A.K.A. Old Chicago’s World Beer Tour: Session 9
Last week was Mother’s Day and since my mother is one of my favorite people in the entire world, I decided to drive home to Rocky Mount despite the fact that I was going to be going back two days later when my grandmother would be visiting. My mother has done a little more for me than beer has, so it only seemed fair to skip out on the Tour for her.
But this week there were no holidays so the Tour was back on.
Beer 33: Foster’s Lager
I got to the bar about half an hour earlier than anyone else from the usual crew because otherwise I end up staying and drinking water way too long thanks to my low tollerance for alcohol. Because it’s summer, and summer sports suck, the five huge HD TV’s were being defiled by four baseball games and a NASCAR race. I hate baseball with a fiery passion, and NASCAR is only slightly less boring. All that to say, I decided to go big and knock Foster’s Lager off the list.
Why is this “going big”? Because it’s a 25 oz. can (and I am a hyper-lightweight). Fortunately, it’s pretty good. I would definitely not be upset if I went to a party and that was all they had.
Beer 34: Spaten Franziskaner Hefeweiss
First, I would like to applaud Germany for inventing the worst name for a beer ever. I put the name in Babelfish just to see if made sense translated – it doesn’t. Spade Franziskaner Yeast? That sounds delicious.
I’m like 75+% German by heritage or something, so I decided this week and next time would be all about the German beers, of which there are seven. This one was…really, really bizarre. In fact, it kind of drove me crazy because I could NOT figure out what the aftertaste reminded me of. Is “smokey raspberries” a popular flavor? That’s the best I could make of it. It wasn’t awful, but I don’t think I’d ever order it again unless there’s a German mini-tour for Oktoberfest.
Beer 35: Paulaner Marzen
This was a really chill beer. Oddly enough, it reminded me more of some of the milder Mexican beers like Dos Equis Especial or Pacifico. It’s nothing to complain about, but it wouldn’t be hard to do better.
Beer 36: Beck’s
Thus far in my self-determined German mini-tour, Beck’s is the triumphant winner. I really dug it. Then again, it’s possible that I would turn 180 on that statement if I had this first thing sober. As my fourth by label and my fifth by volume, it gets harder to be picky, but I liked it well enough that I would very possibly re-order it as a first pick if given the opportunity.
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Disclaimer: I make NO claim to be a beer connoisseur. I’m not judging based on being able to taste “this level of wheat” compared to “this thickness of foam” or whatever people that know things about beer care about. I don’t care about any of that. This is just based on how it tastes to me.