a gift!

While out and about experiencing the craft bar scene you meet some nice people.  Some of them like to share stuff with you.  Stuff like more beer!  This particular beverage is a ginger beer, promising a light and complex flavor.  It almost sounds like a tropical drink or cocktail on the bottle.

"Crabbie's"?  It's scary how people know me

The sharp, sweet smell of ginger is evident immediately.  The head is very normal for a beer, although the color is unusual - tannish and transparent rather than the typical yellow.  I think it's darker than other ginger beers I've had, although they all had the vaguely crystalline color.  At first it's on the sweet side, like a ginger ale, but a more natural spiciness comes out soon after.  It's an interesting mix of sugary lightness and limey tang with a somewhat heavier ginger spice and just a hint of bitter at the bottom of it all.  It's more like a cider than a beer, in fact, with more fruit in the taste, very summer and uplifting.  But, the fullness of the ginger warms the soul, even on chilly days.  There could be a place in the seasonal line for such a beer.

unfinished business

It's another beer fair at a friendly neighborhood market, Mercado de Vallehermoso.  There are several places that serve craft beers with their food inside, and La Birratorium is right across the street.  Plenty of opportunities for whatever you feel like.  I decided to take advantage of the food offerings for lunch, and try Craft 19's pastrami sandwich.  I got Tempest Brewing's Brave New World IPA to go with it, thinking it would be a good combination with the saurkraut and mustard.  It was excellent, in fact, although the beer was much softer than expected.  It has a bright and clear color, the head dissipates quite rapidly, and it was served lukewarm, so authentic, I suppose.  It starts with a very mild bitter flavor, none of the sharp citrus notes of American IPAs, and goes a bit sweeter later on.  Really very good with the slightly spicy and acidic tastes of the food.  Without that pastrami and pickles I might have been a little disappointed, or I would have chosen a stronger beer to begin with, but as it was I was quite pleased.

First look

Deli pickles, yay!

Then I wandered over to Drakkar to see their northern offerings.  Lots of Estonian beers at the moment.  Still feeling like a lighter beer is the thing (it's damn hot today) I chose Põhjala's gose.  It's a bit cloudy, darker than the IPA, also little head, and a strange kind of grainy aroma.  It is immediately sour in taste, wakes you right up, and then dies off quickly after you swallow.  Not any strange aftertaste here.  Maybe I just got used to it, but it seemed to get less sour over time, calming down to only slightly attention grabbing.  It does have a finish that seems like it should feel drier than it is.  This gose is practically juicy.

North Brewing had the attraction of a serve yourself cask.  I went over to see why everyone was crowded around the place and ran into an acquaintance from beer fairs past, who asked me why I didn't have my notebook with me.  I did, just not in my hand.  He recommended the cask beer, the only one at this fair, Sputnik cask pale ale-ambar.  The lemony colored beer is quite tasty, and surprisingly sweet.  It's subtle for an ambar and on the sweet side for a pale ale, so whatever you are expecting from it, you'll probably be surprised.  There's kind of a dusty feeling to it too, and it is slightly cloudy in the glass.  A good suggestion!

When the crowd has vanished

Don't spill, don't spill...

I hadn't had any dark beers, and there was a stout on tap overseen by La Birratorium, but it was a bourbon stout and I'm just not feeling that today.  Beavertown's Luponic Plague NEIPA might be a good thing to shake off the early summer heat, though.  It really looks like a Lemon Julius, very pulpy in appearance with practically no head at all.  I was warned that it is very hop heavy, and it's pretty clear from the scent that it's true.  It's served nice and cold, but there isn't a lot of strong flavor...at first.  There's a little snap at the end of the swallow that keeps you on your toes.  While also a tad dusty, this NEIPA feels like it has some natural lemon juice as a big part of the recipe.  It becomes a very bitter, rather astringent tasting beer, not quite clean enough for be a good palate cleanser.  While I like to try new beers, I think I'm happy to know not to keep an eye out for this one in the future.

Just tucked into the super-spicy food place

So I could have had porter with tobacco...yeah, no

Have a kilo of happiness before leaving

And now, the other two German films from last weekend.   Spoilers, if you really need them for 80 year old movies!
 
