Author Archives: Rob Nesbit

About Rob Nesbit

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

Oppigårds Indian Tribute

Oppigårds Indian Tribute

Oppigårds Indian Tribute 

oppigards.com

Brewed by Oppigårds Bryggeri
Style: American IPA
Hedemora, Dalarna County,  Sweden

Oppigårds Indian TributeOppigårds Bryggeri is a microbrewery in the small Swedish town of Hedemora, Dalarna County. Björn Falkeström founded the brewery in 1996, with the The Oppigårds farm been in the family’s possession since 1735.
The brewery is one of Sweden’s most successful microbreweries, and is expanding all the time, collecting numerous awards along the way, at first selling locally but now expanding to cover all of Sweden and most of Western Europe. 

Review: 33cl bottle of Oppigårds Indian Tribute: 6.6% vol.

Oppigårds Indian TributeBought in Aldi Switzerland. Interesting logo on the long necked bottle, orange background and label with a pic of an elephant, simple but stylish, their “tribute to India”

On pour got a dark amber coloured beer with a decent sized white head that maintained well. 

Good amount of carbonation and some lacing apparent.

A nice looking beer, looks alive and ready to be devoured! Loved the colour.

The smell is quite strong, a very lovely aroma smacking the senses full blast. Typical IPA aroma but the hops are so strong in this one, absolutely gorgeous, love it.

Intense earthy hops, citrus and tropical fruits on the nose, malts alive too, all perfectly balanced. Leaves a good impression, the smell, one of the best aromas off a beer in a long time. Truly powerful stuff on the nose, and all good.

Oppigårds Indian TributeTypical IPA taste and flavour in the taste, the fruits and malts, and the hops are prominent but all nice and very manageable. 

A very tasty beer, crisp, sweet and all well balanced, and smooth enough for an IPA. The hops in particular are quite tasty. 

A very nice beer to relax with and sit back and sip. Well balanced. Very good. Not the widest array of intense flavours and unique tastes, just the lingering Cascade hops really, but its good enough to enjoy. Low in bitterness but high in enjoyment!

Like it, solid and very enjoyable and will be returning……..

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Crew Republic Drunken Sailor

Crew Republic Drunken Sailor

Crew Republic Drunken Sailor IPA

https://crewrepublic.de

Brewed by Crew Republic Brewery
Style: IPA
München / Unterschleissheim, Germany

Crew Republic Drunken SailorThe company were formed when two former business consultants quit their jobs and started brewing beer? Timm and Mario, the well travelled duo, brought back to Germany with them hop varieties, yeast strains and plenty of ideas from their global adventures. 

Crew Ale Werkstatt was what the new company was called, but later with a relaunch and the added workforce (a proper brewmaster) it became Crew Republic brewery. 

Review: 330ml bottle of Crew Republic Drunken Sailor IPA: 6.4% vol.

Crew Republic Drunken Sailor“Handcrafted Beer from Bayern”, in a very cool looking bottle with a nice logo, nothing fancy but a nice written design of the the company’s name. 

On pour get a nice good sized white creamy looking head, and a nice golden orange coloured beer appearing, all pretty decent on the eye.

Head maintains well and has some good lacing. A nice good looking beer.

The smell is very nice, getting a typical strong IPA aroma, all hops, the malts, tropical and citrus fruits, very pleasant on the nose, lovely.

Crew Republic Drunken SailorTypical IPA style in the taste, not bad at all, all very hoppy but very manageable and very tasty. Sweet malts, caramel, the citrus and the hops all delicious and very well managed. 

It is a nice relaxing brew, typical of the style but very easy to manage and all the flavours and tastes are very well balanced, and has a little extra than all the other IPA styles out there. The hops have their own unique tastes and are so soft, crisp and gentle on the tongue. If I was trying to get someone into IPA’s this is a beer I could choose, perfect example of the style. 

A good beer, very good. Goes down very easy. Will be definitely checking out this beer again, really enjoyable, recommended.

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Uberach Juliette

Uberach Juliette

Uberach Juliette

http://www.brasserie-uberach.fr/

Brewed by Brasserie d’Uberach
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Uberach, France

Uberach JulietteBrasserie d’Uberach (Uberach brewery) is the name of an independent microbrewery founded in 1999, founded by Eric Trossat. Eric was a former engineer in a nuclear power plant in Normandy, but lets decide later if his beers have an explosive kick (boom boom!). Getting his qualifications in the brewing process, he produces craft beers out of his base in Uberach, in north-eastern France.

Uberach offers about twenty specific beers including organic beers which represents half of its volume. The brewery enjoys a strong regional base, are distributed in Alsace, in neighboring departments, in the Paris region and in a few specialized stores throughout France. In 2017 they have even decided to try their hand at producing whiskey!

The logo of the beer represents the old shoe factory that housed the brewery initially. 

Review: 50cl bottle of Uberach Juliette: 4.8% vol.

Uberach JulietteBottle from Lidl France. Interesting logo of two people kissing, striking. Was a little bit pricey, considering its in Lidl, 3 Euros plus for the bottle, albeit a big bottle of beer.  

The beer is brewed every year on the occasion of Valentine’s Day.  

On pour got a hazy looking beer that produced a shitty enough white head and was dark orange in colour.  

No lacing, no real head, flat in fact, not a looker by any means. Is this representing the ugly bird at the end of the night? Depressing in looks. 

