f13.net

A friend pointed this beer out to me a few weeks ago, and it's now my new favorite beer.  Just wanna pass on the favor if you like trying out some new brew.

It's a local brewery here in Jersey.  Here's where it's available:


River Horse Brewing company (http://www.riverhorse.com)

If you can find it I recommend the Summer Blonde and Hopphazard

Your friend sounds like a jerk.

Speaking of beer, if anybody has the opportunity I suggest trying Fireman's #4 from draft.  It's damn good.

How did that word get in there. .. *now

This.
(http://www.andechs.de/englisch/brauerei/biersorten/images/Andechser_Dunkel.jpg)

Lambertville? At least a few years ago they had undrinkable tapwater, I have trouble imagining good beer from there.

(http://www.dogfish.com/media/beverage/medium/120_Label.jpg)

I'll give it a shot this weekend. 

My friend is the brewmaster at CBC: http://www.columbusbrewingco.com/beer.html

But my personal favorite is Paulaner draft.  Mmm... 

I don't know if it's available in the US (I'll do a research tomorrow!! Too tired now), but IF you can get this beer (http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/#)- well just try it...

(http://www.ratebeer.com/beerimages/9605.jpg)

My local bottle shop (Indiana) has it.  :drill:

drinking pintzilla (http://www.pintzilla.com/Little_Creatures_Pintzilla.php?size=pintsized)

My favorite beer is a scotch.

And my other car is a pair of shoes.

I think I've rounded it down to 4 conventional preferences and won't change (impossible to have one favorite beer).

Taste-wise, when I want a hoppy ale, it's Anchor Liberty. If I want something else, that something is Guinness. Or both in a black/tan.

If I want to really guzzle, it's something without a lot of carbs, yet isn't too tasteless or too offensive. Ultra Ambers seem to be my best bet [edit -- recommendations would be nice though).

I generally have what most would consider abysmal tastes in beer and whiskey (my beers of choice are Piels, Golden Anniversary, Black Label, Stroh's and Schaefer and my bourbon, Old Crow) but should any of you find beverages from the following two local breweries in your area, I'd recommend them.

http://www.victorybeer.com/

http://www.dockstreetbeer.com/

Most of the Victory beers are the alcoholic equivalent to EQ's Plane of Disease, interesting at first but you've got to be hardcore to keep coming back (I'm looking at you Golden Monkey-I had to roll on the ground to get to my car one night).

Dockstreet makes an incredible amber, a real sipping beer. Your face will fold in like space-time in a black hole, but you'll enjoy every moment of it.

And finally, my recipe for the Mock Margarita: Take a juice glass, 4 ice cubes, fill halfway with Old Crow, and then add Minutemaid Lemonade or Limeade. About 8 of them and you're in for some good cheap stupid time.

Saranac had a fire in their brewery and supply was cut off for a little while.  :ye_gods:

They are going to use another canning/bottling facility in the interim, so production is going again.

Saranac Black Forest ftw. I like a ton of stuff, though. Even the hoppy stuff is growing on me a bit, if I'm in the mood.

For small beer I drink Old Mil Light, chilled to just above freezing, drink fast. It's almost water, but I don't drink to get drunk any more.

I like a ton of beers, so I'll just throw out some good breweries in case you can possibly get them in your area (mainly west coast breweries, however), and highlight some of my particular favorites.

North Coast Brewery (http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/):  Could be my favorite brewery now.  They make a ton of excellent, high quality beers.  You really can't go wrong with anything.  In particular, Red Seal Ale is an awesome, aromatic red ale.  Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout is probably the best stout (or close to it) I've tried.  Here's a pic of the label:
(http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/Images/brand-Rasputin.jpg)

Lost Coast Brewery (http://www.lostcoast.com/):  Like everything I've tried by them, good overall.  I'm a huge fan of Brown Ale's, and there Downtown Brown is great.  Also, Great White is a wonderful session beer as well.

