Beer Tasting: Estrella v. Estrella

I've got a backlog of a few comparisons in my beer tasting 2022 project that build up while I was busy trying to clear the backlog of blogs from our Colorado trip. You see, I still had time to drink beer while I was clearing that other backlog, I just didn't have time to write about it. 😅

One of the comparos I did was to try another beer from Estrella in Spain. Recall I loved Estrella Galicia Reserva 1906 when I tasted it opposite a classic German bock. As I drank it compared to other beers in my fridge it rose in my rankings to be among the top few I've tried so far. So what's next? Explore other beers from the company that makes one of the winners.



For this round I bought a six of Estrella Damm. It's a light lager. "Light" refers to the style; the beer is still 4.6% ABV.

My first try of the Damm lager pitted it against the 1906 hellerbock. Wow, what a mismatch. The hellerbock was so much more strongly flavored the Damm tasted like American light beer— as in, no flavor.

Subsequently I tried Estrella Damm among some other not-so-strongly flavored beers. For example, Erdinger Weissbier, which is also one of my faves so far. I had a friend over that evening, and we both found the Estrella has some subtle complexities. It went really well with light food. You just have to not drink it side by side with rich stuff to appreciate it. All in all, though, I still like the Reserva 1906 better.

GoT Season 2: Terrible People Finally Suffer - A Tiny Bit

I've noted already that I needed a break after watching Game of Thrones' first season. It's fundamentally a show about terrible people. A few weeks ago I read a quip online,

GoT be like,
"What were lords and knights like back in the Middle Ages?
I bet they were assholes."

But worse than merely being a show full of evil characters, it deliberately portrays evil as a strength and good as a weakness.

After a 6 month hiatus I was ready to watch a drama again in which evil routinely wins over good. How did it go? Well, in GoT Season 2 evil wins again but takes a few lumps along the way. That's better than Season 1, where Good basically got skunked 21-2.

Of course, a lot of the biggest setbacks Evil suffers in season 2 are Evil v. Evil. These start in S2E1 with Tyrion Lannister, younger brother to Cersei and Jaime, arriving at the castle to take over as King's Hand. Tyrion is enormously shrewd about dealing with the conniving liars who surround the king, in a way that the previous King's Hand, Eddard Stark, was hopelessly naive about. He quickly puts them in check. He is also the only person close to King Joffrey who objects to the teenager literally torturing people for his own amusement in front of his court.

Far to the east, Daenerys Targaryen continues developing as a Good person. Early in Season 1 it wasn't clear whether she'd be good or evil. She came from a maligned lineage; her father was The Mad King, who was reputed to torture and murder people for fun (sort of like the current king...). All she desired was to win back rule. She married the violent head of a brigand tribe to build an army to go sack Westeros. Not exactly pegging the needle on the Good-o-meter, there.

In Season 2 Daenerys continues to develop as a wise young leader concerned about the welfare of her own people— and that of innocent others, too. She realizes that she will need to build her army of people who follow her because they believe she is right and just, not because they believe siding with her will allow them to plunder and rape. And she finds her strength to fight back against evil when it besets her. In the Season 2 finale, ( S2E10 spoiler... )

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It's not all wins for the good side, though. In fact evil runs up the score once again. The armies of House Lannister, though they lose battles to the armies led by very wise for his youth lord Robb Stark, still cause a lot of harm to innocent people. The plundering armies of Lord Greyjoy... plunder. In the sibling rivalry of Stannis Baratheon versus Renly Baratheon, Stannis aligns himself with the mysterious Red Priestess who encourages him to be ruthless and, with his approval, ( Read more... )

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