f13.net

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41488/beer_poster.jpg)

Mmm...dunkel and dopplebocks...

Many good, good beers on there.  I still fall back on my old favorite Paulaner, but there's lots of good options.

Cool to see Anchor Steam getting a category essentially to itself.  I hadn't even heard of the term "California Common" but it's apparently the proper non-trademark name for "steam beer"(tm).

Yeah, Steam Beer is actually a completely unique beer style invented in California back in the 1800's.  But, since Anchor Steam was the first company to revive the style back in the day, they managed to trademark the name Steam Beer.  So the official beer classification is "California Common".  It's still a fairly rare style, but if you want to try another one, Linden Street Brewery opened up in Oakland about a year ago, and they make some (http://www.lindenbeer.com/beers.html).  Note, I haven't tried it yet (though I hear good things).  However, my workplace just moved to within a few blocks of their brewery, so I'm going to fix that soon!

I concur.  The Houffbrau house here in Cinci makes a great dunkel, but you have to drink it there.  The stuff they bottle and sell in the local specialty store just doesn't hold up.

I need to find a decent local hefeweizen.  I had one in Pittsburgh 5 years ago that was fantastic but I haven't had it's like anywhere else and can't remember the name of the damn brewery.

Ah, I think I had some of that in a trendy Berkeley restaurant a little while back.  I didn't even realize it was in the same genre as Anchor; my recollection is that it was way too hoppy for my liking.

Unrelated awesome (hopefully not a bloodworth):

(http://xemanhdep.com/gallery/awesome_photos/awesome_photos03.jpg)

While we're on the subject of beer in the Awesome pictures thread, here's 12 ounces of pure awesome:

(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.slashfood.com/media/2010/04/lion-stout-beer-590.jpg)

I mean God damn... I've tried literally thousands of different kinds of beers and many were great, but there's nothing compared to a Lion Stout.

For a sceptic like me, could you tell me what makes it so great?

You know what goes great with beer?

Guns!

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/guns/09.23.10%20TDSA/8.jpg)

I'm a lucky motherfucker.

 :facepalm:

American "Kölsch" (http://www.2beerguys.com/pyramid/beers/curveball.html) ? Wtf... I was under the impression you can only brew it here in Cologne and call it "Kölsch"

You can't sell it in Europe and call it Kolsch unless it was brewed in Cologne, just like you can't sell "Champagne" that wasn't made in the Champagne valley.  But in America it's just a label.

--Dave

I read "sceptic" and looked at your avatar on the left and imagined the caption "skeptic cat is skeptical". K I need more coffee....

I watched Beer Wars last night. Was interesting to learn about how crazy and competitive the beer industry is and makes me feel bad for not trying craft/independent beers.

If you are ever in Dublin try the Oyster Bar in Temple Bar. They brew their own beer, and even to me it tasted pretty good.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12021422/Photos/Blue%20Oyster%20Bar.jpg)

"Why does sex in a canoe and USA beers have in common?  They are both fucking near water!"  The Canadians used to tease us about our pansy beer we had up until the local beer explosion took off (damned temperament movement!).  Although I've had the worlds strongest from Heidelberg, Germany (Vetta 33 from Heidelberg) and can say it didn't taste that great, the other beer in the town @ the castle that the locals drank was incredible (that and the food!).  I miss the Christmas shopping and festivity that they put on @ their markets.

One advantage of living in the mid-Atlantic is easy access to Weyerbacher (http://weyerbacher.com/) beer out of Easton, PA.

To my knowledge, they don't make any beer under 8% ABV, and their seasonals - uniformly excellent - usually top 11%. "Heresy" is stunningly good. It's an Imperial Stout aged in oak barrels formerly used for Kentucky bourbon.

And since every major Canadian beer is a watery shit light lager like all the major American beer, I've always found that joke to be extremely hilarious.  For reasons they didn't intend.

I don't know if they intended the likes of Molson or Labatt to be the comparison. But then again, most "Canadian" beers aren't Canadian anymore.

If you're concerned about the alcohol content of beer, you're doing it wrong.

This.

Many of the molecules that are responsible for tastes are hydrophobic, i.e. they don't dissolve in water. This means that the higher the alcohol content of something the more of these complex molecules can be dissolved in it.

I.e. higher ABV beers are usually tastier than lower ABV beers.

Beer needs its own thread so we can get back to the picture show...

Sadly, I have none at the moment.

While I agree that to my palate, Canadian and Blue taste like water - put them side by side to a big American brew and there is no comparison - the higher alcohol content makes a difference in taste.

I find it pretty sad though that Blue was the only Canadian beer I saw on that picture. We have a very diverse microbrewery industry up here, with some exceptional beers.

Thank you, sir.

If you want the maximum amount of alcohol and flavor in each sip, I don't know why you're messing around with beer.  That's what whisky is for.

"Whoever crams the most hops and alcohol into a bottle wins" seems to be a common mindset among craft brewers, but I've never found that it has a strong correlation with tastiness.

Oh hai.

http://www.unibroue.com/

Can't go wrong really, but La Fin du Monde is the flagship.


And is Canadian, and is on the chart (with the other Belgians.)

Nice find. I was looking primarily under the pale ales and ipa's, as those are amongst our best known.

Alexander Keith's IPA and Okanagan Spring Pale Ale are the two I tend to favor, and have grown to a pretty substantial market up here.


Am I alone here in being a huge Hefeweizen fan? Especially Hoegaarden, which according to this chart is aparently not a Hefeweizen, but rather a "Witbier".
Interesting. And now I want beer.

Yeah, Hefs and Belgian Witbeers have sort of a similar taste (but different obviously) so the confusion is understandable.

And yes, I too enjoy Hefeweizen's.  My last batch of home brew was a Hef, and it turned out to be the best beer I've managed to home brew yet!

There isn't a very big selection of Canadian craft beers here, even when I got to places with large beer selections.  Unibroue is all over the place, but thats about it.  I'll have to keep looking I guess.

Out of curiosity, how much American craft brew makes its way up there?
Comically enough, neither are any of the big American brewers.   :awesome_for_real:

Boston Beer Company (guys who make Sam Adams) are now the largest American owned brewing company.

When I lived in the UK or Ireland I really couldn't drink beer at all, I just didn't like the taste of the usual stuff that's easily available in pubs (Carling, Fosters, Becks etc). I'd drink the occasional glass of Hoegaarden as it was the only beer I found with any kind of flavour. Now I live in Germany and the ciders I usually ordered aren't available at all so I started trying some of the local beers and I've found pretty much everything I've tried to be entirely drinkable. Fuerstenberg is the most common and my least favourite but it's still better than any random cask beer, Rothaus Tannezapfle is my favourite and that's a very nice drop indeed.

I have some Fin du Monde in my fridge right now.  Along with some Saranac, Long Trail, Magic Hat #9, and some leftover Labatt Bleue.

The first time I saw this post I was sure you were linking to Irnbru (http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/).

We don't get a lot of local craft brews around here, but there is one in the state of Mississippi: Lazy Magnolia (http://www.lazymagnolia.com/). Their Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale is actually decent. It's no Newcastle Brown Ale, but it's good.

I've had that too (the meat pie truck at the various highland games around here always has it.) I'd rate the Unibroue stuff a little higher.  :wink:

Bad things happen to me after a pint of whisky.  :uhrr:

But no, I agree to an extent - there's a tendency for brewers to make high-alcohol content beers for no reason other than that they sell well in supermarkets. In the UK at least there's been a steadily rising trend in alcohol content of bottled beers, which for a few reasons isn't a good thing.

However the taste:alcohol thing is kinda true too, but it's getting distorted by economics unfortunately.

Hoegaarden is really rising in popularity in England - can seem to get it everywhere now. Very pleasant easy drink, and I look out for it over here in the US now as a 'safe' option :P

I'm completely hooked on Belgian pale ales like Leffe and Duvel. Duvel I can get here, but the odd place that does do Leffe wants to charge me insane prices. Thankfully, PA has some reasonable beers - Yards and Troegs both turn out drinkable pale ales, at least to my palate.

Saranac and Long Trail Hefeweizens are my very favorite beers, actually. I've had some others that just didn't click, the two I mention have a real nice banana/clove/something like that, just really nice flavor. But they're both brewmasters choice from a couple years ago. I did have a decent import, I'd have to track down the bottle to get the name (am I the only one who saves the bottles?), but the shop I get it from doesn't move them quickly, so it's a crapshoot getting one that's young enough to be awesome.

Right now I'm in Sam Adams Octoberfest switched up with one of my perennial favorites, Saranac Black Forest. Buying from the brewery = awesome. They also have concerts in the summer, getting the Hef on tap with chili and bbq (chili makes the Hef taste like bubblegum!) while Dickey Betts is playing? Hell yeah.

As I said earlier, I like the dopplebocks and dunkels, too. Give me a Warsteiner or Ayinger Celebrator and I'm happy. Got into Negra Modelo at our local mexican joint, it's a funny story on how one of the best austrian beers is made in mexico.

Wish I had gotten into the Sam Noble Pils, I normally dismiss the hoppier side of the spectrum, but got one in a mix pack and it was really, really good.

Ayinger Brau-Weisse is the best Weissbier I have ever had.

Bar down the street has it, but I can't afford to drink there until I am gainfully imployed again as it is 6 bucks a bottle. (Not much more than a Tucher or Hacker-Pschorr but still too much for me).

As a Western New Yorker, aren't you required to drink Genesee?   :grin:

Keith's IPA is a little weak on the hops IMO, more of an American Pale Ale.  I'd take it over most of the big names in Canada though.


Canada:

Fort Garry: Makes fantastic Dark Ale.  A personal favourite, the only good reason to live in Manitoba.
Alexander Keith's: Like the dark, the red isn't bad but isn't my forte, indifferent to the IPA.  Available from the maritime to central Canada, possibly further.  This is the snobbiest brand that most bars offer.
Sleeman's / Upper Canada: UC does a very cheap (as in similarly priced to the cheapest beer you can find in Ontario) and decent dark ale.  Sleeman's honey brown is tasty, but a little light for my liking.
Brick / Waterloo: Dark beer is good.  The wheat beer is very strongly citrus tasting, probably would go over well with women friends who like coolers.
Big Rock: Tried almost every brown ale/lager they have (there's like three varieties) as well as wheat beer, nothing exceptional, but it's not my favourite styles of beer.
Rickards: I've tried the Red; is okay for a red beer.  To me it tastes like dark beer without enough burning.

Imports/When in Rome:

Lienenkugel: Creamy Dark went over well, would drink again.  Deserves it's place on the chart.
Michelob: Amberbock is surprisingly not bad for Anheuser-Busch, not an expert on what a bock should be like, but it probably isn't this.
Greene King IPA: Bitter.  Seemed like a great beer for a hot day.
Guinness Draught: More bitter than flavourful, you absolutely must let it air a bit during/after the pour, very good with your meat and potatoes.
Beck's: Dark beer was pretty good.
Fuller's: London Porter is great.  I have an empty, I wish I could supply a few mates to make it feel less lonely.
Faxe: There be dragons.

