Cheap furniture, cheap dishes, cheap Swedish meatballs... what's missing?

Cheap beer!  Ikea truly does have it all.

Back in September on our second visit across the Belgian border to our favorite Ikea (all of 15 minutes away) we were walking past the little Swedish food market inside the store, and a certain green bottle caught my eye. "Well, well what do we have here", I thought to myself.  I naturally had to purchase a bottle each of their regular lager and dark lager.  However, after the bottles made it home I have to say the Triple Karmeliett, Kwak, Maredsous, Leffe and even Bofferding (local Lux brew) made the Ikea beer seem a bit, well, low brow.  So there it sat in the fridge.

Enter last weekend, at which point we were on a usual marathon shopping spree at Ikea picking up some last-minute home furnishings for Thanksgiving Luxembourg.  Naturally a trip to Ikea is always planned around lunch - who can resist a €3 euro plate of meatballs, a €4 plate of smoked salmon, a €0.50 ice cream cone?  Well now there's another item to add to the list - the €1.50 Swedish beer.  With a delicious plate of Scandinavian salmon and a bowl of frites on our plastic lunch trays we needed something to wash it all down - and there sat the bottles with sketches of wildflowers (hops?) on them.  So why not?

Ikea has two options to choose from - regular lager...

...and dark lager...

The regular is pretty light (but of course full flavored) and has a little hoppiness, a little tangyness and definitely something floral.  It's nice, but I wouldn't rank it up there as a favorite.  Perhaps a 5.0 on the 10 point scale.

The dark, however - now that was a real winner (especially considering the price).  Think of a light nut brown - such as Newcastle.  Refreshing, tasty, clean on the palate and light on the wallet.  Especially considering the price to quality ratio I'm giving this one 8.0 / 10.0.  Maybe it was just the euphoria of the fries and mayo on my plate, but I really do think this was a standup dark lager.  I'll be picking up a few bottles on our next trip across the border.  

What's not to love about Ikea?  Oh, except for the furniture that falls apart...  Maybe that's where the beer comes in to help you forget about it all?

Free beer giveaway!

One of the many reasons I love Europe... Was at the grocery store last night and upon reaching the checkout I noticed that the cashier was handing out a bottle of beer to every customer. She wasn't handing out coupons, making a sales spiel or really saying anything other than "would you like a free beer?" (Or something similar based on what I could deduce from her French).

The beer isn't exactly high end, but who can complain about FREE beer? I'd say this is a Bud equivalent in Lux (only from a commonness perspective - NOT from a quality perspective - the worst of beer here is 10x better than Bud). Oh, and it is the reserve version after all...

Cheers to free flowing booze in Luxembourg!

PS - a separate post on beers of Luxembourg will follow, and Diekirch will most definitely be included.

The French should stick with winemaking

After dinner on our last night in Nice, France last week (we were there for three nights for a long weekend) we stopped by one of the many cafes lining the Cours Saleya (flower market).  The previous night we accidentally ended up in an "Irish Pub" - the most boring of bars that exist in every city in the world - so this night I was quite set on getting something local.  Let's just say the Chimay I had at the Irish Pub (yes, Belgian beer at Irish Pub) the night before sounded really stellar after this bizarre beer we ended up ordering...

The beer we sampled is called Adelscott, and it turns out this beer is made by a brewery on the French/German border not that far south of Luxembourg (but most definitely in France).  It was the only strange name among a list of beers commercially available all over Europe, so trying this was a must.  However, after the first sip I knew this was probably a poor choice.

Confusion, shock and annoyance all in one.  Oh the French.

We've gotten in the habit of doing a quick recording on our camera of tasting notes.  They are as follows...

- Light whiskey aroma on the nose, but not much else
- Extremely sweet on the palate - sweetest beer I've ever had.  I guess it makes sense - the French do love their desserts.
- Malty, and you can pick up the intended whiskey flavor
- Very little effervescence - like a step up from a cask ale
- Sticky aftertaste - almost like you've just had a Red Bull

In short, this is kind of like Innis & Gunn (an unbelievably delicious Scottish beer that is aged in whisky barrels), but in all the wrong ways.  I noted to the camera that this beer had "all the characteristics that could be good, but it's like they didn't try hard enough."  Perhaps the brewmaster was too busy sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes?

And Emily summed it up nicely when I asked what she thought of it:  "If you had too much to drink, this would push you over the edge."

At least the people watching was good:

- Our waiter was high on something and would alternate between twitching, robotic movements and dancing
- A group of high school kids got kicked out of the bar because one of their friends was underage (bear in mind that the legal age is 16)
- Many of the women were ordering huge glasses of some drink that looked like red Kool-Aid.  I have a feeling that would make this beer taste like a 10.

Our visit to Nice was absolutely amazing - including some stellar culinary experiences.  This, however, was not one.

Price:  €6.80 for 33 cl (OUCH!)
Alcohol:  5.8%
Rating*:  1.5 (extra half a point for the effort of at least trying to make something different)


* Rating guide:

1 = Piss water (i.e. Natty Light)

5 = Take it or leave it

10 = Nectar of the gods