Wicküler Pilsener
Brewed by Wicküler Brauerei GmbH (Dortmunder Actien Brauerei)
Style: German Pilsener
Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Founded in 1845 by Franz Ferdinand Joseph Wicküler in Elberfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. The company over time passed into the hands his son, Franz Joseph Wicküler, the only surviving son. Under Franz, the brewery modernized greatly and also became a joint stock company, both actions resulting in output rising dramatically. On 17 August 1916 Franz Joseph Wicküler died and unfortunately he left no descendants to look after all the great work he had done within the company, a transformation from a small brewery into one of the leading breweries in the North Rhine-Westphalia.
With two World wars though, production was severely restricted,and the company lost a lot of its glory. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Werhahn family, with a shareholding of 96%, converted the brewery with 600 employees into a limited partnership and thus back into a private brewery. In time the Werhahn family sold the group to the Dutch Grolsch brewery, who shut down the Wuppertal brewery site and moved lock stock and barrel to Cologne, resulting in massive job cuts (over 200!) and a loss of identity.
Since 1992, Dortmunder Actien Brauerei have produced The Wicküler Pils, as part of the Oetker Group and brewed in Dortmund. So all in all, Wickuler is a beer brand that has moved around a lot, but refuses to die!
Review: 0,33l green bottle of Wicküler Pilsener: ABV. 4.9% vol
Iconic logo of the three musketeers joining their swords together, certainly eye catching!
On pour, get a nice golden coloured beer with a decent frothy head. Good carbonation. A decent looking beer. Good start.
Smell: typical lagery smell, light enough on the nose, but I do get sweet malts, and some piercing lemon and grainy aroma. Faint but not bad.
On taste, found it initially a little too hoppy and bitter for my liking, very creamy in the front end as well. Bit sour at the start. Not initially liking it at all.
Malty and hoppy.
Can taste the alcohol, very beery lager. Ok, taste is good, after a while I get to like it, not bad. The hoppiness settles down as you drink more of the beer, thankfully!
Has a kick. Taste has definitely grown on me, I like it.
Not smooth, but one to sip and enjoy. Not bad, tasty. Better to get a 6 pack, as its a slow burner.
A lager with a half decent taste, good not great but would do on a long slow Sunday afternoon.
This spurred England on, and it was them as they dictated the play and had a few more chances to increase the lead. Lingard should have scored, or at least hit the target when Alli set him up perfectly, while Kane had two bites of the cherry from close on but couldn’t connect. Those chances would come back to bite them on the ass later!
But England held out, just about, to extra time. Expect they didn’t really, as Croatia, continued into the added time, with more of the same, and it was no surprise at all when Mandzukic scored a perfect strikers goal, as the English defence fell asleep and pretty much put Croatia into the final. You just knew England had no idea how to come back after that. Game over!
At half time I would have said that Belgian were bossing it a bit, especially in the centre with Kevin pinging the ball around, so France on the 51st minute kind of scored against the run of play, when Umtiti headed to the back of the net from a corner, one nil to France. 
The game started off all Croatia, moving the ball around the pitch dominating possession, so naturally France went up and scored! The story of their World Cup! Griezmann got a free and from it he floated a lovely ball into the box that Mandzukic unfortunately headed into his own net. Unlucky. 
Croatia came more into it in the second half as England let the foot off the gas, Brozovic hitting the post. That should have woke England up but it didn’t. Sterling still on the pitch, fannying around, while Kane not showing any leadership on the pitch. Perisic, on the other hand, was showing grit by pushing his side forward every chance he had, and all that hard work came off as he scored the equalizer beating the defender to shot for goal, a bit too easy for Croatia. England were now on the ropes. Brozovic missed another chance, an empty goal after a rare blunder by Pickford. Vrsaljko also had Stones clear off the line with a shot. Mandzukic was excellent and had a great shot well saved by Pickford, while Vida at the other end had Sterling ,and Rashford when he came on, had them both in his pocket, well defended considering the speed of those two players. And then at the centre of it all Modric pinning the ball all around the pitch, brilliant to watch, a world class performance if I ever saw one. 
