Bock Damm

Bock Damm Negra Munich (5.4% abv) is a dark lager from Spain’s Damm Brewery. I picked up this can from a Spar Express just off Le Parle’l in the red light district of Barcelona! The beer leans more towards an American dark lager than the Munich lager it aspires to be, and the initial taste is of roast flavours although this passes through to mild bitterness and a really thin body. It also has a slight carbonic bite to it and is quite gassy. The website for this beer is slightly comical, and claims that you must drink the beer in a ceramic stein etc, and has pictures of Munich circa 1888. Overall this is a very peculiar beer and my first Spanish beer experience…. Lets hope that the rest are as unusual and interesting.
Oh yeah, the official website is: http://www.bockdamm.com/

Abbot Ale

I had this one last Friday afternoon whilst at the Lloyds bar at Gatwick Airport en route to Barcelona, Spain. Abbot Ale (5% abv) falls into the Special/Premium Bitter category and is brewed by Greene King. The beer looks quite impressive in the glass being a nice deep amber colour and has a nice initial caramel sweetness but then not much else. I tend to find this a trait with all Greene King beers though as I suspect that they are pretty much mass brewed. If this beer was more exciting I would have more to write about but as its kind of boring I may just leave it there!

Vratislav Lager

The third and last beer i picked up from my Tesco run was Vratislav lager, which is a Czech Pils brewed especially for Tesco. The beer was ok, but again it was by no means a good Pilsner and didnt have that combination of malt and hops that makes up a good example of a Bohemian pils. The beer was thin and tasted like all "Bottled for Tesco" lagers do.
Some of the ideal tastes were like a good whack of diacteyl (buttery taste) but again it has the tinny, chemical tase that plagues cheap lager. I found another review on it here which i have reproduced below.

This is brewed and bottled in Bohemia for Tesco, the UK supermarket chain. [Brewery name kindly provided by David Wheldon.] The nose consists lots of hops, very characteristic of a pilsner, with a buttery quality and some strange washing powder notes. On the palate it is quite fizzy (carbon dioxide is added to the brew). The hops (Saaz?) produce a pleasing bitterness, but it is quite refreshing and the buttery notes from the nose reappear in the mouth, along with hints of lemon. There is a slight tinny taste in the back of the throat towards the finish. Aftertaste is again hoppy, with some light malt. All in all, not a bad effort, especially for the price - definitely a cut above the mass-market brigade.

Black Sheep Ale

Along with the Bergenbier I picked up in my Tesco run I also picked up some Black Sheep, a 4.4% abv bitter. Black Sheep Ale is an excellent example of a Yorkshire bitter. It pours a nice amber colour, isn’t overpowered by hop aroma but allows the subtle hops to come through with the taste. It is has a slightly sweet and malty taste as it first passes your lips and finishes with a strong dry bitter finish. I really enjoyed this beer and will definitely pick it up. The Local Tesco does not have much in the way of Yorkshire bitters which is a pity as I think they are more in tune with my palette than London brewed ales.
Here is some promo stuff I found for the beer.

"Beers for bottling are drawn from brewery conditioning tanks and transported by road tanker to our bottlers. There they are chilled, stored for ten days, then filtered and bottled. At the end of the bottling process, the bottles are pasteurised, labelled and packed.""Brewed with many generous handfuls of choice Golding hops, it is full flavoured ale with a rich fruit nose. The bittersweet malty taste is followed by an uncompromising long, dry and bitter finish. This beer was the first, most successful, of all of our bottled beers."

Bergenbier

I have been busy lately and as a result have a bit of a backlog of beers to write up!
I’ll continue to work in chronological order to clear the backlog and this leads me to Bergenbier (5% abv) from Romania. I have to admit that this is the first beer from Romania that I have had the privilege of drinking and I have indecisive news to convey. The beer itself is pretty inoffensive, it doesn’t really have a lot of taste and basically it’s ok. It is a good example of generic pilsner rip off, where they use adjuncts to cheapen th brewing process. But, I cannot fault this beer, it’s got a clean crisp taste and doesn’t have the chemically aftertaste that a lot of cheap lagers have. Overall, this beer is ok as a Tesco pickup novelty, but I wouldn’t buy a case of it.

