Beer Review #8 [Terry]

 

Monsieur le Capitaine has been hard at it, sampling brews for your edification:

 

 

Cergal

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/cergal/10094/

 

Same people who brew Sagres in all its permutations.  Cheap Dutch style pale lager.

Nice cold

Cruzcampo

This is a great beer, and a source of great pride to Andalusians and other Spanish to a lesser extent.  Cold it is superb and in a big glass goes down well.  Always opt for ‘Grande’ when asked as a ‘Pequeño’ is way too little to do anyone any good.

From Wiki:-

Cruzcampo Brewery

Cruzcampo is considered to be the biggest beer producer in Spain. Founded in 1904 by Roberto Osborne and Agustín Osborne in Seville, takes the name of La Cruz del Campo (The Cross of the Field), which used to be a cross in the middle of the field, which still stands today next to the brewery in Seville.^[22]

Nowadays it is part of the Heineken corporation who bought it from Guinness, however Spanish people, especially Southerners, regard Cruzcampo as the national pride and is the most consumed. Cruzcampo can be found anywhere in Spain, but it is in Andalusia where it is most consumed. It has breweries in Seville, Madrid, Valencia, Jaén and Arano. The actual logo is the figure of Gambrinus, who is the legendary creator of beer, since 1926. Before it was the original cross in the field.^[23]

Beers also made:

• Cruzcampo: Pilsen type
• Cruzcampo Shandy: beer with lemonade (similar to the German Radler)
• Cruzcampo Export
• Cruzcampo Alcohol Free
• Big Cruzcampo
• El León
• Krone Lager
• Spieler Pils

Mahou / San Miguel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahou-San_Miguel_Group

 

Mahou is OK stuff.  Perhaps a little like Bintang but not quite as sweet, just headed in the same direction.  I didn’t try the San Miguel, as I wrongly assumed it was simply the Philippines beer I already knew.  However, I now know it is not, it is a Spanish beer – it came out of the Manila Agreement signed between the two breweries in the early 50s.

 

San Miguel

I have now tried San Miguel.  It is the same as San Miguel in Asia.  Which I like no matter which side of the world I’m on.

 

Flag Speciale

This is a Moroccan beer and is brewed in Fes, where all great Moroccan craftsmen come from.  Comes in small bottles where we are (240ml).  5.2%.  Not bad stuff at all.  I don’t know how much it cost because it was tied up in our supermarket purchase/s of 2 cartons of long life milk, 3 packets of potato chips and 4 bottles of Flag.  All up it was $11.99 so I don’t think they cost that much.

Stork

This is supposedly Morocco’s premier beer.  It’s not bad but a little sweet for me and for mine Flag is better.  Nowhere near as crap as VB but not something I’d chase down.  Pity, I’ve got a carton to get through.

 

John Smith Extra Smooth

On tap here in Gib.  Nice but not a lot of flavor – more a publican’s beer, as you could down three or four and they still wouldn’t be in danger of serving an intoxicated person.

 

Old Speckled Hen

This is an old favourite of mine – Carey Park Liquor Store always has it in cans but at Australian prices.  Here in Gibraltar, even with their more-than-Spanish prices it was only about a £ for a half or about $2.00.

 

Lancaster Bomber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thwaites_Brewery

 

Well, I just had to get this one and toast Dad’s weapon of choice.  Perhaps he didn’t quite choose it and just got assigned to it.  Great stuff.  You should read the wiki on the Thwaites family.  Genuine brewers for a couple of hundred years and fighting back against the giants.  They have a strong presence in hotels and supermarkets too.

The ale itself is rich and nutty.  I let it warm a tiny bit as it got a bit too cold in the fridge and it was excellent.

 

Theakston’s Old Peculier.

Like Speckled Hen, one of my favourite British ales.  Could drink this stuff on and on and wouldn’t get bored.  Genuine class act, with richness, caramels and some bitterness.  Good with pies, casseroles and roasts.  Good on its own, too, with bar snacks.

 

Fuller’s London Pride.

We had an electrician on the boat yesterday dealing with all that Dark Arts stuff from Hogwarts.  Comes on the boat as 240, goes through a magic yellow box, turns into 115  but if you turn it off it still comes in as 55 because it’s a something-something-middle-something.  Worked out well because he got a boot part way through and said that despite it hurting he wasn’t dead.  No idea.  Anyway, Jim fixed whatever was ailing the box and told us that as he’s a north Londoner his favourite tipple is London Pride.  Wandered into a restaurant in Casemates Square that very night after seeing Steak and Ale pie on the menu and blow me down there’s London Pride on tap no less.  Had a couple with dinner.  Very nice drop.  Easy to drink with a bit of kick.

 

The Cannon Bar

We had a very tiring day climbing all over this Rock visiting St Michael’s Cave, Jew’s Gate, the Botanical Gardens, the Siege Tunnels and finally the Moroccan Castle.  Damn we walked a passel of miles for sure.

 

Coming down the back lanes and winding roads of Upper Gibraltar we came across “The Cannon” bar.  I was reluctant to stop at first as it is a Fosters branded pub and I thought if someone found out I was Australian I’d be blamed for launching that crap on the English speaking world (someone actually came in while we were there and ordered one!!)

