The Bar Towel

I'm having good luck with imports lately. Staropramen, which in the past never pleased, is spot on and I think because it is fresh as a daisy - dated to April '06 so probably made in the last 6 weeks. It has a fresh malty smell and taste with an interesting hop accent, not like Saaz as seen in Urquel but more herbal and (in a good way) resinous-like, I wonder if some of those hops are imported from outside Czechoslovakia, but if so doesn't matter, this is fine lager beer. I took it from the darkened corner of an opened case to ensure minimum contact with light.

Bishop's Finger is one of those beers I never tried until now. First, the name strikes me as a little silly and I have difficulty drinking beer with odd-sounding or jokey names (e.g. Dead Guy Ale - I just can't get past that name!). Then there is the clear bottle. But I bought it anyway and is it good, big plummy smell and taste with a hop or yeast accent (I am not sure which) that reminds me of Orval a bit, but Orval against a background of plums not oranges. The taste is complex, very firm from the hops but with a good roasted malt undertone. I would prefer it bottle-conditioned (for extra yeast complexity) but it is very good as it is. This one isn't expiry-dated (that I can see) but is very fresh-tasting. Good old Shepard Neame, what pros they are.

Finally, some Stella in bottles dated to April '06. Very fresh beer and it brings out the cereal/porridgy-like taste of modern Stella. Stella was similar 15 years ago but had a hop fragrance I can't detect in current samples. I read years ago in a French beer magazine that Interbrew had a projet, called Eureka, to reformulate the beer for the world market. While I miss that flowery taste the beer is still remarkably good for a mass-produced beer.

Sometimes when I buy imports they taste sub-par (maybe from over-age or being light-struck) or maybe I just don't "get" the taste but this time I'm batting a thousand.

Gary

I had a similar experience with Bishops Finger, Gary -- which, BTW, is named after a lamdmark roadsign in Kent, near the brewery. Although I've enjoyed the beer in England, I've always been disappointed with it in Ontario, until now. As long as it's fresh and straight from the case, and thus not light-struck, I'll keep buying it, and listing it at beerbistro.

I take isue with your Stella comments, though. Not the descriptives, which seem pretty good to me, but your characterization of the beer as "remarkably good for a mass-produced beer. " It bothers me when people qualify an assessment that way, as in "pretty good for a Molson beer" or "a fine stout considering that it's from A-B." The point should be whether a beer is good or not, period. I wouldn't mention a Whopper in the same context as, say, a Bymark burger simply because it's "pretty good considering that it comes from a cookie-cutter, multi-national organization." The two foods simply aren't in the same league, and I don't think that qualifying the former does justice to the latter.

To take a beer example, King Pilsner and Pilsner Urquell are both excellent lagers. Never mind that one is brewed by a tiny, independent operation and the other by one of the largest brewing companies in the world (SAB Miller). They're both wonderfully flavourful Czech or Czech-style pilsners, period.

Stella is, IMHO, a mild to moderately tasty example of a continental pilsner, brewed to offend the fewest people rather than appeal to those who concern themselves with character in their beer. Broadly in the same style, but I think better, are Steamwhistle and Spaten Lager, one from a small company and the other from a very large one. And neither in need of any qualification.

old faithful wrote:First, the name strikes me as a little silly and I have difficulty drinking beer with odd-sounding or jokey names (e.g. Dead Guy Ale - I just can't get past that name!).

Lew Bryson did an interview with Rogue's Jack Joyce recently, and to hear him tell it, the reason for the name is pretty simple: as Maierbock, sales were dismal; as Dead Guy Ale (same beer, different name), it's one of Rogue's best sellers.

Well there you go (about the name), different strokes... And Bishop's Finger may have local authenticity but still I get nervous with unusual-sounding names. But the beer is first-rate to be sure.

