For the first night in a long time, I don't have to do anything... the engineering gods much be planning something
While definitely a time for heartier beers (it's cold here in Milwaukee), my fridge just happens to be packed full of lagers. As I reach down to grab a budweiser, my hand hits a bottle. Having bought only cans recently, I was confused and grabbed the bottle. The bottle's name is J.R. Tennent, and he's from Scotland, and oddly enough, imported into St. louis by the Import Brands Alliance. A coincidence? I think not.
While the fledgling beer aficionado in me wants to find out what glass to pour it in (a pint glass obviously, it's a lager), the undergraduate in me just wants it...in my mouth. For better of worse, let's review Tennent's, straight out da' bottle.
Oddly enough, the beer just reminds me of advertisements for Budweiser, Keystone, Coors...even that Miller company, a wave of smooth, golden ale. It's smooth, it's light in color. It's sweet, but not overwhelmingly. It finishes clean, with none of that metally/bitter aftertaste you get with Keystone, Miller....and yeah, even the king, Budweiser (but there's less of it damnit,I swear!!!).
Yet, with all that's right with the beer, in the end it has no defining taste. It's there and then it's gone. It's like....well I dunno, a lazy summer day. (not a freeze your nuts off Milwaukee fall/winter).
As much as I'm likin' this beer, I'm gonna save my Tennent's time for warmer climates.
Conclusion: Drink it on the beach, or with some pub food (pub pickles anyone?)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
H4XX0RZ
Hey all. No I'm not some random persona of Ryan. I am Arthur. H4XX0Rz-ing the site with my own blend of Beers that actually...Don't come from the US of A. Being in Australia has taught me two important things:
1) Never buy electronics in Australia. It's hideously expensive.
2) Beer in Australia is good. Not oh-wow-that-corona-light-with-lime-is-good good, I mean damn good.
The main difference, in my opinion at least, between US beers and Aussie beers would be the fact that US beers only have...3%? alcohol while Aussie beers have 5.7% alcohol. Granted that isn't too big of a difference but when a mate, friend in the US, challenges you to drinking a pitcher of beer by yourself because you told him you could down two in an hour...It hits you. Hard. Especially when it's a very good beer.
Beer I'll be talking about this time: Little Creatures Pale Ale (LCPA for my purposes).
Hand-crafted beer. Aka microbrewed. Extremely tastey. It's, as it obviously says, a [b]Pale[/b] Ale. Not for those people that like the heavy stuff like Ryan supposedly does with the whole Guinness thing. I for one can't stand beers that make it feel like I'm eating bread. But that's besides the point. Little Creatures is a 5.7% alcohol micro-brewed beer. Australia ONLY. Spectacular right? Especially for all those folks that are going there (sarcasm). Point of the matter is. LCPA has a rather bitter taste to begin with but smooths itself out about halfway through the bottle. It's actually got a specially made glass for it, which I refuse to buy so I have to deal with said taste. But when I went to the bars they conveniently had a one of those glasses and I got to try it out. That is probably a far superior way of drinking this beer. The head is perfect and the color is great.
I'll talk more about it later...Time to drink some more.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Prost!
Like most everyone's college career, mine has been filled with hours in the lab, studying late into the night and...beer. Of course, back when I was a freshman, the choices of beer for mass consumption were limited to such great brands as Keystone, Hamms, Mountain Creek....yeah, awful.
However, those days are...uh...not as frequent! Shortly after turning 21 I searched for a place to happily consume lots of beer and be considered a patron...rather than a mooch. Fortuitously, only 3 blocks away from my apartment I found the Old German Beer Hall, one of Milwaukee's drunkest and most interesting bars.
All beers served at this bar are from the Hofbrauhaus Muchen, a brewery in Munich that I know little about other than that they make good beer, or at least beer that is meant to be consumed en mass.
This is not to say that the beer isn't good, but when you can get a liter of beer for $5.50 on Thursdays with a college ID... it's hard to remember the finer points of what you're imbibing. So here's an outline of a night you can expect drinking at the Old German Beer Hall.
