Author Archives: Rob Nesbit

About Rob Nesbit

Beer drinker and all round annoyance. Likes drinking, football, cricket and having a good time.

World Cup 2018: The view on Brazil

World Cup 2018: The view on Brazil

A very enjoyable chat with Brian from the excellent website, www.Brazilfooty.com, a blog dedicated to all things related to Brazil and football. (go figure!). Brian gave me the lowdown on how Brazil will do in this years World Cup in Russia and the general state of football in the South American country.

We had a good long talk about Brazil’s upcoming participation in the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. We discussed their chances, the philosophy of their manager, the football scene in the country, the passion of the fans, and an overview of the domestic league, amongst other things. We also looked at Brian’s time living in the land of sun and samba. 

Check out Brian’s blog and social media sites.

Website

World Cup 2018: The view on Brazil

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Crocodile Lager

Crocodile Lager

Crocodile Original Export Lager

http://www.kronleins.se

Brewed by Krönleins Bryggeri
Style: Pale Lager 
Halmstad, Sweden

Crocodile Lager

Founded in 1836 by Anders Julius Appeltofft, the Krönleins brewery is to be found in the southern Swedish seaside town of Halmstad.

Anders Julius Appeltofft, the local greengrocer, bought an old half-timbered hospital and converted it into a bar. The beer was brewed in the building next door. For the first ten years he made Svensköl, a traditional sweet low-alcohol Swedish beer. In the beginning business was slow and mostly a local trade. But in 1849 Anders brought his small brewery to a better location, one with an ice cellar and a better water supply. The foundations for a successful brewery were set. The water was of very high quality. 

Crocodile LagerUnfortunately Julius Appeltofft died in 1851, and so his business eventually fell to his son Per Gustav Appeltofft. Money was tight so in 1861, it was decided to transform the brewery into a joint stock company. This extra money helped with employment, modernization and expansion. 

The next big change for the former Appeltofftska Brewery took place in 1920. The engineer Anders Krönlein took over the stock majority of the company. Extensive modernizations were made and the business grew. A new era began. Today the Krönlein family still have total ownership over the company, now in its 6th generation of family brewing with brothers Carl and Tage Krönlein in control.

Today the company produces a range of beers, ciders, spirits, soft drinks and water. The cider brand is Halmstad which is produced in approx 10 different flavours including Wildberry, Dry Lime and Apple. The main soft drinks brand name is Three Hearts, a brand name which is also used for a range of beers and some bottled water. The main brand name for the water is Aqua Cristall. 

Review: 33cl Bottle of Crocodile lager beer: 5.2% ABV

Crocodile LagerTacky enough pic of a crocodile for the logo, looks really cheap and one would never guess that this is a beer brewed in Sweden, where there are, as far as I know, no crocodiles. 

Looks ok on the pour, a nice clear golden coloured beer with a small whitish head that sticks around. Some small carbonation. looks not bad. 

Has a light lagery aroma, very light on the nose, sweet malts, corn and the yeast. A faint smell. 

Taste is water, pure water, minimal to no taste, wow. I guess I might have got the taste of some malts at the start, but I am not sure, it might be my imagination! Flattens out real quick. 
Shit beer. One of the worst I have ever had, couldn’t taste anything, all the tastes must have evaporated in the bottle. Not even good enough for necking. An easy one to rate, a big fat zero!

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Carlsberg Lager

Carlsberg Lager

Carlsberg Lager

http://www.carlsberg.com/

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

Carlsberg Lager

Carlsberg, one of the most iconic beers in the World, and to be found in bars and pubs all across the planet. Founded by J. C. Jacobsen in 1847, in Copenhagen, Denmark, he called the company Carlsberg after his son Carl.

Jacobsen had a scientific bent and a keen interest in all things related to chemistry. With this he set up the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875, which worked on scientific problems related to brewing. It featured a Department of Chemistry and a Department of Physiology. The Carlsberg Laboratory also developed the concept of pH and made advances in protein chemistry. They also did a bit of research into beer production as well!!