Amstel - 2

And again another second review. This Amstel was consumed at the Kings Arms a whole 24 hours after my first Amstel experience and I can’t really comment to much besides saying that my thoughts are confirmed. Apparently they had run out of Budvar? This Amstel was similar to the Bush Bar and Grill Amstel in that it tasted just like generic Australian Lager. I wonder if Amstel is brewed in larger quantities than VB or Carlton draught? Is it super swill or just plain old mega swill? Amstel is one beer I wish I could send back to the Netherlands! Oh yeah, you can read my first impressions here.

SAusage!

Guinness - 2

Whilst at the Kings Arms I was also persuaded to have a pint of Guinness. This was the regular variety and not the Extra Cold variation. Once again I was satisfied with this beer, but it didn’t inspire me? I think living in London I get spoiled with such great examples of porters and ales that sometimes style defining beers get left by the wayside for more ‘crafted’ brews? Anyhow I reviewed Guinness a couple of weeks ago; I even found a cool little I like to watch video. You can read about it here.

Budvar

Ok I managed to have a few beers at the Kings Arms and the second one on the list was Budvar, which is the original Budweiser from Budějovický in the Czech Republic. Unlike its other Budweiser namesake this is an excellent example of what a proper Czech Pilsner should be. The beer is a deep amber colour with mild carbonation, it is very bitter which is balanced by a strong malt profile and is finished with saaz hops. This beer is best on a hot summer’s day but didn’t disappoint in the January cold. The beer is 5% abv which sees pretty standard for a lager these days. I don’t know why there isn’t a larger variation in alcohol percentages 5%but it seems to be the norm. Here is a bit of history about the brewery;

According to the brewery, King Otakar II of Bohemia granted independent brewers in the city of Budweis the right to produce beer as early as 1265. They did so in a style that became known as "Budweiser," much as beers brewed in the fashion of another Czech city, Plzeň (German: Pilsen), are referred to as "Pilsner". In 2002, Budějovický Budvar set up a subsidiary company in the UK, Budweiser Budvar UK Limited, and saw a dramatic rise in sales for Budweiser Budvar in the UK, where the brand gained far wider distribution. In early 2007, Anheuser-Busch and Budvar reached an agreement that stated that A-B would market Budvar/Czechvar in the United States and several other countries for an undisclosed fee. However, both sides stated that this did not affect their lawsuits.

Ruddles County

Ruddles County (4.7% abv) is a premium bitter found in some pubs and just about every supermarket in the UK. I had the pleasure of my pint at a gastro pub called “The Kings Arms” just around the corner from Tower Bridge in SE1. The pub itself sold excellent burgers but the beer options were a little lacking. Ruddles Ales is an independent brewery that is now part of the Greene King Empire, and I think the Kings Arms may be a Greene King tied house as the ales were Greene king IPA and Ruddles County. The beer is dry and bitter with a unique hoppy taste. I am going to be bold and claim that its hopped with Brambling Cross? The beer also has some roasting notes, but more on the caramel end of the spectrum than the roast barley end. Overall it was a decent pint but just not anything special.

Amstel

The lager streak continued as i went to the "Bush Bar and Grill" on Goldhawk Road for dinner last Friday night. Now this is a pretty pretentious bar that is crawling with BBC and wannabe media types. They have a restaurant adjacent which serves out reasonable food. Ok the food was awesome, but we really want to hear about the beer! To satisfy my thirst I had a quick geez at the beer options and was disgusted to find that the only thing worth drinking was Amstel.
Amstel is a bland and boring lager that tastes quite similar to mainstream Australian Lagers such as VB and Toohey’s New. I say this because it has that chemically tang aftertaste that plagues Australian mega swill. This beer had been brewed in Holland though, with Amstel beer being named after the Amstel river which runs into Amsterdam. The brewery has a long and equally boring history, but to cut to the chase it is now owned and brewed by Heineken (see my Heineken entry here). To put it short, desperate times come to desperate measures!