Sierra Nevada Brewery (http://www.sierranevada.com/index2.asp):  This has become massive, obviously, being the second biggest craft brewery in the US after Boston Beer Company.  Still, there beers are all very solid, with the Wheat Beer, Porter, and Pale Ale being my favorites of the main stuff.  However, they also happen to make a good brown ale that I would highly suggest if you can get it.  You use to only be able to get it locally (luckily I grew up about 30 minutes from the brewery), but I believe they are expanding bottle production of it now.  Also, they make a Harvest Fresh Hop ale that I really enjoy, and would highly recommend.  In Fall/Winter, its just called Harvest Ale, in Spring/Summer, its called Southern Hemisphere Harvest (because that's were they have to get the fresh hops from at that time).

Rogue Ales (http://www.rogue.com/):  Makes excellent beer of every type, though its expensive.  Try anything they make, you'll probably like it (as long you like the style obviously).  Plus, I absolutely love their bottles:
(http://www.rogue.com/images/UpdatedLabels/American_Amber_Ale.gif) (http://www.rogue.com/images/UpdatedLabels/St.Rogue_Red.gif) (http://www.rogue.com/images/UpdatedLabels/Hazelnut_Brown_Nectar.gif)

New Belgium Brewery (http://www.newbelgium.com/):  Solid all around, another huge craft brewery.  Lots of lighter beers.  I'll heavily recommend their 1554 Ale though.  Its REALLY good, and very unique.  Haven't found a beer that taste similar to it yet.

Brooklyn Brewery (http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/beer/):  Haven't tried many of their beers, but what I have had I liked.  There brown ale was good (but again, I'm a huge fan of brown ales, heh).

Deschutes Brewery (http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/Splash/default.aspx):  Solid beer company, they do everything very well.  Can't go wrong with any of their stuff.  Their Black Butte Porter in particular is a favorite of mine.  Also, we've found it to be the best porter to mix with Big Foot Barley Wine by Sierra Nevada when you want to make Porter Foot!

I have two shrunken Brooklyn Brewery t-shirts, and no Brooklyn Brew.  :oops:

Teleku hit most of my favs...well done.

Thanks.  Out of curiosity, what are some of your other favs?

Old Rasputin is great, but its hard to call its a 'regular' stout, in a sense. Its got that awsome tartness that most stouts don't have.

Well yes, its a Russian Imperial Stout.  Those are quite different from say, a Dry Irish stout (like Guiness), or an Oatmeal stout.  I'm just saying of all stout types I've tried, regardless of style, its one of my favorites ;).  Here in Berkeley theres a couple of places where I can get it served on nitro tap from a keg.  Dear god is it great.

Speaking of great Russian Imperial Stouts, Stone Breweries Imperial Russian Stout is really really fucking great as well.  Grab it while you can, its only a seasonal release, so it wont be around to much longer I believe.

My Stout of choice has been Storm King from Victory Brewing Co. for the past two years. I couldn’t imagine life with out it. http://www.victorybeer.com/storm_king.html (http://www.victorybeer.com/storm_king.html)
The Golden Monkey is nice but I couldn’t drink it everyday. 

I hate beer.  Unless it's root.

Well, you are in Korea  :awesome_for_real:.

I don't like beer, either.  It tastes like fizzy ear wax.

Koreans hate root beer.

The comment was more aimed at the countries lack of good beer :wink:.

Some of my favs-

Fire Rock Pale Ale (Longboard Lager is decent too). (http://www.konabrewingco.com/beers)

Mac & Jack's- pretty much everything they make. (http://www.macandjacks.com/index.php). I am a bit biased- AFTER I fell in love with the beer, I found out that Mac is my dad's cousin Malcolm! Now I stalk him from beer festival to beer festival and babble drunkenly at him. I am sure he loves it  :uhrr:

RAM Brewery (http://www.theram.com/beer.shtml). I like the Buttface, Blonde, and Pale Ale the best, but I think Total Disorder Porter is among the best names for a beer I have ever seen.

For larger breweries, I like Blue Moon and Sam Adams pretty well, and am a sucker for most Mexican beers.

Victory Festbier is here early this year. Buy it if you see it, this stuff seems to sell faster than most of the US 'Oktoberfest' brews. Like the Sam, it has a bready taste, with balanced malting, but it a bit more of a flowery hop taste and less spice, and the overall mix is more subtle, but still very flavorful. This is a great session beer, and not one to miss.