The sites with ratings/rankings are as terrible as gaming journalism.  Fuck these people for being such snobby cunts.

Lastly, if you like dark beer it's hard to find one that is completely irredeemable anywhere in the world I've been.  It's too niche a market for the manufacturer to count on mass consumption.

I haven't had a Genny cream ale in forever. I should try one with my modern palate, I used to like them. Don't think I've ever had a regular Genny (that I remember :drill:).

But I'm central, not western. Our local big brewery is Matt's Brewery. I used to hate Utica Club, but it got popular again with the kids. And Matt's....we used to call the result the Matt's Splatts  :ye_gods: Really, the Saranac brand was the best thing to happen to the brewery. Black Forest is such win. Link (http://www.saranac.com/page/black-forest) for non-regional folks.

Actually, very few if any. Most of the time, I just tend to sample them when I'm in the States. I spent five days in New Orleans a few years ago for work and tried every local brew I could find. Unfotunately, I don't remember most of them anymore.

Typically, I'll just order whatever Sam's ale type thing they have on tap if I'm trying to be safe in the US.

Sleeman's Honey Brown tends to be the go to beer for girls in Canada - I find it too sweet.

Rickards Red I just consider a travesty, I have no idea why it's so popular. Again, too sweet for me. Oddly though, Rickards makes an intersting white beer with a noticable citrus flavor, that I don't mind.

If you are in BC the right time of year, Granville Island Brewery does a limited run of Winter Ale that is really quite different, yet interesting.

Oh, man. Whenever I go home I pick up a case of Adirondack Lager. Then I head over to the Mendocino brewery and just pick some different stuff. The rest of the year, I get by on whatever's on sale (hello, PBR!) or Pilsner Urquell when I want to treat myself.

I'll probably dream about Saranac tonight. It's not easy to find in Miami.

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/almightytez/pic20070829_007.jpg)

I'm very glad that the Stone Brewing beers are available here in Illinois. Now I just wish I could get Brooklyn Brewing and Half Acre (small brewery in the city) to distribute to the burbs.

Driving in for a growler and a six pack is all well and good, but it's not like the roads around the city aren't famous for always being under construction.

I was shocked this weekend driving down the road  to see a dead bear.

Sleeman's Honey is on the sweet side.

Rickard's I've never found particularly sweet, but where I live storage, shipment, and availability of beers on tap is abysmal.  You might get fresher beer from Ontario than I do.

Abita Brewery?  Turbodog and Purple Haze, amongst others.

Where were you?

This is the awesome beer thread, not the awesome bear thread. Silly Furiously.

Hey, Saranac people.  I just saw this at the Bevmo near my work:

http://www.saranac.com/page/12-beers-of-summer-2010

Is any of that worth getting?  I've never had Saranac before, and this is the first time I've ever seen it in California.  Unfortunately, they only have it in that big variety pack, and not in singles or six packs.  Worth getting for the beer it comes with?  I'm always up for trying new breweries, especially ones outside the region.

I'm STILL waiting for fucking Victory to get there shit together and move into the bay area in a big way.  There is one distributor for the Bay Area, and its hard to find their stuff even in SF.  The people at beer revolution told me there isn't any distribution service to the whole east bay.  ARG.

Auburn - turns out a mama and her baby were hit at like 1am and the other baby went up a nearby tree. This was on 18 I believe and what a freaking huge bear is doing on a freeway with cubs.....

They add some new ones every year to the variety season packs. Their Pale Ale is fantastic. The Pomegrenate Wheat is a carry over from last year, but it wasn't really my thing. I might be confusing seasons, but I think the ones to go from the pack were the Black & Tan and the Adirondack Lager. I'm not a big fan of summer ales because of the citrus.

edit: I could scrump on that Rye Pils.

The Saranac mixer packs are usually worth trying.  You usually get two each of 6 different beers, and at least a couple will be great.  Some of the Summer bunch tend to be a touch too fruity for my tastes, so I prefer the Adirondack Trail Mix (usually some combo of the Lager, Black & Tan, Pale Ale, Amber, Black Forest, etc.) which tends to be more typical beers.

Seems like Matt's is also distributing Lake Placid Brewing Cos beers now too...  I've liked the 46er Pale Ale and the Ubu.

I don't mind a touch of fruit...  like Magic Hat #9 (Burlington brewery) which is my go to when I'm out at a bar.

I think I like the Helles, the Pils, the Wheat. It's a bit late for the summer pack, so flavor won't be peak. I think I actually enjoyed that Pale Pale and Summer ale, normally I'm not a hoppy beer drinker. (I say "I think" because it's been a while) I sometimes pick up the mix pack, but I can make my own mixes at the brewery or at the local discount beer place.

You should talk to a discount beverage warehouse if you have them out there. The proprietors are often wicked helpful about stuff like this, especially if you get to be a regular customer or can bring in other business for them. Once people find out about a receptive beverage outlet, it tends to get great word of mouth, which is why they're adaptive. For instance, the place I go I can not only get every variety of local brews (like Saranac and Ommegang), but it's also where I can get my Warsteiner and Ayinger stuff. And it's just some little dump at an out-of-the-way intersection....but everyone who enjoys good beer in the region hits it up because they have such an excellent stock. I can find almost everything you guys mention here in that place! And if I can't, they're happy to have new things for people to try.

It's kind of funny shopping the craft brews, because their business by far is kegs and cases of american mainstream. I'll see one or two people browsing the craft and local sections, and in that time they're loading out trucks full of kegs and have a brisk business at the main counter for bud/mich/miller/etc. It's a magical place.

Just have to mention Brew dog brewery and especially their IPAs,  Punk and Hardcore. Haven't tried their 55% abv "the end of history" but at about $800 I never will...

This (http://www.showmebeer.com/2009/09/boulevards-new-smokestack-harvest-dance.html) inspired me to start making wheat wines of my own.  It is just slightly overhopped for my taste, but not nearly so much as many barleywines...

...which reminds me, running low on this and need to make another.

Dang, how the hell is there a style (especially an American one) that I wasn't aware of?  I'll see if I can find any Wheat Wines here in the west, thanks!

I have been on a craft beer kick for the past few years and have found some nice ones that fit my taste. I'm at the end of a long night of drunken gaming and can't help posting after Brew Dog was mentioned. For reference, I usually prefer dark bitter beers, reds, barleywine style ales, and IPAs.

* Brew Dog, Chaos Theory (dark, bitter, but not too heavy)
* Southern Tier, Oak Aged Unearthly (a staggering amount of flavor that I just can't forget)
* Bear Republic, Red Rocket Ale (one of my favorite reds)
* Lagunitas, Lucky 13 (another excellent red that usually comes in a nice big bottle)
* Middle Ages, Druid Fluid (a barleywine style ale)
* Middle Ages, Wailing Wench
* Heavy Seas, Loose Cannon (an IPA with a bit of a barleywine taste to it)
* Ithaca Beer Co., Flower Power (a very hoppy IPA, but wth more complex flavors than most)
* Dogfish Head, Punkin Ale (best pumpkin ale I've tasted)
* Blue Point, Hoptical Illusion (solid IPA)

Some of these may be available only in Central NY, but I know we have a few on this board that live in the area. Marcy Discount Beverage near Utica, NY is like the Shangri-La of craft beers but even the gas stations sometimes have a nice selection around here. Wegmans in Fayetteville (east of Syracuse) also has a great selection at a killer price. Saranac is everywhere here (brewed 20 minutes away) but there are very few I care for, although the Black Forest isn't too bad. I've found most of the Magic Hat brews to be absolutely terrible, but #9 is an exception. Lake Placid is one of those beers I see all the time but haven't tried, so maybe I should give it a shot. I've also found Victory's Hop Devil is an excellent, well-rounded IPA.

Southern Tier's Pumking makes Punkin taste like garbage, IMO.

:why_so_serious:

I just tried this beer, and it was suprisingly good:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/262/58693

I only grabbed it because the "Half Dopplebock, Half Belgian Dubbel" peaked my curiosity enough that I couldn't resist.  And dear god, it actually does taste like a cross between the two.  Well done, and very unique flavor (which can often be not very good, but it worked great in this case).  Give it a try if you like either of those beers.

I grabbed a bottle of Pumking on your recommendation and it was epically delicious. A+++ will drink again. No doubt the best pumpkin brew out there. Also, Lagunitas Little Sumpin' is is also a well-rounded brew that I'm enjoying thoroughly.

If you can find it, there is also a Little Sumpin' Wild that's fermented with some wild yeasts. While it could probably stand to age for a year or more, even the fresh stuff has that hint of wild yeast tang that adds a lot to the base brew.

I picked up a twelver of the Sam Adams Winter Classics variety pack. Everything is good except for the chocolate bock, which is probably the worst beer I've ever tasted.

Too sweet?

Cranberry Lambic from Sam Adams always made me want to barf.

I agree. I love bocks and don't mind chocolate beers, but that was pretty bad.

Sick over the holidays, so last night I finally got into the Old Fezziwig I had been saving for xmas night.

If that's the stuff I'm thinking of, it's not really lambic.  It's a hefeweizen with cranberry flavoring.  Nasty, nasty stuff.

The Anderson Valley holiday beer was fucking amazing this year if you are a fan of brown ales. I can't recommend it enough.

I tried mixing Lindemans raspberry with an Old Rasputin Stout not too long ago. It was actually really tasty.


That was my first chocolate beer. I think I was just expecting something more subtle and with none of the chalky texture. ::blearg::

I recently had a nice Ayinger October Fest-Marzen. My mother got me a six of Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale, which is actually quite nice (I bet the guy at the craft shop recommended it, she has no clue). Also an Ayinger Hef and Sierra Nevada Hef, in my elusive quest to find a good Hef that's not Long Trail or Saranac (both regional but Brewmaster's limited runs). Both of the former, quite mediocre. Since so many Hefs are mediocre to bad compared to the LT and Saranac, I'm wondering if I'm actually questing for some subset of Hef they are brewing, it's quite maddening.

Try Young's Double Chocolate Stout Stu. If that doesn't float your boat then chocolate beer ain't for you.

Have any of you tried Coors Light yet?  I had some the other day and it was pretty tasty.  I like that the label changes blue so you know it's cold enough to drink.  

I prefer (http://www.chaostrivia.com/images/content/questionpics/pic1445.jpg) when serving swill.

a buddy of mine's brother in law is their brewmaster (which makes me 1 cooler eh), anyways their beers are amazing.

Tonight the SO and I tried two new ones.

For her: Brouwerij Lindemans Pomme (fancy European word for Apple) Lambic (fancy European word for AWESOME).
For me: High Rollers Wheat Beer from Anderson Valley Brewing Company (Boonville, CA)

The Lambic had a crisp dryness to it as if they use a Champagne yeast.
And while I normally drink wheats like Hoegardens, which I would describe as more of a heavy musty wheat with little or no discernible hops, the High Rollers had just a taste of hops to it. Just enough to add a snappiness to the wheat beer with out being hoppy (I dont like hoppy/bitter beers like IPAs).

