December 27th, 2009 by Nate

Over the last few days I have been working hard on drinking as much German Bier as possible. My partner in crime is German, hence the time in Germany for the holiday. Never the less, I have been thinking about the things that this site has achieved over the past 12 months and especially regarding all of the Winter Beers I have been luck enough to try. However I realise that I am only showing a certain portion of the world and many other beer afficianados out there have reviewed the seasonal beers in their respective region. Thus I decided that I would provide, to those of you interested in other worldly beers, a list of Winter beers I have managed to read about and only dream of trying. So here goes:

Blog About Beer has a review of the Anchor Our Special Christmas Ale

A Good Beer Blog reviews the Christmas Ale, St. Bernardus

Seen Through Glass has reviewed the Stoudts Winter Ale

The Brew Site has a review of the Monteith’s Doppelbock Winter Ale (among others). Be sure check out their advent calendar of beer,

Moippai has a reveiw of the Shiro Kirin (White Kirin)

Beer at 6512 reviews the Durango Winter Ale

The Beer Snob reviews the Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Brew Club has a review of the Brooklyn Brewery Winter Ale

Beer 47 shares Two Turtle Doves with us

I have missed any reviews, I am sorry. I have only added links to those beers that I have read about. Thus if you have reviewed a beer and I have not seen it then send me a link to your blog/site. It is about time we made nice

Having noted all of these beer, I should mention that I just passed through the Basel Hauptbahnhof (main train station), where there is the very well setup and located Drinks of the World shop where I managed to pick up 6 more European Winter beers. Thus I will, in time add reviews of these as soon as I can drink them.

2009, Beer, beers, Bier, Christmas Beer, Winter, Winter Beer, world

December 26th, 2009 by Nate

Bier Adventures would like to wish all of it’s faithful readers and participants, a fantastic holiday season and and wonderful new year.

Remember drinking your beer should not simply be a drink, rather it’s an adventure!!!!

christmas 2009

December 23rd, 2009 by Nate

I’m a sucker for the seasonal beers. I don’t know what it is, maybe it is the seasonal uniqueness or simply due to the fact that I grew up in Australia with some very typical and simple lagers, that I’m impressed by anything that is of variation. Either way whilst I was in London I visited a small Marks & Spencer in the Tower Bridge region where I found this specially brewed ale.

Why is it special? Well it seems M&S has enlisted the services of the Cropton Brewery to brew an ale specifically for them.

I’ve tried a few seasonal beer/ales this year and I have to say this wasn’t bad, but not great. The one thing that hit me more than other seasonal drinks is that this ale had a particular citrus flavour. I don’t know about you, but to be honest when I drink a beer I don’t want anything citrus in it. I do like subtle hints of flavours such as the Erdinger Weiss, but this Christmas Ale was just too much.

Conversely there was a nice Cinnamon, nutmeg and I believe cloves which to be honest improved the ale. Still it wasn’t anything to write home about, or let alone spending too much time on this post. So it’s not bad, but not great….

Ale, Christmas, Christmas Ale, Citrus, Cropton Brewery, Lemon, M&S, Marks & Spencer, Seasonal, Tower Bridge

December 23rd, 2009 by Nate

Thanks to the Washington Beer Blog, from the USA’s Pacific North West, I’ve just been informed of the latest and greatest Eau de Toilette from the Seattle region. It turns out that a company is using the bi-products from the brewing process to replace the traditional petroleum solutions used in the cologne making process. Of course there is no beer fragrance, but still a cool idea.

Check out the local King 5 TV station footage here.

December 22nd, 2009 by Nate

So it’s recently and finally started snowing here. On my back balcony I’ve got my empty bottles sitting to be used in my next home brew (thats another story… for later). Tonight I stuck my head out and found the above situation.

It made me realise that I had drunk an entire case of this bier without reviewing the damn thing. So I thought I would do a post review of the bier. A Southern German, Western Bavarian brewery that specialises in it’s lagers, considered to be one of the better lager/pils bier in Germany.

The Hoppy and fresh bier that in all honesty can be drunk without complication, hence it’s popularity. The advantage for this bier is that it has texture, a very over looked quality in bier. Although this is something that is focussed on in wine sommelier scene, bier is generally overlooked for it’s texture. Thus this is what makes this one of the better lager/pils going around Germany.

