Beer Discussion Thread

No idea... the blue ribbon actually came from the blue ribbons they used to tie on each of the bottles... they stopped doing that in the early 1900s IIRC. That beer still sucks after all these years. Choicest hops my ass.

ha, that's a fucking great idea. i'd buy one for that cheap--you're bound to get something that tastes good.

I think it was all stuff that had been parts of packs that had been damaged in transit or in the warehouse or whatever. They boxed up the undamaged bottles and wooo mystery box

I've recently begun enjoying Kona's Pipeline Porter. Quite tasty.

A place down the road from me has a "build your own 6 pack" and for like 9 bucks, you can choose from 30-40 beers ranging from okay to excellent. It's a nice way to try beers without potentially wasting 5.

Fuck, I need to find a place that does that.

So, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat is tasty as hell.

A couple of months ago I got a beer imported from India called Taj Mahal. I remember buying it for the novelty, but it was pushed behind a couple of wine bottles. I found it today and drank it. Not bad, but nothing I'd ship so far.

I personally don't like wheat beers, but everyone I know drinks this like water. Have you tried Bell's Oberon?

Where is this? Ladd's?

That beer tastes like blueberry pancakes. Cannot say that I'm a fan.

Yep.

The Lion Stout isn't really worth it, Klem. It's good, but not pay-a-bunch-of-money-to-have-it-shipped good.

Well, I collect bottles too, and I don't have a Sri Lankan beer in my collection yet. I'm going to do a bit more research on seeing if I can find it in Texas, then I might take you up on that, Bacong.

On a side note. I have never really understood why someone would drink Corona or Sol and the like. Hasn't got much to do with beer.

I think a lot of the reason people think it's good is because it's overwhelmingly dense on first drink (not saying you're one, just pointing out a fact). People usually drink the "lighter" stouts like Guinness or Murphys' (my personal favorite) and then they get to Lion and it's way more dark than anything they've ever had, so naturally they cling to it.

You're from around here, so I'm assuming you've had the Edmund Fitzgerald porter? What did you think of that in comparison?

Well, to be more specific, I collect beer bottles that I have personally drank the beer out of.

We've got a pub up at school that has a Michigan Beer night... Bottles of Bells, Great Lakes, Arcadia, Founders, GRBC, Jolly Pumpkin, New Holland, and Traverse are all on special every Tuesday night. It's SPECTACULAR.

If you like a lighter beer, try Eliot Ness - it's Great Lakes' amber, and it's delicious.

yeah, there's a craft beer store that does it by me... beers ranging from great to out of this world for, i think, 10 bucks a 6-pack. it's a fucking killer deal.

that's pretty funny considering Great Lakes is an ohio beer

No I have not. I'll try and remember to try it out some time.

I'm not sure if it's year round now or what, but when this used to come out seasonally in April or May, it was the beginning of the end of school for me every year.

Oberon is pretty good. I'm not a fan of Sunset Wheat... it reminds me of Skittles.

Oh gawd I just had this terrible idea of alcoholic Sprite Remix. That shit tasted like Skittles.

Yea, GL is thrown in there too for some odd reason.. I'm not complaining though.

Yeah, they wanted to make sure they had something good.

I'll have some of that new beer with candy in it... Skittlebrau.

Truth told I always buy beer from breweries in our Great Lake region. Great Lakes Brewing is good. I love Bell's above all, and they make my favorite beer, Two-Hearted, plus some others that I really like. New Holland has some solid brews. I've had two or so from Founders that I really liked.

I agree. I was making the insinuation that the GLB (Cleveland) beer would be the only good one in Michigan and that is why they had included it. This is obviously a ridiculous statement. Of the local MI brews I have had, I never remember any bad ones.

I never really thought of breweries with state boundaries, but regional ones. I like all beers I've had from this Great Lakes region with the exception of certain Goose Island brews.

Speaking of Founders, I just got back from MI beer night and I had Dirty Bastard... AMAZING

Also tasted Sunset Amber and that was... different.

Is Dirty Bastard their smoked porter?

Scotch Ale

Dirty Bastard vs Arrogant Bastard in a duel to the death!

We don't get many mid west microbrews down here for some reason. We get tons of west coast stuff and a quite a bit of New England brews. All of these new breweries I'm hearing make me want to take a plane trip for the sole purpose of getting drunk up there.

There is actually some pretty good wine being made in Michigan now, if you want to change it up from beer for one night if you make that trip.

I don't know how I forgot to mention this last night (yes i do) but I tried an IPA last night.. Arcadia Ale's IPA. It wasn't anything that I expected at all. Very citrusy. My buddy told me that IPA's are either extreme citrus or extreme hops... Can anyone recommend an IPA that's citrus-heavy?

Eric, I gave up wine two years ago to concentrate on beer. Now if they're making barleywines too, then we're in business.

sobis, I've never really heard of fruity IPAs. They are traditionally strongly hopped and have higher alcohol content so that when made they could make it from England to India by boat without spoiling, as both hops and alcohol are natural preservatives. I can see some of the REALLY strong IPAs being a bit sweet because it takes more sugar to yield higher alcohol in the brewing process. Maybe you should try some of the Dogfish Head IPAs. Their 90 Minute IPA is a good blend of alcohol sweetness and hops bitterness. If you want even sweeter than try their 120 Minute IPA (20% ABV!!!!). Maybe what you're calling 'citrusy' is a result of high alcohol sweetness?

I'm not sure, it's only 5.9%. This is it:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/454/1925

Maybe it was because I was drinking porter all night, but the citrus and fruit was overwhelming.

How is it even beer anymore if it's 20%? I thought there was some upper limit that the process of beer making imposed.

EDIT - I've had the Dogfishead 90 Minute IPA a couple of times. I like hops a lot, but that's really damn hoppy. Good, though, and definitely worth a try if you're into pale ales.

I read the description on Arcadia's site and I think the sweetness is just coming from the malt they're using, not any addition of citrus fruit flavoring.

Looks like good stuff, though. Have you been to their brewery?

No, I've only been to one brewery (Grand Canyon), which is sad. I'm going to try and plan a tour of sorts this summer.

You would think that, same as wine right? There's a point where the alcohol content is so high it is killing the yeast creating it. Hence fortified wines.

I don't know how they do it. Sam Adam's Utopia (27%!) is also very high alcohol content. Apparently technology has allowed for some way to get around this problem.

edit: I've been trying to figure this out because it has been bothering me. The Sam Adams site says they are using 'proprietary yeast strains' but surely that is not enough to break that 12% ABV barrier that most fermented beverages have. It doesn't mention anything about fortifying the beer, either. I'm going to try the Dogfish site now.

edit2: Well, it appears to me that these higher alcohol brews can be reached either by using special strains of yeast (like champagne yeast) or by a process known as 'freeze distillation'. I don't know if the latter is legal in the USA in with regards to products marketed as fermented beverages, so I guess they are just using some bad ass yeasts.

http://www.dogfish.com/brewings/On_Hiatus_Beers/Golden_Shower_Imperial_Pilsner/43/index.htm

This is hilarious.

Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way. I think Goose Island has dumbed themselves down for mass market appeal. Much of it used to be better. I remember drinking it in Chicago at a bar before you could get it everywhere (probably about 8 years ago). I'm pretty sure the "Honker's Ale" was a bit better then than it is now.

http://www.turbo-yeast.com/turboyeast.html