Kingfisher

Kingfisher (4.8% abv) is another Indian Lager which I suspect is also made in the UK. Again it is billed as a “Premium” lager which I think everything that comes out of India claims to be! It is kind of bland and plane after having the Cobra, and didn’t really have the nice firm bitterness that the Cobra had. A little bit of background is supplied below from the Kingfisher website. An Indian mate always raved about UB which stands for United Brewery’s and apparently they brew kingfisher as well??

The inspiration for the choice of brand name was certainly influenced by the great numbers of these beautiful and strikingly coloured birds which abound in India where over 70 different varieties/species of kingfisher can be found - more than in any other country or continent in the world.Kingfishers are particularly prevalent in Bangalore, the garden city of India, which is also headquarters to The United Breweries Group, brand owners of Kingfisher Lager. The new distinctive Kingfisher brand logo incorporates a visual of an Indian Kingfisher. From modest beginnings where Kingfisher Lager's distribution was somewhat confined to Southern India, it has grown to become India's leading brand of premium lager with share now approaching 36% of the total beer market.The brand is owned by the UB Group of India, a multi-divisional conglomerate operating in over 20 countries across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Far East.UB Group activities include pharmaceuticals, engineering, fertilisers and information technology, but its traditional and core business is in the drinks sector where beer and spirits divisions dominate the market with famous lager brands such as Kingfisher, UB Export and Kalyani and numerous category leaders under the Mc Dowell and Herbertson spirits brands.For the UB Group, brewing was where it all began and the history of the group is synonymous with the history of beer in India.

Cobra

While I was over brick lane way last week I also stopped into one of the famed curry houses for a bit to eat. Ok well I had more than a bite but I also had a couple of beers to go with it! The first was Cobra (5% abv) which claims to be the best beer in India, but I suspect that my pint was brewed much closer to home! The beer is a nice bitter lager and doesn’t leave any nasty chemical like aftertaste which some generic cheap lagers can give you. This may be why it is billed as a ‘premium’ lager? But that doesn’t really mean very much when it comes in a cheap curry house. This beer was nice and refreshing and hit the spot just right with a nice korma. The bitterness was very pleasant and stood up to the heat of the curry nicely. I think this is now my preferred curry house beer.

Fuller's ESB

What’s not to like about ESB?? I happened to have the good fortune of getting a top pint of this at a little pub of Brick Lane called ‘The Pride of Spitalfield” which is a tiny little grimy east end boozer. Despite the fact that I though I was going to get lynched because I was dressed rather nicely (having come from work) and wasn’t wearing any chav-wear this pub is OK. I proclaimed loudly that I am only here for the beer and the mob settled down a bit! ESB is a sensational beer and alongside Fuller’s London Porter round off the flagship for the Fuller’s brewery. It’s a strong beer at 5.9% and will catch up with you if you endeavour to take it on as a session beer. It is exceptionally well balanced with a strong malty profile which doesn’t overpower the firm bitterness and subtle fruitiness of the beer. Anyway I won’t write too much as I’m sure I will have more than a few of these over the course of the future!

Heineken

Ok I have to apologise for another sub standard Euro Lager! Again this one was a gift from our house guests and it would be rude of me not to indulge! This can came in a wifebeating 500mL!
Heineken is a mass produced Dutch euro-lager mega swill that comes in a green can. Every person who has been exposed to any form of advertising will know the brand and along with Fosters and Budweiser is probably the world’s most famous beer brand.
The brewery describes their lager as:

100% Barley malt, choice hops and pure water give this brew unsurpassed clarity.

Which is more than a little surprising?
Here are what some other punters have to say!

