June 8th, 2010 by Nate

Summer is finally here…. well at least it seems that way. The weather here in Switzerland has been anything but warm, that is until now. Just in time for some biergarten action for the world cup.

Above it the ‘Old’ Bière from my local Lausanne Brewery, Boxer. (Keen readers may remember the Christmas brew review here) The Old Bière is apparently brewed to the ‘old’/'traditional’ Swiss style of brewing. What exactly that is, I’ve yet to find out and I have been looking. The closest I can come is that there is some semblance to the German Reinheitsgebot.

None the less the bière itself is a well balanced every-day-bière and enjoyable enough to keep on buying. As you can see in the photo, the bière is actually packaged in the impractically small 25cl bottles. I honestly don’t know who thought of these as being a viable packaging option. 2 Mouthfuls and the bière is finished, which is why there is only a photo of an empty glass. None the less, besides the small quantities this is a good middle range bière.

bière, Boxer Bière, Boxer Old, Old Boxer, Swiss b, Swiss Bière

April 22nd, 2010 by Nate

Those of you who regularly visit my site know that I am currently living in Switzerland. You will also note that I have a particular affinity for German Bier and tend to drink that more often than Swiss Bier. Weird eh?
However I assure you there is reason behind my general prohibition of Swiss Bier. Basically the mass produced and popular biers are complete shite.

Yes there are plenty of great brews and I have found some some of them. But unlike Germany where pretty much every bier is good (and the bell curve is completely skewed), Switzerland does take influences from all parts of it’s surrounding neighbours. Unfortunately not all of them have a similar Reinheitsgebot law. Thus we get quite the varied collection of bier companies, biers and well tastes.

Now one of the most popular brands in Switzerland is Feldschlösschen. The also happen to be the largest brewery in Switzerland and yet most of the bier they produce is something on par with say an Aussie VB or an American Bud light. I actually made a conscious decision to not review their normal bier on this site and I will only drink it if I’m completely limited to it (such as at the wonderful Paleo Festival), so that is where I leave the main bier alone. What gets me about this brewery is that is located right on the boarder with Germany in town called Rheinfelden. I mean you can literally walk across a bridge to it’s sister city (Rheinfelden… yes you read that right) in Germany. So proximity to the home of great bier, you would expect better.

However recently and I guess in an effort to expand their bier business (as they are now owned by Carlsberg), Feldschlösschen has begun brewing and shipping a “Premium” version of their bier. Please allow this brief tangent, however I have a slight issue with the idea of slapping a ‘premium’ label on a bier. Call me a stickler for quality, but if you are going to sell a bier it should be your premium, your best. Be it your best Lager/Pils or your best Weiss/Wheat… whatever it is, it should be your best.

Having had my little rant, I will tell you that this Premium Bier wasn’t half bad. Where the normal bier is rough to drink, the Premium was actually quite smooth and enjoyable. The Malts were noticeable and it had a good biter edge. So if you need a 6 pack of bier for an BBQ, day at the park, friends party, this is a good option.

Bier, Feldschlösschen, Premium Bier, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra

April 20th, 2010 by Nate

I do enjoy attempts at seasonal bières. It’s nice to see variation, even if there isn’t any adherence to the Reinheitsgebot. My local chain brewer, Les Brasseurs, which I’ve previously covered here, has decided that with the advent of Spring it is time it’s time for a new seasonal bière.

The above is the Diabolic. A bière that comically or possibly scarily has an alcohol content of 6.66%. So when I visited recently with a German mate, we had to try it. Now I should point out that yes that is the actual colour of the bière, a red-pink colour and a nice touch.
The bière itself was, ahh, well, different. The first few mouthfuls, I just couldn’t put my finger on it, then my German mate pointed out that the bière was hot, like chili hot. BINGO this was a chili flavoured bière! Because of the chili capsaicin, the flavour of the hops, yeast and other ingredients were quite subdued and although the bière was fun to drink, it wasn’t exactly something I would recommend on a regular basis. Certainly it is worth a try, but I wouldn’t buy a sixer of it. However as it was something unique and new, it’s not all bad.

Chili bières, Diabolic bière, Les Brasseurs, Suisse bière, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra

April 14th, 2010 by Nate

Sometimes you come across a brewery that is just completely disappointing. It may happen that a brewery brews one crap, mass-produced bier like your Heinekens. But generally that brewery will have something small, unique, challenging and fun to experience. I honestly hope that most breweries aim for such goals. Sort of like a car-company producing an every-man’s car, then creating something over the top that everyone would love to have.

I really had hopes that Halden Gut lager, which is brewed by Heineken was going to be good. Now I’ve already reviewed the Halden Spezialbier and I didn’t like it. Unfortunately there was nothing Special about the Spezialbier and in this case is nothing Good about the Gut Lager.

I did enjoy the bier whilst on the train through Zürich to Lausanne, which was enjoyable, but this bier wasn’t Gut. So it seems that the Heineken group really only brews the one style of bier. I hope someone can change my mind on this point. In the mean time:

Halden Gut lager, Lager, Lausanne, zug, Zurich

March 30th, 2010 by Nate

So Winter is done, well so we think. The other weekend I was snowboarding the Corvatsch in the Engadine of Switzerland. The mountain is 3303m above sea level with some great open pistes for boarding on. ANYWAY, this site is about bier, not Snowboarding.

During the day of boarding I stopped to have a refreshing brew. In one of the tiny huts along the pistes I had the above, Calanda Bräu. This is a very popular bier in this region of Switzerland and I’ve actually outlined their Edelbräu, however this was my first time trying their mainstay brew. This is simply a pale lager that is easily consumed. There is actually nothing special about it at all, in fact I found it to be quite bland but drinkable. Which would have lead me to giving it 2 steins. BUT….

