Grolsch Part 2, or how much is in a beer?

I mentioned in my first post that I would want to present the old and the new Grolsch can side-by-side some day. Well, even though I am drinking another beer right now, the other old standby in fact, my picture today is of Grolsch bottles and cans, including the old and the new can. Looking at this picture and thinking about Canadian beer bottles, it strikes me that the serving size of beer in Canada is really laughable. Come on - the standard Canadian beer bottle contains 341 ml, a size that has been called "Midget extinguisher" by the brother of one of my good beer freak friends. I had one of those midgets earlier today after cycling home from work in "heat and humidity alert" weather (yes, I do work, and unfortunately it does not involve consuming beer, although it has involved working with breweries in the past). That beer was gone in less than 5 minutes because I was thirsty for a beer, and so I had to have another because I was still thirsty for a beer. Now Grolsch, and bless the good people over there in the Netherlands, has a standard serving size in cans that I would call normal: 500 ml (473 ml in the bottle - and I love those swivel top bottles!). The big brother is a 1.5 l bottle I bought a few years ago, and I'd say that is about the size that might extinguish my thirst on a day with heat and humidity warning. We have seen in another previous post that Beau's Brewery is selling their beer in 600ml bottles, the stated reason being that it reduces packaging. Be that as it may (and yes, it agree that reducing packaging is a good thing), but more importantly, it increases the amount of beer I get in my bottle and has has a better chance of reducing my thirst. In Quebec, we can get 750 ml bottles of some brands, which I find is another fine size that has the capacity to extinguish thirst, and I promise to feature some in the near future. The Canadian standard can only be another vestige of a Puritan country trying to tempt its population into temperance. Let's get with the 21st century, and start acknowledging that beer drinkers are a thirsty lot, and they need more than a midget's serving!

Valentins Hefeweissbier

I am not big on religious imagery, but given that I have chosen to blog (well, try to) about beer, and given the legacy of beer brewing as a traditional vocation in monasteries, I suppose I will have to accept a few pictures of saints and angels (didn't that already happen yesterday?). Gambrinus, of course, is the best known of the many patron saints of beer brewing, and there are a few beers that celebrate his name by adopting it; Gambrinus. So here we have a beer with the picture of St. Valentine on the can - the beer is Valentins Weissbier from Germany. Interesting is that this beer seems to have a virtual life of its own. There is a website dedicated to the brand, but the brewery - Privatbrauerei Eichbaum - makes no obvious mention of it on the corporate webpage. Normally, this is a suspicious set of circumstances suggesting cheap production quality under the guise of a marketing plot: Just think of Valentine's day and you'll get the idea. Nevertheless, I like the taste of this beer - a fairly typical German Wheat beer, re-fermented in the container (sadly, a can in this case) and with the characteristic opaque appearance created by suspended yeast particles. Eichbaum is located in Mannheim, in the Kurpfalz region of the state of Baden Württemberg- not in Bavaria, where most German wheat beers come from. Now all you Bavarians or wanna-be Bavarians out there who love their Weissbier, take note. I love Bavarian wheat beers, and this one I would easily count in the same league as Erdinger, Schneider, and Hacker-Pschorr. Granted, these are all mass-produced beers and likely cannot hold their own with local products from small town breweries, but those are simply too hard to find over here in Canada or even in most parts of Germany. But the quality and pedigree of even those mass-produced wheat beers cannot easily be disputed. Valentins has a slight and tangy yeast fruitiness, which is subtle and does not overpower the wheat malt with banana, clove, or peach notes. Instead, those flavours supplement the wall of malty goodness. My picture shows the delicately sculpted head of the beer and its orange-brown colour in a traditional Weissbierglass, with a slice of a topographic map of the area where it is brewed in the background. Can you find Mannheim?

