Author Archives: Rob Nesbit

About Rob Nesbit

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

Dutch Gold

The ‘4 for 5’ Dutch Gold

Dutch Gold

https://www.facebook.com/dutchgold

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Pale Lager 
Leuven, Belgium

Dutch GoldLaunched in 1995, Dutch Gold is a low-cost, imported, pilsner lager beer sold exclusively to Ireland. Its damn popular, ranked as the third best selling beer in the country in canned form, after Budweiser and Heineken. Mainly due to its very cheap asking price, about a Euro a can, or traditionally “4 for 5” in a pack. Popular amongst students, the lower classes, and layabouts. Not a slight, I drink it myself, lol! 

Funnily enough its not Dutch at all, but brewed by Inbev, a company from Belgium, but it might be brewed in the Netherlands by a subsidiary, but not sure. Albeit most of Belgium can speak Dutch but they call it Flemish…… not that the punters care. 

Review: 500ml can of Dutch Gold Premium Imported : 4.0% vol.

Dutch GoldThe packaging on the cans have changed since the old days where it was pretty simple, now its all jazzed up but they kept the Iconic image of a Dutch man carrying a barrel on a blue can, mostly a bigger picture now and less gold. “Old Duchie”, what a beast of a man! 

Golden coloured beer, not a bad head, nice, white and frothy. For a cheap lager it looks pretty damn good. Some small carbonation on the go. Good lacing. Looks fine. 

Smell is light, very light, nearly odorless, more or less, which might be a good thing all things considering!

Taste is nice and lagery, with lovely big creamy mouthfuls on the tongue, bubbling away. Not much flavouring going on but this beer is very quenchable. 

Goes down smooth with its tasty malts, nice and crisp. 
No standout flavours or specific tastes , just a regular cheap lager for the masses, I like it, does the business, no faffing around. It really isn’t as bad as the critics say. 

I know beer snobs look down on this classic, but for the drinking population who like their cheap cans this is the OG of discount lagers…….

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Red Horse Beer

Red Horse Beer

Red Horse 

www.sanmiguelbrewery.com

Brewed by San Miguel Brewery
Style: Strong Pale Lager
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Red Horse BeerRed Horse Beer is an extra-strong lager brewed by the San Miguel Brewery from Manila in the Philippines. 

San Miguel beer was first produced by La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel, a small brewery in the Philippines, which began its activity in 1890. In 1963 the brewery was renamed San Miguel Corporation to today where it is Southeast Asia’s largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company with over 18,000 employees in over 100 major facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific. It is also among the fastest growing conglomerates in the world with key investments and new business ventures in fuel and oil, aviation, energy, telecommunications, infrastructure, mining, properties and banking.

San Miguel is the undisputed leader in its home market Philippines, with over a 90% market share domestically for beer. The brewing division operate six breweries in the Philippines and plants in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. San Miguel is also exported to over 60 countries worldwide and they produce a wide variety of beers, from the usual glut of lagers to fruit flavoured beers, to the non alcoholic beer varieties, to standardized soft drink fruit and cola beverages. 

Red Horse BeerNow I am sure you are thinking you drank plenty of San Miguel on a beach in sunny Spain. Yes there is a relationship between this brand and the one in Espana. 
As part of its overseas expansion, San Miguel began its foray into the Spanish market in 1953, setting up the company which would later become San Miguel Spain. In the early 1950s, Enrique Suárez Rezona, Ramón Vidal and Jaime Muñiz from the medicinal company, La Segarra, made contact with Andrés Soriano, then president of San Miguel Brewery, to allow them to produce beer under the San Miguel name in Spain. In 1953, San Miguel Brewery, Inc. signed the “Manila Agreement”, with the Philippine brewer setting up a new Spanish brewery, La Segarra, S.A.. The company would later be renamed San Miguel Fábricas de Cerveza y Malta, S.A. in 1957, an affiliate of San Miguel Brewery, Inc. which initially held 20% equity share via its Hong Kong subsidiary.
The company was acquired by Mahou, S.A. from Groupe Danone in 2000, combining to form Spain’s largest brewer, the Mahou-San Miguel Group. On 26 February 2014, San Miguel and Mahou-San Miguel signed a co-operation agreement to promote jointly San Miguel Beer and expand its global footprint. All a little confusing, just better to think of them as two competitive brothers fighting on the same team, the global club of beer drinkers.

Review: 330ml bottle of Red Horse Beer: 8.0% vol.

First brew from the Philippines, lets see how it goes. Comes in a nice bottle with the logo of a red horse, bit of a retro look to it. 

Red Horse is San Miguel’s high alcohol beer brand. Introduced in 1982, its extremely popular in the Philippines, can be found in cans and bottles, and pretty much about everywhere and anywhere in the country, on tap and can even be served in buckets!