So we were pleased with both.

Tomorrow/this weekend will be La Fin Du Monde from Unibroue of Quebec Canada. I have had this twice before. A wheaty amber color with a bright white head. Its an ale and a tripel at that, and while Im not normally an ale fan (again the hops and bitterness) the tripel brewing in this beer and the spices make it a delight to drink.


I also have a bottle of Moosbacher Weissbier from Bavaria. This one is entirely new to me. So shall be an adventure.

Yeah, my fiancee loves the Lindemans Lambics; especially the Kriek.  I like them as well, but the sweeter varieties honestly just taste like really crisp soft drinks. 

Drinking my usual Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout lately, but I'd enjoy it a lot more if the weather was colder.

I'm starting to like this new fish.

A friend of mine, upon hearing of my Bud Light drinking ways, made it her personal mission to expand my beer horizons. We went to Stone Brewery and did the tour, tasted some beers, and had a good time together. Turns out: I can appreciate good beer of all varieties. In fact, the Millers and Buds taste like piss now.

I found I really like Shiner Bock and other super complex lagers / ales, and don't *mind* dark beers (Had a Chocolate Stout, was pretty good.

So remove me from the heathen class of American.

I have fond memories of the Sam Adams Holiday 12 pack, from back when it was nearly impossible to get good craft or import beers. We would drive to another state to find Sammy Smith bombers, but you could usually secure a Sam Adams 12 pack at the corner store. Many fights over Old Fizziwig were had, second and third walks to the corner store made, etc.

Right now I'm working on some Smuttynose Brown. We apparently just got this brand here in burbland. I still cannot get Brooklyn Brewing out here.

This lack of interesting new stuff around me is going to force me out of this brewing slump. I may have to do an oatmeal stout.

I'm still hoping to get some brewing kit (and hinting and hinting for holidays...), but the next couple years of austerity are not going to be kind to my hobbies. I did grab Palmer's How To Brew, which is a pretty decent book (and I've got an old Papazian around somewhere). Some day Seven Toe Brewery will be a reality.

Since it's the new year I splurged on a 6 of Stone. It better be good.

Stone can be hard for newer people to get into (I love all their stuff).  They hop the ever loving shit out of almost all their beers, and most people usually need to develop there palate more before enjoying stuff like that.  The smoked Porter and Russian Imperial Stout are both very good non hoppy beers (their stout is probably my favorite RIS out there).

Haven't found a single volume with more information in it yet.

Heard some local stores about people drinking St. Arnold's Divine right after purchase.  This year, it being a(n unaged) barleywine.  "OMG, it tasted like rubbing alcohol and chocolate mush!"  Yep, give it 6 months, like the label says, heh.

They are quite proud of their hoppy beers, Stone is. What shocked me was the 40% price reduction by buying kegs onsite. Something like 6 cents an ounce instead of 14.

First taste was quite shocking, but it settled down nicely. But then again, I tend toward bitter tastes. I likes.

Rang in the new year with Warsteiner Dunkels and white russians.  Feeling pretty dudish right now.

Warsteiner Dunkel is a nice beer that sticks to your ribs, but is still very drinkable.  Very smooth and not overly sweet.  It tastes better at my favorite German restaurant, but that probably has something to do with the ambiance or possibly the kraut.  It'll be in the rotation during 2011 winter along with Shiner Bohemian Black and various and sundry imperial stouts.

Fixed it for you?

Yeah its the rage with so many microbreweries right now. How hoppy and bitter can we make our beers!
Went to some place in Asheville, NC the other day and they had some beer called "Death By Hops".

Warsteiner Dunkel is one of my favorites. I'm a dunkel/dopplebock kinda guy, though I do have that thing for hefeweizens.

We rang in the new year with a nice bottle of prosecco. And the new year promises not a lot in the way of beers, I'll be lucky to have a steady flow of my small beers to get by.

Surprisingly, one of my buddies in Chicago is familiar with Stone: Ruination (which is what I got). He confirmed what I told him, drinking this beer makes everything taste great because your taste buds are screaming for some other flavor to save them. Good stuff..

If you can get your hands on them, the Double Bastard and Lucky Bastard (can't recall the purposeful misspell off hand) are also both really good. I've only seen 'em in bomber format.

Side-note for non-awesome beer:

Whenever I go back to New England for the holidays, I make a point of picking up a few local brews. This year one of them was Newport Storm's single-batch Mark, a "coffee milk* stout."

Holy shit. I don't know what they were going for there, but the taste is so foul, I Googled to make sure I hadn't gotten a bottle that had somehow gone rancid. Though it smells pleasantly molasses-ey, the flavor is intensely sour and bitter, with a the faintest aftertaste of coffee. It's managed to displace France's Fischer as the worst swill I've ever tasted.



* Coffee milk, to my knowledge, doesn't exist outside of Rhode Island. There are two RI companies, Aurtocrat and Eclipse, that make coffee syrup. It's like the chocolate or strawberry syrups you stir into kids' milk, but coffee-flavored.

Offhand question, I have my Stone in the fridge. Is it better room temp?

I don't get how people can drink lukewarm beer in the first place, but an IPA is not the place to start.

Nah, once you get the hang of them, hoppy beers offer an awesome range of flavors.  The different hops offer so many different clashing tastes and flavors, which to most people who don't drink them regularly, all taste bitter and the same.  I couldn't stand even Pale Ale when I first started drinking beer.
Yeah, this.  I'm a big beer snob, but I like all my beer cold (doesn't stop me from drinking cask ale when I can).  Others say it brings out more flavors, but I've never really enjoyed what it does to beer.  Something like an Imperial Stout would be what you'd want to try though, not a really hoppy beer.

I can't stand ice cold beer unless it's budweiser or a Molson.  Warm it up a bit and it's great.

Different things work best at differing temperatures. I like IPA and Pale Ales at about 60, dry cider, guinness, or black ale about 50, all the German crap people keep giving me really cold.

You shouldn't be drinking anything at actual room temperature anyway, unless you mean server room temperature. Rattran's temperatures are good, I don't think I personally like anything quite as warm as 60 but an IPA shouldn't be back of the fridge cold for sure.

See this is the biggest difference between the dogma of your Church of Beer and my Church.
I think something should taste good from the first time I drink it. I shouldnt have to "get used to it".
I mean we are talking beer not iocane powder. I shouldnt have to build up a tolerance to it.
Just my opinion though.

It's not building tolerance, just appreciation. It's kinda like getting into a new type of music; your brain needs to chew on it for awhile to figure out if it is good or not.

I have yet to taste a non-foul coffee beer, so it is not just you.

My palate has grown more friendly to hoppy ales. I used to just give away any I got in a mix pack, now I'll usually drink them and enjoy most. I do stay away from the craft hoptard stuff, though. I'm also considering hops as a screening vine behind the house, which I find kind of ironic.

I like my beer cold. I keep my fridge as close to freezing as possible, one nudge above the point where beer will freeze. This is mostly for the small beer (old mil light), I keep the good stuff on the door.

It's about developing your palate, not about "getting used to it." Much like it takes a kid several tries with a food to develop a palate for it, many craft beers are the same. Once you know the flavors and aromas, it's easier to appreciate the product. I guess it is similar to wine in that respect.

It seems that there are people who like beer with flavor, people who like golden pisswater, and those in the middle who think Sierra Nevada is the end all be all of "craft" beer.

Hey now! I like craft beers. Just not hoppy ones. I like Hoegarden and other wiesse or wietbeers and heffeweizens.

CmdrSlack pretty much said what I was going to say.  I hated all beer when I was younger, and wouldn't drink it.  I was only able to start drinking light lagers in Japan, and then steadily worked my way up from there.  No beer tasted good from the start for me.  Now I brew my own and spend way the fuck to much money on specialty Russian Imperial Stouts.   :awesome_for_real:  I'm attempting to do the same with wine right now.

Though hush CmdrSlack, Sierra Nevada is awesome!

I like to think I have a fairly decent beer palate by this point and I'm still not a fan of pale ales, which puts me at odds with most of the beer snobs I know. 

I just happen to believe there are flavors in the world besides bitter.

Oh, it certainly comes down to personal preference as well.  No matter how much you try it, certain things are just going to always taste bad to different people.  What I was saying about hops is just a general rule of thumb.  Some people wont like it no matter what, just I like I know people who can't stand any sort of sweet malty beer.

I frankly don't even taste bitterness anymore when I drink extra hoppy beers, just layers of sweetness.

The problem for me is that I find beers to be situational/seasonal. Right now, I'm having no problem with big stouts and whatnot, but in the summer not so much. Also annoying is that a large majority of the U.S. craft brew available in my area is geared towards the hop-head*, or it is out of season (for me).

I seem to pick beer on this kinda schedule:

Winter: stouts, porters, brown ales, bigass double IPAs and pales, barleywine, other high-gravity but interesting stuff for warming up. Saison du Pont because it is awesome.
Spring: brown ales, pale ales, belgian golden ales, IPAs (moreso the UK-style herbal and grassy ones), sometimes back to bigger beers if we get a cold snap. Saison du Pont.
Summer: kolsch lagers, dortmunder lagers, pale ales, IPAs (trending towards US-made non-insane), Metropolitan lagers (local brewery). Saison du Pont.
Fall: fresh hop harvest IPAs, double IPAs made from same, brown ales, porters, lighter bodied stouts, pale ales. Saison du Pont.

Of course, I'm also open for random stuff I've never tried, largely without reference to the above preferences. Also, Saison du Pont.


* I love me some hops. The double IPAs that are sweet and abusive and sweet again, then floral. Stuff like that. But it seems that the safe bet for a craft brewery is to launch with an IPA, then add flavors from there. This really entrenches the IPA as the default style, and I can see how that would turn away some.

CmdrSlack,
So what your saying is IPA's are the beers for hipsters. Gotcha.  :grin:


Agreed.

I've been drinking a mixed 24 pack of Two Brothers from Costco, a good hop-head style bitter, their French country ale, a decent stout, and a very odd hoppy rye ale. I can't decide whether or not I like the 'Cane and Ebel' red rye, but it's at least interesting.

It's even better in a growler from the brewpub. If you're anywhere near Warrenville, IL, I highly suggest going there. The food is awesome and reasonably priced.

That would be Chimay or Delerium Tremens, IMO.

I had a hefeweizen last night, and I think it's the first time I've had one of these. It was Yazoo Hefeweizen (http://www.yazoobrew.com/our-beers/hefeweizen.php), and it had a very bubbly effervescence. Made me think of really fizzy soda or how someone had said they made a beer with champagne yeast or some shit. Not bad, though not sure it was something I'd drink on a regular basis. That bubbliness kind of deflated about halfway in. Still good if you like that sort of thing, though.

Really good ones get this banana, cotton candy, coriander kinda thing going on too. The fizzy factor is 'cause you want to get that yeast sediment out of the bottom of the bottle and into your glass - there's vitamins and flavor in that yeast!

