more taste testing

More and more places are deciding a nice, quiet beer tasting with a variety of well-made craft beers is a clever way to attract customers.  Of course, some places don't worry too much about it being quiet.  This is Spain, after all.  I had never been to, or even heard of, Macanudo Bar Espacio Arte, but if they have good beer I'm game.  The tasting was presented by a representative of Freaks Brewing, which I am familiar with.  One of the beers was even one I had tried recently.  But, we were also getting special tapas, so the experience will be different.

Uh oh, nice beer?

We all crowded around the bar and prepared for the first taste.  It was Flying Rebel pale lager.  It has a wheaty kind of scent, a little bit sweet and with a hint of grass.  The taste is surprising, though, being rather sour.  It's very light and despite the suggestion in the aroma of wheat, there's no sweetness in the beer, nor is there that grassy aftertaste.  There are only Saaz hops used in it, although it's not as bitter as you might expect.  Oddly, I got a little floral aroma as the glass came to its end.  Our first tapa was a mushroom spread.  It was a heavy tasting and spicy snack, peppery really, and a good choice to tame the sourness of the ale.

Tropical Explorer APA came out next.  I was wondering if it would be much different in the bottle as on tap.  We had a spicy pork tapa (actually the spiciness was from the extra sauce, not the pork itself) and the beer really neutralized that heat.  It was otherwise as I remembered from Craft Against The Machine; fruity smelling, but much more bitter and beery than you expect from a sniff.  Good combo.

Third was Lord Cobra IPA, which I had also sampled previously, albeit some time ago.  In spite of being an IPA it's supposed to be a versatile beverage, going with most food.  Especially strong flavors, they said.  Well, our tapa was a hot dog with pickle mayonnaise and beets, not what one would consider delicate in taste.  Lord Cobra did not pack a punch in its own flavor, just a little bitter and light flavored on its own, but was a welcome palate cleanser after the sticky and pickly snack.  A good mealtime beer indeed.  Now on the dessert!

We finished up with a stout (hooray!), Roast King Imperial Stout.  There isn't a very strong smell to it, just a little bit of coffee.  Even the taste is mostly coffee, but the Starbucks kind with a couple of shots of syrup.  There's even a hint of fruit in the background, but it's very subtle.  Our dessert tapa was a chocolate mousse with nuts, maybe pistachio?  After scarfing that up, the stout washes it right down, gaining a richer chocolate flavor itself, and a smoother finish.  Those touches of sour fruit get wiped right out. 

I found the noise of the room distracting, but being gathered closely around we could hear the rep pretty much the whole time.  I was also amused at the number of questions that came from the group.  In part, it would be that most were not beer snobs and just trying something new for the evening, but I also think it might be that people feel more comfortable in a louder environment, where anything silly can be brushed aside as a misunderstanding because of the noise.  Maybe I should put a white noise machine in class when the students don't seem to want to ask questions that they obviously need the answers to.

IPA and APA

Mouth watering stouts