Homestead Lager

Dear fellow beer enthusiasts,

we all had already one of those days... those days when all turns out wrong, nothing goes your way and by the end of it, all you want to do is sit back on your favorite chair, relax and indulge in a beer.

Don't get me wrong, beer is for enjoying and not blanking out, and I don't believe any problems will ever be solved in the bottom of a bottle. As someone who truly enjoys the taste of beer and savours the moment and ambient created around it, I am aversed to binge-drinking and drinking for the pure sake of getting drunk is definitely not on my to-do list. I actually believe it is quite a waste.

Nevertheless, one glass, in good company, at the end of a stressful day can help you relax and improve your mood...

That is what I was going for after a particularly bad day in the beginning of 2007... it was a not-so-nice Sunday, definitely one of THOSE days I described in the first paragraph of this post, I went with a few friends to the stadium to watch the semi-finals of the regional football (soccer) championship.

I should've stayed home... the weather took a turn to the worst, the rain washed us completely and we were standing there, cold and miserable for almost 2 hours in a very empty stadium... meanwhile we were watching our team being beaten senselessly by 4x1. We were wet, cold and had no reason whatsoever to celebrate, our team had been eliminated from the championship.

After that, we decided that the best we could do was to just relax a bit and have a beer. We headed home and in my fridge there were only 3 bottles. They all were a gift from Mario Pedroni, a friend from university who worked on a ski station in the US during winter, and brought me the local beverages produced by the hotel at which he had worked.

The options were a Lager, an Ale and another one simply labeled "Beer". Being a good host, I let my guest, Henrique Strobl, choose first... he chose the Lager which names this post. A very simple lager, with undisclosed alcohol content, served in a 330ml brown bottle.

Homestead Lager: 1 out of 3 is not a proportion you want in a bad day

I chose the Ale, but once I poured the said "Ale" into the glass, I noted that something was very weird... there was no foam forming, and little gas bubbles were all over the glass... I took a sip, and it tasted like lemonade...

What I had in my hands, ladies and gentlemen, was a Ginger Ale... for those of you who, like me at that time, don't know what a ginger ale is, it is soda. Soda which for some reason carries the misleading word "Ale" in its name.

I was disappointed, as good as it could taste, it didn't fit the expectations for that rainy and cold afternoon. So I finished it quickly and went with high hopes for the third bottle, that one labeled "Beer".

As I poured it into the glass, the sensation of Dejà-vu filled me... again no foam, again the taste of soda and again the surprise provided by a very misleading product name... this time I was tasting a Root Beer.

While for me this was something completely new (I had never been to the US or heard of those sodas), it was not unkown to Strobl... he knew it all along and couldn't stop laughing at each one of my surprises.

That dayt I learned a very important lesson on international sodas and we ended up sharing the lager...

Now I can remember this story and laugh about it, but up to this day I wonder if Mário's intentions were honest or if he intended to play a prank on me...

Nevertheless, I thank him for the beer and for the story  :)

Cheers

Cave Creek - Chili Beer

This Mexican, 330ml, 4,2% alcohol, lager beer brings a small surprise for unadvised drinkers...

As the name suggests, a small Serrano chili pepper is added to each bottle produced, giving the liquid a really HOT taste! If you like chilis, this might be the one for you, if not, it's still worth the try, but you better have a bottle of water around...

It is a product of 'Cerveceria Mexicana', but I couldn't really find the link for the brewery. The video below is an interview with 'Crazy Ed', the guy who came up with this idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc7Wod56rhg

The story behind this specific bottle involves also a big surprise... It was acquired during a short backpack travel in southwest Germany, more specifically in Karlsruhe, when I was visiting a friend from university, Conrad Rössger. It was also during this trip that I drank it, not in Karlsruhe, but in Strasbourg, and not with Conrad, but with the most unexpected company...

I had just arrived in my hostel in Strasbourg, it was around 9pm and the city was already dead, I left the bags in my room and, in the hope to at least socialize a bit with other backpackers, I went downstairs to the lounge... empty...

I was already getting used to the idea of a tedious evening when a familiar face pops in the lounge. Took me a fraction of a second and I could only really believe it when she also looked me and said: "what the hell are you doing here??!!".

Ana Carolina (the familiar face) is a girl I met by chance in 2008, while backpacking through northern Germany, she is also brazilian, although we never met in Brazil. In that occasion, we were in the same hostel in Köln, and came across each other once again while spending a few days in Berlin, what ended up in a nice friendship.

So once again, now in 2010, our taste for cheap hostels ended up in one huge coincidence. For celebrating and kicking away the boredown of a dead evening, I picked a few bottles of beer (including this chili one), she and her friend got a bottle of wine, and we drank to the randomic features of life.