wrapping up

With anticipation, the door opens on slot 24...and it's a strong dark Belgian.  Well, at least it's dark.  This collaboration between Guineu and Juguetes Perdidos might be fitting, in fact, for the holiday, since some Belgian beers do have a certain level of winter-appropriate spice.  I'm cautiously hopeful about Pajaro Viudo.  If it turns out to be a disappointment, I can say that I did have a chocolate stout earlier today (Thank you, Ossegg).

There's a strong whiff of banana, and the beer looks thick and almost oily coming out.  The head is tightly bubbled and deflates slowly.  The flavor starts with bitter and Belgian level of sour, but not quite in the aftertaste you get an odd almost fishy sort of taste.  Well, not fishy exactly, more like seaweed.  It's like a miso was added to the beer at some point.  Going with the look, there's a very full sensation that goes along with the liquid; it is smooth, but there's a good amount of weight in it.  The taste seems to contain itself, not expanding or deepening, leaving the drinker in a mood to sip and sip some more.  It's not that it's lacking in taste, but it doesn't have the extravagant explosion that I've come to expect from craft beers.  Still, it's probably good to back off from the excesses a little bit from time to time, and with Beermas starting tomorrow I don't need to dull my sense of taste just yet!

newbs beware

Second to last and not as dark as my desires, but expecting to guide the tastes of others can be a mistake.  It might even be a ... Rookie Mistake.  I'm not sure if Guineu is quietly admitting they meant to make something else, or warning off people who don't quite know what to make of a Special Bitter.

It has the dark caramel color of stronger, toastier beers.  There's a certain Christmas spice in the aroma, a little ginger maybe and something like clove.  But will it be spicy or bitter?  Turns out neither, really.  It's unsweet apple mostly, but not quite enough to be astonishingly bitter.  The potential spices are a bust in the taste.  Too bad, could have been sort of an apple pie beer.  It has some roughness, a little throat-grabby, and I get a mild aftertaste that is more bitter than the beer itself.  So, although surprisingly subdued, it does make you pay some attention when you drink.

wake up

Oh yes, there had to be at least one more!  Guineu and Mala Gissona give us a porter now, Txoko.  I'm hoping that that's a hint of chocolate or cacao, but a regular, rich porter would hit the spot really well right now.  The November rain has been delayed until winter's door, so it feels like a good time to sit with good dark beer and unwind.

A little thin looking, coffee smelling.  Nice head at first, but it fizzles away quickly.  The taste is much bigger than expected based on the color and aroma:  it's an extra chocolate and vanilla syrup shot in the morning brew.  While slick, it does have a bit of a sticky feel.  It's a little strange for a mid-week beer for some reason, it feels like something you should be having on Friday night before going out for some real fun, or Saturday afternoon to wake up completely.

mysterious

Alright then, let's have another pale ale, or more precisely, RIPA.  I guess that isn't a real repeat for this calendar.  The label looks so familiar, I have the sensation that I have done Jack the RIPA before, but it doesn't come up.  Maybe I only thought about it in the store and then grabbed a stout instead.  Anyway, it is Guineu, so trustworthy brewers, and it's a dark idea even if the beer is on the lighter side.  I could have chosen it for a Hallowe'en special.

It's darker orange than plenty of normal IPAs, a little more along the lines of an imperial.  There's a very bouncy citrus aroma from this one.  As for taste, it's extra bitter rather than extra orangey, but it's that pleasant IPA style.  It's a deep, rounded bottom kind of flavor, making me think of grapefruit without the actual taste of it.  After it settles down a little there is more citrus on the tongue, but the overall effect is still very bitter-hoppy.  

the mascot

Still with Guineu and its fox, now an amber ale.  Again, it looks like a very solid offering, although nothing special or extra creative.  Simple Birita, casual, unfussy.

