around the block

Finally!  I've been hoping to have a black beer pop up, you just can't have a selection of wintery beers without stouts and porters!  Now, most people like to bring out their ales and pilsners and sours for a little brightness, but good Bacchus, alcohol should be fitting with the season.  I have had this particular beer before, La Pirata's Vanilla Black Block, and I know I won't be disappointed.

Very fluffy dark beige head, and the color, while dark, doesn't quite seem perfectly black.  A little more like dark roasted vanilla.  The aroma also hits on the toasty side, with hints of leafy vegetation.  The vanilla does come out in the flavor, along with warm smoke and fresh bread, giving a feeling of a powerful stout.  It starts out a bit light, but develops more heft over time, adding both sweet and bitter notes.  There's even a kind of fiery smoke trail in the aftertaste, and some kind of sour fruit preserve that bites as it goes down.  It's a fine and fitting part of an Advent calendar, not excessively spiced and pastried, but in tune with the atmosphere of ever darker days and with just enough of a surprise to be gift-worthy.

almost time

Only two days left, will I get my black Christmas wish?  This is a fitting beer at least, a winter ale, with an oddly angelic label.  Nadala from La Pirata, time for a Christmas toast.

It's really quite a dark beer, not actually getting to black though.  The head is pleasing, although not abundant.  There's a sweetish aroma, something that makes you think of holiday desserts.  It's almost like some rum-barrel aged stouts *sighs wistfully*.   Happily, the flavor also leans towards the black beers, with a round and bitter entry and slightly spiky exit.  It isn't quite sweet, but there seems to be something balancing out the bitterness.  There's kind of a woody base, another reminder of barrel aged beers, and a touch of fruit in the middle.  It gives a woolly warmth and a feeling of a calm drink with a good fire, very seasonal.  

herding cats

Yet another second chance!  I guess that should be expected, since the contributors to the calendar are easily found around here.  I remember being taken with the cats on the label, thinking it gave the beer an extra spooky look, but I guess they go with Christmas witches now.  Does Krampus drive a sleigh of snarling cats?  It's La Pirata's amber ale Sansa today.

This is a truly amber ale, with a dark ruddy color and off-white head.  The aroma is at once fruity and spicy, not hot spice but sort of like sesame.  It has a warm bready taste, with a little half-sour kick at the end.  The low spice is in the taste as well, a little caraway maybe?  It's a fuller feeling beer, getting rounder and slightly sweeter over time.  It's not as clean as those recent lighter colored beers, there is a certain amount of something hanging around after you swallow.  It kind of gets tame towards the end, but stays cozy.  I guess the cats were onto something with their fall appearance after all.

slightly constrained

Ok, still no black beer, but there is something different today.  It's La Pirata's Kollektivist, a wild ale.  They credit Russian brewery Bakunin with the inspiration, but it sounds more like a Belgian beer to me. 

Cidery aroma and Halloweeny orange color, but not a lot of head.  Some bubbles to come out, but they fizz away rapidly.  The flavor also recalls cider, with a weird blend of fruity sweetness and woodiness.  It's kind of like a barrel ages cider, I would think.  Although dry, it's a mouthful, very present, perhaps thankfully without a lot of aftertaste.  The sour end of the taste grows in strength giving the beer a more Belgian profile.  It's a different kind of beer, and it's always good to try new things, just in case, but it's not a beer I would seek out for myself again. 

not trapped at all

I'm sure I've seen this label floating around the beer shelves, but I'm not sure if I've actually picked it up.  I might not have, since it's gluten free, and I feel like I shouldn't snap those up when I have no problem with gluten at all.  The gluten free selection seems to have gotten bigger in the last few years, and it's mostly national beers that populate it, La Pirata in this case.  The label looks like a nice fall scene, actually, so the fact that it's another APA might be forgiven.  I'm expecting something nice and snappy from Súria. 

It's a very pale beer, with scanty bubbles sprinkled over the top.  It's not strongly aromatic, but there's a whiff of almond or walnut about it.  It's not especially hoppy in smell, but you know that they must be there somewhere.  The taste has more bitter to it, and a touch of nuttiness as well.  As befitting the color, it has a light feeling in the mouth, very easy to drink.  It's a pleasantly autumnal flavor with the walnut/almond, much like the chestnut beers that come out around this time.  Actually, now I'm surprised there haven't been any chestnut beers in the box.  Well, still a few days to go.  The nutty flavor falls away after a few minutes leaving something more cucumbery, a fresher earlier-in-the-year sensation.

but not the last drink

Here's another IPA, but a NEIPA!  I won't complain about that.  It's La Pirata's Last Run, with an interesting character on the can.   

