New year's beers

1 February is an important day in Norwegian supermarkets. The shelves are restocked, and new additions are placed in the shops. This also happens in the beer shelves, and some new beers make their way into the various supermarkets.

I entered two supermarkets I usually do not frequent last week, and among the new beers I could find Kronenbourg 1664, Birra Morretti and Jacobsen's Saaz Blonde. The first ones are beers I have already tried out. I was in France last year and tried both the ordinary Kronenbourg and 1664. The French 1664 was stronger in alcohol than the one I found in Norway. I believe the French version was 5.2% alcohol, while the one I found in Norway had 4.5% alcohol.

1664 is a pale lager with little carbonation. It is sold in 0.25 litre bottles, and as far as I know it is the only beer sold in Norway in such bottles. The price is high. It costs 20 NOK, which is slightly more than 2 GBP or 2 EUR.

In the nose there is little aroma, but there are some hints of flowers. In the mouth 1664 feels a little watery. It is thinbodied but has some malts. In the aftertaste there are some grains. This is a boring lager that lacks some of the alcohol punch found in the version I had in France. This will not be a frequent visitor to my fridge.

Birra Morretti was my favourite when I tried some Italian pale lagers last year. Also this beer offers very little aroma, but there are some malts in the nose. In the glass there is a lot of carbonation but it builds only a small head.

The beer is medium bodied with a lot of malts in it. The aftertaste is watery with a hint of hoppy bitterness. Birra Morretti is another beer that I will not seek out actively. The price at a Rema 1000 supermarket was 26 NOK for a 0.33 litre bottle.

Last out is Jacobsen's Saaz Blonde, which costs 29 NOK at a Coop supermarket. This is brewed by Carlsberg on their Jacobsens craft brewery and is a blonde in the Belgian style. The beer is golden in colour with a lot of carbonation and a small head. The nose is aromatic with some yeast and hints of hops and fruit.

In the mouth there is more fruitiness with hints of grapefruit before the hops take over in the aftertaste. This is a great beer, and one I hope still is available in shops when Summer comes. Carlsberg knows how to make a good blonde!

Where everybody could know your name

While spending a vacation in a wine country, even a beer drinker like myself could convert into a wine drinker. It is great drinking beer when it is hot, but a nice rosé wine is also nice. And especially when you are in an area where local wine is produced.

One of the French villages I visited this summer was Fox-Amphoux in Provence. Fox-Amphoux is in a way two villages three kilometres apart. On the hillside above the many grape fields you can find the old village, and among all the wine-to-be you find the village centre with a town hall, school and library.

Three or four hundred people live in Fox-Amphoux, and the old village is a beautiful sight with its medieval church and beautiful stone houses. Near the school on the flatland you can find a little shop and the local inn. The local inn is owned by a married couple, and Jean and Chantal serves dinners and drinks. Myself I visited the little restaurant several times, as I found the place both inviting and with really great hosts. It is first and foremost for the locals, as rather few tourists venture into the inn.

Dinner is a menu at 12.50 Euros. The dishes changes from day to day, but you always get a starter, a main dish and some dessert. Portions were large, so I felt the place was a good value for money restaurant.

In the warm Summer weather I enjoyed sitting outside in the shadow of the trees, drinking some wine and talking to the locals when they knew some English. Otherwise we used sign language, and there is much that can be said through fingers and gestures.

Inside in the bar, a large boar with sunglasses covers one of the walls. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, as it was stunning. The proprietor, Jean, is a third generation innkeeper in Fox-Amphoux, and he shot the boar himself after a long chase. During the hunt the boar bit his brother, but everything turned out fine in the end. A large owl is also to be found over the bar, and there are also pictures of famous French soccer stars.

I had a few glasses of pastis at the bar during my days in Provence, and Jean always insisted that I drank the local variant from Marseilles. It is supposed to be produced with only natural ingredients, and I found it superior to for instance Pernod.