This beer reminds of the crowd at a sporting event... "Over rated, over rated..." OK beer at best, not so OK when you consider the price. Terrible aftertaste, reminiscent of Coors Light

And

Everyone knows this one, and in the bottles it tastes too apple-ish and light - not to mention its easy to look like a DB with it in front of you. However, I had it on tap for the first time due to a tasty price and I was pleasantly surprised. Still pretty watery, but highly drinkable.

And

From the bottle. Really nasty beer. Clear urine color. No real aroma. Tastes very bitter but yet with no real flavor to back it up. Not much to say about it, its just bad. I’d rather drink Michelob Ultra to be honest....

I could continue but I have already made my point!

Young's Special London Ale

This was the other beer I picked up during my Tesco run, and I must admit that it is one of my favourites. It is quite a strong beer at 6.4% abv, and has a distinctly hoppy taste. The label claims that the beer is bottle conditioned, however I have yet to find any evidence of yeast deposited in the bottom of one of the bottles! It is claimed that fuggles and goldings hops are used which is interesting as the beer does not taste like your typical London ale and actually is a lot fruitier with some banana and citrus flavours coming through not unlike an APA. I have noticed on occasion that the level of aroma and flavour hops is not very consistent and lower levels lead to a strong alcohol kick on the tongue. The more hoppy batches tend to be balanced better – this bottle was of the less hoppy which is a trend I hope hasn’t started due to the recent price increases on the world hop markets! Young’s describe the beer are:

Bottle Conditioned. Occasionally available in the cask.Production moved from Youngs to Wells & Youngs in 2007.Ingredients: Maris Otter and Crystal malt; Fuggle and Goldings hops. Dry hopped with Golding and Target hops. Re-pitched with fresh yeast and wort in the bottle.Young’s Special London Ale is the UK’s No.1 bottle conditioned ale. It is an unpasteurised, living beer, matured in the bottle for a fuller, more complex, multi-dimensional, fresher taste. Without artificial carbonation, the only fizz is the natural effervescence created by fermentation. “A wonderfully balanced, deep-golden strong bottled ale, brewed from pure malt and a phenomenal amount of hops. A lively, fruity character with suggestions of banana and orange zest.” CAMRA Champion Bottled Beer of Britain - 1999.

Black Dog

Last Saturday I did a bit of a Tesco run and picked up a bottle of Elgood’s Black Dog Mild (3.6% abv) and I was quite glad I did. This mild is dark, thick, roasty and quite robust but doesn’t hold back on flavour which a lot of mild’s tend to do. The texture is rich and creamy with a head which persisted and left lacing down the glass, the balance is just about there too with the exception of a slight bitter kick in the aftertaste which adds depth and complexity to the beer. Overall I think I will pick up a couple of these in the future, as at 3.6% it’s a great session beer that won’t get you too smashed. This is one beer to definitely check out. Two thumbs up!

Timothy Taylor Landlord Bitter

The final stop on our Friday night pub crawl led us to The Coach and Horses in Clerkenwell where we chose the Timothy Taylor Landlord Bitter without hesitation. Landlord is one of those beers that along with Fullers ESB tend to be the favoured beers of Tickers and home brewers, and I can understand why. The beer itself is extremely well balanced. It’s hoppy, but not overdone and has a strong malty profile. The beer itself is so well balanced that it allows all attributes of its composition shine through. I won’t rave too much, but the landlord at this pub had been kept in good condition. By this stage we were getting a little hungry and had a plate of chips with garlic mayonnaise (Aoeli or some weird French name) which was quite acidic and spoiled the last few mouthfuls of the pint. All in all it was a good pub crawl!

Well's Bombardier

After the dismal pint of Fuller London Porter we decided to head back down towards the Clerkenwell area and ended up in a small gastropub called ‘The Gunmaker’. Beer selection here was a little disappointing compared their awesome looking food menu, with Bombadier and Young’s Bitter being the two uninspiring choices. As we had already had a pint of Young’s Bitter earlier in the evening we decided to have a Bombardier. This beer was ok, and benefits from some cask hopping which at least makes it vaguely interesting but on the whole it’s a pretty ordinary beer. It was fresh and had been kept in good condition if that is any consolation.

