Dave and Bill's Beer Reviews

Quilmes Argentina

Staropramen Czech

Black Sheep Ale UK

Imperial Costa Rica

Wizard Smith Ale Tasmania 

November 2006

Birra Messina - average beer from Sicily.

Baltika 7 - not sure what the numbers mean on the Baltika range but they all taste good.

Baffo D'Oro - excellent dark beer from Italy.

Konig Pilsener - I think this was Austrian, and I think it was pretty ordinary.

Lomza - this one however, I have no recollection of drinking.

Red Stripe - reliable beer from Jamaica mon.

October 2006

Monty Python's Holy Ale - Gimmicky name, which usually indicates a crap beer, but this was very nice.

Wexford Irish Cream Ale - too much cream and not enough ale.

Lucky Beer - brewed in Haymarket (Chinatown) Sydney, drinkable, refreshing beer in buddha shaped bottle.

Cantina - From El Salvador, but thats about as exotic as it gets.

Magnat - Heavy and full flavoured beer from Ukraine, but one was enough.

June 2006

Some beers to help Bill on his way to Greece, to be closer to the World Cup. All these beers are from countries in the Cup, but not from Italy because the bottle fell over on its own.

Obolon Premium - Bland but refreshing ale. More lively though than their World Cup squad.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager - Just as the USA team gets through to the World Cup so easily, this beer passes as a drinkable but unremarkable attempt at a lager.

Mildura Malley Bull Heavy - Like the Socceroos, tough but likeable. Not bad, but not great either like most boputique Aussie beers.

John Smith's Extra Smooth - Didn't like this at first try, but had another one a few days later and it wasn't too bad. But like England, it doesn't go anywhere.

Brahma 1888 - tasteless and like the Brazil side, very disappointing. Cool bottle shape. 

February 2006

Another beer session that coincided with a Rabbitohs victory. This time in the Charity Shield over Saints. Let's hope this becomes a continuing tradition this season. 

Moreland Old Speckled Hen - we've had this before but its one of the better Pommy ales.

Kirin Ichiban 1st Press - typically harmless dry Japanese style beer. The Kirin was a mythical unicorn that only appears when a true and just man is born. As this is unlikely to happen, you may as well sit back and drink a Kirin while you await its coming.

Gage Roads Lager - Is this the worst named beer ever? Why would you give it a name that sounds like a metrosexual clothing label? A good lager spoilt by idiot marketing people.

Cascade Stout - I had this in Tasmania too. It tasted just like it. Funny that. We liked it a lot.

Schwelmer Bernstein - cool German beer in a lovely ceramic fliptop bottle. Fantastic drop, I want it by the case.

Dave's Tassie beer guide January 2006

What I did in my holidays by David Berg. We all went to Tasmania. It is an island. Odd people live there and the scenery is pretty. There are many furry animals, many of them dead.  It has nice beer. I tried every beer of the two big breweries, Cascade and Boags. Here's me at Cascade:

Here's my ranking of all the beers.

• Cascade Pale Ale (can) 6/10

• Cascade Stout 8.5/10

• Cascade Bitter 4/10

• Cascade Lager 7.5/10

• Cascade Premium Stout 8/10

• Cascade Draught 6.5/10

• Cascade Amber Ale 6.5/10

• Cascade Blonde forget it!

• Boags Draught 7.5/10

• Boags Classic Bitter 8/10 (best canned beer in OZ?)

• Boags XXX Ale 5/10

• Boags St George  3/10 Beer flavoured soft drink.

December 2005

The last beer session of the year. Well what a year it's been - the Rabbitohs fortunes revived; Australia finally made it to the World Cup in a brave and heroic way; John Howard set about destroying everything that makes Australia a great place to live. All finished off with racism raising its ugly head. But let's put it all aside for some beer, interspersed with kicking balls over the neighbours' fences.

HY Super beer - weirdly packaged high alcohol beer. Made in Belgium for an italian company. Smoother than many high alcohol beers but still packed a wallop!

Innis and Gunn - excellent complex ale from Scotland. Bloody good stuff at a bloody expensive price.

Caffreys - rather bland frothy stuff.

Sol - pleasant Mexican lager that balanced out the heavier beers we had today.

November 2005

As we count down to Australia's big chance to reach the World Cup, Bill and Dave managed to fit in a short prematch session of beer tasting. We only tried a few, but all this week's contenders were of excellent quality.

