Lenin's Hanf - Aromatic Helles

Lenin's Hanf in german means "Lenin's hemp". The beer is named after one of the (if not the only) owner of Neustädter Hausbrauerei, but it also brings to the mind the name of the former Soviet dictator. That should make a lot of sense when I tell you that this beer is produced in Dresden, German city that was on the East side of the Iron Curtain untill the reunification.

Produced by a small home brewery, this beer contains Hemp flowers as aromatics. The flowers give a slightly sweet taste to this 5,2% helles beer. As you can see in the pictures, the only label is a small printed and clipped piece of paper that comes around the bottles neck.

I don't usually make comparisons in this blog, but the other hemp beer already posted wasn't as half as good as this one... and this is probably one of the very rare beers in my collection, once the production and distribution is quite restricted! But it was not that easy to aquire...

A fellow collector (Andreas) and I were visiting a friend (Lorenzo), in Dresden, when we came accross this beer in a club at the city center. As usual in clubs, you are not allowed to leave the place carrying glasses or bottles, and I was already planning how to hide it under my jacket when Andreas told me something like "It's allright, I talked to the waitress, we can take the bottles".

The only problem is that the bouncers didn't believe Andreas as I did, and it took us some time to get the waitress to come and explain the whole ordeal... in the end, we had to leave the bar with the bottles under the jacket anyways... next time, we do it my way!! ;)

Link to the producer: http://www.obergaerig.de/seite2_hausgebraute_biere_aus_der_neustadt.html

Gambrinus - Premium and Svetlý

Gambrinus is not only one of the most popular Czech beers, but also the name of a legendary king o Flandres, unofficial patron saint of beer and the art of beer brewing (picture above, on the right).

There is a law in Brazil that free churches from taxes... I know now which saint my church will praise when I create it as a mean of tax evasion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambrinus

The bottle on the center was aquired when travelling to Dresden and stopping at Czech Republic for refuelling (the car :P), the other two were yet another contribution from Anderl. All the bottles are 500ml volume, and though two are mostly the same, the label is slightly different. In other occasion, I wouldn't aquire the second bottle, but as I got it as a gift, it gets a picture here, a place in my shelf and in the catalogue.

The Gambrinus Premium is a Lager beer with 5,0% alcohol, while the Svetlý is a Pilsner (produced in the city of Pilsen, Czech Republic) with 4,1% alcohol. Both are produced by Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery and were posted all together here to save my fingers from typing and your eyes from reading too many posts.


Link to the producer: http://www.prazdroj.cz/en/about-the-company/products/gambrinus

Tennent's Super - Strong Lager

This Scottish strong Lager was aquired and consumed in the last night I spent in Padua, Italy, I remember a few friends and a lot of as-known people sitting and talking while the bar was closing due to the late time...

The interesting part of this story is the point where this as-known people start a burp competition, and all the men involved in it had to bow their heads to this girl... she could burp louder than most men I've met, and was proud of it! The fact that I don't properly know her, probably will never see (or hear) her again, the lack of memory and my courtesy, prevent me from telling her name, but man, that girl has lungs and a strong diafragma!

Besides all this, this is a 330ml bottle of the 9,0% scottish beer that provided that italian girl the gas necessary for all that belching. Produced by the Tenent Caledonian breweries, that now belong to the giant InBev.

Link to the producer: http://www.inbev.co.uk/Tennents.htm
Link for funny adds and curiosities: http://www.tennents.com/

Lammsbräu - Urstoff

If there is a "Lions brewery" (Löwenbräu), why not a "Lambs brewery"?

This brewery, localized in the city of Neumarket, inner Bavaria, produces only beers with the European 'Bio' certificate and, therefore, call themselves "Ökologisches Brauerei" (Ecological brewery in german).

Their Urstoff is 4,7% alcohol and comes embottled in 500ml glasses. Due to the proximity of Neumarket to Altötting, I end up asking myself if this beer was a gift from Anderl or not... according to my notes, it is not, so maybe I bought it there, or maybe my notes are wrong...

No, drinking beer doesn't cause memory problems, at least, not that I remember...

Link to the producer: http://www.lammsbraeu.de/index.php?id=31