The Bar Towel

Here is an amber from Brasseurs Unis in Pau, a city in south-west France. British pale ale style, say like MacLean's Pale Ale, or Granite Best Bitter. All French malt. Organic too ("bio"). Tres bonne, with the bonus of the distressed label, seeming to evoke a 1940s or fifties label.

I corrected above post to state Brasseurs Unis are located in south-west France. The term Petrolette originally meant a vintage French motorcycle, ca. 1900. The label shows a helmet and goggle wearing rider on an old-fashioned motorbike. The line also includes Blonde and Blanche versions.

That Guinness is the go-to in Malaysia.

Gary, I have been noticing a trend/theme here. First lots of pics with a bottle and a glass showing the pour, but rotated 90 degrees. Now I am seeing pics properly oriented, but the glass is progressively emptier.

Just chance I'm sure!

Two here, Guinness Special Export 8 per cent abv., and Thiriez Triple. The Thiriez is from far north of France near Belgium. This version of Guinness is mostly malt - no unmalted barley as usual Guinness. and even Foreign Extra Stout, have, except a small amount of roasted barley (not black malt) for colour and roasted taste.

The Thiriez was recommended to me by an Ontario brewer, and excellent it is. The phenolic and strong esters of usual Triple are mostly ironed out with a honeyed malt quality dominating, and good bitterness still. Still a Triple but a refined type, one I prefer to the usual palate.

The Guinness is, like Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, more intense than the regular draught and widget Guinness, more like it was historically. Never understood why we don't get these in Ontario, or at least one. Foreign Extra certainly is available in the U.S. A drawback of our state-controlled system, imo.

Here is Jenlain again, the family-owned brewery in the far north of France founded in the 1920s,. They are important for restoring biere de garde to the market and make great beer in general.

The beer shown is called simply Blond beer top-fermented, not a biere de garde as such.

Over 6 percent abv, excellent beery taste with a clean yeast background (no clovey, estery Belgian influence).

I'd think some of our Canadian ales were like this in the mid-20th century.

Jenlain is barley malt + some wheat, as many craft beers today. No sugar. The wheat probably is used just to assist the head - the beer doesn't taste adjunct in other words.

A great taste that is not all that common in France as Belgian and American craft brewing are often the influences. This beer is more British if anything, rather like Boddington's for those who know it (a golden bitter) but stronger.

(Sorry - forgot to tilt phone when taking picture).

Didn't tilt phone but I see now picture is right orientation. Not sure why, but all good.

G.M. Gillman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:21 pm Didn't tilt phone but I see now picture is right orientation. Not sure why, but all good.

The technology has learned what you want.

Amazing.

So now the same beer as just above but in the bottle, Jenlain Blonde. It is from the far French north near Belgium. I bought it as I couldn't find the cans again in a couple of places. Once at home I realized it isn't quite the same, because label states "unfiltered", the can does not.

Clearly it is bottle conditioned, a little gushing occurred as well. Superior to the other, even the hops seemed more forward (German type, not American or classic UK by my taste).

I am trying to think what Ontario beer might be similar if at this higher strength, 6.2%. Maybe Beau Lugtread or Black Oak Pale Ale - or the two combined.

Bought the 4 beers shown from a Romanian grocery in Nice, France. Three are from Ursus, owned by Asahi. The Silva is an all-malt dark lager from brewery of that name, now a Heineken affiliate. So far I had the blue can which is a malt and corn beer but with a nice full taste. Corn is famed in Romania in the form of cornmeal mush aka mamaliga aka polenta. I figured Romanian brewers would take care to make a maize beer taste good, so far I'm right. More reviews will follow for this group.

(Romania has an active craft scene too but the beers in this store were from the big groups, who no doubt have the distribution to reach a Romanian ethnic market in western Europe).

An Armenian lager, from an independent brewery going back to the early 50s and later privatized. Solid all-malt lager. Not really Czech or German-type. More like the lighter end of craft lager.