beer.Rawr!

Today I looted some epic stuff at a local restaurant, Habanero Sculpin from Ballast Point... The Chef had some fun trying to find me a beer that I had yet tasted, even though I was happy drinking the Grapefruit Sculpin he already brought me, a favorite I must say. 

So he after a while presented me with this jewel and said I should drink it after dinner, since he did not know what food to match it with ^^. credit to chefs who try match beer with the food!

So when i was done eating, I wanted this beer, I wanted it badly... I should have suspected something, or I did and totally ignored it, when he asked if I really really truly wanted it and told me it was very spicy and that I should be aware of that. 

As a man, this sounded like a challenge so I said yes.

I was not prepared.

This shit be spicy, but with true honest habanero flavor! So I was really surprised and torn. It was like drinking fire yet it tasted like a beer should. So some how the balance worked and it tasted really good at the same time I wanted to cry a little. So I did like a man would, drank it slowly and tried to look as calm and cool as possible. I usually order extra spicy food to get some kick, but that is nothing compared.

This is Passion Feber Ipa, and I have written about Mango Feber before, so this is another in the same series brewed with real fruit. By Swedish brewery Brewski and it’s about 7%alc. 

As you might tell on the label it’s made with passion fruit and you notice the flavor quiet a bit when drinking it. At first I did not like it, but it grows on you. 

Mango Feber have made it into the shelves on Systembolaget and there is a chance this might as well. They sell it in the shops closest to the brewery and you can order it to others. 

Yarr, we had this beer named Sur Citra from To Øl and it did not disappoint at all ^^. This is a Sour Ale/Wild Ale which might not be for everyone. The thing though with Sour Ale is that it is very exciting to taste and it is also really good to cleanse your palette with and start over. Say you had 10 beers and feel really tired of the taste, drink 1 sour ale and you are reset. Almost like being sober again.

We had a little gathering back the at the office a while back where we had a big tasting of beer, about 15 kinds clashed and what got people most excited was actually sour ale/wild ale. So if you feel like an adventurer, hesitate not but venture into these waters of joy and happiness!

Where I’m from it’s kinda hard to find these kind of beer since they are not main stream, so I try enjoy them whenever I get the opportunity.

“Road Trip” from Summer Wine Brewery, is an American Red IPA. It is also pretty strong on 7.2%alc which gives it a nice body :) I’m not !00% sure what I think about Red IPA, but for me it’s somewhere between being an IPA and becoming dark for my taste. So it’s like a beer with bad intention but still yet not Evil ^^.

The label made me think of the series Breaking Bad, and I wanted to be bad. So i sipped this beer as classy as I could and a lot of people seemed impressed by my exotic beer.

Hahah. yeah.. Ok so i revisited an old friend from back when I started make some money and alternate my drinking. These were the days when all i knew about beer was if it was good enough to buy or not. Not like you would pour it if bad, but you would not make your sexy face drinking em. Anyways, this was the first beer i remember that actually stod out on the shelves at my hometown all cause of the bottle. The mighty Red Stripe beer from Jamaica ^^.

There’s been a lot of BrewDog lately, but I guess I shouldn’t discriminate just cause one brewery do exciting things ^^. So this is from the 4-pack named “IPA is Dead” that came out this year. I also tasted the same pack last year, but then there were different beer in it and I did not really understand why they were packed, I just thought they were nice and was confused why they said IPA was dead. 

I had a lot more fun with this pack this time when i knew what it was about, reading them packages do pay off sometimes =D

So this is 4 beers brewed in the same way, same temperatures and same conditions, the only thing that brings them apart is the hops. So it is basically a pack that lets you taste what difference hops do to beer! I love it! This is like education in bottle and if I could have done school like this I would be a rocket scientist or at least have ever flowing beer from taps in the house.

