A spooky beer for a spooky time, dark as night and full of surprises! Of course, it has to come from a reputable place and Basqueland is one of the most reputable around. This pastry stout has some extras in it, delicious raspberries, "berried alive" in fact. What a way to Live Forever.
Price: €7.80
Days getting warmer and brighter mean most people want their beer to do that too. Well, the brighter part anyway. Some people can't do with a dark beer on the most wintery of days. Hard to understand, those other people. I'm not averse to an IPA every once in a while myself, and if it's from a brewery like Basqueland, even better. SSD is a West Coast IPA, so maybe not as soft and breakfast-wake-upy as a NEIPA might be, but both sides have their good points. Refreshment assured being one of them.
A remarkably fruity aroma leaps out, more peachy to me than citrusy or anything else. After a little time some of that spicy pine that you would expect from a beer of this style does push its way through. It's a lighter colored beer, pale gold, abundantly headed. The flavor is darker and mellower than I was expecting, although there's no surprise citrus. I get more melon than peach, although some sweeter, woodsier fruits are hiding in there as well, peeking out from time to time as you try to figure out how a pine-smelling beer can be so creamy. It has a fairly thick feel, if the peach was more in the forefront it would be a peaches-and-cream kind of beverage. As it is, it's perhaps a filtered melon drink. With melted ice cream.
Price: €7
On the third day of Beermas I went and bought for me
Three French magicians
Two love ya dearlies
And the simplest answer there could be
This one was a little hard to work out, but try this - Dude has a mustache that looks French and there's a bird. Also a snake, and some of those lay eggs like birds. The whole thing is very magical, and it's a countdown song that must have had some magic long, long ago. Yeah, good enough.
I know I was griping about the excessive amount of pale ales in the Advent calendar, but here I am with another one. Well, it's a double IPA and from Basqueland, so we know it's a damn fine beer. It's called Truth Serum, so if it presents itself well we can believe it. ...Right? Anyway. It's awfully cloudy for an IPA, but the citrus perfume is almost explosive. There's also a mild hint of pine underneath. The look makes me expect a NEIPA style juiciness, but that's not to be had. Instead it's a real bomb of bitter/licorice, weirdly, with only the tiniest bit of pithy orange lurking in the background. It has a lot of body, an odd mix of smooth texture in the liquid and prickly taste from a double dose of hops. It's quite a beer to chew on, with more of a summery flavor, but the overall feel is quite suitable for a chilly winter evening. It's like having a warm coat in an obnoxiously bright color. And you love it.
Since I have so rarely visited La Mundial, and I was in need of German pickles, it seemed like the most convenient place to go to stock up. Also, although it's relatively small, there is quite a select collection. Since days are getting noticeably shorter, I feel good about splurging on a few black beers, which the guy noticed approvingly. I start with another Basqueland, in collaboration with Great Nation Brewing, Peanut Butter Prophecy. You just can't say no to an Imperial Pastry Stout, especially with a Reese's touch of chocolate and peanut butter.
It might be just a little bit lighter than the most recent Basqueland stout, although the head is similarly dark beige, could be the effect of the peanuts. I do think I get a whiff of peanut butter off the beer, a nuttiness with a touch of salt. Like other peanut butter stouts, it's tangy with a blend of sweet and salty, and mouthy. It's not exactly a thick beverage, like a beer float after the ice cream has melted, but it somehow fills the space and moves with purpose when drunk. It's pleasantly not too sweet, just with a creamy peanut flavor that covers up the normal stout bitter. I'm a little surprised not to find much coffee or raisin in the aftertaste, but not disappointed. It's actually quite nice to have a simpler collection of tastes for once, one that comes in and goes down in the same way, without huge variations. It's a good opener to a new season, one to look at with optimism I hope.
Price: €7.50
The final beer for the final day needs to be something special, and I had my super stout yesterday, so it's time for a different kind of special. It is still summer after all, so something light and snappy would be nice. As for the brewery, Basqueland is pretty much always a safe choice, innovation or not. I ended up with Necto Cooler, a fruit sour, not too complicated with nectarine and passion fruit. Huh, passion fruit again. Must be a trend. Although maybe not quite as powerful as IPAs, but it's the fashion of the summer.
