My prejudice against German beers is also valid for those from Austria, even though that is where my mom’s side of the family is from. So my uncle had a fridge full of Gosser for Thanksgiving, which is the popular generic pale lager of the homeland. There was a little hops, but it was pretty much as bland of a beer as you would expect from a pale lager. Thumbs down.

Much later that night, I was still full from the Thanksgiving feast but felt like opening up my bomber of Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. The name was pretty self explanatory: the hazelnut flavouring is added and the nectar part was apt – this beer is really sweet. Perhaps is was because of my full stomach that the sweetness was sickening (or maybe it was because For Your Consideration is a truly bad movie), but I couldn’t finish out the bomber. The overall effect of the hazelnut was a really syrupy taste and not so much the nuttiness. The last bit got poured down the drain, which is a rare occurence.

Gosser on Ratebeer

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar on Ratebeer

Today: 1.05L. Year-to-date: 15.7L.

My wife and I finally made it to Europe, for our wedding gift my parents paid for a trip for us to Hungary to look around and also to meet my relatives.  I had two main goals on this trip to eat as much delicious Hungarian food as I could and to drink lots of beer.  I was more than successful on both accounts, my relatives stuffed us till we could physically eat no more. Of course to go with the food there was plenty of beer. I may have said this before, but pretty much everywhere in Hungary beer is cheaper than soft drinks. Even though prices have gone way up in the  six years since I’ll visited, it was still cheaper to get beer. Another major factor was that alcohol, is not such a big taboo as it is in the states. Most people have a shot of schnapps with their dinner, and in most cases their lunches spent at home. Many places that you would not expect in the US serve beer in Hungary, like most street side food stands. Even the grocery store my uncle manages now has a beer tap and counter put in so people from around the neighborhood can come and have a drink.

Beers is Hungary tend to be the lighter, golden Lagers and Pilsners, though we did come across two Bocks, which our acquaintances look at us like we were crazy for drinking. Though my grandmother did admit that her father did have a fancy for a good chocolate Bock.

The beer drinking for me started the moment we got to the airport. The lounge at Orlando International mostly served Miller products, though I have to admit the Amber Bock was alright, nothing compared to the Bocks I would drink later.  Things started looking up on the first of many flights we took. Beyond belief the plane served Leinenkugle Sunset Wheat.  It has to be the best beer I ever had on a plane, and probably the first wheat beer in a can for me.  It’s a little hard to see but the beer created this huge head, which was fun to manage in those tiny airline glasses.  I paired them with a bowl  of mixed nuts. Very nice way to spend time traveling.

Once we got to Cincinnati we tried out some local chain, similar to Chili’s for dinner. I am still very disappointed the airport Outback Steakhouse did not serve ribs! With dinner we tried a glass of Kentucky Ale, much like any food prepared at the airport it was bland and disappointing.  Kentucky Ale is reddish ale with low carbonation and a light sweetness. Beside that fact that it tasted pretty much like nothing, (I think they must have been watering down the beer taps pretty badly) the beer also had this weird metallic aftertaste that reminded me of the vitamin C drops I had to take as a kid.

Our oversees flight, disappointingly only served the usual crappy American beers, so I was out of luck till we hit Hungary the next day.  The night we arrived my uncle invited us out to eat at a small restaurant just behind the St Istvan Basilica.  I got some beef stew served over egg noodles, one of my fave comfort food.  With it we both got a mug of Soproni Aszok. My uncle could not drink cause he was driving. Unbeknown to me the DUI laws in Hungary are ALOT stricter, nobody could give me a percentage but I got the impression that one beer would put the average person over the limit. Before the meal we also had our first of many schnapps shots, we got a locally made variety called Guilded Angels. Schnapps is a very common beverage in Hungary,a lot  of people in the country side even make their own, which 90% of the time are way better than anything in the store. Don’t picture moonshine style fire water, granted there are some that are really strong, most homemade schnapps are much smoother and better balanced than anything you can buy in the store. They come in endless fruit varieties and have the added benefit of you knowing exactly what went in it.  Pretty much everyone has a bottle of home made schnapps in their house, even if they don’t drink it, it is customary to offer guests a shot.