Since this pack seem a bit hard to get your hands on now, I will spoil the experience a bit by saying it was very noticeable and that you could some way sort out what hops you preferred over others. And ye the beer is named after the hops and I guess in hindsight i realize it was the same thing last year but my ignorance or thirst prevented me to get the full experience then ^^. 

“Hello, My Name Is Little Ingrid”, from BrewDog is as described the little sister of last year’s version named “Hello, My Name is Ingrid”. If you might remember there was a few different in the “Hello My Name Is”-series, sadly I did not have the opportunity to taste them all last year, so when this came out I jumped the shelves to get me some! ^^.

There is a reason this is the “little sister” in that this is a Session IPA instead of her sister being an ordinary IPA. So this cutie is only 4.4%alc.

So this is Fubar from Tiny Rebel Brewery, an American pale ale weighing in on 4.4%alc. This design is hitting me on multiple highs, white and black spray with this motive makes me think of Banksy. Also this motive was used on a lot of boards when i was younger, associated with Volcom I think. Also the name is a classic, so what’s not to love?

Soo.. Rødgrød Med Fløde from To Øl is a Fruit Beer with fantastic colors and nice design. The brew is red like blood orange and mesmerizing to look at =) 

I can’t really tell what makes it a fruit beer, except maybe the whole fruity taste, for me it’s like a very close sister to sour or wild ale, very special and nothing you give to your average lager-person, but if you are up for exciting things, this is a treat =D

The name translates for me basically as porridge with red berries and cream, which supposed to be a danish dessert. Closest thing is something we eat for xmas, so i can relate a bit. I also must say that I think the flavors reach you in some way. You can taste the cream and the fruit!

Pale Hops from Beer Here, a brewery I was in contact with not long ago at all ^^. I thought the design was cool so it was an instant buy. The hops got the better of me though and I couldn’t take it with a smile. This was for me like beer version of Gin&Tonic, when you are like level 99 in bitterness and need to drink something that suits the mood, then this is it.

I’m sorry, this image sucks. Pitfalls of trying a lot of beer.. and when i try I actually drink the beer, sipping does not count!

So, this is Releaf Me from To Øl, another brewery that i often buy beer from =) This one was fantastic. If you see it, buy it! From what i can tell it is a bit rare and one of those that they brew up as a test, can’t even find it listed on their homepage and hardly any reviews on ratebeer either.. Hopefully it will stay, specially since it is like THE best gateway to craftbeer ever. Told a friend who usually only drink lager to try it and he loved it. So 100% route to craftbeer ;)

Hoppy Citra Ipa from Modern Times Brewery (located in San Diego) is what they call a Seasonal Brew. Something you can’t get year around and this one is an experiment with the Citra Hops (name might tell) and also with Booming Rollers and Centennials. I like this beer, it taste good yes =)

The design is very classic on the cans, they differ from each other with color schemes but keep the same template, so it’s easy to see they are from the same series. If anything, they might be bit easy to confuse with you normal lager cans, that is, if you make a point in standing out as someone who drink craftbeer ^^

Dragets Kanal, Double IPA from Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri in Sweden. Bought this one mainly because it’s from Sweden and I want to support local breweries =) The decals are boring and I would normally dismiss a beer looking like this, but I’m happy I did not. It is a nice beer! Taste from orange and blood grape, although very strong.. It’s a DIPA i know but 8.5% alc sits heavy for something to drink during the week.

Fathom from Ballast Point had me a bit confused. I saw the can and I was like whaaat a new one from Ballast Point and so I bought it. When I got home i realized that I had this on bottle a while back, but it looked completely different! So I got a little bit sad they fooled me with a different design, but hey, it’s not a bad beer so can’t be sad to long.

This is for me a very complex beer. It’s trying to be so much at the same time. It’s the first one I ever had that calls itself an India Pale Lager. So if I get it right, they took the recipe from something that could have been a west coast IPA, then used yeast normally found in Lager to get a cleaner base. I have no idea what that means, but practically it should allow for cleaner flavors.