You will never hear me dispute anyone who argues Stella Artois to be one of the best beers in the world. It is at least one of the better beers I've tasted. No surprise that it is one beer that the Belgians are quite proud of.
It took me at least a couple of trips to Subic to get over its feminine name, though. But after coughing up 1.75usd for a couple of 330mL bottles at DFS, and eventually deciding to consume a bottle, I realized very quickly that this has got to be at least a biker chick's beer, if not a man's beer. It literally took only seconds for the 5.2 percent alcohol to kick in. I'm not a fan of mean labels people put on others. But if I had to use a label just to describe who this beer is not for, this is definitely not for sissies.
One pet peeve though - They could use better paper material for the labels on their bottle. The label on this one was literally peeling off after a couple of weeks in the chiller section of our refrigerator at home. I mean, the folks over at Stella Artois must have realized eons ago that drinkers are going to want this product really cold, and then wet, when taken out of cold storage. The green bottle was quite conservative. No surprises here, given that this product is over 600 years old.
Be that as it may, I liked this beer for what's inside the bottle. The taste was crisp and the alcohol level was just right enough to make sure that any ageing(read: pushing 40) beer drinker stays within moderate drinking guidelines before heading home for a good night's sleep. I did drink this at home though, so knocking off early was practically a cinch after gulping down a couple of bottles. Anyone who cares to try this brand ought to, for it is one of those beers any beer-lover worth his salt has to try at least once in his life.
Until then, Op uw gezondheid! if you're Flemish; or A votre sante! if you happen to be Walloon.
There's always something about the Japanese and in the way they make their products. One would almost always expect a proper ritual of sorts before they do things; and one definitely can count on the quality of everything they make. Perhaps it is pure discipline at mastering the art of making things; but then again it is perhaps also a product of pure will that they go through every conceivable detail they can think of.
The very first time I tried this beer was in 1995 at a bar called Brannigan's along Annapolis in Greenhills. Imported beers weren't the norm at bars nor at supermarkets back then, so I jumped at the opportunity to take my first swig of a beer brand that was very hard to come by. I remember paying a hefty 190 pesos or something around that amount for a bottle. But it was worth it. Like everything made by the Japanese, this beer was nothing like I ever tasted. I would've blogged about it back then, but 1995 wasn't exactly that period in Philippine history where phones and Internet access was available everywhere. (Yes, I was one of a not-so-small group of people who went through high school and college without a phone in the house, although this is perhaps another story altogether.) It wasn't until today that I got to try Kirin again.
I helped myself to 4 bottles last April at DFS Subic. Each bottle set me back 1.75usd, so considering I paid more for the same at a higher price 14 years ago, I just couldn't complain.
This has the best-looking amber bottle I've run my fingers on so far. At 330ml, it wasn't large but one word comes to mind - aerodynamic, plus it was very light and very well put-together. It simply wasn't your typical San Miguel Pale Pilsen amber bottle, not even the Jamaican Red Stripe bottle either. There was Japanese precision and craftsmanship written all over it. There were no bubbles or waves on the bottle surface, and the bottom was only slightly thicker than the rest of its body.
At 5.5% alcohol, it should start to kick in after a few minutes if Kirin's taste grows on you quickly, and it will. It has definitely a certain sweetness to it, even for one who has not acquired the taste for beer. It is a draft beer, after all, but San Miguel Draft and MGD never tasted this good. I'm down to my last bottle as I write this, and because I'm also trying to cut down on my beer intake, I'm definitely going to miss Kirin.
What I can do, however, is to try and convince you to try it, in case you haven't already.
Until then, please make sure you finish your freakin' beer.
The last of the batch of beers I bought in Subic way back in April 2008, Grolsch hit the spot perfectly as I remember drinking it straight from out of the chiller. It had Below Zero written all over it.
Even at a steep price of 2.80usd for a 500ml bottle, one's curiosity will at least be piqued by what its website calls the "swingtop". I just had to buy a couple of bottles to try it out, and I wasn't disappointed.
