I have no idea if the glass in this image is real, but if it is, I NEED ONE.
Posted in Canadian beer
image courtesy of unibroue.com
I once had a dream in which I was friends with Mike Cammalleri of the Montreal Canadiens, and he invited me to his flat to drink La Fin du Monde out of the Cup. Carey Price was there as well, sans chandail. Every time I drink La Fin du Monde, I think of that dream and wish it would come true. But I digress.
This is a really freaking good beer. It’s quite difficult to blog about whilst drinking, because this bad Quebec boy is 9%. It doesn’t taste like it, but oh man do you feel buzzed about halfway through (and this is coming from me, a professional). It’s very easy to drink (ooor chug, if you are moi), very unique, and it feels almost like a celebratory brew; I’d certainly pop open a big bottle for special occasions!
La Fin du Monde is made by Unibroue, a Canadian brewery based a few kilometres east of Montreal in the city of Chambly. The name means “the end of the world”, and until someone corrects me I will continue to pronounce it in my terrible Quebecois accent as “lah fehn doo mahn” (it’s Français, nasalize your vowels, ‘Murricans!). If you want to be smooth like me, you can call it “Finny”. Find it at at great bars like Toronado or Wine Affairs, or in sixers or a litre under the Canada beer section at Bevmo. If you can’t find it, you can ask for “Luh Finn doo Mond” and no one will correct you (unless they are French Canadian. Or moi).
It is best served in a tulip glass (start collecting those, they are mighty useful) and has a malty, crisp, and bold flavour. It’s very aromatic with hints of clove, coriander, that beautiful Belgian yeast, and something kinda banana-ish (oddly, this is the second beer in a row that I have reviewed and admitted tastes like bananas, whilst in the same breath taking the time to note that i *hate* bananas). As a golden ale, it is light in colour, yeast-a-licious, and high in alcohol. I’d say it has a fairly high amount carbonation (adding to the feeling that it is like a champagne, very bubbly), and damn does it drink smooth for a nine percent.
La Fin du Monde by Unibroue
Style: Golden Ale
Colour: Pale gold
ABV: 9%. Nine motherpucking percent.
Serve in: A tulip glass, which will allow the aromas of the yeast to open up.
What to wear while drinking it: A Montreal Canadiens toque (Effieboo does it quite well here!), but if you do that prepare to get heckled by all the bandwagoning Bruins “fans” out there.
Overall, I would recommend this beer to anyone. I introduced my friend David to it and he loved it, my hophead friends dig it, my Belgian sour-loving friends like it, and of course, I love it. It’s a bit fancy, it’s a little different, and it’s delicious. Give it a try!
In addition to making a variety of kickass beers (Blanche de Chambly, the mind-numblingly delicious Quelque Chose, the crisp apple-flavoured Éphémère, and the legendary Maudite), Unibroue runs a damn fine website, replete with recipes, backgrounds, and videos explaining their craft and their passion. I don’t know know if they do brewery tours (whaddup Quebec, let me know!), but if they do I will certainly visit when I am in Montreal. Check out the videos on their website or YouTube channel for a bit of history and a taste unparalleled linguistic excellence, the Quebecois accent.
I will leave you with this recipe from the Unibroue website for the Triple Threat cocktail featuring La Fin du Monde. Give it a try, let me know what you think!
Triple Treat
Beer : La Fin du Monde
Serves 1
Ingredients
- 3 oz. pineapple juice
- 1 oz. pulp-free orange juice
- 5 oz. La Fin du Monde
- Dash of grenadine
Directions
Mix the two juices in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Strain into a tall tulip glass. Add the La Fin du Monde, taking care to create a full head, and finish with a dash of grenadine. Garnish with a slice of pineapple (rind on).
Oh, Franziskaner. This is the beer I often use to lure people from the simpler macrobrews so many people waste time on (really, stop; life’s too short to drink macros). It’s a little warm in San Jose today; we’ve had an abnormally cool summer and now that it’s hot, I really needed a beer. So this evening I found one of these guys hiding in my fridge, poured a glass, opened the front windows, and watched an episode of Jeopardy!…ahhhh, relaxation!
