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Augustiner Lagerbier Hell

Augustiner Lagerbier Hell

Augustiner Lagerbier Hell

Brewed by Augustiner-Bräu Wagner KG
Style: Light beer/Helles
Munich, Germany.

http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/en/unser-bier.html#

The logo on the bottle shows a monk which is of course a reference to the origins and history of this brewery and beer. It reflects the Augustinian monks who brewed beer in their monastery in Munich in 1328. A tradition the monks had kept up for just under 500 years, enjoying it themselves and also selling it to the native inhabitants of the great city. It was such a hit back then that the local authorities decided to exempt the beer from tax, ensuring it would flow more smoothly amongst the general populace without any hiccups. Tax is a crime anyway! These days the tax has to be paid (the bastards!), and the monks no longer make the beer.

Augustiner Lagerbier HellThe state took over the monastery in 1803 during the course of secularization that was pushed through by the German state. The government abolished the monastery but were wise enough to keep the brewery which they later sold in 1829 to Anton and Therese Wagner, a family of brewers, and the brewery has continued to be privately owned since. By then the brewery had moved to the nearby Neuhauser Strasse, due to disrepair of the monastery, and this is where they have remained since. The original location is not forgotten though, it has got converted into a restaurant with a large beer hall and is very much a place to drink and be merry, especially round the time of Oktoberfest. 

In 1996, Edith-Haberland-Wagner, the last direct family member and majority owner of the brewery, bequeathed her shares to the Edith-Haberland-Wagner-Stiftung (Foundation), which she had personally founded. From then on, the foundation has held 51 percent of the Augustiner brewery.

Augustiner Lagerbier HellThe brewery are big on the whole Oktoberfest scene, with a Augustiner-Bier booth serving people from at least 1867 onwards. Since 1987, the Augustiner brewery remains the only brewery, out of the the six Munich breweries at the Oktoberfest, that exclusively taps its beer from wooden barrels only.

The company produces all the usual types you would expect from a German brewery, your Pils and lager varieties, the Weiss beer, a Doppelbock, dark beers, but it is the Augustiner Helles, its pale lager, that is the brewery’s biggest and most popular. 

Review: 50cl, a nice brown bottle of Augustiner Lagerbier Hell: 5.2% vol 

Coming in a lovely brown bottle with that oh so cool label featuring a happy looking monk. Definitely stands out.

This beer is a very good looker. Very clear, a light golden yellow with a lovely frothy white head, and has some good lacing to boot. Its a fantastic looking beer, really inviting to drink! It is very clear to look at, excellent. 

Smell is faint, get a whiff of malts. 

Augustiner Lagerbier HellInitial taste was one of a nice creamy mouthful flavour on the tongue, nice and refreshing.
Some slight tastes of sweet malts.

Taste seems a bit off the more you continue, slight bitter taste, not nice.

As excepted, get a lot on the bottle.
It is ok, but a bit too sour/bitter to be wholly enjoyable.

Slight kick, a little tipsy after it!!! Ha ha. So the alcohol is there just well hidden!

Second bottle
Lagery taste on 2nd bottle. Good initial mouthful.
Ok but the bitter taste is a bit meh, surely a Helles isn’t meant to be this bitter and sweet?. Caramel body.
Not completely overbearing and not bad, manageable, but a little disappointed all things considering. 

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Feldschlösschen Frühlingsbier

Feldschlösschen Frühlingsbier

Feldschlösschen Frühlingsbier

www.feldschloesschen.ch/unsere-biere#fruehlingsbier

Brewed by Feldschlösschen (Carlsberg)
Style: Seasonal beer
Rheinfelden, Switzerland

Feldschlösschen FrühlingsbierFeldschlösschen is the best known beer brand in Switzerland. Their beers have been brewed at the Feldschlösschen brewery in Rheinfelden, the biggest brewery in Switzerland, since its foundation in 1876 and has been the leading Swiss beer brand for more than 100 years. Today its by far the leading brand in the country with 45 per cent of the beer market, with more than 40 Swiss beer brands, mineral waters, soft drinks and wine produced and shipped all over the country and beyond. 

The brewery logo is in the shape of a castle and Feldschlösschen means ‘small castle in the fields’ in German.

