Maltese Style

I have just spent the last 5 days in Malta. As a country Malta has been of strategic military importance to the British Empire for a long time. It's proximity to both Europe and Africa make it a great jumping point for invasions of many countries. Malta is also an underdeveloped shithole with hobbies such as picking up dog shit (as illustrated by the instructional sign in the pic to the left). It is an odd place, but they do have good beer.

The first exposure I had to Maltese beer was not a good one. Surely a beer called Hopleaf Pale Ale is going to be good right? Well no. It was tasteless and dull and I refuse to talk about it further. On the other hand I did find some excellent brews. The most common and widely available beer is Cisk (4.9% abv). This is an excellent continental lager in the pilsner style and actually tastes pretty good from a can and is also available in proper real keg form. It is insanely cheap and can be had for about €1.50 a pint in most establishments or for 65 euro cents a can in supermarkets.

Other noteworthy Maltese beers are Farsons Lacto Milk Stout (3.8% abv) which is a thick treacle like milk stout which is really nice. It doesn't have that thinly veiled roast with chemical aftertaste that other milk stouts seem to have. It's a wonderful beast and is balanced just right - I wish I had picked some up to bring back to the UK! 1565 is another Maltese lager in the style of Cisk, but is brewed to celebrate St Johns victory in the year of it's namesake. This beer is OK, but not as clean and crisp as Cisk. I only ever came across cans of the stuff so it may be rare or just brewed for the public holiday (which happens to be the 28th June, while I was there). You can get most of the usual euroswill suspects there such as Heineken, Carlsberg etc but you can also get German and Czech beers such as Lowenbrau and Budvar insanely cheap at under 50 euro cents a bottle. Anyhow in terms of beer this pretty much sums up my experiences in Malta. I only went there for some guaranteed sun, and upon my return I find out that I missed a heatwave in London and it was actually warmer here! Plenty of good boozing coming up this week though with a session in the Gunmakers locked in tomorrow and The White Horse and Ealing beer fests coming up, I am staring down a boozy weekend. It will certainly make packing interesting!

Brooklyn Pilsner

Yep, yet another post from New York. Time is scarce at the moment so I am keeping this brief. One beer this time, Brooklyn Pilsner (4.9% abv) poured from a bottle and consumed with a trio of mini cheeseburgers. The beer is good, refreshing and has a nice 'chewy' mouthfeel. I should have had two, but I was feeling a little pissy after the high abv beers in the George Keeley. It was also nice not to drink pinecone juice for a change. I can't say enough about how good these Brooklyn Beers are. They must be one of the only US microbrewers who actually brew both ales and lagers?

Schwechater

I found this one in a dodgy off license type place near our hotel. I only picked one up to see what it was like, and I was rather surprised with this Austrian brewed beer.
A bit of history. The history of the Schwechater beer started in the year 1632. Peter Descrolier, who was valet and paymaster of archduke Matthias, founded the brewery in Schwechat. But the real success story only began in 1760, when the waiter Franz Anton Dreher moved to Vienna and leased the brewery Ober-Lanzendorf. In 1796 he bought the brewery in Schwechat, and the Schwechater beer was ready to start its triumphant advance.
The next milestone of the success story followed in 1841. Anton Dreher, the son of Franz Anton Dreher, who already collected a lot of beer brewing experiences during his trips to Munich and England, tried to produce for the first time a bottom-fermented beer, and brought it to Vienna.The Viennese people were so excited about it, that they only wanted to drink the Schwechater beer. This was the hour of birth for the nowadays popular "lager beer". Because of the big onrush at the beer, Schwechater had to use machines for the production. Dreher was the first brewer in Austria who used a steam engine to brew his beer. This was in 1848. Nowdays the steam engine is displayed in the technical museum in Vienna.Anton Dreher senior dies in 1863 and his son Anton Dreher junior takes over the company in 1870. In the "iceless winter" 1872 100 million kg of ice had to be brought by railway from Poland to Vienna. Such experience motivated Anton Dreher to learn more about artificial cooling and production of ice. In 1877 Schwechater Beer was the first who invented and used a cool machine for artificial cellar cooling.During the first world war the production reached it's all-time-low. The brewery workers which had to go to war, still received their salary the whole war through. During the war the production was reduced, but never shut down. Anton Dreher died as a very rich man in 1921. After his death the company was handed to his oldest son Anton Eugen Dreher (born 1871). But he died already in 1925. He was the last brewing master of the Schwechater beer, and so this was the end of the long lasting Schwechater beer dynasty. The lead of the brewery was inherited to some relatives of Anton Eugen Dreher. But the relatives were not interested in the brewery, and sold their participations to several banks in 1925. This was how the 130-dynasty of family Dreher and the Schwechater beer ended.
I think it is interesting how this brewing family is related to the Dreher family who also own a Hungarian brewery. I had one of their beers earlier in the year as well. You can read about that here.
http://www.schwechater.at/

Radeburger Pils 2

You may remember that I had this beer way back when I was in Berlin. I have found out a lot more aboiut the beer since then and wanted to share a bit of the story.

