Imperial Lager

Todays offering comes as a boomerang of sorts, today we are heading back to Coasta Rica and for all of you Budweiser fans out there I have a feeling that you will like this one. Imperial beer is a lager beer that the Government brews. You have heard of Government cheese, and now you can say you have herd of Government brew. The only thing is that the beer is only so so when it comes to the taste department. The can is very reminiscent of a Russian Communist motif or perhaps that of a cretin Cuban dictators liking. However, I digress from the beer. This beer is as I said, a bit bland and unimagined but you get what you pay for. Speaking of, the cost of this 12 pack of cans was 10.81 out the door at Specs Downtown, where as the 6pk glass bottles run about the same price. A parting shot. Right on the box it says “ don’t serve with lime” wow talk about Government control, don’t drink our swill with anything in it, we don't want you to enjoy it you way. A programing note, be on the lookout for the beer of the year selection, this years race is a close one. I would love to hear from anyone who reads this what they think the beer of the year should be. my e-mail is up and I do accept all comments and want some feedback. My e-mail ischris_sallans@yahoo.com and when you send my a message, please put beer blog somewhere in the tittle of the message so I know where it is coming from and in what reference it is. Any obscure tittles are fore sure doomed to hit my spam box, where I will go hunting for them, but might get deleted. Happy drinking all!!!!!

Update on the Harpoon Ale.

So as proposed, I tried the “poon ale” at Thanksgiving dinner and there was a parked improvement in the overall taste but only by slight margins.

Harpoon GRateful Harvest Cranberry Ale

Gobble Gobble, I wanted to squeeze this one out at the beginning of the week so that you all can have ample time to think about what beer you are planning to have at Thanksgiving this year. On the chopping block this year (no offense “Tom”) is Harpoon’s (Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale). Now before I start to rip on this bean town brew, let me just say that it does give one dollar per every six pack to “your local food bank” and that is good no matter how bad I think the beer is. Let me start by saying that this beer when put into a glass has more head on it than Herman Munster. This thing is thick baby and the head just hangs there like sea foam atop a rusty red ale ocean. I cannot taste any hint of cran at all. What I do taste is hops to the einth degree. Which traditionally ale beers have the hops taste as a sort of signature of the brew. However, if you are going to call it a cranberry ale the drinker should be able to taste the cranberry somewhere in the beer. Slapping a Thanksgivingesk sort of labile on a box with a smug looking turkey with pint glass in hand and saying that it is some sort of quintessential (insert your ideal Thanksgiving ingredient of choice) ale, does not a Thanksgiving ale make. This is not a fair representation of what an ale called cranberry ale should taste like. The bitter hops taste rides rough shot over and cranberry taste that might have beer there. Don’t be suckered in by the beers bio on the bottom of the box. I can tell you from experience, that the beer taste nothing like the box wishes it did. Perhaps this beer will go better with the true Thanksgiving meal. You know, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, CRANBERRIES!!!!!! Of which I am happy to say that this year I will be participating in for the first time in a long time (thanks unique extended family situations). So win louse or draw, I will reevaluate this beer during my Thanksgiving this year and report to you in the day of or soon there after on how the beer went with food. On a family relations note, this beer has a ABV (alcohol by volume) of 5.9% so if you need a little liquid chill the Fa-la-la-la out to get through holiday time with your Fa-la-la-la family then this is the beer for you my friend. just sit back, relax and crack open some of this “crantastic ale” and let the fact that your in-laws can be self-riches hypocrite save the world DB’s slide right down the back of your reclined lazy-boy. Because just like a hangover, it will all come to an end soon enough, but in the mean time, you just got to sit back and take in all in stride. So stick that in your cornucopia and drink it.

Wittekerke white wheat beer

This beer is a fast drinker and i suppose that is because the taste is so refreshing that you can find yourself drinking two at a time and not thinking twice about it. This beer is a cloudy golden and refreshing Belgian Beer called WITTEKERKE. This is a white wheat beer and it is really just so nice to drink I am so glad that I decided to pick this one up. I would say that the beer is worth the nine plus dollars it cost. The beer goes well with fish and chicken. There is not much in my opinion that this beer would not be good with. You can taste the wheat followed by a subtle sweet taste and then a slight bitter bite at the end. This is just a well rounded, well put together beer. This is a must have in this holiday season, perhaps with some turkey? A side note, the can that the beer comes in has a strange feeling, one which adds to the overall drinking experience. Yes, I know this sounds reticules but trust me, this is an interesting tactual experience. Perhaps that is why the beer comes wrapped in plastic.

ENJOY, I DID.

Pinkus Jubilate Dark Lager

The smell of soy sauce is the firs thing the drinker will notice. Besides that, the drinker will also note the flat head and dirty look in the glass. However, as the beer sits in the open air the essence of the beer releases itself from the bottom of the glass upward to form a small head. This particular beer along with it’s soy sauce taste it also has a light choco coffee flavor with little to no carbonation effect on the tongue in the beginning but as the beer continues to sit in the open air it takes on a much more robust body and more of a carbonation in the mouth. As far as the beer going with food, I would say that although this beer comes from Germany the best food for this beer would be a good sweet and sour soup. However, that is a bit of a stretch. This unfortunately is just a so so beer from what I was hoping would be a powerhouse brewer from the fatherland. So to recap this beer from the Pinkus breweries, it is a no go in my book. You cant winn them all can you.

Xingu Black Lager Beer

As November shuts the casket on October’s Halloween and the true dark of winter starts to creep in to the world it is truly time to welcome the dark with this offering from Brazil of all places. I first ran into XINGU Black Lager Beer last year at the beer fest in Galveston and I have beer sitting on this gem for too long. This is a nice chaco treat for those of you who are still suffering from the sweet tooth of Halloween. This is perhaps the first beer I have dubbed as a dessert beer but (no pun intended) it takes the cake. The beer is versatile as well, it would go well with most rich foods like pot roast, salmon, goos or duck as well as chocolate ice cream. This is also a good camp fire sitter. There you are under the stars enjoying the contrast between the cold and heat and reminiscing of the year and drinking this beer. Just forget for just one moment that this beer is from south of the border, real south of the border. This is a well rounded beer that is truly deserving of your time and consideration and along with that, this beer is a real eyebrow raiser when it comes to impressing the guests. In closing, this beer is worth the price 11.04 a case is worth it.