But I had to have some beer after all, and in the bar they only sold beers from bottles. I decided to try something new for me and ended up with Fischer. This is a beer from Alsace served in a swing-top bottle. Poured into the glass this is a golden lager with both much carbonation and a large head. The nose is flowery and malty, and the first sip tells this is a strong lager. There is an alcohol taste inbetween the malts and hints of hops. But I liked it, and went on to have another bottle. But then I stopped. At more than 6% alcohol this was no session beer, but it was one of the lagers I really liked in France.

I hope to go back to France again soon. Then there will be more Fischer, but there will also be some wine tasting...

Star of the papal city?

Avignon is one of the cities I never had visited, but that I always had heard about. I remember that my friends who chose French as a second foreign language in high school, used to sing the song about a bridge in Avignon in their French lessons. It had an easy melody, so I learnt the song myself. Without the words, of course, as I chose German as my foreign language.

This summer I got to see the bridge myself. It never crosses the Rhone river, and the day I saw it, people were not dancing upon it like the lyrics say people do.

More reknown than the bridge, is the Papal palace and the story about the popes in Avignon. It is a beautiful building, but I did not take the time to see it from the inside. Perhaps that was unfortunate, but I did enjoy the sight from the outside.

After walking through the inner city of Avignon, it was time to sit down and enjoy dinner. I found the brasserie L'Hotel De Ville and ordered a portion of fish. It was very tasty, although I would have preferred more fish on the plate.

To drink I chose a half litre of the brasserie's draughted beer. That was none other than Belgium's Stella Artois. I have had Stella from draught before, and mostly in a licenced version in British pubs. I consider it a drinkable lager beer. This time I was given a pale lager with some carbonation and a small head. In the hot weather, this was an OK beer that took away my thirst. It had some maltiness, but I felt it was a little bit sweeter than I prefer lagers. It had much more taste than Jupiler, and if I had to choose between the two Belgian beers, my choice would be Stella Artois.

As I left the brasserie in the main square of Avignon, I thought to myself that Stella Artois gets a lot of undeserved badmouthing. Sure, there are better lagers than Stella, but there are also worse beers than it.

A study in blandness

While many European beers are available in France, I felt a solid presence of Belgian beers everywhere in the country. I must confess that I have not tasted that many beers from Belgium, so my trip to France was also a travel into Belgian beers.

Most of my days in France were spent in Provence. The weather was hot, the sun was shining and the soil on the French countryside was rather dry. My throat was also dry, so when I went walking in the village of Barjols, I needed to have a beer. There are several taprooms in Barjols, and I decided to sit down at the Bar Le Sporting. This is a sports bar with various beers on the menu - both from tap and bottles.

I settled down by the bar and ordered a half litre of Jupiler, the most common lager beer in Belgium. The beer was a pale lager with a lot of fizzyness and a small head. The head dissolved rather fast, and there was none while I had my first sip. I was very thirsty and did not know what to expect from the Jupiler beer. That was a fine thing, because this was the most tasteless beer I have ever had. It was so bland that I felt I was nearly drinking water.

Fast forward five days, and I am in another village in Provence. This time I am seated in Aups outdoors at the Grand Cafe Du Cours. I am in the mood for a beer, and I see that people around me drink Jupiler. OK, I will try it again. Perhaps my palate was off course in Barjols or there was something wrong with the beer?

The server brings me my Jupiler, and it is time to taste the Belgian beer again. It has a smaller head this time around, but in every other way it is the same bland beer in Aups as in Barjols. In a way that was a disappointment. I will not say no if somebody offers me Jupiler, but I will not buy it myself. Been there, done that!

Among the Frenchmen

As I told earlier this month, I spent some of my Summer vacation in France. Before I went, I heard that France was not a beer country, and after visiting the country I agree. In the towns and villages I visited, the French beers sold were in most cases typical eurolagers that could be described as boring compared to many other European lager beers.

It was nice trying Duvel for the first time. And I did it in France.

The French are good at wines and spirits. I have tasted many good red and rosé wines this Summer, and a cognac or a French brandy is often very nice. I also liked the French pastis. I have visited Greece several times and am very fond of ouzo, so that was no surprise to me as the two spirits have very much in common.

