Beer in France: Montauban!

The second beer of the trip was a Karlsbrue Amber, or "Ambre" as the waitress pronounced it. Jon, Reza and I had .5L of this beer each. As you can tell from the picture below, it is NOT the typical amber color we have in America. Again, it was a Belgian style beer, light and smooth.



Debbi had a Karlsbrue beer also, but a different variety.

Beer in France!

Beer in France!

Tuesday evening, Debbi, Gerard, Jon and I took a trek to Moissac. We ate at a single level, quaint, local pub, called Au Bureau, nestled amongst old buildings and a large common area. According to our host, Gerard, they have markets in the common area on Saturdays.The pub had a warm, romantic feeling to it. A lot of darker wood comprised the interior, along with a low ceiling and tight walking spaces.

My beer of the evening was an Abbey De Leffe Blonde. It was a typical Belgian beer, light and semi fruity, with little flavor of hops. The color was darker than I expected for a "blond" beer of which I am accustom. The beer was served in a proper glass as seen below.

Further information for those interested can be found here:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/470/2137



Debbi had a Hoegaarden ale. The beer was served in a standard pint glass and accompanied with a slice of lemon. Her beer was very smooth and suited her taste preferences well. The color and texture reminded me of a Widmer Hefeweizen, but the flavor was marginally similar.


Au revoir!

The Journey Progresses

Ok, so last time I was 33% of the way through and as of this moment I am just over 40% of the way there. My original goal was to make it around the world by the end of the school year, but given my progress to date I'm shooting to be 50% by the end of this quarter and to finish up by the end of winter quarter. As anyone who has been around the world at Suds invariably knows the first 65-75% is made up of tap beers and the remainder are out of the bottle. I've had trouble diverting my attention from the taps, just so alluring, except for the giant Steinlager I had two Sundays ago. So, the bottles could add a level of complexity to Winter quarter completion, but I'm up to the challenge.

The real point of these progression posts is to talk about the beers I am trying; given that I'm 21 beers into this I must be dropping the ball somewhere. So here goes. I recently tried Calapooia's winter brew called Kringle Krack. As any self respecting beer connoisseur knows now is the time the winter brews start rolling out from all the big names, so I thought I'd try the local guys' take on the season. I think they're off to a good start. The hoppiness of your typical winter brew was there, but it lacked a crispness that you would expect from a Bridgeport Ebenezer Ale for example. It was good, but not as satisfying as you'd hope. This is the first time I have seen this brew, so I hope that over the next couple of winters they can hone the skills. Calapooia definitely has a quality track record and a more than serviceable foundation with their Kringle Krack.

Cheers,

Alex

Making Progress

In my last post I talked about the Suds beer trip around the world and now I'm back to talk about my progress. As of this writing I am about 1/3rd of the way through my trip (16 out of 50). The majority of the beers are on tap with just a few bottled selections. I have yet to try any of the bottled beers yet and I haven't really ventured too far from beers that I know. But there are a couple that I wanted to mention:

1. Hop Lava from Double Mountain Brewery - As the name suggests this is a hoppy brew. It is extremely crisp and was very refreshing (especially after an exam). This brewery has only been around for a short time, but if this is any indication of what they have to offer I think they'll be around for quite a while.

2. The Dissident from Deschutes Brewing - As they say themselves on the website this is a sour, Flanders-style brown. I would suggest to anyone that they should try a pint of this beer once (because unless you have a full pint you haven't really tried a beer), but after that continue at your own risk. This beer is definitely made for someone with unique tastes. I made it through, but the beer really is sour and was a little bit distracting. After every drink that I took I had to stop and really think about what exactly I was tasting. A well made beer, but just not for me.

Stay tuned here and I will try and provide more details about any new exciting beers I come across. Given the time of year they have a lot of winter beers on tap, should be a refreshing season.

Off on a Trip Around the Beer World

For some reason I've decided that working full time and taking classes full time just wasn't enough of a challenge, so I've embarked on another endeavor that I am hoping to complete by the end of this school year. There is a local establishment in Corvallis called Suds & Suds, that is attached to Woodstock's Pizza. This is a great idea, it's a place where you can do your laundry (suds #1) and grab a pint of beer (suds #2), although whether or not the laundry part is still functional is in question.

But this blog is not about soapy laundry it's about the other suds. Now to get to the point of this post. At Suds & Suds (just Suds for short) they have a challenge that anyone is welcome to undertake. With over 30 beers on tap and several more in the bottle the beer adventurer can obtain a card to track their progress through over 50 beers. Each individual triumph must be signed off by the on duty tap master, just to make it legitimate, but at the culmination there is no end of recognition and reverence. Basically you get your name on the wall and a t-shirt, which in reality is enough of an incentive for me to embark on this trial (despite the previously mentioned time obligations).

The Vanishing British Pub

"The rocky global economy is hitting Britain where it really hurts. In the pub. Nearly 60 traditional pubs are closing every month."

I heard this today on The World and it's an interesting story.

Click here to listen to the mp3.

Click here to visit the website and read about it.

At the end of the story is a link to an interesting website, the Inn Sign Society which documents the stories behind Britain's pub signs.

Greetings from Estonia!

Hei to everyone. I just got back from a trip to Finland and Estonia and here's a report on a couple pubs I went to in Tallinn, Estonia. The first is called Hell Hunt and it labels itself as the first Estonian Pub. In Estonia and Finland the big drink is not beer, but cider. They spell it siider. As they say, when in Rome... so at Hell Hunt I had their home brewed cider. When they brought it out I thought they were bringing water and the cider would be coming soon. Much to my surprise the water was the cider. It's very clear, only a very small yellowish tint distinguishes it from water. The taste however, is certainly not like water. It is not really sweet and most of the ciders are made from pear which is apparent in the taste, but certainly not overwhelming. It's a very pleasant drink as it's crisp and clear, not too heavy. I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for a beer, but for a nice alternative, I found it to be a nice drink that packs quite a punch.The decor in Hell Hunt was fantastic, it was a great pub in an old building but what I loved were the lamp shades made of barbed wire along with the doors that covered the ceiling. It was a great laid back place that would be pleasant to spend some time. However, make sure you have Estonian money because their internet was down when we were there and couldn't use our cards.

The second place we visited was not for the cider but for the theme. I bet you've never been in a Depeche Mode bar! In Tallinn they have an entire bar devoted to the Depeche Mode complete with back-lit images under the bar, autographed photos on the wall, a tv with constant Depeche Mode videos, tables with band member photos and articles under the glass and a very large mural with the rose and a giant DM.
They are also a proud member of the Estonian Depeche Mode fan club. I of course had more cider which was similar to the previous Hell Hunt. My friend had a beer called Rock from an Estonian brewery called Saku which happens to be the oldest surviving brewery in Estonia today. Here's the Wikipedia article on Saku beer which is very interesting. I only had a taste of the Rock beer, but I thought it was fantastic! I can't remember at this point, a week later why I liked it so much but it really struck a cord with me. Unfortunately it seems that Saku is not currently being imported to the US at this time. If I had known I certainly would have purchased some to bring home. I guess beer is as good as an excuse as any to revisit Estonia.

If curiosity strikes and you want to see more photos of Tallinn you can visit my Picasa photo album.

-Kelly aka Red Herbivore