Baltika 3 Classic - I don't know what happened to Baltika 1 and 2, but no.3 was a very drinkable, sweet and sort of fruity beer from St Petersburg. Each bottle, according to the label, is personally brewed for "you' by the company president, Bolloev T K. You may remember him as the Russian multibillionaire who recently bought the Hurlstone Park Wanderers over 35/4B soccer team and entered them in the Champions league. Sadly, their campaign was short lived, being knocked out 14-0 on aggregate by FC 1894 Lokomotiv Zszvsnsz Dynamo of Moldova. Hopefully, his plans to acquire Ronadinho, Zidane and Morientes may help next year. meanwhile, his ownership of Russia's beer monopoly has been a success, with Baltika 3 a very nice drink, albeit a very un-Russian 4.8%

Kokanee Glacier - Not sure what Kokanee means, but this is a nice, crisp, dryish style beer from Canada, of the type Bill overindulged in on his alcoholic binge red light district  junket oops I mean travel jaunt for his paper. He did write a nice story, and came back with some decent photos and a disease previously only known in elks. I assume the glacier reference is for how slow moving you become after a case of these. Not to be confused with Kilkenny, the frothy tasteless Irish stuff we also had today.

DAB - This was real DAB, not the stuff brewed from Parramatta River water at Lidcombe (refer our article in the Sun Herald on the fake foreign beer scandal). Great stuff.

September 2005

It's been a long time between drinks while Bill and I fulfilled our obligations as the star players for our soccer teams. There's a lot of pressure in being the player that the team has been formed around. In fact, the whole competition has been formed around us. A festive spirit was in the air today, as we celebrate the Rabbitohs superb 13th place finish, the Roosters not making the finals, the mighty Canterbury under 12s rugby premiers, Scotland winning and England losing to the boys from Belfast and 20 ears since our adventures in Hellas. You may notice we only tried 5 beers and I apologize for this drop in our standards and its insult to the spirit of our Greek trip. It was a novel experience driving back from Narellan Vale and actually knowing where I was.

So here are the beers:

Belhaven St Andrews Ale, Scotland - an excellent, complex ale, with the subtle taste of golf greens and woolly jumpers. Delicious stuff, highly recommended.

Deuchars IPA - the label says distinctive and refreshing, and they're right. It also says you're due a Deuchars, so they are right again. Clever people the Scottish.

O'Hara's Stout - excellent stout, nice roasted flavour. Unusually more like an Aussie stout.

Hansa - reliable, cheap and easy to drink. The Toyota of beer (couldn't think of a German car that matched).

Boags St George - named after a shit rugby league team and made from their piss filtered through Nathan Brown's pubic hair. Avoid as you would a Dragons supporter.

June 2005

What better way to celebrate the Rabbitohs thrashing Manly than a beer session? Here are today's offerings:

Ruddles County- bottled in old ex-hospital sample jars, this weird ale is a refreshing combination of dishwater, hops and socks, but appealing nonetheless. Still disconcerting drinking out of those jars though.

Boags Honey Porter - an odd Tasmanian brew, but very tasty and aromatic. Not quite a beer, but not sure what you would describe it as.

Bravara - a light tasting Brazilian beer, the clear glass reminds one of Corona, but much nicer. Within minutes of drinking this we were dancing and the women couldn't keep their hands off us. Also improved my soccer the following weekend. A case of it might get me a goal.

Newcastle Brown Ale - First of these I've had for a long time, and it still tasted like shit. Bill thought it was better in a glass later. I think it would be better down the drain.

Weihestephan Bayrisch Mild - another of the oldest beers in Europe range. Delicious, perhaps Germany's best brewery?

XXXX Carbine Stout - Had never heard of this, but it was bloody good. Hope I can find more. Nice horse on the label.

Boddington's - sort of like a beer flavoured slurpy. Quite smooth though, and not bad for an English beer.

April 2005

Today we drank beer to commemorate the brave diggers that died so we could drink beer.

Adnan Broadside: a high alcohol beer that was in a great hurry to leave the bottle. Bill loved it so much he even tried to snort it. A nice ale from some obscure town in Suffolk. Today's winner.

Bali Hai: Bill smuggled this into his house strapped to his body. I hid it in my boogieboard cover, well actually someone else did. We'll both face the death penalty, or even worse, we'll have to drink Rembrandt Lager (see below) Not a bad lager, a bit hollow tasting.