France V Belgium: Great start to the game from both teams, Pogba to Mbappe but Courtois quick off his line, A Hazard shot which Varane just headed over. Alderweireld then with a tight angled shot that seen Lloris saving superbly, up the other end Pavard seeing his shot well saved by Courtois. If anything it was the goalkeepers that were the busiest in the opening exchanges. 
It was all Belgium, Kevin again bossing midfield, Hazard doing his stuff on the wings, Lukaku always a danger up front. 
E Hazard, with a great one two with De Bruyne, scored the second for Belgium killing the game as a contest and so the Belgians take the third spot. A good World cup for both teams, but England were lucky that they got such an easy route to the semi’s, they wont get that again for a while, while the Belgians must be wondering how they didn’t make the final since they were easily the best footballing team in this years tournament. Roll on the Euros 2020!
I’d like to know why Southgate keeps picking Sterling? Do team bonding sessions go a little too far?
After England scored the second, an easy free header from Alli, they pretty much controlled the whole game after that. Was easy for them in the second half showing it is amazing what a little bit of confidence can do to a team. 
Game eventually went for a draw full time, and to be fair to the Russian manager he put on a few fairly attacking substitutions in the hope of getting the win, while the Croatian manager, Zlatko Dalić, EVENTUALLY, pushed Modric more forward in the hope they might snatch a winner.
England fans are proud of their team, but if I am honest I would be a little pissed if I was English, they really had an excellent chance of making the final and kind of fucked it all up. Those chances dont come round very often, once every 30 years more or less! But fair dues to Croatia, they well deserved to make the final as they are a better footballing team and Modric surely deserves to play in the final after all his years of entertainment that he has given the footballing world. 
But once again Belgium struck on the counter, with a superb goal by De Bruyne shooting to the corner from just outside the box, what a great goal from a very classy player. This was starting to look worrying for Brazil, 2 down inside half an hour. It was all from a quick break from a Brazilian corner, Lukaku doing most of the running to by pass midfield and give it to Keven to work his magic. 
By the end Belgium hung on, just about. I have to say I take my hat of to Martinez, their manager, he has them well coached, and every players knows exactly what they have to do on the pitch, a really well drilled operation. Plus it looks like they are enjoying their football too, which always helps.. 
The deadlock was finally broken in the 40 minute when a beautifully weighted free kick from Griezmann found the head of Varane, who scored with a lovely header to put France one up.
At half time I would have said that Belgian were bossing it a bit, especially in the centre with Kevin pinging the ball around, so France on the 51st minute kind of scored against the run of play, when Umtiti headed to the back of the net from a corner, one nil to France. 
Sweden were simply woeful going forward, they get the perfect positions but couldn’t get it even near on target, was the worst I have even seen, comical at times. And the funny thing is the goal they scored took a mad deflection. If it hadn’t then it would have went straight to the goals, Forsberg celebrating like he won the fucking World Cup. I would too though if I wasn’t used to scoring, albeit via a defenders leg.
I’d like to know why Southgate keeps picking Sterling? Do does team bonding session go a little too far?
After England scored the second, an easy free header from Alli, they pretty much controlled the whole game after that. Was easy for them in the second half showing it is amazing what a little bit of confidence can do to a team. 
Spain scored early when Ignashevich put it into his own net under pressure from Ramos at the far post, from a great cross, after only 12 minutes. Danger already for Russia. 
Penalties came, and Russia won, Akinfeev saving two to send Russia to the last eight. Who would have predicted that at the start of the tournament, not even Vladimir himself I Guess. 
And if you thought that was quick, the response from Croatia was shit fast, two minutes later they got the equaliser. Mandzukic with a nice goal to level the game early on. 
But there was still some drama to go before the ref blow it up. Modric played in Rebic perfectly who rounded Schmeichel and just had to tap it in for an easy goal, except Jorgensen clipped him before he did all that. A definite penalty, dont even know why Schmeichel was arguing about it. Ok we thought, surely game over now, but no this world cup keeps giving and giving, and Schmeichel saved Modric’s last minute spot kick to send the game into a penalty shootout. What drama!
A lively start from Russia, with the crowd roaring from the stands, but after a while it slowed down a bit and was beginning to look a tight affair with neither team threatening too much at the start, particularly difficult for Dzyuba out on his own in the Russian front line, albeit he was brilliant as the lone target man.