something missing?

Once there was a beer store on a street of bars.  It boasted chocolate and jelly along with a fairly eclectic selection of beers.  It was called The Beer Garden, although there wasn't even street seating.  Then, not long ago, they moved house, to c/Juan de Austria 23.  Now there is more space inside to sit and partake of the many beers they have, on tap and in the bottle.  Still don't have a garden, though.

When I arrived it was early, and there were two groups of adults with a baby in each group, one upstairs and one at the bar.  No escape.  I figured I would be better off upstairs, with a little more space.  I ordered my beer first, Birrificio Pontino Cryo Runner Ale.  Glass and peanuts in hand, I went up.

Cryo Runner Ale is listed as a NEIPA, but it's a lot less cloudy than the ones I've seen before.  It's also less pungent.  The taste is quite smooth, though, hinting at citrus and never letting loose with a punch of bitterness.  Even the salt-dusted peanuts couldn't draw out sharper, harsher flavors.  It's similar to a lot of more recent IPAs and APAs in that there is a fruitiness in it that is a lot more delicate than what we've come to expect from a craft IPA.  The heavy hoppiness is absent and the flavor is more subtle, and perhaps more summery.  It would be welcomed by those who find IPAs too bitter, but still want the essence of the tropics they can evoke, as opposed to plain ol' lager.

Oops...hey, bartender

The place is fun, with a carefully careless style of decoration.  The music is of interesting, retro/classic selection, although maybe a tad loud if you're looking to have a quiet conversation.  Just be careful with some of the chairs.  Their joints seem to need some attention.

Some record collection, but the phone has the playlist

Have silent contemplation you will not

overwhelming!

Some fun having beer festivals during the week when you get up early every day!  Well, I managed to squeeze out a couple of visits to Lavapiés Artesana Week anyway.  If I had the time, I could probably visit all 31 venues over the course of the week, with a 28cl beer in each, but since I had to economize my time, there are only four to show.  First on Thursday, when I only had a couple of hours in the afternoon, I had to find a place that opened before 6pm.  There are a few, taverns and restaurants, and I thought I would try La Mancha (Miguel Servet 13). 

They were serving Bizarra, a beer from Salamanca, for the fair, although they might have it regularly?  I wandered in at about 2pm, and the place was gloriously empty to my eyes.  There was one couple at the tables on the street and one small group inside.  I got my Bizarra Tostada and my little tapa and sat down myself.  The beer has an apply, kind of cidery scent and a color that also recalls American apple cider.  The taste, on the other hand, would be described as bittersweet.  It's really quite a dry flavor, especially for a brown ale.  I keep expecting the sweetness to break through, but it really doesn't.  There is an interesting nutty background, but the taste is definitely bitter and a little smoky, like burned toast.  The acidity stays in the throat, building up, like with a strong lemonade.  There is a hint of caramel in the fore of the sip, but it is fleeting, and it takes a while for a smoothness to develop in the taste.  Only at the bottom of the glass does it seem like a little sugary teaser comes out, but the beer is never really sweet.  It's too strong to be a conversation or a meal beer, but quite nice to relax with accompanied by a mild snack and an interesting book.

Evening market

Friday night came and so did the desire to toss back a few.  We started at La Buena Pinta in Mercado San Fernando, which was surrounded by adults and children alike.  I'm not sure if this isn't the regular thing here, people coming with their kids to the market for a Friday night drink.  La Buena Pinta had La Virgen and Medina on tap, the latter being the represented brewery of the fair.  The promotion was a wheat IPA, suspect for me, but I'll try it.  It's light yellow, cloudy, looking quite a bit like a NEIPA.  The aroma also falls in line with that, being light and fruity.  The flavor is sweet, a little dusty, certainly not citrusy.  While it's a little sticky, the taste is very regular and balanced, not veering into bitter or cloying with a little time and temperature (it was damn hot in there!)

