United Breweries Taj Mahal Premium Lager (7/10)

Taj Mahal is usually found in Indian restaurants.  It's described as an American Adjunct Lager.

Before I get into the substance of this review, I want to put it in context.  My rating will reflect the qualities and drinkability of the beer itself, but in context with the Indian food experience in which I drank it.  Thus, the rating is higher than I would probably give it in context with other food or against other beers getting the same rating.  You could safely subtract two points from the rating if you pull this beer out of an Indian restaurant context.

Taj Mahal lager pours a clear, pale gold color with a finger-thick head that dissipates fairly quickly and completely.  The picture at the left was taken about a second after it was poured.  Five seconds later you'd see no head at all. It left behind little or no lacing.

The aroma is fairly non-descript.  My nose says simply "beer" when sniffing this, with no hint of any particular variety or any hint at unique flavors or complexity.

The flavor follows the nose on this.  It's a pleasant beer, and very easily drinkable.  I'd rate it higher than a macro-brew like  Bud Light or Coors Light, but not dramatically higher.

The flavor has a slight bitterness to it, which somehow matches well with the Indian food you typically eat with it.

Beer Advocate reviewers give Taj Majal a 53-61 or "poor" rating.  RateBeer reviewers are even tougher on it, giving it a 4 overall or 39 for the style.

I had this particular beer at the Tadka Indian restaurant on Dublin-Granville Road near The Andersons General Store.  I've seen it at Kenny Road Market and possibly other retailers, though it's not a very commonly-stocked beer.

ABV:  4.5%
IBU:  unknown, but certainly below 25
My rating: 7/10 with Indian food, 5/10 without

Columbus Beer Challenges

A number of Columbus area bars offer "beer challenges" to their patrons.  These usually require you to drink a certain number of beers within a certain time frame in order to claim a prize.  In some cases, the bars require you to drink a very specific list of beers.  In others, you're required to drink a certain number of beers from a large list.

Here are the Columbus beer challenges I'm aware of:

• The Winking Lizard World Beer Tour:  I've completed this tour myself three times.  I opted not to do it this year, though it was something I very much enjoyed.  The Lizard's beer list is well over 300 during the course of a year, and the challenge requires you to drink 100 of those during the year.  (There are prizes at the half-way mark of 50 beers, completion at 100, and even at 150 for overachievers and alcoholics.)  They offer a web site where you can track and rate the beers you try.


• The World Tour at Bob's Bar:  Drink 130 beers on their"backstage pass" list, with no time limit, and get a t-shirt and a 25-ounce mug with your name on it.  The mug can be refilled with 25 ounces of any draft beer they offer, for the rest of your life, for the price of a 16-ounce pint.


• Hal and Al's  "The Parson's Challenge":  This bar's challenge is to drink 30 beers (and rate them) in a 30-day period.  The prize  is a T-shirt and your photo on the "wall of fame".  There is also a "part 2" challenge where you drink 30 different beers in the next 30 days.


• World of Beer Loyalty Club:  Join the club, and you get a t-shirt.  When you reach 50 unique beers, you get a Loyalty Club shirt.  At 100 beers, you get a t-shirt and mug.  At 250, you get a polo shirt and a plaque on their Wall of Fame.   At even higher levels, you get more impressive rewards. 

If you enjoy craft beer and want an excuse to try some you haven't had before, these challenges are a great way to experience a lot of different beers.

Global Beer Network

The Columbus Summer Beerfest is coming up in just a few weeks, and I wanted to look the part.  What I wanted most was a T-shirt or Polo shirt for one of my favorite beers.  A few web searches turned up the Global Beer Network web site.  I placed an order with them earlier this week, and it arrived today.  I couldn't be more pleased!

The first item I ordered was a polo shirt with an embroidered Gulden Draak Ale logo ($25) on it.  The shirt appears to be made of good quality material and the logo looks much better than the photos below make it seem.

Here's a close-up of the embroidered logo:

Knowing that August tends to be sunny in Columbus, and that my medical professionals would prefer I wore a hat, what better hat could I wear than this Gulden Draak ball cap ($10)?