Spione/Espías/Spies is a film from Fritz Lang that seems a lot more for the general public than his famous Metropolis.  It’s got spies, action, love, betrayal, even a train crash.  The evil mastermind of the story has a day job as a bank president, but when he’s playing the evil genius he lets his hair down.  His latest scheme is under the eyes of the secret service of...whatever country this is.  Lang and Thea von Harbou seem to go to great lengths to not identify the European country it takes place in.  It’s not France, because they say in the beginning that the French embassy has had some important paperwork stolen, while the secret service was basically useless.  They do come off as quite incompetent, although maybe this is how real secret service agencies really are - full of moles and double-agents who exploit their gullible colleagues.  The only one who appears to be good at his job is agent 326, whose name we never find out, although when he is first summoned to the station it’s through a paper addressed to Hans Pockzerwinski.  He uncovers one mole immediately on entering the boss’s office and takes up the case to investigate what plans their nemesis has.  An agent has been deployed to stop 326 already, because the bad guys are always one step ahead of this secret service, and they meet at a hotel where he thinks he has saved her from police corruption and perhaps an abusive boyfriend.  Who she shot.  They of course fall in love, which the mastermind uses to manipulate his agent while 326 does his best to make up for his bumbling co-spies.  The head of security for the Japanese embassy warns him about the female agent, plus he discovers her negotiating state secrets from an army officer of another unidentified country.  He is sent to the signing of a treaty between his country and Japan, a treaty that is the object of the mastermind’s latest scheme, for some reason, and he goes by overnight train.  Evil henchmen unhook his car from the rest as they roll through a tunnel, it conveniently being the last one on the train, and he wakes up and realizes the danger just in time to see another train come zooming through.  The female agent hears about the accident and races to the scene, managing to get into the wreckage and find her beloved actually outside the smashed train car, under rubble.  Plan after plan by the secret service gets foiled by internal espionage, and finally the female agent is put in custody of the evil organization, along with 326’s right hand man.  326 has to get them out of a death trap in the mastermind’s bank, besides finding the mastermind himself.  They manage to do find the secret lair, barely, through clouds of gas that were meant to suffocate the prisoners and keep the police and secret agents busy while the mastermind made his escape.  He appears through most of the film in a wheelchair, but looks like he’s going to leap out of it to attack somebody in more than one scene.  It’s actually no surprise when he does get up and walk away from his prisoners towards the end.  And naturally he gets captured, when 326 realizes he has yet another job as a clown - who is an “undercover” agent for his own agency to boot!  They go to the clown’s performance and stand stonily in the crowd, guns visible in holsters, while the clown pretends to shoot balloons and other things with a pop gun.  Except he also shoots at a couple of officers before he realizes he’s surrounded, so maybe it’s a real gun after all?  And when he sees that there’s no escape, he shoots himself in the head and yells, “Curtain!” while the crowd applauds enthusiastically.  It’s a damn weird ending.

Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse/El testamento del Dr. Mabuse/The Testament of Dr. Masbuse is also a Fritz Lang film, but from a few years later.  This one is a talky.  It’s also a police thriller, based on a novel, and a sequel to a movie I have not seen.  Dr. Mabuse is a mad genius, so mad that he has been confined to a mental hospital where he incessantly writes out instructions for committing crimes.  Some of them are run-of-the-mill robberies, but there are also what are basically terrorist attacks.  The whole point of Mabuse’s activity is to instill fear and destroy hope in the populace.  He’s something of a prototype for Christopher Nolan’s Joker.  Although he’s locked up, somehow his plans are being leaked to a criminal gang and the police want to know how, dammit.  The police commissioner is taking the case rather personally, since a young man he sponsored for the force has been driven mad by what he has discovered about the gang.  They find Mabuse’s name scratched into the glass of the man’s apartment and talk to the head of the hospital, only to discover that Mabuse has died the night before.  Another doctor from the hospital is gunned down in his car, which leads the commissioner to talk to the head of the hospital again.  The doctor is acting more and more suspiciously, but there’s nothing to connect him directly to any of the criminal activity.  He does see Mabuse in spirit, but you might think he’s just hallucinating due to overwork and stress, or is one of those people who go into psychiatry to solve their own problems.  One of the gang members is getting tired of his life of crime, however.  He has fallen in love and wishes he could go straight to give his girlfriend a more stable life.  Like any gang, though, it’s much tougher to get out than in, and the other members lock both of them in the “meeting room” where they receive instructions from an unseen man behind a curtain.  It turns out there is only a cutout silhouette and a loudspeaker on a table behind that curtain, and no way out of the room, that has a hidden explosive somewhere.  In desperation, with no way to break out, the repentant criminal cuts open a water pipe, hoping the water will protect them from the explosion, which might blow a hole in a wall for them to escape before they drown.  The hole actually ends up in the floor, all the water rushes out, and the pair follow it, ready to run to the police.  The commissioner has captured some of the gang and works it out so the doctor has to come to the station to recognize them.  None of them recognize each other, but when the other one shows up and says his name, the doctor reacts.  He then says he only repeated the name because the commissioner said it, which is still kind of weird, but no proof.  He returns to the hospital and the ex-criminal goes with the commissioner to see if they can catch him doing something.  They go into his office when the ex-criminal recognizes his recorded voice as that of his former boss, plus they find the plans to blow up a chemical factory and cause terror.  They are too late to stop the attack from happening, but they manage to catch the doctor watching from the woods and they chase him back to the hospital, where he gets into the room where the commissioner’s protegé is, where Mabuse himself once was, and the doctor begins to tear up the plans that Mabuse had left behind for him.