We escaped to the street looking for a snack and fell upon Como Vaca Sin Cencerro near Metro Lavapiés.  We were lucky to find one table free.  Their offering was La Loba IPA, but we got one IPA and one lager.  I took the darker colored beer, and it seems I got the lager.  A little disappointing, it had the same color as many Imperial IPAs.  The smell is a bit sweet, and the taste a bit flowery.  There seems to be a little dust in this beer as well.  It reminds me of Sagra Premium actually.  This is more of a company beer, not demanding too much attention, but it does develop a little more character in the presence of food.  Our small meal of potato/egg/mushroom/ham forced a little sharpness out of the brew.

Looking suspiciously like an Imperial IPA

Action tapas!

Wandering out into the rain, we darted down the likely streets looking for the posters in the windows.  For the last drink of the night we got into Aguardiente on calle de la Fe, more of a cocktail bar than regular bar.  Nice place, though, and the music wasn't too loud, with an enjoyable selection.  The beer here was from Alegría, a saison with a touch of lambic.  It was definitely fruity, but on the sour side.  While cleansing and refreshing, it goes a bit outside the comfort zone for typical beer drinking.  As I said, it really harkens back to lambics.  I found it to be a pleasant end-of-evening beer, which would have been better if I'd had something heavier before, stouts for example.  My drinking buddies were not so impressed, finding it more vinegary than they like their beers to be.

Don't forget those dates...

Once the glasses were drained, we tumbled out into the wet streets of the old city, fortunately not being rained on at the moment.

continentally

Last Saturday!  Easter Saturday, as if I care.  No chocolate laden rabbits where I am.  As a holiday weekend, it's a little harder to get a beer fix if you haven't stocked up, too.  However, somebody is always willing to do a little extra work and today isn't technically a holiday here.  Circumstances have made it less likely for me to go to l'Europe for some time, so I figured I might as well revisit a past haunt.  Still on beer street/calle cervezera Cerdenal Cisneros 19, they offer a mix of craft and bigger import beers, as well as German-style wurst platters.  Every third Sunday of the month there's local artisan cheese and vinyl records, for the hipsters.  And important for the penny-pinchers, every day between 6 and 8pm is happy hour.  Half price drafts!

Order at the bar

I see a lot of familiar names on the draft board, but Arriaca Centeno has probably not crossed my palate yet.  At least it doesn't sound like one I've tried.  It's a rye imperial pale lager, so I'm confident that it will be tasty.  I find I prefer their light colored beers to their dark ones.  It's a good orangey color, just a little bit opaque, with a light, bright, white head.  The aroma is sharp and sweet, recalling typical IPAs, but the flavor leans toward plain bitter, harkening back to the lager.  It doesn't take long for a sweetness to develop, though, and the beer does have a tendency to hang around in the mouth.  It's not an unpleasant aftertaste, but perhaps not as clean as you might expect from the citrusy smell.  Centeno is a good representative for Arriaca, and a beer that leaves a pleasant mark.

Not German tapas

It got a bit crowded, even for an early Saturday evening, which might be because of the cheap draft beer, or might be just because.  The tables are still a little too close together for my comfort, which some accidental butt-bumping, and the place does tend to get noisy pretty easily.  Still, it's certainly not the worst place I've ever been, and if somebody suggests going I'll be happy to go along.

branching out

It's time for another field trip!  The boys at La Tienda de la Cerveza have opened a bar, with craft beer taps of course.  They still have the store and the in-store taps, but now there's Craft Against The Machine, on c/ Embajadores 31.  It's a small place, so it's not implausible that you find it uncomfortably popular at a given moment, but it's not far from Mercado San Fernando and La Buena Pinta, so if you absolutely must have a beer at that time, all is not lost.  The place was a hairdresser's and they kept the tiles outside, so if you're not careful you might walk right by it.  Inside, there are more bar seats than tables, so you're best off in a small group.  Unless you're lucky enough to snag the back table.

Don't be fooled, there's beer inside

Cheers, explorers!

