Festival of Beers: Staropramen and Spaten

i didn't drink both of these on one night, but they were very similar so i decided to put them in the same post. staropramen premium lager is a czech pale lager from prague. it was a satisfying pale beer, light and crisp. nothing particularly special, but certainly better than a bud or a coors. would have been very good with a sausage or something.

spaten premium lager was much the same. this one's from munich in bavaria, but it was also a good solid pale beer with a crisp taste. would have also been good with some standard central european fare, like sausage and potatoes. this one seemed a little smoother, though. perhaps not as bitter on the end.

i'm not much of a beer connoisseur, so i couldn't really tell much difference between these two. they were both good, standard pale beers.

overall assessment: i liked both of them, and am likely to purchase them in the future, but perhaps spaten over staropramen.

Festival of Beers: La Rossa

"la rossa" is an italian beer brewed by birra moretti. it was very malted- the website says it's made with all malted barley. it reminded be a little of baltika 4. but baltika 4 is much less malty and more yeasty/bready (more like kvass), and also probably more enjoyable because of fond memories of my study abroad in russia. but i did not enjoy la rossa. it was cloyingly sweet, almost rotten. and it didn't have the satisfying yeast-ness or bread-ness of baltika 4. i guess i'm just not a fan of malted barley, because i couldn't even finish all of it and dumped it out.

overall assessment: la rossa is definitely not for me. maybe if you really like malted barley you'll enjoy it, but you won't find it in my fridge any time soon.

Festival of Beers: Kirin Ichiban

tonight's beer is kirin ichiban special premium reserve, a japanese beer. i think this might be the first japanese beer i've ever had. at first, i didn't care much for it. it was just a normal pale beer, with a little bit of a burnt/bitter finish, like many beers (which is why i'm not usually a big beer fan).

but as i kept drinking it, it grew on me. it got smoother, and i started tasting a sort of fruity, sweet, wheat-y taste. i couldn't nail it, but it was pretty good.

overall assessment: it's ok. i don't think i would buy it again, but i would drink it at a party if it was offered.

wait, scratch that. i just tried to take a swig of the beer, and found out it was all gone. and that made me sad. so i just might buy this beer again.

Festival of Beers: Stockyard Oatmeal Stout

so, apparently i start craving alcohol made out of grains during finals. last semester, it was scotch. (my dad and i stopped at a liquor store on the way home from the airport for christmas and got some scotch) apparently this semester, it's beer. so i got a pick-your-own-six-pack at trader joe's, with six different new beers. so i decided to chronicle my journey.
i've also been having trouble sleeping, so a beer and a blog at night will hopefully help till finals are over.

so, contestant number one: stockyard oatmeal stout. i'm usually not a fan of heavy/dark beers. and i read the label that said it had flavors of coffee and chocolate. chocolate? in beer? what? but i tried it anyway. and i LOVED it. i'm going to have to buy some more. it totally did taste like chocolate and coffee, which was weird, but good. it's not a chocolate flavored beer, just that's the flavor that comes out (like how wine tastes like oak, etc). it's smooth and a little thick. the chocolate-ness is like dark chocolate, so it's not too sweet. and it's got the richness of coffee (the label didn't lie), so it's not 'sweet.' and it lacked much of the burnt-ness that i find a lot of dark beers have.

it's a very substantial beer, so it's not a "girly" beer by any stretch. i'm not the girly type, anyway. but it's a good woman's beer. the kind of woman who is classy and sophisticated, who looks hot in a little black dress and some red lipstick, who knows how to handle herself and who you sure better not cross. so, it's the beer for me. :)

overall assessment: great beer. highly recommended. i will definitely buy it again.