Oh fuck me, a very fruity and perfumy smell on the nose. It is very in your face, very pointed, and exactly like a perfume you would buy in the shops, did I make a mistake? 

Getting the smells of a rose and fruits, particularly the smell of apricots and peaches which are both, of course, passion fruits!

Uberach JulietteIt is a very nice aroma though, flowery and unusual but nice. Bit of an aphrodisiac, felt a bit horny after it!! LOL

Taste is a bit similar to the smell, which is fine for an aroma but not so fine to be drinking. I mean who drinks perfume?

Beer is a bit of a let down, bit flat in the taste, disappointing. A date that showed promise peters out.   

Found some coriander and was very yeasty too. 

Bit of a harsh taste to it too, like it is blocking the floral and fruit notes from expressing themselves, that would be the patriarch! It must be the ginger that is a list of the ingredients. Oh boy I do hate ginger, that explains why I didn’t enjoy this one. 

One to drink slowly, leaves a bit of an “urgh” taste in the mouth.

What’s the point? Gimmicky, bit of a taste and that’s it. A cheap date that was unfulfilling……..

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Abbaye de Vauclair Imperiale

Abbaye de Vauclair Imperiale

Abbaye de Vauclair 

http://www.abbaye-vauclair.fr/

Brewed by Les Brasseurs De Gayant
Style: Bière de Garde
Arques, Pas-de-Calais, France

Abbaye de Vauclair ImperialeThe Vauclair Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1134 by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, located in the North Of France. Supported financially by rich families, the abbey quickly prospered and was given several estates and farms, until the French Revolution in 1789, when it was finally demolished and sold as “national property”. Then World War one lead to further damage from artillery fire…..to where today only ruins remain. What remains of the site is an arboretum of apple and pear trees and a medicinal herb garden. 

Lidl France, with the help of the Goudale brewery in Arques, who brew the beer, sell the product in their supermarkets. I have had La Goudale Biere, from Les Brasseurs De Gayant (Goudale brewery), their flagship beer in the past and overall found it to be not a bad beer at all. As for the Abbaye de Vauclair range, I tried their fruit beer, Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis, which I enjoyed a lot, easy to relax with, especially on a hot day. 

Review: 75cl bottle of Abbaye de Vauclair Imperiale: 7.5% vol.

Abbaye de Vauclair ImperialeLidl France, and for the big bottle all less than two Euros!

Coming in a very eye catching jet black bottle, with a pop up opener. 

Looks great, very decent white creamy head that lasted, with a good bit of carbonation fizzing around, colour was a lovely golden beer that looked very appetizing. Top marks on appearance. 

The aroma is quite flowery, smelling like a nice perfume, lovely on the nose, nice and soft smelling rose petals! Light aroma, fruity as well, all nice smells.

Abbaye de Vauclair ImperialeA tough one to drink, very strong in the hop taste, very, very bitter and tastes all a bit raw and rough, a bit too earthy.

All instant, straight in the taste, no hanging around just punches you in the tastebuds with the strong hops, no rest from it.

Did settle down a bit after a while, once I got half way down the bottle, sweet and getting some malts, caramel and fruits, but still does not improve much in the overall taste.

All about the hops here and the overkill, didn’t taste much else. Didn’t feel like a 7.5% vol. beer either.

Didn’t enjoy it. Not nice………….

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Trois Chariots Blonde 

Trois Chariots Blonde

Trois Chariots Blonde 

www.brasseriedesutter.com

Brewed by Brasserie De Sutter
Style: Blonde IPA
Gisors, France

Trois Chariots Blonde Two brothers, Antoine and Frédéric, with a deep passion for beer and with their agronomy and brewery diplomas in the bag, founded the Brasserie De Sutter in 2008. 

In 2012, they moved production to Gisors, in Normandy, north France, to a larger more efficient operation with greater output. 

The name of the beers, Trois Chariots, comes from history. In 1307, the Knights Templar are arrested by order of the King of France and the treasures of the Templars are moved out of Paris, concealed with the help of three trolleys. The brewery likes to use three different styles of hops in their brews, hidden away unintrusive to the casual drinker who will surely get a nice surprise when sampling the gems of the brewery, or something like that!

Review: 33cl bottle of Trois Chariots Blonde: 6.3% vol.

Trois Chariots Blonde Bought in Lidl France. Picture of a chariot on bottle.  

A cloudy looking dark orange colour with a small white head on pour. Some carbonation.

Did not get a whole lot in the bottle, which is always a bummer. 

Getting a nice red hue in the colour after a while, which is attractive to see. 

The smell, well oh my word, it is very strong on the nose, but very pleasant. I am getting a lot of dark fruits, some spices, caramel, and also quite a hoppy aroma. The best aroma I have had off a beer in quite a while. Lovely stuff. 

Trois Chariots Blonde Initially on the taste I found it to be a bit dry in the mouth but the more I got into it the more the fruits and the hops came to the fore. It tasted not too bad at all, very long tasting and lies on the tongue for a while, a deep taste in the mouth. Also the sweet malts and fruity notes also make an appearance, but truth be told this beer is all about the hops. 

The hops were well nice and perfect, full bodied, and hitting the spot exactly. Lovely to swill around the mouth and it is a beer to enjoy over time. One to sip. 

Very good, enjoyed it, a slow burner but loved it. The hops were fantastic, very, very tasty, great. Recommended.

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