lit up

Well, back to lagers, but this is a smoked lager, so at least that's something different.  This is Althaia's Mediterranean Lager Ahumada.  I guess after Spain got smoked out of the World Cup it's a fitting choice for the collection.  I also like how the label shows the grill but the smoke is coming out of the bottles nearby.

I'm used to my smoked beers looking, well, smokey, but this one pours out almost like water.  It does take on color in the glass and builds up a nice fluffy head, as well as having that distinct rauchbier aroma.  It definitely tastes like a rauchbier, perhaps a little sweeter than some of the classics.  It's more of a maple syrup sausage than a bacon or schnitzel flavor.  There's some hint of breading, or maybe pancake crumbs.  It also has an oddly slick feel to it, like the outside of a fatty sausage, sliding over your plate instead of politely sitting for your fork.  It's perfectly pleasant, though, not icky-slippery like you might expect.  While other rauchbiers seem to have their place at the barbecue, this lager feels like it just wants to sit down to breakfast.

how could you!

I got my beer calendar, weeks before I even expected it, and excitedly ripped into day 1...only to see sin alcohol on the can.  Alcohol free?  In a craft beer calendar?  Is the universe trying to tell me something?  At least it is an interesting craft style, a hazy IPA, and from a reliable brewery.  Actually, Boira is a collaboration between trusty Guineu and Althaia.  If they made the effort to bring the beer out, I guess I can make an effort to drink it.

Very cloudy and a very pale color greet me, not a bad aroma at all with a little bread and a little ginger (but not quite gingerbread), and a wrapping of grapefruit.  The head forms with relatively large bubbles and vanishes within seconds.  Now it really looks like a fizzy lemonade, one you would expect to be "organic".  Flavorwise, it's the grapefruit that comes out on top.  The bitterness is heavy although the beer itself feels almost effervescent, and it doesn't have the sharpness that some hazies or NEIPAs end up with.  It's not a bad imitation of its alcoholic counterpart, maintaining a feeling of bitter beer juice and citrus snap that is the attraction of the style.  It has less juice than many "real" NEIPAs, but there are quite a few that it lines right up with.

munchies

It's the post-holiday doldrums alright.  I walked into a beer store to be greeted with practically empty shelves.  The owner said, a little sheepishly, that the supplier hadn't been able to deliver before the last big day off, so things were down to the bare bones.  Fortunately, a beer store has good beer, in practically every case.  I'm not exactly the biggest fan of black IPAs, although some can be just wonderful, but that never stops me from trying things out.  Mascarat Black Rye IPA seems to promise that it will make people reveal their secrets to you.  I am not sure who is supposed to drink the beer for that to happen.  Maybe you have to share?

There's a sharp smell of IPA, although not one of the very citrusy ones.  Even the aroma has a base of bitter.  It's a little foamier than normal, and an extra cloudy brown.  Settles down pretty nice in the glass, though.  There's a creamy feel to it, along with the sourness of the rye, which makes it feel like a very traditional sort of beer - and I mean the traditions of millennia ago, with beer juice being made from the grain that didn't go in the bread.  I would go so far as to say it is what I would have expected more from the kvass in Bhatamari, that very fermented bready sour flavor.  But, the kvass was quite light and Mascarat has a full body to throw around.  I guess you can't be shy to get those secrets.

Supplier: Cerevisia
Price: €4.20