Anyway, I had a John Smith Extra Smooth again and Carol had a Kronenburg.  I’ve had that before, years ago, and found it a bit light.  After our walking, that’s exactly what Carol wanted and she pronounced it suitable for a leg-weary lady on a hot day.  A bit on the flat side but nonetheless refreshing.  From memory it’s about the only French beer I know but I don’t have wiffy so I can’t check it online.

 

I also had a Graymer’s “Olde English” cider, made by people who’ve been making Cider since 1770, or before Australia was found by Cook.  Nice and crisp and very sharp.

 

The bar manager, Matt, was from Northern Ireland and he wrote down somewhere for me to visit when I get there.  Bushmill’s Distillery!  Had to tell him it was already high up on the list as I’ve been a Black Bush drinker for years.  Very nice chappie.  He passed me a bottle of something made in Mexico with no label, only a label around the throat of the bottle.  Says Cerveza, made in Mexico, lists the usual beer ingredients and advises that it’s imported to Spain by Colebrook S.L. into Madrid.  He said he doesn’t know how they get it, it just sort of “appears” and they give it to friends and friends of friends.  I’ll cool it down and drink it after we finish the next leg of the voyage.  Then I had another John Smith Extra Smooth just for fun.

 

Estrella Galicia

What a find this was on a warm and lazy Sunday afternoon in Adra.  This is heading for my new favourite-most beer in the world.  I had two Grande and Carol had two pequeno.  For tapas, I had a potato with herbs and sour cream (magnificent!!) and then a potato salad with tuna mixed through the mayonnaise and a fried pork and chips dish.  Carol had a tapas of a small piece of fried fish with the same sour cream to dip in.  I went to ask the chappy how much and he said €10.  Seriously, for 4 beers, (two large, two small) and 4 tapas dishes - $12 or so.  In the middle of all this we had an interlude with the Guardia Civil, our first brush with the law to date (see the blog for Adra)

Back to the beer – this is excellent on a warm day.  Strong and full of flavor – like a well rounded version of Corona which can be a bit on the weak side depending on the shipment.  Enough almost to make you want to move to Spain.  Apart from the food, the wine, the beaches, the price of apartments, the price of cars..  I could go on. (note:- Corona in Spain is known as Coronita – same beer, though)

 

Alhambra Premium Lager

www.cervezalhambra.es

Made in Granada.  I thought this would be a supermarket beer, brewed to a price not a recipe but it’s actually quite good.  As usual, cheap by the dozen, and a nice drop indeed.

 

Steinburg “Classica”

http://www.fontsalem.com/en/empresa/

 

This one is brewed to order for a supermarket, Mercadona to be precise.  It’s brewed in Valencia.  It’s supposed to look German, with Lions Rampant in the background and Teutonic lettering.  It’s as German as I am.  Don’t know why they can’t call it Valencia and be done with it – the Spanish make decent beer and have nothing to be tipping their hats to the Germans for, even though the Allemagnes do make some of the world’s finest brews.

The company is one of Spain’s biggest brewers and gets most of its business from “Private Labels”.  This sounds cool, like you have your own wine pressing but all it means is that if you are Coles or Woolworths you get to have Coles or Woolworths or anything else you want on the label.

Despite the cool-trendy escapees from the wine appreciation sites who now monopolise the beer sites criticizing it for being mass-market stuff, it’s actually quite good.  I bought a carton, luckily, because we are no longer in Spain and I can’t get it again for a while.

 

Celtia

Société de fabrication des boissons de Tunisie

(that’s just French for “the mob that makes the drinks for Tunisia”)

 

Tunisian beer.  When I first had one I found it very yeasty and because of that a bit amateurish.  However, our local “wifi” restaurant ran out of Becks and only had Heineken and Celtia.  I refuse to drink Heineken with the preservative in it so I had Celtia.  It was actually quite good so I must have had a fresh batch first up.  Had it a few times since then (still no Becks) and don’t mind it at all.

“33”

Société de fabrication des boissons de Tunisie

 

A French beer.  Blonde.  I assumed 33 meant 3.3%.  Silly me – I should have guessed that there is no word in French for Low Alcohol, not a word for Low Fat and no word for Low Carb.  This stuff is 7% and packs a wallop.  Here in the supermarket it’s 1.290TD or 80c for a 210ml can (most of their beers here are in these skinny cans).  Surprise #2 – it’s actually brewed here in Tunisia.  They also brew Becks under licence so they know what they are doing. 

 

SIDE RANT.

The ratings for Celtia include one by one wanker (you’re allowed to use wanker because the WA Supreme Court said so many years ago) who complained that it was the worst beer in the world, then proceeded to qualify this with high-falutin terms that made it sound like he knew shit from clay.

The Beer Review sites are full of these tossers.  They are very similar to the tossers you all know from Wine Appreciation sites – all “floral tones” and “notes of plum” and crap like that, only they don’t know the big words so they just bag everything.  They are the worst put-down sites I’ve ever come across.  If it’s not something from out-there that nobody else has found yet, it’s garbage.  I’d love to meet some of them in a bar one day.  Arnold (the Governator) had a term for them that I won’t repeat here but essentially even at 60 I’d be on the front foot with the insults with little fear of any consequences.