Charger's Wine (and Beer) Club

[Charger]

^ Every time I see that glass, I think there's now a Dio Beer...

Ronnie was more of a red wine guy so I think if he'd ever gone to the alcohol business it would have been wine...

But he also did like Guinness so maybe a fine stout could have been possible.

Also with all of these bands making beers and wines now not that far of a stretch that Ronnie might have wanted to do the same would he still be with us.

[AnnoMundi]

^ Every time I see that glass, I think there's now a Dio Beer...

Ronnie was more of a red wine guy so I think if he'd ever gone to the alcohol business it would have been wine...

But he also did like Guinness so maybe a fine stout could have been possible.

Also with all of these bands making beers and wines now not that far of a stretch that Ronnie might have wanted to do the same would he still be with us.

That’s because he’s Italian, his father probably made wine, most Southern Europeans make whine as part of their culture, I know a few Southern Europeans who did, Italian and Portuguese, and after they’d make their grappa with the grape mash after pressing the grapes.

[Zzzptm]

Holy crap, I went looking around and found that Dio did a Budweiser commercial!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVczOiOO3sg

[Charger]

Yes he did indeed. I'm kind of surprised you didn't know about that...

[Charger]

Holy moses it's been almost 4 months since my last beer experiment and subsequent Wine Club entry...wow...what a sacrilege.

So it is time for the return of CHARGER's WINE CLUB's BEER EDITON:

This time we have some Kentish Strong Ale from Shepherd Neame brewery in...well Kent England called Bishops Finger.
This is a very dark brown Ale with a some what murky essense.
The taste is an interesting mixture of some caramel like sweetness combined with a slight bitterness even with a hint of citrus.
Shepherd Neame is the oldest brewery in Britain and you can sense that there is a vast tradition and skill in producing good basic beer. There are no IPA-style gimmicks here no mumbo jumbo just good traditional ale. Which is the way frankly it should be.
The slightly higher alcohol content of 5.4% is also very traditional and complements the ale well.
A rather excellent british ale...something they sure know how to do well.

* * * *

[Charger]

Wow...it's been a while but I am back baby with a new beer!!

This time we have a Lager from Czech Republic called KOZEL Premium Lager.
It's a nice golden brown soft tasting beer. There is a hint of fruitiness and it's very mildly hoppy with yet a nicely soft maltiness, which is always a good thing.

This is a very good, I suppose you could describe it as a basic lager, but that's not a bad thing at all. Most of the time the beers you can enjoy the best are the ones that have very little gimmicky supposedly trendy "special flavours" in them. Those might be fun to have once but basic lagers, like this Kozel, are the ones that you'll return to.

I am not the biggest fan of Czech beers but this was a nice positive surprise. If you like lagers this is not to be missed.

* * * *

[Zzzptm]

Yeah, I always wonder about those special flavors.

*Can* you get (X) flavor into a beer? Sure.

*Should* you get (X) flavor into that beer? Well, maybe not...

[Charger]

^^^Quite well said. I've never been into all those "fancy ass" beers. Not my thing.



This time we have a product of a small Finnish brewery called Kakolan Kalpea (Kakola was an infamous prison in Turku and kalpea means pale in finnish). This beer has gotten it's name from a novel written by a famous Finnish writer Reijo Mäki.

The unfiltered Pale Ale is bit murky light brown in color and has a very prominent citrus flavour along with some bitters and maltiness.
The after taste is overly bitter and it lingers on and on.

As far as Pale Ales go this is not among the finest ones. Some bitter is fine in beer but this has bit too much of it and it carries too far in the after taste overpowering virtually everything else.

* *

[Charger]

This time we have a Lager from Czech Republic called Litovel Premium.
This is nice golden brown in color, taste incorporates some maltiness along with a slight sweetness and a very mild bitterness.

This is again (just like Kozel) a pretty nice standard lager, however this is not quite as smooth and easy going. But a good basic lager non the less. The slightly stronger alcohol content of 5% doesn't make much of a difference exept maybe give it some edge. Nothing special here but at the same time nothing seriously wrong with it either.