Rembrandt Lager: Well there's not many alcoholic drinks we'd rather pour down the sink, but this is one of them. Well, either its really crap or it was just past its use by date (which it was). Tasted like armpits, and was most likely brewed by Rembrandt (perhaps in his armpits).

Taj Mahal Lager: awful name, like calling a Sydney beer Harbour Bridge. Good beer, as you usually expect from Bombay breweries.

De Verboden Vrucht. Any beer with naked ladies on the label has an advantage with Bill and I. This has the added advantage of 8.5 percent alcohol and surprisingly for a beer by Hoegaarden, also tasted good.

Estrella Galicia: From the home of Fidel Castro and Deportivo La Coruna comes this very drinkable lager with a bit more complexity than other Spanish beers.

February 2005

Molings Celtic Real Ale - This beer grows on you. Not sure where the Celtic bit fits in though.

Cascade Summer Blonde - A beer that tastes like fizzy wine...

Weihestephan Tradition - great stuff from the world's oldest brewery.

Cook and Vaka Lager - 2 refreshing lagers from the Cook Islands. Vaka probably the slightly better one, or is the same beer in a different bottle?

Leffe Vielle Cuvee - Decent Belgian beer, lots of yummy alcohol.

November 2004

Hello again. There was a bring beer in September, but I forgot what we drank. So now, the results of the November Bring Beer.

Bluetongue Lager - A very crisp lager from the Hunter Valley. Contains no lizard products.

Erdinger Weissbier - a nice Weissbier, very yeasty and much better than the usual pale, tasteless Scheissbiers.

3 Monts (Saint Sylvestre) - Beer from Flanders, high alcohol, that tastes fantastic, in a big bottle? Brilliant! Brilliant! Beer of the year, we reckon.

Okocim - an excellent Polish beer. Delicious and great value.

DAB - typically typical German beer. I suppose if you can only use 3 ingredients it is all going to be similar. Of course it also means they are always yummy.

June 2004

BelleVue Cherry beer - if you like Panadol you'll love this alcoholic version! Better than the last cherry beer we tried but still shit.

Krusovice - yet another delicious Czech beer. Yum.

Ambar 1900 Pale Ale - one of the nicest Spanish beers we've had. Very easy to drink.

Kirin Ichiban First press - Japanese attempt at a boutique beer. Weird and stupid.

Orval - Awful.

Trumen Pils - at last a decent Austrian beer. 

Carlsberg - we've had this lots of times but its the beer of Euro 2004 and it is always nice.

May 2004

Topvar - this Slovakian beer (it means topless in Slovak) is very nice, a bit different to most Czech-Slovak beers. Has the added bonus of a "scratchie" peep show on the label that amused us for hours.

Export Gold - Another bland, shit beer from New Zealand. For a place full of as many drunks as Australia you'd think they'd get beer right, but not so far.

Menabrea - from a small town near Verona, a reasonable beer with an unusual rich taste.

March 2004

Pedavena - A typically European lager from the Dolomite mountains of Italy. Nothing special, but you wouldn't say no to one either.

Ichnusa - an odd name for this unusual Sardinian beer. The surprise of the afternoon, with a nice bitter flavour and crisp finish.

Carlsberg Elephant - still one of the best high alcohol beers around.

Eisbrau Czech - very nice, not as rich as most Czech beers but certainly very drinkable. Bloody awful label for a Czech beer, not a goat or coat of arms in sight.

Hoegaarden Witbier - Bill keeps buying this thinking it will be better this time. The fool, it still looks and tastes like pesticide.

Cascade Special Stout - delicious, almost spicy. Yum.

Fohrenburger No.1 - Austrian beers are synonymous with boring. This one keeps up the proud tradition.

October 2003

Time to celebrate the countdown to the Rugby World Cup with some beers of the world.

Erdinger Weiss and Dunkel. Weiss beer was delicious, my bottle of the dunkel had gone a bit off, but Bill assures me it was equally nice.

Voll-Damm - Dutch name for a high alcohol Spanish beer. Reasonable drink.

Skopsko - Macedonian beer better described as crapsko.

Labatt Blue - Canadian beer and very easy to drink. Worth a try if you see a slab.

6th April 2003

Caporal - tasty Belgian pilsener style, well suited to the current situation featuring a soldier on the front.