This is from the Bombardier website;

As well as being widely available as a cask and keg ale in pubs the length and breadth of Britain, Wells Bombardier is also a successful export brand and is enjoyed by discerning drinkers and English ale aficionados in over 20 countries.The popular draught variants of the brand are complimented by a 5.2% ABV version of the beer in bottles - the country's only full English pint bottle. Wells Bombardier can also be found in 500ml cans and in a pioneering minicask, which delivers 8.8 pints to drinkers who want to enjoy the authentic cask ale taste in the comfort of their own homes.Whether you want to visit your local Charles Wells pub, one of our many Free Trade stockists, or put your feet up at home after a hard days work, our aim is to make the unique taste, that is Wells Bombardier, available for your enjoyment.Take some time to browse our range to discover more about the Wells Bombardier range, how we brew it and the meticulous care we take in selecting and combining the finest ingredients.

Fullers London Porter - 2

Next up we decided to head up to the nearby Viaduct Tavern, named because it is close to the Holborn Viaduct. The Viaduct tavern is a Nicolson’s pub and is reputed to be the first public place in London to have electric lighting! These days the pub is pretty shabby and we ordered a pint of Fullers London Porter, excited after the previous pint at The Hook and Cleaver. This pint was an utter disappointment! We went from having a great beer which is at its peak of conditioning to having a great beer that was stale and off. This pub needs to get its act together, and as it is I won’t be going back there again.

Fullers London Porter

Next up we walked past the old St Bartholomew church down a dark lane until we came to The Butchers Hook and Cleaver, appropriately named as its across the road from Smithfield’s markets. The Hook and Cleaver is a Fullers tied house in what I assume used to be a bank?? The main bar was full of city types drinking lager and cider and generally ignoring the excellent range of Fullers beers on tap. Keeping with our winter theme we ordered Fuller’s London Porter and this beer did not disappoint. The beer is an extremely robust porter and tasted very fresh. I am going to be bold and say that this is the best example of the Fullers Porter that I have had. Robust, bitter with a smooth velvety roast taste I could drink this beer exclusively. As for all the trendy types in the pub, I really don’t think they know what they were missing out on!

Courage Best Bitter

After the pewter splendour of the Fox and Anchor, Rich and I headed to a seedy little boozer up behind the markets called The Hand and Shears. I sincerely doubt that much has gone on in this pub since the war, it was that genuine. Unfortunately the beer selection was a little boring with their best offering being Courage Best Bitter. Now I am not knocking Courage Best however it is a rather bland beer that in my experience is usually served in pubs that do not really keep their beer that well. This pint on the other hand was actually in decent condition and didn’t feel out of place in the Hand and Shears.
Some of the locals were a little scary looking so we decided to move on. After leaving the pub we walked past the lovely old St Bartholomew’s Church.

Nethergate Umbel Ale

Next we moved round the corner to the Fox and Anchor. The Fox and Anchor is a recently renovated pub that is notable for having a pewter bartop and for serving beer in Pewter mugs. The tipple of choice inthis establishment was the Nethergate Umbel ale which is a 3.7% abv beer which is seasoned with coriander (and a lot of late hopping!). The result is a very herby beer with a strong hoppy but not over the top aroma. The hop variety they use complements the coriander perfectly. One downside that I noted with this pub, besides the fact that it was full of pretentious types sipping ‘lager’ was that the pork scratchings were not actually scratchings and more resembled pork nibble. Besides these small shortcomings the pub is a good one with an interesting selection of guest beers. I am still unsure about the Umbel ale though. I think its one of those beers you only have once to satisfy your curiosity, and there is no way you could do a full session on it. But once again I’ll let others be the judge of that.

