Now, look, I’m not much of a fan of lager. Really. It all tastes the same to me, out of bottles at least. I can’t tell the difference between one lager and another.

That said, I do know the difference between a lager which has been brewed with all kinds of nastiness, and a lager which has been brewed with the German reinheitsgebot purity law which basically says that the only thing allowable in your beer is water, barley, and hops. (And yeast, being honest, except that’s actually not allowable in the law, except it was repealed a long time ago and it’s just a marketing ploy these days, but you get my drift.)

When in Thailand recently, I was told that many Thai beers have formaldehyde in them, and that’s why you get a splitting headache if you have too much. This appears to be false – the splitting headache is because Thai beers were stronger than UK beers for some time and we didn’t understand this – but China apparently does still use formaldehyde in some local brews. This is why the reinheitsgebot is a good thing, since I’ve no plans to purposefully drink formaldehyde.

So, splendid to note that you can now get Windhoek Lager here in the UK. It’s Namibia’s local brew, and it’s now available in the UK (in places like Tesco). And it’s brewed (as all the Namibia Brewery beers are) in accordance with the reinheitsgebot. So it’s a nicely pure beer, as beer should be.

I was sent some to taste (and invited to the launch in the UK, which was postponed once because of the ash cloud, and then I managed to fall ill for the second try, so I missed out on that). And, you know what? It is a good beer, too. Crisp and tasty, and I’m sure very lovely at the end of a hot day.

It’s especially good at this time of year, because not only has it been quite hot recently here in the UK, it’s also a very popular beer in South Africa (which borders Namibia to the south, as I notice from Wikipedia, embarrassingly), and as such I enjoyed it as a reward for finishing some hot gardening and watching the World Cup.

The only question remaining is how I pronounce it. I thought I was right with “Wind-hook” but it turns out it’s “Vint-hook”, which is odd.

Anyway: if you’re a lager drinker and you’re fancying a change from the normal boring Becks or Carling, I would recommend it. It’s different, tasty, and formaldehyde-free!

© james for Beertweet, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lager, namibia, windhoek

While a friend of mine thinks very little of Brussels, I’ve found a few convivial places to go, while I’ve been out there. This place is one of them.

The last time I went to Brussels, I wandered over to Le Greenwich, a lovely place with a decent bottled beer selection and a multitude of chess players: and discovered it was closed. I thought this was sad, since it looked pretty permanent: the place has certainly been rather crumbling recently.

Anyway, luckily, the website brusselnieuws used my photograph to illustrate a piece of information which has gladdened the heart: they’ll open again in November. We’ll be able to go into the back room again (which has been closed and in, seemingly, an unsafe condition for a while), and it’ll look newer and spanglier from the outside.

It’s proabably not the best place to go in Brussels, but it’s close to the Grand Place, and therefore nice to spend a bit of time in. When it opens again, make sure you pop in.

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Post tags: Belgium, brussels, le greenwich

It’s hard to find craft beer in Japan – Japanese craft beer, that is. There are a few pub chains here: The Hub (an English-type pub chain which sells its own branded horrid stuff); Kirin City (which sells a few of the Kirin brews, hence the name); Hobgoblin (yes, allied to Wychwood Brewery)… but none of them sell any craft beer from Japan. I asked, at the Hobgoblin in Shibuya, for a Japanese beer and got… Sapporo. Great.

So it was a splendid surprise to do what I should have done all along, and googled where I might find decent beer in Japan; and discovered that there was somewhere quite close to my hotel in Shinjunku that sold a craft beer from Japan.

That somewhere was the Brooklyn Parlor, which sold rather excellent food (yum, blue cheese burger); and two beers – one, Brooklyn Lager from NYC (though it’s apparently supposed to be brewed here under licence now); and the other a proper Japanese beer.

Hitachino Nest White Ale really is this colour; it’s a citrussy, splendidly spicy beer – which didn’t taste as sweet as Hoegaarden or similar wheat beers. I was rather a fan of it; wheat beers tend to give me a shining headache pretty quickly, but this didn’t at all.

At ¥900 (£6.40) for 450ml, that’s a slightly shocking £7.81 per pint; but I am in Tokyo, and it was something rather special. It beats Copenhagen’s prices, mind – though doesn’t quite get to UAE prices. Or Norway’s, come to that.

Anyway, I’d recommend the Brooklyn Parlor, and this beer, if you find yourself in Tokyo. Decent food (unusually), decent beer (unusually), and – where I was sitting, at least – a smoke-free atmosphere (unusually). 素晴らしい！

© james for Beertweet, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brooklyn Parlor, Hitacho, Hitacho Nest White Ale, Japan, Tokyo, Wheat beer

In San Francisco last night, and was served Anchor Steam Beer in Dave’s. And there’s how it came.

