Beer Discussion Thread

How is this even a question? Of course you go to this holy fucking fuck.

Are you quoting the wrong guy? buchkoba is the one who freaks out about snifters and glassware. I try to find tulip glasses/Sam Adams perfect pint at any bar that serves good beer.

Yeah I'll field that one... shove yer stem up yer ass Eric!

Drinking a Sah'tea out of a pint glass FUCK YEAH

but...$45...

Fine. I called and I got the very last ticket. Ready to pucker up tomorrow...

Not only yes but fuck yes. I doubt you'll be able to try all 30, but get anything from Cantillon or 3F (Drie Fontienen).

will do

I'm trying to think of what sours and wilds I've had...not many. They tend to be hard to find and expensive, and they're either small batch special releases or imports from small traditional niche brewers for the most part. Let's see...

Rodenbach: Classic Flanders red. I've only had the regular version, which is quite tasty and not overpoweringly sour...just tart enough to pucker my lips and make me want another sip.

DFH Festina Peche: This is my only experience with a Berliner Weisse. I hate it. The sourness is pure stomach acid. It isn't strong, but it's there. Lovely peaches backed by vomit. Can't take it.

Sam Adams Stony Brook Red (Barrel Collection): This is a funky oak barrel aged ale that is supposed to be like a Flanders Oud Bruin. Delicious. Tart and complex with a hint of fast food french fries actually...

Victory Wild Devil: Hop Devil IPA fermented with brett. It's just called a Belgian IPA on BA, but the barnyard and horseblanket flavors were the strongest I've ever had in a beer before.

Ommegang Biere De Mars: Good, but a bit subdued. Probably not the best example of a Biere de Garde for my only one tried.

Ommegang Zuur: Cherries and vinegar. Interesting. Another Oud Bruin apparently.

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvee Renee: Awesome. Very champagne-like with fruity tartness that taste more like pear, apple, and citrus, than the dark cherries and plums found in many other sour styles.

SN Hoptimum = fuck. Stone Russian Imperial Stout = FUCK

Rodenbach Vintage is amazing.

Mikkeller Sur Munk is gr8.

As far as Berliner Weisses, I like Festina Peche, and Bell's Oarsman is really good.

Monk's Cafe is tasty.

I need more sours in my life.

Six blind porters, six Michigan IPAs, and stragglers.

Porter ranking:
1. Big Sky Bobo's Robust Porter (unanimous, not close, and a shock to all of us who were expecting Black Butte to kill everything)
2. Deschutes Black Butte
3. Harvest Moon Pigs Ass Porter
4. Sierra Nevada Porter
5. Anchor Porter
6. Sam Smith Taddy Porter

There were five tasters, only one of whom knew which beers were involved. These are all porters available on shelves in Missoula. I guessed that Big Sky, Deschutes, Anchor, and SN would all be involved but the other two I had no clue.

The top three were all identified as pretty good or better. SN Porter was identified as very bland but drinkable. Anchor Porter had weird prune and vinegar notes and was overly sweet, especially with the vanilla. Taddy Porter had strange lactose and butter flavors and was very, very thin. It also had a little bit of sour to it like Guinness Extra Stout, and it wasn't good.

The idea is to take the top two finishers and put it in another blind tasting down the road including things like Fitz and Founders to see how they compare across the board. We already did round one of Scotch ales and are currently collecting brews for round two of that. It's a great deal of fun altogether.

Man, I want to try some Big Sky and Deschutes.

Fiancee's dad wanted to go out and have a beer with us, so we went to a good size store downtown that has some taps and an outside seating area. Nothing on tap looked that appealing, and I didn't want to make the guy spend like $15 for me to try something random and new, so I grabbed a bottle of one of the few DFH beers I've yet to try - Indian Brown. Was very, very pleasant, given we were all sitting outside with the temperature around 60 or so.