From a French Supermarket: Value packs abound.

Supermarkets in France have a good selection in beers. Many Belgian beers are available in the shelves together with French and Dutch lagers. Often you can find value packs of 20 or 30 bottles for a great price.

My fridge in France: Various thirst quenchers sold in French supermarkets.

I found the use of 0.25 litre bottles very funny at first. At home here in Norway 0.5 litre cans are the preferred measure, but 0.33 litre bottles are also widely sold. The fine thing about the small bottles in France, is that the beer is always fresh. That was an important point when I visited The Netherlands some years ago and found 0.20 litre glasses at pubs very amusing.

From another French supermarket.

I enjoyed being in France, but I feel that the leading French beer brands are not among the best I have tasted. Kronenbourg was nice to quench my thirst, but I would have loved to have a Pilsner Urquell or a Budvar instead. But still Kronenbourg and its French colleagues were nice lager beers - just like many I have tasted in Greece, Italy or Spain. They take away your thirst, but you know that better alternatives exist.

The Session: Summer Beers

Once again this blog is happy to join this month's edition of The Session. This time The Session is hosted by BetterBeerBlog, and the topic is "Summer beers". In my opinion this is a great topic, and I would like to quote from the announcement: "With the summer coming to a close, what was your favorite beer of the summer? It doesn’t even have to be from this summer. Is it a lager or maybe a light bodied wheat ale? Maybe you’re drinking anti-seasonally and are having a barleywine or Russian Imperial Stout. Why is this beer your favorite? Is there a particular memory associated with this beer? How about a city? Maybe there was a particular dish that made this beer memorable? Spare no detail."

Well, this summer has really been a beer summer for me. I tried some new beers, and many of them were drunk under hot temperatures in France. France is in my opinion not the typical beer country, and I had many great afternoons and evenings trying the local wines. I was not impressed by the French beers, as they were generally sweet eurolagers and are not among my favourite beers.

Lots of lagers in a French supermarket.

Instead I would like to go back in time to the last few years and my summer visits to the Czech Republic. As the readers of this blog already know, I am very fond of the Czech Republic and the beers brewed there. I have spent several weeks the last few years visiting Prague and enjoying the local beers. In lagerland lager is of course king, and in summertime I usually prefer lagers to other beers. A nice, cold lager is perfect in hot Summer temperatures, and the Czech ones are of very high quality.

Pilsner Urquell, here as served at U Sadu in Prague.

I have brought home some of my Czech likings. Pilsner Urquell is one of my favourite lager beers, and as it is widely available here in Norway it has been a regular summer beer for me also this year. Of course, Pilsner Urquell is best from tap in the tankova restaurants and hospodas in the Czech Republic, but it tastes very good from can here in Norway when you compare it to the local efforts of Norwegian macro breweries like Ringnes, Grans or Hansa.

Erdinger weissbier

The last few years wheat beers have also been a favourite for me. Here in Norway it is easy to get hold of several German weissbeers at Vinmonopolet. While I more or less only drank lager beer before, wheat beers are now a common sight in our fridge.

Primator Weizen served at Prvni Pivni Tramway in Prague.

Here in Norway Erdinger and Paulaner weizen is easy to find, and in my opinion Paulaner is a real gem and the best of the two. I tasted Primator weizen in Prague and I liked it a lot, and it might even be better than the Paulaner effort.

A Norwegian weizen from Aass brewery. It is
unfortunately inferior to the German weissbiers.

In France I also drank some Hoegaarden witbiers. That was a great wheat beer with lots of citrus notes in it. It was one of my summer favourites this year, and it was a great thirst quencher in 30+ Centigrades heat. When I came home to Bergen, I ordered it at the local Henrik bar. The waitress asked me why I liked it, as it was not one of her favourites. I told her that it was great in summertime. She said that a lot of the bar's costumers told her the same, but she would not agree.

Hoegaarden at Henrik in Bergen.

In the meantime Autumn is here, and soon there will be a new Summer!