harvested

Well, here's another surprise!  Hopfenweisse?  A little German influence?  Let's see what you got, White Tusk, La Quince is backing you. 

There's a suspicious amount of citrus in a weisse aroma, but hops lovers would probably be overjoyed.  It's a rather cloudy beer too, despite the cheery golden color.  The taste is quite overwhelmingly wheaty.  It has that little dance of sweet and sour, a little whippy swipe at the palate as it goes down.  It's light and bubbly, a bright and snappy beer, without some of the volume in feel of more standard wheat beers.  Some more sour fruit starts to come out with a little warming, sort of a sour cherry or something of the kind.  While the German beer reference is fitting for the time, the beer is too summery for me.  On a warm afternoon in some sizzling square it would be delightful, but now, even in front of a fire, it doesn't carry quite enough weight for me.  Maybe I need to find a good bonfire.

Heimkino acht

I read a few very positive reviews for this film, although I also saw it was "in the style of You've Got Mail", so I should have been more wary.  As it was, I ended up unimpressed.

SPOILERS

A Linguistics professor gets dumped by his girlfriend and at the same time begins to receive emails from an "E. Röthe", who wants to cancel a magazine subscription.  The emails become more and more upset as they appear to be ignored, and finally Leo writes back to say they have the wrong address.  Later he gets a generic Christmas wish email and responds thanking them for their spam.  This gets answered with, "Passive aggressive idiot."  And so the game begins.  E stands for Emma, but a slip of the finger makes her Emmi in their conversations.  They start a kind of flirtation even though Emmi is married with two step-children, and supposedly happy.  Leo tries to get over his ex-girlfriend, who pops up from time to time for sex and disappears again, but when he goes out with women his sister sets him up with, he can't stop thinking about his next message to Emmi.  Emmi also starts to get more caught up in their virtual relationship, and starts seeing the deficiencies in her relationship with her husband.  He is a respected orchestra conductor and spends a lot of time at rehearsals or in performance, while she gives piano lessons and works as a magazine editor, I think, from home.  They almost meet by design in a coffee shop but don't recognize each other yet.  Then, they almost run into each other in a supermarket, but Leo gets a call from his sister that their mother is in the hospital.  He is offline for a few days looking after her, and then taking care of the funeral.  He did not have a close relationship with his mother, so he is maybe more upset by the loss of opportunity to improve the relationship than the loss of a relationship itself.  His sister scolds him for this, too, saying their mother said he was the most like her because both of them kept the people they claimed to love at arm's length.  Leo starts to want a "real" relationship with Emmi, who resists because she doesn't want to rock the boat with her family.  She has a strong relationship with her stepchildren, and even though her husband seems preoccupied with his work, they seem to have a loving relationship.  She even tells her stepdaughter that when they met he took her breath away.  But, after some prodding, she starts to wonder if she could have a great love story with a stranger and she and Leo make plans to meet.  Then, Leo gets an email from her husband.  He asks Leo to have a night with his wife, to destroy the fantasy that they have built together, so that he can fight for her as a reality against a reality.  Leo hesitates, feeling guilty, but eventually continues with their plans.  At the same time, he organizes a transfer to a university in New York, so the meeting would be a goodbye anyway.  Emmi gets ready to go to see Leo and says goodbye to her husband, who tells her to have a good time, as she expects.  What she doesn't expect is that he calls her Emmi, which tells her that he knows everything.  She goes back to her bedroom and sits on the bed until late into the night, missing the date with Leo.  Then, at some early hour of the morning, she puts on her coat and shoes and rushes out the door, driving desperately to Leo's place, just making it before he gets in a taxi to the airport to fly off to his new American life.  They see each other for the first time and smile.

It could have been and interesting story, examining the ways people try to protect themselves from disappointment and pain, settling for something safe but unexciting, taking partners for granted, or getting caught in a cycle of the grass is always greener.  Instead, Leo's sister tells him that he never lets people in when we have seen him ready to marry his ex-girlfriend.  Emmi has a warm relationship with her husband and never lets on that she regrets any opportunities she has missed by marrying him and taking care of his kids.  The part about not being able to compete with a fantasy as a real person rings true, but since it comes at the very end of the movie it isn't explored.  We might imagine that Leo and Emmi see each other and then go their own separate ways to continue the fantasy, or the most Hollywood of endings could happen, where she joins him, with no luggage or anything, on his move to New York and they live happily ever after.  I much preferred Meine Ende, dein Anfang.

Some might say I should have had a gose ready with this movie, since I'm so salty about it.  So luck there, just a weissbier.  It's Andechs, in one those nice, big half liter bottles, to take the bad taste of a disappointing movie out of your mouth.  This is a fruitier beer than a lot of German ones I've had, with hints of banana and apple popping up here and there.  It's also fairly sweet in aroma, with sort of a cakey smell to it.  It's on the heavy side, filling, and better company on a summer evening than some movies.