The first time I saw this beer was at Bevmo or Safeway, and probably like many, I overlooked it. Nothing about the name or the fat monk on the bottle made me want to drink it. It finally caught my attention when I went to Toronado with some friends and overhead a girl yelling in the whitest white-girl accent ever: “TRY THE FRANCIS CONNER! YOU HAVE TO TRY THE FRANCIS CONNER!!“.
I have no idea why she was yelling; it was a lazy saturday afternoon and oddly, Toronado wasn’t even busy. But I did try the “francis conner” later, and it was delicious. It has since become a favourite, a frequent inhabitant of my fridge, and most recently, a birthday gift from the lovely Ryan (who, from this point forward, shall be referred to as Ryan The Beer Boy), giver of lovely gifts, drinker of delicious beers, and one sarcastic man.
For the record: I pronounce it “Fronnziss-khanner”, or simply “Franny”. I have yet to have a bartender or a German person correct me on this, but I am positive that “Francis Conner” is not this beer’s name. Not even in America.
Franziskaner Hefe-Weiss
Style: weissbeir; hefe-weiss
Colour: a beautiful dark gold, thick like britney’s hair before she went nuts and shaved it off; pours with an abundant white head.
IBUs: i’ve read varying reports on this, but i’d say it’s about 10-13 IBU
ABV: approximately 4.5% alcohol by volume
Serve in: a hef glass! wider on the top and tapering down at the bottom. and for the love of all that is holy, do not serve with lemon.
What to wear while drinking it: a DIRNDL!! dirndls are quite possibly the best drinking attire ever, and definitely the most german.
official bavarian beer-drinking dress
Franziskaner is a very easy drinking, full-bodied and sweet beer, typical of the hefeweizen style. The yeast in most hefeweizens, and especially the yeast in Franny, creates an ester which has a faint banana taste. My friend Nesthree frequently recommends it to people by saying “it tastes like bananas!”. Ryan the Beer Boy says Franziskaner is the “best Bavarian hef and pairs well with cheesecake”. I personally have never seen him eat this with cheesecake, but I will assume he does it when i’m not looking so as to not make me jealous. Merci beaucoup, mon chou.
You can pick up Franziskaner at pretty much every Bevmo and most Safeway supermarkets. Bevmo has them in larger full pints as well as 12oz six-packs, and Safeway usually just has the larger pints. It’s best enjoyed in summer or early fall, if you ask me: something about a good wheat beer in summer just feels so, so right.
Have you tried this beer? Do you like it, or do you hate it? Leave your feedback in the comments!
Posted in beer review, franziskaner, german bier, hefeweizen
It’s April in San Jose, which can only mean one thing for the hockey faithful: it’s time to drink. Win or lose, following our beloved Sharks is a test for one’s sanity and sobriety. Normally at the tank, I enjoy a beer or three per game (at $8.25 a cup, my beer ends up costing me almost as much as my ticket, but I digress). Beer and hockey go hand-in-hand, like baseball and peanuts.
The go-to beer in my fridge the last few months has been Lost Coast’s Great White Beer. I was introduced to it last summer by friend from work and immediately fell in love. Since it’s so damn sharky, I decided it was the perfect beer to enjoy during the NHL Playoffs. I had five a few nights ago, when I decided to drink a beer for every goal against the Sharks; this lessened the blow of a potential blowout loss, but also made me ridiculously nuts when the Sharks came back from a four goal deficit to win 6-5 in overtime.
SJ Sharkie's cousin?
This is one of the easiest drinking brews I’ve ever had. It doesn’t have the grainy/grassy watery taste that makes Molson Canadian (review coming soon) easier to drink than Gatorade, but it does have a light, balanced flavour–interesting to note, since it’s unfiltered. A bit of yeasty sediment can appear in the bottle because of this, making it a cloudy blonde colour.
