Radwulf craft beer tasting part 1: post-UWH referee training

I wrote about Radwulf craft beer in my last blog post on Schwarzwald but we never got round to drinking them and having a proper tasting. The last few weeks have been mad, perhaps a bit more mad than usual, with weekends being the recovery time for our inner introverts. Drinking lots of beer just was not in our Sunday agenda.

Until today.

This weekend the Berlin Underwater Hockey team hosted a referee training camp: after a Saturday pool training and water time, Sunday was a breakfast for all participants followed by last theory session and exam. The Sunday session happened at ours. Then, when only a handful of people were left and were chatting casually in our hallway, I brought out some of the Radwulf craft beers that I had lying around and we had an impromptu craft beer tasting.

Part of the breakfast spread! Thanks for the pic, Sumi!

Video analysis of UWH games.

UWH Referee exam is serious business.

But now comes the good stuff.

First up: Biére Rousse Fumée au Malt Whisky

Wow, this was polarising. I thought it was deliciously malty in aroma, and smooth. Like drinking whisky but in beer format. Probably my favourite one, a really nice evening beer. Others thought there was an industrial turpentine-y quality to the aroma; the taste was really nice nevertheless!

Second: Sexy Beast!

At first pour, an apple juice aroma. It was the cloudiest beer of the afternoon. Its fresh fruity flavour makes it a sunny-afternoon-at-the-beach kind of beer. The label said ginger-strawberry flavours, and while it was definitely refreshing like organic apple juice, there was only a slight ginger flavour and ending in sour notes (not a bad thing with beer).

Third in the line up: IPA. Fresh, clear golden blond beer.

A delicious blond.

The fourth was the blond beer that Raoul, Radwulf’s founder, served to us in his brewery. It’s citrusy and light and crisp, although more peaty than the IPA.