Try an original Paulaner hefeweizen.  They serve it in some places with a lemon like Blue Moon is served with an orange.  Paulaner is my hands-down favorite beer... I always am trying new stuffs but I also always finish the night with my favorite.

Tried a Lindeman's Framboise lambic tonight.  Interesting... not something I'd go out of my way to drink more of, but it was a delicious experience. 

Local ice cream shop does a cherry lambic sorbet that knocks socks. 

Six Rivers Brewing (northern coastal CA, by Arcata) has a rasberry lambic that is to die for.  Lambic is generally not my bag, but while up visiting friends I picked up a *growler(?)* of this and was a very happy camper.

Coffee and milk. Not coffee milk.

Milk stout + coffee stout = coffee milk stout. Coffee refers to flavor notes (which sometimes are the result of adding coffee and sometimes not) and milk refers to the fact that they added lactose (or just a cream of some sort)

Milk stouts are hit and miss, sometimes they're wonderfully creamy with a hint of sweetness and sometimes they're simply bad. IIRC if you get a bad one its likely the entire batch didn't make it so it won't just be a bad bottle or barrel. Buy another brand or wait until next year.

What kind of Stone?

Typically only Stouts and Porters (or some cask ales) are going to be drank at room temperature, but they don't have to be.

Cold is the norm, the warmer your beer is the more obvious its flavor is going to be.

Wow, thank you for the recommendation.  Even living in North Cal, and drinking tons of beer, I haven't actually seen a brew by these guys or even tried one.  They look like they have a ton of great stuff.  I'm going to make it a mission to try out some of there beer.  I'm sad to say I've tried more local Oregon brews near tham, than they themselves.   :?

In this particular case, it actually is coffee milk. This vile beverage oozed from the tanks of "Rhode Island's only microbrewery," and is 7% Autocrat syrup (http://www.autocrat.com/cart/index.cfm?ac=ShowProducts&CatID=550&SetCat=1) and milk.

"Voted best product made in Rhode Island."

heh.

Only because organized crime is technically a service, not a product.

Living in the land of dunkels and dopplebocks, and berating myself for not jotting down brands from the chart in this thread to guide me through the wonderous tunnels of the local distributer's outlet...I recently discovered Sam Adam's Black Lager. I'm trying to withhold my judgement on the matter until I can make a more scientific exploration into the subject, but I'm of a mind that this is the best beer on terra firma. Smooth, rich, flavorful without being heavy or bitter. The characteristics of the dunkels and dopples, but the clean finish of noble hops.

I've got some Negra Modelo left over from Cinco de Mayo, and it is slightly nudged out by the Sam Black, to my amazement. Just a bit more richness and complexity. On Cinco de Mayo, we hit our local restaurant for an amazing buffet (the exec chef is mexican) and I got talking to the exec chef about Negra Modelo, the story of how one of my two favorite Munich dunkels is from mexico, and how that came to be.

I really love Schwarzbiers (aka black beer, black lager, or black ales) and these days I'll generally drink them over any other beer when available.  Have you tried Kostrizer (my fave) or 1554 yet?

Dragon Stout is a pretty goddamn awesome beer.

I've recently tried Dos Equis.  Mexico needs to try harder, Jamaica is kicking their ass.

I've said a few times above that Hefeweizens are my favorite beers.  We were out in Seattle in March and I tried to sample a few a day.  Sadly, the Pacific Northwest does not focus on them, but I found a few decent ones.  The Widmer Bros out of Portland was fantastic, nice and yeasty. 

What they do have, however, is IPAs out the wazoo.  Seems to be a major focus up there.

I just had some of Sam's Black Lager from one of their sampler packs, myself, Sky.  I'll agree that it's great.  I've been saving the 2nd bottle because it was so good I don't want to just swig it down so I'm waiting for  a day I've got a nice long bit to enjoy it.

I recently picked up a 12-pack Sampler of Sam Adam's summer brews. The Rustic Saison was, imo, the best of the pack.  (It also had a few regular Boston Lagers and 2 bottles of Light) There's one.. IP-129 or something like that.. I can't drink it.  Tastes way too bitter and doesn't settle right when I drink it.  I can't figure out what it is about that one, but I'm going to have to dump the other bottles or see if my brother in law wants them.

Making notes for my next visit to the distro.

Dos Equis: I like the dark one, haven't tried the golden one.

Hefeweizen: my other favorite brew. I've talked about it before, but I'm puzzled by this brew. One the one hand, one of my very favorites; on the other, meh. I'm suspecting it might be that I like it VERY fresh, since the brews I've enjoyed were both bought directly from the brewery (Saranac and Long Trail). All the imports and non-regional domestics I've tried have been meh, totally different taste. Maybe something to do with the lack of filtering and the aging process? I'm stumped, so I avoid them.

Kostrizer is in damn near every store near me, and it's relatively cheap for a 500mL bottle compared to the other German imports, so I drink it a fair amount. I agree, it's pretty nice and light despite the dark color. I'm a fan, safe to say. I also like König Pilsener when I'm in the mood for lighter stuff and it's half the price of the Hofbrau Munchen that's available.

I've been drinking a fair amount of Paulaner, as it comes in 5L steel party-kegs which I can reuse for homebrewing.  :awesome_for_real:

Hockley Traditional Irish Stout: I'm not sure what the hell their problem is that they need to make beer this great to forget it.

Could you please post the names of some of those dunkles/dopplebocks you have over there?  I'm proud of West Coast brewing tradition, but one thing we lack is those two specific varieties.  Almost nobody tries to make them, and the few that do dont tend to make them the way they should be...  Which is unfortunate, since Dopplebocks are my favorite beer.  :(  So yeah, any hints on East Coast brews to look after would be appreciated.
Huh.  I never thought of that (and we grab those Paulaner kegs quite often).  How exactly do you recycle it for home brewing?

You need to remove the rubber bung that they use to seal the top, as if you were going to put a tap on top. Don't throw the bung out though, just wash and sanitize it.

Next, wash the keg out well and sanitize it - I use Starsan, but any other kitchen-grade no-rinse sanitizer will work well.

Then, instead of bottling into bottles, you put 5L of beer into the 5L keg - don't fill it, as you want a little bit of head room. Then just stick the rubber bung back on top and close it - you should get an airtight seal that allows your beer to carbonate and age just as if it were in a giant bottle. The bung is, apparently, designed to get tighter as internal pressure builds, so it should hold the growing pressure as your beer carbonates.

When you're ready to serve, just serve it like you would a regular Paulaner party-keg. I'm opening my first Paulaner-kegged beer this Saturday; I'll let you know how it goes.

I can't tell you how jealous I am that you have access to a 5L keg of Paulaner.  Considering I have to pay $9/six for it...

The 5L keg of Paulaner costs me €37/$50, so I think you're still coming out on top on price.

I'm pretty sure it's all imports, I'll have to go peruse the empties collection. Mostly I go for Ayinger Celebrator dopplebock and the Warsteiner dunkel (and of course, Negra Modelo as mentioned).

I've really been feeling the urge to start brewing, I should've bought a basic kit before I bought my darn truck. I'll try a few easy things to learn, but I think I want to dial in on the whole bock/dunkel/black lager zone. Also goes with my label theme based on my cat, Bart (a black cat).

You're in the US, yeah? Midwest Brewing (http://www.midwestsupplies.com) does a lot of nice extract kits, which are good for beginners. You can get started for like $200, and that startup cost amortizes quickly as you do more batches.

I imported a number of the Midwest kits before moving over to all-grain, and they all came out great - I did a dunkelweisen kit which might interest you. Extract brewing is simple enough that anyone can do it, you just have to be diligent about the basics - cleanliness, precision, etc.

That's the site Cmdr Slack referred me to long, long ago. I waited too long and now $200 isn't something I can do until 2014. Been fishing for xmas for years now, but no nibbles.

Holy schnikies yeah, you're paying more than twice what I do.  Guess I won't complain. 

Homebrew is 1/4 the cost of decent beer due to the import taxes and, more importantly, the sky-high alcohol taxes. Go go Nordic countries and their love-hate relationship with booze.  :uhrr:

This current conversation trend is making me itch to try homebrew.  How are the starter kits at Midwest for fist time quality?  I'd look towards going with the intermediate kit to have two batches going at once.  Have you tried any of their hefeweizen recipes?

Yoru, are you in Iceland? I read an article a few years back that the government's policy of keeping beer at ~2% ALC lead many young people in the country to mix their brew with vodka in order to get some kick in their puss. Have you run into that?

I think I read that in Beer Advocate (?) nvm, I don't remember the mag.

I've never done a kit myself, but the rule of thumb if you're buying one locally is to look for the most recent "packed' date that you can.  The extracts do degrade in quality some over time.  A place like Midwest is likely turning them over fairly quickly, so you should be safe.

I dig the yeast from the Cooper's Wheat kit myself - it's my go-to yeast for many of my recipes.

The Midwest kits are great. Some are better than others. There was a cherry stout that kind of sucked. My favorite is their amarillo pale ale kit....dunno if they still make it.

I haven't done the Midwest hef kits - I stopped doing extract a little over a year ago. I did do a dunkelweizen (effectively a dark hef) extract from them and it turned out excellent. The Germans I invited over loved it and thought it tasted pretty authentic. In fact, all the Midwest kits I did turned out at least decently and often quite good.

The most important things when homebrewing are (a) cleanliness and (b) temperature control.

If you're not strict about cleanliness, your beer will get infected and taste like poo regardless of the quality of your ingredients. It's very important to use a good sanitizer on everything that's going to touch your wort post-boil, and to rinse everything well with clean, cold water if you're not using a no-rinse sanitizer. (I strongly recommend a no-rinse sanitizer - a spraybottle of Star-San solution will help keep your sanity intact.)

If you can't keep your fermenting wort at a decent, relatively constant temperature (15-20C for ales, the sweet spot varies by strain), your yeast will either ferment too little and you'll end up with mildly alcoholic sugarwater, or they'll ferment too fast and produce a lot of off-flavors. I'm lucky, as my flat stays a relatively constant temperature throughout the seasons, never peaking above 22C in the height of summer. Think about where you'll store your fermenting wort, and then again about where you'll store your bottled beer whilst it's bottle-conditioning - a cool, dark basement or closet is best.


Yeah, I'm in Iceland and yes, the locals will freely tell that story, but it dates back to 1989. See, from the local start of Prohibition in the '30s up until 1989, all beer over 2% ABV was illegal. As a result, people would buy vodka (or landi - the local version of moonshine) and pour it into 2% "light beer" and pretend they were drinking real beer - most students at the time went abroad to Denmark to study, where they drank real, decent beer and folks were trying to imitate that experience. Apparently it was repulsive.

I've never tried it myself and don't intend to.

These days, you can get "cheap" shitty beer at the local liquor stores for about $1.50 per 33cL can or $1.75 per 50cL can - it's what most of the students drink. Decent local stuff starts at $2.50/33cL bottle and good imports start around $3.50/33cL.

