Moosehead Lager  

http://moosehead.ca/

Brewed by Moosehead Breweries Ltd.
Style: American Pale Lager 
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Haven’t really drank much Canadian beer at all.  I think I might have tasted Labatts once and Molson Coors a few times, which was very unimpressive.  Noting the rather cool logo of a Moosehead, and with my Canadian friend in mind, I decided to purchase a few bottles of this lager in the local offy.

Moosehead Breweries is Canada’s largest and oldest independent brewer, located in Saint John, New Brunswick. The brewery was founded in 1867 by Susanna Oland.  Originally called The Army and Navy Brewery, the brewery is still owned and operated today by the Oland family, now in the sixth generation of ownership under Derek Oland.

They’ve had quite a rocky history, with a variety of name changes, devastating fires that burnt down the brewery, including an explosion that killed Conrad Oland in 1917, regressive trade barriers that stopped them selling all over Canada, and the turmoil of both the Prohibition and the Great Depression,  but each time they survived to come back stronger than ever.

In 1931, the symbol of the moose came into existence as George Oland launched Moosehead Pale Ale. The success of its Pale Ale, prompted a name change to Moosehead Breweries Ltd. in 1947.

Sold throughout Canada and the USA, and further afield,  Moosehead Lager has won awards, in 2003, winning a Gold award at the World Beer Cup, and in 2005 winning Gold at the prestigious Monde Selection.

They are one of the last independent breweries in Canada and are proud of this fact, not pandering to fashion or the latest fad, this is as real as it gets.

Review: Bottle of Moosehead Lager: ABV: 5.0% 

The flagship brand is one of the most consumed beers in Canada

Pours a really lovely clear golden yellow that produces a nice big frothy head which hangs around

Is fizzy, a lot of good carbonation,

A pretty clean lovely looking beer

Aroma: Real lager smell, hoppy, sweet and lovely, liked it, the light grains and malty aromas. Nice

Taste:  Extremely smooth beer, very easy to drink, such a shame I only got the two bottles as I would have easily devoured a 6 pack of these no problem.
Very creamy on tongue
No real strong stand out flavours per say, couldn’t really taste the hops, but nice all the same
I did, though, get nice big mouthfuls of barely and malts. Very smooth finish, not a heavy beer, very refreshing, I like it.

So overall I liked it. Looks good, smells good, tastes good and very smooth, and clean and crisp. That’s all the boxes ticked, and its a beer I will pick up again.  I wasn’t expecting much from a Canadian beer, so it was nice to be pleasantly surprised. Definitely a beer for a sporting occasion or a hot day, very sessionable.

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Sierra Nevada Vienna Style Lager  

http://www.sierranevada.com/beer/variety-packs/vienna

Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co
Style: Vienna Lager 
Chico, California, United States

Craft beer is a big thing these days, Christ you can’t walk side ways what with some hipster nattering on about some craft brew he picked up in some god forsaken trendy bar in down town London/New York or wherever the fuck they infest. But you know it wasn’t always like that. There was a brewery banging out craft beers well before the bearded ones appropriated our beer culture. That company was Sierra Nevada, the early pioneers of craft brewing.

Way back in 1979, in Chico, Califronia, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co was founded by home brewers Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi. The name, of course, coming from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range to the south of Chico.

Starting small, with loans from family and friends, the company grew overtime to become, today, one of the top craft breweries in the United States, behind the Boston kingpins Samuel Adams, creating a kind of American East West craft beer feud.

The brewery focuses on flavor, character, style, and craft, while at the same time respecting tradition and innovation. Perhaps that’s what makes the beers so special. Its this attention to detail and doing the right thing that make the brand what it is. With a nod to the environment, ethical farming, and locally produced ingredients, and taken into consideration their small upbringing and community based outlook, all this has led to Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. winning the US Environmental Protection Agency’s “Green Business of the Year” award in 2010

This serious commitment to the environment, included recycling spent grains, using hops and yeast as cattle feed,  having enough solar energy to power the brewery, and recycling and composting most of their waste. They also have their own water treatment plant. If that’s not all hipster enough for you then I dont know what is…

Review: Bottle of Sierra Nevada Vienna Style Lager: ABV: 5.30% 

A Vienna style beer is a light coloured amber lager that has a delicate balance between sweet caramel malts and floral hops

Aroma: Lovely smell, I got toasted biscuit tones, sweet caramel and malts, all of which were absolutely lovely to smell, wow, really liked the aroma, good start……………..

