De 5 Gaarde - Didrik & Orla

Two danish beers from “De 5 Gaarde“, a label representing some kind of cooperative of 5 property yards which make food, beer and spirit the traditional way. The beer is actually brewed by the Harboe brewery not known for high quality beers, imho.

Orla the “Pilsner” beer was very nice indeed, somewhat reddish in colour with a very smooth taste.

Didrik the “Luxusbryg”, a more maltish, sweet beer almost without head, a bit too alcoholic in taste a bit too strong maybe 7,5% Alc Vol.

AIXpi’s Beer Rating
De 5 Gaarde Orla 7 of 10
De 5 Gaarde Didrik 5 of 10

Willemoes Ale & Willemoes Schwarzbier

These two very well balanced beers from the Vestfyen brewery in Denmark were very different to their names. The Schwarzbier was quite light and not as harsh as e.g. Köstritzer Schwarzbier. The beer is a bit too strong for my taste which makes it too sweet for a Schwarzbier, but that’s my personal opinion.

The Ale was darker than the Schwarzbier and more harsh but with a distinct taste and flavor of the dark roasted malt, the pilsner malt and the Münchner malt used in this beer. Both beers tasted very well but the Ale was a bit more authentic.

AIXpi’s Beer Rating:
Willemoes Schwarzbier 5 of 10
Willemoes Ale 8 of 10

FUR Ale - Danish Ale from a little island

On the little island Fur in Denmark this red-golden delicious beer is brewed.

I tested the Ale and was very surprised by its quite lager like taste but it has this perfect harshness of the 3 different hops which are used for this beer. FUR Ale is a really palatable beer with a aromatic and fruity taste. Highly recommended!

The brewery’s web-site: FUR Bryghus

Now it’s the Porter and the Bock to go.

Edit, after having tried the Porter and the Bock as well now it’s time for the rating:

AIXpi’s Beer Rating:
FUR Ale 9 of 10
FUR Porter 8 of 10
FUR Bock 8 of 10

Beer in the world…

Some thoughts about the different sorts of beer I encountered in the last 4 weeks during my stay in the US, Greece and Germany. In Atlanta we tasted quite a bunch of beers, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller, Miller Lite, Coors, Coors Light, Killian’s Red and some local beer called Sweetwater from a micro brewery. The first named beer tasted like I expected – not so much, the Sweetwater was so awful and disgusting that I can’t understand how they can call this beer by not getting embarrassed. I ordered the Sweetwater once but I sent it back to the member of staff serving at our table and ordered a Bud instead, at least a drinkable beer. First I thought their tapping pipes where untidy or something else was wrong with their keg or its content, so I gave the beer a second chance and tried it again at another pub – same result, this beer sucks.

In Greece they have mainly just three sorts of beer available at the pubs and taverns, the three are Heineken (surprise! ;)), Amstel and a local beer called Mythos. Ok, you can purchase various other makes at the super-markets but the main beers out there are these three. Heineken and Amstel tastes just like Heineken and Amstel anywhere else in the world, not too bad. The Mythos was surprisingly good and always cheaper as the Holland brews. So if you are in Greece give Mythos a chance.

Finally the last week of the holiday was in Munich/Germany, city of beers! As I went home to my parents’ place I found a “Franziskaner Dunkel” and “Augustiner Edelstoff” in the fridge, can a visit start better? I have to admit that I always hated “Weissbier” or “Weizenbier” as it is called outside Bavaria, but as I got more and more interested in beer, in a way buying books and analyzing it just as others do with single malts, I have to say “Weissbier” rocks!

If you are interested in beer or maybe want to become interested in beer I would like to suggest you a book, it’s called “Ultimate Beer” by Michael Jackson

And if you become even more interested after you have read this book you should read the book: “Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide”, these two books cover a wide range of beers and are very interesting for a beer enthusiast. Last year a “Delirium Café” has opened here in Gothenburg, I’m very glad for that because of they have over 2000 different beers in stock and it’s a real pleasure to go there with your beer book and just test their range…

A quite important thing is to take it easy while testing different beers, especially with the strong Belgian brews, if you want to test seriously don’t drink to much as you will loose the ability to evaluate the different beers, and the most important thing: Don’t drink and drive!

Some links to my favorite breweries below:

Mariahilfer Bier …delicious!

Augustiner Bräu

St. Bernardus

Duvel

Saint Sixtus, Westvleteren yet to be tasted…

Brauerei Weihenstephan

Hacker-Pschorr

Unertl

Erdinger Weissbräu

Schneider Weisse

Spaten Bräu

…to be continued