Interesting tapas here

I was hoping for a dark beer, but everything was pretty yellow on the menu.  There was a barleywine, but I wasn't especially in the mood for the heavy sweet beer that barleywines tend to be.  In the end, I chose Freaks Tropical Explorer APA.  It appeared as a slightly cloudy orange with a very moderate head.  There was the typical citrus aroma, but the taste has a bitter and sweet punch at the same time, while still being separate flavors.  Interesting.  I found it had a slightly dusty feel, thirst quenching, but still leaving a tickle.  In spite of the surprising combination, the taste is very mild, making this a good chat beer.  There is only a slight bitterness, and in this case that's pretty well tamed by the garbanzos.  When I got some pomegranate before taking a sip, I found a stronger orange citrus flavor to be pulled out.  Based on the name, I expected more fruitiness to be honest.  Still, Tropical Explorer is a nice beer, a good drink, and pleasant bar companion.

Price: €6/pint

all day, every day

I expect this float to be sweeter than the barleywine concoction, even though All Day is a tongue squeezer itself.  On the other hand, mango isn't always as sweet as it is tangy, so maybe my expectations are off again.  What I certainly don't expect is something I don't like at all.  It looks like the mango ice cream is more malleable than the vanilla, so it comes out pretty quickly.  No spoon this time, though.  The ice cream seems to kill off the foam, and give the All Day a darker color than it normally has.  A quick stir with the pastry brings back some bubbles.  The scoops of mango ice cream look like egg yolks, floating helplessly in the drink.  There's a very identifiable citrus taste, which is probably due entirely to the beer, but it's also a little fruitier than normal.  I can only assume that's the mango.  The pastry still adds that sugar when you take a bite, which enhances the bitterness.  As I got the the bottom, I saw that actual bits of mango were sitting on the bottom of the glass.  Presumably they came from the ice cream, I don't think those were added separately.  I pondered getting the porter-chocolate, since the day is threatening rain, but I had already decided on that All Day mango!  Heart set on it!  I have the rest of the week for that last one (maybe they'll have even more if they switch the beers up too).

another outing

It's getting to be bright, sunny afternoons after rainy, haily ones and sometimes you just can't help but feel like spending some time out of the house.  Even remarkable homebodies like me.  I have things to do tonight that put me in the street, so maybe I'll just kill three birds with one trip.  I stop at Toast Tavern to see what's brewing and they have a summery selection of ales and lagers, with one Founder's on the wall.  It's the Scotch ale, which is a little heavy for my taste just now.  There are several IPAs, and one that I don't recognize.  Who doesn't like a surprise?  It's OPO 74 Gyroscope, from Portugal as it turns out.

Gyroscope has the look of many a craft IPA, with a rather orange color.  It's not as aromatic as some, but that doesn't stop it from having a fine, bold taste.  The flavor is bluntly bitter, rolling over the tongue and down the throat without a second thought.  While there is a hint of citrus, it's not as strong as with a majority of craft ales, probably to the liking of many who find that overwhelming.  The aftertaste has that touch of sweetness that a lot of crafts do, though.  The beer is constant from start to finish, remaining refreshing and smooth.  It's a good start to my Saturday brain bashing.

Supplier: OPO 74, Toast Tavern
Price: €5.50/pint

time to bee happy

"There's a new bar in my neighborhood!" my friend said.  She had the business cards and everything.  I wasn't in a big hurry to go somewhere new, but it's always nice to have something different to explore.  I thought Bee Beer was just a gastro-bar, but when we went down there, it turned out to be one of those beer stores with taps.  Very small, very intimate.  They have more taps than most stores, hell more than a lot of bars, and for €8.50 you can get a flight of five beers.  I was disappointed that it didn't include number 7 actually, but you have to save something for another time, I guess.

1-5, right in a row

La Trappe was a very Belgian type beer despite being Dutch, typical scent, typical taste, a bit on the sweet side.  Oddly, I though there was a little bit of marshmallow in the flavor.  As expected from a Low Countries brew, something sour had to be in there somewhere, and it's in the aftertaste.  It's not a bad beer if you're a fan of the Belgian style, but I have different tastes, personally.

I had high hopes for the red ale, but it wasn't actually much better.  It was about the same scent, with a cloying sweetness, but the taste had a heavier sour fruitiness.  More in line with a lambic, although not quite so punchy.  It's sweet and sour, tangy, but a cleaner taste than La Trappe, going down with less aftertaste.  This is one time I prefer a lambic-like beer to...any other really.