The alcohol by volume differs depending on region, with the export version for international drinkers coming out at a high 8%, while it is 6.9%. for the home market. Either way its marketed as “Extra Strong”

On pour it is flat, no carbonation resulting in no head and a golden colour, a very flat terrible looking effort here on the eye……

Getting a hoppy smell on the nose, its not strong and pretty faint overall, but its there. Getting the earthy hops and the sweet fresh grains….

Onto the taste, first impressions are good, tastes not too bad. Has a bit of a tangy taste with the hops and there is some character there alright.

Hoppy and with dark fruits detected in the initial few mouthfuls. Also getting a sweet corn flavour coming out too. Full bodied. Barley malts, hops, sweet. 

Has some interesting flavours and a unique taste but cant say it is winning me over. Doesn’t overly excite, but for an Asian beer its a very good effort. 

Not much from the bottle which is always annoying, not much at all.

Might be a nice beer to sip at a bar on a beach in the Philippines, like all these exotic beers tend to be. Not bad really, not sure what I think of it to be honest, it was ok I guess. Not something I would buy again in a hurry as it wasn’t as smooth as it should be, that with the high alcohol content, but as I said, for an Asian beer and half way around the world, it isn’t too bad.

It is a cheap beer from Asia that has some flavours and a taste to it, is not overly offensive and for that alone it is impressive. Might try again…..

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Five Lamps Lager

Five Lamps Lager

Five Lamps Lager

https://www.facebook.com/5LampsDublinBrewery

Brewed by The 5 Lamps Dublin Brewery
Style: Czech style pilsner/Lager
Camden St, Dublin, Ireland

Five Lamps LagerEstablished in 2012, The 5 lamps Brewery is the brainchild of Brian Fagan along with William Harvey, the master brewer and a former Guinness Brewer with over 27 years of experience in the beer industry. 

The name “Five Lamps” comes from where they originated, the North Strand. Five beautiful street lamps at the junction of 5 different streets, dating back to the 19th century. Now they operate out of Camden Street on the south side of the city, running the brewery, a bar and a visitors centre where they offer tours of the site, beer tasting sessions, and also “champion the character of the city” of Dublin. Expect to learn some “Dublinese” and know more about the history of Dublin City when visiting! 

Their first beer is The 5 Lamps Dublin Lager, launched in September 2012, a traditional Czech style pilsner, and now sell nationwide. In addition to this lager, they now have started a 5 Lamps Red Ale and 5 Lamps Light Lager.

Review: 500ml bottle of Five Lamps Lager: 4.2% vol.

In Bottles, cans and on tap in Dublin. Actually had it on tap in Dublin twice before and thoroughly enjoyed it, was lovely and crisp so I have high hopes for this one. 

On the bottle you can be under no doubt where this beer is from, as they tell you “This is the beer of Dublin”, ok so!

Five Lamps LagerA nice black bottle all the same, with the iconic 5 lamps imagery of Victorian Dublin. Lovely. 

Onto the appearance, doesn’t look great at all, bit crap in fact. Clear golden colour with a small white head. Not a looker.

On the nose getting a real lagery aroma, faint but lager smells on the nose. Pale malt and grain. 

Taste is not bad at all, nice creamy mouthfuls, typical lagery flavouring, malts and grains to the fore. Nice malty flavour with a distinct pilsner hop taste that is soft and inoffensive.  

Overall, a bloody good lager, light and easy drinking, relaxing and went down well, it is what it is. Not the greatest out there but for an Irish lager its bloody good. Tasty. 

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St. Peters Cream Stout

St. Peters Cream Stout

St. Peters 

www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/

Brewed by St. Peter’s Brewery 
Style: Milk Stout
Bungay, England

St. Peter’s Brewery founded, in 1996, by entrepreneur and branding expert John Murphy, who saw a gap in the market for a modern-day craft artisanal brewery set in the beautiful English countryside.

St. Peters Cream StoutThe area he choose for his enterprise was to be in the village of St. Peter South Elmham, near Bungay, in former traditional agricultural buildings alongside the moated St. Peter’s Hall, deep in the picturesque Suffolk countryside, East Anglia, on the east coast of England. The location is ideal for its excellent water quality used in the brewing process – all beers brewed at St. Peter’s Brewery use water filtered through chalk deep beneath the brewery, obtained from their own deep bore-hole.

Alongside the brewery, St. Peter’s Hall is a historic venue with a bar and restaurant, and is available for functions, weddings, events, meetings and conferences.
The brewery also owns a London pub called The Jerusalem Tavern – a compact beer-lovers hostelry with a historic style, housed in a building dating from the eighteenth century.

