Beers Abroad

Woah, it's been a while since I've updated. Life gets busy sometimes - specifically when you're traveling abroad for a month or so. I'm over in Aberdeen, Scotland, which is pretty damn cool.

Weirdly, they don't have a ton of beers over here. They tend to have a lot of british style bitters or IPAs, neither of which are my favorite. Still, there are a couple good fallbacks. Also, for some reason all their beers on tap are under 5% abv - anybody know if thats a local law or something?

The other weird thing is their focus on cold. I've always heard that a good british beer is best served chilled, but not cold. However, they have extra cold taps of Guinness, Fosters, and a couple other beers. They also serve their ciders on ice, which makes me feel like I'm drinking ginger ale.

So, the beers. Generally over here, they have the usual standbys - Budweiser, Carlsberg, Strongbow, and Fosters. They also have a local brew, Tennants, but these are all pretty much the same ubiquitous light macro beer. Not a huge fan of any of them, so thankfully they have a few others.

They also have Guinness, Belhaven's Best, and Magner's cider. Guinness is a little overrated - as stout's go it's pretty basic. On the other hand, it's consistently and reliably tasty - think the yuengling of stouts. Plus they can draw nifty shapes in the head.

Belhaven's Best is pretty darn good - it's a cream ale that's pleasantly light. It's not a really strong flavor, but the beer is very creamy and refreshing, with just your average malty flavor. Still, it's one of the better beers on tap.

My other option is Magner's cider. Known in Ireland as Bullmers, everywhere else in the world it's called Magners. It's a very dry cider, and deliciously crisp. I'm occasionally frowned upon for getting a girly drink at the pub, but I love this cider and feel no shame.

That's all for now - hopefully I'll find some other interesting Scottish beers to write about. Til then, Cheers!

Free beer is usually the best beer

so, I had the pleasure of drinking way more than usual this weekend, but in nice moderation. Friday night was the usual bars, going to Pub Dog for their tasty beer and pizza. Apparently their new seasonal isn't out yet, but I'm intrigued to try it when it comes out, whatever it is.

Saturday, a local wine store, Iron Bridge Wine Company, had a big wine sale, complete with free tastings and free food. I really like Iron Bridge, because their tastings allow you to see what kind of wines you line, and they place them on a scale of weaker to stronger, and have very knowledgeable staff on hand. I found out that I need to find more Grenache and Cote Du Rhone wines to try.

After that, it was over to perhaps the best local liquor store, The Perfect Pour. This place has literally the best beer selection that I've ever seen anywhere. It is ridiculous how much beer they have. They were also having a tasting, and were featuring Woodchuck's spring cider, and Fraoch's 20th Anniversary Ale.

Woodchuck's spring cider was just awful in my opinion. It is supposed to have a sort of mead influence, but it comes off like a bouquet of flowers dipped in too much honey - It didn't taste like a cider at all. It was sugary to the point of horror, and just really not my thing. My friends didn't mind it as much, but yikes. Not for me.

Fraoch is a Scottish brewing company which I'd never heard of before. However, clearly I was missing out, as their 20th Anniversary Ale is a Heather Ale, aged in Speyside whiskey casks and was *delicious*. It had a nice heather/herb/hoppy flavor, but was subtley smokey as well. Really enjoyed it, hoping to find more offerings in this vein.

Sadly, Saturday was not an adventurous beer night, especially with a bunch of bombers chilling back at my apartment - we settled for a 12-pack of Sam Adams mixed styles, which was nice, and Yuengling's special release Bock.

Yuengling's Bock was actually really tasty. Like most of their offerings, it's not really complex or adventurous, but that's not what you look for in Yuengling. It was tasty and dark without being heavy, and was extremely drinkable. Yuengling is that nice middle class - ridiculously better than Bud or Miller, but not as expensive as Sam Adams or other starter craft beers.

In summary - the woodchuck was cloying, the fraoch was delicious, and the yuengling was tasty and enjoyable, in the most relaxing way. Try the yuengling if you're grabbing a case for a night of movies or cards, and grab the Fraoch if you're looking for something new and interesting.

Holiday drinks

I had a fantastic thanksgiving weekend, highlighted by a small shindig with a few friends. Sort of a post-thanksgiving get together, we ate, we drank, we played card games, and had a good time. Also, The Irish made his signature bread pudding, which is basically diabetes in pure form. Stark came with some gross cherry wine, and The Culinator helped cook the whole thing. It rocked.

