Day 42, Three beers. Sottish Ale 19,32,46, Kölsch 55, Oktoberfest 57

So another lazy week where I drink the beer, but just don't want to write about it until they start piling up. I hope to stop doing this and just write them as I drink them from now on.

I have another picture of all my bottles washed and ready for clean storage. I hope they are clean, I plan on giving them another wash before bottling anything but I would just hate to get anything growing in my beer. This is about half of them, enough for about 5 gallons of beer.

The first beer is Blehaven Scottish Ale out of Dunbar, Scotland. The Scottish Ale category is broken down into three different ones traditionally based on the taxation of these beers based on the amount of grain used and subsequently the alcohol content of the beer. They are 60 shilling, 70 shilling and 80 shilling or light, heavy and export. I didn't like this beer. Not sure what it was because it had potential in the malt aspect, but it just tasted flat and spoiled, even though i am not sure what spoiled beer is suppose to taste like. The problems I envision may come from the fact that it comes in a clear bottle, which will damage the hops oils, and/or the fact that it had a long road from Scotland to get here and may not be very fresh.

On a 0-3 scale: 0. This is the first time that I din't finish this beer. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I would like to try it on tap.

Would I recommend to a friend: no
What would I do different: Drink it at The George & Dragon Pub. 

The second beer was a Kölsch. This is a strange style that is difficult to understand but from what it looks like it's a German equivalent of an IPA, a hoppy ale, that's lagered at the end of fermentation. This beer was a Gaffel from Koln, western Germany. This beer was light in color, very clear and had a nice head. The smell of it was not pleasant, it came in a brown bottle, but had the smell of those american light lagers that are just gross. I finished the beer, but it wasn't very good.

On a 0-3 scale: 1. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: Maybe, this is such a unique style, that I may want to give it another chance.

Would I recommend to a friend: no
What would I do different: Nothing, have a different beer.

And beer number three is our winner. This is an Oktoberfest from Spaten. This was my first Oktoberfest, and on second thought, maybe I should have waited another few months and had a fresh one at one of the festivals here, oh well. I was very pleasantly surprised by this beer. It was a translucent brown color with good malty complexity and nice carbonation. I liked this beer a lot, and even though it didn't score very high with http://beeradvocate.com/ I really liked it.

On a 0-3 scale: 3. (for rating info see first tasting)

Would I buy it again: I want to try other Oktoberfests, but I would buy this again

Would I recommend to a friend: yes
What would I do different: It was good, maybe have it at the festival?

During the writing of this blog I had a home-brewed Black IPA that I received from Jim from Everett who was so kind to give me one of these when he came to pick up some brewing equipment that he bought from me the other Day. Can't wait to brew my own!