The bums here have stooped a bit lower - alcohol taxes only apply to booze sold in the liquor stores, so the bums drink vanilla extract and hand sanitizer. Some of the dodgier bus stops will be littered with little empty bottles come Sunday morning.

Here's two quick snaps I just took of my spare bedroom, which doubles as the boozery. Note that I do all-grain brewing, so I have way way more gear than you need. You can get away with just a few pails, a siphon, capping gear and a kettle if you're doing extract brewing. Sorry for the shitty quality, I took it on an iPod.


Left to right, front to back. Hop bags and water salts to correct water pH. A vanilla-infused ale, bottled 2 weeks ago. A bunch of fermenting pails (the plastic buckets with blue graduation marks on them) filled with tubes for transferring liquids; some of these have connections that let me hook them directly up to my sinks. The copper handles poking out are from a hand-made spiral immersion chiller, used to cool wort after boiling. The big cabinet in back is my "aging cellar", which has bottles from about 4 different batches at different stages of aging in it.

Big white buckets in the back are grain pails - pale ale malt, wheat malt, rye malt, carapils, caraaroma, caramunich I, II and III. One of the pails in front of that is actually a retrofitted hot liquor tun; two heating elements from disassembled countertop hot-water kettles stuck into holes cut into a standard fermenting pail.

The big fucking steel kettle is a 50-liter stewpot bought from a restaurant supply store. It's the boiling kettle. It sits atop a propane-fired turkey fryer imported from the US, which is used to do the boils - my stovetop just can't get up enough heat to boil 25L of water, and I don't like doing high-gravity boils with all-grain batches.

Next photo for the rest of the room...


Blue tub in the front is the mashing tun - it's basically just a decent cooler with a hole drilled in one side and a valve stuck in there. A bit of mesh hose inside prevents clogs - vital to prevent stuck sparges when doing all-grain. That space-age thing inside is a gadget one of my brewing buddies cooked up - it's just a holder for hop bags with metal rods to rest it atop the boiling kettle.

Box on the bed has miscellaneous gear - bottle washer, some airlocks, flavoring ingredients like bitter orange peel and coriander seeds. Also two scales, one accurate to 1g and another accurate to 0.1g, for measuring grains and hops, respectively. A smaller 11L kettle in the back for doing small pilot batches on the stovetop, also doubles as a handy pail for crushed grain when milling the malts.

The bucket up front with the handle is a bottling bucket, imported from the US. It's effectively a fermentation bucket with a spigot attached to the side near the bottom. Very much recommended, as it makes bottling 100% easier than with a siphon and they're usually quite cheap.

Glass carboy fermentation vessel. I don't use it much because it's a bitch to clean. The aluminum foil over the top is to keep dust out. Vacuum cleaner because I don't have anywhere else to keep it.

About 20L of oatmeal stout, just finished aging after 2 months. I ran out of space in the ale cabinet. Finally, on the far right, a bottle tree - a handy thing to stick bottles on whilst they dry. Midwest sells them, they're cheapish but not really necessary until you're cleaning out tons of bottles regularly.

Oh yes, and the spare bed, on which you throw drunk friends after they come to your homebrew parties and get utterly wasted on good beer.

Gah, you are lucky.  Here in Texas, my place fluctuates between 72 and 80F half the year.  Good time for weizens and fruit beers!   :awesome_for_real:


But it's so cool to watch a primary fermentation in glass!   :grin:

After scratching one of mine with the bottle brush, I've resorted to the following strategy:

1] Rinse out what you can (I fill mine 20% full with water and shake them).
2] Fill it to the narrowest point with water, add 1 tablespoon per gallon One Step Cleaner/Sanitizer (http://www.homebrewers.com/product/6016B/One-Step-No-Rinse-Sanitizer.html).
3] Let sit overnight.
4] Rinse it out a couple times and let dry.

You might have to repeat steps 2-4 once if you're doing a barleywine or something.  Note that this won't help with hard water.   :uhrr:

Hah, yeah, you'd say that's lucky except 22C is just about the highest outdoor temperature we get here. Most of the time, the heater's on to keep the place above 15C; it only goes north of 16C during June and July, when the outdoor temperature rises above that. August through May, it's quite chilly. Despite that, we're going to try our hand at lagers and are cobbling together a lagering fridge. It's sitting behind me now. It just needs a power strip, which I'm picking up tomorrow. :grin:

I'll have to pick up some of that sanitization product next time I'm stateside; if it makes glass-fermentation easier I'm all for it. My brew buddies are all chattering about moving to conical fermenters though, so we'll see.

And yeah, the water here? It's so soft we always have to add various salts in order to get any decent hop utilization. Most of our beers end up substantially less hoppy than they should, due to the softness of the water.

On sanitization - how about a dishwasher with a sanitizing mode? For everything that would fit in there, anyway. Stuff like the carboys would obviously need something else. Though given what you guys are saying about them, maybe I should be looking at bucket fermenting? The midwest kits all seem to have carboys (plastic or glass).

On connecting to the sink - both my sinks have non-standard faucets. Not sure there's a workaround for that, though I can fill large containers with the kitchen faucet, as it's extendable (has a hose).

Also a bit worried about the stove setup. In fact, I might have to scratch the entire idea until I can install a new stove. I have the worlds shittiest electric stove, with a sub-code hood that basically means I have difficulty boiling liquids in a normal pot, let alone a 5 gallon pot. It will scorch the bottom and the hood doesn't vent properly. For normal-sized pots this means I have to constantly mop condensation or it will drip back into the pot and any other pan on the stove. As someone who cooks every night, let me put it mildly: I fucking hate my fucking stove.

Turkey fryer is a good idea, or maybe I can finally brick in a firepit :) I have several cord of wood...

The main problem with plastic is that it always (eventually) scratches, and the more scratches you get, the more hiding places for stuff you don't want (bacteria, the last yeast you used, etc.), which requires better cleaning and sanitization, which leads to more scratches...  This is why I use plastic for primary and glass for secondary, so that it sits the longest time in the cleanest, least-scratchy environment.  YMMV.

For heat, I'd go with the turkey fryer myself if you already use LP for grilling, or if you want to stay electric look into a canning element (http://www.apwagner.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=105644).  With one of those on my 1970's electric range, I can keep 7.5 gallons of wort at a boil on the max setting.  And my hood drips as well - not a major issue if you keep it clean.

Dogfishhead Festina Pesche

Starr Hill Lucy

You're welcome.

Opinions vary on dishwasher sanitization, personally I don't like it as there's often residue from dishwashing soaps in your dishwasher. Those have chemicals that are meant to break up bubbles - great for streak-free glassware, but will also kill head formation/retention on your beer.

I'd recommend standard chlorine cleansing+sanitizing mixes you can buy from brewing stores for cleaning & sanitizing your fermentation containers and kegs/bottles, and then using no-rinse acid sanitizer on everything else. There's no trick to using either no-rinse sanitizer (soak your item, shake it off, done) or chlorine sanitizer (soak, let sit for 30 minutes, rinse, dry) - it's not an equipment-heavy process. Concentrated no-rinse sanitizer is cheap and lasts forever (I bought a liter for like $20 and it's not even a quarter done) and chlorine sanitizing powder is also cheap - under $10 and also lasts you many batches.

Also, I recommend you start working with the plastic fermentation containers they sell at brewing stores; they're cheaper and lighter, so if you end up not getting into it, at least you got some reusable plastic buckets out of it. It's harder to repurpose a glass carboy. If you get serious, go glass.

Sinks, you don't need to be able to connect anything directly to your sink - I have hookups for doing that because (a) I don't have an extendable hose, so I had to fill up my pails one 500mL measuring-cupful at a time and (b) I can run the cold water straight through the copper immersion chiller. If you have an extendable hose, you've got problem A solved - you can hose stuff off and fill buckets with your hose-faucet. When starting out, you won't have fancy chilling gear, so problem B isn't an issue either.

The stove is an issue; you can start out by doing high-gravity boils, but you'll need to be able to boil at least 10-12 liters of liquid at a time. A turkey fryer's another substantial investment, but you can reuse it if you do other outdoor cooking. A firepit isn't quite as good an idea, as you want to be able to get a constant, controlled amount of heat into the pot - natural wood fires are harder to control.

That said, if you're good at firemaking and can keep a wood fire boiling a large amount of water for 60 minutes, go for it - bit of a crazy experiment, but it's also kind of awesome.  :awesome_for_real:

I could probably drop the pot on top of my woodstove in the winter, it would also humidify the house :)

I'm pretty good at wood fire control, but this year I've got a melange of wood, unless I separate it all into species it would be very difficult to control. For an hour, though, probably doable. I also like the idea of using my woodstove and not paying extra for fuel to boil with.

For the immersion chiller, it's all indirect water, right? I could use the hose bib in the garage for that, if needed. It's got a frost free mechanism, so might me doable for my hypothetical winter brewing.

Basement would get a bit cold, usually 12C in the winter, maybe 20C in the summer.

You don't need to use an immersion chiller, but yeah, it's indirect water - you pass icy cold water through temperature-conductive tubing immersed in your wort. Copper tubing is the only thing you want to use, as you can sterilize it by immersing the chiller in the boiling wort for the last 15 minutes of the boil. This has the added benefit of getting just a bit of copper into the wort, which reportedly acts as yeast nutrients.

Starting out, you can just immerse your pot in an ice-water bath and keep the ice-water circulating around the pot. It's not as fast or clean as using proper chilling equipment, but most people can muster a bathtub full of ice (or snow, in the winter).

As for temperatures, those are good ranges. Some ale yeasts like it around 12-15C, you'd have to do research to find a decent strain. Altbiers and kolsch yeasts like that temperature range, if I recall right. 20C is more appropriate for weizens, so I hope you like wheat beer. The main thing is that the temperature remains near-constant throughout the day and over the course of the primary/secondary fermentation. You don't want cold snaps or heat waves affecting your yeasts.

I strongly recommend picking up the "How to Brew" book by John J. Palmer. It covers absolutely everything you've asked so far and more, in much more detail than I can go into. Midwest sells it, and you could also check area libraries.

Awesome book.  "New Brewing Lager Beer" by Gregory Noonan is also recommended (by Palmer, too) if you plan on doing lagers.

It's on the end table right now. I got a ways into it when I bought it last year, then got bummed out because I can't afford to start brewing, dropped hints for an xmas gift...then a bday gift...so I should probably just accept it'll be a few years before I can try my hand at it.  :sad_panda:

Brew kettle : $20 32-quart stainless tamale steamer (this is what I use (http://www.target.com/IMUSA-32-qt-Aluminum-Tamale-Steamer/dp/B001ARYXNW))
6-gallon fermentation bucket: $20 with airlock
Racking cane: $6
One-step cleaner/sanitizer : $8
Hydrometer (optional) : $8
Grain steeping bag (optional): $5

Use spare screw-top plastic bottles for putting the final product in.
Use the cold water/ice bath method for wort cooling.
Leave the brew in the bucket for a month and bottle condition.