they don't use jelly

I have been disappointed of late with the lack of dark beers to go with the still wintery nights!  It's getting lighter every evening, of course, but that doesn't mean we have to settle for endless pale ales and lagers.  Anyway, feeling adventurous, I found myself a fruity porter at La Tienda de la Cerveza.  The clerks applauded my choice.  This particular one is a tangerine porter, so I'm expecting some tanginess.  I just hope it still has some black beer weight.

Yeah, yeah, it's an old song...

It pours nicely, with a rich liquid chocolate appearance.  The head is a bit fluffy, not very resistant.  I get a much more standard porter aroma than I was expecting, I wouldn't think to list tangerine in the ingredients by smell.  There is a tart citrusy flavor running through the beer, nonetheless.  It rises up out of the aftertaste, once the smooth rather chocolatey porter is on its way down.  The initial taste is on the heavy side, typical porter, but the tangerine gives it a light, bright finish and perks up the taste buds for the next sip.  While I am really not a fan of chocolate covered oranges, or any mix of chocolate with citrus at all, Tangerine Porter seems to have gotten the blend just right.

Supplier: La Tienda De La Cerveza
Price: €4.40

looks like something coming up

I had the vague hope that I would come across a Cadbury Cream Egg beer, but maybe that was some kind of beautiful dream.  Cream ales are around, but we know there's no actual cream in there.  At least I can find a label that has something that looks resurrectionary, like a flying skull.  I don't indulge in Tempest Brewing that often, but it has given me some good drinks in the past.  Their Ancho Dark Lager looks promising, if nothing else as a mild and relaxing beer for a holiday weekend.  The ancho does refer to the chilis, so maybe it's a little spicier than I'm bargaining for.

Boo!  (6 months early)

The beer is a rich dark brown color, lightly headed, and with a smell that's an unusual blend of earthy and sweet.  I get the lager sweet in the Central European style, and a little smoke that I might be anticipating from the chili.  The flavor is mildly bitter in the first second, but quickly a lagery sweetness overwhelms it, with no hint of spiciness until the aftertaste.  It's also a very mild afterspice, with just a little, pleasant tickle.  Other chili beers have been a little more aggressive, but this Ancho is content to be laid back and rely on a quiet appearance that won't go unnoticed even though it doesn't shout.  I find it to be a bit on the sophisticated side, when it comes to chili beers.  Really quite nice, a likely pairing with salty tortilla chips.  Maybe some guac for good measure.

Guacamole would go with the label, too

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas
Price: €3.45

Beermas Day 7

On the seventh day of Beermas I poured out for me
Seven spicy mockswans
Six stones a-hanging
Five golden caps
Four calling birds
Three speckled hens
Two flightless non-doves
And a pear cider fresh from the tree

Yeah, I know it's not a swan really, but it kind of looks like one, doesn't it?  Any excuse for a good stout.  This one is special too, very festive with all those spices added to it.  It reminds me of The Mayan, which I quite enjoyed at l'Europe some time ago.  Tempest has made appearances before, but I don't remember seeing this particular beauty.  I suppose it was waiting for the right time.  Mexicake is just the thing to ring in a new year.  It recommends serving at room temperature, but I did chill it a little before opening it up.  It's not like I'm going to drink it in one gulp, so I'll get a development of flavors as it warms up.