* * * ½

[Charger]

This time we have a light lager from Germany called Karlsbräu Helles.
Beer is very light golden brown in color, has very little acidity and very light in taste. On the can it says World Beer Awards Germany Winner, but I honestly have a very hard time understanding why.
This is a good solid light lager with an extremely mild taste so I find it hard to imagine this to have won anything. Granted there is nothing really exceptionally badly wrong with the beer either but it really raises very little emotions one way or another.

I do like mild tasting lagers and pilsners like Bud or Pabst and so forth but this doesn't have that "something" that those beer have. I could imagine this would work pretty well with food as it has very little taste of it's own. But as it is nothing to really write home about.

* * ½

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition part 1.
Well ho ho ho! It is that season again which means the Wine Club goes all christmassy.

To kick things off we have a product of a smaller Finnish brewery Saimaa Brewing Co. (Saimaa is the largest lake here in Finland and the brewery is located in Mikkeli on the shores of the lake) called Valkiajärvi Jouluolut (Whitelake Christmas Beer).

A very dark murky brown colored beer with a taste of raisins and slight caramel sweetness with some malty aftertaste.
As far as christmas beers go this is on the softer and smoother side but the downside of that is that it is also lacking some richness and character in the flavour department. This is maybe even bit too bland for a season ale.
However it is still smooth and easy to drink.

* * *

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club CHRISTMAS Beer Edition!!

Ho Ho Ho! It is time for the annual festive season of trying out different christmas themed beers.

The perfect way to get into the holiday spirit is with a beer from Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire England called BAH HUMBUG!
The seasonal beer is quite dark brown in color and the taste incorporates some mild hoppiness with good maltiness and hints of cinnamon and dried fruits. You can also sense a hint of caramel in the aftertaste.

Unlike some christmas beer this is quite smooth and even light in taste and feel. Eventhough this has a bit higher alcohol content of 5.0%.
This is a great beer to warm yourself into the rather spicy and perhaps strong world of christmas beers. You can get the festive feel without any of the negative things that can be present in seasonal ales.

The name alone is worthy of few stars and combined with the taste this deserves a high rating of:

* * * *

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition part 3!

Moving on with our christmas season beers.

This time we have a beer from Pori Finland called ROCKING WINTER RED ALE.

A very deep dark brown in color and has a rather bitter malty taste with a hint of caramel in the after taste.
Bit of an unbalanced beer this one, on the one hand it has that bitter side and one hand the sweetness. It's like it can't fully decide what to be.

But taste aside this beer had one thing going against it the moment I opened the can. I took it straight out of the fridge, didn't shake it or anything and booom it foamed right out of the can straight onto the table, mouse mat and naturally on the keyboard which is now writing a bunch of numbers with the letters plus the "enter" button stopped working so...

Sorry... no stars for this one...as it cost me a keyboard.

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 4!!

This time we have an all time classic of a christmas beer, it's the BAD ELF WINTER's ALE from Ridgeway Brewing Company in Oxfordshire England.
This is a very murky golden in color and a strong yeasty and somewhat bitter hoppy taste with a hint of citrus.
For a normal beer I'd say there's bit too much hopps but for a season ale it works.

This is probably my favourite IPA style beer and that's probably because I only have it once every few years. But it is something of a christmas classic.

* * *

[Charger]

Charger's Wine Club Christmas Beer Edition Part 5!

And with a brand new keyboard we soldier on with our Christmas themed beers.

This time we have yet another Finnish beer, Pakkas Paavo Talviolut 2019 from Teerenpeli Panimo in Lahti Finland.
Hard to translate that name but maybe something like Frosty Freddy or something to that effect. Or Lowtemp Louie. Anyways it's a play on words type of a thing. Talviolut is simply Winter Beer.
Anyways what's inside the bottle is more important than the name anyways.

This is a very dark brown, near black in color and has a very strong taste of coco beans and coffee.
As is the case with most dark ales this has a lot going on and is very strong in taste. Not very smooth like stouts. It says on the bottle that this would go well with meat...it indeed might...most certainly better than just as a stand alone beer I am sure. The hefty taste of bitters and coffee is bit too over powering here.

* * ½