Young's Bitter

Next up was ‘The Hope’ a Young’s tied house just up the street from Farringdon Station. We decided to head to this pub based upon a recommendation in a CAMRA book however, the only two real ales on offer where the perpetually boring Youngs Bitter (3.7 %abv) and the equally uninspiring Greene King IPA (which ironically is just a regular bitter). As we were in the Youngs house we decided to opt for the house bitter of which a fresh cask had just been plumbed in. The verdict?? I will be honest that it was one of the best pints of Youngs Bitter I have had the privilege of consuming.. even if it was slightly boring after the St Peters Stout.

Here is what Youngs have to say about their beer.

Bursting with taste, Young's Bitter is an easy to drink, refreshing cask ale with a fresh, fruity aroma that leaves a long, satisfying bitter finish. It is traditionally brewed to deliver a clean taste and is light and dry in flavour with a subtle taste of hops. 100% malt brew: Maris Otter and crystal malt with Fuggle and Golding hops.Enjoy on draught in all Young's pubs (subject to availability).
Note from the Head Brewer:"Number one selling beer, an ideal session pint."
Brewery AwardsGold medal and Championship Trophy at Brewing Industry International Awards 2000

St Peters Cream Stout

Last Friday evening my mate Rich and I embarked on a quick pub-crawl around the Smithfield’s market area. Our first stop was the Jerusalem, a shop front that has been turned into a St Peters brewery tied house that is quite popular on a Friday evening. The beer here is served from small Firkins from behind the bar so you get the beer literally straight from the barrel. We decided that we would keep in with the winter season and opted for the St Peters Cream Stout which is delicious stout with strong chocolate and coffee notes. Surprisingly this stout didn’t whack a strong alcoholic taste considering its 6.5% abv. I highly recommend trying this beer draught, and I assume that it is just as good in the bottled variety. I am also looking forward to getting back to the Jerusalem tavern on a less busy night so I can have a yarn with the locals.

Guinness Extra Cold

I just slipped out for a lunchtime pint with a mate of mine Chris who has just arrived back in London after some adventures in New York. After examining the lack of anything decent at the local Goose (chain pub), I decided to order a pint of Guinness as it was the most offensive beer on offering. Guinness Extra Cold (4.2% abv) is a chilled version of the classic Irish dry stout Guinness. The beer is brewed at the James Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland and would be a great pint if it was served at normal ale temperature of around 8-12 degrees. Needless to say, even if the beer was too cold, it was still quite quaffable in the limited 20 minutes I had to consume it! I’m really looking forward to getting over to Ireland sometime soon and tasting some hand pumped Guinness in an authentic Dublin Boozer. That will be magic….

Anyhow, watch the following video. Not quite as good as the real thing, but not a bad effort.

Fullers London Pride - 2

Yes I had another pint (again a bottled pint) of this during the intermission of "Wicked". This pint was really good and hit the spot, and certainly helped dull the pain from hearing high pitched voices singing (not necessarily badly either, just musicals in general). To read what I said about it last time click, here.

I'm sure I will have more than a few pints of this throughout the year!

Penny Black Porter

Penny Black is a 4.5% abv porter from the Hampshire Brewery, which I suppose is in Hampshire! This was the first hand pulled beer (besides the fosters, but that doesn’t count!) I have had this year and I drank it at “The Willow Walk” near Victoria train station. The beer was exceptionally tasty; however it wasn’t as robust as say a Fuller’s London porter but still exceeded itself in what has become one of my favourite beer styles. It was however a really smooth beer and definitely a good session ale that I could not find much information on. This is from the Hampshire brewery website;

Penny Black Porter
4.5% abv
Mellow and enticing aroma of black and
roasted malts, balanced by a clean bitterness and smooth full palate.
Available: December, January and February

The pub itself was nothing to comment on and was nothing more than a glorified drinking factory, but that is what you expect when you give your patronage to a J.D Wetherspoons tied house. One thing that ’spoons pubs do have going for them though is (a) they are really cheap, and (b) they have a good variety of regional ales. I lucked out last night and had a relatively fresh pint but I have had some very dodgy pints in my time from ‘spoons pubs.
The reason I was near Victoria station was that I went to see the London West End production of “Wicked” with our house guests. The production was ok as far as musicals go, so you may want to check it out.