Appearance: On pour I got a clear amber looking colour, and a massive head which was very frothy, but it does settle down quick enough to peter out, no real lacing, and ok to look at

Lovely taste, really enjoyed drinking this beer, was dead smooth and easy to drink from start to finish, a type of beer to saviour long into the night, excellent.

Tasted a lot of malt, also got caramel and toffee

Really full of tastes, sweet but not too sweet, and all flavours balanced and drinkable

I liked it a lot,  a beer that is clean and very smooth. Definitely will be checking out this beer again. Enjoyable and very easy to drink. Recommended..

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Carlsberg Elephant Beer 

http://www.carlsberg.com/

Brewed by Carlsberg Danmark A/S  
Style: Strong Pale Lager 
Copenhagen, Denmark

A true Carlsberg classic, Elephant Beer was first launched way back in 1959. The elephant represents both strength of the beer and an exotic taste, or at least that’s what the pen notes say.

The inspiration came from Architect J. L. Dahlerup who, in 1901, created a tower resting on four elephants carved in granite. He in turn got the idea from the Minerva Square in Rome, where an obelisk supports an elephant.

This became known as The Elephant Gate and today is part of the main entrance to the brewery in Copenhagen.

The four elephants each bear the initial of one of Carl Jacobsen’s children: Theodora, Vagn, Helge and Paula. Carl Jacobsen, of course, is the son of Jacob Christian Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg brewery.

Since then, the Elephant Gate has been a famous Danish landmark, and this is why Elephant beer is so important to the Carlsberg group, representing both historic and family ties.

The Elephant beer is made in the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen and exported all around the world.

Review: 330ml bottle Bottle of Carlsberg Elephant Beer: ABV: 7.20% 

Comes in a 330ml (11.2 ounce) nice green bottle. With an alcohol content over 7% you are expecting a kick with this brew.

Would look nice to drink cold from the bottle.

On pour a nice clear golden yellow colour, with a good foamy head which settles to a decent looking lager, no real lacing.

A real beery smell, with a very strong tinge of alcohol, and a very sweet, grainy maltiness apparent, some hints of honey.

On taste I got a creamy mouthful, with some grains

Lots of sugar, a very sweet malt after taste, too sweet in fact. I found this NOT NICE at all, too harsh to drink! Lots of alcohol in the taste

Overall, it was too strong, a bit chemical, a bit flat, and a very bad chemical aftertaste. It is certainly a strong beer to drink!

For sure its strong and has a kick but that’s in absence of any discernible taste or flavour.  I found it very difficult to drink, lots of bitter hops, too many, and the malts kicking in to the fore. Not for me.

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Calvinus beer

http://www.calvinus.ch/

Brewed by “Les Frères Papinot” (Brauerei Locher Appenzeller Bier)  
Switzerland

Calvinus beers have been brewed by the Papinot brothers of Geneva (“Les Frères Papinot”) under the umbrella of the small scale, but popular, family run Locher Brewery in Appenzell for over 15 years. So even though it is classed as a Geneva bier, at the moment this is strictly not quite true.

Having said that though the recipes and brewing methods are taken directly from Geneva, and the name gives reference to Calvin the protestant reformer, a man with strong links to the city.

Beautiful Alpine spring waters are used in the brewing process with organically grown barley, hops and yeast. There are three types of Calvinus beers: light, wheat and dark.

Review: Bottle of Calvinus Blanche Beer: Style: Wheat beer, 5.20% ABV

Brewed with wheat from the Appenzell region, this Witbier is brewed in the best craft tradition, unfiltered, containing Alpine spring water, organic wheat, barley, hops, yeast, coriander and orange peel.

On pour a lovely yellow colour shows with a very nice creamy frothy head, all of which looks pretty good. The head is damn good, very bubbly, but it does die a little after, with not much lacing.  Beer turns to a murky cloudy colour after a while when it settles.

The smell is strong, a lot of sweet smells, mainly wheat and yeast, and some citrus.

A very strong taste, full of sweet grains at the start. This is a very tasty beer, full of taste. A taste of cream, wheat and yeast, with each mouthful nice and smooth, and very light. Even if it was very sweet you do get used to it, and this beer is a bit of a slow burner. In the end I did enjoy drinking a couple of these beers. Wide tasting and pretty refreshing. Not bad.

Review: Bottle of Calvinus Blonde (organic) Beer: Style: Belgian Pale Ale 5.20% ABV

Only organic ingredients are used for this pale, naturally cloudy beer that was originally brewed according to a secret recipe from Geneva.

