Gallas Cerveja
Brewed by Gallas Microbrewery
Rua do garrido 54A, Lisbon, Portugal
A new and exciting artisan brewery in the historical heart of Lisbon, Portugal producing beers that are both innovative and different to the mainstream. Try the Gallas Beer!
Inaugurated in 2018 by brewer Gustavo Gallas, the beer that bears his name is the result of his love for brewing high quality beer for many years. Here beer is made according to the old traditions, with dedication, passion and totally handcrafted processes all with the best locally sourced ingredients from the beautiful and sun land that is Portugal.
The Gallas brewery make a Belgian Wheat Ale and an IPA, and sell not just within Portugal but also to selected distributors across Europe and further afield.
Review: 33cl Bottle of Gallas, Wit Cinco De Abril: ABV: 5% vol
Coming in a brown bottle that has a very interesting cartoon picture of two army guys hanging out of a tank with roses in its gun. Also there is a happy go lucky woman with flowers in her hair. While at the background there are big juicy looking oranges to signify that this is a fruity number. Perhaps after you down this beer, a feeling of immense joy and peace with the world comes upon you. That’s a tall ask as I can be a grumpy bastard at times, but let’s see……..
Christ on a bike, this beer is just full of carbonation, a lot of it! This all results in a huge frothy white head that takes a little while to settle. After all that we get a pale yellow looking beer that looks ok. Later the colour goes a bit hazy and cloudy.
On the nose I get the fruits. The orange is quite striking on the nose. Also get the malts and coriander, all making a pretty nice smell.
The initial taste was a bit of a surprise, it was quite strong and not what I was expecting. Very fruity, and a bit sour. I guess that was the instant hit from the oranges. Definitely a knock out blast to the taste buds early on. But interesting all the same and very tasty.
Has a lot of interesting flavours, and is a beer to enjoy slowly and sip.
Got the hops and the coriander taste and also found the yeast which gave it a bit of a kick.
So overall a nice enough beer, full of nice flavours, I really love the orange taste in the beer, and it had a slight kick to it with the alcohol which I felt after, which I always like.
Review: 33cl Bottle of Cerveja Capar India Pale Ale: ABV: 5.6% vol
Once again a nice logo and bottle, certainly catches the eye for sure, as this time we are treated to a bikini clad lady on a beach, images of relaxing on a beach with a nice cold cool beer at hand.
For the appearance I get a cloudy looking orange beer, with a minimal white head. Beer becomes cloudier and darker over time.
The aroma was intense, a really lovely smell, very fruity and really strong on the nose. Got citrus hops. It had the “wow factor”, was really nice and exotic. It smelled like a grapefruit.
The aroma makes this drink, is very inviting and one can’t wait to start drinking.
Taste is very bitter and hoppy, a usual IPA style beer, getting all the hops and fruits.
Overall its not a bad beer and certainly does the business watching the football on a hot Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t that long ago that beer, all beer, was banned in the tiny North Atlantic island. Due to religious reasons, alcohol was not allowed, for fear of its corrupting influence. This was changed in 1933 in a nationwide referendum where 57.7% of the voters approved of lifting the ban. But before we congratulate common sense, beer was only to be allowed if it had an alcohol content not more than 2.25%. Of course this just led to a thriving black market in stronger strength beers smuggled into the country and also beers sold by home brewers that were laced with strong spirits. Finally in May 1988, the government passed legislation legalizing beer above 2.25% ABV. The lifting of restrictions on beer is celebrated as Beer Day on March the 1’st, a day that all beer lovers on the island hold dear. Since then beer, wine and spirits are sold widely and consumed as in any other country. 
Located just 60 miles south of the Arctic circle in the fishing port of Akureyri is the brewery Einstök Ölgerð (Einstök Beer Company). Tapping into pure fresh water that comes directly from prehistoric glaciers flowing down from the majestic Hlíðarfjall Mountain and ancient lava fields, Einstök are able to produce top quality craft brews.
On taste, fuck me, found the initial taste very hard hitting and very hoppy. It this really a regular pale ale? Tastes more like an IPA, fuck me. I think they called it an Arctic Pale Ale to differentiate between the two. Its their own creation, a Viking version of a pale ale!
Coming all the way from the lovely city of St. Petersburg, Knightberg is a family owned brewery that is taking Russia’s second city by storm. The brewery has been one of the main influencers in the burgeoning craft beer scene in the former imperial capital.
With the fall of communism, many western beer influences flooded the city, from Irish and Belgian type bars, from shops selling generic popular brands such as Carlsberg and Heineken to eventually the “craft beer” scene today that is similar to what we have in the rest of the continent, with beer bloggers, huge and well attended beer festivals and small breweries popping up all over the place. Yes the craft beer scene is truly alive and well in Russia. 
