The Beer Thread - what are you drinking?

Only 231 bottles made, so if you find any extra, I'll buy 'em off you. ;)

I grabbed some of the Founder's Dirty Bastard after finishing (or almost finishing--I think I have one left) the porter, and damn. Very nice!

I've been drinking a lot of Ninkasi lately mostly because their packaging is so damn sexy. This one was the last I got:

And yeah, it's good.

Coolness. Is the beer as good as the labels? I've never tried their stuff before, but I see that they have an oatmeal stout (I'm always up for an oatmeal stout), and how could I possible pass up a barleywine called "Critical Hit"?

For label designs, I've always been fond of Unibroue's offerings. (The beer's good, too):

I love Unibroue, though their beers are a bit pricey. I prefer La Fin du Monde over the others. It tastes delicious and kicks your ass.

Hey, I have that t-shirt!

To more directly answer your question, their most well liked regular beer (as in they it's not seasonal or limited) is the Tricerahops IPA. They also have another good IPA called Total Domination. Both are between 8 and 9 ABV so they mean business. I like them but all these extreme American IPAs are a bit much for me.

I don't like IPAs. At all.

I like IPAs, but good IPAs are a dime a dozen. I'd be more interested in their oatmeal stout, and maybe the Helle's Belles and the Lady of Avalon (light and dark German lagers, respectively).

Yea, I love a great IPA, and love to seek out new ones, but once you open up your taste buds to all the other wondrous potential brews that brewers are making the flavor variety out there when it comes to beer is just simply amazing! Though I will say, with some brewers focus on just getting up the IBU count on their IPA, there is still an amazing swath of terrible IPAs out there with little malt background to balance their hop bomb.

I love a great IPA (ex. DFH 60 Minute), but am thoroughly sick and tired of the DIPA trend.

For every "EXTREME IPA" that brewers make, there's a well-crafted DIPA that doesn't get enough credit.

Recent example: New Belgium and Alpine collaboration Super IPA, which was full of lovely tropical fruit notes and only moderate bitterness.

Ohhhhh..... I haven't seen that one yet out and about! Going to have to make a trip and try and find it!

It came out about 2 months ago, right when New Belgium entered the Michigan market.

Picked up a mixed pack of MOAR FOUNDERS, to try a few that I haven't had yet. Breakfast Stout, Old Curmudgeon Ale, and Backwoods Bastard, which is apparently Dirty Bastard that has been aged in bourbon barrels.

You're gonna have some fun. Backwoods Bastard is a personal favorite of mine. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the Curmudgeon.

Shock Top End of the World Midnight Wheat ale w/chocolate malt, chili, and spice is not very good.

The Shock Top part at the beginning should have tipped you off! But thank you for taking one for the team on that!

I also got some St. Bernardus Abt 12, and it's damned good. I'm screening some Belgians as potential Christmas presents for my dad, who is a big time Belgian beer nut.

Well, it was either that or their Pumpkin Wheat ale and since I couldn't quite grasp what a pumpkin flavored beer might taste like you can see why I latched on to something with chocolate in the description.

They aren't necessarily my favorite labels, but I do really enjoy the seventies/eighties heavy metal album cover feel.

We're slumming tonight! Naragansett in the hizouse!

So, some of you may know that our Astromarine has been working his booty off putting together a very cool community-based podcast.

I just recorded a segment with him on beer and we talked about some basics, then drank Unibroue La Fin Du Monde and St. Peter's Old Style Porter together. If you want to participate in a sort of time-shifted group tasting, grab bottles of these beers, and then enjoy them as we do while listening to the podcast!

With any Unibroue offering, you could play a game called "Beer label or Dio album cover?"

There are some who think Abt 12 is better than Rochefort 10, and those people are wrong*, but at least they're in the ballpark. ;) Abt 12 is really damn good.

* inasmuch as one can be wrong about a subjective thing

Best thing I ever heard of.

I was quite displeased with the bottle of Cigar City red I pulled out of the fridge last night. I think I know what the word "skunked" means now. Oh, god, it was awful. I hope the last bottle hasn't gone bad too...

My favorite Unibroue label of recent vintage:



Shame Blonde de Chambly isn't available in the States. It's got all the characteristic Unibroue flavor, but packs much less of a punch than, say, La Fin du Monde, so you can drink a few and still feel your face.

Seriously, what goes better with beer than hot French chicks?

I'm getting into a pattern with the liquor store.

1) Walk in. Ignore the Beer Corner (beer along the walls, 6 feet high, and several aisles of 4 foot tall shelves).

2) Walk to back wall, which is wall to wall beer fridges.

3) Stare at beer fridges for ten minutes, slowly walking up and down the length of them. Take in all the varieties and brands.

4) Get overwhelmed, grab the nearest brown ale I haven't tried before, and head for the register.

5) Have the clerk tell me (again) that I can make my own six-packs. Say "I know" and stare at the counter.

6) Check out and leave quickly.

Seriously, they probably carry 80 different beers there, maybe more, and it's just so easy to get overwhelmed. I want to make my own six-pack, but picking out just one beer is so hard I can't imagine doing multiples.

Today I got Red Brick Brown, which is from Atlanta. I was sad, the store's put in a Florida beers section, but it was almost all IPAs. Maybe there's more local ones in the beer corner. I fear the beer corner. I walked through the aisles there once and SO MANY CHOICES ASDFGHJKGJFDJ. Crazy.

Being in a beer store for me is like the kid in a candy store feeling. I love it. The more beers I try, the harder it is for me to scan the shelves and find something that tickles my fancy, but then it's always a nice surprise when something I buy turns out to be some thing I'd want to have again.

My local has a selection of over 800 beers, and they're constantly rotating stock. It is nice. :)

My local place, Beers of the World, is similar. No rotating stock, but it's a huge store. I don't know how many beers, but probably over a thousand. It's the size of a medium grocery store, and it's all beer (well except for one small display of cider).

Plus, you can buy anything they sell by the bottle. So mixed cases are the norm. It's a bit more expensive than Wegman's, but great for trying out new things.

Ben is probably well familiar with Beverage Warehouse, which claims to have over 900 different beers available. Alas, some of those are only available by the keg.

I AM JEALOUS

AND I AM DRUNK, or on the way.


Just had (among other things) the Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale. It's most notable characteristic is smoothness followed by a bittersweet aftertaste (it really is bitter and sweet at the same time! like every other bittersweet thing). I liked it a lot but I'm pretty much an Elysian fanboy.

I... what.
GO HOME BEER MAKER YOU ARE DRUNK

They crossed the streams, I know Thoro. I know.

/runs screaming in terror

Just kidding. By the way, that Red Brick Brown is carmelly and sweet and absolutely lovely. I had three of them tonight, which is why I'm gaining weight instead of losing.

The label should have an illustration of Shiva riding a buffalo.

I have had several delicious Lost Abbey beers on tap.... on a nearly empty stomach. Life is hard!

I tricked my roommate into taking the last of those horrible Shock Top beers in exchange for some Alaskan Winter ale. Not bad at all. I was concerned about the "brewed with spruce tips" thing, but its hardly noticeable.