Those Debaucherous Belgians

I picked up a bottle of Rosé de Gambrinus in Paris. It was pretty exciting as I have not had this one before. Unlike the Kriek, this one is fermented again with raspberries so I was expecting something rather tart and mouth puckering. It was that to be sure but I did not think it was anywhere near as sour as the Kriek or Gueuze. In fact, this might be a perfect introduction to the world of sour beer. It's full of tart raspberry, plum, and lemon sherbet. It all comes together perfectly and the sourness keeps your palate entertained. The fact that there was a fair bit of residual sweetness compared to other Cantillon beers means that a first time drinker of sour beer will not run away screaming.
And the label is just awesome.

Stout face off

I actually had proper glassware and beer mats for this, well one beer mat at least. Since Trouble Brewing now bottle, and their lovely Dark Arts porter is available, I thought I should put it to the test and compare it to good ole reliable O'Hara's stout.
This is no blind tasting, this is just a side by side to see what's what.
At 4.3% and 4.4% they are pretty much the same strength. On pouring I noticed an immediate difference in head. The O'Hara's had one for a start while Dark Arts disappeared in a puff of voodoo magic. In fact it was gone before I could turn the camera on. The aroma is also different with O'Hara's having a more lactic sourness with coffee chocolate and caramel. Dark Arts was dominated by chocolate, and more like milk chocolate or at least a weak dark chocolate like Bournville, less coffee and plenty of caramel. It smells sweeter. The taste is also quite different, in fact it seems they do a bit of a switch. From the aroma I would think Dark Arts will be sweeter and O'Hara's more bitter but I found the opposite was true. O'Hara's had a more lactic sourness as I expected and more coffee with lashings of toffee. Dark Arts had a sort of woody vanilla start which progressed to bitter dark chocolate (nothing like the aroma) and some coffee in the middle. Towards the end, a slight sourness came through but it was not as evident as O'Hara's.

As many times as I have had both these beers, I have never tried them side by side so it was great to see them being quite different. I do not have a clear favourite as both are beautiful. I think at a push, if both were on tap I would take Dark Arts because I know that to be better on tap. In bottle they are on a par and I can't decide between them. And don't even ask me about cask, the only time they are ever available on cask at the same time is at beer festivals. Maybe I will try a little side by side at the Winter Ales and Cask Festival in a couple of weeks. This is what I thought of it last year.

For readers outside of Ireland, O'Hara's is quite easily available* in many countries. Even on cask as far away as the USA. Dark Arts might be harder to get as it's a much smaller brewery and bottling is a recent development for them.

*as far as Irish craft beer availability abroad goes.

K9

I remember years ago a movie called K9. Then there was a sort of sequel called K9000, a TV movie that had none of the original cast. In fact it may not have been a sequel at all in the same way that Highlander 2 was really not a sequel to Highlander. It was just bizzare stuff altogether. It looks like Jim Belushi came back and did a few more sequels in more recent years though. Sorry I guess I'm in movie mode as I saw two movies at the cinema last night. Haywire (excellent) and Underworld: Awakening in 3D. The latter was an enjoyable way to kill 89 minutes while waiting for my wife to finish her late shift.
Anyway, moving on to the beer. Unlike the original K9 movie, which was fun and harmless, the K-9 Cruiser is a little boring and; well I suppose not harmless at 7.4%. The aroma is full of caramel malt, orange and a sort of effervescent fizz. On tasting, the orange rears it's head in the form of bitter orange pith. In fact it's extremely bitter all around and begs the question, is this really only 30IBU? That's 7 less than bog standard Sierra Nevada pale ale and this seems far more intense. Overall the bitter orange drowns out anything else that might be interesting in the beer.  My advice, forget the seasonal and pick up one of the many other excellent Flying Dog beers available.

Bracia

Weird is the word that sums up this beer. Bracia from Thornbridge is a 10% dark ale with honey, and not just any honey either. It uses honey specifically from the foothills of the Italian Alps. It pours like a stout, pretty much black with a large tan head.
The aroma is one of peat, bubblegum, lavender and liquorice. A very interesting bouquet to be sure. It is possibly the most flavoursome beer I have ever had, certainly in terms of conflicting flavours screaming for attention. I found it had an oily yet fluffy mouthfeel. Coffee, peat, vanilla, dark fruits, honey and perhaps a little nuttiness. It's all a bit weird but you know what? I liked it. Certainly as a once off beer it's interesting but I don't see the a market other than a one off. I'm not sure who would drink this on a regular basis but then, is it meant for that? I suspect this might do well with a little age added to the bottle. Maybe next year I will find a bottle on a shelf that has been sitting there for a year and try it again to see how it has matured.