1. Arrive around 9 or 10, this way you can leave after downing a few liters to go brashly flirt with the opposite sex...you tell yourself this is what you will do but it never happens.
2. Order a liter of beer. I usually go with the Hofbrauhaus Original. It's a very smooth beer, and judging from the color and head, it is most definitely a lager, though much heavier than it's American brethren. Sweet the whole way through with a nice hoppy aroma that kicks in at the end. After mass consumption it can taste a little bitter, but that's just your body becoming dehydrated.
3. The first liter seems to disappear from the giant mug it's in until you get to the last 1/8 of the glass....for some reason it won't disappear. At this time one of 2 things will happen.
A) Someone you know will come in and give you a beer on them
B) The band will start playing polka and/or techno, to which the beer wenches will proceed to dance the sluttiest chicken dance you have ever seen.
Beer Taste: You still have complete control of your taste buds, it's smooth, sweet, and filling.
4. Now you might as well stay to talk to your friend and play some weird drunk hammering nails in log game with them, or remember your childhood between gulps of liquid bread as random people start dancing on the large oak tables. At some point you run into the same problem you had with the first liter, but power through.
Beer Taste: After the first beer this one seemed a little more bitter...but then the alcohol kicked in and it was just sweet and filling again
5. It's time to go to the bar across the street. That's what you say to yourself, but your cheap college ass won't let you go to a bar and pay upwards of $10 more dollars to get more than buzzed when you can spend that here and get completely annihilated. Also, the benches are comfy for some reason. You get yourself another liter and begin nursing it
Beer Taste: You can't really taste anymore. The sweet is gone and you get a slight bitter aftertaste in your mouth. You might be able to slap yourself in the face and not feel it if you're a little person. The mouthfeel is still smooth. If you induldged in the dollar shots, this will also taste like black licorice and wood.
6. Somehow you finish that last beer. Amongst the polka and weird German techno you stumble out of the bar with either the buddies you came with or the buddies you met up there. Even if you go to the bar across the street, chances are you won't remember it, and will drink yourself into oblivion trying to talk to some girl.
7. Good morning, it's 12:00 in the afternoon and you go get pancakes.
Conclusion: Your chance to re-enact Beerfest without feeling like a tool
However, those days are...uh...not as frequent! Shortly after turning 21 I searched for a place to happily consume lots of beer and be considered a patron...rather than a mooch. Fortuitously, only 3 blocks away from my apartment I found the Old German Beer Hall, one of Milwaukee's drunkest and most interesting bars.
All beers served at this bar are from the Hofbrauhaus Muchen, a brewery in Munich that I know little about other than that they make good beer, or at least beer that is meant to be consumed en mass.
This is not to say that the beer isn't good, but when you can get a liter of beer for $5.50 on Thursdays with a college ID... it's hard to remember the finer points of what you're imbibing. So here's an outline of a night you can expect drinking at the Old German Beer Hall.
1. Arrive around 9 or 10, this way you can leave after downing a few liters to go brashly flirt with the opposite sex...you tell yourself this is what you will do but it never happens.
2. Order a liter of beer. I usually go with the Hofbrauhaus Original. It's a very smooth beer, and judging from the color and head, it is most definitely a lager, though much heavier than it's American brethren. Sweet the whole way through with a nice hoppy aroma that kicks in at the end. After mass consumption it can taste a little bitter, but that's just your body becoming dehydrated.
3. The first liter seems to disappear from the giant mug it's in until you get to the last 1/8 of the glass....for some reason it won't disappear. At this time one of 2 things will happen.
A) Someone you know will come in and give you a beer on them
B) The band will start playing polka and/or techno, to which the beer wenches will proceed to dance the sluttiest chicken dance you have ever seen.
Beer Taste: You still have complete control of your taste buds, it's smooth, sweet, and filling.
