World Cup of Beer 2014 FINAL n 3RD/4TH PLAY-OFFS

The Beer World Cup Final and 3rd/4th play off game kick off soon. Click on pictures and links to get a general review and info on the beers we will be a drinking to round off a month of boozing during our beer World Cup.

World Cup of Beer 2014 FINAL

England V Germany

London Pride V Friedenfelser/Lowenbrau/Karlskrone

4-3 To the German beers, but just about. London Pride was up against three tough German competitors but did well considering the amount of beers that were sampled!

London Pride is a very enjoyable British pale ale, with it distinctive 330ml bottle. On pour you get a lovely amber reddish colour with a small head. The aroma is of some biscuit malts and earthy hops with hints of caramel sweetness. Nice. A lovely refreshing flavour which hits the taste buds immediately. It tastes of light caramel, some earthy hops with a mild bitter aftertaste. It has a different, subtle, complex taste to it than what you can expect from a lot of beers, which has to be appreciated. I also found it a bit strong in the taste which I enjoyed, more of a kick to it than other ales. Overall, London Pride is a solid pale ale, with lots of flavour, and was fairly easy to drink, a good session beer. Enjoyable and was good to sample a few of them on a long football might.

As I had a variety of beers to sample from Germany lets go through each one by one. Friedenfelser Pils Leicht was a good introduction to the German beers, light, easy to drink, solid taste and looked good. The appearance was a clear pale yellow body with a smallish white head on top with fair lacing. As soon as the bottle was opened you get hit with a rustic sweet smell of malts and grains. Very enticing. The taste is sour and sweet with pale malts and some hay, and with a fine bitterness in the end. A quite dry and refreshing beer and, as it a low alcohol Pils, it does a good job. Lots of flavor, easy to drink, with a nice hoppy finish.

Friedenfelser Urtyp Hell was ok, good for a session. The appearance was of a lovely golden yellow colour, with a good frothy head. It had good moderate smells of malts and grains with notes of grassy hops. The flavours, the best part of the beer, are of a light sweetness, a grainy malt taste and a light hop note. It tasted very nice and smooth with no real strong overpowering flavours, that makes this drink an excellent session beer.

The problem I have with Friedenfelser Hefe-Weizen (Hell) is that no matter what I do it keeps blowing on opening, showing the high amount of carbonation within the beer. The colour was of a very clear orange beer with a nice frothy head, that looked very appealing. The aroma was quite strong with notes of sweet banana, yeast and wheat. I thought the taste was fantastic, very nice, very easy to drink. It tasted very sweet, and contained flavours of yeast and wheat, with a strong fruity banana aroma, and the aftertaste, was very manageable. Overall it was a good, pure and clear well balanced drink with a nice strong feel to it. I liked it but it is annoying that it seems it cant be opened without it fizzing everywhere

For the Friedenfelser Pils, it smelt good. Its aroma has notes of bread, grain, malt and grass with some citric hop notes. The appearance had a good frothy head with a golden yellow colour on pour with a thin white head. The taste was nice and balanced, a very easy and pleasant drink to quench the thirst. The flavours have a light sweetness and notes of malt, bread, straw, with a hint of citric hops and the bitter finish is moderate. It’s a very good Pilsener, with a light body, that was enjoyable to drink on the night.

Friedenfelser Urtyp Alkoholfrei. To be honest this beer wasn’t worth the effort. I hated it. Really don’t know why anyone would want to drink non alcoholic beer, whats the point. It tasted rubbish, and was way too fizzy. Struggled to finish it.

Tried Friedenfelser’s Radler, a light fruit drink that is a bit fizzy but lovely on taste. The appearance is of a light clear yellow colour with a small white head. If honest, it didn’t look very appealing. The aroma has strong notes of citric lemon, and malts. Again it wasn’t very appealing, kind of smelt like deodorant! But all that is overridden by the very good sweet flavours within the beer itself. The taste was of strong citrus flavours but also contained some artificial sweetener. Fruity, sweet, smooth, and a good taste. Not a beer taste but a light soft drink taste, but enjoyable all the same. Recommended if looking for a light beer to quickly quench the thirst. Not bad.

For Löwenbräu the appearance was of a gorgeous golden yellow colour that had a very good head and great lacing. Looked good. Found a faint aroma, smelt mostly of what a normal smelling lager should be like, malty and refreshing. Was a lovely tasting drink that had no strong flavours or bitter aftertaste to it, just an awfully good session drink. A clean, crisp, smooth and well balanced beer, Löwenbräu was really easy to enjoy. A good pure Deutsche lager. Refreshing.

To be honest I found Karlskrone one of the better beers of the night. I really cant get my head round how affordable this lager is and that Aldi, of all places, sells top quality beer. Had all the qualities you expect from a good lager: Good clear colour, nice head, smooth nice aftertaste, does the job, perfect. Pours a nice clear golden coloured beer, and a decent sized head formed with quite good retention. There was a clear strong aroma of grainy malt and stale hops that smelled of straw/rice. The smell was very sweet. The taste was also very sweet and left a sickly bitter aftertaste that I enjoyed. The flavour was of sweet grain and malt. A beer that I like a lot!

Overall London Pride is a decent ale, tops. And was more than equal to the Germans, but I just give the victory to Germany for the Karlskrone and Friedenfelser Hefe-Weizen which slightly put them ahead. Needless to say the next morning I had a raging hangover, thank god the World Cup of football and beer is over as I need to return to normality and reintroduce myself to the wife!

3RD/4TH PLAY-OFFS

Chile V USA

Nomade V Samuel Adams, 2-1 to Nomade: I went with the Nomade Blonde Ale this time around and boy I wasn’t disappointed. It was tasty and sweet, very sweet. On pour there was quite a large head that settled very nicely with some lacing. The colour was golden and the aroma had a very strong sweetly smell of yeast and some fruit, particular orange. The ale had a very balanced taste that included grains, yeast, citrus and fruit flavours. Quite an interesting mix for an ale but it was damn easy to drink and overall a very enjoyable ale experience. Recommended. Samuel Adams Lager, was also a great drink that scored well on taste, smell and appearance. The appearance was great, a brilliant dark golden colour with a good sized frothy head that hangs around a while leaving decent lacing. It has the look of a real beer. I got faint smells of malts and a bit of floral hops. The smell was pleasant and not overbearing. The Samuel Adams taste had a variety of strong flavours from the hops and malt which were well balanced, all tingling away at my taste buds. Caramel was one taste that stood out. The finish is strong with a long lasting heavy aftertaste. Overall a nice solid beer and a great delicious taste. Samuel Adams is a beer that you will remember. Two beers, both recommended, but I give the victory, just slightly mind, to Nomade for having really good fruit flavours that stuck out in an ale that surprised.