Hmm, wasn’t that Bud’s slogan?

You can see what else Pattyn had to say here:

Post from: EveryJoe

Quel Surprise! Belgian Beer Expert Doesn’t Like Budweiser

So, today I arrived in Germany – and promptly decided to go to France! More correctly, I decided to take a quick day trip to the Alsace region of France to see what’s left of the once proud brewing heritage of this past pawn in the power struggles between Germany and France

Now, I had a serious language barrier, as I speak very little French. Since it was a last minute sort of decision, I had also done absolutely no research on the city or its beer scene whatsoever, adding to the challenge. Fortunately, I did stumble across a small brewpub by the name of Kohler Rehm (site in French only) just in time for lunch and a beer. As you can see from the site, they’re not exactly flooded with English speaking waitstaff, which means I could barely get myself a beer, let alone find out what kind of beer I was ordering. This beer list would have helped.

In any event, the first beer was clearly the Blanche, a Belgian-style wheat beer. Now, I’m not a huge fan of that style, but the citrus taste wasn’t overpowering so it was a nice beer for a hot day, and it matched the cheese plate nicely. As an aside, the cheese plate was very good, even the stinky cheese with cumin sprinkled on top (as you can see, the language barrier extended to the cheeses as well).

The second beer is more of a challenge – I think it was the J.B.K., but I unfortunately have no idea what that means. I have a bottle which I brought back from the restaurant, so I’ll try it again in an attempt to figure it out, but it’s a darker amber color than the Blanche and doesn’t have the unfiltered haze. Whatever it was, it was fairly mild, without a lot of hop flavor, and I preferred it to the Blanche (unsurprisingly).

If you’ve tried the beers, or if you know what JBK means, let us know!

photo by Chris Erb

Post from: EveryJoe

Do the French even brew beer?

As my wife and co-blogger mentioned, we went out for dinner the other night without kids! For those too young to know, that’s a very exciting thing to us parental types.

In any event, I was pleased to note that the restaurant, already discussed in this post, had a number of beers from the Belgian farmhouse brewery Dupont, including the highly regarded Saison and the relatively rare Blond ale. In one of those rare moments of luck, I ordered the Saison Dupont, which was quite tasty, and my wife ordered the Foret Blond, which she preferred (and which I didn’t find on Dupont’s beer list). I thought the blond was a little bland, not to be punny about it. In any event, both were good.

Brewery Dupont is a bit of an oddity in the brewing world, in that it is one of those rare farmhouse breweries which remains more or less right where it started in 1844, in a farmhouse located in rural Belgium. In addition to traditional Belgian bottle-fermented ales, Dupont also has a range of organic beers. For those who will be in Belgium any time soon, there’s also a bakery and what they term a “cheese-makery.” Do we have a better word for that? In other words, they’re doing just about everything I’d want to do if I had a farmhouse and enough cash to sustain me.

In any event, I’ll be near Belgium next week, but doubt I’ll make it over for a tour, so I’ll just have to be satisfied with the beer for now. Dupont fans, try it and let me know what you think!

image from Wikipedia, public domain

Post from: EveryJoe

’tis the Saison

Lighter than the Lenten Doppelbocks (known as Starkbier in the south), the Maibock still has some kick at 6 plus percent alcohol. It’s nice beer to welcome in spring. The traditional Maibock is that from Einbeck, in the north of Germany, but US microbreweries are also brewing fine Maibocks for the season. Two which come to mind are Stoudt’s and Smuttynose, although there are many others to choose from.

Check out your local Maibock and let us know what you think.

Post from: EveryJoe

Names are funny

This past Sunday was not the warmest of days, but after a long walk in the local arboretum with my three small children I was hankering for a beer on the porch and some moments of relative peace. My beer of choice? Gaffel Kölsch, and for whatever reason it was just the right thing. As you can see from the picture above, Kölsch is served in a tiny, straight-walled glass, which makes it devilishly difficult to keep track of how many you’ve had.