Dec. 23 - Steininger

Sighing heavily, I get out the next-to-last calendar beer and it's a light one.  Steininger Hefe Weissbier to be precise.  Now, a weisse is probably more interesting than the lagers and pilsners that have rolled out so far, so maybe it won't be so bad.  At least the can doesn't give potentially false promises of luxury.

It's cloudy gold, so at least not completely transparent.  Gives a look of consistency that some of the past beers just didn't have.  Head looks good at first but fizzles out pretty quickly.  Just a touch of sweet wheatiness in the aroma, nothing sour or stereotypically "beery".  Actually rather sour in taste at first, leaves an impression of being a cider more than a beer.  Still, there's that normal wheat beer aftertaste, but not as heavy as I get from, say, Paulaner.  It does have some weight, leaves a little bit of something behind it on the palate, so I would say it's a bit better for winter (which we are officially in now!) than those other light beers.  Gives you a little oomf in your glass to feel a little extra warmth.

geeking out

One of the most promising names on the list of potential beer places was Beer Geek.  How could you not love that?  It's a little bit of a journey, but simple enough to get there, and it's right across the street from the metro exit.  30 taps!  A good number of them are national craft beers too.  Ah, familiar ground!  I went for a flight, thinking that would be the best way to get a range of flavors without loading up too much on the alcohol before a long trip back.  I mostly managed to get different breweries too.

The H11 was still calming down.  Each beer got a photo on Beer In One Word

First up was Antoš Chocholáč pineapple gose.  It's pale, with a slight head, not much pineapple noticeable in the aroma.  The gose sour is there, but a second sniff reveals a little more fruit.  It does not, however, have a great deal of pineapple flavor.  It's dry, with a champagne-like feel, tart with an underlying bitter.  I can't quite pick out the pineapple at first, but it's a nice snappy day drink.  After a few minutes warming up though, there's pineapple to spare.

Next, Hendrych H11 pale lager.  Still starting off light.  It's a more typical beer color, and very foamy out of the tap but the head dies back pretty quickly.  Normal lager aroma, a bit sweet and grainy, with sort of an oaty background to it.  The taste hits with a strong bitter on top but gentle grassiness underneath, very much a Central European beer in that regard.  I find it a bit strong flavored for casual sipping, odd for a lager, but H11 is a strong contender to accompany an evening of brooding.

I was looking forward to seeing the take on NEIPA with Sibeeria's Join, or Die.  Similar in color to the lager, but with a much brighter aroma, citrusy and spicy.  The taste isn't as juicy as previous NEIPA's I've had, but a strong citrus flavor is present, very smooth and sort of creamy.  There's also a touch of bitterness, but it seems to be hiding in the background.  While not as singular as, say, La Quince's Green Mind, it's quite alright, except for the little flowery poof it develops when it warms up.  That's more like Valverde, no NEIPA at all.

Moving on, there was Cobolis Bavorská Pšenice dunkels weissbier.  Now we're getting a little more color.  It's ruddy and a little cloudy, something like a red ale, but the aroma is different altogether.  It strikes me as bacon/hammy.  The first sip is sweet, but then the smoked meat starts to bleed through, and it seems to be a bit oily in the mouth.  There's also a sour flavor that floats up from the sweet and makes a kind of bridge between the "vegetable" and "meat" flavors.  It's not what I expected, and I don't think I'll be in any hurry to try it again.

The last of the flight was another Sibeeria, Polární Noc Imperial Stout.  It'll be good to get that dunkels out of my mouth.  The beer is a good dark color, opaque black, dark beige head, not too strong of an aroma, perhaps a little touch of licorice.  With one sip there's an explosion of smoke and dirt (in the good way!) in the mouth, giving up a rounded sort of bitterness.  Again, there's something kind of hiding behind the main stage flavor, maybe peeking out from behind the scenery.  This time it's that sweetish licorice.  The stout earthiness does its best to upstage it though, and for the most past succeeds, which is perfectly satisfactory to my taste buds.

I couldn't resist one more stout before I left, and All-Stars Pizza Port Night Surfer was something new for me.  It's an oatmeal milk stout, so not too heavy just before hopping into the metro.  This beer is also nice and opaque, with just a little bit of light at the bottom of the glass.  The head is off-white, but not too resistant.  It has a very smoky taste for a milk stout, perhaps a bit of coffee mixed in, but I find it a bit clingy to in the throat.  Doesn't go down quite as cleanly as that Polární Noc.  Still, it's a flavorful and tasty stout, balanced in its bitterness, and goes to the bottom of the glass with no surprises.  What else do you want, really?

time to bee happy

"There's a new bar in my neighborhood!" my friend said.  She had the business cards and everything.  I wasn't in a big hurry to go somewhere new, but it's always nice to have something different to explore.  I thought Bee Beer was just a gastro-bar, but when we went down there, it turned out to be one of those beer stores with taps.  Very small, very intimate.  They have more taps than most stores, hell more than a lot of bars, and for €8.50 you can get a flight of five beers.  I was disappointed that it didn't include number 7 actually, but you have to save something for another time, I guess.