Since the 20th marked my being out of Delaware for two years, I wanted to get something that looked good and treat myself or something. Ended up grabbing




I really like it alot. Pretty nice and rich, some elements make me think I'm drinking a RIS. Not too bad for $11.99.

shit. I can have everything if I can fit it all in (I can't). Decent pours too. Any must tries?

RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER RUSSIAN RIVER

fuck you i am so mad jelly right now

Professor Fritz Briem's 1809 Berliner is excellent. I'd probably try the Cantillon LP, the 3F Gueuze, the 3F Kriek, and Supplication. After that, I'd work through the gueuze until I couldn't stand anymore.

EDIT - Supplication is pretty easy to trade for. I'd drink all the 3F and Cantillon before that. Cantillon LP Gueuze is supposed to be incredible and it's a bear to land in a trade.

I think when I finally move next month or so I'm to try trading for real. I need Russian River. And Deschutes. And many other Western beers.

I ended up trying all of them but the lindeman's ones. The absolute best was probably the Allagash. The absolute worst was probably the Mikkeller's. More details later.

That sounds hella old, since Taddy Porter isn't lactose-y or buttery at all. Sam Smith's can have some turnover problems depending on the shop, I only buy from them when I know they're fresh. All of their beers are fairly delicate taste-wise and age will not do the best things to them.

I've got a Yorkshire Stingo in my fridge right now that I'm super stoked on.

Green Flash Palette Wrecker is a pretty rad IPA.

I want Palette Wrecker.

Tonight:

Me: Long Trail Pale Ale, Smutty Nose Brown Ale, SN Pale
Girl: Founders Centennial, 2 x Hardywood Hoplar(new local poplar aged IPA)

Long Trail was a rather basic hoppy pale ale, Smuttynose makes a killer brown ale which i already knew, and SN is always solid on tap. The Hoplar was pretty unique and awesome, not a very bitter or even hoppy IPA and was very woody and complex in it's own way. Hardywood is a pretty impressive local brewery in Richmond,VA and just doubled their capacity. Their Gingerbread Stout recently scored a 100 in Beeradvocate magazine.

Probably the least interesting IPA of the bunch.

Oh, I've heard some people who drink PW and West Coast side by side, and they actually prefer the WC IPA.

In my head, I just imagine PW is sorta like Ruination. A unique, strong taste that is best in moderation.

I've got to go back to buying some macro shit instead sometimes. I've spent like $50 on beer in the last month. It's getting way out of hand.

Just drink less. Or if you want a cheap buzz, get a halfway decent bourbon or scotch for $25 a bottle.

I don't drink much, it's just the frequency. I rarely ever drink more than two pints, I just happen to want one every day.

I'm more or less the same way, and you couldn't possibly be making less money than I am right now. But then I fill up my gas tank once a month because I bike everywhere, so there's $150 a month I don't spend in fuel that most others probably do.

Yea, a six pack a week is about the norm for me, I'll drink 1-2 with dinner for 3-5 days plus maybe a bomber on Saturday night instead of the sixer choice. Where I get into trouble is I'll buy a sixer of an IPA on Monday and by Thursday I'll be in the mood for a porter so I'll buy a sixer of that. I like the mixed six but I've pretty much tapped the selection in East Lansing, so most trips are uninspiring and I grab a staple instead of something that I tried once and liked.

The single-A ball club that plays a mile from my house starts their $2/beer Thirsty Thursday promotion this week though, so chances are by the all-star break I'll be a raging alcoholic.

I want you to upload a clip of you pronouncing all the beers; I'm in need of a good guffaw.
Also, dat Drie Fonteinen Geuze and Mikkeller Funky E Star.

I'm the same way, actually. I walk everywhere. Aside from the occasional subway ticket. My drinking isn't creating a problem where I'm broke all the time, since I'm still managing to save a bit of cash. I just feel like I'm spending too much on it... Maybe I've got to get used to going back to macro's throughout the week so over the weekend I can enjoy the fun stuff.

