T(welve)-7

On the seventh day of Beermas I went and bought for me

Seven avian vampire teasers

Six plans a-hatching

Five collaborations

Four miles of nowhere

Three tropical tree eggs

Two staring wings

And an icy raven looking needy

Half the days over and we are almost done with the birds.  This is the last one, those elegant white bastards.  There's no bird on the can really, but there is the impression of a swan neck winding its way across the front, reflecting the colors of a volcanic sunset.  Caravelle's Peachy Keen Wit also sounds artistic and sophisticated, ready for a flowing chat about things that matter in life.

This is a summery straw colored beer, very clear, especially in comparison with those hazies.  The very subtle aroma has more to do with sours and that gassiness than wheat beers and their grain and spice.  It also smells a little soapy.  The taste is light and clean, not sour or astringent.  It's a little fizzy and there's a hint of peach floating around, so it's a little more like flavored mineral water than straight beer.  Actually not too bad to finish off the night with, it's refreshing and thirst quenching, without weighing you down for the trip home.

i invite you to depart

More learning afoot and beers to match...more or less.  It's not super hard to find loopholes, as you know if you've seen Beermas.  Something that represents old tastes in the peninsula?  Well, Belgian styles obviously, sour or table beer of you're going ancient.  It would probably be more fitting to not have beer at all, seeing as it was hardly a beverage of the people until quite recently, so cider, sherry, and of course wine would be appropriate.  But, I like my beer!  So, Nah I'mma Stay Belgian Wit it is.  It is a Spanish beer at least, coming from La Textil in Barcelona.  Maybe I should have gone for Dougall's as a representative of Cantabria.  Oh well, there's always next time.

A surprising color, but very appetizing since I love my red fruits.  Dry and slightly sour aroma, like a lot of fruit beers.  Flowery and hardly sweet at all, also much less sour than I was expecting.  Tiny kick at the end, but it's mostly smooth and almost yogurty.  There's no big change if you let the beer warm up a bit, it might feel a little bit stickier.  But, the flavor remains light and refreshing, with very natural touches of plantiness.  Although not super bubbly, my impression is mostly that of an organic soda, unsweetened, rather than any style of beer.  It's enough for me for a summer evening in an oven of a city.

Supplier: La Buena Cerveza

Price: €3.30

Door #12

It's a cavalcade of familiar names, now it's Hoegaarden.  This witbier has been found at taps all around town, usually as a sort of representative of the Belgians styles not in the bottle.  Cloudy and light orange, a fruit basket in scent dispersion, but without the throat grabbing aftertaste that so many Belgian beers, and some non-Belgian wheat beers I might add, tend to show me.  Although it should be a little spicey, not hot but a complex ball of flavors, it's not quite a winter beer for me.  I think of it as a light and gentle summer kind of beer, but maybe the bottle will add some weight to it.

While it looks just like I remember, there is a surprising sourness to the aroma, and even a little something like pear.  The flavor is immediately wheat beerish, a little sweet and tangy, crisp and light.  I keep waiting for some bitterness to kick in, but it it's a while before it becomes barely detectable.  There's kind of a grapefruit sensation, like a soda in fact.  I'm a little disappointed in this bottle version, though, the flavor is not as strong as I recall the tap beer being.  It takes until the very end for a little banana bread to make its appearance, smoothing out the citrus sharpness.  It would be nice to have a little cheese plate or something, since the acidity would cut through any lingering dairy in the mouth.

Halfway through the calendar, halfway to Beermas!

eleventhly

On the first day of Beermas I went and bought for me
A bird dropping beads on the street
Two turtledoves
Three Belgian roosters
Four birds calling for blood
Five rolling blings
Six geese parading
Seven mermaids bird flipping
8 breakfasts steaming
Nine drinkers dancing
Ten boars a-drinking
Eleven pipers charming

After many frustrated searches the snake popped up like magic.  While some might not call the instrument a pipe, it's close enough for me, especially considering what medieval pipes tended to be like.  White Mamba from Two Chefs Brewing looks like a light note to close out my Beermas, even with one day left.  It's a witbier, something shiny and bright for the new year.

Light straw yellow color, bright white head, and tangy citrus aroma.  The taste matches quite closely, with a hint of bitter under an orange fuzz.  At first it feels pretty light, but grows in body with time.  Doesn't get to an explosive point, though, staying smooth and easy drinking.  It's supposed to be strong on the flavor, but I think I've had stronger ones.  Still, it's cuddly and a little thrashy, like the happy snake on the front.

