Last Beers in Geneva

All good things must come to an end. Here are the last beers we had the pleasure of trying in Geneva. Don't fret, the beer adventures are continuing, just not in Switzerland!

The Physics - How could Rob resist trying this one? We picked it up in London and tried it our last night in our apartment. It was really quite yummy! An amber ale brewed by Brewdog of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 5%

Alpenbier - A swiss beer brewed by Brauerei Rosengarten in Einsiedeln, Swizterland. A German style pilsner. This one is hard to find any info in English about it! So I don't remember the percentage alcohol!

La Torpille - Brewed by Brasserie Des Franches-Montagnes in Switzerland. It's a dark strong belgian style ale at 7.5%. Dark and Delicious!

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Swiss Beers From Globus

I realized time was running out in Switzerland and that we would be moving out of Geneva really soon. Keeping this in mind at the Globus market, I picked up these two swiss micro-brews that promised big things but delivered a little flat.

La Cuivrée

Brewed By Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes, Jura Switzerland

Unfiltered Euro Style Pale Lager - 5.2%

I am guessing this isn't the brewery's best work. But I am eager to try other examples!

La Fraîcheur

Brewed By Brasserie Trois Dames - 4.6%

Wheat Beer. Citrusy with Coriander Smells.

It was terrible. Definitely an acquired taste.

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London Beers Are Falling Down ... Falling Down (Uh... I mean Bridge)

While consuming onion rings at the London Pub "Green Man Porter"we had to have some beer to wash down the greasiness. (This was all Tami's idea btw). London has a rich beer tradition and we wanted to sample some cask ale's while we were at it. A cask ale is - "Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (includingsecondary fermentation) and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure."

Bulmer's Cider. Original & Pear Flavored.

I know, I know it's not beer. But England has great not super sweet cider's too!

Adnams Broadside.

Brewed by Sole Bay Brewery UL. Dark Bitter Cask Ale - 4.7%

Mellow yet lightly sour. Medium roasted malts.

Forgot to take a picture of this one till the very end.

Marston's Pedigree

Cask Ale - 4.5%

More sour and bitter then the Broadside.

Fuller's London Pride

Brewed By Fuller Smith & Turner - 4.7%

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Brasserie Du Mont Blanc - La Blonde

Driving back from Florence was a grueling drive. 6 hours in the car isn't programmed into my "routine" driving anymore like it is in CA. We just went thru the tunnel for the last time this year (tear) and stopped for gas. We treated ourselves and bought this beer at the gas station. Don't worry Mom & Dad, we waited till we got home to drink it. It is always so funny how Europeans drink beer during breaks at rest-stops and that beer and booze is even sold there! Oh well, we were thankful to pick up this gem of a beer. The water in it comes directly from the glacier that is melting off Mont Blanc! Yummy!

Brasserie Du Mont Blanc - La Blonde

5.8% Belgian Ale

Brewed by Brasserie Du Mont Blanc in Les Houches, France.

Me like a French beer? Yes indeed!

Something on the internet about this beer:

The Water is particularly pure, consisting of rainwater and snow-melt transformed into ice and filtered over several hundreds of metres through morainic sand and gravel. The role the water purity plays cannot be underestimated, it allows all the ingredients to come into their own.

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Pinkus Hefeweizen

The key to successful travel is research research research. The more places you write down where to eat and what to do, the more time you have while actually on vacation to enjoy instead of compromising between McDonald's and a tourist trap with a plastic menu. (Been there, done that). For my recently completely vegetarian inlaw's and long time pescatarian hubby I looked up a place called "Il Vegetariano" in Florence. It was a self serve place that had FABULOUS food! So great, we ate there twice. The mushroom soup and the carrot soups were out of this world and the salad's weren't shabby either. It was nice to see refreshing healthy food in front of us rather then cheese laden greasy pizzas. Here's what we washed down the meal with:

Pinkus Hefeweizen

Organic German Hefe enojoyed at Il Vegetariano in Florence

5.10% brewed by Brauereu Pinkus Muelle

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Feldschlösschen Urtrüb

Feldschlösschen Urtrüb

Enjoyed with Rösti in the Bernese Oberland

Brewed by Carlsberg in Rheinfelden, Switzerland

5% - Yummy Amber Color, Light Body with Caramel Notes.