The bottle's grip wasn't as comfy as, say, San Mig Light's bottle. But somehow holding it lent an impression that I was drinking a bit more than the usual amount of beer from any single bottle I've ever had, except maybe those tall Heineken cans I've had in Taipei 15 years ago. In other words, a couple of these 5% alcohol Grolsch bottles should be enough to get me slurring in no more than half an hour.It was one of those nights that I had a great DVD movie playing and some Marty's vegetarian chicharon conveniently laid out next to me on the couch.
Another thing stood out here -sediments, at the bottom of the bottles even before I began drinking from them. Could be yeast, malt, hops or even wheat granules, I thought. A closer look revealed that some of those granules were toasted. I got curious about it and decided to try and research a bit. I was half-right about the malt. The ignorant beer-drinking slob in me couldn't have possibly guessed that it was malted barley and hops.
Overall, I enjoyed this lager of a beer.It was a bit filling if only for its size, but it was very light on the taste buds. At the right temperature, drinking it was truly one of the more memorable moments I've had with beer. I would say that the Dutch really know how to make their beer in the same way that they know how to make their windmills and their dikes.
Next batch of beers coming up - Dos Equis; Stella Artois; Kirin Ichiban; Guiness Stout, among others.
I helped myself to two bottles of Bass Pale Ale about 4 weeks ago. As with the other foreign brands I've tried in the last 6 months, I got these from DFS Subic for 2.30usd on a 355mL pop. A bit steep, I thought, so I derived satisfaction with just getting a pair.
The beer itself as a pale ale is no different from our very own San Miguel Pale Pilsen, taste-wise. It was very light on the tummy and had a mild sweetness to it. The amber container was easy to grip, so drinking from the bottle proved to be hassle-free. But it has to be frosty cold for it to be worth the trouble.
Like most beers I've written about, I had to look for the Bass website and found a video that made me realize I should've bought a couple of cans of Guiness Stout beer I found on the stacks of imported beers at DFS beside the bottles of Bass. Bass prides itself on what its website calls "The Black and Tan". Essentially, it's a concoction of Bass Pale Ale poured two-thirds of the way in a glass, with dark stout beer(think Cerveza Negra) sitting right on the top third of the same glass.
There is a video that teaches one how to make the concoction without falling into the trap of the 2 liquids mixing beyond recognition. The site sells what it calls the "Brolly", which is essentially a device meant to control the flow of the heavier stout liquid as one pours it on top of the pale ale. I suspect that using a larger-than-usual spoon(think serving spoon) can achieve the same results, albeit slightly less than perfect.
Note to self: Will try to come up with a local version of Black and Tan using our very own San Miguel Pale and San Miguel Cerveza Negra.
I had originally planned to write about another beer brand. This time around, I had slowed down a bit on drinking beer, and have actually started to like mixed concoctions using a vodka base. But I did replenish my beer collection last February, so there will definitely be newer brands to taste and write about.
It's been awhile since I last wrote anything on this blog. Been really busy at work, and will probably continue to be so in the coming months. There, I said it. I've successfully avoided any possibility of people drawing conclusions about me guzzling beer all this time. A friend actually told me to go easy on the booze, after she had read my beer chronicles months ago.
The last time I did have a sip was a can of Red Horse about 2 weeks ago. I downed that with a couple shots of Tequila, as I took a really cold swim in a mini pool somewhere in Antipolo. And then the flu set in. Good thing I didn't wait around for beer-bong time that evening. Took me a bit of time to bounce back from the fever and chills. Age had caught up. Ten to twelve years back, I really felt I was invincible and thought that I would remain so forever.