The smell is oddly delicately sweet, without a lot of spice or chocolate smokiness.  I think I can convince myself that I smell the chili, but I might be imagining things in anticipation.  It certainly looks right, maybe a little light in the head.  The taste is very chocolatey, almost like pudding, and the chilies don't come out until the beer is practically in your stomach.  Even then, they're not spicy exactly, but they give a little kick and dissolve into bitter.  It's probably the cinnamon that I'm picking up more than the chilies.  The vanilla starts to make itself known after a couple of sips, but it comes out swinging, beating back the chocolate easily.  The chili is sort of ghostly, drifting in not even as an aftertaste, but as a kind of delayed reaction.  A little tingle builds on the lips with continued sipping, although the beer itself remains sweetish and smooth.  It's a powerful beer, one which pleases me greatly, but it might be a little much for a casual night out with friends.  For a tasting, fantastic, something a little different and memorable without a doubt.  May all our new year's beers be half as good.

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €5.50

the weather came too

The bold announcement of Marmalade On Rye couldn't be ignored.  At first I thought it was a fruit beer, Belgian or Scandinavian, but no.  It's from Tempest Brewing, a Scottish brewer that I've come across before, just recently.  It wasn't unimpressive, so why not give this one a go?  An IPA is almost never a bad choice.

Can't have disrespected beer

The beer pours out dark orange, with the head kind of off-white.  There's a definite sweet smell wafting off it, although I don't think marmalade would be my first guess as to its origin.  It reminds me more of typical craft IPAs, with that citrusy sweet they often have.  The taste is different, though.  While the bitterness is there, it's wrapped up in something mellower but not quite sweet.  It could be the orange zest and ginger duking it out.  Maybe a little lighthearted for a foggy, drizzly night, but a definite pick-me-up for steamier evenings.

Supplier: The Beer Garden
Price: €4.50

wandering lonely

I wonder if a Longer White Cloud means you're lonelier or more in company.  A good beer is certainly good company, I find, as well as a means to find good company.  I was browsing for more seasonal brews, but I could argue that there are more clouds this time of year, even in this city, so it kind of refers to seasonal weather.  It's also a white cloud, which could represent snow...not that I'll see snow out my window any time soon, probably.  The brewery itself has an evocative name for me too.

A little Christmasy odor slips out immediately when the cap is popped.  I can't tell exactly why it's Christmasy, since it really smells like oranges if I were forced to describe it, but maybe it's just the feeling in the air.  There are also hints of vanilla in it, but once the glass is poured and a bigger sniff taken, the bitter citrus is supreme.  The first taste is bitter too, but quickly followed by a more desserty orange sweetness.  There's nothing especially eye-catching about the beer, although it is perfectly normally lovely in its orange color and fine white head.  The flavor is maintained from beginning to end, with the bitter kick coming first and a sweeter finish.  There might not be any mint, chestnuts, or ginger, but it's an undeniably jolly drink.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza
Price: €3.50

cali by way of celts

 Dead Pony Club comes out with meringue-like head, but it fizzles out within the minute.  The slightly earthy citrus smell does hang around for a while, though.  It's surprisingly dark for a "pale ale" and soda level bubbly.  The taste is bitter and tongue-covering, but with a hint of sweet, a bitter orange type of flavor.  The sweet becomes more perceptible with some time sitting without becoming overwhelming.  Nice and refreshing, a good after-work beer, especially the evening still has a little warmth from the day.

slightly out of season

Hmm, beer in one of those dangerously clear bottles...it must be to show off that mellow color.

Innis & Gunn's Oak Aged Beer brings watery whiskey to mind before you taste it, but the scent is sweeter and lighter, and the taste more...Christmasy.  Yes, that's what came to my mind when I first tried it.  It's sweet but spicy, with a complex bittersweet kick at the end.  The label mentions toffee and vanilla, and there is a sort of supertaste that reminds me of eggnog.  With a bit of time on the table, the beer seems to be closer and closer to a very mild whiskey, but I suppose it could be psychological.  It's quite a pleasant beer, which I'd be fine sipping by itself, although it is recommended as an accompaniment to seafood, steak or cheese.  Maybe something slightly salty would be good with it, as a compliment to the round sweet flavors.

but would jefferson be proud?

Something about calling a beer democratic warms the cockles of my heart.  Drink of the people and all that.  So the Mashtag had to come home with me.  According to the label, it was created with input from a number of craft brewers, hence the democracy.

It's a beautiful brown and bubbly.  It has an excellent chocolate color, with a little chocolate smell too.  Although it's bitter at first taste, after swallowing some sweet hangs around the top of the mouth, which is an interesting sensation.  The label says hazelnuts are among the ingredients, so that's the answer to the sweetness.  The beer is also mildly smoky, reminiscent of a stout.  All in all, a solid team effort with grade A results.  Tasty and pretty, a beer that didn't disappoint.

And I bought chocolate on sale today too...