Tui India Pale Ale - Very drinkable style and good value in a big can. Not bad for a Kiwi (or tui bird) beer.

John Smith Smooth - very smooth.

Cascade Autumn Amber - best new Aussie beer for a long time. 

Hansa - crisp, enjoyable pure German beer.

25th August 2002 Tasting

First rain in 2 months and too bloody cold to go to Canterbury races, so what better way to spend the afternoon than a few 7% and over beers!!

MC Chouffe - the wacky website (http://www.achouffe.be) of this new Belgian brewery describes Mc Chouffe as a Scotch style beer..hmmm. Anyway, it was very tasty and rich, not unlike chocolate topping. This beer is produced by garden gnomes in the Ardenne forest and is a very nice 8.5%!!!

Hofmark wurzig mild - nice, smooth Czech style beer from the little village of Cham in a Grolsch style bottle. Yummy.

Eau benite - Chambly (Quebec) beer with a label commissioned by the gay mardi gras, featuring a bisexual devil disguised as an angel swimming in holy water (I wonder if thats what the beer translates as?) It certainly made Bill act gay, and I even put on a Barbara Streisand record after he left. The beer was complex, with a burnt flavour. Silly poem on label though.

Moretti La Rossa - Friulian double malt beer. Nicer malt flavours if you fermented Milo though. A flop.

Castello di Udine - Friuli lager style, very nice. Would go well with gnocchi or pesto, or perhaps a nice Austrian blonde or Slovenian nymphomaniac.

Fuller's ESB - often described in books on real beers and ales as one of England's best. But they are wrong. Rod will just have to try harder next time.

25th May 2002 tasting

Well, 6 months since the last update, how slack. Needed a few extra beers to drown the sorrows as we watched Souths ordinary performance against the Knights. Special thanks to Amatos bottle shop for providing some weird beers.

Windhoek lager (Namibia) Wow, Namibian beer, the recommended beer of SWAPO. Watch the zebras graze as you knock back this smooth Dutch style lager. 70/100

Murphys Irish Red beer (Ireland, brewed in Netherlands - huh?) Very nice, best beer of the day. 80/100

Hofbrau Original (Germany) Like all beers brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot, very gebotty. 80/100

Cobra Beer (India) A beer made with rice. How Indian is that? Tasted like all Indian beers and brought back many memories. 65/100

Belle-Vue Framboise (Belgium) Imagine raspberry cordial mixed with vomit. Errrggghhh 2/100

Schofferhofer Kristallweizen (Germany) Wheat beer just doesn't go with cold wet weather. 60/100

21st October 2001 Tasting

James Squire India Pale Ale: Our first taste of this was a bit of a shock, with a revolting, chewing on aluminium foil taste. Not sure why, because after that it was alright, but not great. 60/100

Grolsch Lentebok: Delicious and unusual beer, high alcohol but well blended. No idea what this beer is as there is no mention of it on the Grolsch website.

Mythos lager: new Greek beer, very German tasting.

Holsten Premium: Excellent beer, very fresh and a bit fizzy. Deserve to sponsor Spurs.

Beers of Thailand - a special report

Hi! Just got back from Thailand, where I tried just about every beer except the oddly named Mittweida. Here are my ratings:

Kloster: nice colour, fairly bland and safe; easy to drink, nice with curries. Too bubbly like Singha. 75/100

Beer Chang: strong, full of flavour and alcohol, but nicely blended. Great drinking, smells like good old DA though. 81/100

Leo: Stupid name, awful beer 30/100

Super Lion: Leo with balls! german style with good kick. 77/100

Carlsberg: best beer in Thailand 90/100

Singha: Too fizzy, but good in hot weather 70/100

February 2001

Well, 2 reports here. Firstly, in January, we all gathered to mourn the passing of Dave's 30's. I'm 40, but I only feel 40. We tried two interesting beers. Hite, (the beer not the report) is a Korean beer and very nice it was too, not a hint of pickled cabbage at all. Very smooth and easy to drink, and very popular up the road at the local Korean restaurant in Canterbury Road. The other one was a mild though a bit boring German beer called Gilde.