Colour: Joe Pavelski’s Blonde beard
Style: Belgian Ian White
Aroma: faintly floral, not very hoppy…kinda not there, just like Vlasic
Taste: IT TASTES LIKE FROOT LOOPS CEREAL. No joke, it’s delicious. I bet your kids will like it. Notes of coriander and citrus with mild carbonation. Confusingly full taste, like Patrick Marleau’s eyebrows.
Overall, one of our favourite easy-drinking beers. What do you think of Great White? Leave us some comments.
Posted in beer review, wheat beer, witbier
Beers of Summer is BACK. Stay tuned for more beery goodness. You can also follow us on Twitter at @beersofsummer for more updates, expletives, and dirty jokes.
Fine… weirdo. You can read a semi-related blog (okay, it’s by the same person but has nothing to do with beer) at http://www.klyushka.wordpress.com
I started this blog with the intention of making it a poorly-named year-round venture, but then something happened.
Don’t worry, it wasn’t bad ! But it was cold and refreshing and lots of fun, kinda like beer. I’ve been so busy with it (among other things) that I’ve hardly had any time to work, go to school, or write about all the beers I’ve been drinking. And now that it’s coming to an end, I remembered my old, very neglected hockey widow of a blog.
Sorry guys. Sharks have been hot this year.
The playoffs are just around the corner, and the first round of summer brews will be arriving right on the heels (crossing my fingers here) the Stanley Cup’s arrival in San Jose.
Until then, I have a few special bottles stashed away–including my absolute favourite, Samuel Smith’s Organic Cherry Beer that was smuggled to me from the UK–for our playoff victories. I also have a bomber of La Fin du Monde that I will drink in one gulp if things don’t go as planned.
So. See you in a few weeks !
Ah, Sierra Nevada. The pride of Chico, California, the makers of the lackluster Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I am not a big fan of that particular pale ale, but Sierra Nevada’s winter seasonal Celebration Ale really does make me celebrate. Here’s a little fact that makes me respect the Sierra Nevada Brewing company a little more: homebrewing in the United States was illegal from the prohibition until 1979, but the founder of Sierra Nevada actually got his start studying chemistry and physics and working in a homebrewing supply store… while homebrewing was still technically illegal.
Which means I hate to rate this beer on another element: Punkness. This beer is automatically pretty high on the Punk Scale.
Sierra Nevada Summerfest: Before the bubbles
Back to the beer. Initial inspection of the beer is fine. I don’t have a proper pilsner/lager glass––which is a slightly tapered, thin-walled glass––so I poured mine into a POM tea glass. Does POM realise everyone is using their glasses for alcohol these days ? Anyway, it pours with a smooth white head and is a golden yellow (#F3C800-ish). Oh, and I can already tell it’s super carbonated. It’s bubbling.
All those things considered, Summerfest does present itself as a lager-style brew with all the usual attributes of that style: low bitterness, light malts, and a relatively low alcoholic content. This one sports 5% ABV and 35 IBU (that stands for International Bitterness Units, and 35 is actually pretty high for a lager). It gets that high IBU and hoppy bite to from Saaz hops used as both the bittering hops (which balance out the bready sweetness of the malt in the initial brew) and as the finishing hops (which… well, they do pretty much the same thing: provide that lasting flavour that you’re still feeling post-sip). I don’t know which type of Saaz hops are used: there are actually several varieties, all of which are pretty popular in lagers and have a long history in German brewing. Maybe it’s their Germanness that is confusing to me.
I also don’t know if there is a scale on which to rate carbonation, but this is pretty high up there. I started burping after my second sip. Ugh.
After a few more sips, the Saaz hops are starting to grow on me. They’re a little tangy, crisp, sort of tree-like. I’m getting a tiny hint of juniper from it, which I am really allergic to. There’s a piney aftertaste that lingers on the back and sides of the tongue, which isn’t bad for this beer because it lacks a really obvious flavour punch: it needs that hoppyness to make it taste like anything at all.