In 1876, J.C. Jacobsen established the Carlsberg Foundation, run by trustees from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, which managed the Carlsberg Laboratory as well as supporting scientific research within the fields of natural sciences, mathematics, philosophy, the humanities and social sciences in Denmark. 

Since Jacobsen’s death in 1887, the majority owner of the company has been the Carlsberg Foundation, as unfortunately he had a falling out with his son Carl and decided not to leave him the brewery after his passing. A bit unlucky for Carl. 

It also brews and controls, Tuborg, Kronenbourg, SuperBock, San Miguel (UK), Holsten, Somersby cider, Russia’s best-selling beer Baltika, Belgian Grimbergen abbey beers, Feldschlösschen in Switzerland, and more than 500 different beers in numerous countries all over the world, but especially in south east Asia and Europe.  Carlsberg also produce at home, Special Brew, a particularly strong lager, oh so well loved by street alcoholics and down and outs all across the UK, and Elephant beer, an export lager beer that references the history behind the The Elephant Gate outside the brewery in Copenhagen. I wasn’t such a fan of that beer, read my review here. 

The company is a big employer, with 41,000 people working for the company, primarily located in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia. With an annual turnover reaching just under 10 Billion Dollars the company is a major player on the World beer market. 

But for all the beers and acquisitions, it is Carlsberg Lager that is the flagship beer brand in the Carlsberg Group’s portfolio. The 5% abv pilsner beer, first brewed in 1904, is sold to over 140 countries world wide, with its iconic Art Nouveau-style logo and even more well known advertising tagline “Probably the best lager in the world”. 

The beer is also very closely associated with the beautiful game of football. They were one of the major sponsors of Euro’s 2004, 2008 and 2012 and also UEFA Euro 2016 (where their ad-boards were changed to read their abridged tagline, “Probably”, due to France’s laws against alcohol advertising) and they were also a sponsor of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Carlsberg also have a well known link with Liverpool F.C. having sponsored the club from 1992 and were advertised on their club shirts for many years. Carlsberg also sponsor, or have sponsored, F.C. Copenhagen, Havant and Waterlooville, Odense Boldklub, Hajduk Split and, Bulgarian team, Pirin Blagoevgrad. 

Review: 0,33l bottle of Carlsberg: ABV: 5%

A lager that is popular with football lovers the world over, as the beer likes to capitalise on its strong association with the round ball. It also sells by the bucket load in the supermarket as its relatively cheap and easy to find.

The export version that is sold throughout Europe. I think the UK version is different, less alcohol for the crazies to deal with.

Comes in a long dark green bottle, which looks a bit shite to be frank.

Initially on the pour get a nice white head, and a clear golden coloured beer. Goes all a bit flat after a while as the head dies a death, not really much of a looker.

Smell is not bad, nice and malty on the nose, some grains too. Ok for smell. 

For the taste, it is all bitterness and the hops are strong. I wish it had a cleaner smoother finish.

Full of sweet malts and the grain flavours are imposing.

I always find Carlsberg to be a little too strong for me, strong in the taste, it has that slight bitterness in the front that one doesn’t have with other lagers. Also a citrus bite to it. Some people like all this, I don’t though. It is definitely an acquired taste. It is manageable if I was at a party or something, or desperate, but I prefer to drink smoother lagers, ones that you don’t squirm when you drink them.

Not quaffable enough for my liking, but I can understand how some could like this beer. 

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Soo. Soors Beer

Soo. Soors Beer

Soo. Soors Beer

Brewed by Soorser Bier AG
Sursee, Switzerland

https://soobier.ch/

 

Soorser Bier is an award winning regional brewery from Sursee, in central Switzerland. The small and young brewery is new and innovative, and offers beer lovers the golden chance to directly invest in the company via a share issue option. 

