Here we go, review time again. I've already written a couple of whisky reviews that I'm keeping warm while you read this one, so I'll have some more content up over the next couple of weeks. I'm starting a bit of a review series on blended whiskies, so if you're not wealthy enough to roll around in massive piles of cash like I am and can't afford the single malts then you can still enjoy the exquisite delights of drinking a whisky while reading my review of it. In the mean time here's a beer review. It was going to be a cheese review of Jærosten, but I munched it down without taking notes or pictures, so that's not happening now. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some more fairly soon. I've lost my train of thought now, so we'd better get into the action.
Bit of an intro
It's another Berentsen's beer and the last one I'm going to call part of my series. I started that at least a year ago and I've been accumulating bottles ready to sample when the series was done. Unfortunately I'm not a great fan of lager, and since this is a lager I've been putting off drinking it for months and now I have a huge backlog of beers to taste. That's not a bad thing, I have a ton of cool beers to try. I think I'm only going to do loose review series now, this one took some crazy effort and Berentsen's keep bringing out more beers, which is rather inconsiderate of them in my opinion. By the way, Berentsen's is a brewery in Egersund, not too far south from where I live, and it's over 120 years old.
This is a Vienna lager. I'm not a great fan of lager, although it can go fairly well with some foods, particularly spicy ones. Lagering is the process of storing beer at very cold temperatures. At cold temperatures the proteins and things coagulate and slowly sink to the bottom, leaving a nice clear and very light beer. At this point I'm already building up some expectations, notably that I don't think this will have much body or flavour. I'm expecting it to be light, because proteins and maybe oils that would have given it some body will have been removed. There could be some unfermentable sugars in it which could make it feel thicker in the mouth, but we'll have to see. I'm expecting it to be pretty gassy too, but maybe that's just my experience of cheap British lagers being overly carbonated.
Berentsen's are a pretty cheap brand in Norway, with this 330ml bottle costing me 29,9 kr. That's £2.67, $3.44, €3.14, or 0.57 Seborgan Luiginos. I've definitely paid more money for less beer, so by that count this Sprek Gauk #5 is scoring a point or two. It's 4.7% ABV, which is just under the maximum that supermarkets can sell, meaning that supermarkets can sell this lager. Good for business.
Another quick note on Berentsen's is that the beers I've tried from them so far all seem to be towards the botter end of the bitter/sweet balance. Its not a bad thing, they've been ok beer, I think it's just their style. More bitter beers seem to be popular here in Norway too, with most of my friends tending to prefer IPAs. A notable exception is Mr. Eik, who prefers stouts and porters like a sensible person.
Here's a quick summary of the details I've covered here. I'm experimenting witht he format a little bit and trying to make it easier to find the relevant information.
Brewery: Berentsens
Beer name: Sprek Gauk #5
Type of beer: Vienna lager
Price: 29.9 NOK
Strength:4,7%
Bottle size: 330ml
Packaging
It's a simple brown bottle. Standard container for not quite enough beer, but then I suppose you can have a second one if you're still thirsty. I was intrigues by the Aladin's lamp kind of design there. An old style oil lamp standing among some ears of barley. It looks like it should have symbolic significance.
What does it mean?
What makes the choice of picture on the label particularly confusing is the name of the beer. "Gauk" is the Norwgian name for the common cuckoo, "sprek" can mean "talk", so "sprek gauk #5" means something like "cuckoo call #5". What does that have to do with an oil lamp?
The label on the back has a bit of a description:
"Veinna Lager har sin opprinnelse fra Østerrike. Med tre typer malt og en herlig, myk sødme er dette et forfriskende øl som er lettdrikkelig og litt mørkere en pils på fargen. Vi anbefaler å servere det avkjølt på 8-12 grader. Innholder maltet bygg.
Skal man gjøre noe skikkelig kreves iherdig innsats. ofte gjennom mangfoldige år. En god regel, oftest brukt i sykkelsporten, er regel #5: HTFU, eller, "få det gjørt!"
Are you a native English speaker? If so, chances are you barely understood a word of that beyond Vienna Lager. Here's a handy translation to help you keep up to speed with the conversation:
"Vinna Lager has its origins in Austria. With three types of malt and a delicious, soft sweetness, this is a refreshing beer that is light-drinking and a little darker than pilsner in colour. We recommend serving it cooled to 8-12 degrees. Contains malted barley.
Should you do something properly, effort is required. Often over many years. A good rule, most often used in cycling, is rule # 5: HTFU, or, "get it done!""