1-5, right in a row

La Trappe was a very Belgian type beer despite being Dutch, typical scent, typical taste, a bit on the sweet side.  Oddly, I though there was a little bit of marshmallow in the flavor.  As expected from a Low Countries brew, something sour had to be in there somewhere, and it's in the aftertaste.  It's not a bad beer if you're a fan of the Belgian style, but I have different tastes, personally.

I had high hopes for the red ale, but it wasn't actually much better.  It was about the same scent, with a cloying sweetness, but the taste had a heavier sour fruitiness.  More in line with a lambic, although not quite so punchy.  It's sweet and sour, tangy, but a cleaner taste than La Trappe, going down with less aftertaste.  This is one time I prefer a lambic-like beer to...any other really.

The weiss bier is extremely pale and also nearly scentless.  Maybe there's a little grass in there.  It does have a nice wheaty taste, clean and sharp, not clingy, certainly refreshing for summer.  I was surprised to find something like lemonade lurking the background.  Makes it a contender for Spanish patronage.

Lefèbvre Barbãr pops up in bars here and there, but I haven't taken the opportunity to taste it.  Here it is without my even asking for it explicitly, so let's see what it's like...it's not bad at all, although not beery.  It's just sweet and smooth, without even a hint of bitterness.  It even smells like pure honey.  Not even a hint of bitterness.  Must be all that sugar that makes it so powerful.

Finally, an IPA to finish off.  It's another one of those collaborations, 7 breweries this time.  The smell is just what you'd expect from a craft IPA, citrusy and a little fruity.  It's a little astringent in flavor, not much fruit there, citrus or otherwise.  But it's a nice cleanser after the line of sweet beers in the flight.

There's nothing like finding a little corner of good beer, even though this city isn't lacking for it at the moment.  Hopefully, neighborhood interest will keep these experiments going.

dunkles bier & dunklerer film

I'm not in the best shape to sniff out all the details of beer right now, what with a drippy nose.  I blame early classes and late movies.  I only had time to run to the supermarket for a suitable beer to go with the movie, although not in the cinema.  Franziskaner isn't a small or unknown beer, although I don't often see the dark version, but it fits the bill this once.

Even labeled "Imported"

A little sweetness pierces the snot curtain, so I assume the smell must be good and strong.  The beer comes out surprisingly cloudy and light brown, although since it is Franziskaner I shouldn't be surprised at the cloudiness.  The head disappears pretty rapidly, leaving only a thin layer on top.  It does have a sweet taste, but with that unmistakable wheaty tang.  At first that sharpness influences me to think of this as a summer beer, but really, with a little more sipping it lines up well with darker and even sweeter, heavier beers that are pleasing in the colder months.

I could have used a black beer to go with this movie, or one of those more complex ales, because boy oh boy is this a frustrating story.  Not because Die Lüger der Sieger/The Lies of the Victors is a poorly done movie, but because of the questions that get left unanswered and the answers that we do get.  A rock star kind of journalist is looking for his next big story when his boss asks him to work with the new intern.  Grumpy, he tells her to look through a tabloid looking paper, and get more information on a man who killed himself by throwing himself into a lions' enclosure at a nearby zoo.  The intern uncovers some odd things, which in turn interest the star journalist, and they keep digging.  Leads take them, and the viewer, to suspect the German army, the German government, and business of callous treatment of soldiers/constituents/employees.  The liars are clearly identified in the film, but who they actually are and who they really work for is not.  They lay a trail of false proof to pull the journalists off the truth, and the sensational story is published.  Almost immediately afterwards, the number one journalists discovers the lies, although not the truth, and is forced to quit his job rather than admit he made a mistake and his employer bought into it.  The liars hack into his computers to check what information he has and even his blood sugar monitor to trick him into injecting more insulin than he needs, almost killing him.  Another unanswered question is who finds him passed out in the street and gets help, since all we see are a cigarette being dropped and some droopy women's boots stomping it out.  The intern smokes, but a phone call later places her in another city.  An actress hired by the liars to play the part of an informant wore similar boots while playing another, more "legitimate", role.  Maybe it was just a good Samaritan.  The most aggravating thing about the film is that, while it is fiction, the situation it describes of little people with problems being ignored by those with power and groups working for the power structure actively preventing good information from being known is not only believable, but what we're probably experiencing every day without even knowing it.