But what about the name? Soo. Soors Beer? WTF? But then you realise that the beer is actually from Sursee so it all makes perfect sense, and in actual fact is kind of clever really. It makes even more sense when you learn that the story goes that three men were mulling over a few beers and kind of depressed that they couldn’t drink a local beer from their home town, only sip generic large multinational beers and nothing from Sursee. And like all good beer chat their minds began to wander and definite plans were made to rectify this terrible anomaly by starting their own brewery in the town. Even after all that pub-talk, the idea began to take hold and more concrete plans were put into action. They had serious discussions with beer drinkers, with people in the business, publicans and restaurateurs. A serious business plan was drawn up. And again they sat together over a beer and a eureka moment came: “Soorser beer, we want that!”

On March 12, 2015, Herbert Blum, Alexander Oleschinsky and Karin Wagemann founded Soorser Bier AG with a share capital of CHF 100,000. Over time came more funding and more expertise, and they also offered beer lovers the opportunity to become part of the Soors beer history, ala Brewdog, offering shares to the public. Fortunately for them, the share capital was oversubscribed by 80,000 francs. 390 shareholders, most of them from Sursee, got on board, and the beer chat turned into something real. The brewery was set up and a master brewer with many years experience was hired. On April 22, 2016, less than a year after the founding of Soorser Bier AG, the first brew was prepared from the plant. 

If that wasn’t a great success already, in no time at all the brewery won “Switzerland’s Best Golden Ale 2016”, in the World Beer Awards, two years in succession. Just goes to show that with a little bit of effort and a lot of passion and guile dreams can be made, even if they are liquid influenced and a bit hazy to begin with! What a great story!

Review: 33cl. Bottle of Soo bier, Soo. echt, a golden ale: 5% ABV

On the bottle I can see that this beer is “handcrafted and brewed with love in Sursee”. Soo. Echet in my bad German I think means “So Real”

Apparently this beer won a World Beer Awards in 2016 as “Switzerland’s Best Golden Ale!”, I dont know what the competition was like but lets see if it stands up to its lofty reputation! 

On pour I get a very well carbonated beer that produces a big frothy white head and a cloudy looking, golden yellowish beer.

Found the smell to be quite interesting, very piercing on the nose, very citrusy, malty and yeasty. Smell definitely gets the senses aroused. 

On taste I get a very sweet tasting beer, very sweet. The malts and fruits hitting the senses early on. 

More heading towards the lager side of a Golden ale than the ale side.

Is smooth enough to drink, goes down ok with some light flavours and a good balance between the hops and the malts.  

Not going to blow your mind, but does the business perfectly, which is to enjoy the football with a nice refreshing beer at hand.

Review: 33cl. Bottle of Soo bier, Soo. happy, a German style Hefeweizen: 4.8% ABV

A happy go lucky beer that is meant to bring joy to your heart, hmm……ok, lets see! 

On the appearance we get a nice golden orange coloured beer with a lovely frothy white head. Good bit of carbonation.

Looks lovely, and the head maintains throughout.

A very strong aroma, of the fruits, the banana very strong on the nose. Cloves, citrus, and malts found too.

For the taste it is quite powerful with the hops explosive! Very hoppy, very fruity, and a very strong beer in the taste (and smell).

Banana, the cloves, the wheat, and the yeast are the main attractions in this beer. The fruits are so expressive in this beer its like a fruit juice with hops added in! I am sure I got my five a day drinking this baby!!

Is nice cold from the fridge, refreshing and crisp, after a while the initial shock of all the hops and fruits become very manageable that by the end you are fully revitalized.

A very tasty and full bodied beer, and if you are a fan of strong Hefeweizen’s then this beer is right up your street. 

Review: 33cl. Bottle of Soo bier, Magisch, a session IPA: 3.8% ABV

Magisch meaning this beer is full of “magic”, but lets see, right?

It is a session IPA which means it should be smooth and easy to digest with less malt than a regular IPA, and less ABV but with a more mouthy flavorable feel. 

Was quite carbonated in the pour, resulting in a very large frothy white head, a lot of foam.

Had a nice dark hazy orange colour.

Some lacing left on the glass. Head maintains throughout. 

Nice smell, a fruity aroma. Also get the light hops on the nose, a pleasant aroma. 