St. Peters Cream StoutOther than their range of ‘traditional’ ales, such as Best Bitter and Gatekeeper Golden Ale, St Peters also produce some more unusual beers, such as Honey Porter, Plum Porter and Citrus Beer that replicate traditional pre-nineteenth century practice of adding honey and fruit to create special seasonal brews. Also most recent developments are contemporary session ales such as Stateside Pale Ale, Revival Pilsner and White Raven. And of course for the non alcoholic drinker they created a range of true 0.0% alcohol free beers. St Peter’s Brewery beers are thriving both at home and further afield, exporting to more than 20 countries around the world.

The famous logo of the black bird and the key can be explained with history. The bird is infact a raven and is a symbol of the Vikings, marauders of the North Sea. St Peters Hall has a moat which was most likely used to defend itself from these attackers from the east. The bird is inside a barrel, which of course depicts the brewing tradition and the key represents the keys of Saint Peter – the keys of heaven, clever eh?

Review: 500ml bottle of St. Peters Cream Stout: 6.5% vol.

Coming in a really lovely oval bottle, looks vintage and has an authentic old feel to it, looks like its a hard liquor bottle. Logo of a black crow and a key, what does it all mean? Very interesting. (explained above!)

On the pour I am getting a pitch black colour, as you would expect from a stout, and a nice enough creamy tan head appearing. The head looks like caramel. Solid look overall. 

A lot of lacing is present, intermittent and not in rings. 

St. Peters Cream StoutGetting a real porter smell on the nose, but its very faintish and not much to smell at all. Smoky and peaty, roasted malts, milk chocolate all noted but light, very light. On their site they called it an aromatic beer, but hell I didn’t detect a whole lot. Disappointing start. 

Onto the taste then and sure enough like all English ales types and strong bitters it is bloody strong, very strong. Getting a typical porter taste, very strong dark coffee flavours, roasted malts, a touch of vanilla and a creamy chocolate taste on the tongue. Yeah very strong with the coffee, especially in the after taste.  

Found it awful to drink, not nice, very deep tasting and overly bitter, the hops to the extreme. Not enjoyable at all, urgh.

Very coffee centric, not well balanced at all. Coffee, coffee, coffee, basically. Yuck, again!

A tough one to drink, wasn’t smooth or very drinkable  but heh I will get hate for this, but I don’t have the English stomach for their bitters and “stouts”. I am Irish with a softer palate, so they can suck it up all they like, ha ha.

Someone online mentioned this as “a precursor of a Black IPA”, I would have to say that’s actually a good call. It feels and tastes like that to me. 

Horrible. End of…

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Robinsons Old Tom Ginger

Robinsons Old Tom Ginger

Old Tom 

www.robinsonsbrewery.com

Brewed by Robinsons Family Brewery
Style: Strong Ale
Stockport, England

Robinsons Old Tom GingerBased in the heart of Stockport for over 181-years, owning a collection of around 260 pubs, inns and hotels across the North West of England and North Wales

From the first ale brewed in The Unicorn Pub in Stockport, Cheshire in 1849, Robinson’s has been an independent family-run brewer all the way through to today, in its sixth-generation, the where it is regarded as one of the most respected names in British brewing and innkeeping, particularly famous throughout the UK for their tasty ales. 

Review: 330ml bottle of Robinsons Old Tom Ginger: 6.0% vol.

Robinsons Old Tom GingerComing in a very cool looking black bottle with a very nice logo of a ginger cat. Very easy to buy with that lovely presentation. 

From the pour I get a dark deep ruby red looking brew, with not much of a head appearing at all. Looks a bit shitty to be honest. Head goes flat very, very fast. Small to no head is the result…… 

The smell is light, very light on the nose. Of course I get the ginger, and some fruit and malts but its very faint which is quite surprising for a beer with ginger in it…….. 

So obviously the taste is ginger, no surprise there then. Now I actually hate ginger, but don’t ask me why I bought this in the beer shop. I think I was mesmerized by the cat picture on the bottle and just put it into the basket, ha. But the thing is this isn’t actually too bad at all. The ginger is very well balanced with the malts and the caramel, so its not overbearing at all, thank God for that!

Robinsons Old Tom GingerKind of like a strong cola with ginger. It is very interesting drink and has a deep tasting English ale style to it. A vodka and coke with a touch of ginger. I like it. I even shock myself in saying that!

The alcohol is very well hidden. Perfect for the slow drinker, nice to sip and relax with. Ginger, malts and sweet cola, moderately bitter and a little fruity too (pears), all very well balanced.

Yeah, coke with ginger, but it works, very easy to drink and recommended. I liked it, but the only negative here is that the bottles were far too small as I wanted more.

I am not sure that the fact I liked this beer as someone who hates ginger, is good or bad. Good that it appeals to me, but bad in that perhaps a real ginger fan might not think there was enough ginger in it, oh I don’t know, ha!… 

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