I know some of you are saying "Dude, a black shirt and black hat outdoors in August is not exactly going to be comfortable."  And you're right.  But I thought ahead.  I also bought a white Piraat T-shirt ($15) to wear in case the day of the festival is just too hot and sunny for a black polo.



The back of that shirt has the ship logo from the beer bottle label.

Now THAT's a shirt you can wear outdoors in August…

Just for fun, I also added to my order a collection of beer labels ($5).  These arrived in an unassuming little manila envelope.  When I emptied it out, I was greeted with this huge collection of beer labels (none of which have ever graced a beer bottle, I'm told):

If you look closely, you'll see:  Petrus Dubbel Bruin Ale, Kapittel Abt Ale, Scotch Silly, Bornem Abbey Triple, Bavik, Tikka Gold, Troubadour Obscura, Cherish and Cherish Raspberry, Sloeber Ale, Monk's Café, Gulden Draak and Gulden Draak 2008 Vintage Ale, Piraat, and quite a few others.  I have no idea yet what I will be doing with all these, but I suspect they might be digitized and become ornamentation on this site at some point.

Something I found in the box but didn't expect was a HUGE folder of literature about different Belgian beers.  This stack of high-quality color flyers is about a quarter of an inch thick.

In it, I found flyers for Gulden Draak, Piraat, and Troubadour:

Along with Wittkerke and Petrus:

And many others.  The complete list of flyers includes:

• Brouwerij Van Steenberge, featuring Gulden Draak, Monk's Café, Augustijm, Bornem, and Bruegel


• Troubadour


• Brasserie de Silly, makers of Scotch de Silly


• La Divine


• Ename Tripel Abbey Ale


• Roman


• Ename and Sloeber


• Brasserie de Silenrieux, makers of Joseph Spelt Ale


• Sata Buckwheat Ale


• Brouwerij Van Eecke


• Kapittel Watou


• Bavik Pilsner


• Brewery de Halve Maan (Half Moon)


• Wittkerke Framboise (and regular)


• Petrus Gift Boxes


• Biere de Boucanier


• Tikka Gold


• Cherish Kriek, Cherish Raspberry, and Leute Bokbier,

I suspect it will take me quite a while to flip through and read all this… which was free with the order.

If you're looking for some good Belgian beer merchandise, check out Global Beer Network!

Flights of Beer Now at The Daily Growler

Since the last time I visited, The Daily Growler has begun offering flights of beer samples.  Order 6 samples, get them at the price of 5.  Looks to be a permanent deal there.  If you're looking for an opportunity to try a number of craft beers inexpensively, check it out.

The Daily Growler
2812 Fishinger Road
Upper Arlington, near the intersection of 33 and Fishinger

(614) 656-BEER

Coronado Brewing Orange Avenue Wit (6/10)

California-based Coronada Brewing Company's Orange Avenue Wit is a wheat beer brewed with orange zest, orange blossom honey, and coriander.

The aroma is a mix of citrus and yeast. The color is a pale orangey yellow.

The flavor is fairly mild, a typical witbier. The orange zest adds a touch of fresh orange and a bit of bitterness. The orange flavor is accompanied by a touch of lemony tartness from the honey and coriander.

It's a pleasant wheat beer, butnot my favorite.

I purchased this as part of a "make your own 6-pack" at Kenny Road Market.

ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 12
My rating: 6/10

Bell's This One Goes to 11 Ale (2/10)

Bell's Brewing Company of Comstock, Michigan, created This One Goes to 11 Ale. The name, of course, is a reference to the mockumentary movie This Is Spinal Tap. It is also a reference to Bell's having brewed 10,000 batches. In the past, they've marked each 1,000 batches with a special brew.

The aroma of the beer is quite hoppy. The flavor backs that up. It starts quite hoppy and bitter, and continues in that vein through to the aftertaste. I have a hard time tasting anything in this beer but the hops. Since I'm the sort of person who appreciates what hops flavor brings to beer, but doesn't want it to dominate, you can imagine my reaction. In short, I don't care for it.