Knightberg – knight and Berg – a knightly hill, is a place of competitions, holidays and feasts. Symbolizing festivities, fun, joy and delight all the result of having some great tasting beer in the company of good friends. Starting out in 2007, Premium Pivovarny Peterburga (Knightberg), brewed beer according to their own recipes at a brewery in Kondopoga, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. The first IPA Krasnaya Mashina (Red Machine) was brewed in 2012 in collaboration with the home brewer Zhenya Tolstov also by Knightberg. Today the brewery brews all the main varieties one would expect from a major supplier, from your usual and standard IPA’s the edgy Stouts, Knightberg has something for everyone and caters for all taste buds.
Coming in a very cool looking logo, as are all the Knightberg beers it has to be said. It features a snazzy looking bird, I guess a seagull, perched on top of a lighthouse, battling against the cold sea breeze of the Baltic airs.
So onto the taste. Got a nice mouthful, of tasty dark chocolate, a very deep and creamy tasting chocolate. Also tasted the roasted malts and the caramel.
Just to note that this was 4.8% but I note in some reviews I have seen online they have it as a 4.5 to 4.7%.
The aroma is nice and malty, get the smell of the the fruits and the hops, a typical pale ale aroma, not too strong.
Weird enough logo, has a giant in the background, hops look like gun shells, must be strong so.
Caramel found, on the initial taste at least.
Another Knightberg beer, and another shit hot cool logo. This time of a robot with the heart of a hop. Very clever and for me it conjures up the idea of Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man, who had to survive by eating metal. Replace hops with metal, I know I couldn’t survive with good beer (and football!)
Get a lot of malt on the taste, very sweet at the early stages, very tingly on the tongue. A nice start. 
This time the logo has a pic of a broken down London bus, used as a squat, a nod to English stouts of yesteryear perhaps?
I have never had an oatmeal stout before and can see the difference easily enough to a regular stout. It is much lighter and not as filling, but very drinkable. Lovely mouthfuls, goes down very nice. This to me is a tiny bit like a Schwarzbier, albeit not as watery and with more flavours.
This time we get a logo of a chilled woman all in pink, sitting on a Vespa bike, another cool looking logo from Knightberg. Pink of course representing all the cherries in this fruit beer.
On the nose…..oh my word, very nice smells of the cherry, quite prominent on the aroma, also can get the sugars and spices. Kind of like a cherry bubble gum on the nose, really nice and pleasant. 
Coming in a nice big green bottle with a cork to pop. Great, looks like a lot of drinking will be done so!
Head maintains, some good lacing. 
Head maintains well. A good looking stout, no complaints so far.
Colour is yellow with a small white head. Head does go flat after a while and it isn’t the most appealing of beers from its appearance. 
Smell is very fruity. Plums and berries. Nice. 
I have to be honest, I dont think they actually played much decent football at that tournament, a lot of it was smash and grab stuff. But to be fair to the Icelanders, it wasn’t a tournament with a lot of quality on show. We did learn though, that this team can compete and can beat the top teams. And they will never give up, playing right to the 90th minute and beyond. Which goes to show you that a team which such a strong work ethic always have a chance. I guess that’s why we love watching them. 
They have a tough group though. Argentina, Nigeria and Croatia, three teams that are no pushovers. The only thing with Argentina is that they are notorious slow starters and Iceland might just catch them cold on the first day. After that I’d imagine they might be a bit too clever for Nigeria, and would be well able to match them physically. Last match against Croatia they might just need a draw, but it might be hard to keep Modric and co quiet for 90 minutes. I expect Iceland to go close but at the moment my head says that Argentina and Croatia will just shade it. The fact I didn’t mention any players shows that its the team and their cohesiveness that is the main thing for Iceland, but sometimes you need a top star to change a game and that’s where I feel in such a tight group could be where they come up short. But I could be wrong, and like so many people in the last Euros, Iceland just might prove us all wrong. Again! 
In the ancient ruins of Macchu Picchu, Peru, thousands go every year to experience the spiritual lands of the ancients in the hope they to can drink some special beer from the brewery Backus y Johnston, at the the seat of the Inca empire. Using pure mountain water sourced from the nearby Andes this beer was founded in 1911. Ok not quite way back in time, but good enough for me and for the general masses who have made it Peru’s number one beer. 
On October 1, 1908, Ernesto Günther, and a group of investors, founded the Cervecera Alemana in the ancient city of Cusco. Their bottled brew proved a hit. Over time they changed their name to reflect local traditions, increased production and grew in popularity. By 2000, Backus and Johnston, the largest brewery in Peru, came a calling and took over the company. 
On taste, oh its not great, tasteless, I am not getting anything substantial at all. A slight taste of the barely and caramel, on the initial taste, but that’s basically it, flavourless and has no bite to it with only the slightest bit of an aftertaste. Very dry in the mouth too.