The very full can almost sends up a little geyser, but I think I managed to save pretty much every drop.  There's an Orange Julius kind of scent that wafts off the liquid gold inside, with a little extra sweetness kick in there.  The beer is a bit cloudy and very light colored, much like a mixed drink with orange juice.  It's shockingly unsweet in taste, with a pretty good wallop of bitter, and a cool cucumber chaser.  There's even a little salt swimming around in there.  I have had some NEIPAs that go a little too far on the bitter and citrus, and I do have a preference for the juicier ones, but this sea water orange has a very refreshing effect.  It's pretty light in the mouth, not much of a winter beer in my opinion, but it's not bad at all.  Something to keep in mind for warmer days.

the roads we take

I have had La Pirata's Viakrucis before, around this time of year in fact, although for Beermas rather than ... Adbeernt?  Doesn't quite work, oh well.  Viakrucis was a pretty nice beer, as I recall, nothing unusual from La Pirata.  I'm a little worried about the integrity of my beer calendar.  Nothing seems broken, there are no leaks anywhere, but somehow the bottles have shifted backwards in their little cubbies and piled up at the back of the box.  I've been able to pull these first ones out no problem, though, so I hope it's a minor problem at most. 

It's immediately fragrant, an whole orchard wafts out in seconds.  It's very sunny and bright in the glass, a perfectly golden color with the clean white head you'd hope to see on a good ale.  It's not as sweet as I was expecting, which is about the same as the last time.  I think there's a little more sweetness in this version, I almost get a sense of vanilla in it.  While there are high notes driving a snappy, exciting taste, there's a mellowness that gives the beer a year-round sort of feel.  It's undeniably summery, but somehow I've only come across it well on the way to winter.  It's another sparkly, happy drink, one that you would enjoy at a holiday party, and perhaps ponder the nature of your reality inspired by the name.

arctic winter night

It seems like we might be alternating dark and light, which is perfectly fine for me.  From IPA back to Imperial Stout, La Pirata offers The Last Arctic Soul.  In fact, it's more than just a stout, it's a mega stout.  It's a 15 percenter, so I would expect some mega effects from it.

It releases a sweetish, plummy scent immediately, and pours out with pretty heavy sound.  The lack of head also makes it seem pretty solid.  The flavor is also heavy, a muddy mix of chocolate, smoke and raisin.  There's kind of a licorice glaze too, which is not surprising, although I would have been happy without it.  Despite the weightiness, it goes down quickly and cleanly, not leaving much of an aftertaste or afterfeel behind.  It's a smooth beer, in contrast to some spikier ones of the recent past, a shake or a blob of ice cream.  It's a good strong drink for a winter night, curling up with a book, a movie, some other entertainment.

and so it begins

There's more than a month of beer coming up, starting today!  I have a whole calendar of Spanish beer this time, and it's craft beer, so I imagine it won't be as disappointing as what Fass sold me a few years ago.  Not that they were awful beers, of course, just a whole lotta pilsners for December.  We start off well, with a nice black beer from La Quince/Pirata/Guineu, Vanilla Black Block Imperial Stout.  It's strong, over 10%, and that deathly label kind of hints at Christmas spirits to come.

While not as robust looking as other stouts of its origins, the aroma is indeed robust.  There's a slight stickiness, a hint of plum and raisin, and an undercurrent of chocolate.  The flavor also presents a good amount of fruit, although also breadiness.  I get something like a very dry fruitcake, or well-jellied toast.  There's the typical stout roughness, but it's also a fairly light brew, very easy on the throat once it starts going down.  It takes quite a while for some coffee to make an appearance but eventually it does, without any traces of licorice to my relief.  In spite of its lightness, there is a pretty good amount of staying power in the flavor.  It's a nice entry into a wintery season and a beery challenge.

firstly

On the first day of Beermas I went and bought for me
A bird dropping beads on the street

You know, you would think those Belgian lambics would include a pear version, but if they do it doesn't make it to Spain.  That leaves me with pear cider (which I've already done and haven't found more examples of that either) and playing with the birds.  La Pirata's Viakrucis features a crow on the label, not a partridge, and not in a tree, but it is a bird dammit!  Also, you can imagine the prayer beads are tiny pears.  And prayer rhymes with pear!  So there!

