Luxembourg

 

Ah, Luxembourg.  The average Brit probably knows more about the tiniest villages in deepest Congo than about this fine central European country.  But I've always wanted to come here for no logical reason except for the fact that I am of THAT generation that used to listen to the latest pop tunes on Radio Luxembourg as a kid in the 70's (late at night, under the sheets with a little transistor radio obviously).  That's all I knew about this country.

We find a bar called Urban Bar that serves Guinness so Paul is a very happy man.  They're playing some choice tunes and we meet a fellow Brit called Patrick who's been working in Europe for some years.  We're very glad we did, as the conversation flowed nicely and we stay here for the rest of our evening. 

Big thanks to Neal, Thea and the rest of the crew at www.urban.lu for running a great pub. We leave feeling rather squify.

Cheers!
 

 

 

Lucerne, Switzerland

So, basically, if you're in the enviable position of having simply so many Euros you don't know what to do with them (we are not) why don't you try having a meal in Lucerne?

They'll quite happily relieve you of your hard-earned cash in exchange for relatively normal food.  Don't get me wrong, lovely place and people but "working-class" probably isn't a term that's terribly familiar to them.  Bless.

Villa de Balbianello

If you can find a better view from another public convenience anywhere else in the world then you must be in a very beautiful place indeed. No wonder James Bond convalesced here at the end of Casino Royale. The Daniel Craig one, not the dodgy psychedelic 60's one that is.

Lake Como, Italy

I thought this place might be a bit special and I was right. Gloriously beautiful. No wonder George Clooney lives here. Seeing as he's just got married we thought we'd pop round to his later with a card. He'll be made up.

Hopefully catch a boat trip later down to Villa del Balbianello which is where Darth Vader got married.  Shame that didn't work out.

Post-Oktoberfest drive through Switzerland

I have decided that drinking Oktoberfest beer is a bit like being wrapped up in a lovely duvet. Then being hit over the head with a cricket bat.

I'm not going to do that again for a while. Beautiful Switzerland is taking my mind off it though.

We're here!

It took a while but we're here at Oktoberfest.  Unfeasibly large beers.  That's my weight training taking care of. 

En route to Munich

Driving down to Oktoberfestland on the Autobahn.  It's all Bavarian forests and BMWs.  Overtaking is interesting when the cars in the fast lane are doing 120 mph especially as everyone insists on driving on the wrong side of the road over here.

Apparently they sell beer at Oktoberfest so I might have to purchase one later to steady my nerves.

Czech Republic

Quite a mad dash to the Czech Republic for our Beer Spa in Chodovar.  Not helped by the fact that the rented motorhome is not insured for that country despite it being a member of the EU.  This meant that we headed for Mähring instead which is a small town on the German/Czech border in the hope of finding somewhere to park up and get a taxi to the brewery's spa hotel.  Suffice to say that Mähring is sleepier than a sleepy thing with a special reason to be sleepy, so by the time we find a campsite and arrange a taxi we arrive at Chodovar 50 minutes late and miss out on being bathed in beer.  We console ourselves by finding a rough-as-rats Czech pub where the locals seem to pass the time of day by drinking the local beer and downing shots. At 50p a pint for one of the best beers I've had on this trip I'm quite happy to put up with the bar's dodgy decor which makes it resemble something like a cross between a Cancer Research shop and a chippy.

We have dinner in the brewery's underground restaurant which was carved   out of the granite hill around 900 years ago. This is where they used to lager (store) the beer after it had fermented, hence the name of this type of beer.  See? Who said this trip wasn't going to be educational?  The cultural exchange trip continues. 5 countries down, 5 to go.

Karl hits the marx

Just found a bar called Karl which is the nearest to Newquay's Vic Bars that we've seen since it shut. Gawd bless it.

There is a very good chance we miss the last bus back...

Check the picture out by the way.

Heidelburg -

Last minute decision to go to Heidelburg, Germany.  A friendly, wonderful place.  Some interesting beggars though. Not that they got much out of us tight wads.

Maastricht - Carnivore friendly

Slightly tired today for some reason.  Obviously the ridiculously late night on weapons-grade strength beer had nothing to do with it.

Dinner consists of a mountain of meat with fries and mayo.  Funnily enough tonight isn't such a late one.

Le Trappiste

We love this pub.  Any bar that has this selection of beers on menu was always going to be popular with us.  However, a taster paddle of 5 gorgeous Belgian ales for 10 Euros makes all the difference.  The fact that the weakest was 8.2% might explain the feeling of lethargy the next day. And the headache.

In Bruges - A gorgeous blonde!

First beer of the trip and going down far too well.  What an amazingly beautiful place.

Say Hello to Benny

Countdown to the EuroBeerRoadTrip

OK, so EuroBeerRoadTrip isn't actually a real word.  Mind you, neither is NigelFarageNeedsaSlap or KylieMinogueWillBeMyWife but I think the point is made. 

On Saturday we (3 middle-aged men who really should know better) pick up the rented motorhome and head in the general direction of Belgium.  That's up, turn right and then down again.

What could possibly go wrong?

O ye of little faith!

So it seems that the girls at the Surf Life Save club doubt whether we'll do
the distance. 10 countries in 10 days? Piece of cake.

In Training

Ah, the abject beauty of a ridiculously strong Belgian ale.  Last one to Bruges is a big girl's blouse. Hurrah!

