M!NE Dark All Malt Beer - 台湾啤酒黑麥 100%全麥 - For the Horses

Wasn't particularly looking forward to having to buy this beer, due to the past experience/memory of its taste. Would love to have a chat with the head brewer at TTL when I visit one of their breweries to try and understand how they came up with the end product. Still scratching my head these past few years since it hit the store shelves.

Best part of this beer is the bottle and label. They started off right and then headed downhill.

Big props to TTL. They really know how to create good head. Back slaps all-around. 

First taste was indeed a lot "heavier" than its sibling, plain "M!NE". 

But a bit less "smoky" after follow-up swills.

Tastes like a light beer version of a dark beer.

If not told it was "dark" (other than its obvious color), would be hard-pressed to distinguish it. 

"The classic full-bodied dark distinctive beer with a perfect balance of hop aromas and malty flavor".

I don't know which body they were looking at for this beer. 

Do get a bit of hop flavor, but with a weak dark bite to it.

Did they get this recipe from online?

Not the kind of "dunkel" beer that I can drink multiple steins of. 

If TTL is going with this dark beer, they might as well make it 7.5% or more alcohol content just to get some bang for the buck. 

This is the type of beer that Toby and Willie would give to their horses, though Willie might think twice about claiming so as a tax deduction.

Beer type:  lager

Alcohol content:  5%

Price for 600cc bottle:  N$48-55

Rating (1 mug goes to the horse):  

Double Ten Day Centennial - 雙十節百年周年 (#2)

(pics continued from #1)

Didn't know one had to drive to battle with sirens.

These brought up the rear. Must've been the "big" stuff or just a lot of red paint.

Coast is clear. Can walk anywhere you want. Directly ahead is Taipei Rail Station.

Walking back home southward along Chung Shan South Road. 

After dropping lots of sweat, I needed to re-carboload with Taiwan Draft Beer from the store where one can find it.

Now to the evening for some skyrockets in flight, but first a song that has nothing to do with it. C'mon I was a little kid when it came out. I really thought it was about watching fireworks. Boy was I completely off-base. But it was a #1 hit. Gotta love AM radio back then. 

First singer later resurfaced as famous liberal commentator Alan Colmes.

Double Ten Day Centennial - 雙十節百年周年 (#1)

I was a little tykester back when the U.S. had its bicentennial celebration in 1976. I do remember quickly learning how to spell that big word (at that time of my life I was mostly using 3 syllables or less) and all the events around D.C. that were attached to the date. Our family always saw fireworks on Fourth of July every year, so seeing them on the bicentennial never made a big impression on my small memory bank as to whether they were bigger or louder than normal.

With it being the 100th anniversary of the R.O.C.'s founding, I knew I had to take a peak around at some of the military hardware this nation has to offer, as well as take along the kid for his first impression of a street parade. The whole week the helicopters had been "thump-thump-thump-thump-thumping" over our apartment complex, practicing their 3-helicopter per group formation, followed by jets, cargo planes, and the tail group of planes streaming red, white and blue smoke across the sky.

Got off at 228 Peace Memorial Park MRT station, and they had already had the northwest exit gate closed. Tons of policiemen/women out on the streets. And I mean tons! I have been in Taiwan for an extremely long time and have never seen so many cops out on the streets except for the multiple street protests in Taipei after the Rubber Bullet Incident helped secure CSB's second term. The cops were quite friendly in fact, as I asked many of them where the parade route was and other relevant directional questions. Most of them waved at my kid after I told him to say 你好 to the "警察叔叔" or "警察阿姨". They had cordoned off the whole 228 park except a small part of the north part running west-to-east towards the 2 old steam train engines inside the glass building if you have ever been there. I guess you could call them Taiwan's Peace trains. (Click on the "Watch on YouTube" inside the video box if it doesn't play.)

I've seen fireworks up close on the river to the west of Hsimenting 西門町 a few times in the many moons that I've lived in Taipei. So, for the second event of the day in the evening I decided to ride the bike as far up the Riverside Park 河賓公園 as I could, bringing the kid along for another first impression, this time of fireworks celebrating a nation's birthday. Tons of people had the same idea. Funnily enough, after the fireworks ended there was a traffic jam when everyone wanted to go home in a southward direction on the narrow bike path. First time I've seen a bicycle jam on a bike path. 

Without further ado, here's some pics.

Excuse me officer, what does this button do?

Lost a lot of water weight, sweating it out before the helicopters came

That line of military hardware runs straight towards the Presidential Palace

First time these tanks started their big engines, everyone got faked out of their underwear thinking the parade was about to begin. Alas, more sweating was in the manuscript.

Finally, they started rolling. I guess others had the same idea as myself.

These are usually used to bury dead pigs during hoof 'n mouth disease outbreaks on the island.

Only 1 drone airplane. Either that or one of the biggest frigging model airplanes I've ever seen. 

Trying to figure this one out. Maybe it's for the practice of receiving very hard tennis serves. 

Another strange contraption for the military.

Cool. Missiles.

Cool. Really big frigging missiles.

Whatever you do, do not smile for the cameras. 

Closest thing to a G.I. Joe action figure I once had. 

More pics to come.....

