#Hello again my fellow beer lovers!!
This is my the fifth beer review in the Irish Beer Review series by @ablaze. I basically try one Irish beer every week, and then rate and review it for all of you wonderful Steemians
If you have any suggestions of beers you'd like me to taste in the future, just leave comment below, and I will try to source and review it for you.
It's been great so far, and I've already discovered a couple of cracking beers, and one not worth talking about, so let's not talk about that.. So onto this weeks beer, now, usually I'm not a big fan of a beer in a can. It reminds me of drinking 500ml cans in my younger uni days, and there was always that manky little warm bit at the bottom that tastes like shit! But, putting prejudice aside, this weeks beer of choice is a little 330ml can. It may be small, but this one packs a solid punch!!
This weeks beer of the week is.....
Rascals Wunderbar IPA
Intro
This one can be filed under beers I'd never tried before, and I wasn't expecting huge things from it, but it surprised me. There was a nice fruity and hoppy smell straight away when I opened the can, and it poured nicely. It tasted even better, and this is certainly one I am going to try again, and will stock a few in my beer rack.
Funnily enough this brewery have just opened a new building next to where I work.. I wonder will it be a brewery? It'd be pretty sweet if it was and they did tours... Knock off work on a Friday and walk 4 seconds to this little gem of a place... Here's hoping!!
Review
This one poured golden and slightly hazy, with a decent white head. There was some good lacing to the side of the glass throughout, although I did drink it quite quickly, as I really liked it, and had a thirst on me, as they say! Carbonation was quite good, and the initial smell was of grapefruit and floral hops. Taste was of medium bitter with biscuity malts and hop fruits to the fore. Pineapple, grapefruit and pine all apparent, with a refreshing citrus finish. This one is 6%, but you certainly wouldn't think so, it would be quite easy to drink a fair amount of these little cans.
Next time I have a few friends around for some beers and a bbq, I'm going to pick up some of these bad boys, as they are very good at this price, and would quench any thirst.
This one has won two awards also, and I can see why. It took the bronze at World Beer Awards, Ireland in 2016 and again a bronze medal in the 2017 Dublin Craft Beer Cup.
Stats
- Brewer: Rascals Brewing Company Limited, Unit 16 Block 613, Greenogue Ind Estate, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, Rep of Ireland
- Alcohol Content: 6.0%
- Size: 330ml/33cl can
- Malts: Ale, Munich
- Hops: Magnum, Hull Melon, Mandarina Bavaria, Hallertau Blanc
- Bitterness: Medium
- What they say: Wunderbar is our WONDERFUL IPA brewed with 100% German hops. This is a hop forward IPA, full of fruity hop flavour with a medium bitterness. Late and dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc and Mandarina Bavaria. The hops offer sweet tangerine on the nose and sweet citrus fruits on the flavour. Wunderbar has a punchy bitter kick with a fine malt balance. A true IPA that stands up to its American competitors….DAS IST GUT!
Rating
3.25/5
A story about beer
Speaking of cans, a story comes to mind about a time I bought a few cans of beer.. It was 2012, and Ireland had just qualified for the European Championships in Poland Ukraine. My mates and I go to all the home matches in Dublin, when Ireland are playing, so we hatched a plan to go to Euro 2012, starting off in Poznan. Well, for me it would start and end in Poznan, as I was getting married 10 days after I was due to get back.. Yep, I have a very understanding wife :o)
So, the six of us chipped in together and rented a camper van. We flew to Dusseldorf and picked up the camper.. It should be about an 8 hour drive, but it didn't quite turn out like that..
Here is my Ireland supporters survival pack. 2 all important match tickets, passport, money, facepaint, Irish flag and a miraculous medal! and of course the beers, which didn't make it into this picture.
We decided to break the drive up between a few drivers, and I agreed to do the first leg of it, bringing us from Dusseldorf to just beside Berlin, a drive of about 5 hours... We had to pull in for fuel then and I handed the driving over to one of the lads.. We had the back broken of the journey now, so I suggested we get some beers... I got a six pack of Bitburger cans and the the other lads all got beers too, well except the driver... The craic really started off then and we had the tunes blasting in the back and the beer was flowing... Mighty craic altogether! Here is a taste of the songs that were playing in the back of the camper that day..
We had completely forgotten about the driver and co driver. We were having so much fun drinking our Bibrurger in the back of the camper, that we failed to realise that the lads had taken a wrong turn and were completely lost somewhere between Berlin and the Polish border!
Oh NO....
The 8 hours were up, and we were nowhere near Poznan!! Disaster.. The driver and co-driver need to learn a thing or 2 about map reading... So we pulled in to a filling station to ask for directions, as the lads hadn't a clue where we were.. Now we are all from a little town in Ireland with a population of 80,000, so you'd think the chances of bumping into a friend here would be slim...
Well that's exactly what happened here!! A few of us were gone inside to use the toilet, and we bumped into our friend from home, and him and his mates were staying at the main campsite where we were too, and they had a sat nav in their camper!!!
Halle-fucking-lujah!!!
So we just bought a few more beers and just followed the lads all the way to Poznan... Then the real fun began.... Poznan was pure madness, but all very light-hearted and well behaved.. Unfortunately we lost the match 3-1 to Croatia, but the trip was unbelievable.. Such fond memories..
This is a post for #BeerSaturday hosted by @detlev
I hope you enjoyed my review, why not drop by https://steemit.com/@ablaze and say hello :)
The other reviews of Irish beers can be found here if you are interested:
Irish Beer Review 1 Mcgargles Cousin Rosies
Irish Beer Review 2 The Foxes Rock IPA
Irish Beer Review 3 Kinnegar Scraggy Bay Indian Pale Ale
Irish Beer Review 4 Tom Crean's Irish Lager
All of the photos are mine and were taken with my Samsung Galaxy A5