Friday 16 July 2010

Bischofsgrün (part two)

We're back in our hotel. It would have been nice to watch the games in a pub. But everywhere is dead.

Japan vs Cameroun

We road test our Getänkemarkt purchases. Mike isn't impressed by by the Bayreuther Aktien Landbier.

"I told you the Zwickl was good."

He grabbed a beer from the wrong crate. Giving up on that, he move on to the Hösl Whiskey Weisse.

"Not bad." Mike says.

"Whisky beers are all shit."

"Not bad, Ron."

Surprisingly, it isn't. Because it has no whisky flavour. I hate whisky beers. What the hell is whisky malt and why use it in beer?

Japan win.

"Mike, your lads have won."

"I'm Dutch."

"But you must feel at least half Japanese."

To celebrate we have dinner in a Hungarian restaurant. I'll say no more about the meal. It's one of those experiences I'm consigning directly to the dustbin of memory. I hope the binman will take it away, crush it and dump it in a landfill, never to be seen again. Until 24th century archeologists dig it up. Then bury it again encased in concrete.

It was that good a meal.


Italy vs Paraguay

"One nil to Italy."

"What, Ron?"

"Bound to be one nil to Italy. That's what they do. And Paraguay are shit."

Paraguay score.

"I take that back. Italy are shit. Fancy some more impulse schnapps?"

"No. I need to concentrate on the game. . . . . OK, a small one."

Italy score. "How did that go in?

"That goalie's a wanker, Mike. Look how he flapped at that."

Final whistle

"Time for bed, said Zebedee."

"What, Ron?"

"See you at eight tomorrow for brekkers."

"Can't you talk like a normal person for once?"

"No."

And so our two happy/tired/horizontally-challenged heroes settles into their beds. Or one did. The other wrote this bollocks.

Night, night.

1 comment:

Gary Gillman said...

Ron, whisky malt is regular barley malt that has been subjected to some degree of peating when kilned, i.e., some peat is added to the fuel to kiln the malt. This imparts a smoky taste. The analogy with Bamberg, or other smoked, malt is very close. Depending on the degree of peating and amount of whisky malt used in the mash, the smoky taste may be more or less strong. But it is simply a smoked beer, and as many historical styles were smoked, including wheat beers, its use seems logical although as always the taste of each product may or may not recommend.

To the degree you were referring to beers stored in a cask that had held whisky, that is different since there the effect is to impart some actual (finished) whisky flavour to the beer. I have liked some of these, not all.

One thing that puzzles me is beers that have a smoky taste but don't use any form of smoked malt. Although I don't find it in current samples, Caledonian's beer called St. Andrew's for many years had a smoky or cured-like taste. Yet I understand peated or smoked malt was never used to make this beer. The malts must have been cured in a particular manner to achieve this.

Gary