Go forth and start extract brewing on a budget.   :awesome_for_real:

Hmm, hadn't been to General Discussion in awhile, so missed this fine thread.  I'm a homebrewer too.  Been at it now for 5 years+.  Started a home brew club here with a friend.  Started extract with a system that was maybe $50-60 total.   Chilled by putting the kettle in an ice bath and stirring constantly but slowly.

I've probably ended up putting nearly $600 into my setup over the years.  I'm all-grain now and keg.  Still loving it.  I just made some more investments to get my mash tun bigger to handle bigger beers.  10 Gallon tun to make 5 gallon batches can hit some seriously high OG's.  I was limited to about 14.5 lbs grain in my 5 gallon tun before.

Our group just got 14 brewers together to make a Scotch Ale and mix together into a 55 gallon Rye Whisky barrel.  Been aging for about 3+ months now.  Plan to at least get 6-8 months.  We pulled 5 gallons at 2 months to share with people at the Big Brew Day we had here (national day to celebrate Home Brewing in the US.)  I still have a lot of it in my kegerator.  It is nice and only getting nicer with age.  The Big Brew day had about 16 brewers all brewing outside under a tent we provided with their own setups and their own recipes.  Was great.

Next project for the group is another barrel (bourbon this time,) to make a big Russian Imperial Stout.  The original Rye barrel will get emptied and then we're going to go with a big DIPA (double Indian pale ale,) with lots of dry hopping. 

I'll stop there....yeah I'm into brewing too.

 

Also, I'm a huge craft beer fan.  I basically won't drink anything but that.

I'm in Michigan and that helps  a lot.  We're currently in the top 5 in the nation for craft brew volume/activity/whatevermetricyouwantotuse.  I'm also close to Chicago, so there's that.

Favorite within-driving-range breweries?  Founders (have my case of 2011 KBS aging in my basement now, 2010 and 2009 nearly gone), New Holland, Vivant,  Dark Horse, Bell's, Arcadia, and Three Floyd's (Indiana.)  Love the long drive to Detroit for Kuhnnen's and Dragonmead.  Go up North, ay, for North Peak, Short's, and Right Brain.  Tons of others, but those are my fav's.

Saw Unibrougue (sp) down below...another big shout out from here.   Love them.

Enjoying a lot of good west coast breweries including North Coast and Lagunitas.  They can't seem to do wrong.  East coast is great too with Ommegang and Dogfish Head.  Having a brainfart where Left Hand is from, but fantastic beers from them.

Palmer's How-to-Brew is basically all online and easily searchable.  I use this site a ton.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-5.html

Left Hand is from Colorado.  It's kind of a pain to find their stuff locally, but I'm a fan of it.   

The other day I dropped in on a friend at the local bar/pub to say hey and catch up. No idea, but I really had the taste for a Fat Tire but sadly, it's just not available around here (Pittsburgh). However, the barkeep, who was a friend of my buddy poured me a Railbender and said I didn't have to pay for it if I didn't like it. Went back to my apartment $20 shorter and began hunting for a spot that sold cases of it around here. Thank god the only one that does is a hole in the wall beer store (http://www.savemorbeer.com/) that has a treasure trove of stuff. I got a case of Railbender, but christ I am thinking about just going down their list.

For those in distribution range...Saranac is making their Hefeweizen (my favorite) this summer.

Rejoice!

Necro!

Holy shit I just tried an amazing beer. It is a local brewery and this is their experimental line where they only make 1800 bottles per release and play around with it so won't really be available around, but holy hell it is amazing. They actually age it in bourbon casks.  May be my new favorite beer, which is saying A LOT.   Added bonus: 9.5 percent ABV.

http://www.epicbrewing.com/our-beers/exponential-series/itemlist/category/19-smoked-and-oaked

I don't see high alcohol content as a bonus, quite the reverse in fact. The less alcohol, the more you can enjoy.

Ab has to get as much as he can quickly, in Utah you never know if they are going to make booze illegal again from minute to minute. :grin:

I officially proved I'm a beer nerd/snob by standing in line for over an hour last week just to get a 12 oz pour of one beer:

Pliny The Younger (http://russianriverbrewing.com/brews/pliny-the-younger/).

It was SF beer week all last week, and while I didn't hit many events like I did last year (since I'm holding myself to a pretty strict diet for the new year), I did hit some stuff Friday and Saturday.  Pliny the Younger is very very hard to get, because they only make it once a year, and only in kegs.  For beer week, a pizza place in Berkeley managed to get ONE keg.  It was announced on their website that they would be tapping this one Keg at 5 PM.  I work in Oakland, so I made some excuse and quite work early at 4.  Got to Berkeley and the line at 4:30.  This is the line for the keg at that time:

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41488/IMG_0241.JPG)

The line is into Bobby G's Pizzeria.  Keep in mind, that line then extended into the place and to the counter in the back to order, and then you had to stand in another line that wrapped all round the the inside to get to the bar for your actual pour.  That was at 4:30.  Within 10 minutes, there was a larger amount of people standing behind me.  It then wrapped around the block and I couldn't see anymore, so I'm sure an even larger volume than that soon followed.  They tapped the keg at 5, and the line started moving.  I eventually got my small glass of it by 5:45.

Despite all that, I will say its easily the best IPA and/or hoppy beer in general I've ever tasted.  Amazing floral taste, that is almost all sweetness and no bitterness.  But its not the heavy cloying sweetness Double/Tripple IPA's usually have, but smooth and rich.  Best of all, it had a very creamy mouth feel (which I've never really tasted in a beer of this category), which went wonderfully with the other factors I just mentioned.  Overall spectacular beer, and I'm happy I waited.

The line was still going around the block when I left the place, but I'm sure they had to be pretty close killing the keg by that point.  Thankfully they only charged $6 for it.  With that kind of raving demand, they pretty much could have charged what ever they wanted and made the keg literally worth its weight in gold.

Gotta love Epic.  I've had most of their beers including the smoked and oaked.  It is indeed fantastic, although I am a poor student so I really can't justify buying it!

Speaking of beer aged in bourbon barrels, If you ever get a chance, try this:  http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/bourbon_county_stout/59.php.  Godly.

Pliny the Younger is an incredible beer.  I managed to get some at Toronado by pure luck once.  I can see that its reputation has only grown since then!  Of course Pliny the Elder ain't bad either, but Pliny the Younger is so damned unique, just as you described it.  More of it needs to be made. 

Any reason they don't...make more of it?

From the website:  http://russianriverbrewing.com/brews/pliny-the-younger/

"It is almost a true Triple IPA with triple the amount of hops as a regular I.P.A. That said, it is extremely difficult, time and space consuming, and very expensive to make. And that is why we don’t make it more often!"

Excuses excuses.

i like drinking beer.lol :awesome_for_real:

*gets a shovel and a plastic bag*

I want that report button.

Holy shitballs. Fiancee got me a gift cert for the local distro in Marcy; always a good thing. They just rejiggered everything so it was fun poking around, need to do a full list, but I stocked up on dopplebocks and dunkels, with a Sam mix pack because it has the lovely Dunkelweizen I love. Also got a first run Sam Cinder Bock that was quite nice.

I'm about halfway through a pint of an Erdinger Dark Hefeweizen and yeah, two great things do go together. This Erdinger might be beer nirvana fermented in a bottle.

Finally decided to /unlurk to discuss my favorite subject.

Tonight I had Deschutes Obsidian Stout and Boulevard Bob's 47 Oktoberfest. Obsidian is always a staple in my fridge during the winter. The Boulevard Oktoberfest is the best Marzen I've had so far this year and I've had quite a few. I definitely recommend it.


Sam Adams has really fortified their beer offerings. Seems like they have a new style every time I turn around. Most of them are really good too. The Dunkel is excellent. I've had their cream stout recently and I would buy that over a lot of the more expensive stouts out there.

I was about to make a thread about beer, thinking that F13 didn't have one.... but then found out it does (obviously)...

Anyway, i'm a beer nerd. It's been geting worse and worse as the years tick on. The plans are in place to brew my first batch in a week or two, and I spend way too much money on it.

Tonight's bill started with Uinta's Brewing Crooked Line Cockeyed Cooper Barleywine. Delicious.

Deep burnt sienna color. about 1 finger of head, light tan in color.  nose: caramel. sweety/saltyness, mild vanilla. tasteL BIG Toffee and malt up front, smooths out to vanilla with a nice warmth.

TThis is incredibly drinkable. Which is why I drank it. All of it. Oh god, what have I done. It's only 6.

Anyway, I dunno why I never really thought about posting here, but hopefully we can get some more traction. Doing a huge bottle share that ended up hosted at a local beer bar for the Stone Vertical series on 12/22, so if you're within driving distance of the Central Coast of California, you are welcome to join us.

https://untappd.com/user/natelarsen

I'd also love to set up a bottle exchange if anyone is willing.

Barleywines and wheat wines are incredibly underrated.

If you decide to make your own barleywine-strength brew; I recommend all-extract, or doing a parti-gyle.  Both are fun, but one is (way) longer than the other...

(edit: which reminds me, it's time to brew another wheat wine...)

The current plan is to start with extract, definitely. I have a couple kit sets for a basic IPA and a belgian blonde. A friend picked up 4 glass carboys, so i'll probably be puttying stuff out pretty regularly. I'll be mostly starting with some basic stuff until I wrap my brain around it, but don't have any favorite styles, so I'm game for anything, really.

Absolutely.  I'm in north Texas and we have some fine breweries all over the state that I'd love to spread around.

Looks like you can buy some Westvleteren 12  (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/12/12/166987378/a-sign-from-above-needing-new-roof-monks-sell-rare-beer-in-u-s)for $84.99 a six-pack if you can find a store carrying it.

Wow, both Brooklyn AND Manhatten got it! That covers NYS.


 :oh_i_see:

So, a package arrived from a friend.

A very special package.

(http://www.koanate.com/shared/darklord_6x8.jpg)

I really wish I could try that some day.   :cry:

Some friends and I went to Firestone's Invitational thing this year and we had Vanilla Bean Dark Lord (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/42349), which is one of the best beers I've ever had.

That day though... there was a lot of that.

The local grocery is carrying Lilja's Hop Nest Monster from Pangaea again "Brewed By Cheeseheads Behind The Cheddar Curtain....Ya Betcha" Damn fine extra pale.

In case anyone else was interested, I started using Untappd. Blame Lum.

If you use it too, send me a friend invite. We can be virtual drinking buddies. Because why drink with strangers when you can drink with strangers from the internet?

https://untappd.com/user/Stormwaltz

Euro beer lovers, I am currently in Vienna.  Tell me of some great Austrian beers I should try before leaving.  Places to go drink said beer are also welcome suggestions, though I've googled a few places that look good.

I'm heading to Prague after this, so doing the same for Czech beer and beer halls would also be appreciated.

I'm interested in this too; I'll be in Vienna next week for a drinking holiday.

Currently sitting in 1516 Brewing company, which is an American inspired brew pub.  