I’ve long associated Kölsch with the warm, summer days which accompanied my first trip to that city. A friend and I stayed in the south of the city, with his family, and rode bikes up the Rhine River to some of the many outdoor Kölsch bars which can be found in the city. In the evening, more bars and more Kölsch, all of which made for a very good trip.

Kölsch is a light, mildly hoppy beer which tastes and looks like a light-colored lager but which is actually an ale. For more on the Kölsch style and culture, check out this article or, for those who really like Kölsch, this one. For more tasting notes on Gaffel Kölsch try this post.

Image from Chris Erb, apologies to Sion (for putting Gaffel in their glass) and Gaffel (for not having a Gaffel glass to use instead of the Sion glass)

Post from: EveryJoe

A taste of Cologne

In had a few beers the other night, but the one I remember enjoying most is the Nugget Nectar from Tröegs. It’s a very tasty beer, with a very slight sweetness – almost as though there’s a tiny hint of honey in it. Now, I’m not much for overly sweet beers, this was a very tasty beer. The folks at Tröegs label it an Imperial Amber Ale, other sites simply refer to it as an IPA, but it’s definitely not your standard IPA.

The beers from Tröegs are consistently good, so we’ll be planning a trip to the Harrisburg PA area soon to try some more.

image from Tröeg’s website.

Post from: EveryJoe

Nectar of the Gods

The first is the vintage ale, which to be honest has a vintage taste about it. It’s not overly hoppy, and has very little head, but it was a tasty enough brew.

The second was the stout, which was quite good for a non-pub draft stout.

I wouldn’t hesitate to have either of these brews if I happened to be in Australia. While I wouldn’t call either of them remarkable, I’d certainly buy them again.

Post from: EveryJoe

Beers from Oz

Now, last time I checked 10 days is actually more than a week, which is good for me since I’ll be out of town. Beer week starts on March 7 and ends March 16, so check it out.

Post from: EveryJoe

Philadelphia beer week

Now, the not as good bits
- It is crowded, which means a wait to get in and a wait to use the restroom
- You shouldn’t drive – ever – as four hours of prepaid beer is quite dangerous otherwise
- Some of pourers don’t know a lot about their beers, although most do
- It’s way too crowded to take notes, so I recall very little of what I tasted.

Two pleasant surprises were the Erie Brewing Company and Lagunitas, a brewery out of California. Of course, local stalwarts such as Stoudt’s and Victory were pouring good beers as well, although I was surprised not to see Flying Fish or the new Philadelphia Brewing Company. For more on the festival (and my fair city’s increasing status as a center of beer tasting, if not brewing) check out this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Of course, with Philly Beer Week starting soon there will be lots to write (and I’ll be out of the country for most of it!).

Anyone else find something special at the Craft Beer Festival?

Post from: EveryJoe

Philadelphia Craft Beer Festival

Some time ago a few friends and I did a head-to-head comparison of a number of lovely Munich Starkbiers in honor of the end of Lent, and the winner was – Korbinian!

I’ll write a little more about Starkbier later, but you should know that the traditional Munich Starkbiers are all named with names which end in -ator. Korbinian is an exception to this rule, and it isn’t even the beer its brewer, Weihenstephan, mentions with respect to the season known as the “fifth season.” For those of us who tasted it, the winner was clear.
My ranking of the beers we had, for what it’s worth, is as follows:

1. Korbinian (Weihenstefan, a nice balance of heft and taste, with a pleasantly subtle sweetness)
2. Celebrator (Aying, tasty but somehow lacking in comparison to the number 1. A little thinner in taste)
3. Optimator (Spaten, too much heft for my taste, we all agreed one was enough for a single sitting)
4. Salvator (Paulaner, lighter in body and taste than the others, with a lot more sweetness)
5. St Victorious (Victory, I love many of their beers but this wasn’t one of their best efforts. Like the Celebrator mixed with water, too little body for this style)

Post from: EveryJoe

Battle of the Starkbiers