put a glow in your cheeks

It's still winter out there, although less today than earlier in the week.  At least it isn't raining, which is probably why it was a bit warmer yesterday.  A nippy evening is a good time for a winter ale, though, and Flying Dog is a trustworthy place to get one from.  It's been quite some time since I've had any of their products, but they are one of the more visible and respected small beer companies of our times.  The label looks practically Christmasy with that warm bright red, and the green K-9.  The riff on Shakespeare with "Now is the winter of our content" gives a chuckle.

Now, there's a nice, dark ale!  It looks very much like some brown or red ales I've tried, although it definitely has a fruitier smell.  The taste is surprisingly bitter; the spices on the front aren't always candy sweet, but it's an awfully heavy and thick effect for vanilla and cocoa.  Cardamom maybe shouldn't be exactly bitter either, but I don't think of that as sweet.  Maybe the flavors settle a little as you sip, because I seem to be getting a more complex, spicy-peppery flavor after a few minutes of sipping.  I wonder if there's a little cardamom on the bottom or something.  There's also a development in the smell, with a little more peppermint than in the beginning.  That's not in the ingredients list, but maybe it's the cardamom again.  Whatever the spice content, I do feel warmer than when I opened the bottle, so I call this beer a success.

Supplier: Cervecissimus
Price: €2.75

to dark days ahead

I was hoping to get to a beer store I haven't been to in a while, ending the cycle as it were, but it turns out the place is only open in the morning on Saturdays.  Well, shoot.  As a last resort, I can go to Carrefour, which has a small selection of national craft beers.  Most of them are from Sagra, although there are a couple of Brabantes on the shelf too.  I'm not sure what the significance of Burro de Sancho is for Sagra, I mean why they have this separate line going, but it's been around since just about the beginning.  As I often do, I let myself be called by the dark beer, simply called Negra.  It's supposed to be a porter style, not a stout, but a good porter is fantastic as well.

There's a light scent of chocolate, and the beer is slightly translucent, but a nice dark brown color.  The head is fluffy and gradually dissipates in a few minutes.  The taste is bitter-sour, like a blend of porter and stout, thanks to the coffee essence I imagine.  There's also a mild bitter chocolate flavor, maybe a little light for my taste, but certainly noticeable.  It's a good sipping beer, good for conversations, without any heaviness that distracts.  I've had more interesting porters, but also plenty of worse ones.

Supplier: Carrefour
Price: €2

in the library with the candlestick...

It's Colonel Mustard!  Or Coronel Mostaza, Bee Beer's IPA.  It's more of a tasting bar than beer store, but they do have the fridges and their own house beer, so we might as well partake.  There doesn't seem to be any reference to Clue on the bottle, just on the military aspect of the name.  I am just a little disappointed.  But anyway, there's something fitting about an Imperial IPA being attached to a name that sounds so British.

What have you been drinking, colonel?

The beer is quite dark, and a bit flat; there's barely any head at all, mostly bubbles that fade in a minute or so.  There's a sweetish but vinagery smell, like mustard.  Naturally.  It has a hard to place taste, it's a little salty, then a little bitter.  Not an untypical ale all in all, but less citrusy than the vast majority of IPAs.  I get a sneaking hint of mustard spice, but it's barely noticeable.  Mostly it's a dark ale without the craft reliance in citrus hop flavor, maybe too sweet for some tastes, but not syrupy or sticky like some red or brown ales can be.  Coronel Mustard is a beer that doesn't demand attention in an obnoxious way, and may even be sneaky enough to get away with theft.  Not murder, though.  We'd still see through that.

Supplier: Bee Beer
Price: €3.30

it reminds me of the babe

I've been holding on to this bottle for quite some time.  My brother-in-law, of 3 Sheeps fame, cooked this beer up in honor of his son's birth more than a year ago, and I was gifted with a bottle the last time I was in the US.  I guess I've just been waiting for the time to seem right.  Now's as good a time as any.  We referred to it as "the baby beer", but not because of a light alcohol content by any means.  It turned out a bit stronger than he was anticipating, but he was going for a Belgian quadruple style, so double digits were likely from the start.  It was a little on the Belgian side for my taste, as I recall, my feelings on Belgian beer being no secret around here, but tasty.  I can't imagine my bottle not living up to that, at least.

Although not very foamy, the light head is beige/tan on a pretty dark brown.  It reminds me of my old friend Cabrona.  It smells almost winey, with a little sweet and fruitiness but weighed down with a definite feel of alcohol.  It's smoky and honey-glazed at the same time, giving me a small hint of chocolate as well.  It's possible the aging has deepened some of the flavors, since I don't remember it being so rounded and dark a couple of years ago.  I recall something closer to a Belgian dark with a little bit of sour under the sweet and a taste that, while strong, was also fairly light.  This is a much darker and heavier taste, with a lot of earth to support it.  The bourbon-beer sweet tends to stick around, but it's not too distracting.  It gets more bitter with time, or warmth rather, much like wine tends to do, but I still wouldn't rush a glass of this.

Beermas Day 12

On the twelfth day of Beermas I poured out for me
Twelve curmudgeons drumming (fingers)
Eleven roosters pipping
Ten kingly pilsners
Nine ladies sighing
Eight cream ales fizzing
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree

Aw, the last day and I slip up, huh?  Well, at least I can say I post on a holiday anyway.  To end my Beermas I have Founder's Curmudgeon, which I've actually had before on tap, although I didn't remember that when I bought it.  It's fitting, though, as it tasted like Christmas to me at the time.  Here's to a year of beer and happiness and everything else.  Don't you see his fingers drumming with impatience at all the young whippersnappers who think they're so smart?