We're back to the cloudy beers, this time with a rich golden orange color. Head is bright white and fizzy, and evaporates quickly. There's fruit in the aroma, sour and tongue-twisty, but also some banana and vanilla. The taste is a sort of candy type, one of those sweet and sour kinds. I'm reminded of chewy candies, something like Starburst, with a little bit of cream in there too. There is a hint of yogurt, natural yogurt sprinkled with fruit bits, so healthy feeling and perky. Just the kind of wild thing to go with thunderstorms.
Price: €8
It's the last day of my IPA pack, and it's a trustworthy ending indeed. Basqueland has never disappointed, that I can recall, and Imparable looks like it should take the same track. The month is over half done, and it seems like there's been almost nothing but light bitter beers, although they do fit with the temperatures and unpleasant solar effects. I'd be happier to have more rain, to be honest. At the very least it would help with going to sleep.
It's a similar color as Violent Mumble, and has a similar aroma. It's much more of a piney hops kind of IPA than a tropical one. It has an even breadier flavor than yesterday's brew, verging into lager territory. There's something peppery about it, I find it difficult to identify any fruit whatsoever. It's one of the stronger beers of recent days, with a heavy taste although the beer itself is pretty light and drinkable. It smooths out over time, gaining something of a roundness in its flavor, although it stays bitter and toasty to the end.
Price: €4
So it seems we are about to leave the "state of emergency" that has been our normal for some time. There are still a bunch of restrictions that have to be abided by, though, including limits on the number of people who can sit together at a restaurant table. It's still a pretty good time to have a good beer all to yourself with the cheesiest of movies, or virtual conversation on historical marketing. When it's 20th century beer marketing, the best choice is obviously a lager, although I can't resist picking up a good craft instead of slumming with industry. On the other hand, we don't always hear who gets absorbed into the industry from the craft world, so Basqueland's Santa Clara might have been even more fitting for a later discussion.
In the store it was labeled as a pilsner, and the look is exactly that. It's a light straw color with a bright, fizzy-looking head. There's a noticeable standard beer aroma as soon as the cap is removed. The taste hits with a hard bitter and a lager grain punch, although that graininess stays back from being truly sweet. It's bubbly on the tongue, leaving a bit of a tickle rather than an aftertaste. The feeling is very light, a very easy to drink kind of beer, there's almost no weight in the mouth at all. If it wasn't less than 5% alcohol it might a something to be careful of, but as it is you can't help but feel relaxed with it. A great start to drinking in summer temperatures!
Supplier: La Cervecista
Price: €2.70
On the sixth day of Beermas I went and bought for me
Six phoenixes rising
Five photographic plates
Four flying saucers
Three sunny toucans
Two dogs in costume
And a lone eagle flying free
Have I mentioned that there are a lot of birds in this song? Because there are a lot of birds in this song. Fortunately there are ever more beery birds too. I thought I could find something more literal, but the Phoenix caught my eye and I could not let it pass. It's Basqueland, so not a single worry about whether it's a good beer, and it's a triple IPA, so definitely something to warm you up on a cold winter night. Yep, 9.5%. That's quite a kick, even in times like this.
On the fifth day of Beermas I went and bought for me
Five photographic plates
Four flying saucers
Three sunny toucans
Two dogs in costume
And a lone eagle flying free
Well, very nearly the end of the year of retrospective. Somehow, the same things happen over and over, although they always seem unexpected. Looking for fitting names and labels? You never know what you'll find. Instead of gold, silver, instead of rings, a cylinder. At least Basqueland is pretty predictable, always enjoyable and high quality. Silver Halide DDH IPA should follow the pattern, even in such a bizarre year as this.
It's on the lighter side of colors for an IPA, but cloudy, something like a lot of NEIPAs. The aroma is bright and hoppy, of the modern styles. It starts out fizzy and heady, but the head dies back pretty quickly, leaving only a light fuzz on top. It's an odd fruit salad blend, with citrus, pineapple and a little melon too. The flavors kind of ebb and flow, but there's a bitter base that they all sit on. The beer itself is not very reflective, not especially shiny. The foam is bright, but not light-giving. I guess this is just a picture perfect product, a representative of new old creations, a beer that would have been worth waiting for after the minutes of exposure for an old-timey photo.