4. Now you might as well stay to talk to your friend and play some weird drunk hammering nails in log game with them, or remember your childhood between gulps of liquid bread as random people start dancing on the large oak tables. At some point you run into the same problem you had with the first liter, but power through.
Beer Taste: After the first beer this one seemed a little more bitter...but then the alcohol kicked in and it was just sweet and filling again
5. It's time to go to the bar across the street. That's what you say to yourself, but your cheap college ass won't let you go to a bar and pay upwards of $10 more dollars to get more than buzzed when you can spend that here and get completely annihilated. Also, the benches are comfy for some reason. You get yourself another liter and begin nursing it
Beer Taste: You can't really taste anymore. The sweet is gone and you get a slight bitter aftertaste in your mouth. You might be able to slap yourself in the face and not feel it if you're a little person. The mouthfeel is still smooth. If you induldged in the dollar shots, this will also taste like black licorice and wood.
6. Somehow you finish that last beer. Amongst the polka and weird German techno you stumble out of the bar with either the buddies you came with or the buddies you met up there. Even if you go to the bar across the street, chances are you won't remember it, and will drink yourself into oblivion trying to talk to some girl.
7. Good morning, it's 12:00 in the afternoon and you go get pancakes.
Conclusion: Your chance to re-enact Beerfest without feeling like a tool
Sunday, August 2, 2009
An Act of God
This latest post has nothing to do with beer, unfortunately, but I thought I would share it anyways. It involves Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola.
Having come from a religious (specifically Catholic) background, there is one thing I can't stand, God-bashing. After the many years I spent around monks and the occasional hermit (whom you're not even really supposed to say hi to), I've gained a respect for people who have the ability to fully devote themselves to their beliefs. Ridiculing faith that can lead to such peaceful and admirable life-styles is ignorant and disrespectful. An equally infuriating notion is the bible-thumper telling me that they know everything about God, or that they have "the answer", but at the very least if you tell them to back off they'll just tell you "I'll pray for you."
**Before I go into this, let me just say that people are free to believe whatever they want. So this next section isn't meant to hate on atheists, rather to bash on a smal sub-sect of jerk atheists, who are really just jerks who happen to be atheists, so really it's just about jerks.**
The atheist version of the bible-thumper, however, is too pissed off at their current situation to leave your beliefs be. In addition, they'll go into great detail about how all religions are wrong. The savvier ones may pull quotes from sources such as scientists like Richard Dawkins or any number of classical-to-modern philosophers, but most of them will just spout flimsy ideas about their own take on the universe, insisting "I don't know how people can't come to this conclusion", or something like that.
So, with all that on the table, I was at a friend's house last night, and somehow we got on the subject of religion. I had drank a couple of Jack and Coke's beforehand, Here is the experience in a step-wise manner:
-Mixing Jack and Coke is an art form, it must be mixed to taste like both whiskey and coca-cola, not one or the other. Thankfully, this is almost impossible to mess up.
-Mouthfeel- like whiskey
-Intial taste- like coke
-Finishes-like whiskey and coke!
-On my third drink and the person next to me joins in on the conversation on the other side of the room.
-As the night progresses all other conversations have ceased due to the volume of the person next to me
-I get another drink
-Conversation's topic is on how theology professors may be biased to give good grades to "believers"
-I agree that some teachers can be close minded and get another drink
-Person next to me starts to call relgion as a whole "a joke", and proceeds to say how they make a mockery of religion in their lifestyle just because "it's funny"
-In an attempt to finish off the rest of my drink to get another, my cup 180's out of my hand into my crotch, thus ending the conversation.
-Embarassed, I make many crotch jokes
-The majority of the group leaves for the bars, while I notice a house party across the street
-My friend and I decide to go to the house party, where we run into much of our freshman dorm floor
-A much better time ensues, with music, more women, and drink, with my crotch splash as an icebreaker.