The weiss bier is extremely pale and also nearly scentless.  Maybe there's a little grass in there.  It does have a nice wheaty taste, clean and sharp, not clingy, certainly refreshing for summer.  I was surprised to find something like lemonade lurking the background.  Makes it a contender for Spanish patronage.

Lefèbvre Barbãr pops up in bars here and there, but I haven't taken the opportunity to taste it.  Here it is without my even asking for it explicitly, so let's see what it's like...it's not bad at all, although not beery.  It's just sweet and smooth, without even a hint of bitterness.  It even smells like pure honey.  Not even a hint of bitterness.  Must be all that sugar that makes it so powerful.

Finally, an IPA to finish off.  It's another one of those collaborations, 7 breweries this time.  The smell is just what you'd expect from a craft IPA, citrusy and a little fruity.  It's a little astringent in flavor, not much fruit there, citrus or otherwise.  But it's a nice cleanser after the line of sweet beers in the flight.

There's nothing like finding a little corner of good beer, even though this city isn't lacking for it at the moment.  Hopefully, neighborhood interest will keep these experiments going.

whoops

As Beer Week continues and I don't have time to browse my beer stores, I find myself stopping off for a drink on my way home.  I was planning to stop somewhere new today, but when I walked up there at 9pm it was closed!  That's just a bad sign.  For that place, I mean, plenty of other places were bustling with patrons.  One of them, the Taproom, had every outdoor table filled, even right next to the street, but inside it was pretty empty.  Not all that surprising in this town actually.

The Taproom has up to 20 beers on tap at a time, so the offer is pretty varied.  I'm trying to stay local, or at least national, which did knock off several, including The Mayan (another day, my darling).  I ended up with Vikingathor, an Indian Dunkel from Arriaca.  It turns out I've bought it in the bottle before, but we'll see how it compares from the tap.

It has a rich dark color, a bright clean head, and a subdued but suggestive smell.  There's a sweetness, maybe trying to invoke that typical viking mead.  In the dimness of the interior light, I'd call it a dark ruby red.  It doesn't seem to gain any superpowers from the tap when compared to what I got from the bottle, but that doesn't mean disappointment.  It's a good beer, slightly sweet, a little citrusy, maybe just a little sticky.  In spite of its dark color, it's a fine warm weather drink, being light and fruity, but at the same time it could hold its own in the dark days of winter.  The salty chips are a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the beer.  But then, you get salty chips pretty much all over in this town.

Supplier: The Taproom
Price: €4.40/pint

color of a setting sun

Hey!  What's that there?  Why it's a coaster from a craft brewery!  It's still Beer Week, and since I have a commitment to go out anyway, I'll just kill two birds with one stone here.  At Toast Tavern, you can get eight different draft beers from rotating taps, and this week they have Espiga/Green Street Orange IPA.  It's uncomfortably warm already for me, so a nice IPA will really lift my spirits.  A stout could have done so too, but the stout on tap was a bourbon mix, and that's just too much for me tonight.

There's the Orange IPA, showing how accurate the name is.  It gives off some bitterness in the smell, but it's more of a prelude to the ale taste itself.  It's refreshing and invigorating, but balanced with a citrusy sweetness that flits lightly over the tongue.  I have to admit there's a little bit of stickiness too, and a bitter ale taste that hangs around after drinking.  It's not an aftertaste really, since it's the lingering of the same taste the beer itself has.  Still, I've had cleaner drinks in terms of leaving the mouth with the swallow.  This by no means is to say that Orange is a bad beer!  It was quite tasty and pleasing, but I do try to be complete in my descriptions.

Toast Tavern gives some more interesting tapas than a lot of bars, although you're likely to get a bowl of chips at some point.  I got nachos today.  They were delicious, but the cheese solidified so fast we had to dig our hands in and break them apart.  Fortunately, nobody is germ-phobic at the table.

Tune in tomorrow!  Beer Week rolls on!

Supplier: Toast Tavern
Price: €5.50/pint

new choices everywhere!

When I left the region I grew up in, there were not many small brewers or breweries, although some were already up and running.  Then, just a few years later, they were everywhere.  My own state has more than 50 craft breweries now, with more on the way.  We took many opportunities to sample over the holidays, both in bars and breweries and at home.

