Beer #417 - Marks & Spencer Island Hopper Pale Ale

Another one from Marks & Spencers crafty-ish range, this Island Hopper Pale Ale is brewed for them by Windsor & Eton of Berkshire. This is a fairly non-descript pale ale although it’s quite easy to be dismissive of beers such as this one. It’s fine, quite sweet in flavour with some bitter hop flavours but it isn’t as packed with flavour as one might hope. Perfectly drinkable but not worth going out of your way for.










Brewery: Windsor & Eton
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.5%

Beer #331 - Kilikia

Having not had many beers whilst on holiday, my girlfriend and I decided to conduct a mini tasting over a game of cards and bought three or four bottles. This to me was by far the worst of the bunch, another (very) pale lager that packed some awful flavours, metallic and fishy. Really weird, deeply unpleasant. If you're ever in Armenia I'd suggest avoiding Kilikia.












Brewery: Yerevan Brewery
Country: Armenia
ABV: 4.8%

Beer #330 - Gyumri Classic

Gyumri Classic is brewed by Gyumri Beer, which also produces Ararat Beer. Much like Ararat this is a fairly solid yet unspectacular lager, perfectly drinkable especially when cold but not a huge amount going on flavour-wise. A slight metallic hint in the taste.















Brewery: Shirak Gyumri Beer-Malt Factory
Country: Armenia
ABV: 4.0%

Beer #329 - Ararat Beer

This beer is pretty ubiquitous in Armenia and was therefore the first one I tried once we'd arrived in the country from Georgia. It takes its name from the symbol of the country, Mount Ararat, which is actually the highest peak in Turkey, just over the border. This is a pretty inoffensive yet unexciting lager, quite bitter on the finish but as with most of the Armenian beers I tried, a touch metallic. Quite drinkable nontheless.










Brewery: Shirak Gyumri Beer-Malt Factory
Country: Armenia
ABV: 4.5%

Beer #327 - Kazbegi Lager

I have just returned from couple of weeks in Georgia and Armenia and it's time to crack on with posting the beers that I tried when I was away. The area is not known for its beer making prowess, wine is largely the order of the day, so I didn''t make a huge effort with tracking down beers. The first I tried was Georgia's number one brew: Kazbegi. Kazbegi is a small town (now actually known as Stepantsminda) in the north of the country, set in a spectacular location in the shadow of Mount Kazbek. The brewery however is actually located in Tbilisi and has been in production since 1994. Kazbegi lager is a pretty standard macro lager with little to distinguish it, although little did I know it would turn out to be the best beer I would sample on my trip...




Brewery: Kazbegi
Country: Georgia
ABV: 5.0%

Beer #287 - Coors Light

A largely perfunctory post this one, I started this blog as a means of recording every beer I drink, so that it was what I must do even when it’s something like Coors Light. Saturday evening found me at Palace Superbowl in Elephant & Castle and I had a pint of this chilled lager. Thankfully it was only(!) £3.20 so at least I didn’t pay over the odds for it. What is there to say about Coors Light? It pours a pale yellow and has a weak, watery lager flavour. Pretty refreshing as it is served very cold. Yeah, it was alright.








Brewery: Molson Coors UK
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.2%

Beer #284 - Shumensko Svetlo Pivo

Shumensko is a Bulgarian brewery that was originally founded in 1882 in the east of the country but is now owned by Carlsberg. The most interesting nugget of information I've found out about beers from this brewery is that the bottles it produces are labelled exclusively using Cyrillic lettering, whilst the cans are labelled with Roman lettering. My girlfriend very kindly brought this bottle back from a recent holiday and I enjoyed it on a warm summers evening. This svetlo pivo (literally 'light beer') is an extremely pale lager that pours a quite unattractive pale yellow. It's a pretty generic euro lager without any real exciting flavour or substance. Refreshing but fairly standard.




Brewery: Shumensko Pivo (Carlsberg Bulgaria)
Country: Bulgaria
ABV: 4.3%

Beer #249 - Gallia Paris

At the beginning of April I ran the Paris marathon (had to drop that into the blog at some point) and I picked this bottle up in a supermarket there. Parisian supermarkets aren't great for beer in my experience so this was about the most interesting bottle I could find. I have found very little information online about it, Gallia Paris has a Facebook page but that's about it. All I've found in English is a few lines on the beers RateBeer entry which states that the beer is actually brewed under contract in at the Nymburk Brewery in the Czech Republic rather than in Paris. For some reason the site still lists it as a French beer, so I have too. The beer is very light and quite smooth in the mouth. The flavour is quite sweet with caramel tones dominating, not much in the way of hop character and nothing in the way of bitterness. Quite nice for a lager though and certainly not offensive. A good option when faced with this or a generic macro lager.

Brewery: Pivovar Nymburk

Country: France/Czech Republic

ABV: 5.5%