100 bottles of beer off the wall

I know it's been a long time since I wrote anything in here so I figured that I needed to change that.

About a month ago I reached my 100th beer, and people have been asking me what my favorite is. So in response I put up my top ten favorite beers on the side bar and will now go through them here in this post starting at the bottom.

10. Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel
This Weissbier (that just means wheat beer but Weiss actually means white which is strange) pours with a very dark reddish brown color. It has a slightly sweet aroma to it and tastes a little bready with a bit of a bitter sweet chocolate taste to it. All in all a really decent beer.

9. Grolsch Premium lager
This is a prime example why Holland has flipping awesome beer. It's a light golden color to match a light beer. When you smell it you can really pick out the hoppy aromas in it and it has a hop filled taste to match with a clean refreshing finish that leaves you wanting more.

8. Hoegaarden White
Belgium has something going for it and that's good beer. It pours a cloudy, pale yellow color and smells spicy and of citrus. Also you can taste the distinct lemon/orange peel taste right away and the spicy taste right after.

7. Stella Artois
I don't care what others say. I just like this beer because of it's simple hoppy bitter taste and that's it's so easy to drink.

6. Big Rock Grasshopper Wheat Ale
Yet another wheat beer on the list that's brewed right here in Alberta. This beer definitely is an easy summer beer and my choice to drink when I go out to bars. Tastes best with the lemon.

5. Kronenbourg 1664
1664 tastes similar to Stella with the few exceptions. It's slightly less bitter and it's extra carbonation adds a sharp bite to it. All in all a very refreshing beer.

4. Shaftebury Wet Coast Wheat Ale
Again a wheat beer and again a Canadian one. Wet coast is a clear golden yellow (this is different because most wheat beers are cloudy) . It's simply citrus taste goes down easy and leaves the lingering taste of lemons in your mouth afterwards.

3. Big Rock Maibok
Truly my favorite Big Rock beer thus it's number 3 placing. BR Maibok pours a golden brown color and you can really smell the malt on this one. It does a great job covering up the higher alcohol content with a slightly sweet, malty flavor.

2. Sleeman Original Draught
Light in color, light in body, light in taste. All round easy drink and refreshing too. A definite summer beer.

1. Brahma
A truly tastey Brazilian beer. The beer itself is a light golden hue when poured it has a white head that unfortunately does not last long at all. It smells faintly sweet and grainy and has a very slight bitter taste with the sweetness lingering on afterwards. Again this beer is for a hot summer day but it's worked it way easily to the top of my list.

-Matt

Breweries: Micro VS. Mega

The demand for beer in north America grows with each passing day, breweries, in an attempt to keep up with this massive demand have been trying to develop ways of brewing bigger batches and as well keeping a consistent taste so customers will continue to purchase their products. They've achieved this, unfortunately this consistency developed into something rather bland. This is mostly due to them trying to cut costs wherever they can by substituting barley, the standard grain in beer, with other grains. Sure it's good for the companies to lower the cost and in turn good for the consumer, but at what cost to the brew? Budweiser, the self proclaimed "king of beers" is hardly deserving of that title. Yes it outsells the competition across the boards, but that's because it's affordable and has a rather built up image, not due to exceptional taste. Canada is dominated by the big two, Molson and Labatt (interesting side note, both founders were named John). All three of these companies make up the majority of sales in north America (Miller and Coors are in there too), and they all produce lagers that don't vary much in flavor. People most likely couldn't tell their favorite Mega-brew from any other on the market (with a few exceptions). There's a reason that North American beer is supposed to be ice cold, it's to numb your taste buds so you don't actually have to taste it.

Now there is an alternative out there for those of you who wish to drink beer but still want domestic, Micro-breweries. They make their beers in smaller batches, to them, brewing is an art, and that which they produce reflects that. A few of my favorites that come to mind (Canadian that is) are Sleemans Brewery, Grandville Island Brewery, and my personal favorite from right here in Alberta, Big Rock Brewery. Sure you pay a bit more for a six pack (12$ as opposed to 10$) but it's worth every penny. You can get much more variation in what you drink too. Wheat ales, honey brown lagers, maple lagers, cream ales, old style Irish ales, and much more. Pretty much there's something out there for absolutely everyone. I'm a big advocate of Micro brewed beer, I honestly try to avoid the megas as much as I can.

