A work colleague of mine is a regular customer of Beers of Europe but, although I’ve checked out the website a few times (and more on that later), I’ve not ordered from them myself. So when Aby asked if I’d like to review some of their products, I jumped at the chance (well, who wouldn’t)!
I’d like to think I know a thing or two about beer; no training you understand but I’d definitely put myself in the enthusiastic amateur category. However, I don’t consider myself to have an educated palate so it’s all very well bandying around words like ‘hoppy’ and ‘grassy notes’ when you’re in the pub among friends that know about as much as you, but when you think about writing about them things get serious.
To try and do it justice, I thought I’d do some background work and read up about the brewing processes and what influences the tastes, smells and colours; whether this comes across below is another matter!
When the box arrived (that was a good day), my selection included beers from Australia, America and Russia; a really good cross section of the BE range.
My usual venue for trying new beers is at local beer festivals so I usually have the help other tasters to discuss things with. This time, however, I was on my own; it was a tough job but I felt I was up to it!
I decided to start with the lager style beers first and first up was the Russian Stary Melnik Svetloe. It was pale gold in colour and lacked the artificial smell that is often present with standard lagers. The taste was good too – much more flavour than I was expecting and at just over 4.5% ABV would be ideal for a session.
Next was the Augustiner Edelstoff; a German, lager style beer that has been brewed by the oldest brewery in Munich. This brewery is thought to have been producing beer since 1294 so they should know what they’re doing by now! This had a very pale gold colour and no distinct aroma that I could detect (though I was just recovering from a very severe case of man flu). It had a very pure flavour and not being as lager averse as some of the beer drinkers I know, I’d be more than happy to buy both this and the Russian brew.
I decided to head to the Antipodes next and sample an Australian Pale Ale from the Little creatures brewery. The hop varieties used meant that the prominent aroma was of fruit and the taste was in agreement. This was a lovely, refreshing beer with a bitter finish that I was quite taken with. My only disappointment was the size of the bottle (330ml) as, it was so nice, a pint would have been lovely!
Sticking to the Pale Ales, I was off to America for the Sierra Nevada offering. All this globe trotting was starting to make me light headed – must have been the jet lag kicking in… Deep amber in colour and with a piney aroma, indications were that this would be a very different beer. So it turned out; it had a much fuller flavour and there was a lot more going on in the mouth. At 5.6% this is perhaps not a session ale but would be a welcome one off.
The penultimate beer was a bit of a departure for me as I’m not that familiar with fruit beers. The Samuel Smith organic cherry beer pretty much did what it said on the label; a deep red colour was evident as soon as I began to pour and the aroma and taste were very much of cherries. The fruity flavour disguised the fact that this beer comes in at 5.1%.
My final brew was from Belgium and I have to admit, I’m no stranger to a Kwak. One of my friends, who is very much in to his Belgian ales, introduced me to this when we were in Brussels and the first thing that strikes you is the glass it’s served in; a wooden stand holds what’s best described as a stunted yard of ale type glass. The beer itself is a deep amber colour with a malty sweetness and, for me, a slightly smoky taste.
For the authentic drinking experience, you can buy the Kwak glass (along with a vast range of others) on the Beers of Europe website. A word of caution though; if you’re not careful you can end up with a face full when you come to drink the beer in the bulbous section, especially if this isn’t your first drink of the evening…
Not only can you purchase more beers wines and spirits than you knew existed but a browse on the website is also an educational experience; for instance, I certainly didn’t know that Uganda produced beer or that you can buy a beer that is 67.5% ABV! I think I’ll give that one a miss but I’m looking forward to choosing a few new brews (that was easier to write than to say at the moment) for my first purchase and, who knows, a couple of bottles of Little Creatures Pale Ale may well make their way in too.
Disclosure: We were sent these beers in return for an honest review.