It seems extra heady, and it has a rich dark orange color.  Interesting aroma, a little honeyed and not very fruity.  There's a little bit of orange in the taste, but it's more watered down than I expected.  The first seconds of the sip give a bubbly heads-up but then it does down and practically disappears.  It's a good beer for sitting and relaxing but not thinking too much about.  A little snack to go with it would mix well.  Something kind of woody starts to come out after a few minutes, giving the beer more body and a little more interest, although it's not the kind of taste that I particularly favor.

howl

I look askance at Rauxa at first; I just had a stunning imperial stout and now I just get a regular IPA?  OK, it's Guineu and it's been specially picked, but not even imperial, DDH, some other sparkly attraction?  The label, while subdued, gives a hint of wildness and some secret that it will be worth your while to find out.

Slightly cloudy, but sunny color, and a stunning puffy head.  Another whipped cream topping, almost like a float.  It's not very aromatic, but the taste comes out like a jack-in-the-box, surprising in its sharp bitterness and power of lasting flavor.  There's a tingle of mandarin, but it's almost a doubly bitter IPA compared to a lot of modern American style examples.  A little something starts to develop over time that seems like window cleaner to me.  It might be a nod to the pine essence of certain hops.  The beer has an oddly smooth feel, but with a scratchy coating, kind of like a crumbly hard candy filled with liquidy gel.  And all of it a big bad IPA wolf.  No, wait, it's a fox.  Big bad IPA fox.

central span

It isn't a real holiday today, but it is the middle of the week and bookended by holidays.  It's almost a holiday by default, but some people take Monday and/or Friday to have long weekends and kind of begrudgingly go to work a single day of the week.  Not everybody has the luxury of an "aqueduct", as the Spanish refer to this extra-long weekend (a normal long weekend being a "bridge").  For a working day, we seem to have a normal working beer, Guineu's Latitud 41 lager.

Activity begins as soon as the cap is unsealed, but there's no foam overflow.  The beer pours out with a sour-grain scent and a very fluffy head, settling into the glass with a very clear, slightly ruddy light lager color.  The glass gives off a little metallic aroma too, making me wonder if the beer has gone off in the bottle.  The flavor is at first strongly bitter and tinged with bread, a stronger flavor than I expect from a lager, but the aftertaste also has that metal and green bean bite.  The beer tries to override that bit of weirdness, and it seems like it really is a fine lager, but the aftertaste is a little distracting.

cross the line

Here's something fall-like and appropriate, a wheat IPA!  We're back to Guineu and a very simply labeled WIPA, although I wonder if the color scheme is meant to be evocative.  I kind of appreciate the inviting message on the yellow tape, though.  Despite a certain sense of exclusivity, there's always been at least the desire to have the door to the craft beer world open to all.

Mildly cloudy and a short but resistant head, the wheat comes through clearly in the aroma.  Very bready and meadow-sharp.  There's some fruit lurking in there too, the ghost of the IPA I imagine.  First the wheat beer glowiness slides in over the tongue, then a bitter boulder rumbles down.  There's kind of a fight between relaxed wheat and feisty IPA, a dance of different sides that kind of corkscrews its way down the throat.  It settles down into a modest easy-drinking beer, although it might be a little too demanding for those who just want to have snacks, sit back and watch the tube or something.  On a holiday eve, it could be a great choice for evening media consumption.  Old Christmas movies anyone?

with interest

I eagerly await more dark beers as the month goes on, but something shiny is by no means unwelcome.  I pulled out a sunny little can of imperial sour, another Guineu, this time with Màger.  Fested Mind has some extra special ingredients - orange and white chocolate - which you might link to the season.  I don't mind a little orange with my beer, but orange and chocolate leaves me somewhat cold.  Maybe that goes with the season too.

There's that gassy smell that many sours seem to have, but with the essence of grape and a little plum mixed in.  The color is juicy, the beer isn't especially clear, and the head fizzles away in seconds.  The flavor has a lot of sour candy in it, alternating between Jolly Rancher and mild lemon candy.  It feels a little thicker than a lot of sours, leaving a little stickiness in its wake.  Interestingly, I don't really identify orange or chocolate in the flavors, although if I make an effort I can just pick out a touch of citrus.  It's bright and perky, so not quite what I naturally turn to at this time of year (who am I kidding, any time of year), but it's like a dessert or special treat to add some light to the dark days of the season.

back on track

Although Boira was tasty, my feathers are a little ruffled to have been given a non-alcoholic beer in a super special beer calendar. Maybe Day 2 will make it up to me.  It's Guineu again, this time working with Espiga, so another trustworthy team.  I do think I like what I see, too.  Not named, apparently, but an English Brown Ale, at 6%, a respectable number to even out yesterday. 

