The average temperature across the year in Northern Ireland is 10°C so you can understand why this red haired, fair skinned Northern Irishman was feeling the pressure recently when I visited south west Turkey, with its average high over the week in the region of 37°C. Boy, did I need a beer!
I really knew very little about the Turkish beer scene before I arrived and that’s likely because it seemed to me while I was out there that was there was very little scene to learn.
Anadolu Efes is the brewing beast in Turkey and dominates the market with its flagship Efes Pilsener and the various spin offs. If you buy a beer from a restaurant, pub, off licence or supermarket, it’s almost certain it’ll be a lager from this brewery. However, other breweries are available if you are fortunate enough to be in an area where they’re sold. I wasn’t that lucky as I was being fried alive in the seaside town of Turunç rather than a small city like Marmaris or even Turkey’s largest city Istanbul. The country’s capital is Ankara. Most of the beers in this review are from Efes or Türk Tuborg.
Rating them from worst to best, here’s a quick run down of the 19 beers I ticked off during my time there. Not all of them are lagers!
19 and 18. Anadolu Efes – Bremen 1827 (7% ABV version and 4.5% version)
If you value your cash and taste buds please give these Efes-brewed, supposedly German style lagers a miss. The 7% can was the worst of the holiday and tasted like someone has swirled some methylated spirit around an unclean ashtray. The 4.5% version was slightly more palatable but not by much.
17 and 16. Grolsch – Amsterdam Navigator and Türk Tuborg – Summer Time
Intrigued to find a Grolsch beer on sale, I should have left this strong lager on the shelf. It’s 8% ABV and you can taste the strength. Part of the Carlsberg Group, Türk Tuborg is the second largest brewery in Turkey and while they do brew some good beers (more on that later) this 4.6% ABV watery, lemon lager isn’t one of them.
15 and 14. Efes – Belfast Lager and Efes – Özel Seri
I nearly fell over laughing when I saw Belfast Lager on the shelf. What? How? Why? Anyway, another lemony lager with not much going for it. Özel Seri means Special Series in Turkish but it’s really not that special.
13 and 12. Efes Pilsener and Efes Glutensiz
Efes is to Turkey like Guinness is to Ireland. This, the standard Efes pilsener is the blue labelled one you’ll see EVERYWHERE as it’s sold in every outlet that sells alcohol. It’s sweet, like sugary cornflakes. Glutensiz means Gluten Free and tastes exactly the same as the original hence them being paired together here. Efes is grand if there’s nothing else to drink but I wouldn’t beat doors down to get it.
11 and 10. Efes Summer Brew and Efes Malt
Efes have labelled their 5% ABV Summer Brew as an American Pale Ale, which gave me a sliver of hope there might be a mini-burst of American hops in there somewhere. There wasn’t. Although it didn’t seem to be oxidised I got faint cardboard vibes lurking through the haziness. Back to the lagers and the 5% ABV Efes Malt fared slightly better – smooth, mellow corn made for an easily drunk, though easily forgotten, poolside beer.
9 and 8. Efes – Bomonti Fitresiz and Bomonti Fitresiz Buğday
The Bomonti brothers from Switzerland set up Turkey’s first commercial brewery in the 1890s before going through a turbulent time in the 1920s and 1960s. It’s now owned by Efes and this 4.8% ABV Unfiltered lager looks thicker than I expected with a pleasing, slightly wheaty presence in the glass. The Buğday (pronounced bu-dai and meaning wheat) is classed as a hefeweizen and with that yeast profile comes the expected hues of banana bread.
7 and 6. Türk Tuborg – Amber and Efes – Pilsen Reserve
Leaving the guff behind, we’re starting to enter pleasing territory. The 5.2% ABV Amber was faintly honey sweet with a bit of depth to it which made me think it could be one of the better standard Tuborg offerings. FYI – Danish company Tuborg is owned by its international team mate, Carlsberg. The Amber was beaten in my ratings by the 5% ABV Efes Pilsen Reserve, also an amber lager, and I have to say this is the first beer in this list which I could happily drink all day. Smooth, light and with a mature, sandalwood furniture kind of feel to it.
5 and 4. Türk Tuborg’s Frederik Wheat IPA and Frederik India Pale Ale
While I was perusing the off licence fridge, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the multi-coloured Frederik labels from Türk Tuborg. First of all I didn’t what what it was but it was different from the never ending Efes range! I lifted one of each of the five styles and via a Google search later, found out that Frederik was one of the first brewers at Tuborg.
The Wheat IPA is 5.4% ABV and soft with a little pinch of banana, clove and vanilla. If you’re a wheat beer aficionado it’ll not blow you away but it’s a welcome relief from the Efes lagers. The 5.2% ABV India Pale Ale is also perfectly pleasant. I enjoyed trying to guess which hops may have been used in this – its peach and pine aftertaste made me settle on Eureka, Wai-iti or Chinook. I’m confidently 100% wrong on those.
3 and 2. Türk Tuborg’s Frederik Yakima IPA and Frederik Märzen Lager
On to the podium places now and bronze medal goes to Yakima IPA. At 6.5% it has the strongest ABV of the Frederik range but unlike the abominations earlier in this list, Yakima hides its strength under a canvas of citrus hops which provides a welcoming layer of orange rind and orange juice. Claiming silver medal is the Märzen lager. Märzen (pronounced Mert-zin) means March in German and even though it’s August, I enjoyed this very much – liquid caramel digestives in a glass.
1. Türk Tuborg – Frederik Brown Ale
Top spot in my ‘Tourist Guide to Macro Beer in Turkey’ goes to Türk Tuborg’s Frederik Brown Ale. A chestnut/hazelnut combo kick hits you first, before you’re subdued with a wee brown sugar sweetness at the end. Lovely.
This isn’t a comprehensive guide to the beers available in Turkey, merely a list of what I had during my time there and what I thought of them. You may have alternative views and that’s OK. I found the Frederick range from Türk Tuborg was the best of the lot – so much so I went out and rebought #1 and #2. You’re not likely to encounter the Frederik beers in pubs or restaurants so if that’s where you’re drinking, you’ll have to take your pick from further down the list.
Şerefe!