Nope. I'm not swearing off beer forever, but just like most beer ads say at the end: "Drink Moderately". Maybe I would have to drink more moderately now than I did a year ago. Anyway, this edition zeroes in on 2 beers I tried over the last 3 months. Of course, on occasion I would dip into my modest cache of Heineken that I was more than happy to share with my dad; my brothers-in-law and my father-in-law. But a staple's a staple, and then some.
Belle-Vue Kriek Beer: For some reason, I could not find an official website for this beer. Hmmm, it would probably be in Belgian(French or German) anyway. The label says this about the product: "Brussels Lambic-Ale Matured in Oak Barrels". There was no mistaking that this was beer, cherry-flavoured beer. But the bottle had a punt at the bottom and a mushroom-shaped cork plus some twisty wires to seal it, which made me wonder the first time I pulled one off the shelf at DFS Subic. It looked like a small bottle of wine. The green bottle was a bit heavy on the grip, so I opted to hold it at the neck. It seemed ridiculous for me to hold it at the punt anyway - I didn't exactly have a tux on and I wasn't exactly pouring into wine glasses.
The first swig I took of this beer reminded me of the first time I took a sip of Cherry Coke. The only difference was that as a beer and not a soda, this drink had sour cherry flavour set against a bitter background. Wifey loved it, and she doesn't like beer at all. But she drank more than the amount I was prepared to share, so I would definitely conclude that this beer is something women might learn to like. Don't let the flavour fool you into thinking that this is not a man's beer though. At 5.1 percent alcohol, the right number of bottles might just knock you or any 6-footer out, if you don't give it enough respect. At 3usd a pop when I bought it last April, I bought 2 just to satisfy my curiosity. It wouldn't be something I can consider a staple. Not for me, and perhaps not for the majority of beer-drinking Pinoys. You just might want to drive over to Brew Brothers at Timog(if they're still open), or over to the Shang at Watering Hole(if they still served flavoured beer) for acceptable and perhaps cheaper(?) alternatives.
Corona Extra : It took me long enough to finally open 2 more bottles of this very popular beer. The last time I drank them was like 10 years ago. Like my other beer supplies, I only recently got 2 of them from DFS Subic for 1.90usd a bottle - about 20 pesos less than I would have paid had I gotten them from S&R. The one dumbass thing that I did was to forget to take pictures of the bottle with the beer still in it. Yup, I was that excited to drink it. It was the one beer I had to walk a kilometer to the nearby grocery one Saturday night, just so that I could buy a lemon to go with it. The best way and perhaps the only way to drink this Mexican hottie was to slice a piece of lemon and pop it into the bottle. Of course, it would have to be really cold, as in with white frost on the bottle surface. The smooth, golden contents go very well with the citrus-y contrast that the lemon gives off. It lends a bit of a tang to the not-so-bitter ale, that even at 4.6 percent alcohol, goes down really smooth and light on the belly.
The bottle is nothing special. Topped with a standard cap, it had the all-too-familiar look of our San Mig Light and San Miguel Strong Ice bottles. I wasn't complaining though. The grip was easy and in front of the TV with some chips, it was the final ingredient for a truly relaxing time. I remember watching Restaurant Makeover when I finally drank the 2 bottles I bought last April.
Beer remains to be an acquired taste in general; but anyone, man or woman, who refuses to try even this one might be passing up a lot. Make no mistake, Corona Extra is one beer I intend to have a few bottles of in my humble cache of imported beer.
A final note before I turn this edition of my beer belly chronicles over to history: I read an interview of Heroes' Dania Ramirez in an issue of Men's Health magazine recently. Dania, God bless her sexy soul, claimed that the best beer she's ever tasted was Presidente Beer, from her native Dominican Republic. I have yet to find any store selling this brand here in the Philippines, but you can bet I'm going to try a couple of bottles where I can find them. Too bad their website's down today. Oh well...'til next time. Hic!