Overall, this is an interesting beer. I don’t think I’ve had such a carbonated beer in a while. It does seem like a nice medium between the easy-to-swallow American pale ales and the outlandishly hoppy IPAs. It’s not great for fans of the really hoppy, the really malty, or for people who don’t drink sparkling water because the bubbles annoy them. Summerfest is pretty high on that Punk Factor (I’d say about a 7.3/10), but overall it’s about a 6.5/10 beer. I’d drink it again, but I’m not going to go out and buy it.
Posted in beer review, seasonal, Sierra Nevada, summer beer
It’s not a good sign when someone says “Don’t let her drink that until I get back–I want to see her face.”
I really do like Avery, so I had high hopes for this beer. I also really like brettanomyces, and that’s what my friends used to trick me into drinking it.
For those not familiar, brettanomyces is a wild yeast strain that lends its distinct flavour to several beers and lambics. You can taste it in Lindeman’s fruit lambics, Oude Gueze and Kriek Boon, and New Belgium’s La Folie and Eric’s Ale. In those brews, the yeast causes a dry, sour taste that tends to compliment or highlight the crisp or fruity flavours in the beer. Everyone’s palate is different, but I can tolerate a lot of sour/bitter in a beer, so (usually) I like brett.
On the other hand, brett can add a lot of complexity. It’s like inviting your philosophy-major friend over for dinner with your easy-going normal friends: shit gets complicated, and you end up spending way too much time talking about nothing at all. Because of this, brettanomyces is often used to make younger wines taste a little older or more complex and interesting. But sometimes, the presence of brettanomyces is considered a defect. It can cause a number of strange flavours to dance around on the tongue : Band-aids, barnyard, horse stable, antiseptic, sweaty saddle, cheese, and rancidity are among them.
Avery Brewing’s Fifteen had several of those elements; namely, barnyard, horse stable, and sweaty saddle. Initially the beer’s aroma was not off-putting in any way. The color should have been an indication of what was to come, being a bit of a chestnut/sorrel, just like you would find on a quarter horse. If anything, I’d say it smelled crisp and a tiny bit nutty, nothing like horses. Then I drank it.
First, I looked for that sour bretty taste I love. Didn’t find it. What I did find was something that tasted like dirty, sweaty leather. Every sip released another intense flavour, and despite this, I kept drinking it. I didn’t finish more than a few ounces of it, but I just couldn’t stop drinking it. It was like the Amy Winehouse of beers: awful, but you can’t stop staring.
Here’s what you can think about instead of trying this beer: Imagine being on a horse. You’re cantering in a ring or walking on a trail, when you open your mouth and your senses are suddenly overwhelmed. The smell and taste of horse, saddlery, your own sweat, the wood chips in the stables, and a bit of the antiseptic used to clean the water troughs envelops your senses. It’s hot outside and you’d rather be doing anything besides messing up your lower back by sitting on this enormous beast, with everything but the taste of feces in your mouth.
What really threw me off afterwards was the description that Avery has on their website:
For the past couple of years, we’ve been working with several strains of brettanomyces (wild yeast). We found one and deemed it the best for it’s tart flavor and funky, fruity aroma. Adding black mission figs for a subtle jammy aspect, hibiscus flowers for an herbal bouquet and hazy sunset hue, and white pepper for a bit of spicy twang, we’ve created FIFTEEN– a unique drinking experience inspired by the wild farmhouse ales of Belgium. Though immensely complex today, more flavors will emerge with time, so throw a few bottles in your cellar for future celebrations.
Um, what ? Hibiscus flavours were not coming across to me at all. The pepper, “funky”, and fig flavours were evident but um, nothing to celebrate. Unless you think it’s good to have a bad beer every once in a while. In that case, I think Sarah and Morgan have another bottle of this one. I’m sure you’re welcome to have it.
Among those waiting to be re-tasted, remembered or consumed for the first time:
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Samuel Adams Summer Ale
New Belgium Skinny Dip
Alaskan Summer Ale
Scrimshaw Pilsner (North Coast Brewing)
Anchor Summer Beer
Honey Moon
Shipyard Summer Ale
Anderson Valley Summer Solstice
Karma Ale (Avery Brewing)
