Paris Trip: Le Gueuze, in the Latin Quarter

If you are fan of places like The Heights in Houston, Little Five Points in Atlanta, or Sixth Street in Austin, you need to take your arse to the Latin Quarter in Paris.

The bar scene is great, and the shopping isn’t bad either if you’re into that type of thing. It balances great architecture with grime. My Marathon partner Sam was too beat to sh!t to keep walking the streets, so he tapped out and went back to the apartment with his wife while the rest of us kept sightseeing. We stumbled into La Gueuze, which was a beer bar on my beertinerary. The bar had a great atmosphere, and is probably the best of the beer bars in Paris with one heck of a menu. They even had a beer from the Motherland, hellz yeah.

Ch’Ti
State: Eating Popcorn with no butter (tastes very…um, healthy)
Finally, a Biere de Garde. This is what the handbook says you have to try in France. This is their beer. The head is white and slightly fleeting. Orange/straw color. It has a sour smell to it (no surprise). On tasting, I first notice the medium body and little hops. It’s kinda sour with high fine carbonation. As it warms up, it actually gets more sour. I wrote down the words “Good, Nice” in my notebook.

Mongozo
From the Motherland, Cradle of Civilization. Though it’s brewed in the Netherlands, its origins are in Angola. If you are not sure where Angola is, just know that is south of the area where Dubya Bush found the Yellow Cake Sadam Hussein purchased. The beer has a banana smell. Its straw colored yet very clear. It tastes of banana, and not dry, medium carbonation, medium body, and no noticeable hops to speak of. It has a very quick finish to boot. Very nice change of pace. I’ll have to consider getting a bit of this for the house. It’s a great beer to introduce other people to craft beer. I like to hit folks with something totally different than a "Great American Lager", like a beer that tastes like chocolate or fruit. But whatever you do, don’t drop that shit!


And later on back at the apartment…

La Goudale

Another Biere de Garde in a 750ml bottle that we picked up at this neat little corner store. We are eating this awesome stuff called “kefta” with fries. It’s like a three patty hamburger in hoagie bread, but spiced like Lebanese food. We drank la Goudale in our ghetto wine...er... beer goblets that came with the apartment. Straw colored beer, white head, with a banana/fruity smell. First thoughts turn to the aftertaste, which was lightly bitter. It reminded me of a Leffe (kinda Belgian mouthfeel and fruitiness). It taste light banana and malt. It’s a good balance with the salty kefta and fries.