Dieu du Ciel! Elexir Céleste

Like most beer freaks who live in Montréal, the name Dieu du Ciel makes tears of joy come to my eyes and conjures hazy memories of late nights after sampling a variety of fine beer. Dieu du Ciel is originally a brewpub on the Plateau Mont Royal and a must visit for any self-respecting beer drinker on a trip to Montréal. The pub is located a little out of the way, but well worth the visit, and if you want to go there on a weekend, come early as space is scarce. A couple of years ago, they also acquired the license to sell bottled beer made at a separate location, and a selection of their products is now available in retail stores. Needing a separate license and brewing facility to sell in bottles is another Canadian legal antiquity (or oddity, idiocy, skullduggery). I was surprised that this exists in Quebec, which otherwise is very liberal and progressive on matters related to beer and alcohol. Naturally, bottled beer never tastes as good as beer fresh from the tap, so don't think buying a few bottles will exempt you from having to visit the pub. In addition, the selection on site is always quite varied - you can check before you go on their website for what they currently have on tap http://www.dieuduciel.com/en/home.php. Anyway, Dieu du Ciel's bottled beer is an obvious candidate for coverage on my page if I am to maintain my own self-respect as a beer snob and beer blogger wannabe. I am quite fond of the labels they have designed for their bottles, and five members of the Dieu du Ciel family can be seen below in front of the original brew pub.

The first specific beer I cover in detail is the Bohemian Lager - called Elixir Céleste (even if you don't understand French, the name should not require a translation). I have enjoyed this beer on a number of occasions in the pub, and the bottle delivers most of what I had expected. Dieu du Ciel's brewers are as competent brewing lagers as they are brewing ale, and the the mouthfeel of this beer is heavenly indeed. Like Bohemian lagers, the Elixir has some floral hops notes and a lingering bitterness, although I find it a little bit too dry overall. The bottled version is missing some characteristic malt sweetness on my palate that I would expect from this style. The colour, on the other hand, is spot-on - a nice golden hue  - and the rich foamy head attests to the quality.

I also like the Dieu du Ciel bottle caps. The taste in my mouth is like angel's music.

La Houblonnière

Alright! Now we are finally moving into some adventurous territory. And all the beer freaks out there who do not know much about beers from Quebec, this is only the start. As I have written previously, the brewers in Quebec are, in my humble opinion, the best in Canada as a group, and I plan to dig in deep to explore beers from far and distant places within this province ('tis hard labour, but someone has to do it, so why not me?). Lucky bastard that I am, I have two special retail stores relatively close by which stock a great variety of local craft beers - the Atwater Cheese Market at the Marché Atwater, and the Métro grocery store in Verdun on rue de l'Eglise. There is another place, a depanneur in the Plateau Mont Royal on rue Laurier just west of St Urbain, who also has an excellent selection of local (and other) beers. I went down to the Atwater Cheese Market a few days ago to pick up a few interesting brews, and you will be able to read about them in the days to come as I indulge, my only constraint being that I have to make time for and find good places to take the right photo. One beer that I found, and which I had never tasted before, is la Houblonnière, brewed by the Brasseurs du Monde, in St. Hyacinthe, a town just south-east of Montréal. I do not know much about this outfit, only that they are likely to be a very recently founded brewery. Like many breweries in Quebec, they have very interesting labels for their products, as that of the Houblonnière attests: A hops grenade - houblon being the French word for hops, of course. The beer, billed as a hoppy blond ale, has strong hops flavours indeed, including a subtle flower nose and relatively pungent flowery taste, as well as a long bitter finish. In fact, it is hoppy enough for a nice hops belch a few minutes after consumption. I was a little disappointed in the malt balance - there were some caramel and toffee flavours, but they did not accentuate the front of the palate enough for my liking. Overall, though, this beer should please those who like American style IPA and anyone out there who is a lupumaniac (a term derived from the botanical name for hops - humulus lupulus). The photo below shows the IPA-like orange colour and nice head of la Houblonnière.