-Matt

The secret is caffeine

In about the past few weeks there's been a new beer introduced into the market. What is it exactly? Well it's caffeinated beer of course, this beer has been highly anticipated and if it catches on will probably be a HUGE hit with the younger crowd, solving their problems of late night parties ending because of tiredness. Sure it was just waiting to happen, what with the success of mixing energy drinks with hard alcohol despite warnings from physicians that it can be hazardous for you to consume it because it masks how drunk you really are. My opinion...Well combining a stimulant (caffeine) with a depressant (alcohol) doesn't seem like the best idea especially since it'll make you a more alert drunk and make you believe you're not impaired when you are. Obviously a concoction "brewed" for disaster. Although Beer companies say that they're not trying to market this as an energy drink if you look at the packaging of these products they look rather similar to those of energy drinks. Sadly this is not a product that was well thought out.

As for how the caffeine affects the taste of the beer, so get your hopes up that it'll be some super beer that'll blow your taste buds away. Molson Kick (the one I tried) tastes EXACTLY the same as molson Canadian. That is to say that it still tastes like mega-brewed swill. I could drink it but I'd just prefer something that tastes a whole lot better (and doesn't screw around with two different drugs that conflict in how your body reacts). I'm curious about the products from other companies, Budweiser came out with Be (pronounced "B to the E") beer as their caffeinated product back in october in the states, apparently tastes like redbull. And the product that Labatt came out with is Shok, it has an even higher alcohol content then regular beer (at 6.9 abv it's a pretty heavy hitter) but it won't be coming to western canada til later in the year.

Form your own opinion on this product, i probably won't drink it because it tastes like crap, but then i'm different in how i choose to drink something compared to others my age. Most of them pick something cheap or "cool".

-Matt

Belgium: Home of the great ones

Okay so perhaps the amount of beers that I've tried isn't THAT many compared to some people out there and maybe I'm not the best at tasting all the subtle flavors in every beer but I still consider myself to be more knowledgeable then most people my age who stick to either what's cheap or what's popular and well known. The one country in my opinion that brews the best beer, or atleast my favorites is Belgium. I urge everyone out there to go pick up some Leffe Blond beer, or Stella Artois, or for something that's really different try some Hoegarden (pronounced Who-gar-den). Stella and Hoegarden are seriously some really great beers. Stella is a great pilsner style beer that far out shines all others that I've tried so far (when I say pilsner style, don't try to compare it to old style pilsner, that mega brewed beer doesn't do the pilsner style any credit and all it's good for is pouring on the ground in contempt). Stella may take some getting used to if all you drink is flavorless Canadian or Kokanee but it's worth it. Hoegarden is also a must drink, it may turn some people off with it's cloudiness but that murk is supposed to be there. It's a very light beer that is hardly bitter at all and also has a slight citrus taste to it (but doesn't make you feel like you're chewing on an orange peel as doesn't Alley kat full moon pale ale). This is also a beer that is a "must pour" you simple can't drink it right from the bottle partly due to the fact that if you don't you'll have sediment stuck to the bottom of the bottle rather then mixed in but also because it's more fun to try to get the pouring done just right to get the perfect glass. Leffe is a light tasting Abbey-made beer (fact: a long time ago most beers were made by the church and were also a large source of income for them nowadays beer is mostly made by huge companies that don't put the love of god in every bottle {that was a joke}). Leffe definitely isn't something I'd make an everyday "drink with all your buddies" beer but I'd recommend people to try it at least once.

-Matt

An ode to the brew

This blog is devoted to my obsession...beer! ok so i shouldn't say obsession. I like beer, but i'm more driven for knowledge about it then anything else. But in the pursuit of knowledge one must try to put it to the test. Therefore i have and will continue to do so and as i go along will be more able to judge it. So i shall blog about all things beer here, what my favorites are, what ones should be avoided, fun ways to drink it and how they went for me.

-Matt