Origin: Spain
Type: Amber Ale
Color: Reddish copper
Alcohol content: 5%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Cervezas La Virgen
This blog wouldn't be fully useful if it didn't warn those who read it against mediocre and bad beers. If we only spoke about good beers, when faced with a beer that's not on the blog, one may wonder whether we have shunned it because it sucks or we just haven't gotten around to writing about it. This fundamental query will still exist in this infinite beer world because we quite simply can't get to all of them, but we would like to chip away at some of the crappier beers, so that there's no mistake about those. Forewarned is forearmed.
For all those times we said "This is a waste of my hard earned cash", or in a truly manly approach to weight watching, we thought, "These calories would've been better gained with bacon", we give you this section: Misguided Calories.
I have to admit there were quite a few beers in the running to become the first in this section. In the end however, the dubious honor will go to La Virgen Jamonera.
People are constantly trying to peddle this beer to me. Don't get me wrong, people offering me craft beer everywhere I go would be great, if the beer offered was actually good. However, this amber ale is not.
Its biggest faults aren't usually its smell or taste, malty sweet and with a vague hint of dried fruit. The taste is a bit bland but decent. The problem with this beer is usually more its appearance and mouthfeel.
In this sense, the Jamonera usually severely lacks carbonation, as you can see by the picture (and this is taken from La Virgen's webpage, where you can assume that they're trying to make it look pretty). It's extremely hard to create any sort of a head when you pour, but the worst is the mouthfeel. It's kind of like drinking a coke that's been open for a whole day, it's sweet, flat and thoroughly unappealing quite simply because it's not what it should be.
You've probably noticed I have been inserting the word "usually" pretty often. That's another of this beer's problems, its inconsistency. I have had one which smelled and tasted like I assume it's supposed to, while I have had several more that tasted like they had been watered down. The one I had that kept its smell and taste was totally still, while some of the ones which appeared watered down had some carbonation and others did not have any at all. All of them however were in bottles. I don't know if trying it on tap would help any of these problems, I don't look forward to the experiment.
The brewery designed this beer to be the perfect accompaniment for Spanish ham (jamón serrano or ibérico) and indeed, if you get one of the good bottles, I'm sure the sweet maltiness balances out the saltiness of the ham and the dried fruit combines well with it. However, if you get a bad bottle, you've ruined a meal. I would therefore suggest that next time you're thinking of picking one up to pair with this Spanish delicacy, you go for a nice bottle of red wine or even a stale coke instead.
Its biggest faults aren't usually its smell or taste, malty sweet and with a vague hint of dried fruit. The taste is a bit bland but decent. The problem with this beer is usually more its appearance and mouthfeel.
In this sense, the Jamonera usually severely lacks carbonation, as you can see by the picture (and this is taken from La Virgen's webpage, where you can assume that they're trying to make it look pretty). It's extremely hard to create any sort of a head when you pour, but the worst is the mouthfeel. It's kind of like drinking a coke that's been open for a whole day, it's sweet, flat and thoroughly unappealing quite simply because it's not what it should be.
You've probably noticed I have been inserting the word "usually" pretty often. That's another of this beer's problems, its inconsistency. I have had one which smelled and tasted like I assume it's supposed to, while I have had several more that tasted like they had been watered down. The one I had that kept its smell and taste was totally still, while some of the ones which appeared watered down had some carbonation and others did not have any at all. All of them however were in bottles. I don't know if trying it on tap would help any of these problems, I don't look forward to the experiment.
The brewery designed this beer to be the perfect accompaniment for Spanish ham (jamón serrano or ibérico) and indeed, if you get one of the good bottles, I'm sure the sweet maltiness balances out the saltiness of the ham and the dried fruit combines well with it. However, if you get a bad bottle, you've ruined a meal. I would therefore suggest that next time you're thinking of picking one up to pair with this Spanish delicacy, you go for a nice bottle of red wine or even a stale coke instead.
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