stout hearted

I'm a fan of dark beers.  I love a good porter or stout, anytime.  They have more character for me than most light beers, and drinking them is more of an experience than just an action mandated by biological impulse.

Here's the latest of my stouts, Hop Back Brewery Entire Stout.  It's a good, dark brown when poured, with a creamy head that sits lightly on top.  The bottle advertises chocolate and coffee flavors, and both come out if you pay attention, but I noticed the aroma of chocolate more.  It's a dark chocolate smell too, earthy, mouth-filling.  The coffee seems to come out more in the aftertaste.  The brew is smooth going down, could be good with sweeter foods.  The label insists it's good with "most".

The Greenman wants you to know the star over the "i" is really there, it's not an effect of the flash.

continuing cibeles

It's time for another round with Cervezas La Cibeles.  This time I have their Madroño, another light beer, with a little madroño fruit flavoring.  I have no idea what madroño is.  It's part of the symbol of Madrid, the bear is trying to climb or shake fruit from a madroño, which is usually translated in English as a "strawberry tree".  Whatever madroños are, they are not strawberries.

Bear (supposed to be a she-bear, actually) going after "strawberries"

Like other Cibeles beers, it isn't filtered.  You can see a layer of sediment in the bottom of the bottle, much of which will come out when poured.  It doesn't have that strong, sour flavor that I associate with unfiltered Belgian beers, however, in fact I don't think the sediment draws any attention to itself at all.  There's no appreciable change in the flavor or texture of the beer from start to finish, except that the slight fruity smell increases as the beer warms.

The beer is light, with a fizzy head that doesn't hang around long, and the fruitiness is just barely there.  It's pleasant, a little bit tart, not in the least overpowering.  This is another beer for drinking by itself, perhaps with some mildly flavored snack, on a nice spring day when the temperatures are just starting to hint at summer.  Hot Madrid summer.  Baking, eye-blindingly sunny summer.  Better go get some more to keep around.

Yeah, yeah, I should be drinking Irish beer for St. Patrick's.  I hate crowds, what do you want?

taste of home

Old Scratch Amber Lager - sitting by the door with those horrible, eye-catching flea-dogs on its label, I couldn't help but pick it up.  Although it's from Maryland, the bottle was obviously for export, what with 10 languages on it.

It's a pretty standard lager, although once warmed up a little it has some caramel to it.  Both flavor and aroma have some sweetness.  I feel like I could use some potato chips now, or pretzels or olives, something salty that would contrast nicely.

Next to my heavy duty bottle opener

How'd you like to come home to that?

more refreshment

I don't have beer/bottle photos to add more to my post, but I can assure you my experience was good.  I went to a beer tasting at Cervezorama, which merits a visit should you pass through Madrid.

The brewery is new, in that they are trying to establish a name for themselves, and that name is a good one to keep in mind if you're going to be passing through in the future: Fábrica Maravillas.  The beers in the tasting were all flavorful and made with flavor and enjoyment for the client in mind (so says one of the brewers who led the tasting).

I can't decide what my favorite was.  There was a really nice one which came out third: to me it tasted like apples.  Although other flavors came out over the time it took to drink the sample, the apple taste stayed with me.  I believe the working name is Malasaña Ale.  Later the triple and quadruple came out and they were... tasty.  A little odor of alcohol, but nothing more than you'd expect.  Less actually.  The flavor is very mild, smooth, and the whole feel of the drink is something you could drink pretty much anytime.  The colors were remarkably similar, all orange-caramel, but the head did come out differently on the different brews.  The saisson was quite bubbly, almost champagne-like, and pretty foamy.  The others had a pretty normal head for beer, which didn't last more than a minute or so.  I seem to recall both the saisson and IPA had cilantro in their ingredients, which made for an interesting twinge on the tongue.  Don't get all huffy because I don't remember precise details now; I'm actually writing days after the tasting.  Next time I'll take notes or something.

An unassuming card for what could become a kick-ass bar and brewery