Favourite Obscure Beer

For anyone who's heading over to Bulgaria next June, I acquired some knowledge of the local tipples during my four-month exile in Blagoevgrad. Bulgarian beer should be served ice-cold, as many of them have a dark-ish taste (except Zagorka, which you shouldn't drink anyway).

Shumensko - great stuff, easily the best of the bunch.
Zagorka - The devil's urine. Avoid. Think of Dutch Gold with a dash of uranium.
Ariana - Distinctly average...
Pirinsko - Shumensko's inferior cousin. Same brewing company, I think, but the latter tops it by some margin.
Stolichno - Almost forgot about this. Bulgaria's answer to Guinness, but much lighter, easier to drink and 6%, so it gets you fairly messed up.

The most widely available foreign beers seem to be Beck's and (shudder) Tuborg.

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Originally Posted by rambler14

Warsteiner or Warfeiner as it says on the label is a lovely German beer thats only a euro a bottle!!

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Good call. I forgot about that one.

The Warsteiner we get here is brewed by Diagio in Dublin, nice stuff it is, but expensive on draught.

I like Mahou Clasica from Spain. Don't normally like light tasting beers but that's a good one. Can only ever seem to get Mahou 5 Estrellas over here though.

A cracker one is Clotworthy Dobbin, brewed by Whitewater Brewing Co in Down. Got rated among the top 50 beers in the world recently. Well worth a go if ye can find it (it's common in Belfast, and Tesco have started selling it recently).

schneider weiss is another german one, a biere blanche or i suppose it would be weissbiere or something in german - very good, not widely known over here.

Being a Sussex lad i should mention Harvey's, the local brew over there. If you find yourself in Brighton try it (but don't bend over if you drop a fiver ;))

I love English beers like Bishop's Finger, Hobgoblin, Ruddell's etc etc Can't beat them.

Austrian beer - Mohren. Dont know if you can get it here.
Strong but very very drinkable if you know what I mean.

Appartantly, most regions of Austria have their own breweries and thats the main beer available in those localities.

The custom to drinking in Austria is they keep a tab of what you've been drinking and you just pay when you're leaving.
They lose track though, so you're bound to get a few freebies over the course of a night :D

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Originally Posted by brendy_éire

A cracker one is Clotworthy Dobbin, brewed by Whitewater Brewing Co in Down. Got rated among the top 50 beers in the world recently. Well worth a go if ye can find it (it's common in Belfast, and Tesco have started selling it recently).

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I picked up a bottle in Cork at Easter - what a great drink. I'd love to get my hands on some more.

The Porterhouse did a Celebration Stout about 2 years ago, I remember I had one the night after I passed my driving test. Bottled stout. 10%. Good night.

They did a really nice chocolate stout over St Patrick's week this year as well, you could smell the chocolate before you drank it

Had Berliner beer when I was in Berlin last year, cheap and cheerful, and not half bad

Bottles of Celebration might be still knocking about a few off-licences.
Carlow brought out their own 10 year anniversary stout this year. "Only" 6%, comes in a rather nice 750mL bottle.

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Originally Posted by noby

Tsingtao is finding it's way on to off-licence shelves alright.

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Seen it in Tescos today aswell.

Hardly obscure but hard to get (properly ...as in bottled) in Ireland -Newcastle Brown Ale

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Hardly obscure but hard to get (properly ...as in bottled) in Ireland -Newcastle Brown Ale

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Good stuff that is. Singha Thai beer is lovely too.

If it's cheap and cheerful you're after the German beer Warsteiner (chilled) is quite good at only €1.20 a bottle

Have come across some great beers on football trips.

The Gull, Black Sheep and Ships Oil made by the Faroese microbrewery Föroya Bjór were fantastic, particularly for a country with only 6 pubs. In Armenia the Kotayk and Erebuni were strong and fantastic (Kilika was OK).

Also have a soft spot for American pale ale "microbrews" (most now too big to be considered microbrews but still taste good). Examples such as Fat Tire, Anchor Steam, Sam Adams and anything made by the Rock Bottom microbrewery.

Bought a dozen Estrella Dam to watch the footy with last week and they were very nice Ice Cold. Tesco has also been doing a special on Sam Adams. O'Briens has a good stock of German weissbeers (at high prices). I believe there's an off license in Dundrum that stocks the mythical Augustiner. Been meaning to go out and pick a case of that up.

Keep this thread going, its making me thirsty...!

Desparados is one I love, usually get it when am in France or Holland
Also Leffe (Blond) which can get in the Pig now so not so obscure.
For memories of my wedding in Barbados and a present I got when leaving Hot Press "Banks" stands out. Havent had it since as they are both bad memories now!

so has anyone made their own beer? one or two lads I know are about to get some home brew kits, just wondering if anyone has done it before? and if so will it taste like nectar or dish water??

I brew my own. You can make it as good or as bad as you like. You can buy the cheapest kit, and add a pound of sugar, and end up with something not far off alcoholic dish water. This is how homebrewing used to be like. Nowadays even the basic kits have improved a lot. You can spend a little more on better kits to get a better tasting beer.
I do all-grain brewing which is basically a scaled down version of a proper brewery.

What sometimes puts people off is that they think they can knock up something to exactly replicate their favourite pint of Heineken. Brewing a lager is a particularly tricky operation, and ales are more common for the homebrewer, (including stouts wheat beers, pale ales, IPAs etc., so you're not that limited).

My advice for your friends: when buying your kits the more you spend the better the result. A good 3Kg kit might be €25, but it'll produce a beer far superior to a €14 kit and a bag of sugar.
Once everything is sanatised it's kind of hard to go wrong.

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Hardly obscure but hard to get (properly ...as in bottled) in Ireland -Newcastle Brown Ale

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eugh, that's like the Carling of ales. Last resort only!

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Originally Posted by boovidge

eugh, that's like the Carling of ales. Last resort only!

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I must say I never warmed to "proper" English ales, despite going to the CAMRA festival a few times. Warm flat beer doesn't do it for me.

tropical beer in the canaries is a great holiday beer