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BBQ "Chicken" Pizza & Leffe Tripel

I have been a bit of a mini pizza kick lately and been trying to incorporate more of the fake meat products I find at the Migros. This recipe uses the fake chicken bits by the company Quorn. I have also been trying to use up our imported products like the BBQ sauce we bought in Manhattan. This recipe is simple and delicious and completely made in the toaster oven and stovetop.

Ingredients Assembled and Ready To Go

Ingredients:

Quantities and Measurements for these items are all up to your tastes!

1. Pre Made Pizza Dough ~ or if you have the time you can make it from scratch.

2. Fake Chicken (or real chicken cooked thru on the stovetop)

3. Red Onions for Caramelizing

4. Mozzarella

5. BBQ Sauce of your choosing

6. Fresh Cilantro or Coriander, chopped. This is a key ingredient to the flavor!

(Ignore the tomatoes ~ I didn't end up using them, but you can if you wish)

Directions:

1. Slice and caramelize red onions. This will take awhile so you want to get it started before anything else. Also, if your using real chicken, it would be a great time to sauté them. Bonus: you could marinate real chicken and bbq them on a grill for a smokey flavor. You could also use leftover BBQ chicken for this easy pizza.

2. Cut dough into rounds and par-bake; aka half bake.

3. Mix "chicken" bits with BBQ sauce

4. Spread BBQ Sauce like you would a pizza sauce on rounds

5. Top with caramelized onions

6. Top with "chicken" mixture

7. Top with mozzarella slices

8. Tope with cilantro and dab more BBQ sauce on top

9. Bake till it looks like melty goodness. Enjoy with a nice cold beer! My choice was Belgium Leffe Tripel!

Before they went into the oven

Post Oven Gooey-Goodness

BBQ and Pizza enjoyed with Leffe Tripel

Tripel Style, 8.1%

Brewed by Abbey De Leffe in Belgium

We have previously tried another style from Leffe, and really enjoyed this one. Leffe is readily available in lots of stores all over the US, CoOp's in CH, and E'LECLERC stores on the French side of the border.

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Super Bock

Super Bock

The mainstream everyday beer of Portugal. Available at almost every establishment.

Brewed By Unicer

We tried the Classic 5.6% and Stout 5% Varieties.

The stout had an interesting sour note to it and the classic was a lager and very drinkable.

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German Bio Beer in Portugal

We ate lunch in Lisbon at a vegetarian place in the downtown area called MegaVega. Rob had a beer and it was all organic. Actually, almost everything in that place was organic. I have never eaten so many edible flowers on my salad, but that's another story.

Neumarkter Lammsbrau Edel Pils

German Organic Pilsner 4.8%

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Turkish Efes Beer

In Turkey, the taps are dominated by Efes. Whenver you order a beer, this is what your getting. It is light crisp and refreshing. Not at all weak and watery. Perfect standard beer to appease all sorts of beer drinkers. Not too hoppy, not too dry, just perfect.

Efes Regular

Efes Dark

Brewed by Efes Breweries International

Pilsner Style, 5%

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NE Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and a Blogger MeetUp.

Can you travel by car from San Diego to Maine and back in one weekend? No.

Can you travel by car from SW Switzerland (Geneva) to NE Switzerland (Au) in one weekend? Yes you can.

