Kozel Dark

Also in the 24 hour non-stop across the road from my hotel in Prague was a bottle of Kozel Dark (3.8% abv). I had to pay a 'premium' of 30 crowns (~ £1) for this gem, but it was worth the extra.

My first experience with Kozel was on my last trip to Prague and I remember clearly how different it was to German Schwarzbiers such as Köstritzer. Where the German offering was dark pretty much in colour only, the Czech brewed Kozel is full of melanoids and a thick full body. This difference is something which is rarely acknowledged in craft brewing circles where Bohemium dark lagers tend to get lumped into the generic schwarzbier category with their softer German neighbours.

I don't need to go to much about how good this beer is. I am pretty suire that 90% plus of readers would already be educated in the delights of this gem. I did find this little paragraph here though which sums up my feelings.

"This beer came in its standard Czech 500 ml bottle and poured a dark ruby red, near black colour with a light tan head that swelled to about an inch before slowly settling. It had very little aroma, but I could sense the Saaz hops and slight burnt malt in it. The first taste had a full, but not too heavy taste of malt, and the Saaz could be felt on swallowing. Subsequent sips wend down smooth and easy.
It was a good drinking experience, and would likely go well with a steak dinner. But I don't think I would pay the full price for it. If I see it in the bargain bin again, I'll grab it."

http://www.kozel.cz/

Bernard Dark

After living turbulent for a while, I am finally back to living my normal routined life again. The irregular posting over the last month or so should have been a give away, but then again its a quiet time of the year in the beer blogosphere and most blogs are a little quieter than usual.

I have some good news to report, my local Tesco has recharged it shelves with a bunch of new beers for me to try when I can't make it down to my usual stomping ground, The Parr's Head for a pint. The first offering from St Arnold that I picked up was Bernard Dark (5.1% abv), which is a Czech Schwarzbier style which is more along the lines of a malty dunkel or bock. This beer is thick and tasty with solid roasty malt flavours all the way through the glass. It feels like you are drinking a delicious oil! No really, its that good and it comes in a cool swing top bottle. Overall this is an excellent beer that I will probably grab a few bottles of as we head into the colder months. http://www.bernard.cz/

Also, you may have noticed I have a poll up on the sidebar. A few people have emailed me and accused me of being an undercover ticker. I can see where they are coming from, but i tend to disagree. To settle the argument once and for all, if enough people think I'm a ticker then I'll change the blog name to "The Accidental Ticker". So vote up and have your say.

Krusovice Dark

Some of the more observant readers may have noticed that my age has risen from 29 to 30. To mark this occasion, my wonderful wife decided to take me to the exotic/cold and expensive town of Stockholm in Sweden. The day was as usual to be a boozy affair and much to my delight SWMBO wanted to grab a coffee at around 10.30 am. I took full advantage of this situation to have my first beer of the day!

Krusovice Dark (3.8% abv) is a Czech dark lager which probably falls into the category of Schwarzbier. The beer is spritzly carbonated and has a long sour aftertaste which is pretty refreshing. I can recall the first time I had this particular beer in Prague at a little beer garden down by the river - and whilst drinking this in the rain on my bday in Gamla Stan, Stockholm I was solely reminded that good beer is rare find, and that this is defiantly a good beer! A good way to kick off my 30's!

More info is provided on the official website.

Klosterbräu Schwärzla

Klosterbräu Schwärzla (4.9% abv) is a black Franconian Lager with a slightly tart mild roasted taste. Again this was sampled at the German beer festival organised by Stonch. Thi sbeer is significantly different to other exampels of this beer style like Kostrizter and has retained the classic Schwarzbier taste – mild, roasty and very soft. Not so schlank as often today. More like in the bad old days, when the style flourished behind the iron curtain. I can just see a little Kaiser like Prussian man sipping on omne opf these whilst reading the Volksnews through his monacle!

Köstritzer Schwarzbier

The second Schwarzbier I had on my trip was Köstritzer (4.8%), a dark black lager of exteremely high standard. This beer is particularly remarkable espcially the feat of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who sustained himself on black beer from Köstritz when he was unable to eat during a period of illness. The brewery has a long history after being founded in 1543 and it is one of the oldest producers of Schwarzbier (black beer) in Germany. The brewery is now owned by Bitburger.

The beer does indeed look almost black, but is in fact a very dark brown colour when held up to the light, with a pale, fine-bubbled and lasting head. Nose is of dark malt, roast coffee, black treacle and dark dried fruit. It is quite lively in the mouth, with initially a somewhat lactic taste of creamy coffee, but quickly developing into rich, malty and dark but slightly sour fruity flavours - figs, blackcurrants, black cherries, black treacle, burnt sugar, dark chocolate, bitter dark-roast coffee (still with a dash of cream) and a touch of hop. The more bitter of these flavours (coffee, chocolate, hops) increase in intensity towards the finish, though still tempered by sweeter red fruit notes. Aftertaste is a gorgeous lingering malty bitterness, much like a dry stout, with a warming, spicy touch that wouldn't be out of place in a much stronger beer. A thoroughly lovely experience from start to finish. I'll get my hand off it now!

The closest thing I could find to an official website is this one which is bizarely enough a beers of Austria website!

Kamenitza Dark

I went to Berlin for the May Bank Holiday weekend. Upon arriving on the Friday night, the Mrs and I went out in search of a feed and what we thought was an Italian restaurant turned out to be a Bulgarian one! I ordered a Kamenitza Dark or Schwartzbier which was actually surprisingly good. Having not had the pleasure of drinking Bulgarian beer before I took to it with a gusto! Actually these Eastern Euporean beers are actually very easy to blog about as there seems to be an ubundance of informatioj regarding them. For example, this fellow here: describes the beer as "somewhere between an English mild and a belgian dubbel". Now WTF??? how do you get that from a dark lager? The official website seems kind of lame, so there is not much info there. However Wikipedia truly does know all in this case!

Kamenitza (Bulgarian: Каменица) is one of the top-selling Bulgarian beer companies, based in the city of Plovdiv. Established in 1881 and as of 2006 owned by InBev, the brewery has a wide variety of lager and dark beers. Kamenitza had an 18% share of the Bulgarian beer market in 2005[1] according to data from ACNielsen. The company is a sponsor of the Bulgaria national football team.

History
Historical information in this section is from [Vatahov 2006][2] In 1881 three Swiss entrepreneurs built a brewery in Plovdiv on a hill called Kamenitza and used the name as their brand. The drink of choice for most Bulgarians at the time was lager, but Kamenitza broke new ground by producing the first dark beer for the market. By the 1890s they won awards at international exhibitions, including Brussels and Chicago. The communist regime nationalised Kamenitza: first, in 1947, as part of the state-owned Alcoholic Beverages, then in 1952 as part of Vinprom. The Belgian multinational company InBev bought the Bulgarian breweries Kamenitza, Astika and Burgasko Pivo in 1995 and added Plevensko Pivo in 1997. During 1997 to 2005, InBev invested 86.3 million leva in Bulgaria, and in 2005 Kamenitza sold 800,000 hectoliters, making it the best-selling domestic beer.[1]

I even managed to find a corny TV advert! Enjoy