(http://www.victorybeer.com/images/fest.jpg) (http://www.victorybeer.com/festbier.html)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale =  :pedobear:

I'm also a big fan of Sam Adams Black Lager.

(http://www.thebrewsite.com/images/beers/lion-stout.jpg)

I love Fat Tire in Colorado.

This isn't beer, but I just invented (or at least independently thought up) a new drink:

Highball full of ice
Jigger of 10 Canes Rum (which is a great pure cane sugar premium light rum if you've never tried it)
Juice of Lime Wedge
Fill with Jones Berry Lemonade Soda
Stir

Umm... I'm gonna have to try it. I like rum.

(http://www.20bees.com/ee/images/images/iWelcome.jpg) (http://www.20bees.com/ee/index.php)

Beers That Rule:

Two Brothers Brewing (http://www.twobrosbrew.com/) Their website is ass, and the website for their homebrewing shop is a link to a MS Exchange server, but their beers are the best. The fact that there's always a cask-conditioned offering at the brewpub is also nice. They do a fresh hop brew every year. In fact, once the wife gets home, I'm going to the brewpub to get our growler re-filled while she wrangles the kid for 30 minutes.

Capital Brewing (http://www.capital-brewery.com/) in Wisconsin is also great. They have a wheat beer in cans (cans are FTW since they're easier to ship and result in a lower carbon footprint) and their seasonal Ocktoberfest and Autumnal Fire (a great doppelbock) are by far the best in the Midwest, if not the nation.

Another great one is Flossmoor Station (http://www.flossmoorstation.com/), a brewpub that just started bottling some of its beer in bombers. You can only get it at a few stores in Illinois, but for those in the area, send me a PM and I'll tell you which retailers (I'm one of them) carry it.

Oh and I have to give some credit to Lakefront Brewery (http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com/) in Milwaukee. Not only do they make some darn good beers, but they make the best domestic, gleutin-free beer I've ever had.

I also agree with Teleku for the most part.

It just seemed that Midwest beers weren't being fully represented.

Oh yeah, there's those Three Floyds (http://www.threefloyds.com/) guys in Indiana as well, but fuck them, I can never get reliable stock on their six packs. Great beers tho.

Tell me more.

Jupiter (on Shattuck, right by the downtown Berkeley station) has Russian Imperial on tap every now and then.  It seems to sell out quick though.

I like Two Brothers stuff, but it's hard to find out here (Rockford) and half the time I do find it it's 'off' Sorta old-tasting/skunked. I still pickup the occasional 6 of 'The Bitter End' or their Heavy Handed seasonal.

Places that sell beer are for the most part fucking morons, like the local grocery store chain "Logli" that has lots of six-packs and cases of various Bell's stuff (from Kalamazoo) that says right on the packaging KEEP REFRIGERATED sitting in the aisles.

Goose Island (http://www.gooseisland.com/beers/beers.asp), out of Chicago. I always keep some Honkers in the fridge.

Wow, Logli is still around? That was my childhood grocery store when I was in unincorporated Rockford back in the early 80s. I actually fell out of one of their shopping carts and split my head open on the bottom rack part.

That explains a lot, I guess.

I live a ten minute drive from the brewery. I get growlers once a week. It's glorious. Two Brothers also has a homebrewing supply shop, so it's a great place to hit up as far as I'm concerned. It sucks that you can't find the fresh stuff. My store gets beer on Friday that was bottled Monday.

I've dropped Guinness for a bit, and am now sipping on Belhaven. The two together probably make a good b&t.

There's only one decent microbrewery around here (more up in Austin). You guys are lucky.

That's because Russian Imperial Stout is the shit. I remember it going out pretty quick at Toronado as well.

I have a few minutes, so here's a quick tour of the Beers of Iceland.

Víking - Pale lager. Lightly carbonated, primarily sold in half-liter cans and on draught. Basically no hops or other flavors, goes down like sour water. It's shit, and the only reason to drink it is if you like hangovers.

Egils - Pale lager. I haven't had it, but it's reportedly a slightly higher level of quality than Víking. There's several varieties, but most places just carry Egils Gull. Also, all the variations are basically just pale lagers.