It also gave me a chance to try several Sam Adams beers I've been wanting to get my hands on, but had to wait a whole year since I forgot about them last year.

Sam Adams is far and away one of my favorite breweries, with palatable yet interesting beers in almost every possible variety. I especially enjoy their cream stout, scotch ale, and white ale, but more on those later.

This particular evening, I got to try Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic, Holiday Porter, and Old Fezziwig.

The Cranberry Lambic tasted (shockingly) of cranberries, and was interesting. Sadly, it is a wheat beer, which I'm just not a huge fan of. The cranberry kept getting washed out by the wheat, and it just didn't sit with me that well. I'm not sure I'd have this again, just because the wheat flavor was so uninteresting, and the cranberry wasn't strong enough.

The Holiday Porter was excellent, on the other hand. It tasted of caramel and dark chocolate, but rather than being thick like a stout it was surprisingly light. A delicious dark beer, it provided a nice sipping beer, but I can see it pairing well with a desert.(didn't get to try it with one, as it ran out almost immediately). Definitely something I'd like to have more of, so I wish it didn't only come in the winter mix pack.

Old Fezziwig is the toughest to decide on. It's a winter warmer, a style of ale that I've never had before. It's spiced like a wit beer or a Belgian ale, with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. The end result is something like a Christmas spice cake, which is tasty, but was kind of odd. Can't really imagine doing anything other than drinking it by itself due to it's flavor profile, but I really feel like it was begging a complimentary flavor of some sort to complete it. Interesting, and I'd drink it again, but not too often.

I also got to have some Woodchuck 802. Woodchuck, as I've mentioned before, makes delicious cider. Their 802, named for the area code where they harvest the apples, is their best variety. Smokey and crisp, it's a deliciously dry cider, that is pleasantly sweet and a little tart. It is probably my favorite cider over all, and always something I enjoy having. Definitely try this if you like cider.

Also, I picked up a 10-pack of Ommegang beers, and am so very excited to give them a whirl. Hooray incredibly expensive craft beer!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

P.S. - Also appearing at the shindig were Sparrow, Hooah, Mrs. Satan, Napoleon, and The Girlfriend. Not so much important, as convenient for me to write down all their nicknames now and just have them for my reference.

A Halloween to Remember

Oh how I love Halloween. I won't regale you with too many tales; save to say you're never too old to scare the crap out of children and eat delicious candy.

On to the alcohol! I had the good fortune of trying a lot of different things this weekend. From absinthe (liquory licorice, eugghhh) to limoncello, from bad wine called "vampire" to jello shots that were about 49% vodka. Really though, nothing terribly important to result. Most of it was pungent, tasted like a sucker punch, and left me begging for chaser.

My wonderful friend Stark hosted a shindig during which she served many of her fruity and delicious infusions. Her apple cinnamon is one of the better liquers I've had, but many of her others were too alcoholic for my pansified tastes. Sue me, but I don't have much love for hard liquor or cheap vodka. (although good whiskey has it's charms)

But the beer, oh the beer.

First thing first, I will eventually get around to writing about Woodchuck. They make delicious ciders, in many, many varietals. They have a decent amber, a horrific pear/fall seasonal, a fascinating granny smith, and a delicious dark and dry. However, those all will have to come later, because this is about their Oak Aged.

It tasted sweeter than a lot of ciders, but had a nice crisp taste with a deliciously fruity finish. My favorite part was a dark, rich taste that permeated the whole drink (the oak no doubt, in effect). Overall I rather enjoyed it, finding it to be one of their better ciders.

I also had the good fortune to try a bottle of Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. Rogue is a brewery I know precious little about, but have heard nothing but rave reviews. Look for me to try many many more of their offerings in the coming months.

Their Dead Guy Ale was powerful and complex, not a beer to be trifled with. This is no Sunday afternoon watching the game, drinking a bud kind of beer. This beer perplexed me, teased me, rebuked me, and delighted me, all throughout the course of an evening. The ale itself was light enough to be pleasantly drinkable, but not lacking a quantum of flavor. A very impressive beer, which deserves more analysis.

Halloween was an excellent adventure, and I picked up another stout to try from an old favorite, Belhaven. More on it as I try it, that's all for now.

-The Unabashed Ungourmet.