cymru66

With just over a week to go until the end of June, I’m still waiting on my Beer of the Month Club delivery. I was hoping to receive it before I leave for my vacation, but no go at the moment. There are six featured beers for June and after reading the reviews my two choice picks would have to be:

Black Bavarian from the Sprecher Brewing Company. The BOTMC review states “This strikingly dark German-style schwarzbier is so dark and hearty, it has to enter US brewing contests as a robust porter. Contrary to the name, most schwarzbiers (translated as “black beers”) are more of a dark brown; but this is quite nearly black and is the darkest example we’ve ever seen. Expect deeply roasted malts on the nose, with some lightly charred, smoky notes, burnt chocolate, charred marshmallow and roasted coffee beans. The beer is velvety smooth in the mouth thanks to 8 weeks of aging in the brewery’s lagering tanks, with smoky notes, flourishes of plum, coffee, dark chocolate and a latent but firm bitterness in the finish, through which most of these flavors persist. Pair with a well-done, deeply charbroiled steak or a handful of figs.”

Second choice is:

Grozet by the Williams Brothers Brewing Company (Scotland). I like the Harry Potter reference in this review - “A most interesting brew, brewed with wheat, bog myrtle, meadowsweet and secondarily fermented with Scottish Gooseberries. Is this a recipe from Harry Potter’s magic class or a beer? Most definitely, it’s a beer—but that’s not to say there’s no magic in it. The term Grozet is Auld Scots for Gooseberry and comes from the Gaelic “Groseid”. Since at least the 16th century, Scots monks and alewives brewed indigenous drinks from cereals, wild herbs and ripe fruits. This is a modern day re-creation, with a notable difference being there are hops used in the recipe, giving the nose and flavor a mellow peppery hop note. Of course, berry notes are present, and come off very natural, not “extracty” like many of today’s fruit beers which simply add fruit extracts rather than fermenting with the real thing. The gooseberry flavor is subdued when this beer is cold but blossoms as it warms, and when coupled with the wheat, provides an increasing tartness in the finish. So a bit of advice: if you don’t like the sour/tart kick that comes from many wheat beers, drink this on the cooler side of our suggested temperature range. But we encourage you to drink it on the warmer side to truly experience the gooseberry flavor—come on, how often do you get to try gooseberries? The berry flavors are tough to describe, but are quite like the flavor you get when you eat watermelon and bite into the green/white section near the rind—slightly acidic, nearly bitter, but still mildly sweet. Overall, a well-crafted balanced brew—great with rising summer temperatures. Recommended with light foods, pastas and salads.”

Of course, no trip to Wales would be complete without a sampling of one of my favorite beers - Brains.
The slogan for the advertisement on the left is “Always half full. More positive thinking from Brains.” which kind of typifies the Welsh mentality.

For the marketing gurus amongst you, check out some of the other clever advertisements at the S.A. Brain web site. There are also 5 TV adverts for you to watch.
Now I just need to decide what my first pint is going to be - Brains Bitter, Brains Dark, Brains SA….the list goes on…

Update (6/22/07): Apologies for the confusion, but the beer from Brains wasn’t featured in the Beer of the Month Club. It was just me in vacation mode, looking forward to a nice pint of Brains when I arrive in Wales. Sorry about that….

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Beer of the Month Club (February 2007) - Peg Leg Imperial Stout and 3 others

Beer of the Month Club (March 2007) - Saranac Pale Ale

Beer of the Month Club - High Seas India Pale Ale

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Beer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.