About a week or so ago I tried Wychcraft Blonde beer from the Wychwood Brewery and I thought it was pretty good.However, that wasn’t the first time that I came across a beer from the Wychwood Brewery. Actually, I was told about Hobgoblin almost immediately after arriving in England. My first thought was that I really wanted to try it simply because of the name. I mean “Hobgoblin” just sounds like a bad ass name for a beer.

According to the Wychwood Brewery website

Hobgoblin is strong in roasted malt with a moderate hoppy bitterness and slight fruity character that lasts through to the end.

The ruby red coloured Hobgoblin is full-bodied and has a delicious chocolate toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity character.

I would say that this Wychwood beer is probably the easiest and most popular beer to get a hold that they make. I have seen Hobgoblin at just about every marketplace where beer is sold. However, I have had to do some looking around to get my hands on the other types of Wychwood brews.

I thought Hobgoblin was pretty good and I have now had it several more times. I am still sticking with the Wychcraft Blonde in terms of taste, but I plan on tasting many more beers from this brewery so stick around.

Serving Type: 500 ml bottle

ABV  (Alcohol By Volume): 5.2%

I was looking for a new beer to try the other day and just happened to catch a glimpse of a rather unique looking bottle. Being the curious fello that I am, I immediately snagged one off the shelf to read the name. To my surprise the bottle had a rather small label that said only the word “Lucky”. With a name like that, I had to try it out.

Lucky Beer is an Asian style lager made by the Lucky Drink Company and as far as I can tell is made in China. I have seen some other websites that state that this beer was made in Australia but I believe it was previously brewed in Australia and maybe outsourced to China. The luckydrinkco website states that it is made in China so I will go with that for now.

The unique design of the bottle is actually a seated laughing Buddha holding a large gold ingot above his head. According to their website Lucky beer is

A fusion of rice flakes, malted barley and Qingdao hops, Lucky Beer has a light aroma of hops with nuances of honey and malt; the precursor to a clean, silky, refreshing finish.

Overall I thought that Lucky Beer was kind of watery tasting but not bad. It isn’t one of my favorites but it isn’t terrible either. I think the cool bottle design is worth trying it out at least once.

Serving Type: 330 ml Bottle

ABV  (Alcohol By Volume): 4.8%

I have been looking at this Belgian lager sitting in my fridge for about three months now and I finally decided to give it a shot. Etoile d’Or is a Belgian lager which I believe is made specifically for Marks & Spencers stores.

I think the main reason I have been passing this beer up every time I opened the fridge door is because it was in an aluminum can. Something about pouring my beer from a bottle rather than a can made me pass this beer up numerous times.

I felt that this beer was alright but not quite what I generally like but I am sure that many people would really enjoy this a lot.

Serving Type: 500 ml Can

ABV  (Alcohol By Volume): 5.0%

I noticed a couple different offerings from Wychwood Brewery at my local Tescos and thought that I would give this English pale ale a try. So I picked up a 500 ml bottle and headed back to the house to give it a taste test.

As first glance the Wychcraft Blonde beer pours a clear golden amber color and has an apricot and biscuity aroma. The taste was a smooth medium body that tasted much like what it smelled like. The finish was a fruity apricot sweetness and hop flavor with earthy undertones.

Overall I thought this was a beer I could see drinking three or four and not thinking twice. Because of its availability I would recommend this to people in the Oxfordshire area.

This is my fifth or sixth review and I have decided to start incorporating alcohol percentages in the information in my reviews for future reference. I suppose this that I will start with this beer first.

Serving Type: 500 ml bottle

ABV  (Alcohol By Volume): 4.5%

Right off the bat I will say that this is a beer that I really enjoyed. I am beginning to think that I have no taste for beer and that I enjoy almost anything. This is one of my first attempts at trying a hefeweizen and so far I really like this style of beer.