St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout

Like most animals, I too am capable of learning, and as of today's post I will give a title to each beer I review and photograph. This one might as well be called 'Black Beauty'. It is one of the finest stouts I have tasted, rivaling Guinness and Murphy's and all the other fine stouts out there (although I should say that I have not yet had the pleasure of drinking a Guinness in Dublin, which I hear is an experience unlike any other Guinness experience). The name of this beer tells you that it is also brewed by Montreal's McAuslan Brewery, like the Apricot Wheat Ale from a previous post. I took a specimen down to the brewery, where they have a patio serving beer and food next to a bike path along the Lachine Canal, which crosses the island of Montreal to help ships circumvent a set of rapids. The good people on the St Ambroise Terasse, as it is called, were kind enough to let me set up and even donated a small glass of the good stuff, seen in the picture below. The taste of this beer is other-wordly, I should say. I do not drink much stout but have brewed some myself in the past, and the rich palate of the St Ambroise Noire says oatmeal all the way. Its chocolate and black malt flavours are accentuated by sweet burnt toast notes, and the well-balanced bitter hops character cuts the end of the palate nice and dry. Surprisingly, this beer tastes very refreshing, especially on a hot summer day like today, when I took the picture below. Note the lovely black colour and thick creamy head.

Yeah, yeah, so I was too thirsty to wait  for taking this next photo. Remember what this blog is called, and note the amazing structure of old factory building in the background!

As if I needed more encouragement to drink beer, this blog has invigorated my passion for trying new brands and styles and at the same time revisit ones that I have had in the past. This weekend gave the occasion to add several fine specimen to the collection. I will start with a beer that I only recently discovered: Lug Tread by Beau's Brewery in Vankleek Hill, ON. It is a lagered ale, which basically means it is a Kölsch, as was confirmed in the brewery. I have sampled Kölsch made in North-America on a number of occasions, and the experience has usually been disappointing. But this one is truly a fine effort - it manages to capture the subtle bitterness of the authentic style from the city of Cologne (the name of the style is derived from the German name of this city - Köln - and I believe in the EU it is a protected designation by place of origin - a beer can only be named Kölsch if it is made in the Cologne area). Lug Tread has grain flavors that are wonderfully bread-like and slily peek through the hops flavors at the end of the palate. This makes the malt's sweetness seem dry like a Moselle wine cuts sweet grapes with acidity. The pale golden color and thick white head are also very reminiscent of a real Kölsch, and it goes down as easily as the stuff from Cologne, which is of course a dangerous thing. Because Beau's takes pride in using organic raw materials and brands itself as the "Natural Brewery", I took this picture of Beau's mighty 600ml bottle in the fields coming back from my visit to the brewery. The ride on the motorbike from Montreal is about 45 minutes, well worth it all the way. This may become a regular trip for me in the future because in Canada, inter-provincial commerce in beer is stuck in a temperance mentality that makes me want to cry.

Beau's Lug Tread is also noteworthy for its cap, featured below. 

The second beer I would like to feature is another Canadian entry - this one from Montreal: McAuslan's St Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale. I am not normally a big fan of fruit beers, but if done right, they can inspire and please at the same time. This beer really does inspire. If you think fruit beer means sweet, think again. The Apricot Wheat manages to evoke flavors of the apricot pit by balancing the fragrant aroma of dried apricots with a hops bitterness unlike any other fruit beer I have tasted. The wheat malts give this beer a base that lets the other two dominant flavors take centre stage while creating a background palate that makes you think ale, not fruit. I guess that explain the official full name. The colour is apricot all the way, as is the nose. Indeed, the nose of this beer alone is worth a try. We will see more from McAuslan in the weeks to come, and I dedicate this photo to the founder of this fine brewery, Peter McAuslan, who is a graduate of Concordia University. The picture taken on the Loyola Campus of Concordia to give the beer an appropriately majestic backdrop.

Tonight we have another fine German beer: König Pilsener (note the change in spelling from Pilsner!), or King Pilsener. Funny enough, I'd prefer to call this beer Königin Pilsner, or Queen Pilsener, because beer is after all word of feminine root (as in la bière). The can reads: "The king of beers," and I wonder whether this is another part of the Budweiser brand that was appropriated from elsewhere. The name Budweiser is of course taken from the name of a Czech beer from the town of Budejovice (Budweis in German), and if the slogan comes from König Pilsener, there seems precious little left that is original. But I digress, although I now already look forward to the occasion when I get to feature the real Budweis beer from the Czech Republic.