It's a tempting ale looking thing in the glass, with a slightly orangish golden color and a fluffy resistant head.  If you stick your nose right in, the craft ale aroma bubbles up to you, but it's not one of those that really spreads its scent around when opened.  It attacks with bitter at first, then falling back to a more rough and rustic graininess.  The citrus of the aroma is really nowhere in the flavor, it's much more of an old style ale than a modern craft with the US influence.  It's demanding and undismissable.  This is no beer to just suck down in the middle of a night out, this is something to really chew on.  It might be nice to chew on something else as well, say a mild cheese, a little toast with a thin spread of braunchschweiger maybe.  I don't think I'd want anything very salty enhancing the taste a lot, or something sweet that would clash.

Supplier: Birra y Paz
Price: €3.40

the gloaming?

Something creepy?  Something dark?  Something tasty?  A porter from La Pirata could hit all three of those!  The label for Deep Inside porter has a pretty stern looking wolf in a dusky looking woods, so certainly appropriate for the season.  Actually, now that I look at it, the pink sky is a little more sunrise-y than sunset-y, but maybe there was a volcanic eruption somewhere that affected the colors.

Can't get much head out of it, but it has a nice color.  The nutty, smoky aroma is also just what I'm looking for.  The flavor bounces back and forth between bitter and nutty, finally leaving a hint of licorice.  The beer itself isn't very heavy, but the wealth of flavors make it seem thicker than it is.  I get a little bit building up and hanging around on the back of the tongue.  It's not too distracting, although it develops an odd sourness.  In the end it calms down to a mild bitter, still easy to suck down, not sticky even with that little aftertaste.  It's better than a lot of Halloween candy, I'll say that much.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €3.50

agitated amber

Stocking up for the possible dry spell in August can be daunting, and Espuma tried to encourage their clients by having an 8-for-7 sale.  If only I had that carrier, coulda taken 8 bottles home pretty easily.  As it was, I didn't get that many.  I'm leaning towards the black beers as always, but maybe an amber ale would be a nice change.  And La Pirata's Sansa gives you a feeling of dark events happening on the label.  It definitely puts me in the mood for Halloween, in August at that.  Who am I kidding, I'm in the mood for Halloween as much as I'm in the mood for stouts, which is to say pretty much always.

Filling the bottle at the secret cat beer pond

It's a substantial looking beer, with a dark orange color, kind of opaque and pumpkiny.  While it has a hint of amber sweet, it's more of a citrusy ale aroma that comes off it.  The taste is also well within ale territory, with a touch of citrus and a good helping of bitter.  It's an easy drinker, with a good presence in the mouth, even to the point of feeling almost creamy.  It takes a little while for a strong taste of bitter to build up, but it does show up eventually, staking out the back of the tongue.  It's a nice little pumpkin pie of an ale, even if it has nothing to do with pumpkins.  If only I could bring it to a certain horror movie...

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €2.95

try to focus

Lookin' successful

It's been a while since I've had real quality time in the bar zones.  Life gets in the way of things, mine and others'.  With a little spare time between obligations, I thought I could pop down to Malasaña and visit La Pirata, which I haven't been in since it was Irreale.  I was a bit put off by the crowd in the street so early in the evening.  They have a TV but there wasn't a game on or anything.  It was pretty well packed inside too, so I had to cozy up in a corner near the bar itself.  I mean, I'm glad places do well, but sheesh.

Not every single one of the beers is La Pirata, but naturally the majority are.  Some of them are familiar to me, but I don't think I have picked up Resilience NEIPA yet.  It's what I'm looking for right now, though, something a little sharp and kicky, what with the ridiculous temperatures we're having in the streets these days.  It has a very juicy, cloudy look and a citrusy bitter smell typical of NEIPAs.  The taste is much the same, only slightly sweet with a lasting bitter that hovers on the tongue for quite a while.  It's a bracing flavor, unquiet, good EuroNEIPA, much like I would imagine that bitter Peninsula IPA mixed with natural orange juice.  The beer kind of smooths off over time, although the bitterness is consistently present.  Also, there is kind of a sting in the aftertaste and it does tend to build up in the back of the throat.  In the end I think it's more lemonade-y than orange juicy.

And plenty more to choose from

reminiscing

Let's take a trip back a month or so, a time of beer promotion everywhere.  One thing that's been regular is Beermad, the craft beer fair in a tennis facility.  This time there were four-day passes for a reasonable price, so I determined to make the most of one.  The first day I only planned to be there an hour or so in the evening.

