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 22nd, 2010 by Nate

The Bunny Brew (literal translation of Hasen Bräu) is based in Ausburg, located between Munich and Ulm is the home of the above “Fortuna Lager Bier”. What is interesting is that you wont find the Lagerbier or for that matter any details of the “Fortuna” brand listed on their site, but they do brew the bier.

Like other Lagers this bier isn’t so distinctive in that it is identifiable as a ‘local’ brew, however this is one to be enjoyed quickly. This one is more watery and more towards an Aussie Lager than German Lagers. This isn’t a particularly complicated bier but it is a bier that can can be drunk quickly and will deliver a sure hit of sweetness and a dash of bitterness. A perfect bier for those who like Radlers or as we say in Australia and the UK, a shandy (beer mixed with Sprite/sparkling lemonade). Because of this it’s getting 2 Steins:

Ausburg, Bunny Brew, Fortuna Lagerbier, German Bier, Hasen Bräu, hell, Lager, Lagerbier

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

August 26th, 2009 by Nate

Well the weather has finally been worth mentioning. It’s been warm, beautiful and what Swiss summers are all about. I decided to be adventurous and try the French attempt at a Weisse Bier, the 1664 Blanc.

The distinct blue bottle is interesting to say the least. I mean it’s not to often that you see a bière in a blue bottle. Also the bottle are half the size of the German half litre bottles? Essentially a shot of bière. Anyway, the bière itself is ok and to be honest is WAY to sweet. The texture is like a mid-range German Weisse, which is not bad. However the flavour in the Blanc is nothing to write home about, it has an initial palette hit of passion fruit and apricot, which while summery it doesn’t evolve and you are left with this overly sweet flavour in your mouth. So this might work for some people, but is no means what I’m interested in. So here is 2 steins.

Beer, bière, Blanc, Blanc bière, French bière

August 11th, 2009 by Nate

I spent the weekend hanging out in Paris, ahh the French. I love being in Paris but the French really do have problems with making bière. I guess it’s the wine industry, but there really isn’t any good bière in France. So when trying to get a photo and an experience I decided to just find a French bière and drink near a famous place.

So here is a the lager Kronenbourg sitting up proudly in front of Eiffel Tower.

No matter what the location, this bière is still pretty crap. So it gets 2 Steins:

bière, Eiffel tower, France, French, la tour Eiffel, Lager, Paris

July 11th, 2007 by Nate

I spent the last weekend (July 6th-8th ’07) in Trier, Bastogne and Luxembourg. Was a great road trip!

Anyway, I’ll start with the last beer I had (above). The ‘pint’ (yes thats what they called it?) of Diekirche is a Pils from the ‘Brasserie de Luxembourg Mousel Diekirch’ brewery.

As far as pils go, this is no comparison to an Urquel or even some of the German Pils. It wasn’t completely flat on flavour & did have some hoppy tones, but generally I just didn’t enjoy drinking it. Which is surprising seeing that Luxembourg is surrounded on two sides by the Belgians and Germans???

Therefore I give this a 2 Steins

Bastogne, Bier, Luxembourg Bier, Pils, Pilsner, Trier

February 13th, 2007 by Nate

I was out on Friday in Bockenheim having a few biers. The pub we ended up in whilst being quite dodgy had a pretty cool air to it. They also had a Weiss bier that I’d never tried, a
Tucher Weiss, which wasn’t all that good when compared to other Bavarian biers.

So in my new rating scheme, I give it a 2 out of 5: 2-beers-small.gif

For more information regarding the ranking system, click here.

Frankfurt, German Bier, Weißbier, wissbier