It’s odd (and wrong) to have beer in a different glass, particularly a Guinness glass, since I get confused as to why my Guinness is an amber coloured, medium-bitter drink which is slightly too gassy for my taste. But look closer.

It’s a dual-branded glass. It’s also branded ‘Harp lager’.

For a company that consistently gets its branding so correct, I’m rather amazed that Guinness/Diageo would produce a dual-branded glass like this. True, the Harp branding is in black, and therefore would be invisible when this glass is used for Guinness, and only visible when it’s used for Harp lager. But. Even so.

Have you seen any other dual-branded glasses? Let me know in the comments.

© james for Beertweet, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anchor steam beer, California, Guinness, Harp, San Francisco, USA

The message said something about the fact that, because of the recent floods, Jennings beer is being brewed ‘by other breweries’ (other breweries from Marston’s), and that 10p of every pint is going straight into the Cumbrian floods appeal.

Visiting their website, they’ve a special section about the flooding: and the efforts to bring the brewery back online.

Congratulations should go to the Marston’s Group to be doing something sensible for the local economy; and to Wetherspoon’s for stocking it. Hopefully it’ll be popular.

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Post tags: cumbria, England, jennings, snecklifter, wetherspoons

Pop into this bar in San Francisco, and you’re in for a treat.

The place started in 1948, and has a peculiarly French feel to it. With awful portraits on the wall (one claims it’s Patrick Swayze, but the only way of telling is to read the sign saying who it is below), it’s certainly a sight to see.

As I walked in, the sight that greeted me from the upstairs balcony were two feet. Whoever it was up there (who, listening to the bar-tenders chatting to themselves, had imbibed a fair amount of Absinthe), had decided to relax a little.

The amusing signs are all over the bar. Some parts are dedicated to people who used to drink there – the John Wilkes Memorial Booth is above the bar to the right; a large portrait of the original owner – Henri Lenior, a stern-looking french man, in a beret. The signs are classy and amusing – even, somehow, the one typeset in MS Comic Sans. No, really.

The gas-lamp chandelier above the bar, and the art-deco mirror, will give you plenty to look at when you choose your beer; however, the range on tap isn’t quite as exciting as the decor, sadly. Here’s what was on tap when I visited the other day…

Anchor Steam (San Francisco, California, USA)
Widmer Hefeweizen (Portland, Oregon, USA)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Chico, California, USA)
Pilsner Urquell (Pilsen, Czech Republic)
Budweiser (St Louis, Missouri, USA)
Stella Artois (Leuven, Belgium)
Amstel Light (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bass (Burton, UK)
Guinness (Dublin, Ireland)

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Post tags: Amstel Light, Amsterdam, Anchor Steam, Bass, Belgium, Budweiser, Burton, California, Chico, Czech Republic, dublin, England, Guinness, Ireland, Leuven, Missouri, Netherlands, Oregon, Pilsen, Pilsner Urquell, Portland, San Francisco, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, St Louis, Stella Artois, USA, Widmer Hefeweizen

Montréal takes a bit of getting used to.

French is the first language here. Parisian architecture nestles with the brash skyscrapers and wide streets of a typical US city. French-looking coffee shops and cafés rub shoulders with the dual-language ‘Café Starbucks Cafe’ and McDonald’s signs adorned with maple leaves. The roadsigns and large North American cars coexist with a high degree of European cultural activity. And all amongst it is a fierce independent streak. Those in Montreal don’t want to be like the US – or, indeed, the rest of Canada.

Montréal, like many cities, is broken up into many different areas: and I strolled, in the cold, in an area away from the skyscrapers of downtown on the hunt for some microbreweries.

The first, L’amère à boire, brewed all its own beer. The beer menu, proudly advertising ‘ales anglaises, lagers allemandes, lager tcheques’ went into the details of each beer in some detail. I wanted to start with the porter, then realised that if I was to try other beers, this might not be the cleverest plan, so instead, chatting to some new friends from the French-language Radio Canada, I went for the India Pale Ale. It was certainly a faithful, if slightly dull, representation of an IPA – brewed in steel vats behind us. L’amère à boire, which is a piece of French wordplay, was a very fine start to the evening; feeling less like an English pub and more like a south of France bar.

Another walk, and another piece of French wordplay. I’ve no real idea what the wordplay is withinDieu du Ciel, but clearly it was very funny, and extended to the large beer list (above), which was written on the blackboard; the unavailable number 15 demonstrating the continuous turnaround of some of these beers.

I started with the Fumisterie, an amber beer brewed with hemp. It had an odd “signature”, to use the words of my Québec-born companion; an unfamiliar taste of herbs as part of the overall, sweet, bouquet. Certainly one for trying, though whether I would try it again, I’m not so sure.

Then I moved on to the Corne du Diable, a strong and wonderfully hoppy American pale ale. This was deliciously bitter: so much so, it almost made my mouth pucker on first tasting it. Astoundingly good. Most fine.