Being fall, I was hoping to find a good selection of stouts and porters, but alas.  We're in a trend of blond beers.  I did find a few, though, like Panda Doop Imperial Stout.  It's a dark, dark brown rather than true black, with a chocolatey aroma.  It has kind of a milk chocolate taste with a little twist of sour.  While substantial in texture it feels light down the throat, creamy and smooth.  The sour builds up a little bit over time but the chocolatey-ness remains.

As I hoped and dreamed, it's not crowded on a weekday night, so I have plenty of time for one more.  Another stout appears, Ziva 5.0 Russian Imperial Stout.  They had a regular and a bourbon barrel fermented version, and since I was going to leave after this I let myself be convinced that the barrel aged was worth it.  It looks awfully thick in the glass, with a thin head and a lot of poofiness underneath it.  It's also more dark brown than black, influence of the bourbon perhaps?  There is a strong, sweet bourbon smell, candy corn-like, but the taste is almost watery at first.  It does pick up on sweetness before bringing out the alcohol sting.  Despite the appearance, it's much thinner in body than Doop, with some grain or woodiness in the aftertaste.  After warming up a little it's salt-and-chocolate in flavor, which is an interesting shift.

Day Two begins with a lighter touch, 90 Varas Segovilla amber ale.  Cloudy orange, off-white and somewhat thin head, mildly beery smell.  It's bitter at first, then a hint of citrus.  Sweetness starts building little by little in this smooth and light textured beer, and it tickles the tongue from start to finish.

Then there was Enigma Tostada Roja.  It looks very similar to Segovilla, a little stronger in smell, maybe.  The taste is much sweeter, though, with really no bitter at all, but a good mouthful of grain.  That calms down over time and the beer loses a bit of power, but a happy and summery flavor remains.  It's a little cloudy, but ends up clearer than Segovilla, and might be a better beer for snacking than my first choice of the day.

Gotta get that flag up before Brexit!

Domus was in attendance with the cream drink that I've seen around for some time in the stores.  Might as well have a shot of it while I'm here.  It looks like milk, or medicine, but is very smooth and surprisingly sweet, leaving traces of licorice and vanilla behind it.

Peninsula Autumn Smash brought me back to regular beers, a lighter, happier drink after the sweetish shot.  Again, very similar to the previous beers in color, but the head is lighter and slightly more abundant.  It has a strong hoppy bitter, although not as citrusy as most IPAs.  Something keen and sharp develops in the background, not quite grassy, but along those lines.

I'm not quite sure why I didn't get a picture of the beer...

There was a whiskey stand among the beer this time and curiosity got the better of me.  They also have a pilsner, which I thought to try out.  It has a fairly typical appearance, very light straw color and fizzy white head.  It's a little cloudy, although that might actually be condensation on the glass.  It has barely any aroma and just a slightly beerish flavor, not as grainy as other pilsners.  Bitterness is barely perceptible, but present.  It's a good clean beer, ready to accompany food or talk, not being especially attention-grabbing by itself.  I took the opportunity to take a shot of the whiskey as well, first the Moonshine, which is only aged a couple of months (or was it weeks?).  Rather harsh to my palate.  There is also a whiskey distilled from stout that has a more expected color, and I find much smoother, woodier, and more flavorful.  If I was the kind of person that had whiskey at home, that would be my whiskey.

There's still plenty of time, so I stopped for an Arriaca.  Lots of light beers, including Centeno.  A lighter and whiter head than the other beers of the day, and a much citrusier aroma.  It has an attention-grabbing taste, citrus and bitter with hardly any sweet at all.  It's a light IPA kind of flavor.  A really refreshing choice when spicy food (such as papas al mohón) is involved.

Second half begins!  I can't resist trying a märzen on offer, Brew and Roll Camille II.  It's much lighter than what I'm familiar with as märzen, very much like Imperial IPA, but the aroma is heavy and malty and the taste grassy/grainy with a hint of bitter underneath.  While malty it doesn't get syrupy or terribly sweet, stays rather light actually, as befitting the color.

Now, The One IPA.  I got the spiel from the guy at the taps, and I actually wondered about the wee heavy, but went for the IPA in the end.  It's similar to the märzen in color, but much hoppier in aroma and clearly an IPA in taste.  It's not too bitter in fact, but sharp and fruity with those tropical flavors they like to bring out.  Let it warm up for a bit of sour (although that could also be some wee heavy that didn't get washed out completely).