M!NE All Malt Beer - 台湾啤酒 100%全麥 - I Me Mine

When this brew came forth a few years ago from TTL's chemistry lab experiment and onto the shelf at my local Taiwan Sugar (台糖專櫃門市部) convenient store (which has some of Taiwan's best ice cream at a Taitung branch that I and the missus partook in many moons ago), the immediate thing that popped into my mind was George Harrison singing on The Beatles' last issued album, Let It Be (which is actually not their last recorded album; Abbey Road is, but it was released before Let It Be; but I digress.). The song's title if you are not a Beatles' fan and have lost interest in guessing, or if you are dyslexic and didn't read this entry's title is "I Me Mine". This is what TTL should have immediately installed as its ad campaign for the brew and it might have become more widespread in consumption, but alas they went with something else. And without further ado (yes, that's John and Yoko dancing, though funnily enough he never played on the song as he was off in Denmark; Paul smokes quite a lot; Ringo looks tired; George at that point was pissed off at John. Who wouldn't be, with Yoko hanging around the studio all the time trying to break up the group, but again I digress.) (Click on the "Watch on YouTube" inside the video box if it doesn't play.):

TTL's pathetic ad effort for M!NE (I could've done this campaign for free):

Interesting is where TTL introduces the brew on its website, because TTL has the word "light" in the link, while having "twbeer", "gold", & "draft" in the links for the other beers. Why put up "light' when they could've used "mine" or "malt". Did I just solve some sort of puzzle?: site

Has a strong nice-looking head of foam, just like its older brothers.

Certainly TTL knows the foam part of the brewing process.
A bite to it after the first sip. A decent slightly bitter bite.
Must be the "malt" to it.
Doesn't feel like I'm drinking anything like Schlitz Malt Liquor from the 70s. [Cue commercial]

Flavor remains for each swill, but nothing to write back to the brewer about.
Label says "made from extracts of malts and hops". That first bitter bite may have been the latter.
Good strong first burp.
Certainly TTL knows how to produce decent burps.

On the label TTL also telling the imbiber it's brewed a "Distinctive Flavor Beer".
It's distinctive for a beer from TTL, no doubt.
But that's not saying much, considering their small lineup of brews (can't yet field a baseball team, and this is from a company with a near monopoly).
No need for any food to help finish it, unlike the original Taiwan Beer.

Beer type:  malt
Alcohol content:  5%
Price for 600cc bottle:  N$48-55

Rating (gets 2 mugs for reminding me of GH's song):  

Taiwan Beer Gold Metal - 台湾啤酒金牌 Who gave TTL this medal?

I remember when my good buddy, long since gone back to the homeland with his nice Taiwanese wife, called me up one day not long after TTL starting brewing Taiwan Beer Gold Metal in 2003 to meet him at a typical small local Taiwanese food cantina, not for the food (well, we did eat), but for this "great beer" that the local monopoly finally made. We quaffed quite a few that night and agree it was by far so much better than that brown bottle stuff (review) that TTL only had offered up until then. Those were good days indeed.

Fast forward a few years later when CostCo finally opened up in Taipei and started selling cases of this brew. I bought some, but started getting some light obnoxious headaches. Not the kind after a heavy bout of drinking, but sometimes just after a bottle or two. Since then, I swore off this gold medal beer until re-tasting it again for this bit.

Of course, some may be asking, how the h-e-double-hockey-sticks did this beer get to be called Gold Medal. Well, back in 2002 it won a silver medal at the Brewing Industry International Awards (winners' list) for a lager with ABV from 4.5-5.%. TTL must've been slapping everyone's backs over this, but it must be stated that they won the Silver, while the Gold went to....... drum rolls please........ Miller Genuine Draft (though made in Ireland. They make it better there than in U.S.? I'm guessing not that much better.). Sheet. MGD was what we bought by the caseload for beer parties in college. I.e, it was butt cheap in price. But, I give TTL very big credit for beating out the Bronze winner of Samuel Adams Boston Lager (pic), which has only in the past 2 summers shown up on shelves at 7-11 stores in Taiwan (don't get me started on why 7-11 didn't carry SABL year-round after summer 2010, considering its shelves were nearly always empty after foreigners would scoop them up). But I digress.

I thought this was a pretty cool label, though I never saw it on store shelves in 2004. Must've missed it.

Ahh, the beer girls. Where would this industry be without them.

Excellent looking head after pouring into a 500cc glass.
Foam held very well after taking a first sip, which has some bitterness which lingers a tad long.
Does have same consistent taste after follow-up swills.
There seems to be something lacking versus its excellent brother, Taiwan Beer Draft (review), but at least it is much better than the original, Taiwan Beer.
Not yet 1/4 done and that feeling in my head slightly comes back. Burned again, but only somewhat.
Remembered the plan while drinking the original, so out came some snacks.
Planned worked well.

Becomes slightly duller on the last 1/3 of swiling.
Still has that distinct smell on the final gulp. Shall it get a bonus mug?  Nah....
The last chaser turned out a bit weak.

Thanks go out to http://taipics.com/ for the baseball label and chicks' pics.

Beer type:  Lager
Alcohol content:  4.5%
Price for 600cc bottle:  N$50
Rating (out of 10):   + some excellent burps.