Cheers! 9 beers to taste this International Beer Day
Did you know that today is International Beer Day? Of course you did and we bet you’ve been stocking up on Peroni, Stella and Corona all week in preparation. We’re sometimes guilty of sticking to our favourites, so to celebrate today we headed down to The Post Office Vaults in Birmingham to discover some of the very best beers from around the globe.
The pub, which has now been on the scene for five years, was set up purely to be an international bottle pub to please Brummies’ taste buds.
It has 364 international beers to choose from and, as much as we wanted to work our way through them all, we decided to be more selective. With the help of duty manager Jess Wilson, here are some for you to consider to mark International Beer Day…
Strongest beer
The strongest beverage down at the vaults is Doppelbock style Samichlaus Classic Beer, which is brewed only once a year by Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg in Vorchdorf, Austria. The beer is a whopping 14%, so you wouldn’t need many for you to turn into the type that suddenly thinks karaoke is a brilliant idea.
Weirdest taste
Jess picked out Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen as one of the stand out weirdest tastes available in the international beer world. She explained that the beer, which is from Germany, is a dark fermented smokebeer, making it taste an awful lot like smoky bacon crisps.Finally, a beer which provides us with two of our favourite tastes.
Most expensive
We reckon the gang which created beer, which was over 5,000 years ago in ancient Iraq, were also the ones that created the phrase ‘Go hard, or go home’. If you fancy celebrating International Beer Day in style, you may as well go hard and buy the most expensive one, right? Belgium’s St Feuillien Triple is a whopping nine litres and can be purchased for a reasonable £315 from the pub.
Most popular
Jess picked out the three most popular beers among pub regulars and all were from Belgium. The one being Tripel Karmeliet, a beer which uses wheat, oats and barley to create its signature taste. Another popular one was Kwak which has a caramel-like taste with hints of banana. The third most popular was Brugse Zot Blond which uses an impressive four different malts to give a sweet plum-like flavour.
Manager’s recommendations
Of course we couldn’t spend time sipping beers with the duty manager without asking what her top recommendations are! Have a taste of these this International Beers Day…
Hemel & Aarde – Netherlands
A mixture of dark chocolate, sweet liquorice and roasted malts create a thick and creamy flavour, perfect for a cold and rainy evening.
Kasteel Rouge – Belgium
A delicious cherry beer which tastes addictively fruity. The beer not only has cherry liqueur in, but also Kasteel’s well known quadruple-style beer Donker which gives it a peppery spice and kick to it.
Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta Earl Grey IPA – New Zealand
A unique taste with a spoonful of Earl Grey Blue Flower which creates a floral and citrus taste that is incredibly refreshing.
St. Feuillien Grand Cru – Belgium
A pale beer in colour, this beer is dry with a fruity bitterness. The beer is a delicious taste of malt and honey with plenty of malt character that will have you ordering more than just the one.
Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero – USA
Created in Massachusetts, this incredible beer mixes chocolate with roasted dark malts, ancho chile, cinnamon and vanilla. You also can’t be unhappy with a clown shoes wearing Mexican wrestler on the label, right?