Thule - Pale lager. Very lightly carbonated and has a hint of actual hoppy bitterness in with the sour water flavor. Draught and half-liter cans. Also, shit.

Kaldi - Pale lager. Might've seen a picture of hops once. Tastes kind of like an American pale ale. Still, shit.

Skjálfti - Medium lager. This is a newer beer brewed only in Selfoss and is currently pretty difficult to find in pubs. Not heavily carbonated, but it has a strong bitter flavor from the hops, with a fairly thick maltiness underneath it. Decent, but not amazing.

You can also get some Danish imports like Tuborg or Faxe, but they're not terribly amazing either. Fortunately you can get Guinness in some of the pubs here, and Beamish at the liquor stores.

Edit: spelng

Retailing? I need to read your blog  :awesome_for_real:

I was so out of the action this summer, didn't make it to VT to check on the Long Trail summer brewmaster pick, he was doing Hefeweizen two years running. And I don't think Saranac did their Hef this year. I've tried over a dozen Hefs and nothing even compares. Don't know if it's the freshness or what, I get them from the brewery in both cases (at the risk of being punny).

Fiancee got a mix pack for me the other day. Always fun when she picks the beer. A marginal Hef (forget the brewery), a Long Trail Harvest, pretty fresh and tasty, a Saranac Imperial I haven't cracked yet, but I suspect it's an older brew and the Imperials at 9% are just too alcoholic tasting for me to enjoy. I agree with rattran, it's definitely risky buying non-local microbrews at our local beer outlet, who knows how long some of that piss has been sitting around?

We've started a tradition of hitting the local bar & grill on Thursdays for a cheap meal, 25¢ wings ftw. Problem is they only serve american lagers (ok, molson canadian and labatt's blue, but eh). Criminal, but that's mainstream america, I guess.

Heh, well I'm currently fighting my service provider to de-404-ify it. My debit card number changed during a billing cycle and although they have the new info, they're still balking on stuff. I have to call and sit on hold, so I've been lazy on that.

As far as Scandinavian beers go, the big producers tend to make shit. However, there are some brewers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark that import their stuff under the "Scandinavian Craft Brewers Guild" label that are really good. Mikkeller, Haandbryggert, Nils Oskar, and Nonske O (don't know the unicode for the O with the slash through it) all make some great stuff. Saisons, IPAs, Stouts, Porters, etc. All great. They're spendy for a single bottle (about $8.99 to $11.99 in these parts), but worth seeking out if you really like good beer.

Jupiter has Old Rasputin on Nitro tap every day.  It's one of there beers they always have (and always on Nitro!).  They also always seem to have Guinness and Old Speckled Hen on tap. 

I fucking love Jupiter's.  If any of you are ever in Berkeley, you need to stop by.  My current bus route from work to home has me catching a connecting bus at a bus stop almost directly in front of Jupiter's.  I also always have about 25 minutes to wait for my connecting bus.

That combo together =  :heart:

For my wallet =   :heartbreak:

Edit:

Also, Yoru, your experience seems to be confirming a trend I'm seeing with Scandinavian beer.  Recently a friend of mine from Norway was visiting, and we had her try a number of the beers here (I try to hit Europeans with them as much as I can, to try and destroy the stereotype, heh).  I only had her drinking basic stuff like Fat Tire and what not.

Her reaction to every new beer pretty much went like this:
Her: *Takes a drink* "What the fuck!"
Us: "Whats wrong, don't like the taste?"
Her: "Why does your beer have so much flavor?  Beer shouldn't have this much flavor!"
 :awesome_for_real:

I gave her an IPA for comedic effect.  That was funny.

Scandinavians are allergic to flavor. You see the effects of it in most of their food, too.

That said, there's little rays of hope. Ölvisholt Brugghús, which produces Skjálfti, opened less than a year ago, and from what I hear, the owner wants to try to introduce a number of different ale-type beers if he does well. He put out a lager first because that's what the market's used to; even with the relatively mild hoppiness/maltiness, I've still heard complaints about it being too thick/rich from a number of people.