Conclusion: Jack Daniels is a gift from God
Having come from a religious (specifically Catholic) background, there is one thing I can't stand, God-bashing. After the many years I spent around monks and the occasional hermit (whom you're not even really supposed to say hi to), I've gained a respect for people who have the ability to fully devote themselves to their beliefs. Ridiculing faith that can lead to such peaceful and admirable life-styles is ignorant and disrespectful. An equally infuriating notion is the bible-thumper telling me that they know everything about God, or that they have "the answer", but at the very least if you tell them to back off they'll just tell you "I'll pray for you."
**Before I go into this, let me just say that people are free to believe whatever they want. So this next section isn't meant to hate on atheists, rather to bash on a smal sub-sect of jerk atheists, who are really just jerks who happen to be atheists, so really it's just about jerks.**
The atheist version of the bible-thumper, however, is too pissed off at their current situation to leave your beliefs be. In addition, they'll go into great detail about how all religions are wrong. The savvier ones may pull quotes from sources such as scientists like Richard Dawkins or any number of classical-to-modern philosophers, but most of them will just spout flimsy ideas about their own take on the universe, insisting "I don't know how people can't come to this conclusion", or something like that.
So, with all that on the table, I was at a friend's house last night, and somehow we got on the subject of religion. I had drank a couple of Jack and Coke's beforehand, Here is the experience in a step-wise manner:
-Mixing Jack and Coke is an art form, it must be mixed to taste like both whiskey and coca-cola, not one or the other. Thankfully, this is almost impossible to mess up.
-Mouthfeel- like whiskey
-Intial taste- like coke
-Finishes-like whiskey and coke!
-On my third drink and the person next to me joins in on the conversation on the other side of the room.
-As the night progresses all other conversations have ceased due to the volume of the person next to me
-I get another drink
-Conversation's topic is on how theology professors may be biased to give good grades to "believers"
-I agree that some teachers can be close minded and get another drink
-Person next to me starts to call relgion as a whole "a joke", and proceeds to say how they make a mockery of religion in their lifestyle just because "it's funny"
-In an attempt to finish off the rest of my drink to get another, my cup 180's out of my hand into my crotch, thus ending the conversation.
-Embarassed, I make many crotch jokes
-The majority of the group leaves for the bars, while I notice a house party across the street
-My friend and I decide to go to the house party, where we run into much of our freshman dorm floor
-A much better time ensues, with music, more women, and drink, with my crotch splash as an icebreaker.
Conclusion: Jack Daniels is a gift from God
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Hiatus from the Hiatus
Ok ok, so I haven't really kept up with the blog. Thankfully, I have kept up with the beer tasting in the past ... 8 months...wow...good job Ryan.
Anywho, on that note, I was walking to work today and decided to call John, my best friend from high school, to see if he was coming up to visit before he resumed his position as freshman babysitter over at Catholic University. He had recently just finished an internship working for Parliament in the UK. In conversation that followed, somehow "Correctly pouring a Guinness" became the main topic. In the 8 months since I've written on this site, I have found a bar right here in Milwaukee that actually pours Guinness this way (and draws a little clover in the beer's head to make you feel very touristy.) You might think there isn't a difference between pouring it one way or the other, but either due to unexplored science or the placebo effect, a pint of Guinness just tastes better this way (and gives you two excuses talk to the bartender.)
5 hours later absolutely sapped of energy from trying to fill out the AMCAS and researching prosthetic limbs, I figured my brain was done for the day, and I was day dreaming about a nice pint of the brew that introduced me to the world of stouts. Now for bullet-points:
-20 minutes from leaving the office I'm at the bar at Mo's
-I immediately request a pint of Guinness
-I forget that I ordered the pint of Guinness and wonder what's taking so long
-I feel foolish as a tulip glass with a 3 leaf clover stares me in the face
-The bartender tells me her name is Madison, and that she also studies Biomedical Engineering
-I am immediately impressed at her possession of beer pouring skills, wit, and good looks
-I take my first drink deeply, to get the full effect
-Mouthfeel-creamy/milky!
