drink 43 types of beer

14. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale – Sigh. I love this beer, a fragrant, complex, elegant brew, with a beautiful label, even. And now that you can get it on draft at a new bar here, of course, I’m leaving town.
15. Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA. A little over the top, really; I loved it the first time I tasted it, but trying to drink a whole bottle about did me in. A serious IPA, with a lot – too much? – going on, and a lot of alcohol.
16. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Your basic really good pale ale; A was googling around today to see if it can be had in the UK, where pale ale is not really the thing. I’ll miss it.
17. Peak Organic Pale Ale. I think this is from Colorado. I was surprised by how good it was, for something organic (which often means blech). They bill it as a cross between West Coast and British pale ales; I don’t know what that means, but it works.

so much I don’t remember. But here’s a list of everything I tried on my last trip to England:

4. Kingfisher – good with Indian food, obviously, though I don’t normally like such a wan brew.
5. St. Peter’s Golden Ale – we managed to get a table on a Friday night at a rocking St. Peter’s pub in London called Jerusalem Tavern. This was a very good draft beer, haven’t seen whether they have it in the US by the bottle.
6. Black Sheep, Masham – really good Yorkshire ale; I first had it at a nice pub in Hebden Bridge. It’s around. There’s at least one other ale called Black Sheep, but this is from the actual Black Sheep Brewery.
7. Snecklifter – hearty, hoppy, complex darker beer, from Jennings Brewery in England. I believe we found it by the bottle at Morrison’s.
8. Hooky Bitter – A is a Hook-Norton devotee; I can’t get my tastebuds around either of the ones I’ve tried, and this one, in particular, was weak and watery to me. Sorry, A.
9. Young’s Special – we (A, M, D, and I) had this at the Morpeth Arms, near the Tate Britain, and also enjoyed a good lunch at this very nice pub (which unfortunately was understaffed that day). Really nicely rounded draft ale, perfect for a rainy day.
10. Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel – Oktoberfest offering from the lovely Cambridge Blue. Surprisingly, too strong for me (well, and mostly lacking in subtlety). But A enjoyed his 11. Maulden Oktoberfest, which I found pretty tasty, as well.
11. Old Hooky – A’s true favorite. We had a pint at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford, where CS Lewis apparently hung out. My vote: meh.
12. and 13. ESB – Fuller’s and HSB – Gale’s. A had one, I had the other, at the Castle, Harrow on the Hill (A’s local). They were both, but I drank two pints before lunch and (sigh) cannot remember which I liked better. I think one was particularly fragrant and special, just not sure which.

Though I’m trying to drink my fill of Yank beers before heading across the Pond, this beer, I’m told, is actually British – but now it’s licensed and brewed by a Maine brewer called Shipyard Brewing Co. I wish I had noticed that before I bought the bottle, because I tried some Shipyard this summer and really didn’t like it much.

Old Thumper is ok if you like lagers, I guess… doesn’t really make my socks go up and down.

Funny thing, really…I’d always imagined Poland was more of a vodka country, than a beer country. This stuff, however is excellent – it reminded me of a German pilsner, which is no bad thing :)

_{Two random things :
(i) I have no idea how to pronounce it.
(ii) One of the guys I work with has a Polish girlfriend, the pair of them were over in August. He brought me back the pint glass as a gift, which was terrible nice of him :) He must think I like beer or something.}

I shared a bottle of this with my parents and we all liked it. It’s dark, sweet, full-bodied and surprisingly drinkable considering it contains 6,9 vol-% alcohol. No wonder this one was voted as the beer of the month on a Finnish beer website. :-)

On a Finnish beer website this one was stated to be one of the best beers available in grocery stores. So of course I had to buy it and find out whether the statement was true or not.

The taste was very nice with lots of hoppy bitterness, somewhat similar as the first beer I reviewed under this goal but better balanced. So yes, this definitely is one of the best beers that one can get in a grocery store around here. However, unfortunately it’s so expensive that it’s possible get some more special beer from the liquor store for the same price, which means that the quality/price ratio is a bit off.

This beer was brewed for the 15th anniversary of the only local brewery in Tampere. It’s a porter with some coffee in it. The texture is very creamy and smooth and the taste has some nice hints of coffee, chocolate and licorice in it. Not suitable for heavy drinking but very enjoyable in small doses.

Rather stout-like coffee/caramel flavor. But not sweet or wimpy underneath; at 7.2% this is not a girly-beer. Yum. And it’s local!

Dark Bohemia beer is a Schwarzbier kind, specially developed by master brewer of Bohemia, using rare malts imported from Munich, providing a unique color, flavor with a nice touch, much softer, foam surround, a velvety, full-bodied and creamy. Bohemia Dark was released as a special limited edition in 2002 and 2003; with its huge success, its production has become permanent. If in the past the stocks lasted less than expected, now you can enjoy this treat when you want: dark beer with precious aroma, notes of toffee and toasted malts will be available forever. 550ml content.

Made in Brazil

Bohemia is the best brazilian beer in my option. Of course its dark version would be great too!

I really like the looks of these big (0,75l) Belgian beer bottles, which are sealed with corks. This perhaps isn’t the nicest example but pretty attractive anyway.

The taste wasn’t as sweet as I expected but it was very well-balanced and without knowing it would be very hard to tell that this beer contains 10% alcohol by volume. This is a highly enjoyable beer but one has to be careful because of the high alcohol content. I split the bottle with a friend of mine, because I didn’t want to get completely drunk out of it.