Month: May 2011

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: San Miguel Pale Pilsen
Brewed: San Miguel, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Size: 330mL
Alcohol Content: 5.0%
Sourced: Harry’s Bar, Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore
World Beer Rating: 9/10.
Notes: Lovely citrus notes and a mild carbonation. No wonder it’s the Philippines’ flagship brand, it’s really good!

Date Consumed: 2nd October 2012
Beer: Red Horse Extra Strong
Brewed: San Miguel, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Size: 355mL
Alcohol Content: 7.0%
Sourced: The Beer Cellar, Hamilton, New Zealand.
World Beer Rating: 5/10.
Notes: My god this beer has malt and alcohol stamped on the flavour like a steel toecapped boot. It’s supposed to be a Philippine favourite, but I don’t rate it that highly.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Star Lager
Brewed: Nigerian Breweries PLC, Lagos, Nigeria
Size: 600mL
Alcohol Content: 5.1%
Sourced: Falcon Foods and Wines, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 6/10.
Notes: Nigeria’s #1 Beer apparently, but it’s not exactly #1 in my book. Minerally flavours, especially iron. Very carbonated, aftertaste fades fast. Not unpleasant, but pretty average.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Kamenitza
Brewed: Pivovaren Zavod Kamenitza (StarBev), Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Size: 500mL
Alcohol Content: 4.4%
Sourced: Rosova Dolina, Tottenham Hale, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 5/10
Notes: Not unpleasant, but nothing that grabs you. Little carbonation; it tells you to drink at 3°C, which is probably to hide the lack of flavour. Still, you’d drink this without complaining if served on tap at a pub

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Bell Lager
Brewed: Uganda Breweries, Port Bell, Kampala, Uganda
Size: 500mL
Alcohol Content: 4.0%
Sourced: beersofeurope.co.uk
World Beer Rating: 7/10
Notes: Surprisingly refreshing beer, watery but with a pleasantly light hoppy flavour. Like most other African beers I’ve tried, this is not bursting with citrus, floral or complex layers, but this is a very good beer from Uganda.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Cisk Export Premium Lager
Brewed: Simonds Farsons Cisk, Mriehel, Malta
Size: 330mL
Alcohol Content: 5.0%
Sourced: www.beersofeurope.co.uk
World Beer Rating: 3/10
Notes: Foul tasting beer. Maybe the hops and water of Malta is not quite up to the task. Tasted bland with a mineral aftertaste.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Cubanero Fuerte (Bucanero Fuerte)
Brewed: Cerveceria Bucanero, Holguín, Cuba
Size: 350mL
Alcohol Content: 5.4%
Sourced: www.beersofeurope.co.uk
World Beer Rating: 5/10
Notes: Pretty average beer, I suspect it’s good in the sweltering heat of Cuba, not South West London. Strong aftertaste of communism and malt.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Cerveza Cristal
Brewed: Cerveceria Bucanero, Holguín, Cuba
Size: 350mL
Alcohol Content:
Sourced: Premier Wines, Strawberry Hill, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 8/10
Notes: Wow, this is a remarkable recovery from the previous Cubanero. Light, refreshing beer with a subtle aftertaste of hops. This is delicious and I would most certainly recommend this for either drinking with spicy foods or just enjoying after a long day!

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Bere Timisoreana
Brewed: Ursus Breweries, Cluj Napoca, Romania
Size: 500mL
Alcohol Content: 5.0%
Sourced: Romanian Food Centre, Edgeware, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 7/10
Notes: Much like the other Eastern European beers, this one is very hoppy, full of flavour with a bitter aftertaste. Very carbonated, which is a slight downfall to an otherwise quite surprisingly good beer.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Barbican Premium Malt
Brewed: Brewed by Aujan Industries Co., Dammam, United Arab Emirates
Size: 330mL
Alcohol Content:
Sourced: Electric Avenue Wholesalers, Brixton, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 2/10
Notes: Wow, I didn’t expect to find a beer brewed in the United Arab Emirates. Barbican Premium Malt is classified as a beer, containing the ingredients of beer without the alcohol. I got the strawberry flavour (in hindsight, what kind of beer is not brewed with anything strawberry but tastes of it?), and this beer tasted entirely of artificially flavoured strawberry. Actually quite drinkable as a strawberry soda beverage, not as a beer.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
Brewed: St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland
Size: 330mL
Alcohol Content: 7.5%
Sourced: Noble Green Wines, Hampton Hill, London, United Kingdom
World Beer Rating: 8/10
Notes: It’s the world famous Guinness and it’s a high alcohol export version from Ireland itself. Should be enough to score high marks and it does… just. Wonderful strong oaky stout flavour, complex but not too overwhelming. Noticed a distinct alcohol flavour which doesn’t do the stout any justice. Not the best Guinness can produce but I understand the requirement that this beer might remain in the bottle for quite a time and needs to remain drinkable. I would rate the draft version higher, only because it’s fresher.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Harp Lager
Brewed: Dundalk, Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland
Size: 355mL
Alcohol Content: 4.3%
Sourced: The Beer Cellar Website (online), Hamilton, New Zealand
World Beer Rating: 5/10
Notes: Pretty average beer.

Date Consumed: ?
Beer: Svyturys Ekstra Premium
Brewed:  Svyturys, Klaipeda, Lithuania
Size:  500mL
Alcohol Content:  5.2%
Sourced: Russkiy Bazar, Cambridge Heath, London, United Kingdom.
World Beer Rating: 7/10
Notes: Strong malty flavour, quite unlike it’s neighbouring countries. I feel generous giving this a 7, but the beer has a good aftertaste and perfectly carbonated – two important factors of drinking a good beer.