minority winner

It's been a week that promotes lazy at-home-stayingness, so the most fantastic and imaginative of crafts is not in the fridge at the moment.  Seeing as how production has fallen off enormously in Spain in the last two years, it makes sense to keep an eye on more mundane beers.  Not all of them are awful.  They are popular for a reason.  I'm not quite up for the very basic of basic beers, I still have some standards.  Estrella Galicia doesn't seem to disappoint anybody, from snobs like me to average drinkers.  This is not the normal pilsner either, it's 1906 helles bock.

It's a dark colored beer for an industrial offering, coppery colored and topped with quite the fluffy cloud.  It's not exceptionally aromatic, with only a hint of grain wafting up, but the taste is much bigger.  It's a punch of bitter and malty, feeling full and rounded in the mouth.  It works up a little salty kick and even a little smoke.  It has a smooth, easy drinking feel that you'd expect from an industrial beer, but it also has a complexity you don't expect.  There's a swirl of woodiness in the aftertaste, and perhaps a touch of apple.  It feels like a bridge spanning decades of tastes, somehow a product that really lives up to its motto: for the immense minority.

a bit of mountain air

It's the traditional vacation month, but this year I do have a few things going on.  One more round of beer class, for example.  There's still plenty of time for a beer a day, I would think, so off we go!  It's a German beer this time, in hope of motivation for the future I guess, Schwarzwald Michel.  With the temperatures as they have been, it's time for something a little lighter and breezier than my beloved stouts.

It's a lightly colored, translucent brew, quite fluffy head on top.  The flavor is pretty typical of German lagers, on the sweet side with a touch of grain, although I'd say this one has a little more weight to it than many.  It also has a very clean flavor, whisking its way down the throat without leaving much of an aftertaste.  The barest touches of bitterness flicker up, but overall it's more of a bock than a regular lager.  Over time there's a bit more herbal and floral notes, creating a bit more complexity.  It's still very summery, and maybe the Bavarian Alpine water brought a little coolness to Madrid August.