Beers of Europe

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What follows is a small and incomplete list of the beers I sampled on my travels through Western and Eastern Europe.

Belgium

  • Trappiestes Rochefort 8, from Abbey St Remy: Too little flavor to cover the 9% alcohol, but still a good blonde.
  • Golden Drak
  • De Garre: Get this strong blonde if you are in Bruges. It's only served at the pub of the same name.
Germany & Austria
  • Bitburger: sucks ass
  • Radeburger: okay
  • Feldschöschen Urdbock: Local Dresden dark that's really tasty and really cheap -- if you're in Dresden.
  • Friedberger Bock: Bad German dark with a foul, too bitter flavor.
  • Erdbeer Porter: Okay; really sweet and fruity.
  • Erdinger Heffeweizen & Dunkel: both mid-shelf beers, good at what they do, especially the dark
  • Köstrisser Schwarabier: A bad dunkel.
  • Schöfferhoffer Dunkel Hefeweizen: Fucking awesome combination of dark and wheat beer, which is cheap and has an excellent flavor.
  • Franziskener Weissbier: They make a good stock dunkel and hefeweizen, and both are worth the higher price.
  • Augustiner Weissbeer & Edelhoffer: good wheat beer and pilsner; try if in Munich
  • Oattakringer Dunkles: A weak-flavored Austrian dark.
Balkans
  • Laško Privo: cheap Croatian lager and not bad; very sweet
  • Ozujsko: more bitter Croat lager
  • Tomislav: bad Croatian dark; stick to the lager in the Balkans
  • Sarajevsko Pivo: The official lager of Sarajevo is pretty tasty. The dark is better than the lager, with a sweet, caramel flavor.
  • Korcha: An Albanian dark which tasted delicious to me, mostly since I had drank nothing but lager since leaving Austria, but also because it was genuinely a good beer.
  • Rethymno: A brewery in Rethymno makes an excellent blonde and dark under German purity laws, and shares the name of its city.
  • Skopsko: nutty, lightly-flavored Macedonian lager.
  • Zlaten Dab: A bittersweet mild lager from Macedonia that tastes like someone mixed in a capful of apple cider. I kind of liked it, but wouldn't tell anyone, since it's a girly beer.
Ukraine
  • Troyan from Mykulynetskyj Brovar: really good dark beer
  • Bilani (4): tasty; kind of a weak porter
  • Baltika 3: delicious; beware of 6 or 9, though, which transcend malt liquor

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