Back to beer… with our dinner, both my wife and I decided to have a Soproni Azsok, which turned into one of our favorite beers on the trip as well as our stand-bye beer.  First I should make a correction to a statement I made some time ago. Though the word Aszok does mean aces, in the case of both this beer and Arany Aszok, the word refers to a style of brewing where the lager is brewed longer than traditional before being filtered.  I am not sure what this is supposed to achieve, I guess give the beer a stronger flavor. The beer is a golden yellow, it looks a little darker in the photo cause of the dark wood background, and is refreshingly fizzy. This was a big half -litter glass, but even after the flight the beer did not feel heavy. The flavor was somewhat flowery with an aftertaste that at first was a little bitter with hops but without the bite, and finished a lightly sweet honey. Most beers in restaurant are usually draught with one maybe two options and some of the bigger places would have a couple of bottled beers, which usually cost more.  Soproni and most of the beers we drank where the mass market brews of the county, most now are available nationwide, this is especially true for Soproni which was available everywhere we went, something that was not common last time I visited. As far as I remember in 2003 the country still had mostly large regional beers that varied depending on where you were, but always falling in the pilsner and lager categories.

Our hotel, a Marriott, charged insane prices for the food they served, even breakfast was $30, and up, so we visited a little grocery store around the corner for food and drink. The shop had two fridges full of beer, mostly local with some from Germany, Austria, and Czech Rep. Out of this I tried Kozel, a beer billed as a premium Czech Lager. The word Kozel is very close to the Hungarian word of  ‘near’, just a matter of accents, so this was near-beer. The label was probably the best part of the experience,  the beer was strangely bland, somewhat of a wooden brown color, but not dark like a Newcastle.  According to the label it is an all malt beer,no hops or other ingredients involved. The body was light, only mildly fizzy, on par with many British ales. The taste was overall muted, mildly bitter, the aftertaste was had a definite, growing bitterness to it.

I had also gotten a bottle of LowenWeizen, from Lowen Brau, probably the most well known and prolific German brewer, at least around Europe. To go with its big market, it was equally boring. Most hefeweizen are at least somewhat rejuvenating in their flavor, especially those following the German style. Lowen-Hefe, however was like Wonder Bread, yes it’s a hefeweizen….I guess.

The name on the glasses don't match the beer.

For two of our lunches we hit up the food court of the local covered market. This was pretty much the only place around to get street food, instead of restaurant style sit-down meals.  Our first, and my all time fave is Langos, a piece of fried dough that can be covered in pretty much anything, usually savoury as opposed to sweet. We had ours with garlic-butter, cheese, and sour-cream. With it we got two nice mugs of Borsodi. A lot of beers in Hungary are named after where they are from, for example Soproni is from the city of Sopron, while Borsodi is from the county of Borsod, which also included the city where I was born and lived about 5-6yrs. This was the omnipresent beer of my childhood years, in Hungary. Much like Soproni it was a light, golden/yellow beer. The flavor is pure, text-book, gold lager, with a light, fizzy body that is not very strongly flavored with an at first bitter than honey sweet flavor.

For our second meal, which was not a delicious, we had stuffed cabbage and I had a grilled sausage with potatoes. The sausage ended up being very very salty, with it I had a glass of Kaiser lager from Austria. Much like all the other lighter style beers we had on the trip, fizzy with a hint of bitterness. The beer was a perfect match to my lunch though,  creating a nice break from the salty greasy food.