They make a pretty good Vienna style lager!  :awesome_for_real:

These days, I usually buy a "Pick 6" pack at the grocery store when I get beer. Six different singles of brews I might not normally try if I had to buy a whole six-pack. Last night, I had a Coors Light at an office party we had for a retiring worker because it was either that or Michelob Ultra and just... no. I've forgotten just how fucking vile American mainstream light beers really are in comparison to real beer. Just fucking nasty. I had another called O'Fallon Gold the other night and it was just as bad. Do not want.

OTOH, there are 2 Newcastle Brown Ales waiting in my fridge, so it's not all bad on the beer front.

For any Austin locals Austin Beerworks is having their 2nd anniversary bash this Saturday (http://abwdosanos2.eventbrite.com/), $15 gets you a pilsner glass and 5 beer tickets.

Currently on a case of XX Amber thanks to the supermarket's cinco de mayo sale. Too bad they don't carry Negra Modelo.

Thought I had mentioned over the winter, an old regional brewery (Genesee) put out it's old limited Bock brew. Sooo good. And cheap. A world-class Bock beer for $6 a twelve pack? Yes please, I'll take four. I remember the rednecks in the neighborhood drinking a lot of that back when I was a kid, I see why.

I have a buddy that just came back from Dublin, and he says that the Budweiser that they brew in the Guinness brewery is actually a real beer and tastes ten times better than the regular Budweiser that you get here in the united states. I think he is bullshitting me, but I can't find any evidence online that he is lying.

Could be the water.

Since nobody seems interested in this so far, I'll just document my trip for your use.

Most pubs here seem to have a very limited selection, which kind of sucks.  However I found a place called Krah, Krah.  It actually had a ton of beers in bottle and on tap.  I ordered a bunch of random Dunkles and bocks with German names I can't remember and have never seen before.  Not sure if any of them were Austrian, but they were all good.  Right next door to it is a place called Bermuda Brau, which also had a good selection of beers on tap (many of which had names I hadn't seen before, so perhaps Austrian).

And as I mentioned before, 1516 Brewing Compqny is like an American style Brew pub.  The lager is very drinkable, especially if you've been walking around all day site seeing.  They make an Oatmill Stout that was also pretty decent.  They have some IPA specialty stuff I didn't try, as well as Hop Devil from Victory Brewing Company.  First place in all of Europe I've seen victory, so if your missing it, that's another reason to go.

I'll try to hit some real actual beer halls tomorrow, but holy god is every place packed for Labor Day.
Hmm, I saw that every single pub in Ireland had Budweiser on tap.  And despite spending almost all of my time not site seeing inside the pubs for a week straight, I could never make myself try it.  So, can't confirm, but its so fucking prevalent over there that I hope to god they are actually drinking a better version.

Did you tell him "you went to Dublin and drank Budweiser? You are doing it wrong!" ?

I chock that up to the same myth that the Guiness sold in the US isn't "real Guiness" even though they brew all of the beer that goes to Europe and North America in the same brewery in Dublin.

Didn't they have two versions for a while? There was a regular and a draught version, iirc and now I can only find the draught version. Tastes thinner then I remember, but my palate may have undergone a good deal of refinement since I had the older version.

They've always had Draught and Extra Stout (which comes in bottles) for decades.  They also have Export Stout, but that is only for tropical places like Africa, I think.

I like extra stout, but draught is bland as shit and only one step above Budweiser, IMO.  Which is why I've really never understood people's love of Guinness.

It's split by country due to trademark rights. Not sure who holds the rights in Ireland, but if it was very different from the US Budweiser then it was likely this:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Budvar_UK.JPG/360px-Budvar_UK.JPG)

Which is a nice beer.

Edit: Did some reading, and in Ireland, you get the products of two different breweries under the same name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_trademark_dispute).

You can find Foreign Extra Stout in Dallas, and we're not that tropical.  In fact, it's my favorite variety.  There is also a Guinness Black Lager.

Oh, to keep the thread going, I'm treating myself to this beauty right now:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Andechser_Doppelbock_Dunkel.JPG/359px-Andechser_Doppelbock_Dunkel.JPG)

Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel... Food and Drink and 100% Awesomeness.

I'm aware of the difference, and its good ol American Budweiser in every single pub in Ireland.  Didn't see any of the Czech variety while there.

Oh my, how could I miss that...
For any future visitors to Vienna: shoot me a message for some local knowledge and drinking buddery if desired!

In NON awesome beer related news, Rogue is apparently also a terrible place to work on top of being a producer of iffy beer.

http://aleheads.com/2013/06/17/we-do-not-plan/

Huh, never knew that about them, but that ad was fucking horrific.  I've enjoyed quite a lot of their beers, though they have a lot of failed experiments.  Didn't know they had such wide spread hatred in the beer community.....

In other random news, I was at Brewdogs Alehouse in London last week (which was great).  Guy sitting nearby looked really familiar and had Laganitas stickers.  Started talking, and it was Laganitas main sales rep guy in the Bay Area, whom I had meet at previous events in there.  Turns out they sent him to London because they're opening up their own Lagunitas pub their (the guy is originally from England, which is why they sent him back to head up the opening).

Just one of those weird random 'what are the chances moments'.  Also good news for anybody in London!

I am disappointed to learn that people think dogfish head is gimmicky. I really like their 90 Minute IPA.

What an awesome ad. It's the best possible way to recruit the stupid 18-20 year old with a chip on their shoulder who'll surely destroy their infrastructure when he's fired. It's brilliant!

That's what they were looking for, right?  Not an actual professional but a way to sabotage the business and get insurance cash?

I make a point to try a random beer that I've not had before when I go to the store. Without exception, every Rogue I've tried has been spectacularly shitty. I thought it was their specialty.

Like any brewer that puts out a lot of beers, some are great, and some are okay.

But, Rogue has always been known for being a shitty place to work.


Eh. Disregard most of that. There's a big anti-growth division in beerheads lately. There's a real "I liked them more when they were underground" attitude when it comes to the likes of Dogfish, Stone, etc.

ARISE. Just had to share... been a rough few weeks for me, but this filled me with excitement.

(http://i.imgur.com/L1B8FkB.jpg)

Funny that this thread comes back today. I decided to drink on a weeknight and have the hangover from hell. Thinking about beer is making me a little queasy.

Anyway, what do you win?

The missus also won a spot. We have the opportunity to buy 6 bottles of Citra each.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/kern-river-citra-double-ipa/117845/

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14064/56082

Nice. There seems to be a trend towards Citra hops lately and I am a fan. Schell's brewery put out a Citra Pilsner that was awesome. Looks like a great beer, wish it was available here.

It's only available at the brewery. Their production, and thus, distribution is pretty limited.

Citra is indeed huge, and can work really well. In general we're seeing a shift towards other styles, especially farmhouse/saisaon ales, but big IPAs are still The King.

And tonight, going to a 20 Tap Takeover of Firestone beers, including a ton of really good sours. Good friday.

I miss US/California craft beer.   :cry:

Where are you?

Poland.

There are lots of tasty Central/Eastern European lagers to be had here, as well as some great Baltic Porters.

But unfortunately, nothing beyond that.  Hell, not even any German beers (Paulaner Hef is all over the place, that's it).  I went into a big beer shop, and asked if they had any Spaten.  Even showed a picture to the guy in case it was a verbal translation issue.  Told me he had never seen/heard of it.   :ye_gods:

Getting this job and traveling so much has a been an amazing eye opener about how far beer in the US has shot ahead compared to most places in the world.

Anyone else tried Guinness's new Black Lager? I rather like it and I'm just trying to validate my taste.

I thought it was ehhhhhhhhhh

But I only had one bottle.  I should probably attempt to get a six pack over the course of a weekend to make full judgement.

I had a bottle a while back and remember being very unimpressed.  Shame because I really like schwarzbiers as a general rule and there aren't very many of them.

Craft beer really has exploded in the US. I often wonder how much the market really can support. Something like 8 breweries in the Twin Cities metro have opened up in the last 3 years or so.

The market can't support more than a couple of Budweisers, but it can support a very large number of very small breweries.

I was reading a book a while back about companies that made a conscious decision to stay small rather than trying to claim bigger chunks of their market, and there was a chapter on Anchor Brewing.  Supposedly once they got to a certain size and were still having trouble meeting demand they said "nope, we like what we're doing, we don't wanna be Budweiser" and they actually helped other craft breweries get up and running to help meet some of that demand.

Of course I've heard other craft brewers say the Anchor guys are a bunch of dicks, so grain of salt.   :awesome_for_real:

I've tried a few of the "craft" attempts by some of the macros. They aren't horrible for the most part, just a little off. They are applying large scale production methods to small scale brewing and it doesn't quite work.

Helped my neighbor split some wood.

Had a couple beers with him, he drinks Bud Light.

Notice a twelvie of Shiner Bock in the corner (his daughter recently moved to TX).

He says the wife won't let him touch it.

I had a sad.

We could always start an f13 bottle trade.  There's no shortage of Shiner here, ready for export to the frozen north at any time!  You'd probably dig the Shiner Bohemian Black.  We have nine craft breweries in DFW alone.

I'll be down in Denton probably the end of April 2014 for ReaperCon...one of the leading 'pro' list items for driving is an FJ cargo bay full of beer. But I'll probably fly, so blah.

Anyway. I don't know how beer exchange works. I'm local to Saranac, which has some great stuff like their Black Forest. Also Ommegang is just down the pike near CmdrSlack and Long Trail out of VT distributes this far over. Genesee is a bit of a ghetto brewery but they make a decent cream ale and their Bock is amazing (because it's $6-7 a twelvie, too)...but it's not often available.

There is quite a bit of good beer in your region. You're probably a lot more likely to get your hands on Founder's KBS and Alchemist's Heady Topper. Also Southern Tier, Ithaca, Captain Lawrence, etc.

Because we're a hops region. I've been considering planting some hops along the north end of the property for a while now...

Well hops to it!   :awesome_for_real:

Results of my first Beer Trade, done through reddit.

(http://distilleryimage4.ak.instagram.com/d246f7725baa11e38ba20ea1e883313e_8.jpg)

Looks like you got someone from my neck of the woods.

The brewery that makes The Temptress is about ten minutes from me.  They make the most extraordinary version of it that is aged in a bourbon barrel.  I think it's the finest beer I've ever had.  The Temptress by itself is a little too sweet to drink on a regular basis, but it's my favorite milk stout by a mile and very nice in small doses. 

Saint Arnold's is a reasonable regional brewery.  I recognize the middle one but can't quite make it out.  Is it a Jester King?  It looks like their logo at the bottom.  If so, those guys are serious.  Sometimes they hit the mark, and sometimes they don't, but it's always an exciting beer.

Definitely open to trades, here.  We just started getting Southern Tier in DFW and I'm a little mad it took this long.  It makes me wonder what else I've been missing all these years.

It is Jester King. The beer is Boxer's Revenger (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/jester-king-boxers-revenge-barrel-aged-wild-ale/138051/). I'vel iked what I've had from them. I haven't had anything from Lakewood, nor Saint Arnold. I HAVE heard of Saint Arnold at least, and know that Pumpkinator is a lot of people's favorite pumpkin beer.