Vice Versa

I came across another Thornbridge beer that I had not had yet so I decided to give it a go. Versa is a weisse beer, something that's usually hard to get excited about, however sometimes you come across a real gem that surprises you. This is not one of those unfortunately. It's a wheat beer and that's about as much as I can say. Some clove and banana, a little extra spice and some bubblegum. There is a little sourness which I like in a wheat beer.
I think the conclusion here is that Thornbridge brewed the beer for the sake of having a German style wheat beer. It's a solid and well made beer but nothing that makes me want to buy it over a German import like Schneider, though certainly I would take it over Erdinger and maybe a Franziskaner.

I do have a slightly more interesting Thornbridge beer to write about soon.

Beer For Hobbits - Harrington's

Only my second time drinking beer from a New Zealand brewery. Harrington's in Christchurch has been brewing beer since 1991. So 20 years on and they still seem to be going strong, well if managing to get their beers to all the way to Ireland is anything to go by they are.


The Rogue Hop is an organic Pilsner according to the bottle. It's a nice and refreshing beer, citrus in the form of grapefruit and lemon along with the cereal and hay like malt backbone. It's a good solid brew, but not a patch on Mac's Hop Rocker to my tastes.

Far more pleasing to me was Classy Red which as the name suggests is a red coloured ale but is of course an ESB. They use 5 malts in this, the sort of number I tend to use in my homebrew as I like interesting malt combinations. It shows because there is a strong malt backbone of sweet caramel that's balanced with lovely tropical and citrus notes from the hops with a bitter finish. My only complaint would be that it's too fizzy for my liking but then that's how they like it in the southern hemisphere.

I would say hands down that this is probably their best beer, at least of the three I tasted.

On the other hand, Wobbly Boot is pretty much as the name suggests. A little unsteady on it's feet. There is nothing much wrong it it mind, it's just not too interesting. It's a porter so you get the expected coffee notes, though it does seem to have a bit more coffee than your average porter. Caramel and dark chocolate as well as you would expect. I think the only reason I'm not a little more impressed is that again, the carbonation is like that of a lager. It's just too gassy, especially for this type of beer.


A big kudos to Harrington's for 20 years in the business to be sure but especially for their website. It's not the best or prettiest website I have seen but they do allow users to rate their beer on the website itself. It's just a star rating but at least it's something. It's interesting that the lowest rated beer on their site is called Sobering Thought, a 1% beer originally brewed for the cast of Lord of the Rings so they could act and drink without falling over hobbits and now available. I'm kind of curious to try this one. That's the nerd in me talking.

Czech face off - Blind tasting

Two icons in the lager brewing world. This is the first time I have done a blind tasting at home. My wife did the honours in the kitchen while I sat watching TV. Both beers went in to identical Pilsner Urquell glasses*, the only difference being what's written on them but I did not know which one was poured in to which. Shown in the picture in order, beer 1 on the left turned out to be Pilsner Urquell and of course beer 2 on the right was Budvar or Budweiser (Czechvar in the US) but for the sake of not confusing it with the inferior American muck, I will refer to it as Budvar.

I have never had these iconic beers within months of each other, let alone on the same night but I was fairly sure I would be able to tell them apart. I was less sure about which I would pick as my favourite. The first thing I noticed was the difference in colour. I have never seen the beers side by side but one beer was very pale compared to the other. I suspected that Budvar was the paler beer. Yes that makes it not a 100% blind tasting but the colour did not matter to me as I have never noticed the colour of either before.
I moved on to the aroma and there was a sharp difference in aroma which was interesting. There was a stronger sense of cereal and biscuit and more hops in beer 1.
On tasting it was clear that beer 1 is Pilsner Urquell, you can't mistake the sheer amount of Saaz and combined with the stronger caramel malts backbone. Beside it, Budvar tasted like a Kölsch. It's a lot more delicate and seemed to have a little honey sweetness.

It was clear that Pilsner Urquell (beer 1) was my favourite. I figured  beforehand that I would probably like it better but I could not say that for certain until I tried them side by side.

Not a very enlightening or exciting test mind, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I'm curious though, would the result be different from a tap? I doubt it but I bet the flavour from the beer is different. In fact I reckon a blind taste test between either or both of these beers in bottle and keg would be interesting. I suspect the kegged version would be superior.

The point of the exercise was not to find out which is the better beer, they are both excellent beers. The fact that I prefer Pilsner Urquell is simply because I prefer a more bitter beer. I'm rather partial to Budvar Dark more so than their regular pale lager but their standard lager is a lovely beer as well, especially if you want something a little less harsh and would prefer a more delicate drop.

I think the main point was to see just how much of a difference there is. Neither of these beers are just pale yellow fizz. They could not be more different to be honest.


* I have since knocked over and broken one of my Pilsner Urquell glasses. That made me sad.