0000 June 21 Still drinking...hic! Will write more on these 2 beers plus a couple of pix in the coming days.
1029 June 21 The place where I get the beers in Subic is called Duty Free Superstore(DFS). It's right near Meat Plus and Freeport Exchange, even shares the same parking lot at the back. Can't miss it and shouldn't, if you happen to be a self-respectin' beer drinker. They have a decent enough selection there better than any other place in Subic or Clark that I have seen. As a sidelight, I got a buy-1, take-1 deal on a one liter bottle of Finlandia Vodka for 20 US, or about 419.10 pesos per bottle. Not bad. We're about two-thirds through the first bottle by the way.
Red Stripe: This Jamaican beauty caught my eye, mon. I just had to pick her up from the store. The bottle's really cute too. But it will set you back 1.80US a pop. I got a pair of them just to try it out. I was expecting something that went down light on the throat from a lager like this one. Maybe I got a little spoiled silly by the relatively watered-down Tsingtao Beer, or maybe it's the water in Kingston; but for the life of me I was reminded so much of San Miguel Pale Pilsen when I took my very first swig. It had the same bitter taste that one needed to acquire in order to enjoy beer for a lifetime. At 4.7% alcohol, this was no slouch's beer. I had the customary dilis as the perfect combo partner while I sat on our couch late Saturday night last week watching a film on DVD. A few more swigs, and I felt being transported from the couch to the land of reggae. I found myself mumbling something about how the late Bob Marley was probably inspired by this beer to have made excellent music. Overall, I liked Red Stripe. I liked the way the bottle felt around my hands; and as with any other beer, I drank it really cold. All bona fide beer drinkers should of course know by this time that "cold" means having that thin layer of white frost around the bottle. No way should you drink this with ice and diminish its taste.
Brahma: Okay, so let me get this out in the open: I bought this beer for the bottle. Believe me, you would too. Its website describes the bottle this way: "The unique bottle shape embodies the curvaceous rhythms of Brasil(Shucks, even the way they spell their country's name is sexy). It must be held to truly appreciate the design and feel the 'Ginga'." Ay caramba, I don't know what a Ginga is, but I have felt it and I like it! For 2.30US a pop, I got seduced and cavorted into buying a couple. Alcohol content was a respectable 4.8 percent. I figured, with anything Brazilian so much in vogue here-- Havaianas and all; that I'd might as well get a taste of their other brew(Not too hot about coffee, from anywhere for that matter). Like any other beer, you gotta drink it reallycold. Like, shame on you if you ever drink this with ice. Shame on me. I opened my 2 bottles about 3 Saturdays ago, and for some reason, I felt that I didn't chill this beer long enough to do it justice. The taste, which comes at you right at the moment you put your lips on to the mouth of the bottle, rolled into my tongue more bitter and stronger than any beer I've ever tasted(Red Horse and Colt 45 included). Don't get me wrong. I mean, I was in a state of absolute rapture just to be holding the bottle. But for some reason, I felt that perhaps I expected something that tasted better. I guess my state of ultimate ginga stopped at the bottle. I did feel like an amateur here, like maybe I wasn't an informed-enough beer-drinker to appreciate the strong flavor of Brahma. And then I committed the superlatively worst mortal sin I could possibly do with this lady from Rio : I dropped her into a glass of ice and took slow, measured sips. This meant that I gave the beer enough time to mix in with Manila Water water. The promise of ginga that was supposed to be mine, and mine alone, was never consummated. It was a sad ending to a hot, sweaty, Carnival-like evening. Hay-ay-ay, ginga!
In short, I didn't like it too much. I love the bottle, though. I actually kept both, caps included. My recommendation is to try it once, with 2 bottles, just so you could say you've tasted love from Bra(h)-sil.(Sex-ehhh!!!)
My love affair with beer started when I was in grade 5. You'd never guess I'd try it at an age when I was quite geeky, lanky and yes, when I had weird hair to go with my nerdy eyeglasses.(It would turn out that I would still be so even 3 years later) My first bottle of San Miguel was a stolen one. It was Christmas Eve and my family threw a party at our house in SJ. Several of our relatives and cousins from my pop's side came, and in all his preoccupation entertaining my uncles and aunts, my pop missed the sight of me taking a few swigs of the bitter ale.
