A (Second) Visit to the Cellar

I finally made it back to The Cellar in Blackrock last weekend and picked up six more Irish beers  from their huge selection. I have to mind myself in there, I'd happily go in and drop a couple of hundred bills on beer easily. Luckily, I'm tight as a gnat's chuff...

Cotton Ball Kerry Lane Pale Ale 50cl 5% abv €4.25 link
Starting off - it's not bad. Cloudy amber in the glass with a fine white head. After a few minutes I'm beginning  like this more, maybe it has warmed up a touch but the finish is developing some nice complexity. There's not a lot of hops initially but  overall it's working for me. Not cheap though, at north of 4 notes for a bottle. For that money I'd want a bit more...

Clifford's Connacht Champion Irish Golden Ale  50cl 4% abv €3.99 link
Yummy. Pours with a thick white head and plenty of bubbles. Slightly sweet but there is a little tannic aftertaste that offsets it. It's got a lot of flavour for a 4% beer, and would make a good session ale, assuming that the sweetness doesn't become sickly. One for a sunny beer garden, methinks.

Brehon Brewhouse Stony Grey India Pale Ale 50cl 6% abv €4.25 link
Cloudy amber in the glass. Big and bold and yummy. Like it. 

Black Donkey Sheep Stealer Farmhouse Ale 50cl 5.6% abv €3.99 link
Nope. Tasted like a wheat beer to me.  (It's a saison - are the taste characteristics similar?). Either way I don't really care for it. Herself liked it, but she was weird taste; she married me after all.

Kelly's Mountain Revolution Red Ale 50cl 4.8% abv €3.79 link
Like this. Full flavoured with lots of caramel and a hint of fruit. I tried their Pale ale a while back but I don't recall if I liked it.

Jack Cody's Puck Pilsner 50cl 4.5% abv €3.69 link
Didn't care for it. Cloudy and dull and a bit resiny. Reminded me of Harviestoun Schiehallion craft lager, which I used to enjoy, but fell out of love with it all of a sudden, last time I tried it.

Random German Beers (from Ballyogan)

Doing some shopping in Dunnes in Ballogan I noticed some new cheap lager, and  I'm always on the lookout for good cheap lager. There were three beers from Eichbaum, a Pilsener, a Weissbier (I ignored that one) and the last of the three was a huge (950ml) of "Premium" beer, which I just had to buy.. 

Eichbaum Pilsener 50cl 4.8% abv  €1.50

Best way to describe this is probably "solid". Nice balanced taste, good mouthfeel and a decent finish. Good value as priced and  I'll be buying more.

Eichbaum PremiumBier 95cl 5.5% abv €3.50  
Didn't really care for this. The extra strength and "premium-ness" translates into a slightly unpleasant heat and a touch bitterness at the back of the palate. Don't like.

I was in Molloys looking for new Irish beers and IPAs and I cam across these two premium looking German types so I decide to take a punt on them. Link 

Stortebeker Atlantik-Ale 50cl 5.1% abv €3.75
When I bought this I had no idea what kind of "ale" this was. It came out a very pale if slightly cloudy lager like colour, so I guess it's probably a pale (or golden) ale. First things first, its got loads of lovely tropical fruit, loads. Not a huge finish but there's a little hoppines to counterbalance the fruit. If you like the tropical fruit thing then this a lovely example.

Stortebeker Pilsener-Bier 50cl 4.9% abv €3.25
Quite pale in the glass with a pretty thick white head with a slightly grassy aroma. I like it. It has a crisp and clean flavour. It's very well balanced with a hint of hops at the finish. It's a pretty solid Pilsener, problem is it's not cheap at €3.25 a bottle. Is it significantly nicer than other decent euro lagers e.g. Veltins, Spaten, Pilsner Urquell, Krombacher etc? You be the judge.

The Intl. Lager Challenge - Czech Republic - Final 1 (of 4)

Final - Czech Republic
Budweiser Budvar 5.0% abv  €2.49 
Pilsner Urquell 4.4% abv  €2.99


So here we are, all the quarter finals and semi-finals are now done, time for the first national final, and it's coming live from the uh....capital of the Czech republic. Anyhoo, this should be a close final, I'd say the Budvar is a warm-ish favourite but who knows.

BTW I am still debating the format of what happens after the four regional finals, I had originally planned to pit the winners of each country against each other in two semi-finals and then have those winners face off in a super grand final, but, I am now considering a four-way blind tasting, as a more equitable option.

Budweiser Budvar
Oh holy jeebus, that's good. Lots of hops and flavour and a super finish. Yep, hot favourite now.
 
Pilsner Urquell
Still good,  slightly sweet but well balanced and refreshing. Lovely but not a winner today.

Winner - Budvar