Virtual Happy Hour (Brews & Spirits, Pics & Reviews)

From the past week...

Good Gourd Imperial Stout by Cigar City Brewing. "A liquid monument to the glory of the pumpkin, the most noble of all the gourds, this Imperial Pumpkin Ale is brewed with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla to emulate the flavors of a decadent, piquant pumpkin pie." 95=World-Class (4.26/5) on Beer Advocate, 8.8 ABV. The head was a perfect pumpkin pie foam, the first third of the beer was a perfect blend of the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and creaminess, and the final third was great too. The middle seemed a bit lesser. Tentatively becoming the fourth beer in the top tier of my favorites among the 23 pumpkins I've rated.


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World Court Mocha Blonde Stout by Legal Remedy. "A blonde stout with coffee aroma and flavor finished with a hint of white chocolate." 90=Outstanding (4.04/5), 6.0% ABV. A very solid stout to try if you want something different.


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Original Landbier Zwick'l by Bayreuther Bierbrauerei. "AKTIEN Zwick'l Kellerbier is the brewery's classic: a natural, cloudy and unfiltered beer specialty. In the past, this tasty beer was only reserved for the master brewer, who tapped the keg briefly and tasted the first sip." 87=Very Good (3.9/5), 5.3% ABV. Seemed like 1/2 way between the Köstritzer Schwarzbier I tried in DC and liked and something American-beery. Not horrible, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Mr boring strikes again. Haven't seen 8.6 gold for a while. On sale around $2 usd a can.


Found Orion aythe supermarket. It's from Okinawa and Asahi and Sapporo are reasonably good for macro lagers. Optimistic.

And mah cat came to say hi and photo bombed me. He's kinda cool so got lots of pats.
Planning on cracking a beer in a couple of hours. It's 11am and bit early for me.

Orion 5% 500ml can.

Had high hopes wasn't disappointed to much. Slight grain/malt taste to start with around a 7 on first impressions. By the bottom of the can a 8/10 in the macro lager category.

Followed up with another fan of 8.6 gold which turned into a second can. Previous gave this beer a 9 it's so easy to drink probably my favorite macro beer overall.

Japan macro lagers generally not half bad derp. Gonna give this one an 8/10.

72 on beer advocate. I probably like generic macro lagers more than typical beer snobs. This is a good one.


One of the Americans in my Stellaris MP game also liked this one but can't reliably get it in his state. He drunk it in Okinawa. Reminded me of Bud with a lot more flavour. If you mixed Bud with Baltika 7 or one if the Obolon beers would probably have something like this.

Two for today. Burlington Intangible Tides - a Triple IPA. Unfortunately, it had noticeable band-aid off flavors, so I dumped it after a few sips. This is the first bad beer I've had from this brewery, which is usually reliably excellent.

Two Lights from Allagash "an ale made with grape must and lager and champagne yeast." which doesn't fit any official style I'm aware of.
It was a light refreshing beer with moderate hop bitterness - perfect for a warm day.

Widely reputated to be one of the worst beers in NZ l present Lion Brown.



4% macro lager from DB breweries.

DB is one if the two major macro breweries here in NZ. It's also the crappiest. I have reviewed Monteith's from them which is decent and Tuatara which is underwhelming. Those are the best of a crap range.

Well expectations were rock bottom for this one. Poured a meh brown colour and smelt like the 1980's. Childhood memories of cigarette smoke infused bowling club crossed with wet mop smell.

Expectations were exceeded but not by much. Was expecting a 2/10 or a 3/10 but I almost finished the can which is a 4/10. Mr sink helped me finish it. I almost felt sorry for the drain.

Well so far Victoria Bitter (VB) is the best of the worst and it's stronger. It's also Australian their crap beer marginally better than ours.

Also drunk it after burger and fries. Figured being thirsty would help. Picked up a solo can for around $1.50 usd it normally retails for around $15 usd for 18. When you can get a dozen Eurolagers (stronger, bigger bottles 15 standard drinks vs 18) for around $12-13 this beer is kinda pointless.

4/10 expectation was a 3. Best case scenario hot summer day, ice cold, ear something salty and drunk on something else might be able to chug this.

Baltika 9 has disappeared from the shelves but each can is 5.7 drinks and you can get 4 900ml cans for same price as 18 of these. B9 isn't great but if you want to get plonked for lowest price you can this beer fails that test as well. B9 is also better.

I think this is the worst beer I've reviewed I normally avoid the slop. I haven't drunk it for so long I figured what the hell. Single can was the same price as a cheap 500ml German pilsner.


Even as a student would not drink this. 1 dozen cheap German pilsners is almost 24 standard drinks vs 18 and tastes a hell of a lot better. Same price as an 18 pack.

Scary thing is. There's worse beers than this. Budweiser murders it.

Sooo.....it's a New Zealand Schlitz?

South by Southwest said:

Sooo.....it's a New Zealand Schlitz?

Click to expand...

Not sure. This one has flavour it's just not nice. If anyone makes it here don't buy this.

Local student magazine rating this abomination as NZs worst beer.

Haven't had it since 2018. It's not that bad it's not good though.

It's not an east Indian IPA a it's a crap macro 4% lager.

I don't normally get rtds but none of the beers appealed and they didn't have much in the way if singles and no craft beers at at all.

In USA you guys don't have ginger ale much afaik. CC and ginger ale in a can.

Canadian Club Premium 7%


And
Canadian Club Dry 4.8%


This is one of my favorite ways to drink CC at home adding a splash of lime and ice mixing a bottle of CC with ginger ale. Premade rtd can lacks the lime.

Not a fan of rtds/soda in general to sweet. Ginger ale is less sweet than most sodas. These were still to sweet espicially the 7% one. It was nice enough but can only give it a 6.5/10.

Actually preferred the 4.8% as it was less sweet and I'll give it a 7/10. I suspect a splash of lime juice would improve both or make it yourself with favorite ginger ale and a bottle of CC.

Pretty good still considering it's not really my thing. Splash of lime or lemon would add .5 to 1 extra point imho. As far as rtds go thumbs up.

Zardnaar said:

I don't normally get rtds but none of the beers appealed and they didn't have much in the way if singles and no craft beers at at all.

In USA you guys don't have ginger ale much afaik. CC and ginger ale in a can.

Canadian Club Premium 7%
View attachment 261532

And
Canadian Club Dry 4.8%
View attachment 261533

This is one of my favorite ways to drink CC at home adding a splash of lime and ice mixing a bottle of CC with ginger ale. Premade rtd can lacks the lime.

Not a fan of rtds/soda in general to sweet. Ginger ale is less sweet than most sodas. These were still to sweet espicially the 7% one. It was nice enough but can only give it a 6.5/10.

Actually preferred the 4.8% as it was less sweet and I'll give it a 7/10. I suspect a splash of lime juice would improve both or make it yourself with favorite ginger ale and a bottle of CC.

Pretty good still considering it's not really my thing. Splash of lime or lemon would add .5 to 1 extra point imho. As far as rtds go thumbs up.

Click to expand...

Non-alcoholic ginger ale (soda) is one of my sons favorites! It isn't drank commonly over here, but can be found everywhere.