I'd like to hear from some of the Irish/Scottish folks on here about their export beers, since there's an outside chance I can snag those at the larger liquor stores.

Out of curiosity (I must have missed it if you posted about it somewhere), what are you doing in Iceland now?  Thought you were in SF as I recalled...

I switched jobs a few months back and since then I've been all over the place, inside the US and out. Things are settling down now, so I'll be remaining in Iceland for the foreseeable future. It's a pretty fortuitous time to be an expat. :drill:

Jurassic Beer (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/23/ancient-yeast-beer.html)

Thought that was pretty cool.  Need to see if I can find any locally.

Everyone knows that Vikings don't drink beer, they drink mead.  How's the mead in Iceland?

The best part of 10 Cane rum is that the bottle looks like it spells IOCANE from a distance (or when you are too drunk to see very far). I wonder if that was intentional?


(http://www.howdesign.com/upload/images/swf/competitions/international/2006_out_pack.jpg)

Luckily I've built up a resistance.  :awesome_for_real:

I just had an Old Rasputin Russian Imperial with dried fish (russian also).

Fucking awesome combo.

Seriously, check out Mikkeller and Haandbryggerit if you think all Scandanavian beers suck.

These guys are in an early 90's US craft brew renaissance right now.

I don't really know any Swedes that drink Swedish lager for good taste. That shit is for getting drunk, not for feeling sophisticated. I got several local breweries that produce meads, stouts and bitters.

My personal favorites are (mainly Scottish/Belgian ales):
Innis & Gunn
Adnams Broadside
Chimay (blue, primarily)
La Trappe
Wee Heavy

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE AND etc etc.

Today I tried a Belgian Amber Ale "Green's Discovery" All natural, free of Wheat Barley, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Peanuts, Soya beans, Milk, Lactose, Nuts, Celery, Mustard, Sesame seeds, Sulphur Dioxide, and sulfates. Apparently made of Millet, Rice, Buckwheat, and Sorghum.

Tastes terrible.

I'm now following it with a nice Riggwelter, which may have shrimp in it, it doesn't say, but tastes heavenly.

Gah!  :ye_gods:

Ignore me, I'm a tool. I thought this was a new thread. Damn thread necromancy!

Recently tried Black Cat (http://www.legendslimited.com/blackcat.html) and thought it was a very pleasant brew. Their site describes it as tasting of chocolate but I'd swear I got a hint of bacon from it. Just thought I'd add a British ale none of you will probably be able to get hold of since you've listed so many US brews I'm probably not going to get to try :awesome_for_real:

Black Cat & Riggwelter are v nice beers.

Of the "larger" UK breweries I've always been partial to Batemans. XXXB is one of favourite standbys and Victory Ale and Dark Lord are just amazing.

My amazing fiancee brought me a mix pack from the local supplier, and also a six of Long Trail's new seasonal, the Hibernator. And despite the bear on the label, I read it to mean Irish (hibernian) Terminator, YAH I AM DA HIBERNATOR! Anyway, decent brew that's a little on the bitter side for my taste. Solid B-.

My favorite New beer is Shiner Bock

My favorite old beer is Budweiser.

Fuck you all if you don't like it. ;)

Dude, Shiner is fantastic.

I think you'll find it's pronounced Budvar :awesome_for_real:

For those of you that are Great Lakes "Christmas Ale" fans I have good and bad news for you. The bad news is that the master brewer of that ale has left the company and this year’s batch reflects that. It has less alcohol and not quite the same taste. The good news is that I think the brewer is now working for Thirsty Dog and has helped make their "12 Dogs Christmas Ale."

Once again, not beer, but if you like Rye Whiskey you have to get some of this.  A guy here in Utah of all places has opened up a craft distillery and is making Rye whiskey up in Park City. He is currently aging his first batch, but in the meantime he has made a blended Rye (its a closely guarded secret as to where he is getting the components but it is a combo of 6 year old and 16 year old ryes) that is fanfuckingtastic. It's a monster at 92 proof but smooth as silk and great flavor.  If you can get stuff shipped to you it is sporadically available through KL Wines. I highly recommend it for anyone that likes whiskey.  I'd even be willing to ship some out to folks if they are truly interested.

http://www.highwestdistillery.com/award.html

/drinks Czech beer as often as he wants, for about a buck in a bar or 50 cents from the store  :awesome_for_real: 

Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus are fine, but I'll take Kozel Cerne over them any day.  Strange because I usually prefer a wheat beer.

