Beer #1: Delirium Nocturnum
Served: Poured from a bomber into a Coca-Cola glass (weissbier style).
Appearance: Dark brown, almost Coca-Cola colored. Good head that stuck around for awhile.
Smell: Definite malt odor.
Taste: This stuff had a lot of malt or grain character, like drinking a brown bread. A lot of the Belgian beers I've had taste like this. I don't think it was quite as strong a flavor as others I've had, but I also got this on Valentine's Day, and just got around to drinking it (fuck you, school). The one thing I did notice was that it didn't do as good a job of hiding the alcohol taste (it's 8.5% ABV) as some other beers I've had at that strength are.
Price: I got this 22oz bomber as a gift. I think my girlfriend said it was about $10 though (which works out to about €7.50 or so if you round.
Overall Rating: I'll award this one a 7.5 out of 10. If I like a beer better than this one, it's going to be very good or excellent. If I'm someplace that has this fresh on tap, I would like to review it and see how much I ruined it by not drinking it for 3 months.
Beer #2: Stag
Served: Poured from a can into the same Coca-Cola glass, after I rinsed it out.
Appearance: Pale yellow. Looked like piss.
Smell: None
Taste: If you've ever thrown a party where beer was served and got spilled, and then you didn't clean it up right away, Stag tastes the way your apartment smells the morning after that spill. At first, it just tastes like water, but at the end there's a faint taste of beer (but it almost seems like that taste is more in your nose than your mouth).
Price: A 24 pack of Stag is $12.99 from Schnuck's, which is €9.50 (note: for these prices, I'm rounding up because I'm sure no bank would give you the Google rate for euros to dollars conversion).
Overall Rating: Yeah, this is a 1.5/10, and only because I've had malt liquor, which is absolutely foul. If I drink any beers in Europe that are on this level, I'm going to take a brewery tour of that brewery for the sole purpose of punching the head brewer in the mouth for sucking at his job. Based on this, I'm giving Bud Light a 2/10, and Budweiser a 2.5.
Beer #3: Schlafly Hefeweizen
Served: Poured from a can into a glass.
Smell: Faintly of beer
Taste: Hefeweizens are usually pretty light, this one is very light. You definitely get some wheat and some yeast, but this is not a strong tasting beer. This beer also came out of a can, so that's not helping it any.
Price: The Schnuck's website says a 6-pack of bottles of this is $7.99 (€6). If memory serves, you can get a 12-pack of cans of this for around $13.99 (€10.50).
Overall Rating: I'm going to give this a 3.5/10. Canning did this beer no favors. If it were fresh on draft, it would compare favorably to Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat (I've had this fresh on draft before, and it's pretty close to the Boulevard), which I'll give about a 5/10 (for those wondering how I can rate this beer without immediately tasting it, I drank 3 liters of it the night Mizzou lost to Auburn in the SEC championship game, so I cannot forget that taste). Any regularly priced beer that I like better than that stuff will win the Adam Mizes Seal of Approval, unless it is going for close to what the Delirium Nocturnum was, in which case it will have to beat the Delirium.
So these three beers comprise The Good, The Mediocre, and The Ugly. I expect most beers to fall within the mediocre to good range, with nothing falling below a 3 or so (god I hope I'm right). However, I do have a personal bias towards big Belgian trappist beers, which may be inflating my score for the Delirium Nocturnum, which is big, Belgian, and has somewhat similar bready qualities as the most recent Belgian trappist beer I tried (Chimay White). If I rate a non-Belgian beer better than a 5/10, it's probably worth trying. Also, I don't like super hoppy beers at all, so those of you who were somehow hoping for me to give you a great survey of all of the IPAs of London are SOL.
I'll post more beers when I'm actually in Europe.
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