-Initial taste-coffee slightly bitter
-Half-way through- caramel
-Down the hatch- ends bitter, feels a bit watery compared to intial mouth feel
Having had this from cans and bottles before, this pint tasted immensely better than Guinness from other containers. Without the right pour, the creaminess/thickness of the brew is totally lost( along with a ton of flavors), leaving you with a watery, bitter libation. While I have a feeling the caramel flavor is mainly due to flaked roast barley used when making guiness, and the brain recognizing the texture as "milk", whatever is happening in this beer can only be brought about by a good bartender.
After 2 pints I went home and ended up reading a disseration and taking a nap.
Verdict: Order at an Irish Pub only, self serve from bottle/can/tap at own risk!
Anywho, on that note, I was walking to work today and decided to call John, my best friend from high school, to see if he was coming up to visit before he resumed his position as freshman babysitter over at Catholic University. He had recently just finished an internship working for Parliament in the UK. In conversation that followed, somehow "Correctly pouring a Guinness" became the main topic. In the 8 months since I've written on this site, I have found a bar right here in Milwaukee that actually pours Guinness this way (and draws a little clover in the beer's head to make you feel very touristy.) You might think there isn't a difference between pouring it one way or the other, but either due to unexplored science or the placebo effect, a pint of Guinness just tastes better this way (and gives you two excuses talk to the bartender.)
5 hours later absolutely sapped of energy from trying to fill out the AMCAS and researching prosthetic limbs, I figured my brain was done for the day, and I was day dreaming about a nice pint of the brew that introduced me to the world of stouts. Now for bullet-points:
-20 minutes from leaving the office I'm at the bar at Mo's
-I immediately request a pint of Guinness
-I forget that I ordered the pint of Guinness and wonder what's taking so long
-I feel foolish as a tulip glass with a 3 leaf clover stares me in the face
-The bartender tells me her name is Madison, and that she also studies Biomedical Engineering
-I am immediately impressed at her possession of beer pouring skills, wit, and good looks
-I take my first drink deeply, to get the full effect
-Mouthfeel-creamy/milky!
-Initial taste-coffee slightly bitter
-Half-way through- caramel
-Down the hatch- ends bitter, feels a bit watery compared to intial mouth feel
Having had this from cans and bottles before, this pint tasted immensely better than Guinness from other containers. Without the right pour, the creaminess/thickness of the brew is totally lost( along with a ton of flavors), leaving you with a watery, bitter libation. While I have a feeling the caramel flavor is mainly due to flaked roast barley used when making guiness, and the brain recognizing the texture as "milk", whatever is happening in this beer can only be brought about by a good bartender.
After 2 pints I went home and ended up reading a disseration and taking a nap.
Verdict: Order at an Irish Pub only, self serve from bottle/can/tap at own risk!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hiatus
Well, it's been awhile since the last post...being an engineer/not having Internet for the first couple months of the semester put a damper on swishing beer around my mouth and then writing about it.
Not to say that I haven't been drinking new beers. In fact, I feel much better equipped to tackle this blog now after a couple of months of bar going in Milwaukee.
But...finals to approach. In light of this, I plan to review a beer a day for about a week after, to make up for the lack of posts.
FYI: Punk girls are hot, hotter than the sun.
Not to say that I haven't been drinking new beers. In fact, I feel much better equipped to tackle this blog now after a couple of months of bar going in Milwaukee.
But...finals to approach. In light of this, I plan to review a beer a day for about a week after, to make up for the lack of posts.
FYI: Punk girls are hot, hotter than the sun.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie. Meet me at the.... other brewery?
Big thanks to my friend Nick for not only providing me with a new wireless mouse and keyboard, but also for introducing me to another St. Louis based beer (kinda). Originally brewed in St. Louis, the dark lager is now brewed and bottled in Pennsylvania, but is still distributed here in St. Louis.
With claims of not only being the first beer brewed in St. Louis, but in America as a whole, Lemp (started in 1838) apparently has a lot of history. Why then would I, a St. Louis native, not have heard of the oldest brewery in the country? Where are the Lemp Brewery tours? The Lemp family? Sure, there's a building in the city called the Lemp Arts Center but.... what happened?