You might think "What's up with all the German beers?" Well, I am quite fond of German beers. They are close to my heart (and stomach!). What's there not to like anyway? And if you think all German beer is like the German beers I have shown so far, think again. There are a number of very different styles that I plan to cover in the future - Kölsch, Alt, Weizen, Schwarzbier, Kellerbier, etc. But I digress again. This König Pilsener is also a rather dry character, less spicy than Wernesgrüner in its hops flavors and with a slightly more bitter finish, but a similar malt to hops balance. I have even pulled out my upside-down bottle glass for this one - what an honour and fit for a king (or a queen, for that matter).

Well, well! Who would have though that on the third day, the next beauty is already up for the pageant. Tonight, we feature another fine German Pils beer, this one from the Saxony region in what used to be East Germany: Wernesgrüner. They are owned by the Bitburger Group Brewery. Montreal's Brasseurs RJ have a partnership to bring the Bitburger and Wernesgrüner brands into Quebec, as well as Köstritzer, which is a black lager also from the former East Germany and which was acquired by Bitburger in the wake of the fall of the wall. I will have to include the latter in the future to make this trio complete. Wernesgrüner, which is featured here in the soon to be infamous Totenkopf mug, is a much drier Pils beer than Bitburger, at least on my palate. Its hops flavours remind of citrus fruit, and they combine with a nice lingering bitterness to make you forget that there are malts in this beer too. The malts are quite pale in colour, and typical of German beers they have a tasty bread character.

That was quick - but the enthusiasm of the idea of taking portrait photos of beer containers and their precious content as if they were in poses was delectably motivating to get me back on the job sooner rather than later. On the first day, we were charmed by our first old stand-by, tonight it is the turn of the second standby: Bitburger. Fine German pils (i.e., pilsner) from the Eifel region near the Moselle river. Its bitterness is not as tart and dry as that of some other German pils beers, but a pleasantly lingering bitter-sweetness follows the malty bread flavours. And hey, I even was able to pull out the right glass for this one!

 

  






















 


We also have a more exotic model for this evening, although she would only be that for those of you who live outside of Quebec. Now I am not a Quebecker, even though I live in Quebec, but even as an outsider, I would say that Canada must be proud of its brewers in Quebec, many of whom rank among the best brewers in the country, and who are, collectively I would suggest, the best among the provinces (and territories - sorry). And the one I savoured tonight might be a little exotic even for the many craft beer fanatics in Quebec: It is la Ciboire by the Microbrasserie Archibald in Lac Beauport near Quebec City. This is a very malty IPA, like most other Quebecois IPAs. It has a pleasant and ever so slight flowery hops flavor that mingles with the caramel and toast falvours.  And the glass? Well. at least it is by the closest brewery near by.

What is this and why am I doing it or, Grolsch can on stage?

Today is the day on which I have finally been inspired about what I should blog (is this some kind of "lower" calling?). A friend sent me a link to a web page of one of her friends, in which he documents the beers he encountered during his travels doing wildlife photography. The page can be found at http://www.rakuensanka.com/beer/index.html

Now this is exactly the kind of theme I find exciting, and I am just miffed that I did not think of starting something like this earlier. Of course, I will develop my own interpretation of taking photos of beer containers and their contents - after all, I do not have the luxury of traveling for professional reasons to all kinds of exotic locations, unless you consider St. John's, NL or Regina, SK exotic. But I do know my way around beer and am fond of taking photos. I will start later today by taking pictures of what I drink this evening. Looking at the pictures on the website of my friend's friend, I like those that incorporate the landscape, place, or surroundings of consumption, and when possible include a picture of both the container and its content poured into a receptacle.

Here then is the old standby - or better, one of two old standbys - a fine Dutch lager of quite some pedigree: Grolsch. I have have enjoyed it many times in its traditional swivel-top bottle, and I will be certain to take a picture of that other, more noble container, in the future. But for tonight, seeing that I am enjoying one (or two) of my two old standbys, I have captured another form, the can, together with its contents "on stage" - in the spot light. This stage might see many other beers in the future. The beer looks darker in the photo than it actually is, which is more of a golden straw colour. The taste is a fine balance between sweet and bitter, with a considerably rich mouth-feel. The people at Grolsch have recently come out with a sleek new can design, and another future project might be the old and the new Grolsch cans together - at last!