What beer are you drinking now? #4268

Hoops Wood Smoked Hefe. Nice & light actually. Cheers!

 

Looks like a gorgeous day there, @BeerVikingSailor - Great pics as usual!

 

Good afternoon BAs! After more than a week, the oppressive heat has finally subsided. Beautiful sunshine, nice cool breeze - perfect weather to enjoy a brew out back. Today I'm drinking a local pale ale, 8 Track XPA from Sons of Kent Brewing in Chatham, Ontario. I'm a few years too young to 'member 8 tracks, but it's a great pale ale nonetheless. Cheers!

 

Correction: #99 Wood Smoked Hefe. Hoops beers always have a number in front of the name.

 

Enjoying a rauchbier at Schlenkerla in Bamberg, Germany. On to Nuremberg tomorrow, will post a pic of a Rotbier! my daughter is writing this because I suck at this shit!

 

Cheers!

 

Oyster City Brewing Apalach IPA at Flying Boat Taproom.....

 

By the way, this was us yesterday at the Weihenstephaner Brewery tour.

 

When this high up, the local beer is called for!

 

Kwak Amber.,. Cheeeers BA!

 

Street Tacos for lunch.
Delicious Urquell while some Yuenglings chill down in the freezer. Excited!
Half tempted to spend a 2nd shift back down at the beach.





Cheers Folks!

 

Yesterday I have posted about the Dutch Belgian Style White, KorenWolf Refurbished 2024 edition.
Reactions were overwhelming.
Most of the questions you posed came down to one thing: what is best available commercial Belgian Style White in the Netherlands now?

So, helpful as I am, I arranged a little test for you:


Hoegaarden the AB Inbev benchmark beer, marked as "The Original", even though the original Hoegaarden I recall from my student years, tasted better.
Still a lovely beer, 4,9% abv, wheat, barley, hopp, yeast, water, orange jest, coriander seeds.

Texels Skiller Wit, a small brand made big and exploited by Heineken. Added sugar and has some oats added. 5% abv.

Also at 5% abv and having oats is Jopen. Label is not telling the true story. Jopen is a bit sloppy and dirty with labelling. Label almost make it look like it could be a beer brewed obbeying the Reinheitsgebot. But no illusions there, the Jopen guys are not shy of putting all kinds of aromatic tweaking components in it. The biggest difference with Texels is that they replaced the orange by the tropical citrusfruit Laraha (the taste maker of the Blue Curaçao liquor).




There we go:

Looks:
Pretty much equal. Hoegaarden seems a little bit more dark. Texels has the best foam and retention. All lighte carbonated with small bubbles.

Smell: Texels a bit more cholrine, Jopen some more bitterness, but all showing hints of citrus.

Taste: Jopen starts quite nice, like a german Weissen, but ends in a horrible bitter aftertaste The lahara instead of orange is an interesting tweak, but fails in the end.
Hoegaarden, not as good as it used to be, but very drinkable, round. balanced, sweetest of the 3.
Texels, a little bit more dry and salty. Making it so refreshing and drinkable. I think I like it better than Hoegaarden.

Mouthfeel: Jopen does best there, full and creamy. Hoegaarden good, Texels amazingly thinm while by measures of foam and retentions it is obviously the best brewed beer. (Knowing Heineken, the 2025 edition will be less).

Conclusions.
It is very tight, all are good, and really very comparable. Close to each other.
If you like bitter after taste and creamy mouthfeel, go for the Jopen.
If you like a bit more sweetnessm go for Hoegaarden.
If you are like me, less sweet, not too bitter, no problem with a bit salt and chlorines, try the Texels Skiller or look a bit further.

Coming down to supermarkt availability, I think a better one not tested here now might be La Trappe Witte Trappist.

 

Cheers!

 

Escape Brewing The Other West Coast IPA at Flying Boat Taproom. Catching up with old coworkers, fun stuff