Random Dutch beers (part thirty-eight)

Back again with my bollocky stuff.

I had last weekend, being in Berlin. This time last week I was drinking Czech Lageron Karl-Marx-Allee with Dolores. And eating really nice food. of the chunky, meaty variety, mostly.

Love the Berlin International Beer Festival. The least nerdy beer festival I know. Barely a beard in sight. But loads of 'taches. Some truly horrendous beers. But loads from smallish German and Czech breweries. A rare chance to try dark and semi-dark Lagers.

Cornelia Blond 6.5%, ABV
I got this from Deen, I think. Just after Christmas. Which has me thinking. Yeah, as I thought. Signs of oxidation. I've left it too long. Not fair to give an opinion, as it's clearly seen better days. Like eating the corn flake packet rather than its contents.

That doesn't stop me offering Dolores a try.

"Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"I just drank some wine. Can I enjoy that first?"

Grudgingly, "I suppose so."

A few minutes later. "Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"It looks like a horrible one.

"It's from Deen."

"OK. Mm. Not too bad. What's that on your shirt? It was clean this morning."

I've been assembling my competition book this weekend. A panic throw-together, rushed out to meet the Beer Hacks' award deadline. This year's will be called Home!. You'll discover why soon.

Oedipus Thai Thai, 8% ABV
An Amsterdam beer. Though, very honestly, the label tells me that it was brewed by Scheldebrouwerij in Belgium. I've drunk this several times before. A Tripel made with Thai spices. Something that could easily be a lorry stuck on a level crossing hit by an airliner. I quite like it. Oddly, I find the result reminiscent of Tripel Karmeliet. That's a compliment.

Talking of Oedipus, I was at another beer festival yeasterday that they host. The Kimchi Festival. It started as a food festival, but has been getting beerier by the year. It's a beer festival* with food now. Mostly local and small. Or very small. Its odd location over the water on the former NDSM shipyard site keeps all but the most informed and determined tourist out.

Excuse me if I go all touristist, but it really is getting beyond a joke in Amsterdam. Send the tourists back to touristonia, I say. Town's full of them, suddenly stopping and standing, walking blindly in front of trams and generally getting in my bloody way. Bastards. And stumbling around, stinking of weed, pissing their kecks. Or was that my visiting friends?

"Do you want to try my beer, Andrew?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I've only just got up."

"That didn't stop me."

"Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"No, it's that horrible one."

"It's a diffferent one. From Oedipus. It has Thai spices in it."

"I wouldn't have said that that. I can't taste them"



* Serving a proper fucking measure this year. In a lined glass. Most were well over the 15 cl line. About 2 cl. For 2 euros a pop. Not bad at all for the 8% ABV and above stuff I was going for.