We stopped into a cafe at around lunchtime after doing the 'hop on, hop off' buss tour around Vienna. They should use these terms loosly as the services were running every two and half hours and there were not enough seats left on the bus to accomodat a 'hop on, hop off' service. Anyhow, this cafe, whose name escapes me now is supposed to be famous for it's apple struddle, but as my luck would have it they were all out so I went for a pint of Radeburger Pils instead (and yes, everyone else had hot chocolate). A little bit of hostory would not go astray here, as the beer is actually from the former DDR/Prussia rather than Austria.

The Radeberger brewery was born in 1872 in Radeberg, a suburb of Dresden. It was the first brewery in Germany to brew beer exclusively in the Pilsner style. By the late 1880s the brewers numbers had risen to 300,000 cases per year which was a lot for a regional brewery back then. The brewery takes pride in the fact that in 1905, Radeberger Pilsner became the favourite drink of king Friedrich August of Saxony. In 1946 the communist East German government took control of the brewery until after the fall of the Soviet Union, when Binding Brauerei purchased the company and returned its sales to West Germany. After the purchase the brewery underwent comprehensive renovations to bring their brewery up to speed with modern brewing. In 2004 the brewery was sold privately and was delisted from the stock market.


Website: http://www.radeberger-pilsner.de/

Ottakringer Pils

On Boxing day we ventured to the Austrian capital, Vienna by train. It was a most pleasant journey and we arrived in good time to get caught in a minor blizzard whilst trying to find our hotel. I think you know what is going to happen now? Well the wife and out-laws decided to warm up over a hot chocolate and I opted for a beer yet again. This time I took the only option available and ended up with a pint of Ottakringer Pils. I now beleive that this is a limited edition beer, as most of my google based research tends to lead me to Gold Fassl, which this beer is not.

Out of the Austrian beers I did have, thie is my firm favourite. The beer is more in the style of a modern Australian Bohemium pilsner along the lines of James Squire Pilsner which is a great beer. Anyhow, I sure did enjoy this beer a lot more than the tee-totaling in laws would have enjoyed their hot chocolate! http://www.ottakringer.at/

Stiegl Pils

It seems that along with Zipfer and Gösser, the other main megaswill of the Austrian beer market is Stiegl. Recently I gave my spiel on Stieglbock which went down quite nicely on a cold evening. Well the Stiegl Pils (4.9% abv) is also a cracking brew. Noticeable features are a crisp bitter finish. Again I was drunk when I had this particular beer. Ieven forgot to take a photo myself, so I have stolen one. It really was a boozy Christmas. Website

Weininger Bier

On Christmas day we had dinner in a lame pizza joint that was the only place in Salzburg that we could find that was open. They only had one beer available and although I was pissedup enough that I didn't need it, I oblidged anyway. The beer was called Wieninger bier and it loosly falls into the pilsner category, You can read more about it here (if you can read German).

Trumer Pils

To escape the cold after the effects of the Steiglbock had run it's course, we headed into some lame smoke filled café for dinner. It was a huge menu which consisted of Lasagna or Weiner Schnitzel - tough choice. I had the Schnitzel and a Trumer Pils to wash it down. Trumer Pils seems to be a bit of an Austrian version of mega swill. Fair enough it's mass produced, but it still kicks the absolute pants off anything produced by Scottish and Newcastle.

Anyhow the beer is produced in both the US and Salzburg, Austria. In April, 2008 Trumer Pils won the Gold medal at the World Beer Cup for Best German-style pilsner. An extraordinary accomplishment for Trumer Pils following the Gold medal win at the last World Beer Cup competition in 2006. Winners were selected by an international panel of 129 beer experts from 22 countries judging an impressive field of 2,930 entries from 646 breweries in 58 countries. The World Beer Cup competition is a bi-annual event sponsored by the Brewers Association.

Anyhow, Website!