Have tried Feldschlösschen beers before, most notably their main brew, their Pale Lager which I actually liked, much to the chagrin of beer geeks everywhere. Yes it is a generic lager but on a hot day a cold one is great. As I said at the time, it is a “bloody good beer!” Also tried their strong Pale Lager,  Feldschlösschen Stark , at 7% ABV. Also found it quite nice and did the business. 

Review: Green bottle at 33cl of Feldschlösschen Frühlingsbier: 4.8% vol 

A seasonal spring beer. 

On the nose I get a light aroma, very faint, a bit malty and metallic, not great. 

Feldschlösschen FrühlingsbierFor the appearance it is a yellowish looking beer, with no head to speak of, looks pretty shite to be honest. Yellow goes a bit cloudy after a while too. Doesn’t look great. 

Found the taste to be slightly strange, a bit pointless to be honest. Bit cardboardy and overloaded with sweet malts.

Fruits at the back trying to get out, detectable. 

Shit, bland taste, nothing nice, very boring and unexciting. 
Taste!!! Bland, cardboard, slight fruit at end. Pointless!!! Malty, very malty
But not beery. Disappointing, flat in the taste, faint hops barely noticeable, the beer should be given away for free (it’s a bit pricey)
Gave me a head the next morning, shitty beer!

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Kristoffel Blonde Kloosterbier

Kristoffel Blonde Kloosterbier

www.martens.be

Brewed by Brouwerij Martens
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Bocholt, Belgium

Founded in 1758, and based in Bocholt, a Belgian city close to the Dutch border, Martens Brewery is an eight generation family venture that is one of the leading beer and liquor producers in the country. 

Brouwerij Martens produce a wide variety of beers, such as Martens Pils, Sezoens, Kristoffel white, Kristoffel blond, and Kristoffel dark beers, and its products are sold in Belgium and internationally.

Review: Big massive bottle at 75Cl of Kristoffel Blonde Kloosterbier: 6.0% vol 

Nice large bottle of beer with a screw toppy thing. Bought from Aldi. A monastery beer, more in style than substance perhaps. 

The aroma is slight, got a typical smell for a Belgian, fruity, but it was pretty faint all the same. Nothing to shout home about.

Looks like a fizzy drink, lots of carbonation, jeez. Darkish orange colour, but head dies quick. Not a looker. 

Found the taste to be on the light side, definitely very maltish as well
Light tastes, but did detect some regular blonde tastes on the edge.

Nice enough, smooth, quaffable, just a shame that there was so few real tastes or flavours to get excited about. 

Very smooth but a largely forgettable and unremarkable beer. 

Tastes like a regular lager. Where the fuck is the alcohol, cause I don’t feel it, no kick and nothing too complex here, very light tasting. 
That’s disappointing.

Ok, smooth, went down well, but largely forgettable.

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Wicküler Pilsener

Wicküler Pilsener

Wicküler Pilsener

              Brewed by Wicküler Brauerei GmbH (Dortmunder Actien Brauerei)
Style: German Pilsener 
Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

www.wickueler.de

Wicküler PilsenerFounded in 1845 by Franz Ferdinand Joseph Wicküler in Elberfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. The company over time passed into the hands his son, Franz Joseph Wicküler, the only surviving son. Under Franz, the brewery modernized greatly and also became a joint stock company, both actions resulting in output rising dramatically. On 17 August 1916 Franz Joseph Wicküler died and unfortunately he left no descendants to look after all the great work he had done within the company, a transformation from a small brewery into one of the leading breweries in the North Rhine-Westphalia. 

With two World wars though, production was severely restricted,and the company lost a lot of its glory. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Werhahn family, with a shareholding of 96%, converted the brewery with 600 employees into a limited partnership and thus back into a private brewery.  In time the Werhahn family sold the group to the Dutch Grolsch brewery, who shut down the Wuppertal brewery site and moved lock stock and barrel to Cologne, resulting in massive job cuts (over 200!) and a loss of identity. 

Since 1992, Dortmunder Actien Brauerei have produced The Wicküler Pils, as part of the Oetker Group and brewed in Dortmund. So all in all, Wickuler is a beer brand that has moved around a lot, but refuses to die!