Coopers Wheat Beer - Holmesgaarden

I'm well overdue for a new brew and now that I've cleared some space in the garage, I mean MoltenHops brewery, I can finally get some beer on the go - just in time for the barbecue season. This time it's another Coopers extract; Wheat Beer from the Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection. This is the same range as the Pilsener that became my successful "Juborg".

I've plumped for a wheat beer this time to see how close it can be to the gorgeous ales I used quaff when I worked in Belgium all those years ago.

Here's the brewing notes:

2/5/2009
Extract BBE: 4/6/10
Yeast: Coopers 14008W
External temperature: 10 degrees
Fermenter temperature: 24 degrees
OG: 1035


3/5/2009
8am - Bubbling every 15 seconds. I was expecting better than this so I give it a shake .
Fermenter temperature: dropped to 22 degrees. I drop the brew belt a little.
10am - Bubbling every 6 seconds. That's better.
11:30am - Every 3 seconds!
1pm - 2 seconds!
4:30pm - Woohoo! Every second!
10pm - Every second. Still going strong!


4/5/2009
7:40am - Slowed to every 3 seconds.
Fermenter temperature: 22 degrees still. I drop the brew belt a little more to the 10 litre line.
3pm - Sorting and rinsing bottles. Bubbling slowed right down. Not much krausen.

5/5/2009
8pm - Hardly any bubbling. SG: 1014 so I guess that it's now reached secondary fermentation time.

6/5/2009
7pm - SG: 1012

9/5/2009
Sterilized all bottles - 20 x 740ml PET, 24 x 450ml Grolsch, 8 x 330ml Cobra and 3 x 500ml Buccaneer. SG still 1012 so that's stable for 3 days now.

Betty Stogs and Andrew Ridgeley. It can only be...

...Falmouth Beer Festival 2008!

Last night I died and went to heaven. Well, Falmouth actually. It was the "sponsors night" of the 2008 Falmouth Beer Festival and my mate (Graham who happens to run my local) and myself were guests of Skinners Brewery, one of the sponsors. Even better than that the owner himself, Steve Skinner, very kindly picked us up, gave us unlimited beer tokens to sample as many ales as possible, and took us home again afterwards! Result!

After picking up the larger-than-life-itself Betty Stogs on the way, (the great Fred Thomas in drag - top bloke, er, bird, er...) we headed towards the Falmouth Princess Pavillion - venue for the best annual beer fest in the county.

It was hugely busy and we just gaped at the vast amount of ales surrounding us. Beer heaven. Tasting glasses and programmes in hand we steadily, and then not-so-steadliy made our way around the different regional sections (Cornish ales, Up North ales, Down South ales, Celtic beers etc).

Sophie, Graham's Skinners account manager, kept us topped up with beer tokens. Whilst sampling the lovely Scotts 1816 from Copper Dragon I seem to remember that Andrew Ridgeley (for it is he, a keen CAMRA member apparently) did try to jokingly blag some of our tokens from Sophie but to no avail - she was far too loyal to us!

In the table below I've listed most of the beers we tried with the official ale festival description followed by our own comments made on the night. I think that we've created a new beer rating scale as you'll see. The late, great beer writer Michael Jackson would turn in his grave!

By the way, big thanks to Steve Skinner for a great evening!

Beer Name	Official Tasting Note	My Tasting Note
Blackawton Cornish Gold (4.1)	Light golden ale fruity with a hint of vanilla.	Gold, bit bland.
Coastal - Golden Hind (4.3)	Classic style of India Pale Ale using four different varieties ofhop.	Ace!
Penzance Brewing Co - Gopher Gold (4.9)	Light golden hoppy ale brewed with lager hops.	Good.
Ventnor - Pistol Night (4.4)	Flowery hoppy bitter.	Shite!
Church End - Vicar's Ruin (4.4)	Straw coloured with initial bitterness softening to a delicate maltfinish.	Bit farmy.
Copper Dragon - Scotts 1816 (4.1)	Well-balanced copper coloured bitter with a dry hoppy finish.	V nice. Andrew Ridgley!
Kelham Island - Pale Rider (5.2)	Full bodied straw coloured pale ale fruity hoppy with a wellbalanced finish.	Little bitter. Nice though.
Woodlands - Bees Knees (4.5)	Light coloured beer laced with honey.	Honey. Got better.
Purple Moose - Snowdonia Ale (3.6)	Golden refreshing bitter with citrus fruit hoppiness in aroma andtaste.	Ace!
Barum - Breakfast (5.0)	Smooth tasting premium ale.	Nutty shite.
O'Hanlons - Port Stout (4.8)	A black stout with added port. Winner of many medals.	Lovely Jubbly.

First taste of Juborg

Right. First taste of my new brew. I suppose I could call these my "tasting notes" but that seems a bit strong. "Observations" maybe.

It wasn't stored cold though but I don't know if this will make a difference. Opened up and slight "Psst!" and poured pretty damn clear.

I just had a Grolsch so it's interesting to compare. My Juborg has that "fuller" flavour that's could be described as "fruity" I suppose (if I had half a clue about these things which I don't). This is an attribute that's not normally associated with lagers but since I prefer fruity and flowery beers like Skinners Ales then I'm very happy with the outcome.

Poured the second half of the bottle into a frosted glass which gave it a nice little white head which didn't last too long but it is a lager after all.


Tasted cold it loses a bit of its fruity taste but keeps its bitter aftertaste. That's bitter as in hops and not as in a bad way. Not too disimilar to the Grolsch I've just had actually. Oooh. Get me.


All-in-all I'm pretty damn happy with my second lager homebrew. Job's on.