It gives a weird little eruption but doesn't overflow - I might be keeping the cans too cold.  There's plenty of bubble to the beer, giving a very fluffy head, although it does melt away shortly.  It's a nice dark brown color, not quite at the level of a good stout, but almost.  There's a stout-reminiscent smoke in the aroma, tinged with nuttiness, so I think we are looking at a good winter beer even if that isn't its official title.  The taste is subtle, giving just a hint of toast at first, and slowly melting into a light malt.  The beer feels heavier when it's holding back its flavor, interestingly enough, and when the sweetness and campfire roastiness comes through it seems much lighter.

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.

it's what I do...

The end is in sight, but only ales light the way.  No One has an interesting label, though, with a Game of Thrones style font and a wall of ... heads, I guess.  Different sorts of foxes?  Guineu has some flashy ideas. 

A pretty, dark gold beer with an ivory head, slight citrus scent.  Much like Hop Fiction, it's heavy and bitter, but with enough shiny orange to keep things light.  It has a little pepper kick to it, in spite of the heft, and it's easy enough to sip and savor.  It reminds me of Cibeles Imperial IPA, another powerful member of the set.  It's not especially complex, but flavorful and enjoyable.  It feels soft and creamy despite the touch of spiciness, and has a year-round appeal to it.  Perhaps the very sensitive would find it a little too much for a summer beer, but like many IPAs, it has that stimulating bitterness to pull you out of doldrums.  The weight makes it an acceptable choice for cold weather too, a jacket to bundle up your tastebuds in.

in the winter sun

I don't tend to think of Berliner wiesse as a cold weather beer, much more for the summer months (see this August, in fact).  Here it is, though, Guineu's Lovin' Fruit.   

Dark orange and icy-looking, it makes me think of a frothy iced tea.  Especially those with a little fruit in them, since there's a mandariny scent that puffs up from it.  The taste is juicy and rich, although I wouldn't call it sweet even with the fruit essence.  I actually think that makes it more appropriate for the cold weather, a sweet fruity drink would be too summery probably.  The delicate balance of sour fruits and weisse beer feels a little warmer, kinder to the stomach in the near-winter.  As I've heard recently, pineapple has a certain link to the end of year holidays, and it whispers out of the beer quietly, one of the Christmas ghosts.  Which one, I wouldn't know.  Maybe past, since future doesn't actually whisper and Marley only brings warnings, not fuzzy memories.

the right thing

This was a pleasing label somehow, although it's not exactly cheery.  I guess the colors are relaxing, calming, the right ones to make you think of peaceful moments.  The name might be a little more demanding if you take it literally, though - Étika.  Trying to tell us something with your cool little APAs, Guineu? 

It's a very classic looking beer, with just the right amount of fluffy white head.  It's not super strong in smell, but a happy citrus perfume does waft up.  At first it's very normal modern pale ale, not as bitter as many IPAs, but with the light fruitiness that exemplifies the style of today.  It has a nice substance, not too thick, but makes you take notice.  It gets a little heavier over time, but the flavor remains upbeat and perky.  I'm longing for a stout to pop up again, but there's still time, and Étika is no slouch when it comes to a tasty drink.

a pattern developing

The pale ales don't stop coming!  The saving grace is that the breweries are accomplished in making them (besides other styles, of course), so you can't be upset with the beer itself, just the lack of variety.  Ok, technically Esgarrapats is an APA not an IPA, and coming from Guineu you know it will be perfectly fine, but I still think the season calls for some more darkness.

