Suite and end of my vacations in Hungary, here is my first discovery post if interested to have a look.
It seemed to me, from what I saw in Budapest, that the local market is dominated by Dreher, with Soproni and Borsodi as front runners.
More interesting, for a change on the Dreher range, was the variations on Bock style: Dreher Bak, and a Dreher Meggy for the cherry beer style.
The Dreher Bak surprisingly shows a 7.3% ABV and was overall surprisingly pleasant. The head had a good retention, the texture of the beer was soft with an adequate body. The taste wasn't exceptional but did the job: mainly dark malt, a tone of caramel and little bitterness. Overall, not bad at all of an industrial dark beer.
The Meggy was, well, a 4% ABV cherry flavored lager. You can see its clarity below, it's almost grenadine. But well, by a hot day, for the sake of refreshment, why not?
Szent Andras was announced as "Hungarian craft beer" in the drink list. Turned out to be a cherry flavored beer, but much better than the Dreher Meggy. I mean, you can just compare the colors. At least Szent Andras looks natural and not chemical. I didn't have the opportunity to try other brews from this brewery, which I regret. The only other time "craft beer" appeared on the list, they proposed me a Heineken...
And so, it was time for the dark beer from Soproni: Soproni Démon. 5.2% ABV, less body and consistent than the Dreher, not much more taste than the dark and caramel malts. Well, under the Dreher in my opinion.
You can enjoy the cleanliness of our table, just 2 minutes after being served. One of the boy managed to spill his ice tea, and my beer bottle. Fourth spillage within 24 hours. Sometimes vacations are tiring...
How about then to relax with a couple of beers by the lake Balaton while the kids play in the sand? Sounds like a great plan to me!
All right, I lied, we actually had a couple of couple of beers... It was deserved...
I won't talk about the Kiraly lager, as there's really nothing special about it. But I bought the others to have a try at "crafting" of industrial Hungarian brewers.
So there was the Borsodi Hoppy, as a Indian Pale Lager. Soproni with an American Pale Ale. And a Borsodi Amber Ale. You can pass on the Amber Ale, it was a nice try but I would say "try again". Soproni APA was quite OK. 5.5% is quite light for an ale though I think.
The best surprise was the Borsodi Hoppy. Looks like a lager. Has the body of a lager. But is tasty! It is indeed hoppy, and it's a nice change. Probably just surfing the commercial wave of IPA, but it's well done.
We moved to the city of Pecs, where the local beer is named Pecsi. A quite pleasant lager, with a sweet bitter taste.
Two other beers brewed in Pecs. Szalon, which is the historic brand of Pecs brewery, and Pecsi Barna, the dark. Nothing special to note about them, the Barna was nice though accompanying a good meal.
Out of competition but I wanted to try it nonetheless, a Croatian beer: Osjecko. It was pretty disappointing, even for a lager. Poor head, poor dull taste. That's really not calling for Croatian vacations next year!
After more than 2 weeks of a "lager diet", first thing we had coming back home was a Leffe forgotten in the fridge. Home Sweet Home.
