Author Archives: Rob Nesbit

About Rob Nesbit

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

Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis

Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis

Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis

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

Brewed by Les Brasseurs De Gayant (Saint-Omer)
Style: Fruit Beer
Douai, France

Abbaye de Vauclair RubisThe 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. It is not clear if the Brewery is located within distance of the ruins of the Abbey, but, knowing Lidl, it is probably not!

Review: 33cl Bottle of Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis (Ruby): ABV: 5%

Bottle from Lidl, France

On pour looks like pop, is there really alcohol in this? No head to speak of or carbonation, but a nice dark ruby, red colour is present. It is a lovey colour really.

Abbaye de Vauclair RubisOn the nose I got a really lovely smell, a very distinctive sweet red berry like aroma which was quite nice I have to say. Very sweet, very clear and strong fruity aroma and very distinctive. had the wow factor on the nose.

On taste, well it is all a little bit chemical, a bit of a stringent taste.

Can taste the berries, or at least I hope they are berries!

It is ok, bit of an aftertaste, that does just enough to remind you that this is a beer.

Not bad. I like it. It’s fruity, has sweet malts, and it quenches the thirst and has just about enough of a kick to not make it a fruit juice!

Now I know some will put their noses up at this beer, but hell, I liked it, so its a thumbs up from me, and coming from Lidl its shit cheap as well. 
Strong enough too, alcohol does kick in after the 2nd bottle.

Now I wouldn’t know if I’d drink a whole lot of these but its ok. Yeah it is very drinkable. Not to down, but to saviour, one or two on a hot day, and that would be more than enough, surprisingly decent. 

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Eichhof Lager

Eichhof Lager

Eichhof Lager 

eichhof.ch

Brewed by Brauerei Eichhof 
Style: Helles Lager 
Luzern, Switzerland

Eichhof Lager The Eichhof brewery is a brewery located in the picturesque city of Lucerne, in the heart of Switzerland, and on the go for more than 180 years. The beer is everywhere, appearing all over the small country, you cant go far without seeing its name light up some bar sign or on street hoarding. 

Today the Eichhof brewery produces eleven different beers, using the same old recipes from that were passed down over decades, and apparently the brewery even uses fresh spring water directly from the amazing mountain peaks of Mount Pilatus.

Since 2008, Heineken have taken over the Brewery despite 15,500 people signing a note of protest against the sale, alas another independent brewery bites the dust….

Review: 50 cl Bottle of Eichhof Lager: ABV: 4.8% 

Eichhof Lager On pour we get a very clear, lovely, yellow looking beer, with some nice carbonation, bubbling along, and a nice white head produced. Definitely looks the part, nice colour and a nice head, some lacing apparent. 
Looks good. Nice colour, nice head, some lacing, thumbs up on the appearance. 

Has a nice smell, but faint though, which is a little malty and of sweet grains.

A little bit of lemon piercing through as well.

On the taste, well no taste! Or at least nothing I could find. 

Eichhof Lager It is extremely smooth, of light body and easy to drink, that would be the pure Swiss waters I am sure, but I am not picking up any tastes or flavours at all, nothing that stands out. 

Very smooth, and I guess it would be a good beer to drink in a session,

I do like it however, its like a tonic water, or an extra strength water, with some light, very light malts

Still no taste on the second one, again very smooth,

Overall it is nice enough to drink but no taste. Good beer to down a few, very sessionable and smooth with a crisp clean finish….

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Ganter Urtrunk, a family enterprise in the city of Freiburg

Ganter Urtrunk, a family enterprise in the city of Freiburg

Ganter Urtrunk

http://www.ganter.com/

Brewed by Brauerei Ganter 
Style: Zwickel/Keller/Landbier
Freiburg, Germany

Ganter Urtrunk, a family enterprise in the city of FreiburgAugust 28, 1865, saw the birth of the Ganter brewery when the 24 year old Ludwig Ganter founded his micro brewery in the centre of Freiburg.

Today the brewery remains an independent and traditional family enterprise, rooted in the city of Freiburg and the southern Baden region, and using nothing but only the best locally and regionally sourced ingredients in their beers. 

The brewery has also seen massive development in recent years, with an ultra-modern and resource-efficient bottling plant, to become one of the most modern medium-sized breweries in Germany while at the same time making progress with ecological brewing, using solar panels, organic brewing techniques and efficiency measures to cut down on wasteful energy, all tying in with the image of Freiburg as an “Eco city”

Review: 0,33l flip-top Bottle of Ganter Urtrunk beer: ABV: 4.9% 

Ganter Urtrunk, a family enterprise in the city of FreiburgComing in a cool swing/flip top bottle with an interesting label, the beer apparently uses the same recipes that go way back to the founder Louis Ganter.  

On pour we get a nice light golden yellow looking beer, with a decent sized head that looks nice, but dies a little afterwards. No lacing.

Has a very nice beery smell, yeast filling the nose, nice..

