Staropramen (#2)

I know, I know... long time no see... I explained on Twitter... So enough said. I come back to you with another beer. This time we're dealing with Staropramen (means "old spring"). So let's take a first sip. Oh, by the way I found my testing beer glass. It was quietly waiting for me in a small shop in Porto...

1. [PRE-REVIEW]

• brewery: Czech brewery from Prague (Smichov district) founded in 1869 (now owned by InBev)
  
• type of beer: a premium lager
  
• bought in: a shop in a village outside of Prague
  
• container grade (bottle): nice

2. [REVIEW]

• the looks: head (semi sized fast disappearing with a snow-like color), body (clear and gold)
  
• the taste: first sip is kind of sweet-bitter, and the rest I think is more of a light sweet one
  
• the smell: a little yeasty I guess

3. [RECOMMENDATION]

I'll have another one and another one...







PS. And this is my mug...

Zlaty Bazant (#1)

OK, so here we go. We start with a beer called Zlaty Bazant (which means Golden Pheasant).

1. [PRE-REVIEW]

• brewery: Slovak brewery from Hurbanovo established in 1969 (bought in 1995 by Heineken)
• type of beer: pale beer, a Pilsner-type lager
• bought in: a shop in a village outside of Prague
• container grade (bottle): nice

2. [REVIEW]

• the looks: head (not so big and rather white), body (clear and sparkling)
• the smell: I'd say it's quite hoppy
• the taste: first sip reveals a rather moderate bitter taste but the rest of a beer is bitter-sweet mix.

3. [RECOMMENDATION]

I'll have another one.

Back from my first beer trip

The title is a little exaggerated. I did go on a trip. I did by a load of different beers. However when I planned this voyage I didn't have beers in mind. The idea of starting this beer rating blog occurred to me few days later. So I just used this trip as an opportunity to buy some foreign beer. I got around 8 beers (from Czech, Austria and Hungary). And I also tried three beers (one Slovak, two Czech) during the trip. I know, I know, I should have probably tried more but to my defense I'll just say that conditions for trying them were not ideal. And as I will soon explain to really appreciate a beer (and eventually rate it) your surrounding become quite crucial.

I am kind of busy during the next two weekends so I am not sure when the first review will appear. Hope to make one mid-May at the latest.

So let's open a beer

OK, we now can really start by opening a beer (or few beers). How do we do it? With a beer opener... Well, that's how I do it (unless it's a twist-off). But something tells me there are much more different ways to crack a beer open. Watch the video below (outch to the last one, it hurts even lookin at it).

Beer in foreign languages

Well, to start off this blog I was thinking about creating a list of foreign words for beer...Eventually they will be placed in the menu unless I hit more than a 50 and the list becomes a burden.

So, let's see, first translations that come to my head:

1. piwo (polish)
2. bière (french)
3. cerveza (spanish)
4. das Bier (german)
5. birra (italian)
6. cerveja (portuguese)
   
7. Øl (danish)
   
8. olut (finnish)
9. Пиво (russian)
   
10. sör (hungarian)