Awhile back Sue and I went to Bravo Beer which is a restaurant located in the fancy-schmancy new department store, Top City. Supposedly they had over a hundred different kinds of beer and also served food. Score! I had to check it out, so one night the two of us went over and gave it a try.

My advice is stick to the appetizers and avoid the Gnocci (blech!), and, of course, slam as many beers as you can. You'll spend some coin to try a few different beers, at least 150NT or more per beer, but it's worth it if you want to get a good spread of suds.

I've always been a fan of Belgian style beers, particularly Hoegaarden, and I was excited to work my way through a couple bottles of new stuff at Bravo. The beer cooler itself was quite impressive and actually made it harder to make a choice as I could look at all the beers at once. Kid in a candy store, I was.

Once I selected a beer someone from the staff grabbed it for me and also snagged an appropriately branded and shaped glass for that beer. Nice.

Here are my notes for each beer that I tried.

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Corsendonk- Tasty but still unsure how much i like it. Decent mouthfeel and excellent lacing that looks like bubble wrap. Nicely malty but the hoppiness is a little off-putting; not quite bitter with strong nutty overtones. Good for a glass, maybe. Not for a case.

Leffe Blond- This beer is quite hoppy. Floral hops with a moderately bitter finish and a really strong flavor. Syrupy mouthfeel. A little disappointing overall, don't think I would get it again.

Blanche des Neiges-A Wit Bier! I love wit biers and this one did not disappoint. Beautiful straw color, nice lacing, floral hints and a nice finish. Reminds me of Hoegaarden or my Coopers wheat beer kit. Excellent stuff.

Caracole- This beer was the highest in alcohol content and really reminded me of a weaker barleywine; which is not so good as I am not a fan of that style. Its named as an amber ale and I'd agree, the color is a lively deep red, like ripe cherries, with a touch of brown. No detectable hoppiness but a hint of malt and a slightly bitter finish I'd attribute to the high ABV (7.5%). Cool label, nice to try once.

All in all it was pretty tasty stuff. I suddenly feel the urge to get back there and try a few more and see what I can find. Once Sue comes back to Taiwan we'll make our way over here and she'll help me give you guys the skinny on few more brews.

So, until then, happy brewing. Or drinking. Or robot building. Or whatever you people do.

It has been quite a while since I had a stout beer and it is most refreshing to get a good one! I'm still glowing from my discovery of Coopers at the store, a rarity in Taiwan, and I feel as if I should go buy them all up and hoard them, Gollum-style.

Anyway, the Coopers Extra Stout is a great beer. There was a great towering head when I poured it into my glass and it was nice to watch it settle out. It settled much differently than other darker beers I've had recently, such as Guiness and Old Speckled Hen, in that there was a very...beady texture to it; the other ones were more, I dunno...silty (not a bad thing by any means).

Beer this dark doesn't get into my fridge enough. The Extra Stout hits the SRM scale pretty high at 30-35+ with its tasty opaqueness. The flavor is moderately dry with deep roasty tones and a slightly bitter finish. The warmer the beer gets the stronger the flavor becomes as it was quite cold when I started drinking it.

Great stuff. I need to get some more.

Alss check out this handy little archive to read more about stouts.