Beer Tasting and Beer Mug Parade

This will be the most strange and unique post I've ever done. Unique because this is the first beer post and most likely the last one in the same time. Strange because I don't like beer, don't drink beer, unless I have no choice. So you may ask, why I am doing this post.

The truth is, I let myself be charmed by an ad in TV, but the whole thing started earlier, when I posted about a fair I attended. There were some covered terraces there and as it happens, advertising is everything these days and these covers had beer brands printed on them, one of which was Kozel. We have users from all over the world, who are not familiar with the products we have in Europe or Romania, so I specified Kozel is a Czech beer.

Then I got a comment from @phortun, saying

Looks like a fun event but I cannot stop wondering how Kozel got there :D I mean it´s not even considered good or popular beer here :D source

What you have to know about him, besides being a very nice guy, is that he's Czech 😁 and if he says that, it must be true! But, but, but, because there's always a but, for some reason Kozel has always been in my head, mostly due to the commercials they are airing in TV. Yeah, I let myself fooled by some good commercials and finally I've bought two cans of beer.

I went to the grocery shop and looked at the beer section, which had at least 30 or 40 beer brands, but I was only interested in Kozel.

They had bottled Kozel as well, but I'm not a fan of buying bottles and then throwing them away, knowing recycling is non existent, so I bought cans. I'm not sure why, but I love the design on both bottles and cans.

I hate beer and would never drink it, unless I have no choice. When I have a choice, then drink flavored beer, non alcoholic if possible, which is anything but beer in the eyes of beer drinkers. They usually say I'm a shame of beer drinkers and I agree, can't argue with that.

So for myself I bought these two. On the left it's the Ursus, which is a well known brand in Romania, but this Cooler grapefruit flavored non alcoholic beer is kind of new. The other is Ciuc Radler (Heineken brand), a lemon and lime flavored beer, with 1.9% alcohol level. Ciuc is also an old brand and got his name from the Transylvanian city, Miercurea Ciuc.

At this point I got the beers and needed a beer taster as I don't drink real beer, so I had to blackmail someone to do the job. I picked someone who can't say no to me and it seems like saying yes to a beer was not exactly difficult, given the fact that there was pizza coming with the beer as well. I'm going to host a homemade pizza party sometime this summer so I thought why not make a recap, not that I need to practice as I can make the best pizza any time of the day.

Here's the pizza, with ham and cheese, made from scratch obviously.

I made the dough very thin this time.

I must admit, I have failed as beer photographer, miserably. I have told my beer taster to fill the glass so the label to be visible, but till I took the shot, the foam shrank and the photo looks awful.

So here's another shot, a better one, in which you can see the label of the glass. Dreher is a Hungarian brand and there's an inscription on the glass, which is also the commercial you see in TV, saying

annyi az élet, amennyit beletöltesz
life is as much as you pour in it

Here's the dark Kozel, with a Ciuc beer glass. These glasses are given with beer, from time to time.

Here's my fake, lemon and lime beer, in an appropriate beer glass, or the same brand. It was good, I can't say it wasn't, but it still tasted like beer. I suppose the non alcoholic has a different taste, but I haven't tasted that yet.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to host a homemade pizza party soon, so I've bought the beer already, to be ready. Tuborg is a well known brand and liked as well, so I bought alcoholic and non alcoholic, for those who'll be driving.

Beer Mugs

Over the years I have developed an addiction for mugs and glasses, but mostly mugs. At some point I had 50 mugs at home and this is not an army base or a boarding school to host hundreds of people. Obviously space being limited, I had to gift them and keep only as many as was needed. But once an addict, always an addict and an addict can hardly resist temptation.

My dad has a nice collection of beer mugs as well. He has gotten some from Germany and the rest is from me. The one in the middle is a gift from Germany, the two on the sides are my latest acquisitions. On my last trip last month I saw these mugs and could not resist not buying them. The one on the left is from Oktoberfest from 2010.

The Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling funfair. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or late-September to around the first Sunday in October, with more than six million international and national visitors attending the event. Locally, it is called d’Wiesn, after the colloquial name for the fairgrounds, Theresienwiese. The Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held since the year 1810. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations that are modeled after the original Munich event. source

Although I'm not a beer fan, I hope one fine day I can visit the festival as the atmosphere must be amazing. So now we have an Oktoberfest beer mug to remind us of the festival.

Kesserling Pils is also a known brand, founded in 1688 and these glasses we also got from Germany.

These four mugs are also from Germany and are featuring Lohrer Bier. Lohr is a small city in Germany, the mugs actually feature those traditional Bavarian houses you see in adds in TV. This brewery was founded in 1878.

Same brand from the same place, with different design featuring animals from the Naturpark Spessart.

The Spessart is a main forest in the middle of Europe. It is located between the rivers Main and Kinzig in Germany. The area of this park covers 2,500 km². The landscape of our park is dominated by hills, valleys, woods and wetlands. Common species in the woods are oak, beech, spruce and fir. Many meadows are found in the valleys and wetlands. source

And this is my mug I bought during my last trip. Imagine a mug like this, which has a 0.6L capacity, costed less than 1 euro. I could literally not resist. I'm using this as tea mug and enjoying it a lot.

Have been struggling to figure out what it is written on it, but can't because those letters, I mean the first one must be from the old German alphabet and I don't now German. I hope someone on Hive can solve the mystery for me.

@photun, I have solved the mystery and know why Kozel is present in Romania 😄. It is produced by Ursus Breweries, which is the biggest brewery in my country. Most likely they have bought the license. Anyway, my beer taster says it's good and he would drink it again, so buying this brand wasn't a waste of resources 😏

I hope you liked my presentation :) Feel free to let me know wht would you like from here. Beer? Mugs?

Phew, I have written a novel 😬