Again a bit confusing. The first paragraph is fine, it's following an Austrian tradition, they're using three types of malt, it's a bit sweet, it's light and a bit darker in colour than a typical pilsner. Also best served at 8-12 degrees. The second paragraph was a little bewildering though. I think they're trying to suggest that it's refreshing, and telling us the inspiration for the "#5" part of the name. I assume "HTFU" stands for "Hurry The Fun Up", because I'm a nice polite Englishman and the possibility that a beer bottle would contain any hint of vulgarity is a very long way from my view of reality indeed.
Appearance
Quite dark for lager as I know it, being amber rather than yellow. A tiny bit cloudy where I let some of the sediment from the bottle slip out into the glass. There's pretty much no head on it, although it did fizz up a bit when I opened it. You don't tend to get a head on bottled beers unless you pour them in a fancy way, which I don't usually do as any head you get disappears pretty quickly anyway.
Looks less like it should be squirting into a urinal than most lagers I've tasted
Aroma
Surprisingly malty, biscuity malt. Malted milk style.
A hint of marmite at first, but it faded very quickly.
Malt dominating the smell, not getting much I would associate with hops or yeast.
Maybe a suggestion of grapefruit now that I'm getting into it. I've had a bout t third at this point.
Faintly earthy aroma after a third of the way in.
Sweetness getting more complex, with suggestions of honey and dark toffee into the second half of the glass.
Taste
Not a great deal to start with.
Slightly sweet buscuity tasting malt, like malted milk biscuits.
Touch of bitterness at the end.
Faint hint of dead yeast, marmitey taste.
Not really much complexity
Maybe a suggestion of grapefruit in the second half of the glass.
More bitterness in the mouth at about 2/3 of the way down.
Just a shade of earthiness.
Aftertaste
Bitter, but not very much. Not a great deal of charcacter to the bitterness, it's just bitter. Kind of fresh I guess if you really stretch your imagination.
Half way down and I can taste the malt in the aftertaste now.
Bitterness getting a slightly more vegetal quality.
Balance
Actually pretty well balanced. Most of the Berentsen's beers I've tried, including ones I haven't reviewed, have been towards the bitter end, but this is closer to the middle. It seems to be just their style which is fine although according to my old friend Mr.Tiffen a sign of good beer is that the bitter and sweet are well balanced, so I would say this is possibly a slightly better put together brew than some of the other Berentsen's beers.
A few extra comments
The aroma is very malty, suggesting a thick, sweet pint, but we have to remember it's a lager. I don't generally drink lagers, so maybe it is full bodied for a lager. I wouldn't say it's thin, or light particularly, but not as rich as the aroma suggests. Lagers are stored for a while, I think at cold temperatures, which allows for proteins and things to sink to the bottom and making for a lighter beer. I'd suggest that it removes precious flavours like chillfiltration in whisky making tends to. I think part of the reason I found this beer a bit lacking in flavour was that it's a lager, and lagers are a bit lacking in flavour.
The label mentioned three types of malt being used. I think two of them might have been pale malt which is used in pretty much every beer according to my old friend Mr. Tiffen, and biscuit malt. I noticed a malted milk biscuit aroma, which to me suggests biscuit malt. If you haven't realized, biscuit malt was so named because it tastes a bit biscuity.
Conclusion
It was ok. A beer's a beer when it comes down to it. I found it a bit uninteresting. Generally it smelled malty, tasted a bit kind of bitter sweet, and had a bitter after taste. There were some subtleties that emerged after a while, but they were barely noticeable. On the standard one tot ten scale I'd say it reminded me why I don't usually drink lager without offending me. Would I buy it again? I don't think so, but I would concede that it's quite refreshing and could go nicely with a nice hot chili, or hot weather. Good for a barbecue with a big bunch of friends I reckon, since it's easy drinking, pretty cheap (especially for Norway) and a social gathering with a larger group isn't really the place to be getting too nerdy about beer flavours. Trying it with chili would be interesting as the malty sweetness and the alcohol would help with the chili heat, but you wouldn't lose the beer flavours by napalming your taste buds because there's not much flavour there to begin with. Bit harsh maybe, but that's my opinion. Start your own blog if you don't like it.
If you've enjoyed reading this you're clearly a person of equisite taste. Come back soon for a review of something else, possibly a cheap whisky, a german porter, or an interesting single malt. In the mean time please drink like a sensible grown up and not a teenage kid showing off to the girls in the park, and tell your friends to read this blog. Unless you're friends are drunken teenagers in the park, in which case tell their parents what they're up to.
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