Shiney Bock was the first American beer I ever drank that impressed me. Budweiser though? That's not a beer, it's a yellow soft drink  :awesome_for_real:

I picked up a 'Original 60s Formula' 6pack of Schlitz, it's awful in a very different way from modern awful Schlitz. Drank about 1/6 or one, couldn't stomach any more.

"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer."

Heather Ale is  :heart:

Mmmm, sounds good to me.  How much would it run to have a bottle (or 2) shipped to Ohio you think?  K&L doesn't seem to have it atm.

It runs 35 bucks a bottle to purchase.  Not sure what shipping would be but I would imagine overnight would be advisable to minimize possibility of breakage.  Now that I think about it it would likely need to be listed as flamable, so I don't have any idea how much that might jack up the shipping.  I'm still game to give it a shot if you are interested.

I agree withTekelu and Par's solid contributions. My fave Rogue is Kell's Irish lager, it's nummy like Jenna Fischer's tittays. Although I tried the Rogue Chipotle ( :ye_gods:) beer and I wanted to slice off my tastebuds with a butter knife. Other than that, they are very solid.

A few of my faves:

Manny's (http://www.georgetownbeer.com) Started by a couple guys in their garage and now they are everywhere. Awesome.

Franziskaner (http://http://www.franziskaner.com/) I am a sucker for German beer, and on draught, this shit delivers. I especially love their white beer. Call me a puss, but I love weissbier....as well as Guiness...I'm eclectic.

Deschutes (http://www.deschutesbrewery.com//) I may have missed it, but I didn't see Deschutes in here. Great all around beers. Highly recommended.

http://www.unibroue.com/our_beers_eng.html

I like Maudite best personally, but La Fin du Monde is also excellent and generally everyone likes that one.

Yeah I am interested, lets make it 2 bottles since I just told all my whiskey drinking friends about it at dinner tonight and I know those fuckers will polish off a whole bottle in one evening.  Just lemme know an estimated price and I can paypal you the amount or whatever.  Really appreciate the effort from you here on getting some interesting stuff.

Ok, I shall PM you about the details.

Agreeing with Trotski on the Franziskaner pick - I enjoyed a number of those back in SF.

I also want to call out Rickard's Red, which I had during a brief sojourn in Canada earlier this year. That shit was heaven. Rickard's Honey Brown was also quite good. In fact, most of the Canadian beer I tried was excellent, with the exception of the export beers (Canadian, Labatt, etc.).

I found a new local beer, El Grillo - it's a microbrew from Seyðisfjörður, reportedly named after a ship that foundered just outside the town harbor. Like most Scandinavian lagers it's relatively light, but it still has a good smooth malty taste without being sweet. Pity you can only get it in stores and not in pubs at the moment.

You are just making things up now. Is that Elvish?

Seyðisfjörður (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sey%C3%B0isfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0ur). Take a look at the name of the county it's in. :oh_i_see:

http://www.ommegang.com/

They're all good.

I still need to make my Ommegang pilgrimage. Less than two hours from here, much closer than Long Trail.

Couple hours from me too (Syracuse) and I also need to make the trip again. They were talking about expansion the last time I went, but I'm not sure if they did yet.

Out of curiosity, what are the prices like for their beer where you are (much closer to the brewery)?  In California, I believe most of their stuff goes for $7 - $12 (depending on which beer).  Love all of their stuff though, great brewery.

Been digging all the winter beers lately.  Dear god do I love 2 Below by New Belgium.  Winter Solsctice by Anderson Valley has been awesome as well.  Somebody should do a winter beer themed taste/review post in here.....

Ok, so I've told people this by PM but it turns out shipping alcohol is highly illegal and I'm not really willing to risk it, so I need to withdraw my earlier offer. Sorry. For those interested I'm going to try to talk to the guy about doing some direct shipment or lining up a local distributor.