That was a defining moment for me. But it was not until maybe 3 years after that I had another bottle again. I love beer but I guess for a number of years I must loved something else. Books are the most politically-correct example of those other things. And then college came. I wasn't much of a drinker but I drank socially- by that I mean about 2 or 3 bottles of San Miguel Super Dry on any given Saturday night or on any given occasion. About the only other times that I drank more than that were summer evenings at the beach in front of a bonfire, or the last 3 or 4 nights leading up to graduation day. All San Miguel up to this point, and never got drunk. And then I left the country.
My first taste of foreign beer came accidentally. I was in Taipei and there were 3 brands of beer available for me to guzzle on: San Miguel Beer, which in 1993 costs about 165 pesos per bottle in Taipei bars; Taiwan Beer, which was much cheaper but couldn't really measure up to SMB. Whereas SMB was my Filipina love(who I wouldn't trade for any Taiwanese), Taiwan Beer was my part-time girl(who I spent nights with only when I felt like it). I was probably not being fair to Taiwan Beer at that point in my life. You see, I had a hard time getting over being someplace else when all I ever wanted was to be back in Manila. (This is somewhat debatable now.)
And then there's Heineken from the Netherlands, which set me back an equivalent of about 80 pesos per can every Saturday evening that I bought it from Wellcome.
Heineken came in a tall(I think it was 500mL) and green aluminum can with 5% alcohol so with higher entry level pay than in Manila(even until today), I was too single, too lonely and too glad to even think of scrimping on that amount. It kept me from sinking into deep sulk as I spent cold Saturday evenings in our shared Tienmou flat sitting on a rattan chair resting on top of a tatami mat while the cool mountain air blew on my face near the sliding screen door leading out into the terrace.(Take a deep breath here) Two cans of those Heinekens were enough to knock me to sleep by 10pm every Saturday night for 14 agonizingly-counted months. And then like a thief in the night, my Dutch love affair ended in July '94, when I finally returned. Just like that, my Dutch lover and I ended our fling; and we would not be reunited until December 2006 in Subic Bay.
I had come back for my multiple-personality Pinay first love, San Miguel Beer; and I had continued this long love affair with her for these many years. First I loved her when she was Pale, but I loved her especially when she was dry, Super Dry. I didn't like it when she Non-Alcoholic, but enjoyed her company thoroughly when she was blue, sweet and called herself Blue Ice. Blue Ice was a staple until someone decided she wasn't worth the time and the money. I also dabbled a little of my time with her when she wore red, but as Red Horse she had been a real pain whenever she kicked. The last time I had anything to do with Red was when I had driven home not remembering how I got there, with a huge dent that ran from the front fender all the way to the door on the left side of my car. And of course, there was also my unforgettable morena beauty, an identity she took whenever she prefers to be called Cerveza Negra.
These days, I am reduced to flirting with my Pinay whenever she was in a Light mood, but more often when she came on really Strong. But this is only the beginning, for last December 2006, I have found a bevy of foamy foreign beauties in Subic. No I do not consider myself a beer connoisseur, nor does my current state of health allow me to do anything more than indulge in a bottle or two. But from this point on, I will review each of them as they should be reviewed - from an average man-on-the-street type of beer drinker, one who remembers both profound and petty stories with his beer. I shall also attempt to remember every brand of beer I drank and try to rank them in my all-time order of preference.
More on beers in future entries. Until next time, please drink responsibly but for pete's sake finish your f---ing beer!
A blog dedicated to beers. But don't think for even a second that it's going to leave out stories about food. This blogger has since learned to make sausages; hams and bacon, to add to his grilling hobby. And while he tries to keep fit and healthy, he hasn't lost his love for food and for a bit of a buzz.
