Death by hops can be lethal...

Just woke up after an evening of trying Belgian beers and then finishing it up with a couple Death By Hops 3. That beer is fucking lethal, I'm still a bit drunk and I'm due at the wine festival in an hour. This is going to be a rough weekend....

Im off to Chateu Grand Cru

I plan to visit the Chateu Grand Cru this weekend. It's a wine and cheese festival in Örebro, located inside the castle. I've been there before and it's usually pretty good. Very nice setting inside the castle and the people in the booths are always knowledgable and friendly.

The only thing I can complain about is that it get quite cramped and the ticket system seems a bit overcomplicated. This year you buy tickets that give you right to enter at different times during the day. I personally have the earliest tickets so I won't be affected but it feels like a drop in value for those that show up late, but my beer-loving sidekick Per had some problems getting tickets and will have to show up at a later time. However I guess it will be a fix to the overcrowd problem.

I should have a report up some time after the weekend.

New adress

As you might have noticed you get redirected to www.beerdrivel.se when you visit this blog. I recently bought the domain which is a step towards some changes on the blog. I plan to change blog motor some time in the future and also working on a new logo. The reason is I hope to make a better looking site and add some stuff that I can't do on blogspot, also a bit fed up with all the problems and bugs with blogspot.

Belgian Blizzard

Belgian Blizzard (33 cl bottle) 9,4%
This is a Rochefort 10 clone that my father, Peter the chef and Erkki brewed at Källarknut during a raging blizzard.

Style: Belgian Quadrupel
Cost: Homebrewed not sure what they paid for the ingredients.

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

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Appearance: 3/5
It poured a very dark and very hazy amber liquid with a small dirty white foam.

Smell: 8/10
Fruity, berries, yeast and sweetness.

Taste: 8/10
Fruity, berries and yeast.

Mouthfeel: 5/5
Smooth and puckering mouthfeel. Thick body and medium carbonation.

Comment:
I should start by saying that Rochefort 10 is one of my favourite Belgian beers. This clone is very good but doesn't taste exactly like the original. I will have to test this at a later date, I actually have a bottle of Rocherfort 10 but didn't think of opening it.

That being said lets take a look at what we got. It's a very nice belgian quadrupel and extremely easy to drink. I didn't feel the high alcohol at all. The only thing I might complaint about is that I would have love some more complexity. It felt a bit one-sided but I got a feeling this might change over time. The beer is quite young and should probably sit for a while to mature.

Total: 4/5

TT normal vs TT ecological

Carlsberg recently released an ecological version of their normal Three Towns beer called TT Green Lager. Since doing a normal review of the beer would feel a bit boring I figured I should try their normal against their new ecological version.


Appearance
They had the same watery yellow colour and big white foam. Only difference was that the normal looked to have a higher carbonation with more bubbles.

Smell
Both had the usual lager smell of sweet bread and metal, but the ecological had a slightly stronger smell.

Taste
Same here, very similar taste, just like a regular pale lager. Only difference is that the normal version had a bit more flavour and was a bit "rounder".

Mouthfeel
Both had a semi-smooth mouthfeel with a light body and medium carbonation. Normal was just slightly smoother.

Total
As expected the two where very similar to each other. There are just marginal differences that are hard to distinguish if you aren't actively looking for them. I didn't exactly like any of them, but I think the normal version has a slight edge on the ecological. It had a slightly better taste and mouthfeel.

Normal TT wins over Eco TT.

Nynäshamn Bötet Barley Wine

Nynäshamn Bötet Barley Wine (25 cl bottle) 9,1%
This beer was released as a temporary addition at Systembolaget in the beginning of Marsch. There are still plenty of bottles left for those that want to buy a couple of bottles.

Style: Barley Wine

Cost: 33,50 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

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Appearance: 4/5

Dark, slightly hazy, amber liquid with a small dirty white foam.

Smell: 8/10

Strong smell of wood, malt, caramell and also wineous almost like porter. Some alcohol as well.

Taste: 8/10

Sweet with allot of malt, sugar, hops, fruits and wine.

Mouthfeel: 5/5

Puckering mouthfeel, thick body and medium smooth puckering mouthfeel. It put a smile on my face.

Comment:

A very nice Barley Wine that reminds me a bit of Bigfoot Barley wine although with less hops and lighter body. It might have been a bit to sweet though, but it might improve over time. I'm going to buy another bottle and store for at least a year to see what I think.

Something worth mentioning is the 25 cl bottle that just feels perfect for this kind of beer. I wouldn't mind similar bottles in the future.

Last time I rated this I gave it a 3,6/5, but that was on tap and a couple of years back. So this time I gave it a slightly higher score:

Total: 4,1/5

Van Diest Früli Strawberry Beer

Van Diest Früli Strawberry Beer (33 cl bottle) 4,1%
This beer was released at Systembolaget on the 24th of March and is now part of the permanent supply. It's a belgian wheat beer with strawberry juice. According to the pamphlet I got with the bottle it's real fruit juice and no essences where used while making this beer.

Style: Fruit Beer
Cost: 14,90 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

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Appearance: 3/5
Hazy red-orange liquid with a small pink foam that left no lacing.

Smell: 5/10
Very sweet smell of strawberries and fruit candy.
Taste: 5/10
Strawberries, rasberries. Very sweet and thirst quenching.

Mouthfeel: 4/5
Smooth mouthfeel with a medium body and low carbonation.

Comment:
I'm not sure how to rate this beer or if I should even call it a beer. I know that is a comment allot of people have with lambics and similar beers. Then I just smile at them but this time I'm the one asking the question: Is this beer? Well it is, it's just the fruit juice that is throwing me off. It basically smells and taste like a very good soft drink. Very fruity and sweet, but it has a thicker body and a deeper more complex flavour compared to a soft drink.

Even though I don't give the highest score to this, I actually believe I will buy more bottles in the future. It's extremely easy to drink and very thirst quenching. Would consider it with a dessert or even just sitting on the porch on a hot summer day.

Concerning suitable food companions it's obvious this is a dessert beer. The pamphlet suggests vanilla ice cream or using it as an ingredient in a sorbet. Both sounds very nice and I'm actually willing to try them out. I also have a feeling this would work very well with chocolate. Possibly not the fantastic combo that kriek and chocolate is, but it should be close enough.

Total: 2,7/5