This reminds me of a recent experience at my favorite tavern. At a nearby table, a rather loud man asked the server to provide samples of two or three of their current drafts. She returned with them. I was familiar with all three. One of them was quite good, with a nice mix of flavors. The second was pleasant, but fairly bland. The third beer was so loaded with hops that you would be hard pressed to identify any other element of the flavor. As this man sampled the three, he proclaimed to all within earshot that the first two beers "have no flavor at all" and the third was good, the only one with "flavor". For him, hops bitterness clearly equals flavor in beer.

For me, a strong hops presence drowns out the more subtle and interesting flavors of the beer. It's like a buffalo wing sauce that focuses so much on bringing the heat that all you get is burn... And little or no flavor. While wings like that can be fun to eat occasionally for the challenge of seeing how many Scoville units you can handle, they aren't wings you are likely to eat regularly. And so it is with hoppy beers, at least for me.

If you read the description on the brewery's blog, it mentions six different varieties of hops used in the beer. Malt is mentioned once, briefly. That will tell you a lot about the brewer's intent here.  Since this was a one-release limited edition beer, I've not seen it available since I purchased this particular bottle.

ABV: 11%
IBU: unknown, best guess is about 40-55
My rating: 2/10

Kulmbacher Kapuziner Weissbier (7/10)

Kulmbacher Kapuziner Weissbier is a Bavarian hefeweizen style beer.

The aroma is very mild, with some clove, banana, and maybe a bit of citrus.

The color is a cloudy amber, with thick off-white head.

The flavor has a bit of clove to it, with a hint of roasted grain, and a very mild hoppiness that mostly serves to balance out the flavor without overwhelming it.  It's a pleasant beer and very easy to drink.

Beer Advocate rates it a 90-98 (exceptional to world-class).  Rate Beer rates it an 83 overall.

I had this beer at The Winking Lizard Tavern on draft in 2012.  I've only seen it in bottled form at Whole Foods Market in Dublin, though it may be elsewhere.

ABV: 5.4%
IBU: Unknown, estimate around 20
My Rating: 7/10

Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Ale (7/10)

Sea Dog Brewing Company is located in Maine, so it's probably the perfect brewery to produce a Blueberry Wheat Ale like this.

The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a thin white head that is pretty persistent.

It smells like a Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin.

The flavor starts with a slightly toasted grain flavor, followed by a mild hops bitterness.  This gives way to a mild blueberry flavor.  The blueberry flavor adds to the wheat ale flavor and doesn't make it seem like a soft drink.  I'd give it a solid 7/10.

Beer Advocate rates Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Ale 79-81 out of 100 or "average to good".

At the time of this writing, the beer was available at World of Beer at Easton.  It is available in bottled form at The Andersons General Store, Boulevard Carryout, Grandview Carry Out, and Palmer's Beverage Center.

ABV: 4.6%
IBU: unknown, but I'd estimate about 25
My Rating: 7/10

Deadspin's Review of 36 Cheap Beers

I read an amusing post on Deadspin.com by Will Gordon.  In the post, he reviews 36 cheap American beers and ranks them from "worst to least-worst".

The list includes Keystone (ranked "worst"), Rolling Rock, Schlitz, Miller, Yuengling, Stroh's, Old Milwaukee, Name Tag, Budweiser, Coors, and many others you may or may not recognize.

Be warned that some of the language used in the post may not be suitable for all audiences.

A few quotes from the review, to give you an idea of the author's style and sense of humor:

• "27. Miller Genuine Draft.  Tastes like the brown ends of corn silk, plus lemon."
• "23. Natural Ice.  The soggy cardboard sensation fades after the first several cans, turning Natty Ice into a serviceable alternative to sobriety."
• "22. Stroh's.  The royal blue Stroh's can is truly majestic, but the beer itself is disconcertingly greasy.  It doesn't taste like much one way or the other, but it's marred by a rubbery slickness that leaves your tongue feeling like third-day deli ham."
• "7. Rainier. This is on the sweet side of mediocre, but it's a bright, clean kind of sugar that tells soothing lies about freshness and purity."
  

To find out which beers were the top-ranked ones, and to see if you agree... Check out the article.