Fuller's London Pride

Ok, things are starting to look up! Last night I had the pleasure of sampling two pints of London pride (bottled 4.7% abv) from my local brewery: Fuller, Smith and Turner plc.
This premium bitter is a staple in most London pubs and is Fuller’s “session” ale and flagship brand. I have to admit that I love London Pride and just to back up how good this beer is you can read this review here.

Fuller's London Pride
Fuller, Smith and Turner plc
This is a fine English Ale. Everything about it is as it should be. The bottle it comes in is made of thick heavy glass, and it's a good 500ml. Nothing lightweight about this beer. It pours a good copper colour and it smells like beer, nothing overpowering but you can smell it. And then you drink it. This thing is loaded with hops, but well balanced hops. There's this distinctive maltiness to it that seems to balance everything out. The brewmaster put a lot of work into it and you can taste it in the result. At first it's crisp and mellow, and then the malt takes over. It has a pleasant bitter aftertaste, just enough to remind you of what you're drinking. And that of course is an English Bitter, a fine one at that. It's easy drinking enough that you can drink several pints in an evening, and I've certainly enjoyed doing so tonight. I'd love to have this on draught somewhere, particularly if they serve it at the proper temperature. I'd probably end up rating it even higher. Darn near perfect.
(1/22/2005)

I have to admit that first experience with pride wasn’t a good one. It was a warm can served without love on a British Airways flight from Istanbul to London. I have to admit that I am glad I gave it a second try!

Stella Artois

Ok, things are officially going from bad to worse! We currently have house guests who have travelled from the greatest country on earth Australia. Now down under Stella falls into the 'boutique' beer category and is considered a 'Premium' lager, however nobody informed my buddy Mark that Stella in the UK is actually brewed under licence in the UK and is pretty much akin to cat's pi$$. Here journalist wannabe Leah Simpson gives us the lowdown on Stella's bad rep.

Leah Simpson argues that the opprobrium attached to Britain’s favourite premium lager is really justanother excuse to have a go at working-class men. It is bad news for the street brawling, wife beating and - God forbid - football chanting yobs of Britain - or as some might call them, Stella Artois drinkers. According to arecent feature in the Daily Mail, local pubs are dropping the popular lager by the barrel-load in favour of more upmarket alternatives. Ironically, Stella, which bears the slogan ‘reassuringly expensive’, has been accused of attracting a rowdy, bad lad drinker. In response, Stella’s makers, InBev, plan to release a more ‘continental’ set of advertisements around the country in an attempt to reclaim the beer’s former reputation. What was once a premium lager is fast becoming the poor man’s pint. With a higher alcohol content than most brand names, Stella is the drink of choice for the unfortunate pauper who wants more booze for his bucks. Nevertheless, pubs searching for a better class of clientele are swapping the downtrodden lager in favour of trendier brands like San Miguel - despite the fact that San Miguel packs even more of a punch, at 5.4 per cent alcohol, than the slightly weaker Stella. When Stella first hit these shores, it enjoyed success by catering to the average middle-class male who wanted a little more for his money than the typical, urine-weak lagers that British drinkers had
tolerated for so long. But somewhere along the way, greediness took its toll and Stella was promoted to a mass market, undermining that ‘reassuringly expensive’ image. Suddenly there were regular cheap offers in supermarkets. When three quid or so could get you four cans of the beer, it inescapably became more accessible than other brands to the very drinkers - some say, yobs - that the brewers set out to avoid in the first place. The result has been a reaction against the brand. Sales of the now infamous lager in stores have declined by five per cent recently. If nothing else, the fact that sales have fallen while the panic about ‘Binge Brits’ getting hammered and fighting every weekend carries on regardless,
rather suggests that our drinking culture has less to do with what we actually drink than how much. Labelling Stella as ‘the wife beater’ might have started out as a bit of popular slang tinged with a bleak sense of humour. To take the label seriously is outlandish, implying that drinkers of a particular brand are more prone to be violent towards their partners. It’s also rather bizarre. Stella advertises itself with twee black-and-white commercials about continental priests in days gone by having a sneaky bottle or two. That hardly suggests that Stella is the obvious beer of choice for the inebriated thug going home to take his frustrations out on the missus. But, like many such lazy associations in the past, Stella’s reputation has more to do with denigrating working-class men than anything to do with the stuff inside the cans. So, working-class men are assumed to be constantly on the edge of brutal violence, with a whiff of beer all that is required to send them over the edge. That would suggest that domestic violence is commonplace, a notion reinforced by the suggestion that ‘one in four’ women have been the victims of it. But surveys that quote such figures can only do so by expanding the definition of violence to include things - like being treated badly or being forced to do menial tasks - which even the ‘victims’ themselves do not consider to be violent acts. We don’t need to have too much sympathy for the folks at InBev. While sales of Stella have fallen in UK and Western Europe, such figures are contrasted by strong sales in other countries. Total group revenues increased to €3.72billion, from €3.38billion. So, evidently, the drink is still going strong. It seems that it’s just the UK that is losing its taste for Stella. Unfortunately, it seems that our pundits and commentators haven’t lost their taste for lazy stereotypes.