And that is exactly what we did this weekend. We made the 5 hour drive to NE switzerland to the canton of St Gallen and checked out the beautiful Appenzellerland and Liechtenstein. We stopped along the way to see Lake Constance and walk waterside for awhile. There were a ton of sailboats about and we chilled in the shade after our long drive. We then headed into Liechtenstein and up to the castle. Liechtenstein in on the Swiss currency and there was no tolls. A few small villages make up this whole country and their license plates are black in color!

We then drove up the hills into the heart of Appenzell and met up with Amanda/Isiah and Edie/Paul for a swiss dinner in the outside beer garden. Lots of conversation and laughs and catching up for Amanda and I. Rob finally got to a Rosti and we enjoyed yummy beers. See below. Amanda and Isiah were kind of enough to let us stay in their AMAZING apartment and cook us pancakes for breakfast! What fantastics hosts! Thank you guys again! It was a quiet night of sleep compared to our usual Geneva street noise from the windows.

On Sunday after breakfast we headed into Zurich for the blogger meetup at Google and the Cafe afterwards. I didn't take many pictures but I am sure in the next few days you will see a few posts about it all on other blogs. It was great to meet people in person and put a real face to a actual blog. We didn't get to stay long since we had to hit the road and drive back home. Hopefully it gets done again and we can make the trek up! Thanks Jessica and Amanda for hosting and organizing! Check out Jessica's post about it here. The Zurich google office tour was a lot of fun and we got to slide down the fire poles and slide into the kitchen.

Anyways, I could elaborate for quite awhile on this fun weekend, but the grocery store is going to close VERY soon! Damn 7 PM closing time!

Lake Constance - we think the 3rd largest lake in Europe?

Number one being in Hungary and Lake Geneva is #2.

Liechtenstein Castle.

Rob in tiny Liechtenstein. Cross one off the list!

I love these kinds of signs.

Appenzell Cheese - Old and Ripe vs. New and Mild. ~ Mild wins!

Appenzell Beer - enjoyed at the beer garden in the cute old town where we had dinner with Amanda & Isiah, and Edie & Paul.

4.8% brewed by Brauerei Lucher right in Appenzell

They make a ton of varieties and wish I tried the Lager Dunkel.

But we have tried a earlier a variety in a bottle here in Geneva brewed in Appenzell.

Isiah shared his favorite beer so far with us.

Zwickelgold

(this one is HARD to find information about on the internet)

Maybe Amanda could get Isiah to help me fill the rest of the info.

I did find this great website on Swiss Beers to help on my quest in the future!

Rob and a Schneider Weisse.

Jessica with a SchneiderWeisse and of course - cinnamon sauce apple strudel.

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La Trappe Quadrupel

Oh yes. Another Trappist Beer

Purchased at a wine store in Balexert.

La Trappe Quadrupel - 10%!

Brewed by Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven in the Netherlands.

Tastey - but meant for sharing with a movie and some popcorn.

Sip it slowly and feel the tingle.

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Travel to Annecy, France and a Beer in Carouge

Part 1: Travel

Last Sunday, we headed down to Annecy, France after being told by a few of Rob's coworkers that is was a nice place to visit. It is only a 35 minute drive from Geneva and to avoid any French toll roads, we took the back way. It added 30 extra minutes to the drive, but is was worth it. Driving thru green hills on back country roads, admiring lazy cows, glancing a multicolored trees, is very relaxing.

I didn't take a ton if pictures since we do plan on visiting here often. The town in on a smaller lake but has amazing Alp views. You can rent paddle boats or motorized boats and float around for some relaxation. We totally intend on doing that this summer. There is a huge park right by the lake with a ton of picnicer's and the old town next to the park has great shops to visit. Lots of crepe stands and bakery goods. It seemed to be mostly French tourists. I read somewhere that the French really only like to vacation in other parts of France, and I guess this is one spot they come to.

