new sights

Usually I see posts about beer fairs that are in places I would need to drive to or spend a long time on a bus for, and I am just not that dedicated.  But then, every once in a while I'm surprised by one sneaking up on me in an accessible spot, like just down south on a nice metro ride.  I don't have many reasons to go that far down anymore, no classes to speak of, so why not put a little variety into my city experience?  Bulevar de Vallecas, here I come!

Being who I am, I go down early, on a weekday, to avoid the crowds.  It works out pretty well, there aren't many people wandering around, although there are a few.  A small collection of stands with a good variety of beers and easy to get to without a crush of people?  Off to a good start.

I get started with Go!, called over check out the wares.  They have a stout, but I get convinced to start with Madroñera, a brown ale.  It's a nice fuzzy brown, not a lot of head or aroma.  There's a slightly toasty, clean beery flavor at first, later a pop of caramel.  It's clean drinking, only a low level of sweetness, a nice stand-alone beer.  A good start indeed.

I must have a real black beer for my second round, and I stop over at Cosa Nostra where two black beers are on the board.  I wonder if the porter or stout would be better, but the chocolate in the porter is what clinches it in the end.  Porter Choco it is.  It's a very good color, again little head - this one is from a bottle, not the tap - and a good amount of chocolate in the aroma.  The taste surprises with the chocolate sneaking up on you; it starts out as kind of a flat porter bitter, but suddenly a ball of chocolate breaks through.  And it is very good chocolate, no cheap-o milk-chocolate-Hershey crap, it's dark smooth flavored of the earth, not of sugar and factory.

Yeah, not sitting in the carrier, dad

A little nostalgia with your beer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now time for The One to wash down the last of the Käsekrainer.  It's pretty much all ales and lagers over there, so I ask for a recommendation and come away with another brown beer, Celta.  It's supposed to be an old style beer, with some barrel aging to give it more character, and it's definitely interesting visually.  It's exceptionally thick looking, really opaque, with a huge amount of tiny bubbles, much like Guinness boasts of itself.  Not very aromatic and only a vaguely sour taste at first, but light and swiftly disappearing down the gullet leaving no distraction behind.  Given a minute, more flavors emerge - woodiness, herbalness, a little bit of mint.  It doesn't quite get to sweet, but it hints at it a little.  It does start to develop an alarming amount of licorice, which I hope my last few fries will soak up.  As I near the end it gets fruitier and figgier, probably what you might have found in traditional beers without a modern load of hops.

I think I have the head for one more, and I see a couple of breweries that I do not yet know.  Both are local, but finally it's the logo that gets me to Bacterio.  And their English porter Black-terio.  It sounds like a pretty standard brew and it does start out with a standardly malty and grainy aroma, and a standard little cap of foam on a handsome black beer.  There's lots of grain and bread in the flavor, not sweet but substantial.  It has a very smooth body, not sticky or prickly at all.  Although it's easy to drink, it has a certain weight behind it that leaves the feeling of having a good frenemy sitting across from you.

So, only a short visit, but well worth the trip.  Well done Vallecas!  See you again some time!

spring a-springing

Well, we still don't know when the virus terror will leave us, but the terror of hanging around at home forces everybody into the streets more and more.  Spring is well on its way, with breezy days and warm afternoons, and with a ridiculous crowd of lollygaggers spread across every street and plaza.  Fortunately for me, I don't need an outside table to enjoy my beer.  It is better to have a special beer, though, locally made, connected to the area, supportive of local commerce.  I've come across The One at Beermad (remember when there were fairs?), but I do not believe I have had their red ale - La Pelirroja De Getafe.

It's a pleasant ruddy red color, darker than other recent red ales, strongly beer in aroma, but with a slightly pastry-like note.  The flavor is a slide right down to grainy breadiness from a starting high of vaguely sweet and orangey.  While it's interesting, I'm not sure I like the suddenness of the change right at the beginning.  I was expecting a bit more body, but it's a fairly thin beer.  The powerful end notes make it hard to just drink down without noticing, though.

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...