Starting off

At 8th Street Ale Haus in Sheboygan I had a nice porter, dark and fruity in flavor.  While good, not exactly unusual.  I was told to be on the lookout for Black Husky's Sproose Joose, an IPA made with an addition of actual spruce to give it a little kick.  The brewer uses his own trees, so those who worry about such things can be sure he knows where his ingredients come from.  At Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, they did not have Sproose Joose on tap, but the similar Sproose Double IPA.  "It's like chewing on a pine tree," said the bartender when asked for a description.  It's not quite that powerful, but the unusual taste is immediate and inescapable.  Fortunately, it doesn't get heavy on the way to the bottom of the glass, so those who are fine with the flavor at the start won't get overwhelmed as they drink down.

Lakefront Brewery, also in Milwaukee, has been around for some time, at least for a small brewery.  Tours come with free drinks, up to four if you limit yourself to the regular taps.  There's also the possibility of earning more if you're the participatory sort, so speak up during your visit.  I started with a New Grist ale with ginger, with was spicy, mildly sweet, and tasty.  It was also rather light, which makes it good to end with as well as begin.  The tour takes a beer break in the middle, where they had a special beer on tap.  Lakefront has each brewer make his own for limited time only distribution, and when we were there it was Todd's turn.  The My Turn beers are 2 tokens, but why not try something you'll probably never find again?  My Turn Todd is a dark beer, Belgian-style quadrupel in fact, bittersweet, a little heavy for me.  A good beer to have some salty snack with.  At the end of the tour, we were back in the beer hall, time for winding down with more.  I got the regular IPA, tasty, hoppy, like craft IPA typically is.  My final drink, to use up all our tokens, was a bottled offering, Bridge Burner.  Imperial amber ale, dark, somewhat sweet, but more on the bitter side of things.  It was stronger than I had expected too, but I have developed something of a tolerance over the years.

Now that's a tour guide

There's a certain benefit in having brewmakers in the family, which is having different beers available at most hours of the day.  Three Sheeps brewery has a hardworking man on their staff, always ready to suggest something to imbibe.  We had a few samples over the holidays, including some specialty products that are not available in stores, being something of experiments still.  Really Cool Waterslides IPA is sharp and wakeful, with the little rye snap in the background that gives it that little difference from regular IPAs.  Nitro stout Cashmere Hammer is creamy and smooth, without maltose or sweeteners we were told, but the taste could fool you.  Rum Barrel Ewephoria is rum barrel aged oatmeal stout, perhaps not the drink for everybody, but I would say it should have its moments.  Even some non-beer drinkers enjoyed this one.  It is on the sweet side, probably a bit heavy for some, with a sort of honey to it.  I found it a cake-like experience, and a winner in my book.  We also had "baby beer" to try, a brew made in honor of my nephew's making his appearance.  It is a powerful beer, about 15%, reminiscent of German dark beers with their fruity sweetness.  While we could connect the flavor with the sweetness of child-rearing, my personal tastes lean more towards Ewephoria.  The label on Hoedown!, a black ale reminded me of The Mayan, but was not quite as powerful in the spice department.  The cherry tartness is a little more noticeable than the chilis, but not so much that the darker character is diluted.  A fine evening beer.

I tried to avoid Big Beer out of principle, but they know the best way to keep their customer base high is to "invest" in smaller beers.  I ordered Lagunitas IPA and Breckenridge Vanilla Porter only to be informed they had both been acquired by AB InBev.  A shame for my principles.  They're still good beers; Lagunita is a fine IPA, everything you want and expect in look and taste, and Vanilla Porter is a desserty kind of drink, sweet in a puddinglike way, but with an unmistakable beer base.