Altenmünster, Bavarian, Bayern, Bier, German Bier, Lager, Pils

December 22nd, 2009 by Nate

It’s never, ever good news to hear about a fire destroying anything. In this case it’s particularly sad as a brewery has been impacted. Thinks about all of the Irish fun and enjoyment that has been destroyed or delayed because of this blaze.

What makes it worse is that 2 firefighters died in their efforts to save the beer. My condolences to the families of these gents. I do hope that they find themselves in a heaven full of the good stuff.

Dublin, fire, Guinness, Ireland, Stout

December 21st, 2009 by Nate

Now if everything works well, my readers out there in Europe should be seeing this around 17:30, which is ‘just about’ the time for the Winter Solstice. So in honour of this moment above is a pint of Dark Star Brewery’s Winter Solstice Ale.

I partook in this ale at the Clachan Pub, who has quite the list of seasonal ales which would be remiss of me not to try. The Winter Solstice ale was probably the best ale I’ve had in the UK. It has a great hearty-bronze colour, an aroma of hops and a nice creamy texture, which is exactly what you expect from an ale. But there is something special about this ale, I couldn’t put my finger on it originally, but after a bit of research on the net I found that the brewers added coriander to the brew and WOW does it work. Honestly this is up there as one of the top seasonal brews I’ve had.

Ale, Clachan, Clachan Pub, Dark Star Brewery, England, English Ale, Winter Solstice, Winter Solstice Ale

December 20th, 2009 by Nate

As part of my recent work trip to London I took it upon myself to try quite a few of the British Ales. Thus I was in the The Shipwrights Inn, just near the Tower Bridge tube when I had a tipple of the above Deuchars India Pale Ale.

Now I’ve tasted quite a few IPA’s in my time, and most where Australian versions of the original, which have generally been quite carbonated and usually served at a cool temperature. The above Deuchars was however different than this, as typically it was served like any other typical British Ale, warm temperature and slightly less carbonated. This was good and made the ale noteworthy for me. However the key for me was that this Edinburgh brewed ale just wasn’t sharp enough for me. IPA’s usually have a distinctive mix of hops and sometimes malty flavour, however this IPA just didn’t have enough of this to make a grate IPA, thus I’m only giving it 3 steins:

Ale, Deuchars, Deuchars India Pale Ale, English Ale, India Pale Ale, IPA, London, London Tower, Tower Bridge

December 18th, 2009 by Nate

I spent last week working in London. So it was only natural that I partake in the local grub. Being an Aussie, I am a fan of the good old Pie and Pint. It’s such a simple and easy way to relax after walking Oxford and Regent Street on the week before Christmas. One of the hardest things for an Aussie to get past is beer being served at room temperature. It is something that I always have an initial reaction to. I guess 25+ years in Australia and always expecting the beer to be cold can do that too you. But once you get past that initial shock, it’s quite nice to be able to taste the flavour variations in ales, something that is sorely missing in most Australian Lagers.

Anyway to the ale, above is a pint of Spitfire Kentish Ale. Apparently a one of the UK’s fastest growing premium ales, well so far as their website says. Now I’m not one to dispute bier advertisements, mainly as I tend not to read them. But in this case I’m sorry Spitfire, your ale just didn’t live up to it’s premium billing.

It’s not that it’s a bad ale, it’s just wasn’t great. Yes it had a good hoppy flavour, but it just never had that bite I was expecting, especially from something that had such a dark amber colour and the great malty smell that it presented. So whilst not sad, I just can’t receptive as those creative and inventive types at the marketing department.

Ale, English Ale, English Beer, London, Pie, Pie and Pint, Pint, Spitfire Kentish Ale, UK

December 16th, 2009 by Nate

A big CHEERS to Alan over at “A Good Beer Blog” for awarding this shot of I took of the König Ludwig Schloßbrauerei Bier with a Maine’s Shipyard T-Shirt.

Now I’ve not tasted any the Shipyard Beer, however I like to thank the guys over there for donating the T-Shirt to Alan’s competition. I will be wearing it proudly. Also if anyone from Shipyard happens to be reading this post, drop me a line as I’d love to hear more about your beer and maybe we can organise some situation where I could test it

Cheers to all involved in the competition. Once again Alan thanks for all of your efforts in getting this up and running.

A Good Beer Blog, American Beer, Beer, Bier, Competition, German Bier, König Ludwig, Maine's Shipyard, Winner