Review: 0,33l green bottle of Wicküler Pilsener: ABV. 4.9% vol 

Wicküler PilsenerIconic logo of the three musketeers joining their swords together, certainly eye catching!

On pour, get a nice golden coloured beer with a decent frothy head. Good carbonation. A decent looking beer. Good start.

Smell: typical lagery smell, light enough on the nose, but I do get sweet malts, and some piercing lemon and grainy aroma. Faint but not bad.

On taste, found it initially a little too hoppy and bitter for my liking, very creamy in the front end as well. Bit sour at the start. Not initially liking it at all.

Malty and hoppy. 

Can taste the alcohol, very beery lager.  Ok, taste is good, after a while I get to like it, not bad. The hoppiness settles down as you drink more of the beer, thankfully!
Has a kick. Taste has definitely grown on me, I like it.

Not smooth, but one to sip and enjoy. Not bad, tasty. Better to get a 6 pack, as its a slow burner. 
A lager with a half decent taste, good not great but would do on a long slow Sunday afternoon.

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Beer World Cup 2018 Final

ThisDrinkinglife’s Beer World Cup Final now gets under way. Click on pictures and links to get a general review and info on the beers we will be a drinking during the Football World Cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Russia V Germany

As Uruguay didn’t qualify for my Beer World Cup last 16 (I couldn’t source any beer from Uru), I made Russia winner (Knightberg) of Beer Group A, they went on to beat Spain (Estrella) in the last 16. Then in the last eight they met Nigeria (Guinness Special Export), who came second in my Beer Group D. In the semi final they came up against the Swiss trio of Dr.Brawolf’s Red Ale, Soo.Soors Swiss Ale and Celestial Beer’s Le Dermier Ciel, all excellent on the day and although they were favourites to progress the Russians surprised with a Russian Brettness beer and a Hefeweizen which simply blew me away. The Russian’s managed to pull it off and make my Beer final against a heavily fancied Swiss formation. 

Germany (Zombräu,Brauer & Co., and Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose) might be out of the football World Cup, but they are still very much alive in my Beer World Cup, powering to victory in Beer group F, no problems there, while in the last 16 they beat Serbia (Kabinet). In the last eight, Germany then want on to beat England (London Pride), beating them just about, 2-1. In the last four they came up against Croatia (Ožujsko) but the Germans were stronger with Zombräu and Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose doing the business, and although Croatia  performed well in the tussle with their German rivals, they just lost out in the end, just missing the final, 2-1. Germany making another of my Beer World Cup Finals.        

Knightberg Microbrewery

                   Knightberg                       

Zombräu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        Zombräu                                     Brauer & Co., Funky trout n Pretty sperm whale!

     Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose    

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many beers were drank, too many perhaps, and a lot of fast food was consumed. A very enjoyable competition resulted in Russia winning ThisDrinkingLife’s Beer World Cup 2018, beating Germany in a closely matched final. 

 

The final was contested by Germany, Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose and Zombräu and Russia, Knightberg.

First match up was Zombräu’s Richtfest a nice and tasty Heller Bock which looked fantastic, hoppy and did the business up against a Knightberg Chocolate Stout, which tasted fantastic, the vanilla aroma and taste very strong and very tasty, and that is why Russia take the lead in this first match up. Stouts can be hot or miss but this one from Russia got it right, the chocolate was very strong on both the nose and in taste, and I got a wide array of flavours, from cherry, caramel to vanilla, just lovely. 

Next up was one of the highlights of the beer competition for me, Germany’s Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose their original, which as to be expected was delicious. Getting the salt and coriander all the time, through the nose and on the taste. I am guessing it is a style that people either like or not, but I love it. 

Against such a strong challenger Russia needed a big hitter, so step forward Knightberg Les Cinq Premiers, a sour red, coming in a big 75cl bottle. I wasn’t expecting a challenge as I really love the gose beers, but I have to say I was surprised with this Premiers real brew. It was very fruity and tasted more like a good red wine than a beer, and like a good red wine over time it was very pleasant. I have to give this match up as a draw, as the Premier was still long in the memory a few days after, the flavours still reverberating around my mind. It was a bloody good beer. 

So that result means that Russia win my Beer World Cup 2-1! And like the great World Cup they held they were also a big success in this years ThisDrinkingLife’s World Cup 2018!

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