Last Sunday we celebrated Labor's stunning victory in WA (Australia's Alabama) with a fine selection of ales. Discussion topics over games of table tennis included Labor's victory and Wendell Sailor's move to rugby. Wendell, we believe, will not make the Wallabies, he's just not cut out to play Rugby. Despite various journalists ramblings, he just isn't good enough, and rugby and league ARE different games. Dave's latest conspiracy theory is its all part of News Ltd's attempt to take over rugby and merge the two codes, exemplified by Super league interest in Super 12 rugby clubs. Anyway, back to the beer.

Karlovacko is an interesting Croatian beer, hard to describe as it wasn't quite lager, pilsner or anything. A bit of a cross between Peroni and Zywiec from Poland. Nice, but not a boozing type.

Chimay is brewed by Belgian monks, and don't ask what they put in it. its rich, dark, 9% (say no more) and similar to those Brittany beers we tried once more.

Bitburger is an excellent beer, easy to drink and typically German.

Hovel's original bitterbier was my favourite of the day. This delicious beer comes in a jolly green bottle and I felt pretty jolly after drinking it. Similar to Dutch beers but more hoppy and with more bite. Highly recommended.

November 2000

The highlights of our November meeting included two delicious Czech beers: a dark version of the Velko popovice beer (Tmave), which was pretty near perfect, malty and like a richer Coopers Sparkling Ale. Also had Radogast lager, once again superb. As usual we ate too much, the highlight being a spicy Jalapeno guacamole. Not long until the big Christmas binge!!!

August: Well here we are again. Bill is another year older since last time, and what better way to celebrate this than with beer. Another fine winter's day saw us dining on a mushroom and red wine risotto, eggplant salad and a delicious and highly dangerous tart citron. here are the results of the tastings.

Hahn Millenium Beer

Well I agonized over whether to fork out $13 for one bottle of beer, but one sip (and a look at the 8% alcohol content made me glad I did. This complex, rich and surprising beer comes in a champagne bottle, and is reminiscent of the Breton beers Bill brought back from France, along with the nuttiness of Coopers stout. Also interesting is that it is made to be cellared and I've no doubt it would develop nicely too, if you can stop yourself drinking it! 

Gambrinus Plzen

Very nice Czech beer, well up to the standard of the beautifully named Velkopopovice we had ages ago. Made us both want to head off to the Czech Republic immediately.

Red Stripe

This Jamaican beer immediately brought to mind slender, dark bikini girls, reggae and drugs but that was before we tasted it: instead it was as bland as can be. Designed purely for drinking at Caribbean beach resorts by English tourists. May be alright on a hot day if there was no Cascade about.

June 2000

Dave and Bill met yesterday for our monthly beer tastings. It was a lovely day, though we overindulged in the nibbles, and had Bill's hallucinatory pumpkin soup, and watched Wollongong dispose of Carlton in the soccer. We tasted the following:

San Miguel Pale Pilsner (Philippines)

We both liked this easy-to-drink style. A good beer for a hot day, which it certainly wasn't in downtown Narellan. Not a flavourful beer, but very crisp and stylish. Brewed since 1890, it said on it's embossed on the glass label, which as a notorious label picker, i found very frustrating.

Tuborg (Denmark)

Well this beer brings back memories! The scene is Copenhagen's Tivoli, a disco, two BO reeking Aussies enter, straight off the 12 hour train from Bremen. A group of Swedish girls uncontrollable from the assault of testosterone and pheromones coming from these guys, throw themselves at us. A good time was had by all. Nancy Wiklund, where are you now? (I do know the experience turned her lesbian, or was it that she knew there would never be a man like me again?) Anyway, back to the beer. Delightful, aromatic, hoppy, Danish mmmmmm!

While in Melbourne I tried a few new beers (none of that local shit of course!):

Breda

Once upon a time, on the island of Ios, Dave and Bill were in a bar. Dave was doing a great job chatting up a beautiful girl named Breda, from Eire. She had the most gorgeous eyes... Bill however was in a foul Celtic jealous rage, and drank several scotches before toppling off his barstool. Dave, the ever loyal fool, helped him home (a story in itself) missing out on Breda. I wonder where she is now? Anyway, this Breda is a pale Dutch lager from the town of Breda, and is bland, and bears no resemblance to the fair girl of the same name.

Old Speckled Hen

Funny English name for a very delicious beer. I wonder what it's like on tap, if it's this good in the bottle? Excellent drinking, rich, and hoppy.

Tetley's English Ale

Very drinkable beer with the built in gizmo, unfortunately the beer and the head all tasted well, creamy. Not a bad winter drop, well suited to Melbourne.