Stella isn't the best lager, but it is good and sometimes I don't want a full- on taste but something less assertive; it fits the bill for that. Sometimes, especially in a social context, a beer can "get in the way"; Stella is a good solution since it has good flavor but on a moderate compass. Also, Stella sometimes is the only decent beer available, e.g. at a lunch, or a party, so it is good to know that it is tasting good. But I recall it tasting better (with a marked hop quality it seems to eschew these days) 20 years ago. Oh well, as my friend the whisky writer Chuck Cowdery once said, what or who is as good as it was twenty years ago?

Gary

Old Faithful, is your pseudonym a reflection of your age? Don't understand the hangup about names...call it Smelly Old Shit but if it tastes good, who cares? We all know that names are marketing tools and, again, who cares when the underlying product is of great quality....better to call everything Original Draught? Dead Guy was in fact another name for the original Maierbock named after Rogue's brewer. In fact, the same beer was packaged under many different names over the years but the Dead Guy name stuck. It's based upon the Mexican holiday "Days of the Dead" but got it's biggest boost because it became the tour beer for the Grateful Dead during their heyday. Again, don't understand the hangup about names unless you're talking about Keith's I.P.A....now that's a crime! If you can't drink a beer because of it's name it's time to hang up the old chalice.

Well, maybe you're right, maybe I'm too long in the tooth for this. I'm 55, which is not young of course but I AM younger than eminent beer specialists Michael Jackson and Fred Eckhardt.

I guess we all react differently to things, some people I know won't drink a beer (any beer) from a can, some will never use a glass, and so on. I find certain names unappealing. I like historical names, e.g. (I'll make this up) Waterloo County 1890 Dark Lager Bier. Now that is a beer I'd like.

I actually didn't know Dead Guy was Maierbock and I am a big fan of the Rogue beers so I think I'll re-consider.

Gary

Steve Beaumont wrote:Stella is, IMHO, a mild to moderately tasty example of a continental pilsner, brewed to offend the fewest people rather than appeal to those who concern themselves with character in their beer. Broadly in the same style, but I think better, are Steamwhistle and Spaten Lager, one from a small company and the other from a very large one. And neither in need of any qualification.

I think Steamwhistle has come a long way in the past year...I personally enjoy it more than King Pils....but neither is near the class of Spaten's import lagers where herbal German hops and ample malt spine and delivery is concerned....and these, to me, define a lager.

If Spaten or Ayinger or Andechs or any top flight German lagers were available here I'd never touch another domestic lager until they delivered the same character...sorry, just the HO of a hopless malt head lager lover.

old faithful wrote:I'm having good luck with imports lately. Staropramen, which in the past never pleased, is spot on and I think because it is fresh as a daisy - dated to April '06 so probably made in the last 6 weeks. It has a fresh malty smell and taste with an interesting hop accent, not like Saaz as seen in Urquel but more herbal and (in a good way) resinous-like, I wonder if some of those hops are imported from outside Czechoslovakia, but if so doesn't matter...

Gary

Staropramen is my favorite Czech beer, and the hard-working student hired to hand-pick the hops each year commend your good taste. (I'm also very sentimental about Prague, my Grandmother's city.)

I've been sampling Staropramen regularly recently and find the quality is holding up, i.e., wherever it was purchased in Toronto and even though the green bottles are stored for a while in the fridge (I try to keep them in the dark part). The product is fresh and this is important, the inherent quality is held up by the fresh character. The taste is quite different to Pilsener Urquel - both are very Czech-tasting but in different ways. None of the other East European beers really comes close to either of these two. Golden Pheasant (also Czech) isn't bad but the various Slovene, Polish, Russian and other former East Block country beers, while decent enough, don't offer the rich palate of these other two. I went back to Jackson's World Guide To Beer (1977) to see what he says about Czech beer. Clearly a lot has changed since then in terms of the scale and method of production. He mentions, surely tongue in cheek, that since Bohemian hops are picked by the hands of young women this surely adds to the quality of the beers. He includes a picture of attractive women, probably college students, picking hops. I wonder if today hops are still harvested by hand in the Czech Republic, that era may be over (as it is in England and other beer lands). But the quality of the best Czech pilseners has hung on and I don't doubt that sampled in their home land, especially on draft, these beers must be sensational.

Gary