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By Rocky | March 6, 2008
Back in 1859 in Udine, Italy Luigi Moretti started the Birra Moretti Brewery and named his beer Moretti. Today the brewery is owned by the huge Heineken group and now brews the beer in Castello, but is still brewed very close to the original recipe. The pale ale is the main brand and the one that is normally exported it is a 4.6% alcohol volume pale lager, and today the beer is sold in over 30 countries. The beer uses a low fermentation method which is meant to give the beer its light golden colour and smooth taste. The beer is a wonderful match for Italian style foods including fresh seafood and rich pastas and salads.
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Croatia’s Karlovacko Pivovara
By Rocky | March 2, 2008
The Croatian’s are great brewers and one of their best and most popular is the Kalovacko brewed by the Karlovacka Pivovara from the city of Karlovac which is about an hours drive south of the capital Zagreb. The brewery dates back to 1854 and is one of the oldest and biggest breweries in Croatia, they are also the biggest exporter of beer. This beer is really refreshing it has a tangy lager taste and a nice crisp hoppy head. The beer has a 5.4 % alcohol volume and is one of Europes best pilseners similar to many of the Czech beers.
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Bierfestival Maastricht in the Netherlands this weekend
By Rocky | March 1, 2008
This weekend the Beirfestival Maastricht kicks off for the 8th of March year in Maastricht which is the southern most city of the Netherlands. The city claims to not only be Holland’s oldest city but one of the best beer cities in the Netherlands. The festival is run for local charity and this year “Toon Hermans Huis” is the beneficiary. The festival offers a great deal, 5 euro gets you your own special beer glass and description of all the beers, and each beer is only 1.80 euro a glass. Last year some of the regions best brewers were on hand including Potje, De Keyzer, De Brouwketel, Grunn, Bunder Brau and Brouwerij D’n Hopper who would have to have the best beer label we have ever seen. (see the rabbit on the next page) This year most of them will be back with plenty of new varieties to choose.
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A fruit flavoured lambric beer
By Rocky | February 29, 2008
Today’s beer is a bit of a strange one, we tried it recently at a local Belgium style pub and our jury is still out on what we thought of it, it was colorful and interesting but not sure if we should have stuck to the Hoegaarden or bought another glass of this cheery infused beer. The Belle Vue Kriek is a Belgium beer which has been around since the early 1900’s and is a wheat beer which has been brewed by adding cherries and raspberries then ageing in oak barrels to give it a woody flavour for three years. The beer is brewed in the Zenne valley near Brussels beacause a micro organism required to brew this beer only grows in the area. It tastes somewhere between a beer and a fruity sweet wine and has a reddish purple colour. Give one a go as your first beer next time you are at the local European style bar and see what you think, it could surprise you and you might want another.
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Carlsberg Elephant
By Rocky | February 28, 2008
Back in 1901 the founder of Carlsberg Carl Jacobsen asked a local architect Professor Dahlerup to create a granite tower with four elephants carved on it for his brewery entrance. The elephants each beared the first initial of Carl’s four children and the motto Laboremus pro patri which means “Let us work for our country’. So when Calsberg brewery was thinking of a name for their export lager in 1959 they turned to the lovely elephant statue and called the beer Elephant Lager. It is now one of Carlsberg’s most popular brand names and is even brewed in a few centres around the world. Now be warned the beer has a kick a bit like an elephant being a strong 7.2% alcohol volume. Its lovely packaging with emerald bottle and distinctive elephant label and foil wrapping makes it easily identifiable at the bar. Try one next time you buy a beer!
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Birra Tirana - Albanian for beer
By Rocky | February 27, 2008
Birra Malto is the largest brewery in Albania and their most popular product is the Birra Tirana which they have been producing since 1961. This beer is a 4% alcohol volume pilsner style beer and has a limited export market but can be found in Kosovo and even the USA and more recently the UK. The Birra Tirana brewery started in 1938 and with the help of the Russians in the 1960s’ developed their products. In the World Quality Commitment, Birra Tirana awarded with the International “Platinum Star for Quality” and is one of Albania’s biggest companies and best exporters, with many people loving its fresh Selita waters and aromatic bitter flavor. In the last three years alone the brewery has doubled its sales and spent over 10 million Euro modernising and expanding its plant in Tirana.
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Chimay with some tasty cheeses
By Rocky | February 21, 2008
The Bieres de Chimay or the Chimay Brewery was founded inside the Notre Dame de Scourmont abbey in Chimay in Belgium back in 1863 and are regarded as on of the finest brewers in the world. The Beer was brewed by the Trappist monks who also made some of Belgium’s finest cheeses including a beer cheese. Today the brewery is a far cry from the past and produces 120,000 hectoliters of beer every year. The Peres Trappistes or Chimay Blue is regarded as the finest of the beers, its fairly strong with a 9% alcohol content and is a dark ale. It is known as the ‘Grand Reserve of Beers’ The beer like good wines and of course Chimay cheese is best kept for a few years from brewing to develop the rich and smooth taste. It has a rich and fruity flavor which some say is quiet peppery. The beer is one of Belgium’s most popular and is a lovely beer to relax and enjoy like a good port and served in a wide open mouth glass which will allow all the aromas and flavors explode into a beautiful bouquet.
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Mythos a Greek legend
By Rocky | February 20, 2008
Mythos is brewed by Mythos Brewery Ltd who are the second largest brewer in Greece. They created the Mythos brand back in 1997 and claim it to be the first authentic Greek Beer and the most popular Greek beer outside Greece.. The Mythos brand has done great business for the company and is now the third biggest beer in Greece. Brewed in Salonica the brewery produced over 1.1 million litres of beer a year, The beer has a refreshing European taste which is a bit like a blonde beer, it has a 5% alcohol content and is well worth a try, especially with bbq meats and salads. The brand is now part of the massive Scottish and Newcastle group and distributes Fosters, Guinness and other big brand names throughout Greece.
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A Sweedish beer for Easter
By Rocky | February 19, 2008
In the small village of Pilgrimstad in the north western regions of Sweeden is a microbrewery which is making quiet a name for itself called Jamtalands Bryggeri. The brewery only started operation back in 1996 and produces small batches of high quality beer. They have won many awards at the annual Stockholm Beer festival and are regarded as one of Sweedens’s best breweries. One of their specialties is their Easter beer called Paskol which has just gone on sale again this year. Brewed every year this lovely and beer has a dark nutty colour with a creamy head and has a fresh hoppy taste with a sour aftertaste and is very nice on the pallet, it is similar to many of the Scottish Ales which are very popular throughout the UK. The beer can be found outside Sweeden although not the easiest beer to find. Try your Sweedish specialty store- even Ikea might be worth a go, many of them sell beers and you might even pick up a cheap couch or kitchen suite.
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Weihenstephan or Sacred Stephen to you!
By Rocky | February 17, 2008
Way back in 1040 the Benedictine monastery which overlooks the German town of Freising was granted a license to start brewing beer. Now the monks were a bit shifty and they had actually been brewing for quiet a while so by the time they got their license they had a pretty good drop of beer. There are some who say they might have started making beer on the sly as early as 768. Anyway with 1000 years of experience or 1200 years of experience who cares, if you have been brewing beer this long you certainly know how to make a great beer, and Weihenstephen is certainly one of Germany’s best, named after the master brewer Sacred Stephen of course the brewery today produces a great range of German styles including a Kristall, Hefe which is their wheat beer, the Dunkel which is the dark wheat beer, The original which is more of a lager and the Pilsner. The Weihenstephan Tradition is another beer which uses roasted malts and is a dark lager which is also quiet popular and is very similar to what was brewed back a millennium ago.
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