Prohibition happened, that's what. A quick gander at the history page on the Lemp Lager website will show that this once thriving company was bought out after prohibition and made into a warehouse for some shoe company.
Luckily, the Lemp name (and recipe..hopefully) were bought in 1988 by a St. Louis-an who decided it was about time that Lemp made a comeback It was once known throughout the whole of the United States...or so the story goes.
It's ironic. With the "loss" on Anheuser Busch, I've been in search for a decent American Lager. I thought I would have to travel far across the nation to find one, but thankfully, there just happens to be another great lager here in St. Louis. Coincidence or fate? Who knows.
And yes, it really is a great lager. However, if you're searching for a light, crisp Budweiser-like lager, I suggest you try something like Tennent's (apparently, Scotland's favorite pale lager.) This is a dark lager that is much thicker, and much less carbonated. If I didn't know it was a lager, I would've said that it was a porter. Now I must say, I was given a relatively cold bottle of this to try. My suggesttion would be to drink this at a little warmer temperature than "straight out of the fridge." My first taste of this beer was dominated by a roasted/woody flavor (like a fat tire), followed by lingering bitter after taste.
Yet, once I had consumed about 1/2 of the bottle, much more complex flavors began to surface, as the chill of the liquid dissipated. Tobacco and honey-like flavors are the true make up of the taste of this beer. Mouth feel, whether the beer is cold or warm, is definitely smooth. It finishes like you've been drinking coffee.
With everything that's good about this beer, It's not something that I can come home to. I would have to be in the mood for this beer. I could drink it in a pub, or as something to drink with a meal. It's not the "sit on my ass and watch TV" lager that Budweiser is. It's a beer from a generation long gone, probably, best enjoyed in older settings, like listening to jazz, or beat poetry.
Verdict: The beer I'll drink when I have children
With claims of not only being the first beer brewed in St. Louis, but in America as a whole, Lemp (started in 1838) apparently has a lot of history. Why then would I, a St. Louis native, not have heard of the oldest brewery in the country? Where are the Lemp Brewery tours? The Lemp family? Sure, there's a building in the city called the Lemp Arts Center but.... what happened?
Prohibition happened, that's what. A quick gander at the history page on the Lemp Lager website will show that this once thriving company was bought out after prohibition and made into a warehouse for some shoe company.
Luckily, the Lemp name (and recipe..hopefully) were bought in 1988 by a St. Louis-an who decided it was about time that Lemp made a comeback It was once known throughout the whole of the United States...or so the story goes.
It's ironic. With the "loss" on Anheuser Busch, I've been in search for a decent American Lager. I thought I would have to travel far across the nation to find one, but thankfully, there just happens to be another great lager here in St. Louis. Coincidence or fate? Who knows.
And yes, it really is a great lager. However, if you're searching for a light, crisp Budweiser-like lager, I suggest you try something like Tennent's (apparently, Scotland's favorite pale lager.) This is a dark lager that is much thicker, and much less carbonated. If I didn't know it was a lager, I would've said that it was a porter. Now I must say, I was given a relatively cold bottle of this to try. My suggesttion would be to drink this at a little warmer temperature than "straight out of the fridge." My first taste of this beer was dominated by a roasted/woody flavor (like a fat tire), followed by lingering bitter after taste.
Yet, once I had consumed about 1/2 of the bottle, much more complex flavors began to surface, as the chill of the liquid dissipated. Tobacco and honey-like flavors are the true make up of the taste of this beer. Mouth feel, whether the beer is cold or warm, is definitely smooth. It finishes like you've been drinking coffee.
With everything that's good about this beer, It's not something that I can come home to. I would have to be in the mood for this beer. I could drink it in a pub, or as something to drink with a meal. It's not the "sit on my ass and watch TV" lager that Budweiser is. It's a beer from a generation long gone, probably, best enjoyed in older settings, like listening to jazz, or beat poetry.
Verdict: The beer I'll drink when I have children
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