Light and tickly IPA aroma, with a good amount of citrus.  The smell doesn't have much pine or muskiness, a bit to my surprise.  It's a tannish orange color, with a nice fluffy head, appealingly transparent.  No bitter in the aroma, but I guess it's all in the flavor - strong bitter first, then drifting back to a sort of bitter orange, never quite leaving up on it.  It has a good mouthfeel, not too heavy but present.  As it sits it develops almost a minty quality, not in taste, but there's a sort of prickliness that rolls through while you drink.  A little bit astringent, like some of the hoppier IPAs I've had.  

safe bet

Yet another IPA, I am starting to despair!  Well, not so much, I do like my IPAs too.  They also give a nice warmth on a cold December night.  We're back with Guineu and the playful looking Txiripa. 

More typical IPA aromas, a little fuller than the session IPA.  There's citrus in the flavor, but on the sour candy side.  It's only the slightest tad bitter, perky, a great example of a lighter modern IPA.  Again, it's quite a clean taste, spreading joy and disappearing in a puff of hops.  There's also very little weight behind it, so definitely a good conversation beer.  It's quite easily enjoyable, but simple, leaving me a little disappointed that I can't describe any weirdness about it at all.

heading to the clouds

I was expecting my calendar to be only bottles for some reason, but I pulled out a can for day number 5.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, craft breweries have been happily using bottles for many years, and it can be argued that they are better than bottles all around.  A lot of newer breweries have been relying more on cans than on bottles, although Guineu has put out a number of more traditional bottled beers.  DreamHops has an evocative label, perhaps even to the point of inviting a lawsuit, very calming and serene.  We'll see how calming the beer itself actually is.

It is a very standard looking beer, perhaps a little disappointingly light in color, but a fairly nice head.  A sharp and fruity aroma, too.  The taste isn't as nice as the scent, a little on the bitter side, but without a lot of personality by itself.  Some session ales are right in line with the genre, fruity, piney, heavily hoppy, but Dreamhops is a bit ephemeral to be honest.  It's nice, there's nothing offensive about it, but I personally prefer a more aggressive beer.

secondary ale

Moving on to another beery day, Guineu's Amarillo IPA comes out of the box.  It looks like a fairly standard modern IPA, no surprise ingredients, but the label definitely has a self-assured look about it.  I can just imagine this person working overtime, doing two or three jobs, preparing to buy the family everything they want for the holidays.  Lucky for me I am perfectly happy with beer.  OK, craft beer, but there are plenty of more expensive things that people dream of finding under the tree.

It releases a bright and vaguely festive aroma immediately, very IPA hops-y, but with a pine essence.  A strange cross of summer and Christmas.  The flavor also has hints of all seasons, flowery spring, citrus summer, smokey fall...well, wintery pine.  It takes several sips to get some bitter to build up, but it comes out to balance the tropical fruitiness.  It's a medium weight beer, not too heavy at all, and by no means watery.  Like a shiny bubbly not quite champagne, it picks you up at the end of the day, and I can't think of a place Amarillo wouldn't be welcome.

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.

next in line

La Quince/Guineu stouts are always something to experience.  The latest I've come across is Passion Fruit Cheesecake Velvet, which I first saw and sampled at Taproom, but unfortunately that was the last of that barrel.  So, when I saw that tall can sitting on the shelf at La Mundial, it seemed right to grab it then.  The salesguy approved.  He did warn me, however, that it's a strong flavored beer, even more than a strong alcohol one.  I guess a drinking buddy is recommended?

The appearance is exactly as expected, dark dark chocolate brown, although not perfectly black, and the head is a rich dark beige.  It starts out thick and foamy but doesn't take too long to disappear.  It actually smells more chocolatey than many chocolate stouts, although there's some fruit wallowing in there too.  The flavor does have a good similarity to cheesecake, with a mix of sweet and tangy.  It's not a heavy feeling beer, although it isn't a lightweight at all either.  It's an interesting sour kind of stout, making it more refreshing and summery than a good amount of pastry stouts, at least in most people's estimation I'm sure.  The fruit comes out more and more as the beer warms up, and it feels like a chewy kind of fruit too.  Something fibrous and full of vitamins.  

Supplier: La Mundial

Price: €6.60