Ganter Urtrunk, a family enterprise in the city of FreiburgOn the taste….well it is very tasty that’s for sure, very hoppy as well.

Sessionable beer, smooth in the front end and easy to drink. Bit of a bitter aftertaste which is interesting but manageable, it is a very tasty beer. A nice amount of malts, and has a lemon edge to it which wasn’t bad, I liked it. 

Overall I liked this beer, very drinkable, very nice to taste with spices, the lemon, the grains, all noted. A nice and relaxing beer, and would have drank a few more than the two I bought.

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Red Stripe. The taste of Jamaica

Red Stripe. The taste of Jamaica

Red Stripe

http://redstripebeer.com/

Brewed by Desnoes & Geddes Limited 
Style: Pale Lager
Kingston, Jamaica

Red Stripe. The taste of JamaicaRed stripe original, brewed in Jamaica and not the Jamaican STYLE lager that Americans get, from Latrobe, Pennsylvania!

Red Stripe, with its very distinctive red stripe painted label and its stubby bottle, brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Kingston town, Jamaica. First brewed in 1938 when Peter Desnoes and Paul Geddes took over the family business.

In 2012, many Americans noticed a bit of a decline in the quality when the U.S. supply of Red Stripe moved from Jamaica to the U.S., at City Brewery’s Latrobe plant in Pennsylvania!

Red Stripe. The taste of Jamaica For the rest of us, Desnoes & Geddes still make Red Stripe for Jamaica, Brazil, Canada and Europe, and in 2015 it became a subsidiary of Heineken.

But don’t worry my American friends, as in September 2016 the company decided to export once again directly to the United States from Jamaica, due to re-establishing Jamaica as the real home of Red Stripe.

With its involvement in the underground music scene in the UK, Red Stripe is known as the unofficial beer of the Notting Hill Carnival, London.

Review: 500ml Can of Red Stripe: ABV: 4.7%

The taste of Jamaica! 

On pour we get a light golden yellow colour, that produces a big frothy white head, with a lot of nice carbonation. The beer looks ok.
Red Stripe. The taste of Jamaica A nice head that maintains, and some nice lacing.

A slight beery smell on the nose, real lagery aroma. Malts and grains, but overall not a whole lot to smell. Faint.

On taste I get a very nice mouthful of tastes, a filling and refreshing feel in the mouth. Tastes ok, mostly creamy, with some cereals tastes, and a good bit of grain. Nice enough.
There is a very stringent taste though (lemon and lime), that lingers throughout which is not very nice and is very pointed.

But overall has a real lagery taste and is quite sessionable.
Hard to rate and not bad, but would like to try again.

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Unser Bier Naturblond

Unser Bier Naturblond

Unser Bier Naturblond 

http://www.unser-bier.ch/

Brewed by Unser Bier AG
Style: Blonde Ale 
Basel, Switzerland

Unser Bier is a small local brewery in Basel, Switzerland.

From humble origins in 1998, home brewers coming together, to now where the brewery is the biggest in the city of Basel. Unser has come a long way. In no small part to its unique shareholding venture where thousands across the city own a piece of the brewery, no doubt making it very popular amongst the natives, shown in its slogan “Beer from here instead of beer from there”. or “Unser Bier” (It’s our beer)

Unser Bier Naturblond The brewery now boasts over 8,500 proud shareholders and the beer continues to grow in popularity. But they dont issue dividends. The reward for investing in the company is beer, and lots of it, shared out at the general assembly where over a 1000 people celebrate the success of the company by drinking, partying and a little bit of boardroom management. 

The brewery also offers beer lovers the chance to make their own brew, and share in the experience of beer production. 

Unser Bier produce five different beers and occasional specials: A popular Amber Beer, a simple lager, a wheat beer (Weizen), a pale ale (Natur Blond) and a dark porter style beer (Schwarz Bier), as well as a number of specialty and seasonal beers such as a Christmas beer and the “Meister” beer, produced when the local football team FC Basel win the national championship, which seems to be a yearly thing at the moment. They are also big into the environment, where some of their beers are produced without pesticides and herbicides and using organic raw materials and in an eco friendly way. 

Review: 33cl bottle of Unser Bier Naturblond: ABV: 5%

Unser Bier Naturblond Fantastic looking bottles, pretty ladies always catching the eye.

On pour I get a very nice looking yellow colour and a big frothy white head which settles nicely. A good bit of carbonation making it all look pretty good.

Very strong on the nose, I get a strong fruity aroma which is very enticing, very nice and sweet. Also some malts present in the smell.

Unser Bier Naturblond On taste
It is a slow burning beer, more fun to relax and enjoy the tastes of the fruit and sweet malts, not a session beer anyway.
Very tasty, nice pleasant mouthfuls, a very filling beer.

I find it very hoppy, possibly a bit too hoppy, but is manageable. 
Ok, nice and tasty, good enough beer, not bad, not terribly complex, but nice all the same.

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