As for cost, here in Utah you can't get "heavy beer" (i.e. anything not 3.2 piss) anywhere except the People's Democratic Store for the Distribution of Intoxicating Beverages. Well, actually it's just called the State Liquor Store. For anything good it runs over 12 bucks a six pack which totally sucks. 

How the hell have you not fled that hole for greener pastures yet?

I ask myself that question daily.  It helps that Nevada is only an hour and a half away.

It is about the same for me too...by plane  :cry:

You should cross post this with the "Why is socialism bad" thread.  :awesome_for_real:

I mean,  :ye_gods:

Don't worry about the Whisky though, don't want you to go through the trouble.  I think I found a random post on some forum with the use of google where people were mentioning I can find it at the K&L in San Francisco, so I'll hop over there and ask them.

I thought I'd just update here for anybody in the Bay Area that was interested.  The K&L on 4th street in San Francisco carries the Rye Whiskey we were talking about on shelf, no need to order or anything.  It runs about $47 before tax's though.  Bought a bottle as a Christmas gift for my brother in law who is a big whiskey/Bourbon fan.  I guess I'll have to wait till after Christmas for his reaction to decide to thank or scorn Abagadro for convincing me to shell out for that  :awesome_for_real:.

Ah man, now I'm under pressure. If he doesn't like it I'll reimburse you.  :awesome_for_real:

Isn't all liquor about $50+ a bottle?

Maybe I'm spoiled :P

Maybe.

I spend $15 on Clan Macgregor.  :awesome_for_real:

Picked up some Rogue Christmas Ale this weekend. Tasty stuff.

I grabbed a six of Sam Adam's Hefeweizen saturday, but I'm finishing off the Saranac winter brew first. I tried to make a mix pack because they've got four interesting Sams I haven't tried yet, but they don't break up Sam packs. So I made a six with an Anchor Steam, a couple dopplebocks and a couple other hefs.

I think I mentioned before that in my experience there are two kinds of Hefs: Saranac and Long Trail, and everything else. Don't know why they taste so radically different. Only thing I can think of is that I get the Saranac and Long Trail versions from the brewery, so they are fresh. And splendid. Other Hefs, eh, not bad but not great.

Drinking Belgian right now:

Duvel

Delirium Tremens/Delirium Nocturnum

 :heart:

Can't get off the Belgian beer: smooth, rich flavors, bonus EtOH.

Hoppy US ale: Abita Turbodog.  Is Nice.  If you like the hoppy.

I called up one of our shop's distributors to order this last week. Shiner Boch seems to be currently unavailable in South FL. Hell. It was at the top of my list when I took over the beer dept. (which is, like, the coolest job ever).

Also, I miss Saranac terribly.

The 71 Blonde Ale is awesome..and I love that total disorder porter. I usually hit the one up in Schaumburg, IL. They have fantastic food there. I totally recommend the black and bleu steak sandwhich.

As far as other recommendations. I like some of the stuff at rock bottom brewery. They have a pretty good IPA and the Hefeweizen is pretty good. Most of my friends aren't real big on the wheat beer though so depending on what it is I usually get the stuff they don't like.

Also for the of of Christ could someone tell Sam Adams to put out Cream Stout and Holiday Porter on a regular basis.

I really like Sam's Hefeweizen, it's one of my favorite beers.  Let me know how it compares to your favorites, as I might have to hunt those down in this area if you say they're far and above Sam's.

Definitely one of my favs there. I am always scared to death I am going to choke on it though- some giant chunks of steak on that bugger.

I've had some great food and decent beer at that RAM, but I've also had bad food and awful beer there. The service is always top-notch, but the quality of everything else is too variable for me to make that place a regular spot. The one in Wheeling always had decent food, and bad service. Too far out of the way though.

All I gotta say is R.I.P Prairie Rock, that place had some good brews too. However if you are up in the chi-town area make sure you make a trip out to flossmoor station, its out by tinley park, the brewery and restaurant are located in an old train station.

Also I gotta throw a word in for Shoreline Brewery up in Michigan City Indiana, their Lost Sailor Imperial Stout is incredible. If it were thicker I would eat it on pancakes.