Probably the best beer, and the biggest surprise of our trip came on a night we went for a walk along the Buda side of the Danube with my uncle and some of his friends. The Buda side of the city is more residential than the Pest side which seems to have most of the major shopping strips, malls and tall modern buildings. We were in a part of town called Roman Rakpart, which translates to Roman Docks, so named because it is close to the remains of a Roman settlement. The area has been used for a while as a retreat from the hustle and bussel of city life the path along the riverside is littered with tiny shops and informal restaurants. We sat down at one of these, I don’t know if randomly or someone knew the place. It was an unassuming place with a large tent with old picnic benches and a large window where the food was served. With my meal I ordered what the waitress called Dreher Sotet, properly called Dreher Bok. Dreher is a pretty famous brand in Hungary and the surrounding area, which is now owned by Heineken. It is and was one of the most sophisticated breweries in Hungary.  I have tried some Bocks before but this had to be the best, great shame it is unavailable here. It pours a dark brown, almost black, with the weight of a German Black Beer. Even in the outdoors you could smell a strong scent of nuts and burnt sugar. The taste had strong notes of nutty dryness with hints of coffee in the finish. The body was some what creamy but the taste and finish are definitely dry. I had the beer twice, once, on draught there and one more time in the bottle at my grandmothers house.  At the restaurant the been soup I was eating made the beer a little too sweet, looking at both the experiences together I would have to rate the beer as excellent.

The strangest beer we tried was also in Buda, we were walking home from a long day at Buda Castle and stopped in at a little restaurant. We had a local freshwater fish, which was not very good, tasted very muddy, and I had some wild boar with cream sauce over noodles, which was excellent. You win some you lose some. Remember the picture of the Borsodi? Well if you look at the label on the glasses it says Borostyan, a brewery I was not really familiar with.  With our meal we tried two glasses of Borostyan Fel-Barna, most logical way to translate that would be Borostyan Tan (literary half-brown). The beer was a reddish-brown, copper color with a hard, thick head that left lace down the entire length of the glass. What was unique was that the beer had an almost vinegar scent and a light but lasting sour finish. The flavor worked well with my wild boar stew, but not at all with the fish. Overall it was not a really pleasing flavor and I had more than enough of it by the end, I also drank most of my wife’s portion cause we really did not care for it.

A mug of Gosser along the street of the Castle District

We also tried two beers from the Austrian brewery Gosser, their flagship lager and a summer beer that is a mix of a light beer and lemonade, in this case simply called Gosser Citron. The namesake Gosser, was the best light lager we had the entire trip.  Style and flavor wise it was not much different from all the other beers on the trip, just a lot more refined, with crisper notes and a flavor that was well defined and more thirst quenching. This is the only beer from our trip that is relatively easily found in the US. If you like golden or pale lagers or German style beers this one is a good one to try.  The Gosser Citron is what is called a Shady in the US, the most common around here being Leinenkugel’s Summer Shady. Think of it like a hard lemonade that is not quite as sweet as the Mike’s and Co style, focusing more on the sweet bitter quality of homemade lemonade. It is low in alcohol and very thirst quenching, a perfect summer beverage, especially if you don’t really like beer but don’t wanna suffer a sugar coma from wine coolers and hard lemonade.

After this trip I miss Europe more than ever, not just for the beer and food but also for the life style. We hope we can go back there again soon, or maybe even move there for a while.

Gösser Dark Beer

Company info:
Gösser Brauerei
Göss/Leoben

www.goesser.at

Bottle size sampled: 330 mL

Alcohol: 4.5%
Standard drinks: 1.3

Cap type: Twist

Cost: I picked this up for AU$3.20

Label info: All I get on this is ‘Austria’s finest beer‘

What the label really means:
N/A

The Hell-Cat review starts here

Label: It’s simple, it’s traditional looking. I would imagine this label hasn’t changed in a hundred years and that seems immediately evident. Look at this label and not only will you believe you are buying something steeped in history but a beer of class and sophistication. I appreciate this for what it is.

I give it a label rating of 7 out of 10.

AROMA: A rich, malty aroma that exudes warmth with a hint of intrigue.

Taste: GLASS – Gösser has a great deal more depth than other dark beers that I have tried. It is really quite tasty, and not heavy in the least. The more I drink this the smoother it tastes, and just like the hideous ingrown toenail on my left big toe, it keeps growing on me. What’s most surprising is the enjoyable aftertaste that sings of rich goodness.

