September '98

It was one of the gifts that surprisingly not only snatched first position of the month, but also for the entire year, and a top-10 postion overall. The mahnificently complex and lively Im Füchsen Altbier, by far the best altbier I've encountered. Second position was stolen by a very complex Belgian lager, brewed by a small brewpub, and brought home by some people in the group after sailing the Belgian shore.

Other top rated beers was Altenburger Premium, a German Helles, and the nice Dutch witbier Leeuw ValkenbuKorean rgs Wit. The Czechish Velvet was an interesting mix of British ale and Czechis pils, coming in a Guinness-style draughtflow can. Zulte was a Flemish red inthe same style as Ridenbach, fruity, deep red and lightly sourish.

Further down the list we'll find Saison Regal, a lively complex saison, Tall Ship No.1 Barley Wine Style Ale, a very strong Canadian barley wine brewed with honey that I enjoyed very much. Well balanced, and surprisingly smooth for being over 11%. Dreher Bak, a dark strong lager, was the first interesting Hungarian beer I've come across.

We also tried some Asian beers, which sadly didn't make much impression on our scorelist. The best of those being Lal Toofan, an Indian beer brewed from rice with no to very little character. Personally I might have found the equally character lacking but thirst quenching Korean Cass Fresh Beer slightly better, but really, they're not worth seeking out. That is unless you get to choose from those or the can we rated which only text in latin letters was "I Want Beer" and something about the alcohol monopoly of Taiwan. the label wasn't all that wrong thoug. After drinking the useless beer inside that can we all longed for a beer... Another complete failure was the alcoholic (10%) sugar water that Grolsch brews under the name Gulpener Gladiator.