Almost forgot this one

Romantic porter with lamb momos

In my own turf, there was more fun to be had.  While we did not stop at this local brewery, Great River supplies local diner Boozie's with drinkables.  A pale ale seemed right for lunch, especially with a Flaming Boozie Burger, and was indeed the thing.  Slightly appley and slightly bitter, a good contrast with jalapeños.  Big Grove Brewery in Solon is nondescript on the outside, but much homier and interesting inside.  I went for the Minuteman Double IPA, as the brewer is considered something of a specialist in that category, and it was perfectly nice, quite citrusy, a real mouthful without getting overpowering even at the end.  Later, Lion Bridge in Cedar Rapids had a more open environment and perhaps more inviting dark beers.  Unfortunately, the one that grabbed my attention most was out, so I tried

out the porters that were left.  I ended up with Workman's Compensation, the sweeter variety.  Both were a complex blend of smoky and fruity flavors, although  was heavier on the bitter.  Finally, Backpocket Brewing in Iowa City ended my mini-tour.  They have a particular brew, describing it as "a German, a Scot, and an Iowan walk into a bar..."  The Wooden Nickel peated bock does not look like it has much dirt in it, being a dark golden sort of bock, but the peat comes out clearly in the flavor.  It's a warming but energizing taste, memorable and interesting.  The addition of a sweet snack, like ice cream or brownie, brings out a sour flavor, but not in an unpleasant sense.  It works quite well, in my opinion.

Not in a mirror, Slingshot just happens to look like Wooden Nickel

If only, Brave New World

Workman's Comp left and Disaster on right

can't always be a hermit

Just for some variety, I'll sum up a little beer tasting at a relatively new place in town.  While I've been away from tastings for a variety of reasons, not enjoying them is not one of those reasons.  It's mostly been a problem of time.  So, when the opportunity comes around, the smart is not to let it go by.  Toast Tavern is the latest of the food&drink empire the owners are building, although the man behind the bar is instrumental in bringing in the beers and presenting them.  We had a set of five, mostly national, and a nice progression in terms of strength and "weight" - which for me is the intensity of flavor and the darker notes in that flavor.

First we had a witbier from Garagart called Gary & Esti.  The brewery is Basque, but this is brewed in Logroño, so still national.  It has a definite champagne sort of flavor, a bit sour, and definitely bubbly.  It's a slightly bitter and grapey beer, with a background of spices.  We were told cumin has a hand in the make-up, and some chamomile too.  Honey also comes up on the ingredient list, but I really didn't find it to be a very sweet beer at all, with the champagne similarity increasing as the glass gets drunk.  All right, but not my personal glass of beer.

We moved along to a session IPA, Founders All Day.  This is the one representative of foreign beers, being from Michigan, and a fine ambassador it is.  Session beers have often been perfumey in my experience, but this one is pretty laid back in that regard.  There is a certain sweetness in the smell, which my neighbor described as "like a Jolly Rancher".  I would not go that far, although I can see where the connection might be.  There is a little more kick than something so flatly sweet as a Jolly Rancher might have, which makes for pleasant drinking.  I found it cidery, but like dry and bitter Spanish cider.

Number three was also Garagart, although I did not catch the name of this particular brew.  It is an IPA, but not like the typical craft IPAs that tend to hit you with the citrus.  It is just a little flowery in taste, with a nice aley bitter too.  It's not as complex as its Garagart colleague, but more in line with my drinking preferences.

The serving for the big kids

Our next-to-last sample was what I had started with, having arrived a little early.  The excitement of a beer tasting after all this time, you know.  Falken 1UP is a fine Imperial IPA, with a nice dark color.  It is noticeably bitter, although more of a rounded flavor than a sharp one, and it also avoids the typical craft IPA citrus.  I noticed in the tasting, after the other samples, that this beer has a but of fruit to it, but it's something plummy, not orangey or lemony.  It also does get a little syrupy if you have a large serving, but not too sticky.

We went back to Founders for the final sample.  Founders Porter looks the part and does not disappoint when called on.  It is sweet like many a porter, but not too much, and there's an undeniable smokiness about it in the taste and the smell.  The fruit kind of lurks in the background.  The flavor also has a hint of chocolate mixed in with the smokey sweetness, so it's not especially tangy, but a nice, balanced palate for the tongue.

The space is not especially large, but that's what you can expect in most Spanish bars.  It is easy on the eye, a little rustic, and excellently located.  And of course, beers that can't be beat.

And a mascot - gotta have a mascot