Penultimate bucket of beer reviews

Yesterday, I had Brasseurs de Montréal's «Chi Orientale». I'd had it once before at a barbecue; this time I had it a little chilled in a glass. It's a cloudy white beer with a thin, non-clingy head and dull brass colour. The initial sniff as well as the whole glass were dominated this time by ginger — I remember it being a bit more subtle last time I had it; this time it was definitely all ginger, with that slightly soapy real-ginger-beer taste. The white beer base was a nice choice, if I were to augment a beer with a hit of ginger this powerful, I'd have started with Blanche de Chambly. It has a definite prickle to it and is certainly a "beer for people who don't like beer," like Mort Subite but for the more adventurous.

Today, I had Red Stripe Lager. It is the local (export) lager from Jamaica, as far as I can tell. I poured it at fridge temperature into a skinny glass, and had it with cucumbers and a zucchini melt on a baguette (our garden's zucchini yield isn't quite equal to the tomato yield, but it's no slouch, either). It has a thin head, Compared to beers with similar roles, it is sweeter, maltier and much less hoppy. For something noticeably unhoppy, it has a nice aroma. Between the lack of hops and the low alcohol content, it doesn't quite square with my "warm geography beer" preconceptions, but it is unassumingly tasty, and quite drinkable, if perhaps not as thirst-quenching or come-again-ish as some of its less sweet cousins.

I have one more beer on the roster from my birthday bucket of beer: Tsingtao beer. It probably isn't the end of my beer posts, but I'll try and wrap up the thirty with some mapping out of how they relate to each other. It's been a very pleasant trip through the beers of the world!

Oscar at one week

( More Oscar and others )

Oscar turned a week old late last night, and we're all doing well so far. He sleeps for three hours or so at a time at night. He seemed to enjoy his first immersed-in-water bath today. He tends to be a little cranky around and after suppertime (tonight he went long on the crankiness, but he's conked out now, I think). He's met Elizabeth's parents and had a proper visit yesterday, and will meet my parents and my sister, all of whom are pretty excited to meet him, on Tuesday. Our friends, family and neighbours are showering him with gifts; he'll be one well-dressed baby (even if his parents don't always make his clothes match) and his library has had a little kick-start from a few generous individuals.

I think Elizabeth and I are kind of tired from the new-parent experience this week, but Oscar is both pretty calm and pretty exciting so far.

Tsingtao beer

Tonight, I tried Tsingtao lager, with a salad including cilantro, turnip greens and a simple vinaigrette. I poured it chilled into a skinny glass; it had no head to speak of and a pale golden colour. The aroma is a nice hoppy one, and the beer itself is fairly sweet and malty, with the hops reappearing in the aftertaste. It is a lot like Red Stripe, but bracketed with hops. I think the food pairing wasn't such a good one; it would have gone nicely with something more fried or salty, whereas the salad could've used something more bitter or tangy.

Tsingtao was the last beer remaining in the bucket. I'll post soon with a bucket-in-review including my favourites, and then I intend to review interesting beers I run across in other contexts.