Type: Beer – Euro Pale Lager
Name: Peroni – Nastro Azzurro
Price: $1.59
Made:  Italy
Alc/Vol: 5.1%

“Pironi Nastro Azzurro is the No. 1 premium Italian beer. It has an intensely crisp and refreshing taste with an unmistakable touch of Italian style.”

This little beer comes in a light green bottle, which due to allowing more light in means that it is harder to get a fresh quality version of the beer. This holds especially true when referencing imports. The scent has a typical Euro Pale Lager smell to it, a bit of that grassy nose but it is light. Blended in with this there is a bit of sweetness, almost sour in the nose not faint but not overpowering either.  It pours a nice pale golden color, with a light lacing. (more…)

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Type: Beer – Euro Pale Lager
Name: Tyskie Browary Książęce – Gronie
Price: $1.29
Made: Poznan, Poland
Alc/Vol: 5.6%

This Polish brew pours a light golden straw color with almost no head and no lacing. The nose matches the color, giving off  a very light sweet scent.

The taste has a light sweetness at the tip with a grassy bitter finish, but not hoppy. Intermixed is a hint of honey, not too light that you can’t tell it is there but not Winnie the Pooh honey filled either.  This brew doesn’t have a strong beer like taste, for all its in-betweens it is almost watered down. There isn’t much body to the beer. It’s not a bad drink, doesn’t scream beer. Does that make sense?

It has drinkability, I could imagine putting these down all night as a light and easy going beer. However, it is forgettable and isn’t anything too special. Which is why I give this beer 2 and a half bananas out of 5. I’m not impressed, but not disappointed and that gets you somewhere in the middle.

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Type: Beer – Euro Pale Lager
Name: Kronenbourg 1664
Price: $1.65
Made: Strasbourg, France
Alc/Vol: 5.5%

This beer comes all the way from France. When I think of France I think of wine, cafes and fine dining, but beer is not one of the things that comes to mind. So it was a pleasure to see what France had to offer in terms of brewed beverages.

What did I find, nothing special, not that it is a bad thing just that it is like any pale lager that you can get at the corner store. Light on hops, there really isn’t any bitterness to it, its a smooth slightly malty drink.

There is just the faintest hint of spice enough so that it is not as light as a Budweiser, but only by a little.

The beer isn’t bad just isn’t something I would go out of my way for it is very common in flavoring. It is good light and refreshing, which when you think of it – what more could you ask for in a beer? There is a slight ting on the tip of the tongue for the aftertaste but other than that it doesn’t have any discernable difference. It is gold, light but not as light as your average light beer, and refreshing.

I give this beer 3 bananas out of 5, it’s a safe pick that has drinkability and if I was in France I could see myself drinking these down but otherwise I wouldn’t go hunting for it.

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It shouldn’t be a surprise that here on MonkeyBrewster we often revisit an Irish theme. I’ve highlighted a few Irish brews on my New Brew Tuesday feature, such as Dundee Irish Red Lager, Ohara’s Irish Stout, and the Black-n-Tan vs the Half-n-Half. I talked about my St. Patty’s day celebration in Cleveland last year, which I’m doing one better by revisiting and adding my weeding to my fiancé to it this year. I even highlighted an Irish pub in Rio de Janeiro that I visited every once in a while when I was living in Brazil. Being so close to St. Patrick’s day I feel I must revisit all things Irish and take a look at 4 Irish/Irish style beers. I can’t really tell you what an Irish beer is, even the beloved Guinness is owned and run by an English company, Diageo. True Guinness is still made in Ireland, at least some of it is, but this is all tit for tat and is missing the point. The point you ask? Let’s Drink!

Type:  Beer - Irish Stout
Name: Murphey’s stout
Made: UK (Ireland)
Alc/Vol: 4%

This is dark colored stout that has a nice thick head that sticks to the glass. It has that coffee scent to it and the taste is coffee like but almost an iced coffee taste. It isn’t too strong in any of its flavorings although I can catch a hint of. Overall I was a bit disappointed with this beer, it has that dark Guinness look but doesn’t have the taste. Which I realize no other stout has that taste, but it didn’t even have the Lion Stout taste. Sadly this stout fiddled out only 2 out of 5 bananas on its rating.

Type: Beer -Euro-Pale Lager
Name: Harp
Made: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada (Ireland)
Alc/Vol: 5%

This beer has a nice but pungent smell, thicker and more aroma than the Murphy’s Stout. The color is a light yellow but it’s thick full taste and full of hops. Harp has a nice dry finish,  the hops tingles the tip of your tongue as you drink this one down, although that could simply be because unlike the Murphey’s or Wexford this is a carbonated beer. This is a good quality mass produced lager that is easy to find at any Irish pub and goes good with your Black-n-Tan (Half-n-Half), and happens to be produced under Guinness Ltd. However, it is still mass produced so it does have a generic lager taste, albeit a better quality than you can typically find. This hearty lager earns 3 out of 5 bananas.

Type: Beer - Irish Red Ale
Name: Smithwick’s
Made: Dublin, Ireland
Alc/Vol:4.5%

This beer, pronounced “Smidick’s” has a thicker head than the Harp and was more of a mild spiced less hops type beer. Head lasted longer than the Murphey’s Stout surprisingly. It is a full flavored beer that like Harp is mass produced by Guinness Ltd. Although it is spiced it is still slightly watered down, missing a kick as if they tamed it down a bit. It is an easy Irish beer to enjoy if you are looking to dabble in the world of beer and don’t want too much of a hops bite in your brew. It isn’t my favorite Irish Red Ale but it is still one of my favorite styles of beer so I’m a bit biased in that manner which is why it earned 3 1/2 out of 5 bananas.

Type: Beer - English Bitter
Name: Original  Wexford Irish Style Crème Ale drought
Made: United Kingdom
Alc/Vol: 5%

This brew was different, and not the good kind. I’m not sure what was going on here, the color is not what I was expecting with a yellow/copper-ish color to it and a thick cream head. OK the cream head I was expecting but not the color. It had a toffee, vanilla and caramel mix taste that just didn’t blend right for my liking. It had a creamy mouth feel, yet still tasted watered down, it just was not impressive. This brew, like the Murphy’s Stout was served in a nitro-can which could attribute to the change in flavoring from what I was expecting. This beer only earns 1/2 out of 5 bananas. Sorry Wexford.

Need some good drinking songs to keep you jamming while you drink your liver away this St. Patty’s Day? Then check out my list of 103 Drinking Songs.

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