Day: December 18, 2020

Advent Beer #18: Jubiläums-Sud by Herrnbräu

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I pulled this bier out of the fridge, my first thought was “Herrnbräu?  Wasn’t there already a Herrnbräu beer already?”  To which the answer was yes, as bier #10 was also a Herrnbräu product, Tradition.  It did not rank well on my rankings, and it was kind of like the Miller High Life of Germany; as in the cheap, easily drinkable beer that you drink after you’ve got your buzz going and you want to keep it going.  It wasn’t terrible, but at the same time, it was entirely forgettable.  If I didn’t write about it, I wouldn’t have been remotely close to recalling anything about it.

Regardless, I do not waste beer if I can help it, and perhaps this Jubiläums-Sud which looks like it says “Jubilation Suds” could redeem Herrnbräu and make me not feel critical that a box full of beers from a country that’s known for its beer production would dare to double dip to one company when there are probably hundreds to have chosen from.

I thought the can design was boring and the green and gold in the logo make me think of O’Douls, the shitty non-alcoholic beer, and the types of middle-aged white men who want to look like they’re partying but don’t have the cojones to actually drink.  But that’s really where the criticisms end.

Cracking open the can, I’m met by an aroma that’s subtle but pleasant.  Pouring it into my pint glass, I’m pleasantly surprised at the dark, caramel color that’s coming out, and my mind is immediately wondering, is this a dunkel?  I don’t see the word dunkel or any variant of dunkel anywhere on the can, so I’m left wondering.

Intrigued, I bring the pint up to my lips and take a first taste, and I’m immediately greeted by a toasty flavor with not too much bitterness, and I’m fairly certain that this has to be a dunkel.  BeerAdvocate says it is a dunkel, and I’m satisfied that I’m able to identify that on my own.  Immediately my mind is placing this high on my rankings, and the real question is, is this the new #1?  Bearjew Weisse just took the #1 spot two days ago, and already a strong competitor has come out of locker room and is threatening.

It’s kind of like when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 to set the all-time single-season record* and everyone’s all like this is a record that will never ever be broken, and then just three years later, a juiced out of his testicles Barry Bonds cranks out 73 home runs and McGwire’s place in history is kicked to the curb just like that.

Well, in spite of the poor showing by Herrnbräu a week ago with Tradition, they’ve not just redeemed themselves with Jubiliation Suds, but it’s also Barry Bonds and it’s the new #1 beer in my list, with six days to go.  Bearjew McgWeisse can go lie to congress about being all-natural and get comfortable at the #2 spot now.

It’s got that almost sweet toasted caramel-ly flavor, it’s not too bitter, it goes down smooth, and it’s everything that I grew to love in dunkels while traversing through München and Wein.  When I first embarked on this bier journey, I was really hoping that there would be some dunkels in the mix, and this is proof that they most certainly are worth the waiting out for.

Current Rankings:

  1. Jubilation Suds (#18)
  2. Bearjew Weisse (#16)
  3. First Coral (#2)
  4. Kirta (#5)
  5. Turbo Prop (#6)
  6. Schwarze Tinte (#13)
  7. Perlenzauber (#9)
  8. Loncium Vienna Style Lager (#12)
  9. Jubiläumsbier 333 (#7)
  10. Zwönitzer Steinbier (#4)
  11. Alpen Stoff (#17)
  12. Grandl (#11)
  13. Altbairisch Hell (#15)
  14. Hell (#1)
  15. Tannen Hell (#8)
  16. Tradition (#10)
  17. Hallertauer Hopfen-Cuvee (#14)
  18. Käuzle (#3)

New Father Brogging, #029

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It would have been pretty easy for me to do nothing but write about beer all month long and call it a day, but that would’ve been kind of a cop out as far as dutiful brogging is concerned.  Beer is nice, and I’ve been enjoying the fares from Deutschland, but there are still plenty of things on my mind that warrant words, no matter how much I may feel unmotivated to write about them, and when the day is over, it’s more important to me to write out my thoughts than to be lazy, even if it feels kind of forced; this is how seriously I take it to write, sometimes.

Anyway, in this new dad brog, there is one update and there is one observation.  As for the update, things have actually been going fairly smoothly since the last time I wrote about my adventures in fatherhood.  My daughter and I have a fairly consistent routine that’s been making life not too difficult for either of us for the most part, and the days are flying by like leaves in the winter air.  I wake up at 6:30~ish every single day, regardless of if it’s the weekend or not, mythical wife feeds baby, and then I entertain baby until first nap in which I then either really get to work, or if it’s the weekend I nap or sometimes get my jogging out of the way if I’m feeling up for it.  Our nanny takes care of kid for the next four hours on weekdays, or I spend time with her on weekends, and then it’s off to bed by 6:30~ish, to which mythical wife and I try to have some time for ourselves.  Repeat x infinity

However, as we’ve crossed the nine-month mark, naturally nothing stays the same forever, no matter how comfortable it’s been.  And in this particular case, whenever we run into any sort of issue, I can punch it into Google, and the precise query I intended to look up is automatically filled, reminding me that there has been absolutely nothing my kid has done or I have experienced, that millions of parents out there have not already seen.

As indicative in the photo above, that’s my child, standing in her crib.  As her little body and brain have been developing, she’s decided that immediate sleep isn’t something she necessarily needs anymore, and has decided to sit up, and pull herself up to her feet and just kind of hangout in her crib, instead of sleeping.  99% of the time, she’ll spit out her pacifier, piss herself off, and begin crying then wailing, then screaming, which prompts me to have to up and try to reset the whole scenario all over again, before she calms down, I walk out, and then she repeats it 3-4 times, burning us out in the process.

It seems evident that she herself is working things out and is playing a daily game of how many shenanigans she wants to pull in her crib between two naps and bed time, and how much she actually wants to sleep, because since behavior has begun, no two sleep sessions have been alike in how much she fights, how much she wanders around independently and how quick or long it takes before she actually goes out, and for parents like me that like routine it’s been occasionally frustrating.

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