Wicküler Pilsener

As I mentioned earlier in the week I have been traveling for work. I had the fortune or misfortune of being layed up in snowy Wuppertal, Germany. For those of you who may not know much about Wuppertal it forms a triangle with Cologne and Düsseldorf in the Rhineland Westphalia region and is slightly south of Dortmund. It was once the richest city in Germany during the industrial revolution but like a lot of early industrial cities, it is now slightly lacking. It is also famous for the Schwebebahn, the worlds oldest suspension monorail which runs over the river Wupper.

Anyhow after an afternoon of traveling I finally arrived at my hotel, tired, exhausted and thirsty and swiftly checked out the mini bar. I managed to find a lone bottle of Wicküler Pilsener (4.9% abv) which I drained in two deep swigs. The beer was dry and thin like a Dortmunder style pils (which it is) but lacked the depth of other examples of the style such as Bitburger or DAB. Overall impression was ok, but not outstanding.

Wuppertal is geologically interesting as it really has no set beer style. The most popular style is Dortmunder Pilsener, Followed by Kolsch and Alt. Its proximity to the three beer epicenters of North West Germany provides a wide variety of beers.

The Wicküler Pilsener is in German, but you can check it out still. http://www.wickueler-pilsener.de/

Dinkel Acker Pils

We finally made it through security at the airport in our inebriated manner and found the bar. Due to the fact that BA cannot seem to operate to any form of schedule we had time to fit in another beer, this time Dinkel Acker Pils (4.9% abv) which again didn't really measure up compared to all the fest marzens we had been quaffing all week. Still in our state we didn't care. I ended up necking mine as we got called for boarding. Even though we were visibly impaired by alcohol, the trolley dolly's on BA still fed us a few cans of London Pride on the flight. Bonus! Website

Augustiner Hell

The next day waking up a little worse for wear, we headed back into Munich to do our bit for the local tourism. After walking around for an hour or so trying to get some heat back into our partially frozen bodies, we ended up in the Augustiner beer hall (the one across the road from the Hofbrau Haus). Both Rich and I ordered a pork dish each, of which I barely touched and I ordred a German Pils (as a radler, I was struggling) and Rich opted for the Dunkel. I can't comment on the beer too much due to my declined and hungover status forcing me into the world of mixed drinks, but Rich reports his Dunkel was awesome. I was on struggle street big time, barely eating my lunch and having difficulty drinking my diluted beer. A sleep was in order, so I headed back to the camping grounds for a couple of hours shut eye. I needed to sort myself out if I was to have a big night again! Website

Gold Fassl Pils

The next few posts are going to document my recent beer drinking pilgrimage from Salzburg to Stuttgart. It all started on a Tuesday night where I met my beer drinking buddy Richard at The Ordinance tavern in Swiss Cottage, conveniently located near his girlfriends house and a 24 hour Stanstead Airbus stop. Deciding to get into the 'fest spirit early we knocked back a few pints of Alpine Lager (The Ordinance is a Sam Smith's house), low and behold time ran short and the lovely Kate came looking for us! Anyhow long story, short we ended up bedding down at 1.00 am looking forward to a 3.00 am start for the bus to get our £4 Ryanair flight at 6.00 am. The flight went without a hitch and we arrived in Salzburg mid morning with our crappy Argos tent in tow (Actually we were quite pleased that we didn't have to pay any extra to check the bag in - Booze hounds - 1, Ryanair - 0). After negotiating the bus ride into town, avoiding some random tramps and dodging the steamroller like device which was washing the train platform, our train finally pulled in and started to haul our asses across the border into Bavaria, destination Munich. Being the thirsty lads that we are, Rich heads down the dining car and grabs a few bottles of Gold Fassl Pils. This beer is ok, it's Austrian and as you may know there are no Kangaroos in Austria! No Jokes aside the beer was ok, a grassy, bitter pilsner style which wet the whistle nicely and primed the day for an epic session. Website

Zagorka Special

Zagorka Special (5.0% abv) is the last of my Morrison's beers, and was a welcome beer after the intensity of the Bakalar! Hailing from the Zagorka Brewery, located in Bulgaria this beer is actually owned by Heineken. Zagorka is currently on the winning side of the Bulgarian megaswill divide, a market it currently shares with Kamenitza. Zagorka is the leading national premium beer brand in Bulgaria. Apparently its the beer all Bulgarians are proud of.

Compared to other east of Central European beers, Zagorka is a full body, mildly-hoppy and richly-flavored lager which is surprising. I was expecting a cheap and nasty cooking lager!

Definitely one to check out if you like your Pilsner style beers, a pleasant surprise.

Bakalar Czech Pilsner

From my recent sojourn to Morrison's, Bakalar Pilsner (5.0% abv) by Cisarsky Pivovar was an interesting find. The brewery sources it's water from two artisan wells underneath the brewery. Besides this bit of trivia, I can't find out much more about the brewery!