On pour a lovely looking beer appears, golden yellow colour, with a big frothy creamy head, that looks good, but which dies a little, the colour changes too, gets a bit murky and cloudy by the end which doesn’t look great to be honest

A nice aroma, faint but has a good beery smell, smells of citrus, bready malts and earthy hops.

Taste was a little hard for me to describe, wasn’t strong, was malty and deep tasting.  Bitter aftertaste, hoppy and earthy, with a long finish. Crisp and good in the mouth.

Was drinkable for sure with light flavours, not bad, could be a session beer, but nothing to write home about either, and, dare I say it, a little boring, but drinkable all the same.

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Estrella Damm

http://www.estrelladamm.com/en/

Brewed by S.A. Damm
Style: Pale Lager
Barcelona, Spain

Estrella Damm, known as the Mediterranean beer, was formed in Barcelona in 1876 by August Küntzmann Damm, a recent arrival from the Alsace region of France, fleeing the Franco-Prussian War. Both he and his wife settled down in the Catalan capital, and August continued with his passion for brewing, bringing the skills he learnt back home but this time using the advantageous Mediterranean climate and excellent locally produced natural ingredients to produce good tasting beers. Today the S.A Damm has its very own malthouse where it can produce its own malt barely and still use the exact same recipe that August used all those years ago.

Over 125 years of brewing has made this brand the oldest in the whole of Spain, and the name Estrella means “star” in both Catalan and Spanish.

Estrella Damm is available in many countries, including Australia, and in the UK as a 4.6% version. In the United States, it is available through United States Beverage, LLC.

Review: Bottle of Estrella Damm: ABV: 5.4%

Estrella Damm,  the Mediterranean beer, a perfect accompaniment to some Tapas or exquisite Spanish seafood.

On pour, a massive head appeared, light clear yellow in colour. The large head took a while to settle, all that carbonation I guess. Not really much to look at, a fairly standard euro lager, had some slight lacing.

I did like the aroma. Had a typical beery smell, was very good on the nose. Smelt clean and crisp, of sweet malts, grassy hops and a touch of citrus.

Was a very light beer to drink, quite easy to guzzle down. Not a whole lot of taste to be honest, but a hint of an aftertaste, the faint bitter hops in the end. The beer was a typical Euro lager, crisp and clean, smooth and very easy to drink. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too bad to have it, served cold, while staring out to the Mediterranean Sea on a hot summers day.

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Polar Pilsener Type Beer – Cerveza Polar

http://empresaspolar.com/

Brewed by Empresas Polar
Style: Pale Lager
Caracas, Venezuela

Don’t know a whole lot about Venezuela to be honest, Hugo Chavez and his social revolution and that they tend to win a lot of world beauty pageants (6 Miss World, 7 Miss Universe, 7 Miss International and 2 Miss Earth titles: Thanks Wiki!).

So it was great to come across a Venezuelan beer at the local offy, called Polar with a very distinctive logo of a Polar beer,  go figure!

Polar is Venezuela’s most popular brand made by Empresas Polar, the largest brewery in the country, founded in Caracas by Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury, Rafael Lujan and Karl Eggers in 1941. Since then they have diversified into all kinds of industries, mainly in the food and drinks industry. The brewery produces other beers but Polar is by far the most popular, and can be purchased in America (if you search hard enough for it), but mainly on the holidays islands of Aruba and in and around Venezuela.

So they have the most beautiful women on the planet I wonder what kind of beer they have…..

Review: Bottle of Cerveza Polar: ABV:5.00% 

The Polar Pilsner from Venezuela, the vacation beer perfect for the beach and served ice cold.

The appearance wasn’t too bad, looked good.  On pour, a nice white head developed which quickly dissipated. The beer was a pale, yellow colour, and with some thin lacing

I found the aroma was pretty strong, a very acute smell, very sweet, of malts, grain, very citrusy. I did like the smell.

Taste was interesting. I did taste what felt like some fruit, lemon and apples. This beer tasted more like a fruit juice than a beer, very sweet.

Was very easy to drink, had a good flavour and taste on all fronts, grainy and sweet malts.  Easy to drink, nice good mouthfuls, a nice feel on the tongue. Not a strong beer, and no strong aftertaste, but still pretty sessionable, with a very crisp, clean finish and smooth to drink.

Not a bad beer overall. Can imagine it must be nice sipping it ice cold on a beach near the Caribbean.

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