European Beers

Still sticking to Duvel Tripel Hop Citra. 2015 was fine, 2016 a bit deceptive, but Citra rocks.
Of course Rochefort, 10 when I've nothing to do thereafter. I travel regularly to Frankfurt (good friend whose one of the daughter is my goddaughter), so lager and weizen are also my thing.

Ali

 

And no one mentioned the superb real ales of England/Scotland or Ireland. Far removed from the mass produced commercial far too cold dead stuff that passes for beer on the mainland.

 

Can you name one you like?

 

The Dublin brewed Guinness is a cracking pint with a good ploughman's - a great lunch, especially for those with a tough physical job. Doctors would suggest a daily pint for those who needed iron as the Liffey water used to make Guiness in Dublin is full of iron and many who need an iron supplement cannot digest the pharmaceutical kind.

A young brewmeister at the Hopback brewery in Salisbury created an excellent straw coloured summer ale that has been brewed year round for some time now - Summer Lightning, 5% multi award winning.

Timothy Taylor's - Landlord, 4.3% a cracking daytime pint, multi award winner - slips down far too easily - a Yorkshire ale

Kelham Island - Pale Rider, Another cracking blond beer - I prefer this slightly over Summer Lightning - made in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Breakfast ale - made in Barnstaple/Devon, I don't think it's available outside the area.

IPA, a commercial bitter made in Hampshire, a damn good beer .

Spitfire, made in Kent

With sadness I mention my favourite beer which is no longer available. Made for generations by a family of brewers in Horsham, Sussex - King & Barnes - Festive - a nutty full bodied beer that won many prizes. Their Winter Ale, strong, dark wonderful with a ploughman's lunch after a long bracing winter walk.A young moron inherited the business and destroyed it in 6 months in the ill-fated attempt to create a market for alcoholic lemonade. A big commercial brewer bought the business and closed it down.

Real ale has to be cellered properly, never allowed to get too cold because it's alive. All pipework has to be kept scrupulously clean and the barman has the job every morning to test the beer - to make sure it's allright (they never complain about this).

Scottish beers are far smoother than the English ones. It's embarrassing for me being of Scottish blood to say, I prefer the auld enemie's beers.

Young Americans visiting the UK acquired a taste for these ales and went back home and through trial and error now offer Americans in many States some cracking beers as an alternative to the awful mass produces stuff.

I've lived abroad for a long time now in Spain and now France and both the Spanish and French have acquired a taste for good beer with a vengeance and small breweries are cropping up in both countries BUT Sod's Law dictates there are none anywhere near where I live. There are only 3 things I really miss from back home - good s/hand record shops (Brighton had the best shops outside London) car boot sales, where I bought so much good vinyl really cheaply and real ale.

Summer days are coming and with them a wish to 'neck' a pint in one go of Summer Lightning or pale Rider - life's a bitch and then it's over.

 

Greetings from the south Italy!
I always try new beers when I can and I can sure say:
Guinness ( at least the imported one) is THE morning beer, I could drink it every morning as breakfast! But I don't like it so much in the evening
Czech Republic made the BEST lagers around: if you have spent some time in Czech you know it!!!!
About others one I can't judge, there are too many, have to keep trying it eheheheh

 

Jerda,
the Czech do make good beers but they are pilsner not lager. Go to Heidelburg and try some of the small breweries lager beers - excellent.

 

pilsner is a type of lager beer and its the one that I ve enjoyed the most, so for me in Czech there are some of the best lager in the world ( not pilsner, that would be obvious)
I will keep searching something better Gallic, don't want to hurt anybody feelings as probably I still didn't have tried so many breweries
I will sure go in the south of German this year so your suggest it's sure welcome! Thanks!

 

jerda, Stuttgart is worth a visit, especially if your into cars - the Mercedes museum is good, right by them Neckar river, which I cycled from the Swiss border to Stuttgart.

Heidelberg is definitely worth a visit, a university town, very good small breweries there - prosit.

 

Are you talking about Flanders red beers or do they make other things as well? I am familiar with the Flanders reds and I will agree they are special but they are definitely not everyone cup of tea..so to speak, they are an acquired taste for most. Personally it was a flavor that I instantly enjoyed though.


What good Czech beers are there to try that I may find on the US?

I would argue though about the best beer in the world statement lol, we all have our specialties.

 

I've been living in Germany for a year and a half, and after trying most of the southern German beers (and some Czech, Belgian, Danish, Hungarian beers while traveling), while all have been great compared to beers elsewhere in the world, I love the Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel to bits.
Literally brewed by monks on a hill (which I've visited to have some crispy pork knuckles), it has a dark, velvety, malty taste that's smooth despite so much depth and strength. Usually other Starkbiers are too bitter or hoppy and overwhelms the other flavors, but this is very well balanced.
Also it's super cheap and found everywhere - like around EUR1 per 500ml bottle.

 

The Czechs make a lot of different styles of beers including lagers. Pilsner (specifically Pilsner Urquell) is the national favorite.

I prefer the black beers, there are a lot of varieties and they're delicious!

And Budweiser is fantastic here. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with American Budweiser. Same name, different company. The Budweiser black beer rules.

Here's a small sample of what I have in the pantry at the moment. Left to right:

Lobkowicz black beer, Primator Stout (not sure if this is really a stout, but it's black. They have many varieties of this one), Krusovice black, Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser Lager (yes, it is a lager), Herold Wheat Beer, Regent black, Branik black, Postrizinske black, Kozel black.

Most of the black beers have light counterparts and other variations. In the Czech Republic, light beer means "regular" as opposed to black (dark) beer. There is no light beer here as in the American style of light beer that has less alcohol. There is no alcohol malt beverage though.

Beer is like water to the Czechs. They refuse to allow it to be taxed, it is a basic food item. A six pack of premium 500 ml (16 oz.) beer costs around 2.50 USD. It is difficult to find 12 ounce American-sized beer bottles here, but they do have 2 liter bottles (large Coke size) for sale everywhere. And we are allowed to drink beer in the office. I mean it.

Huh, I have a pic but can't see how to attach it...