Charger's Wine (and Beer) Club

[Charger]

That is true.

Come christmas week (post eve that is) I'm hoping to review a new christmas beer every day but let's see...

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 3.

This time we have a christmas beer Belgium called Gouden Carolus Christmas.
This very dark brown in color Ale has flavours of Plum, some chocolate sweetness and some quite seasonal spices which include cilantro, camomile and even some anise. Making this quite a unique blend of flavours.

There is a mid level hoppiness as well as some maltiness both of which do get drowned underneath all the spices.
This reminds me of some of the christmas breads I've had in the past which have been heavily seasoned with...well seasonal spices.
The extremely high alcohol content of 10.5% doesn't taste at all though.

All in all this is quite christmassy beer that's for sure, but I think too much is...well....too much. Also the sweetness gets quite much after few mouthfulls as well.
If you want something different this is for you, but if you're like me and want your beer to just taste like beer you might want to pass on this.


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[Zzzptm]

Cilantro in the flavor palette sounds dangerous... that one can easily overpower its fellows.

[Charger]

Indeed...

A new one coming later tonight.

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 4.

This time we have a domestic beer called Merry Xmas IPA from Olvi brewery in Iisalmi.

This murky deep brown colored IPA has tastes of caramel, some mild citrus, bit hoppy and a typical IPA bitter aftertaste.

As you know IPA's are not among my favourite beers for multitude of reasons, main one ofcourse being the murky bitterness. But there is enough other more seasonal flavours present on this one to atleast slightly diminish the bitterness. In fact there also a mild sweetness present which works well to counter balance the natural unpleasantness of the IPA.

As far as red Indian Pale Ales go this might be among the better ones, still it's not a great tasting beer by any means but with a bit of ham and other christmassy foods this might go down rather well.


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[Zzzptm]

So I went and looked up why India Pale Ales involve India and now I find that the Hittites had over 15 different types of beer, only 500 years after the earliest known recipe for beer - and even then, the Sumerians had two varieties.

Gonna read up on this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer

[Charger]

Yeah I think there's a strong history of beer making in that area...doesn't mean it tastes good though!


Anyways onwards we go:

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition part V

This time we have a Christmas Lager from Germany called Christkindlesmarkt Bier from Tucher brewery in Nürnberg.

This amber colored lager has flavours of sweet caramel, some herbs with mild hoppiness and a very slight bitterness in the aftertaste.
In a lot of ways a quite traditional german lager but still with a slight seasonal edge.

Unlike the Belgian counterpart we had couple of days ago this one has a nice very balanced flavour profile and nothing that really stands out, which makes it a much more enjoyable to drink.
This is a beer that one could easily imagine drinking on the christmas dinner or afterwards or before or just for the heck of it. A very nice Lager that is seasonal but not "only" seasonal.


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[Zzzptm]

Interesting comment you made about how something without a standout flavor being easier to drink - that can be the same way with food. Pizza, for example... I love it when it tastes like *pizza*, and lose my enjoyment and interest when it tastes like something else to the point of knocking out the sauce, cheese, and bread flavors. I once had a Gorgonzola pizza slice that was damn uneatable because of how the Gorgonzola just showed up and took over every bite. That's when I learned not to trust *that* restaurant any more with their new menu items!

[Charger]

^^^
Indeed. It is the same with food as it is with drinkables. If you have one flavour that overpowers everything else it's no good.

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 6

This time we have a domestic beer from the Hartwall Brewery in Lahti Finland, called Lahden Erikois Juhla (Lahti's Special Celebration).
This is a celebratory beer for the 90 years of making of Lahden Erikoinen.
It's not techincally a seasonal beer but it has a festive nature to it so it is atleast somewhat fitting.

The murky golden brown unfiltered Lager has flavours of some maltiness some hops and a mild hint of citrus.
This is a rather mild flavoured lager all in all, which is bit different as unfiltered lagers sometimes tend to have a very strong flavour profile and the taste of yeast can penetrate through but not here. This is rather basic lager actually.

At the end of the labe description it states "There's always reason for celebration" I can't agree with that by any means, but the beer is good, nothing spectacular but good.

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[Zzzptm]

Basically, they're not rolling the dice on that one, they're playing it safe... which is good if you want something you can count on at an event.

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Edition Final Part.

On the final Christmas episode we have a domestic porter called Joulun Taiga Porter (Joulun being Christmas but Taiga being a bit of a pun actually, as taika means Magic and Taiga means the northern forest zone) from Honkavuori Brewery in Joensuu Finland.

This dark cola colored Porter has flavours of plums, raisins, hint of coffee and some moderate maltiness.
Nothing overly seasonal, but the plums and mild raisin flavours do add some christmassy feel to the otherwise rather good small brewery porter.

The taste palate of this one is quite well balanced and it is something that you can easily drink on it's own or pair it with some christmas ham on the dinner table as well.


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[Charger]

I got it directly from Rock 'n Roll By The Pint store back when it was released in 2012...I believe it has long since sold out.

There is a new model available on Backstreet Merch now...

It has murray on the front.

https://www.backstreetmerch.com/fi-fi/artist/dio/pint-glasses/murray-beer-glass

But that is sold out at the moment as well.

[Charger]

No...a British one I believe...that was just a link to their finnish site...sorry about that.

I've bought some stuff through them in the past.

[Zzzptm]

BEER FUN FACT FROM FINLAND:


In the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, there are more verses devoted to beer than to the beginnings of mankind.