I give it a beer from glass rating of 8 out of 10.

Taste: BOTTLE – This is definitely not a beer for the bottle…the taste becomes really simplified, losing most of its characteristics as it becomes a watery tasting beer. Not as interesting at all.

I give it a taste from bottle rating of 5.5 out of 10.

A word from the wife: “Smooth, rich, rather pleasing…need a fire”

She gave it a taste rating of 7.5 out of 10.

Accompanying food: This is a beer that would sit beautifully with something big and bloody. Give me a medium-rare steak, drizzled in gravy, sitting beside thick cut chips and I am one happy primordial dwarf.

Best season to appreciate: Totally a Winter warmer. As an après ski beer this would go down a treat while easing away the aches of the day. Before you knew it you’d be dancing on the bar to Rod Stewart songs.

All-nighter beer? I’m not sure…but I’d definitely give it a go!

NEXT WEEK: Crackenback Pale Ale

Tocmai vin de la “ABC-ul” din cartier. Tanti care m-a servit berea rece, mi-a dat una expirata de prin mai 2008 si una de prin aprilie anul asta…

Aveti grija

After another trip to J. Betski’s at Seaboard, I was able to taste two more beers, including a delicious smoked beer (Rauchbier).

Gosser Lager: First I tried the Gosser Lager on tap.  It was very light in color and on the palate.  The first taste is a lot of malt, though it finishes with a little bitterness from hops.  It was served with a lot of head like a traditional German beer.  It is also slightly effervescent.

Towards the end, the malt takes over and it becomes overall a sweet beer, which is not my preference.  My parents who were with me said it reminded them of National Bohemian beer, which to me doesn’t seem like a compliment.  Since the sweet won out in the end, I give it only a 5 out of 10.  It was decent if you like that beer,  but I would not order it again.

Aecht Schlenferla Rauchbier: I am having some trouble reading the spelling off of the napkin I took notes on, but this is the same producer as the Lentenbier I had at Betski’s a few weeks ago.  The immediate smell is country ham, without the salt.  Very bacony and smoky.  It was dark brown like a porter,  It has a lighter head.  There was a little taste of coffee that came through the smoke. 

I love the smoked beers I have been tasting the the depths of flavor.  I strongly recommend that you try one.  This one, served in the bottle, gets 9 out of 10.

A Imagem & Emoções está na mídia. A empresa recentemente lançou seu website — criado pela Romanini — para mostrar ao público os serviços oferecidos e, principalmente, apresentar diversas imagens produzidas pelo fotógrafo Rodrigo Garcia Gosser, que está à frente dos trabalhos da empresa. O endereço do site é www.iefoto.com.

Como forma de divulgação do site, a Imagem & Emoções também veiculou anúncios na revista Trifatto (Piracicaba) e no Guia Especial de Noivas, encartado no dia 17/8, no Jornal Cidade de Rio Claro. Vem muito mais por aí, é só esperar.

Chi apprezza la birra scura non può esimersi dal provare questa Gosser Dunkel birra austriaca (ah, l’Austria!) di modesta gradazione alcoolica (4,2 gradi) e dal sapore forte e deciso.

Forse non vi dico niente di nuovo, affermando che le birre provenienti da Austria e Germania sono sicuramente tra le migliori in commercio.

Tra i pregi di questa deliziosa bevanda non si può non citare l’adattabilità a vari piatti, quindi non solo würstel e crauti, ma anche pizza (bella scoperta!), ma anche pasta o qualcosa di tipicamente mediterraneo.

Nulla vieta poi di approfittarne dopo cena, anzi.

L’ideale sarebbe sorseggiare questa birra sdraiati sul bordo di uno dei tipici ruscelli di montagna Austriaci, invasi dall’odore del letame delle mucche, all’ombra di una meravigliosa baita in legno, dopo aver pranzato con dei gustosissimi canederli allo speck.

…tayeule…