “Sis, don’t you ever let people give you a hard time for ordering a Budweiser at a bar. Cause really, it tastes just fine, and it’s probably way cheaper than the beer all your friends’ are getting. They’re the suckers.”

Efes Pilsener

Efes Pilsener - Istanbul, Turkey

Alert. Green bottled beer! As mentioned in my first beer review back in September, I have a slight aversion to beers that come in green bottles. Simply put, they just never taste good to me. And I've tried, I really have...

Time to prove me wrong green bottled beer from Istanbul, don’t taste like a skunk! Upon smelling the beer my initial reaction is that this beer is not going to prove me wrong. Then once I poured it into a glass and smelled it suspiciously again…I smelled…apple cider? What? I must have stuck my nose down the wrong glass. But no, this beer smelled like apple cider. Tasted a little like apple cider too! Surprise! The fine brewers of Istanbul lace their creations with crack apples! I get 50% apple, 50% beer when I drink this one, which is a pretty splendid combination. Overall, it is a very acceptable pilsner. One that I would buy again, and then revel in the fact that it can be found in a green bottle.

PS - I blame my hatred for green bottled beers on Audrey Siple. The incident of Summer 2008 and the 6 pack of Stella Artois that came from the basement is still a, shall we say, ripe, skunky memory. Who knew a beer(s) [Audrey is gross for drinking more than one!] could stink up an entire house and an entire memory.

Beerlao Dark

Beerlao Dark - Lao Brewery Company, Laos

My first Asian beer for the blog! I do not have much experience with Asian beers so this was an exciting find. It was especially interesting because it is a “dark lager”, something that is not commonly seen on the shelves here...I think...at least by me.

I was confused if this beer was more like a porter rather than a lager, but I soon found out it matches with the latter. It’s also interesting because this beer smells like day old beer - you know like a living room the day after a house party. Stale and crusty. But it doesn’t taste like it smells! Pretty much it tastes like an ordinary lager…except it’s darker in color. I suppose there is a hint of some extra maltiness in it, but it’s really nothing special. Just a beer. From Laos. NBD. Maybe if you wanted to pretend that you like dark beers (but you really don't) you can buy this and act like a pretentious, 'I prefer to drink dark beers', person. No one will be able to tell, and you will accomplish your goal of 'fitting in'. Or, maybe you should just go hang out with the Dos Equis guy. He is cooler anyway.

Guest Berlog - Jordan Albrite

Probably the first of many guest posts by Jordan! Since she was, after all, the co-conspirator of Beer June, the event that led me to create this blog. And I have all 20 of her Beer June journal entries...So thanks for letting me post this without your permission Jordan! You da best. Let's see what Jordan has to say in her eloquent Jordanian style...

PS - I don't get why this text is highlighted in white and I can't seem to fix it. My absorbent amounts of free time do not want to deal with this problem right now, so we'll have to deal with it.

Zyweic Original - Poland Prized!

First impressions: This little number immediately jumped out from the Beers of the World box set because of its excellent label: Polish men and women in gargantuan hats dancing atop punctuation I don’t recognize? Yes, please. But its charm wore off a bit when I realized the label did not allow for easy peeling (by far my favorite beer-related pass time), and continued to diminish when I could only describe the smell as "mildly fratty". The verdict: While Zyweic is proudly Poland's #1 (!), it is not mine. I wrote down "dinner?" for flavor, eventually realizing that it tasted suspiciously like veggie burger, i.e., what I consumed immediately before my Zyweic. While overall inoffensive, I feel like my beer should be able to drown out my burgur, no?

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale

Lagunitas - A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale – Petaluma, California

“Life is Uncertain. Don’t Sip.” Is written on the label for this beer; along with a scantily clothed woman of some sort and the cap has…a dog on it? I’m all confused about the message this beer is trying to get across. Scantily clothed women like dogs? Anyways, it is a very golden brew, with a LOT of hops. I tend to shy away from really hoppy beers normally, but there is something different about this one that makes it very drinkable for me. It has a really strong taste at first as it rumbles around your mouth, overwhelming the taste buds a bit, but the after taste is very light. This is a great summer beer for that reason, and I would definitely buy it again or order it at a bar if I saw it! As a wise man once said, “This is a serious beer.”