This is a great book we have seen for sale on Amazon, it is written by Andy Crouch who is also responsible for a book called “The Good Beer Guide to New England” and written extensively for magazines including BeerAdvocate, Beverage Magazine and the like. This book “Great American Craft Beer” was released in August of 2010 and is a must for any lover of fine American beers. The book features some great historic stories and photographs which will give you a insight into the rich history of brewing in the United States. The book explains the ingredients and the brewing terminologies to help give you a good understanding of this amazing craft. There are stories and tasting notes on hundreds of specialty beers from the four corners of the USA.
To find out more on this book click here

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Unfortunatly this beer might be a bit hard to get now as it was a seasonal release, we have only got around to tasting it and it was really worth the wait.  Monteith’s is one of New Zealand’s major brewers and make some beautiful seasonal beers. Their ginger tasting summer ale was one of our favourites last summer. This winter ale follows the German traditions with its full roasted malted flavour, just the amazing red colour is enough to tell you how good it is, it nearly looks like wine.    Beers like this were produced in Germany for winter to nourish people during the fasting season and nourish it certainly does. It’s not a beer you could drink dozen after dozen it is a beer to be enjoyed like a fine port and goes splendid with rich food like roasts or tasty deserts.  You might struggle finding the 2010 release, but we are heading into the time of year when they might just make another for 2011.  Cant wait!

The Wicked Elf Pale Ale originates from the beautiful seaside town of Port Macquarie on the New South Wales coast in Australia and is brewed by the Little Brewing Company. They have three beers in their Elf range a Pilsner, a Witbier and the Pale Ale we are featuring today. The Pale Ale has a very American Pale Ale style to it. The beer is a very rich copper colour, clear and is very flavoursome having a very toffee like taste. It’s really one to look out for. The beer has won a bag full of awards over the few years it has been on the market including a Gold at the Australian Beer Awards which is a much sought after prize. As far as alcohol content its 5.4% which gives it a pretty good kick. Look out for it in the Australian bottle shops it comes in a handy 4 pack. Read the rest of this entry »

Zlatopramen is a Heineken owned beer from the Czech Republic and even on Czech standards this is a magnificent beer.  It’s got the crisp and light taste of most Czech beers but there’s a lively aftertaste that leaves you refreshed but wanting more. The beer is brewed by Krasne Brezno, situated on the left bank of the River Elbe in the Severni Cechy region of the Czech Republic. The town has history of brewing which dates back to 1249 – King Vaclav I. granted the privilege to brew to the town. There has been a rich history ever since and even recently a Russian company has bought a licence to produce their beer in Russia  .    There are 4 types of Zlatopramen available a pale ale, dark lager, light draft and pale lager  the company also sells soft drinks using the Zlatopramen name.

With most of the information in Russian this beer was a little and to research but we found that Baltika is part of the Carlsberg group of companies and began production in 1990. The beer originates from St Petersburg and is the leader in the Russian beer market owning around 40% of sales. They now have 11 breweries and brew 5.2 million hectolitres- which sounds a hell of a lot every month.  They say that the Baltika brand is one of the top three most valuable brands in Russia and the biggest selling beer in sales term in Europe- which is pretty impressive. They export to over 70 countries. We have tasted quite a few of the Baltika beers, including the Classic, The Porter and the Pale Ale. The one we have photographed is the Wheat Beer No 8 had a thick dense foam, soft fruit aroma with spicy tinges and light sweetness. They started brewing this beer in 2001 and have won several prestigious Beer awards with it. The beer has a 5% alcohol volume and original wort gravity of 12.5%.  Well worth looking out for when you want to try something different, it is a very nice beer.

The brewery dates back to 1848 when it was originally founded by Diedrich Konig and had a few ups and downs until well after the Second World War. It wasn’t really the 1960’s it got back on its feet and was fairly successful with a Jever Export was produced.  Tastes changed a bit in the 1990’s and a Pilsner like the one in our photo became the more popular beer and the Export was dropped.  The Pilsner is a very nice drop and not unlike other German beers in this region in particular Becks. It’s got a fairly light pale straw colour and there is a very noticeable hop refreshing taste and it’s got the traditional fairly heavy head. It’s not one of the normal German Beers you see in the local bottle shop so look out for it as it is well worth a try and another very nice German beer.

Mahou Cinco Estrellas or Mahou Five Stars as it is known, is an interesting beer from Alovera in Spain and has been on the Spanish market since 1969 but the brand dates back to 1890. The beer is one of the huge San Miguel Corporation’s suite of beers. The beer which is nicknamed “The Queen of Beers” is a pale lager and has what we could only call Spanish flavour with a bit of a sour or hoppy bite and a bit flatter than the average beer, not dissimilar to San Miguel or Estrella Galicia.  The beer has a 5.5% alcohol content and is the official beer of Real Madrid and La Liga. It’s not the best beer we have ever tasted and certainly not the worst, great for a hot day enjoying while a few tapas.

Not only has this beer got a great name its pretty dam tasty too. White Rabbit comes from the tranquil hills of Healesville in Victoria Australia whose brewery is part of the Little Creatures group. The rabbit comes in two types a White Ale and the one we have photographed today the Dark Ale. The Dark had a very rich malty taste and a bit of a hoppy bite, very nice indeed. The beer is made using the open fermentation process which helps give it the complex and rich taste. The beer has a 4.9% alcohol rating and can be found in bottles including a 600m big bottle. Selected pubs and restaurants have this beer on tap, but with its great taste and catchy name news will get around and we will be seeing a lot more of the rabbit. Read the rest of this entry »

Barons is a small brewing company in Australia and have produced a really uniquely Australian and pretty tasty ale. The ale is flavoured with roasted wattle seeds. Which for people who don’t know wattle is a large native tree which produces small yellow flowers. The flower is Australia’s national plant emblem.  Back to the beer.. This beer has a lovely nutty and caramel coffee or chocolate flavour and is a rich amber brown in colour.  The beer has a 5.8% alcohol kick and has a really nice aftertaste and finish.   Barons originate out of Woollahra in New South Wales and are making some inroads into boutique and great beer. They also have some international interests in Russia, the UK and Asia.

Well after yesterday’s story on Japanese Beer we thought why not have another one. This time its Hoppy. Well it’s not really a beer, in fact it’s nearly alcohol free (0.8%) but it tastes and looks pretty much like a beer.

The beer like drink is actually a distilled beverage and is quiet popular in the izakaya or Japanese pubs where people don’t want to drink too much alcohol. But the drink is sometimes mixed with shochu which is a bit like sake to give it an alcoholic kick; this is very popular in some of the nightspots and karaoke bars.  Hoppy offer a few different flavours of their beverage, including a black bitter and sweet drink which is very like a dark ale and also quite tasty.