S’Kloane Brauhaus S’Guate Weizen Salzburg, Austria

Date:  November 5, 2018

The Story—S’Kloane Brauhaus claims to be the smallest brewpub in the world and it’s pretty evident they haven’t traveled very far.   For starters, Isi-Brau in neighboring Bergheim, is smaller, but you can find numerous nanos on both sides of the Atlantic that make S’Kloane look pretty substantial.   It is, however, an intimate, calm and comfortable place to drink.  The food is excellent and the menu includes dishes you won’t often find in Austria.

The Beer—S’Kloane Brauhaus S’Guate Weizen is a good standard Hefeweizen.   It’s quite chalky and it starts tartly, but sweetness increases as it drinks and it’s a good match for the brewpub’s good food.  Classic hefeweizen estery flavors emerge slowly but are there – more clove than anything else, but a bit of bubble gum and ripe banana as well.   Ellie thought it was a bit rough, but I though the edge was part of the charm.

Value —  Good.   Maybe a bit better than good if you’re a fan of Weizen bier.

This week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

S’Kloane Brauhaus S’Guate Gerste

Date:  November 4,2018

The Story—S’Kloane Brauhaus claims to be the smallest brewery, and the claim is true at least for the city limits.   We’ll add some notes on the brewery tomorrow as we highlight their other beer.

S’Guate Gerste is more interesting than moreish, but for us interesting is worth traveling to Europe to find.   This one’s a Hefeweizen, but without the weizen.   It may be the first of its kind, and we haven’t seen it elsewhere.   They call it a Hefe Gersten, a yeast-barley instead of a yeast-wheat.  We don’t think they’ve quite nailed it, but we appreciate the effort – and the lessons it offers to those who might want to travel the same path.

The Beer— It’s a hefe without weizen, all right.  The problem is that there’s a dullish malt paired with the estery yeast.   It’s evident why this yeast has been paired with wheat all over the world.   It’s just not very vibrant.   We think it’s a good first step in exploring this possibility. Perhaps the right hops would make this work.

Value — Fair to good depending on what you’re looking for.   For interest it’s a bargain; for a night’s drinking not so much.

This week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Our next European book highlights surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.  But the beers for the next few days are from a very good beer city indeed — Salzburg, Austria.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

R

Date:  November

The Story—

The Beer—

Value —

This week we present our first Brewery of the Week with seven fine beers from Guinness– most brewed in their spanking new Baltimore location, but a couple of Irish pots of gold as well.

After Guinness we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

Later in November we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

R

Date:  November

The Story—

The Beer—

Value —

This week we present our first Brewery of the Week with seven fine beers from Guinness– most brewed in their spanking new Baltimore location, but a couple of Irish pots of gold as well.

After Guinness we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

Later in November we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Guinness Open Gate Blonde

Date:  November 1, 2018

The Story— Ellie and I had had a bit of Guinness Blonde years earlier when it was brewed at the former Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  When Budweiser bought Rolling rock, it shifted production to Newark, New Jersey and sold the brewery to City Brewery – a mostly contract producer operating in the Heileman plant in La Cross Wisconsin.  It was an embarrassment to the Guinness name.   We couldn’t decide if it was really brewed from corn or just tasted that way.   Probably the latter, but without doubt it was a corny-tasting grainy lager with an edgy late bitter.   In truth we’d had worse beers, but we’d never had a worse Guinness.

We were pleased to see that the beer had been reformulated, supposedly to take advantage of the different scale and equipment of the Baltimore facility, but we still approached it with trepidation.   Happily, it was a pleasantly pale shadow of the Pennsylvania imposter.

The Beer— The 2018 version from Halethorpe was mild and clean but showed off a full malt and some nice northwest  US hop fruit flavors –nothing an IPA drinker is going to walk over broken bottles for, but a nice soft citrus nonetheless.   The body was surprisingly substantial with soft-spoken flavors and balanced to a fault.   The balance continues into an aftertaste that joins metal to the soft fruit.   As it drinks it can get candy-sweet without food, but the metal helps and it picks up some chalkiness as it warms.   We’re not going to buy this by the case—for our taste the sweetness builds too much and leaves some sugar on the palate—but it’s indescribably better than the product it replaced.

Value —  Fair.  Guinness doesn’t give anything away at the brewery other than good feelings and warm greetings.   You can probably get it cheaper in retail beer outlets.

This week we present our first Brewery of the Week with seven fine beers from Guinness– most brewed in their spanking new Baltimore location, but a couple of Irish pots of gold as well.

After Guinness we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.”  The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

Later in November we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.