I mean the first question is: What do you like to taste in your beer?

I can probably answer the dark part of what you describe better than the sweet version. You're looking for porters and stouts, but probably mainly porters if you like the chocolate in the background. They're not overly bitter, but they do carry fair amounts of smoke and nuttiness. From my experience, you'll want to try:

Anchor Porter
Brooklyn Chocolate Stout
North Coast Old Rasputin Stout (this one is pretty bitter I suppose)
Rogue Shakespeare Stout

All those are available in Louisiana, and they're all beers that are generally well liked around these parts. Go into your local store, find the mixed-six selection and start googling "Brand-X Stout beeradvocate." Beer Advocate is a great site to give you an idea of how the beer you're looking at will taste, and what others think of it.

A liquor store would be a good place to start.

That's not really someone who lives in another state can necessarily answer. What kind of stores are allowed to sell what vary greatly from state to state.
Find the nearest homeless bum and ask him about buying liquor in LA.

I would stray from asking a nearby bum and asking him about liquor as sadly this, too, is information that is regulated and varied on a state-by-state basis. Not all bums are authorized to provide such knowledge of liquor stores and in most cases soliciting information from a non-licensed bum can lead to jail time.

I've seen (I think) all 4 of the ones sobis mentioned in grocery stores here.

I tried Abita Purple Haze once. It was awful.

Abita's Jockamo IPA is pretty good. Turbodog is good. Mardi Gras Bock and Amber are decent. Solid enough brewery, but I usually pass it over. I kind of figure it to be Louisiana's Summit. Not necessarily the best beer, but they are decent at what they do and it's affordable.

lol Purple Haze

I just heard that Short's released a Freedom of '78 guava IPA and I never even saw it on shelves here

I would recommend trying stuff in great availability, then narrowing down to lesser known stuff sold at specialty stores. From your description, start off with some brown/amber ales or lighter stouts. Newcastle Brown, Brooklyn Brown, New Belgium Fat Tire, Guinness or Murphy's Stout. If you want something lighter(warm weather is on it's way after all) venture into Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, or equivalent. Abita is garbage, as is generally everything you listed. Stay away from fruit or berry tinged beers as this is not what beer really is. You want to get a feel for the base styles. Plus those are generally for women and gay men, and i am not being funny.

Spend more too, if it is really expensive it is probably something interesting. You are going to have to simply try things you have never heard of, and are expensive. You can make a lot of progress that way. The fun is in experimenting with the unknown.

The problem with that is, usually when you spend more it's BECAUSE the brew is more limited. Murphy's is pretty good (as in, better than most macro stuff) but it's nowhere near as good as the micro shit you CAN get. Young's Double Chocolate should be around too, that's usually pretty accessible and cheap - make sure you find it in a can though. I didn't even think to mention Newcastle but yea, it's how I got started on decent beer.

It was on shelves last year. A collaboration between Short's, Half Acre, and Piece Brewing. It's decent, worth a shot.

I've never had an Abita beer, so I can't really offer a personal opinion, but I do know that their stuff is available in PA and they have a pretty bad reputation. They're one of those breweries that's sort of in between the macro bud-miller-coors kinda stuff and the real craft breweries. Really, everything that you listed in your first post falls into that category. The southern US in general is not a great place to find beer, so I don't know how much other stuff you have readily available to you. One thing that might be good to do is to get a Sam Adams variety pack, which I know you'd be able to get. The summer one is out now and has a variety of lighter styles. Here are some other really easy to find beers that are better quality: Leffe, Sierra Nevada (pale ale, torpedo, porter...), Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Belhaven, Samuel Smith (oatmeal stout, taddy porter...), Guinness Foreign Extra, Hoegaarden, Lindeman's, Franziskaner

Hoegaarden out of the bottle, in my experience, has at least a 10 percent chance of tasting like soda water. So don't be bummed if you don't like it at all at first.