Part 2: Beer

We visited L'Imprevu in Carouge since it was the ONLY thing open on a Sunday night in this part of town. Rob has a fantastic SchneiderWeisse and I had a Leffe Brown. It was not busy at all and had set out great lounging furniture on the sidewalk. A lot of place in Geneva have started to put their patio table out and I hope it encourages smokers to stay outside! Maybe then I could go inside a place without gagging. We were adventurists and order the "chips and guac with salsa." We apparently never learn our lesson. So let me repeat it, NEVER order guacamole in Europe. Not unless you know if comes from an actual avocado and not from a jar mostly of peas. Yuck.

About the beers:

SchneiderWeisse - Hefeweisen - 5.4% - Brewed by Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn. - A pretty popular brew in Germany and in German speaking CH.

Leffe Brune - Belgian Dark Ale - 6.5% - Brewed by Abbaye De Leffe. They make 9 different Leffe beer's and many are sold in the COOP. Ta

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Bon Secours - Biere Vivante

Bon Secours - Biere Vivante - 8% - Belgian Style Ale

Brewed By Brasserie Caulier

According to Beer Advocate, this beer is retired and is no longer brewed.

We were watching the movie with Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happiness, and the depressing moments were stressing us out. We enjoyed this Belgian 8% to calm things down a bit. 

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Beer ~ La Fin Du Monde

As a Canadian Beer, I wasn't sure this one was worthy of the beer adventures of the year. But, I did drink it while living here and it has a french name, so I suppose I can let it count. Also, this is a big production beer and can EASILY be found in the US. Whatever, it still tastes good. 

La Fin Du Monde - Triple Fermented Golden Ale

9% - Brewed by Unibroue in Quebec

Tasting Notes : Strong (hit me quickly even after eating dinner), Great Aroma and Color. 

Bonus : Rob is in the background of the picture!!! :) Isn't he cute? 

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Appenzeller Holzfass-Bier

Appenzeller Holzfass-Bier - 5.2%

Brewed By ~ Brauerei Locher in Switzerland

Another CoOp Beer Find. Tasty but not for the everyday. 

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Beers Around Ecole De Medecin & One at Home

Just a few beers to document as we continue to try new things! We went out last week to a cute bar near the medical school called Cafe De Lys and had a couple drinks.

Grimbergen Triple Brewed By Brasserie Union (They also own Heineken) - 9%

Powerful Belgium Beer (as most are). When drinking it you start to feel warm and fuzzy. 

Found at the CoOp. 

Rob's Choice - Calvinus Noir (Previously drank the Calvinus Blonde)  

This one is much better then the blonde! Very dark and coffee like. 

Brewed By Locher in Appenzell, CH. 6%

Duchesse Anne - Blonde Belgium Ale - 6.5%

Brewed By Cervoiserie Lancelot In Le Roc-Saint-André, France

Tina's Choice for the evening ~ very tasty and easy to drink!

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Refreshing Beer and a Swiss Alp View

Erdinger Weißbier

5.3% - Cloudy White Wheat Beer

Enjoyed at the Verbier Ski Resort. This is what life is about - beer and a view! 

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A Swiss Made Beer

This beer was definately hard to find a ton of information on. . .  but here is what I found:

Monsteiner Stein + Bock

Organic Doppelbock Style - 6.5% by the Biervision Monstein Brewery. 

It is made in Davos, Switzerland. Does that place sound familiar? The world economic forum was held there. 

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CoOp Beer Finds

Rob is on a search for a standard everyday beer. A typical beer to be drunk with dinner or to relax before bed. We found these at the local Coop. Both were pleasant and cheap enough to be considered in the running for our everyday beer.

Staropramen Lager from the 2nd largest brewhouse is CZ - Staropramen Brewery - 5%

Typical pilsner flavors but more intense and not watered down.

Urbock 23 Degrees Doppelbock brewed by Brewery Castle Eggenberg - Austria

Strong Beer at 9.6% - The label boasts to be one of the strongest beers in the world. It didn't knock us on our feet and it didn't taste too hot.

Light ambered color with small head. Good, but not for the everyday. 

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