BEERy good!

Talking about starting the year right, The son of our neighbor opened a cafe near where we live and we dropped by one day to try it. It's a very small place. (it only seats 36 people) and their concept is a revolving menu. Which means, they change the menu every week.

I WILL NOT however focus on the food this time. (I found it just OK). I was amazed by the OTHER concept they had. That is, specialty beers. The import beers from small breweries from all over the world. The time I was there, they had this on their menu.

For those who need glasses, the list is:

1. DEAD GUY'S ALE (how did they get this idea? hmmm...)
2. ARROGANT BASTARD (reminds me of a Austin Powers movie)
3. SANTA'S PRIVATE (sounds kinky but it's actually- santa's private reserve~ did not know he drank beer instead of milk~ )
4. POLEEKOS PALE ALE
5. HEFEWEIZEN
6. HOP OTIN IPA

Beers in the Philippines are derived from corn or rice and generally, when you drink them, you get the bitter taste quite early. These however were brewed using barley. We tried the only three left available:

Santa's private brew was the first one we tried. Although I am not a beer nor wine drinker (I get red easily) I willingly wanted to taste these. It was a amber colored draft. They said it doesn't have any chemicals added so the shelf life is much shorter (about 6 months from bottling) and they bottle only limited quantities per batch. It tasted smooth - not bitter at all.

The second one was HOPS ottin indian pale ale. When you read the back, it read like some wine (with mentions of undertones and such) It finally say- "HOP OTTIN BITES LIKE A CAN-KICKY BLUETAIL~ hop ottin bites like an angry rattlesnake looking for a fight)...local anderson valley dialect

This one was paler in color than the santa's. It tasted nicer and smoother than the first.

Lastly, (by this time, I could feel my cheeks tingling from the alcohol - and I don't mean my face) we tried this one

STONE RUINATION

We saved this for last because they said drinking this will ruin your palate. Anything you taste afterwards will seem bland (or so the label said). It was a pretty scary looking bottle.- with a demon in the front. I was tempted to bring it home since the label was printed on the bottle (vs a paper label sticked on) but the image was just too scary for my taste. This brew was a very dark malt but surprisingly, it was not bitter as I had expected.

I might go back and try other beers (not a beer drinker I tell you!) I was just intrigued when they said they had a dessert beer that tasted like coffee! (I am guessing some of my writer's group might like that one!)