Franziskaner appeared to pour a hazy brownish and amber color with an initial fruity and flowery smell of cloves and bananas. The first mouthful was surprisingly spicy with a slight taste of bananas. The aftertaste was a wonderful taste of spice and cloves which I really enjoyed.

I will definitely put this at the top of my “beers to drink again” list. Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse was refreshing and delicious and set the bar high for my future tastings of this style German beer.

Shock Top Belgian White is a Belgian style wheat ale produced by the Michelob Brewing Company. Recently I have been tasting quite a few Belgian style wheat ales and I must say that for not knowing much about beer,  I am really enjoying this style of beer. So, when I saw this beer the other day I thought that I would give it a taste.

The initial pour was bright golden but soon went to a hazy yellow color. There is an obvious citrus aroma with hints of spice and coriander. The obvious citrus smell is due to Shock Top being brewed with orange, lemon and lime peels. I thought that immediately I tasted citrus with a dominant orange and lemon taste. I found that the spice was hard to detect but overall it was light and went down very smooth.

I think during the spring and summer seasons I could put back a couple of these for sure. It is drinkable, but overall the  excitement of the initial aroma faded with a slightly watered down taste.

I am not a big fan of drinking cider and maybe that is because I generally do not come across it often back in the states. However, I have noticed that many of the pubs here in England offer at least one kind of cider on tap.

That got me thinking and because my beer store always carries Strongbow Cider, I decided that I would finally buy a four-pack of the 500ml cans and give it a shot.

Strongbow is a dry cider and at first glance appears to be apple juice when poured in a glass. To me it taste like a tangy/bubbly apple juice with a kick. Coming in 5.0% ABV this cider can really sneak up on you after having a few.

I can only drink about one or two of these before my taste buds have to take a break though. As I stated earlier, I am not a big cider fan, but I do enjoy the occasional glass.

So far, Strongbow turned out to be better than what I was expecting in a cider. I will be tasting a couple more ciders in the future, so stay tuned.

Leffe Blonde is a Belgian Pale Ale and at first I must admit that I was not that into the taste of this beer. However, after my second time tasting this beer I began to really enjoy it.

It pours a nice clean golden color with an aroma of spice and fruit. The initial taste was sweet and spicy with hints of clove, yeast, and banana.

It seems that after drinking a couple Belgian beers now, I have noticed that each beer recommends a special type of glass. Apparently almost every Belgium beer has its own special drinking glass.

Overall, I would definitely drink this again.

This is my first “beer post” so I figured that I will start with my new favorite beer…Hoegaarden Witbier. Hoegaarden is a Belgian white beer brewed in the town of Hoegaarden.  Although this is considered a summer ale, I am just now enjoying it for the first time in mid December and must say that it is just terrific.

At first glance, I think it poured a hazy golden yellow color with an  initial aroma of yeast and pepper with a slight hint of cloves and orange citrus. The taste was a very mild and pleasant peppery/citrus taste leaving no aftertaste. Also, the beer feels light and creamy on the palette and overall I find this to be one of the best beers I have ever had. A little disclaimer though, this is my first beer review so I hope in the future that new beers will surprise me and take over the number 1 position.

As I have stated before, I started this photo/beer project because I absolutely enjoy drinking beer and taking pictures. So, I figured I would take pictures of the different beers I try while living in Europe and share those experiences with others.

You may be wondering what photography and beer have in common. Well, the short answer is they are both things that I enjoy a lot. This got me thinking that maybe I should start taking photos of some of the beer I get to enjoy so I can have a personal record of the ones I like.

Let me start by stating that the only thing I know about beer is that I like it. So, please do not read my reviews and base your beer tasting experiences off them.  This is just a place for me to share what I think specific beers. Who knows, a couple of years from now I may actually know what I am talking about.

Shortly you will begin to see pictures and brief overviews of each new beer I taste. This entire idea/project all started because I recently discovered a Belgium beer that ended up being so delicious that I wanted to write about it here on my blog.

So…stay tuned!