Interestingly enough though I didn't mind the Stella. It is what it is and its still Beer! Even more surprising I didn't awake with a hangover this morning which is commonplace for Stella.

PS. BTW I had three cans of the old wife beater!

Fosters Lager

Ok, I won’t even bother to justify this one. Basically Fosters is a generic mega swill lager that tastes pretty much average. The only thing here that scores some points with me are that the brand identifies with Australia and that it was served by a guy with a keg on his back! (see the pic!)

This pint was consumed at the “Crusty Demons” unleashed tour and cost me £3.20 and came in a plastic cup and was dispensed from a guy with a keg on his back. The beer was luke warm, over carbonated and had a head on it that looked like an ice cream. Basically this beer is Pi$$.
On the other hand crusty demons were awesome and put on a really good show. I can’t believe how far freestyle mx has come and tricks that were impossible a few years ago such as backflips are common place now. Check out the video below!

Peroni Gran Reserva

The second beer I have had the delight of drinking this year is Peroni Gran Reserva (6.6 % abv) from the SABMiller corporation’s Peroni brand.
The beer is a big malty beer in the style of a traditional german bock, with a firm bitterness and a touch of hops on the nose. Being bold I would say that the hops are Saaz. The beer is a big improvement on Peroni’s other main offering “Nastro Azzuro” which is nothing more really that euro mega swill.
I enjoyed this beer but suggest that it’s a beer for special occations and a bit too hardcore for a session beer. Check this one out and let me know what you think.

Erdinger Weissbier

A late start!
Ok, welcome to my beer diary! In this diary I will document all the beers that I have consumed in 2008, and possibly beyond. Just to inform readers what to expect, I am by no means a ticker! So if you want an in depth beer geek analysis of the beer, go and visit ratebeer.com. I’ll offer my opinions and thoughts and let you guys make up your own mind. If you disagree with one of my opinions, please state your own by leaving a comment.

After an easy New Years Eve it has taken me a whole five days to sample my first beer of the year. My first beer was Erdinger Weissbrau – Weissbier (5.2% abv) from the Privatbrauerei Erdinger Weißbräu Werner Brombach GmbH in Erding, Germany. Erdinger’s claim to fame is being the world’s largest wheat beer brewery and was founded in 1886 by Johann Kienle.
The beer itself is a golden cloudy beer with low bitterness and high carbonation. The palate is very dry resulting in a beer that would kick ass on a hot summers afternoon and could quench even the strongest of thirsts. On the downside the beer does have a “mass produced” taste to it and in terms of brewing scale is the mega swill of the Wheat beer world!
So all in all not a bad start to the year but not necessarily a great one either!
Happy New Year…