Another package to me that has a bottle of Cantillon Saint Lamvinus (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/cantillon-saint-lamvinus/6076/) and a Hangar 24 Immelmann  (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/hangar-24-barrel-roll-no-01-immelmann--bourbon-barrel-aged-imperial-porter/135799/), as well as a couple of Bell's bottles.

Finalized another trade that will get me some 2012 BCBS, some 3 Floyds, Pipeworks and Revolution Brewing beer as well.

I am always up for some trading. I haven't gone through and put everything in my cellar into the list yet, but here's my list: http://www.cellarhq.com/cellar/nalarsen

Local distro has been getting their shit together. A couple weeks ago I was shocked to see about three times the selection of craft brews at the supermarket. I notice someone out of the corner of my eye and it's another guy just staring at the shiny new wall o beer. I wordlessly gesture at it, and he wordlessly gestures an 'I know!' and then we have a beer chat.

My last trip what did I find? A new display rack with Shiner Bock.

Fuck. Yes. Managed to snag two tickets for the 3rd annual Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest. THE event.

Bastard.  That's what you are.  Bastard!


Seriously though, nice snag.  It's suppose to be awesome.

It's VERY awesome. I've been each year so far. Best event of the year in California.

I had one of these in a draft:

(http://www.ballastpoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/beers-sculpin-primary-image.png)

Fucking amazing.  The aroma itself was super delicious and it was just bitter enough.  So good.

Had a six pack of this in my fridge last week. Absolutely delicious.

(http://cheapseateats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/7eb4_2611.jpg)

Stouts are beyond my palate but Elysian's Immortal IPA is solid and the Valhalla Red IPA was remarkable, too. 

I really disliked Elysian when I first moved here because friends took me to the Stadiums location and there was a very high concentration of dudebro.  After being here a while, we went to the Capitol Hill location for lunch and I had amazing food, maybe the best burger I've had in Seattle.  Well worth going if you can.

(http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_250,c_limit,q_85,d_beer_def.gif/beer_5846.jpg)
my favorite (bottled) beer lately.

I almost forgot to hunt down my January treat, so it's not the freshest, but still...$6 for a twelvie vs $10 for a six of Shiner or $8 for a four of Celebrator? All day long.

(http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq354/joeisloco/GENESEE-Bock-Beer.jpg)

$10 for six pack of Shiner Bock? I just bought some for $8. I love me some bock beers, just doesn't seem like there are a lot of breweries putting them out. I have not seen any Genessee here.

Warning: Genny is a cheapo brand around here, hipsters and old alcoholic uncles only. But the seasonal Bock is the exception, oddly. It's not as good as Shiner and definitely not as good as Celebrator, but for the price it's amazing. As far as expensive Shiner, we had no Shiner a couple months ago.

Dopplebocks and dunkels are my favorites. I dig a Warsteiner Dunkel, not sure I've had a good american dunkel. Sam Adams did a Dunkelweizen I've only found twice that was nirvana.

I'm big into the traditional German styles too. Could be because the first beer I had other than the Bud Light's of the world was Hacker Pschorr Weisse. It was a "Holy shit beer can taste good!?" moment for me.

i don't mind old alcoholic uncle beer, I end up buying Hamm's all the time because it is cheap and after I have 3 or 4 of the good ones I can't taste it anymore anyway so why not switch up to something cheap. $15 for a 30 pack.

My neighbor just shared a http://www.spencerbrewery.com/ with me; the first and only trappist ale made in the US.  He spent a bit of cash getting it shipped here, so it was a nice treat.

It was pretty good, very Belgian-like but a bit dryer than I expected. 

Fellow beer lovers, I seek your Wisdom!

In two days I will be traveling to Belgium.  My intention is to drink as much beer as possible over the course of 3 days.  Please, give me suggestions on awesome Belgian beers I should try while there, as well as bars to go to (or any beer themed activity really).  I mean like, harder to find Belgian beers I should take advantage of getting while I'm in country.  Not good ones I can easily buy at any decent beer store.  And before you respond, the local Foreign Service co-worker whose house I'm staying at has already purchased a case of Westvleteren 12 (http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/313/1545/) which he promises to have on ice and ready for us as soon as we walk in the door.   :awesome_for_real:

Also for that matter, if anybody here as any suggestions on things to do or see on this trip, I'd appreciate it.  Going to spend about 3 days in Brussels (but planning on taking the train out to visit other cities during that time for day trips), 3 days in Amsterdam, and 3 days in Berlin.  Beer, Food, and attraction suggestions for any of these cities is welcome, as I've only ever been to Berlin before this.

You're on the right track with Westvleteren.  St. Bernardus Abt 12 is also outstanding.  Drink a lot of it.

Here are a few other breweries to try:

Brasserie Cantillon - If you like lambics, these are the champions of the style.  If you're in Anderlecht you can visit them for a fun afternoon.  It's next to Brussels.
Dupont - If you like saisons, it doesn't get much better.  Their Vieille Provision is unmatched.
La Trappe - They're in Netherlands, but still making great belgian style beers.  
Val-Dieu - They produce a great quad named Val-Dieu Grand Cru, and a Tripel as well.  
Brasserie Lefebvre - They make some good beers.  The Floreffe Prima Melior is supposed to be amazing, but I have sadly never had it.
Brouwerij Van Steenberge - Wonderful brewery.  Gulden Draak, Piraat, and Augustijn are standouts.
Affligem - Anything Affligem is good.
Brasserie St. Feuillien - They're doing great work and they are a smaller, independent brewery producing abbeys.

The Zythos Bierfestival is also taking place from April 26 to 27 in Leuven: http://www.zbf.be/index.php?lang=UK&page=1 (http://www.zbf.be/index.php?lang=UK&page=1), which is right outside Brussels.

If you like gin, don't forget to drink some Jenever.  It's tough to find outside Belgium and Netherlands.

Edit: added the Bierfestival mention.

I live 3 blocks from the Elysian, and its beer used to be shitty. Well, not shitty, but definitely not something to make a trip for. Nice to know that's changed.

Tell him to skip the ice, a quad should be like served at like 55-60. (Or ~15 degrees C for there I guess.)

I  :heart: their Men's Room Red.

I am also  :heartbreak: about Strongbow dropping their traditional dry.

Another delicious beer made its way through my fridge:

(http://d2qdgu53yc9lue.cloudfront.net/deal/de_411_lg.jpg)

A really rich flavor and very smooth. I'm definitely going to be drinking more of it in the future.

Also gave this one a whirl:

(http://beerforayear.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/dead-guy-ale.jpg)

Also very tasty, but I don't think I like it quite as much as the Oatis. It's a totally different style, but I'm finding myself drawn to oatmeal stouts and milk stouts recently.

Rogue beers are really sweet to me.  They all taste sickly sugary.  I recently had one of their 7 hop IPAs which was the only beer I've liked from them.  Try that one if you can. 

Seattle beer week begins tomorrow. 

That Oatis is good stuff.  I don't like most of the Rogue beers, but their Shakespeare Stout is good.  I have a hard time finding a stout I hate, really; I go for roasted barley like hopheads go for hops.

Discovered this recently at a local Nicaraguan restaurant; there's one beer store in SF that carries it, thinking it might be my new lager of choice at home:
(http://www.totalwine.com/_static/webupload/730/1_20142126_3.jpg)

And on a recent trip to New York I discovered this, which is amazing but I still haven't found a local source:
(http://craftcans.com/cards/big_cards/sweetactioncard.jpg)

I'm probably going over the top on this, but I don't drink Rogue beers anymore. After I heard how shitty they were to their employees, I decided to not waste my money on it. Plenty of good beer to drink elsewhere.

Article on their shittiness:

http://weirdtv.blogspot.com/2013/07/rogue-brewery.html

Apparently they are even up front about how shitty they are in their job postings:

http://www.reddit.com/r/beer/comments/1geunk/rogue_is_hiring_for_a_new_it_manager_expected/

That job posting is insane.

Hahahah lol, they think they're doing something special. How adorable.

They make beer. Retards with a garage or messy living room make beer. It isn't rocket science.

Jeez...

They seem annoying enough to avoid at this point. Good to know.

Their beer is overpriced anyway.

TIL rogue and douchebag are synonyms.

Just did my first ever brew pub craft brewfest. After nine, got hard to tell them apart. Still, was fun. Words having a friend, er wweird, driving my car home right now. Now we shall stop at the store for veggie pakora, cause it's the best drunk food ever. Wait, my first ever drunk post. Err, mean woot.

Yikes. I think there was a point to what I was going to post earlier in the evening, something about the absurdity of trying to identify a mystery beer's content by taste, but I didn't end up getting around to posting until about 7 samples later. Please ignore me.

A few weeks ago I got a taste of Karbach's Sympathy for the Lager (http://www.karbachbrewing.com/beers/sympathy-for-the-lager/info) and I found it to be extremely tasty, never thought I would think of Houston folks as lucky.  

I also recently tried an Austin local brew (Twisted X's Fuego (http://www.texmexbeer.com/fuego.html)) that I am at a loss how to describe, it was as close to a journey as drinking a beer can be I suppose.  The first sip had me thinking oh shit I bought a six pack of this when I doubt I can finish the bottle.  Before I knew it I was reaching for another and by the end of that second one I was singing its praises.  I wont say it is the best beer in the world but I've never had a beer alter my palette so quickly or profoundly.  If you have a chance to try it commit to an entire bottle and don't throw in the towel after the first sip.

I've been struggling to find a decent cider since Strongbow changed their formula. 2 towns ciderhouse brightcider isn't too bad I'm looking forward to their seasonal English traditional.

Strongbow went to super-sweet, Blackthorn Dry is now unavailable for Herns. Kinda sucks that so many ciders are too sweet alcopops now. Once I finish this bottle of Woodchuck Dry Hop, I may just give up cider for a bit.

It's my favorite time of year for beer. Anyone have an Oktoberfest/Marzen that is a can't miss?

So far this year I've had:
Spaten
Sierra Nevada
Schell's
Hofbrau

As far as how good they were, I would put them in that order. My favorite is Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest, but I believe that is available year round. I also had Anchor Brewing Big Leaf Maple and that was pretty good as well.

The local beer guy who refills growlers didn't bring enough Marzen to the farmer's market. I'm going to have to run out to his place and get one.

I love Oktoberfest/Marzen beers as well!  I prefer Paulaner's Oktoberfest over Spaten's, but I prefer Spaten's version of everything else over Paulaner's.

Really bummed I spent two years over here and didn't get a chance to make it to Oktoberfest.  Was going to do it this year, but I've just run out of time to sqeeze it in.  Also, the amount of money I'd have to pay even just for a few days to stay over there......  :ye_gods:

I've never actually had Paulaner's which I should probably rectify. I also have some Left Hand Oktoberfest waiting at home. Marzens don't seem to get great reviews which baffles me. It is my favorite style.

I figured I would just bump this instead of continually shitting on the Job Thread with this stuff.

Here we go again: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0U11ZM20151218

*Edit* Clicked the wrong thread :(