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €2.89

can't always be a hermit

Just for some variety, I'll sum up a little beer tasting at a relatively new place in town.  While I've been away from tastings for a variety of reasons, not enjoying them is not one of those reasons.  It's mostly been a problem of time.  So, when the opportunity comes around, the smart is not to let it go by.  Toast Tavern is the latest of the food&drink empire the owners are building, although the man behind the bar is instrumental in bringing in the beers and presenting them.  We had a set of five, mostly national, and a nice progression in terms of strength and "weight" - which for me is the intensity of flavor and the darker notes in that flavor.

First we had a witbier from Garagart called Gary & Esti.  The brewery is Basque, but this is brewed in Logroño, so still national.  It has a definite champagne sort of flavor, a bit sour, and definitely bubbly.  It's a slightly bitter and grapey beer, with a background of spices.  We were told cumin has a hand in the make-up, and some chamomile too.  Honey also comes up on the ingredient list, but I really didn't find it to be a very sweet beer at all, with the champagne similarity increasing as the glass gets drunk.  All right, but not my personal glass of beer.

We moved along to a session IPA, Founders All Day.  This is the one representative of foreign beers, being from Michigan, and a fine ambassador it is.  Session beers have often been perfumey in my experience, but this one is pretty laid back in that regard.  There is a certain sweetness in the smell, which my neighbor described as "like a Jolly Rancher".  I would not go that far, although I can see where the connection might be.  There is a little more kick than something so flatly sweet as a Jolly Rancher might have, which makes for pleasant drinking.  I found it cidery, but like dry and bitter Spanish cider.

Number three was also Garagart, although I did not catch the name of this particular brew.  It is an IPA, but not like the typical craft IPAs that tend to hit you with the citrus.  It is just a little flowery in taste, with a nice aley bitter too.  It's not as complex as its Garagart colleague, but more in line with my drinking preferences.

The serving for the big kids

Our next-to-last sample was what I had started with, having arrived a little early.  The excitement of a beer tasting after all this time, you know.  Falken 1UP is a fine Imperial IPA, with a nice dark color.  It is noticeably bitter, although more of a rounded flavor than a sharp one, and it also avoids the typical craft IPA citrus.  I noticed in the tasting, after the other samples, that this beer has a but of fruit to it, but it's something plummy, not orangey or lemony.  It also does get a little syrupy if you have a large serving, but not too sticky.

We went back to Founders for the final sample.  Founders Porter looks the part and does not disappoint when called on.  It is sweet like many a porter, but not too much, and there's an undeniable smokiness about it in the taste and the smell.  The fruit kind of lurks in the background.  The flavor also has a hint of chocolate mixed in with the smokey sweetness, so it's not especially tangy, but a nice, balanced palate for the tongue.

The space is not especially large, but that's what you can expect in most Spanish bars.  It is easy on the eye, a little rustic, and excellently located.  And of course, beers that can't be beat.

And a mascot - gotta have a mascot

white summer

Gruit became known to me at the last craft beer fair, where their low-hop, high sweet brew was a little something different.  Many of the breweries were featured prominently on beer store shelves for some time after that, having done the job of impressing the owners looking for new possibilities.

It comes out with a strange, watery color.  If I didn't know it was a witbier, it would be alarming.  The collected liquid in the glass has a little more color, just a touch of yellow.  The head is white, like marshmallow fluff, and you almost expect it to come close to that sweetness.  The smell is sweetish, but extremely light.  I can just detect a whiff of flowers.  The taste is also quite mild, neither bitter nor particularly sweet.  It makes me think of watered down apple juice.  The literature likens it to dry white wine, and there is a small similarity in the color and unintrusive flavor.  I remember Gruit's Blond being much heavier on the sweet than the Wit is, which hasn't been my experience with other wits.  It doesn't have the fruitiness of Hoegaarden or Medina Blanca, although once it warms up a little there is a fleeting bit of sweet that centers on the back of the tongue.  It has that Belgian tendency to save a little taste surprise at the bottom of the bottle, but where I usually find it too sour from bigger breweries, Gruit hits with a little citrus and a little contrast that really sets off the flavor, even with most of the glass empty.