It is time for Zurich Beer Tour's Top 3 beers for February 2021. Simona decided to head to the Baltic states with her choice, featuring a fruity sour beer from #Latvia. Sandro's top beer is a bit surprising. as we never this type of beer on the Top 3 so far. Its style is a bit underrated in the world of craft beer, however he loved it so he decided to feature a Pilsner from #Scotland. This month's staff pick is a beer from a brewery we had the chance to visit ourselves and even met the brewer, a bourbon barrel aged stout from Geneva. Let's do this!
Simona's pick: Ārpus Brewing Co. (CH) - Blueberry Imperial Sour Ale
The Beer:
The deep red color of this beer will immediately catch your eye. On the nose you will get strong notes of #blueberry, #raspberry and #vanilla. On the palate this beer is really sour, but also has nice sweet notes. This beer was brewed with a lot of oats and wheat which gives it a lot of body, they also added vanilla and a ton of blueberries to the brew. This beer clocks in at 7% ABV and almost feels like a #dessert.
The Brewery:
Ārpus Brewing Co. was founded in 2017 in #Latvia. They are well known for brewing extremely nice #IPAs and also some fantastic #stouts (and as we now know: amazing sours as well). The untappd network has rated them as Top 1 Brewery in the #Baltic states. The name of the brewery can be translated to "Outside of the box". They wanted to symbolize that their beers are very different from mass produced #lagers and they make beers for people who are "brave enough to step out of their comfort zone".
Our food pairing recommendation:
Blueberry muffins
Sandro's pick: Newbarns Brewery (SCO) - Extra Hopped Pilsner
The Beer:
A #Pilsner, so a bottom fermented hop forward beer style with a lot history. The name of this beer style comes from the Czech city of #Pilsen, where it was invented. This particular Pilsner though, is a really modern interpretation of this old beer style. For this version the guys from #Newbarns hopped it with the #German Callista and the American Amarillo hop strains. Instead of only focusing on hop bitterness like most classic Pilsners, this beer also features lots and lots of fruity hop aromas, talking citrus, orange but also a lot of floral notes. And all this without destroying the crisp and crushable soul of a Pilsner. What a great beer, we should feature more craft Pilsners. Sadly, good examples are hard to find.
The Brewery:
This brewery opened up in 2019 and is located in the awesome #Leith district of Edinburgh, #Scotland. The guys who run the brewery all have many years of brewing experience at very well known craft beer breweries. They are brewing beers with almost no #adjuncts and mostly classic beer styles, like Pilsners, #PaleAles (no not hazy ones, actual classic English Pale Ales) or stouts. To many of you, this might sound boring, but those guys really nail these beer styles.
Our food pairing recommendation:
A BLT sandwich
Zurich Beer Tour's pick: l’Apaisée (CH) - Maousse Bourbon
The Beer:
We had the honor to enjoy this beer at the brewery of l’Apaisée, where Xavier the owner of the brewery served it to us. The beer pours in a pitch black color and hits your nose with finest dark #chocolate nose. After it opens a bit, massive notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, #bourbon and #oak waft up your nostrils. On the palate we get a lot of #sweetness and just a hint of #bitterness with some soy sauce like #umami flavor, which is really pleasant in this combo. The beer has a really #creamy body and an ABV of 10.8%. A fantastic beer.
The Brewery:
After coming back from his stay in #Quebec, #Canada in 2014, Xavier Righetti from #Geneva started homebrewing his own beers. He had become a big fan of the extremely awesome craft beer scene of Canada and started exploring the native craft beers. In 2016, after various #homebrews, he bought a 300l brewing system and started his own brewery. Nowadays Xavier brews on a 1000l brewing system and also owns several different spirit #barrels and #foudres (oval shaped barrels that were used for aging wine, but have become popular to produce barrel aged sours). He also opened up #JonquilleBar in Geneva, a paradise for craft beer lovers, serving lots of his own brews and also several beers of Geneva based breweries.
Our food pairing recommendation:
A strawberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
These are our three beers for February. Which ones were your favorite brews this month? Tell us in the comments!
Are you looking for more personalized recommendations, that are made to fit your taste? Check our Pocket Beer Sommelier.
Stay tuned for our February recommendations!
Cheers,
Your Zurich Beer Tour Guides