Whilst drinking it at altitude and on a minus 25 degree day (-25), yes you read that right, the froth of the bier actually crystallised, which I tried to capture in the photo above. So purely because of this very cool experience, I had to bump the rating up. Literally and figuratively, a very cool experience.

Bier, Bräu, Calanda, Calanda Bräu, hell, Helles, Lager, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra

March 6th, 2010 by Nate

2 weeks ago I was in Zürich to see some performances. Specifically before the Henry Rollins Spoken Word show I managed to try the above Halden Krone Spezialbier, which as it turns out is from our friendly mega-corp; Heineken.

It’s funny, I am going to quote another bier blogger here as I’ve seen The Beer Nut’s review of the Halden and it sums up my feelings exactly:
“easy to drink, but let down by — you’ve guessed it — blandness. A sunny-day quaffer, but otherwise pointless

That’s it.. I could not have put it better myself. I honestly don’t feel like giving a rundown on the brewery, history or anything. It has been said in the above link. Cheers Mr. Beer Nut.

Lager, Swiss Bier, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra, Switzerland, Zurich

February 12th, 2010 by Nate

I have been living in Switzerland for 2 years now and had visited Switzerland for work and play for the 2 years before that. In the 4 years of expeditions through this tiny country I had rarely found any ‘decent’ beers. It seemed to me that the Swiss had no real interest in the good stuff. I think this feeling had a lot to do with most bars only selling the major brands en mass and from tap.

But I’ve been slowly learning oh how ignorant I was. First up, what you consider to be the main bier all depends on where you are in Switzerland. For example in the southern, French speaking area you will find the players such as Boxer (which is actually quite a small production, and they make great beer) or Cardinal (whom I find to be more run-of-the-mill). Then in the Northern, German-Speaking parts the big brew house is Calanda. There is however one big, all conquering brand; Feldschlösschen, whom I have yet to actually have a ‘good’ beer from.

None the less I have finally found that there is quite the collection of breweries throughout Switzerland. They tend to be regional and, especially for those in the north, have quite the selection to taste from. The above Reinheitsgebot.

So how about this Quoellfrisch? Well I can tell you that it pours a lovely cloudy and yellow colour (ignore the amber tones in the picture there was a red light on the right of the frame). The head is strong and the armoa is a little weak, almost like a light lager, an Amstel or Heineken for example. The flavour was clean, not particularly crisp but it had this nice and understated sweetness to it. The feel of the bierin the mouth is lively but nothing spectacular.

This for me was a mid range bier, worth trying but it just didn’t stand out. So like it’s Weiss cousin:

Appenzeller, Boxer, Calanda, Cardinal, Feldschlösschen, Quoellfrisch, Swiss Bier, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra, Switzerland

January 14th, 2010 by Nate

Before Christmas I spent half a day walking the streets of Basel, which I must say is a gorgeous town once you get of the Autobahn. None the less I got walking around and when I went past the Hauptbahnhof (central station) and found Drinks of the World, a shop that had one of the most plentiful collections of beers from all corners of the globe that I have ever seen. Truly an amazing shopping experience can be had there. However this time around I decided to pick up some seasonal winter biers.

Today’s Bier is from Brauerei Fischerstube, located in the old town of Basel. Now I’ve not visited the brewery itself (next trip to Basel), but this does have quite the local following (similar to that of the Boxer Bière of Lausanne). The Brewery has been around for over 30 years and has been doing a great job of tippling the tongues of the Basel natives in that period.

The bier itself was actually quite nice, although light amber bier. This is an unusual take on the Winterbier for the region, but was quite good. Another unusual factor was that unlike other Winterbier from Europe, this was actually quite low on alcohol at around 5%. This was nicely matched by it’s subtle, yet defined, malty flavour. The thing that really stood out for me about this bier was simply that it didn’t stand out. Most Winterbiers that I’ve tried have been bold in flavour and in kick so to really hit home the warming and festive feelings. This amber from Uelibier is subtle and sometimes that is just what you need.

Amber, Basel, Beerworld.ch, Drinsk of the World, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra, Uelibier, Winter Beer, Winterbier

January 11th, 2010 by Nate

In the German Speaking areas of Switzerland, they do tend to follow many German brewing traditions such as the Reinheitsgebot. What these sorts of traditions tend to bring to the brewing process is that you get some really quaint biers and attitudes towards bier.

The above Weissbier is from the Appenzell region of Switzerland. The brewery is named after the region and has been doing it’s thing since 1886. As for the bier itself, well it’s not exactly bad (the amber is better) but it is a good Weissbier for a Swiss bier.

Beer, Bier, Reinheitsgebot, Swiss Bier, Swiss Bier/Bière/Birra, weissbier

December 13th, 2009 by Nate

After my previous attempt to try a local Christmas bière failed so miserably, I was sceptical to try the above Boxer Bière de Fête, but wow was I shocked at this bier.

First up the smell is of a beautiful fruity bouquet with a slight hops undertone. The colour of the bier is a deep crimson and brown, but looks like bière rather than apple juice.

The flavour is amazing. I have to say that the bière’s texture is what a Christmas bière should be, it makes you feel like you are drinking a bière at 5.6% rather than some water with alcohol in it. Anyway I need to move away from comparing this to the first Christmas bière of the season. To the flavour, first up you are hit with an initial sweet cinnamon bite and finished up by great direct, rich and nutty flavour. It is exactly what Christmas Beer/Noël Bière, it should inspire notions of the season, the spirit of winter.

So bravo Boxer, bravo. Merry Christmas to you!

Oh and Happy Birthday to my mate Reed back in Sydney.

Beer, bière, Boxer, Boxer Bière, Christmas, Christmas Beer, Noël, Noël Bière