I guess I could go for that new craze of NEIPA while I'm here, in a beer market, and with such good prospects.  I passed by Jakobsland several times, admiring the selection, but now it's time to see what's up.  Pixel Dust DDH NEIPA is.  What is.  Up.  Right.  It's a cloudy lemon yellow, not much head to it, and a lemony smell.  Not too strong to the nose.  The flavor starts with a bitter hops kick and quickly moves off into a smoother, creamier sensation.  The bitter remains at the edges, but the central feeling is one of sweetness, almost vanilla.  At first I thought I could detect some licorice in there too, but further sipping didn't bring it out again.

More pale ale?  Lupo Lord at your service!  I was "recruited" off the track by the rep, and as I was paying the head died down a little so he topped it up generously.  It's a good golden color, pretty fruity aroma, although not as tropical as IPAs.  Something more appley.  There is also apple in the taste, which is something like a dry cider.  There's no bitterness to speak of, and it loses some of the apple flavor over time.  It stays on the light side of sweet, not syrupy, but refreshing and summery.  Might fit right in at a Hallowe'en party instead of a darker and heavier apple cider.

To finish the next to last day I found something I thought wouldn't weigh me down on the metro: Basqueland Brewing The Captain Kölsch.  It looks darker than I expect in a kölsch, although in the sun it is close to straw colored.  Nothing of particular note in the aroma, smooth and only slightly bitter flavor.  It's a little heavy for a kölsch, clean flavored but with a hint of sweet trailing behind it, the slight grassiness of German lagers, no ginger spice although the description promised ginger.  It does have a very German flavor, but more lager than kölsch to me.

Pinocchio's a big boy now, apparently

Finally, the last day had to come.  I was on a mission to find the most interesting beers.  I started with La Verbena Heavy Kilt Scottish Heavy.  Not too strong to start out at 3.8%, but a nice tasty beer for a Scottish kind of day.  Good dark cider color and off-white head, smells bready.  The flavor isn't too strong, a little grainy with just a touch of caramel.  Not nearly as sweet as other "Scottish" labeled beers out there, rather a sipping beer for light conversation or for sitting down to some heavy reading.

Since it is around Hallowe'en, it seems right to partake of a pumpkin ale.  Sagra had its offer, but if I can find something new I prefer to go for that.  Tyris Pimpan Pumpkin fit the bill.  It's a good dark orange color with a nice fluffy head, and a tiny hint of pumpkin spice aroma.  The flavor has a sweet tingle in the beginning but burrows down into cinnamon pretty quickly.  It's not exactly sweet, more of a pumpkin pie taste, not even as sweet as a Starbuck's latte.  It's also not a heavy textured beer, very light in feel in spite of the strength of the spice.  A little more interesting than Sagra, which is a nice, safe sort of pumpkin ale bet.

Another odd one, at least on the signage, was Yakka's Lunatica grape ale.  It has a slightly pinkish brown color, a sort of dark champagne.  The scent is winey/grapey, just a little bit sour, but then the taste is very  sour, hits you right in the palate.  The aftertaste is a little salty, something like a red wine in fact.  Served cold, the sourness fades over time, but the similarity to sparking wine remains, sharp and pretty clean tasting.  Really, it might be more like sparkling grape juice, although that 8% does start to make itself felt after a short time.

Nothing like a magician to get people drinking

There's not a lot of extra special stuff at the moment, but the normal stuff can still be damn good.  There's Gabarrera Brown Ale/Tostada.  It's not too dark in color, but identifiably brown ale.  Nothing special in the aroma, the taste starts on the sweet side, then moves into a sort of mellow non-bitter.  There's a good texture, neither syrupy nor watery, and a flavor that enhances rather than distracts lacking all bitterness.  It seems like a brown sugar ale, a good wintery sort of beer with the power of the sweet to fuel warmth and the weight to be a good companion for a breezy evening, even on a day of a hurricane.

What else?  Got to have one last stout.  La Pirata Black Block Stout for example.  It smells of licorice, has a slightly sweet flavor, but ends up more bitter overall.  Licorice lurks in the flavor throughout, gets a little sticky after a time, but generally it feels like a good beer to relax with, curled up on a couch.  Although heavy, the texture of the Black Block is also very pleasant and fulfilling in consumption.

I guess I'm just looking for excuses not to leave now.  Sevebrau is no slouch with the beer, though, and I haven't tried anything from them for a while.  There's a nice IPA to finish, XIPA.  It's a very dark color, but light aroma, bright and happy.  The taste is nicely bitter, slightly citrus and only a touch of sweet.  While somewhat hoppy it's not overwhelming, just about the quintessential craft beer for the masses.

Sackman also did whiskey cocktails, for the more refined taste.  Or you know, for everybody.

And now what, with no more fairs on the horizon?  Maybe a song will give me some ideas...