Got the hops at the start, light but there to awaken your taste buds. A very pronounced bitterness for sure. After a few more sips the hops settle down and the drink becomes more fuller on the tongue. 

Getting nice big creamy mouthfuls, nice and filling. 

Definitely very sessionable, as it says on the tin. As low alcohol session beers this one worked fine. 

I like it, very smooth, very easy to drink, nice fruity flavours and tastes, light bitterness, soft and crisp, and a very nice beer overall. 

Not a bad session beer at all here from Soo. Soors Beer. 

Review: 33cl. Bottle of Soo Deheime, a Swiss ale: 4.5% ABV

Barely from the local area with water from Sursee.

A nice hoppy aroma, light smelling, and also cereals and breaded notes are found on the nose.  

Looks nice on pour, a lovely light yellow colour with a good sized white frothy head. Looks good, very inviting. Some good carbonation going on, bubbling away. A hazy look appears after a while.  
Head maintains well enough. A nice looking beer.

For the taste, lovely cold from the fridge resulting in nice big mouthfuls, it is extremely smooth and very easy to drink. Its nice and crisp on the tongue and very refreshing. Nice.

Yeah, a good light ale, very smooth, only slightly hoppy, but very crisp and relaxing, a good beer, I like it.

Not the widest array of flavours or standout tastes, but its very relaxing to drink and a good enjoyable beer to while away the time. 
A bit of a taste of the barley, with the light hoppy taste, with a pleasant bitterness. 

Liked it, nothing extraordinary, but very, very smooth.

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Ožujsko, Croatia’s most popular beer

Ožujsko, Croatia’s most popular beer

Ožujsko beer

Brewed by Zagrebacka Pivovara (Molson Coors)
Style: Pale Lager
Zagreb, Croatia

www.ozujsko.com

Ožujsko, Croatia’s most popular beer

First produced way back in 1892, Ozujsko Pivo is the flagship brand produced by Zagrebačka Pivovara (Zagreb Brewery), the largest brewery in the country which has been of Molson Coors Brewing Company since 2013.

The beer was named after the month of March (Croatian: Ožujsko), when traditionally the best beer is made, but of course with developments in production this seasonality is no longer important for the quality of Ožujsko pivo, and now it can be brewed and enjoyed all year round. Ah modern technology, got to love it! 

The brewery Zagrebačka was founded when the brewers from the upper town of Zagreb realized that they were not able to produce enough beer for the ever-growing and developing city. Panic set in but not to worry as help was at hand. A joint stock company was set up to run Zagrebačka Pivovara on the 19th of May in 1892, with the notion of alleviating this awful situation in the city. The brewery at that time was one of the most modern developments not just in the locale but in the whole city of Zagreb, attracting visitors from all across the city to see the happenings of the new modern premises with its new cooling systems and boilers, and state of the art lightning system, and I suppose to sample the beer as well! Nowadays Zagrebačka has developed into Croatia’s largest brewery and, besides Ožujsko pivo, produces a variety of popular beer brands.

For the last 15 years, Ožujsko is the official sponsor of the Croatian national football team, going hand in hand with the success of the boys in red, white and blue.

Review: 0,5l Yellow Can of Ozujsko Pivo: 5.0% vol

In a very shiny yellowish can, looks a bit cheap. 

On the pour, from the can, very good, I got a very nice frothy white head with a lovely perfectly clear light golden colour, looks decent. Some lacing. 

Head maintained well. Good amount of lacing. It is a very nice beer to stand back and look at. Looks great in fact. 

Has the usual smell one can get from lagers, and malty and crisp. Ok, albeit very faint.

For the taste well its nothing that’s going to blow your mind, but its a typical full bodied lager, malty, light and clean, quaffable and not bad. Nice big mouthfuls to enjoy at the start.

Slightly hoppy and a little bitter but overall easy to drink and perfect to quench the thirst. 

Cold from the fridge, yeah did the business!

It is a decent lager, good enough to sit back and enjoy the football, and sure that’s what its all about at the end of the day, right? Satisfying and refreshing, smooth and quaffable. 

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