In both places – and the additional microbrewery I tried the following night – I was struck by the wide choice of styles available. The French or Belgians wouldn’t, typically, also offer you a Scottish Ale, a Kölsch, and a stout; yet the microbreweries in Montréal offered all of these and rather rarer styles, and impressively they get them right, too.

I must find an excuse to visit the city again: there are many delightful reasons to return, especially the people.

© james for Beertweet, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: APA, Canada, IPA, Montréal

Shhh.

The people in Washington DC, USA are rather proud of Brickskeller. See – Brickskeller claims it has “the world’s largest selection of beer”.

But it’s not true.

The beer menu for Brickskeller, an otherwise uninspiring bar in Washington DC’s trendy Dupont Circle area, is quite long. It’s A5-sized, computer-generated and rather scruffily photocopied. It contains little information about the style of beer, and is rather intimidating to a non beer-drinker. The versions on the tables seemed to be a few months old, judging by their condition.

But the menu descends into farce when you attempt to order anything. The first beer I asked for? “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have that”. I asked for an American Pale Ale, and chose something that looked interesting – but was offered “hey, we’ve some Goose Island Harvest Ale, if you’d like to try that.” It’s a nice beer, but it isn’t a hoppy APA.

The second beer I asked for, I was more explicit. “Could I have the Founders Double Trouble, or failing that, another Pale Ale – the hoppier the better?” Guess what? They didn’t have Double Trouble either, but they did have Centennial IPA, which wasn’t as hoppy as I was looking for, but was a good beer.

Others on my table (well, the ones not ordering – cough – red wine or Stella) were also disappointed when their original choice wasn’t available. And checking any review site, you’ll notice this experience is not unusual.

The menu is nowhere near as large as the Kulminator. When I visited there, in June 2008, it had a beer menu with 38 pages of closely-typed beers. So, I’m not sure I believe the Brickskeller claim, even if they had all the beers they claimed they do.

I was choosing from the relatively-available domestic beers: when it gets to the rather more complicated beers (Beerlao Dark from Laos, anyone?) it sounds like a recipe for disappointment. Getting people in through the door because you have the “world’s largest selection of beer” and then significantly not delivering that choice is dishonest and, frankly, fraudulent.

The Brickskeller is a great idea – if done well. The waiting staff aren’t chosen for their beauty, or their charisma. It’s in the right area of town, too.

All it needs to do is live up to its promise. Or, tell the truth.

© james for Beertweet, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brickskeller, Founders, Goose Island, Kulminator, USA, washington dc

On a recent trip to Copenhagen, I rather enjoyed a visit to Carlsberg’s Visitor Centre.

Now, I’ve blogged recently on the cost of beer in Denmark, and the moderately difficult job you might have to avoid drinking from the Carlsberg Group. But the reality is that Carlsberg is a decent brewery: not only does it have some tremendous architecture in its brewery complex, it’s also the home of more than just Carlsberg – the craft beers of JC Jacobsen also live in the brewery, based on Ny Carlsberg Vej in the city.

The Carlsberg Visitor Centre is rather better than many I’ve been in: concentrating on Carlsberg (rather than brewing), the dark museum takes you through a complete history of the brand and beer in Denmark. It’s rather nicely put together: including a tremendous collection of different beer bottles (including rather a lot of Carlsberg bottles).

Then, all of a sudden, via some brewing equipment, you’re ejected out into the horse stables: and the unmistakeable smell of horse poo hits your nose. Yes, the horses are still here; and still work for the brewery. Then, it’s into the JC Jacobsen part – a much more modern brand, with some clever tasting aids; and into the bar.

Your entry fee pays for one posh beer and one boring one – I went for a JC Jacobsen Belgian Ale and a Carls Porter, rather than the boring Carlsberg/Tuborg that everyone seems to want to steer you to. The JC Jacobsen was wonderful, amazingly yeasty and very strong. In this bar, bright, light, and complete with table-football and food, I also discovered free wifi, which helped me take my time to savour these beers over some excited Twittering.

The visitor’s shop, incidentally, sells rather more than you’d expect: including a rather fashionable Carls t-shirt. I bought one. More money into the Danish brewery.

If you are planning a trip to Copenhagen, while the brewery isn’t exactly central (it’s a walk from any of the public transport I could find), it’s certainly an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Which is what I did. And I’d recommend it.

© james for Beertweet, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: belgian ale, carlsberg, denmark, JC Jacobsen, porter

If you have already seen the new Guinness World ad, you’re probably wondering how they made it.

This is how, in case you were wondering.

If you’re not, I should point out that the main image behind this blog is Whitstable Bay Organic Stout (other stouts are available!) and that my next blog posting will be all about the Carlsberg Visitor’s Centre.

© james for Beertweet, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising, Guinness, stout