My opinions on the pale fizz? This beer is very fragrant and soapy. Its like someone has tipped a whole lot of saaz flavoured hand soap into the beer! But its not too bad. Slightly sweeter than your typical Pilsner the beer is certainly one of the better bottled beers I have had lately, well certainly better than Marston's anyway!

Tagus

Tagus (5.4% abv) is probably Portugal's only all malt beer! Fortunately for me, I happened to find plenty of it on my holiday and made it my regular session beer. The beer pours a very nice gold/amber with a good white head. It smells ok: clean, caramelly malt, fruity and nice perky fresh hop zest. On the palate it is fresh and hoppy, with a real bittering bite in the finish and obviously well-hopped character. Similar to Beck's, but upp-ing the level once again to make it somewhat 'offensive' to the great unwashed. Quite a full, powerful beer, that elevates it above the easy drinking, and a really very good strong lager style beer. Tick Tick!

Lučan

Its holiday season here in the UK and in my ventures to get some late sun action, I jetted off to The Algarve, Portugal. Whilst in the departure lounge at Gatwick I stumbled across Lučan (4.3% abv) an award winning Czech pilsner. This beer is really, really good even though it has been pasteurized. The beer is so good in fact that it was awarded "Best Beer" of the Czech Republic at the the Budweis beer competition in 2005.

The beer is deep amber in colour, maybe slightly darker than Budvar or Urquell and is not quite as bitter, but has a unique smokiness which goes well. The biggest problem is that it is only available at Weatherspoons pubs, so unless you like poor service and socialising with the great unwashed socially inept, pee smelling members of society its going to be a tough beer to drink!

Also as a surprise, my flight was actually early so I had to leave to get to the gate shortly after starting my pint. Never fear! I necked it pronto before joining the mad scramble to actually get a seat next to my wife on our EasyJet flight. Don't get me started on them!

Castle Lager

Keeping with the South African theme, I also managed to consume a bottle of Castle lager (5% abv). In contrast to Windhoek, Castle lager is a rather poor cousin. The beer tastes a bit like euro swill and self confesses to being brewed with maize. The beer even comes skunked to mimic your favourite green bottled beer. I got through this one whilst enjoying my Springbok loin..... I don't think this beer added to the experience. http://www.castlelager.co.za/

Windhoek Lager

Windhoek Lager (4% abv) is an all malt Pilsner which is available pretty much exclusively in Namibia and South Africa. I was lucky enough to track some down (ok, I stumbled upon it purely by accident) in a posh Sth African restaurant in Putney.

The beer is impressive and has a nice grassy hop character with a subtle honey like malt sweetness in it's character. It reminded me of Australian premium beers like James Boag Premium and Cascade Premium. Just the thing you need to quaff after shooting game or escaping a pursuing lion! Actually jokes aside, I enjoyed this with my entrée of Boerewors (Wild Boar Sausages). Windhoek is brewed by Namibia Breweries.

Falcon

Hmm, it appears I have duped! In an Italian restaurant in Gamla Stan, Stockholm (ie the only place still open late on a Sat night) I ordered the only draught beer on the menu - Falcon. The beer tasted ok, slightly bland and a little soapy. Low and behold I get back to London and start to do a little research for the blog and I find out its a low alcohol beer! Falcon is 2.8% abv... According to the official Carlsberg website (they brew the stuff);

"Falcon beer is Sweden’s second most popular beer sold through groceries and the service sector. It has an alcohol content of just 2.8% ABV, making it an excellent choice for weekday meals. Since 1896, the Falcon Beer family has represented traditional Swedish brewing at its best. Brewed from pure spring water, this bottom fermented lager has a rich, malt taste and a bitter hop aroma. "

I am lost for words - its a boys beer!

Starobrno

Again at the Skybar in Stockholm, Sweden the next beer that I encountered as I drank my way down the row of taps hiding behind the bar was Starbrno (5.0% abv) which is a Czech Pilsner which has been improted from teh town of Brno in the Czech republic. As far as Pilsners go, this is a very good example - more refined than Staropramen which I find really dry, but also not as buttery as Pilsner Urquell. If only I had a nice pork knuckle to enjoy with the beer!

The Starbrno brewery started brewing in 1872 and underwent a major refurbishment in 1995 increasing both its brewing capacity and also upgrading its packaging facility. The brewery buildings themselves are now a major tourist attraction along the lines of the Guinness store house in Dublin. Anyhow you can find our more info if you speak Czech! http://www.starobrno.cz/