Drum, drum, drum...

Just popping the cap releases some kind of holiday scent, sweet, spicy, inviting.  I get a little bit of apple with closer inspection.  It looks like a foamy apple cider in color and cloudiness.  But, it's much bitterer, with only a hint of sweet and sour apple as an aftertaste, then going more rum-sweet after a few sips.  Something almost smoky starts to develop, still with hints of fruitiness.  It tastes like a Christmas punch or spiced beer, heavy for the summer, which I thought in June, but very nice on a chilly winter night.

Supplier: La Tienda de la Cerveza
Price: €5.50

Beermas Day 11

On the eleventh day of Beermas I poured out for me
Eleven roosters pipping
Ten kingly pilsners
Nine ladies sighing
Eight cream ales fizzing
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree
 
Brabante and I do not have a 100% positive relationship, but I've certainly had worse.  I've been pleasantly surprised by others of its ilk, but Brabante Oscura has a little something to prove tonight.  Beermas is almost over!  The last ones better be worth the wait!  Pipers are hard to come by even on labels, but a rooster has a sort of piping quality, don't you think?  You don't?  Screw you, then.  Find me something better, I defy you.

The color is a nice dark brown, nothing to complain about there.  The head is just off-white, nice and fluffy though, not given to disappear.  The smell is interesting, slightly sour, less like most darker beers and more like a lager.  The taste, though, is not lager-y, being sweet and light, but with something going on in the background.  It's much like a German dark beer in flavor, but not as heavy as the ones I remember drinking.  A little bit of sour hangs around, tempting you to have another sip of the sweetish beer, even though you know why that sour taste is in your mouth.  It's a very pleasant beer, perhaps not as forceful as other crafts, but definitely a drink to be recommended when you're out with a crowd.  The flavor is there, but not overwhelming, and no weird aftertaste startles you.  To be perfectly honest, it would not be my first choice if other crafts are available, but Brabante knows how to make a beer that pleases the palate without being too strong for anybody.  Long life to Brabante!

Supplier: Carrefour
Price:€2.25

Beermas Day 10

On the tenth day of Beermas I poured out for me
Ten kingly pilsners
Nine ladies sighing
Eight cream ales fizzing
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree

If anybody knows how to make a pilsner, it's Central Europeans.  Typically Czechs, but Germans hold their own.  I had to find something lordly for the day, and kingly is pretty much the same.  For me anyway.  The citizen of a republic.  What's going to happen with that is anybody's guess, but I don't think we'll get an actual monarchy anyway.  König Pilsner will have to be as noble a drink as it can by itself.

It's a pale, fizzy lemonade color, not as bubbly as the last two.  Still not a great amount of head, though.  It hardly smells like anything, there's just a whiff of German beer grassiness.  The bitter is full on in the taste, dying back a little and slapping the back of the tongue in the end, quite refreshing actually.  I get a hint of sweet somewhere in the middle of the sip.  It's a plain and simple beer, without a lot of fancy trappings and extras, a beer that is quietly proud of itself.  Other beers try to say they're proud, but this one is the real thing.

Supplier: La Tienda de la Cerveza
Price: ~€2

Beermas Day 9

On the ninth day of Beermas I poured out for me
Nine ladies sighing
Eight cream ales fizzing
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree

Cibeles has a long and distinguished career as a craft brewery, more than half a decade I believe.  That's long and distinguished around here.  I was prompted to pick up this particular product since the name seems to be connected to the season, but it actually refers to the dark brown, "chestnut", color and nothing else.  If you want nutty beer for the holidays, you have to go to La Virgen.  Cibeles Castaña should be a solid choice year-round.  Oh, the ladies dancing?  Divinities can be ladies, right?  Even if I didn't find any dancing, that's a face that looks like it has some unfulfilled wishes behind it.

But why can't I go to the ball?

It's a little lighter than the last chestnut beer I had, and the head on this one also fizzled out quickly.  I get more of an apple smell from it than I expected.  Like the cream ale from yesterday, it is definitely a beery taste, although light and snappy.  It's a little sweet in flavor, although not as much as the aroma might suggest, but there's also a bitter base to it.  Again, it's something I might prefer on a summer evening to early January.  It does leave a little bit of something behind on the tongue, maybe something that escaped the bottle of unfiltered liquid.  It's not unpleasant exactly, but a little strange to have a spot of bitter in the middle of your mouth like the Ghost of Beers Past.

Supplier: Simply
Price: €2.25

Beermas Day 8

On the eighth day of Beermas I poured out for me
Eight cream ales fizzing
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree

I could have found myself a cream or milk stout, but there has to be some variety, you know?  So it's cream ale today, Canotier Cream Ale to be exact.  Now, the cream is just in the name, there's no actual dairy in the beer, I suppose the name is related to the lightness of the color.

Uh, what's under that hat, though?

It smells a little sweet, even fruity, and it pours out extremely bubbly.  So bubbly in fact, that that's all the head is, and it disappears in no time.  I'm left with the impression of a cider rather than a beer.  It even has a hint of cider in the taste, although the ale is what comes through most clearly.  It's not bitter exactly, there's a little bit of sourness hiding in it, but is certainly beer.  Canotier is definitely not as hearty as Mexicake, but it has an appeal of its own, a subtler and more laid-back offering to the palate.  There's quite a bit of carbonation, actually, with the feel of the beverage more like a soda than a beer.  I'd prefer this style on a warmer day, maybe in a plaza somewhere, with the typical bowl of chips on the side.

See how fast that head is gone?

Supplier: Más que Cerveza
Price: ~€3 (a better memory is not a resolution you can easily keep)