The Beer Thread - what are you drinking?

I think in cases like this you have to make it one per customer; otherwise you'll have people coming in and dropping a grand or more on the beer.

Oh yea. Overall though a really nice good crowd of people. Only overheard a tiny bit of overblown beer geek talk of random super rare such and such they'd had, each trying to top the other, but mostly just good fun excitement at the opportunity. I know you'll appreciate jeffd the oddness of hearing people talk about some of their favorite West Coast beer brands (Firestone Walker and Russian River among others) in reverent tones, when you remember them as easy to find in any halfway decent bottle shop. The joys of regional distribution.

Please don't remind me. :(

At least Firestone Walker is getting distributed out here (though somewhat inconsistently). If Russian River and Deschutes could somehow find it in their hearts to come to NJ, I'd be a happy man!

I'm drinking some Pyramid Snow Cap right now. It's quite good, like pretty much everything Pyramid does, but I can't really taste the Snow Caps. HO HO HO. Seriously, it's nice to have a winter warmer-type beer that isn't loaded down with spices. Instead it's rich and malty with just a bit of a hop bite on the finish.

I also have a bottle of Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout waiting in the wings.

Which reminds me. I need to find some tasty Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Always enjoy that every year.

Yeah, that's another Christmas brew that I like a lot. Again, no spices.

(and really, I don't mind some of the beers with spices, either, but sometimes they overdo it).

How do you feel about Belgians? (You may have said something about it already, but I'm not searching 18 pages of posts for it,sorry.)

I got ahold of some Goose Island Mild Winter. It's a dark English Mild, with mediocre reviews on BA (I find BA runs on the 7-9 scale, so mid 80s is mediocre). Still, I love mild so I'm hoping to enjoy it!

I love Belgians!

I was just curious, given your stated feelings toward spices. Which actually brings up a question: do Americans use the same spices as the Belgians, or are they mostly different unless the Americans are aiming for Belgian style?

Most of the spiciness from Belgian beers comes from the yeast strains, or from traditional stuff like orange peel and coriander. Outside of holiday beers, most Belgian beers contain little in the way of external spices.

Interesting! Good to know.

Yeah, I don't mind a little bit of spiciness, but it's become common for American winter/seasonal beers to go crazy with stuff like cinnamon and nutmeg and such, and sometimes it's just too much. That said, I did like that Southern Tier Glogg-style beer, and that was pretty spicy.

Went to the Dark Horse brewing 4 Elf release party and drank some of the most amazing barleywine ever. If you ever have occassion to try some Monster 29, I would highly recommend it. The bourbon-barrel version is just off the charts amazing. I can't believe how smooth it is at over 23% ABV supposedly.

This year's Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th was off the charts good. Not as dense as Bourbon County, and a lot more dangerously drinkable as a result.

We got there at 10:30am and there was a line of several hundred people in front of us. They started giving out beer line tokens at 11am; we didn't get ours until 12:30pm or thereabouts. I was number 293. Yikes.

We drove to Battle Creek and got lunch at the Arcadia brewpub where I proceeded to kill a platter of brisket. Then it was back to the 4 Elf party which officially started at 3pm. The bottle sale line was moving super-slow, and you didn't have to be in line the whole time since they were serving people in order of their tokens. It was kind of a shitty system, but we were smart - We avoided the line entirely, set up camp at one of the tables, and sent runners to get beers from the tap line that we split up into some plastic cups we scored. I think I tried about 15+ beers yesterday overall. I killed a lot of M29 and PT5th waiting for our numbers to come up to buy bottles, and was able to land a decent quantity of the PT5th. Didn't get anywhere near as much of the Monster29 as I wanted, though.

They were keeping us fed with roasted beasts all day; goat, bison, salmon, venison, all free with entry to the party. I ate a ridiculous amount of protein yesterday, combined with the ridiculous amounts of beer...

I guess I'm saying that today my farts are stinky and I think I'm gonna need to teetotal and have some vegetarian fare to counteract yesterday's indulgences.

Last year my wife found a store where you can pick out six individual bottles of beer and pay a (reasonable) price for a six pack. Starting last Christmas, she planned on buying me two six packs every season for my tasting pleasure. She knows I like mainly ales, the more bitter and hoppy, the better.

We skipped two seasons though when I was trying to lose weight and was avoiding beer. So the second 'shipment' arrived last month. Pictured above is one of two six packs that she gave me around Thanksgiving:

1) Exile ESB, Evolution Craft Brewing. “Inspired by the pale ales of England, this beer is light amber in color, assertively hopped but well balanced.”

Middle of the pack for this six pack. Nice bitter ESB, but with a strong taste of caramel that is not up my alley. B-

2) Milk Stout, Left Hand Brewing Company -- “Dark and delicious, America's great milk stout will change your perception about what a stout can be.”

Stouts are not my thing. Usually a bit too heavy, and often too sweet. This one, though, I enjoyed. Not sweet, yet full and satisfying. A-

3) Ubu Ale, Lake Placid Craft Brewing -- “Our famous English Strong Ale, deep garnet red in color, with a smooth, hardy taste and a nice warm feeling to follow.”

I had had this one before, having purchased a Lake Placid Variety case. The Ubu is not normally my thing, being a bit on the sweet side, but having had about six of them, it definitely grew on me. A

4) Venom Pale Ale, DuClaw Brewing Company -- “This American-Style Pale Ale is aggressively hopped giving it a citrusy flavor and aroma. No antidote needed. This beer is dark-golden, medium-bodied and very “hoppy.” It is American-style because American-grown hops are used rather that European.”

My favorite of the six, which is good because the other six pack gifted me has a Venom. Just the right amount of bitter, without any sweetness, and not too heavy. A touch of citrus. A+

5) Evil Eye PA, Evil Genius Beer Company -- “Potent citrus and distinctly “Belgian Style” aromas seamlessly combine with plum and grapefruit flavors.”

I normally avoid Belgian beers. But this is an American beer using Belgian yeast (or so I read) and I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. On the light side, with lots of carbonation. Overall, so-so. B-

6) Lucky U IPA, Breckenridge Brewery -- “An even keeled ale that goes down clean and refreshing, but still lets you know it’s been doted on by the Brewmaster.”

If I got this at a bar, I would enjoy it and not think twice about it. Having it at home, and thinking about it more, I found it thin and not hoppy enough. I’ll be generous though and give it a B.

Check this out - a limited supply of Westvleteren XII is going to be available in select outlets in the U.S. today. A coworker is talking about pooling our funds to pick up a box down in Maumee, OH, so I might actually get to taste a bottle of this stuff.

BEER THREAD HARDER

Haha, you think I actually read your posts? :)

So is Aeon or someone else near a distributor going to hook you up?

Yeah, nixon66 landed some last week.

Not that I'm not counting the days until Christmas to crack open one of them to share with the family for a nice Holiday treat or anything.

Turns out we're not getting any, unfortunately. My coworker just called the store and (surprise, surprise!) all their cases are reserved. :(

You are officially invited to our house for Christmas dinner. Bring the beer.

Just got back from the liquor store. Came away with a 6-pack of miscellaneous beers, and a 6-pack of the Smuttynose brown because that's become my current favorite "I just want a beer, nothing fancy" beer.

Here's the miscellany:
-- Another bottle of Corsendonk Christmas Ale, because OM NOM NOM
-- Bell's Best Brown Ale
-- Dogfish Midas Touch
-- Innis & Gunn rum cask
-- Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale
-- Unibrow (yes I spelled it that way on purpose) La Fin du Monde

I'm an idiot and forgot to get anything cold, so everything's in the fridge chilling...

Cold not really needed. I drink most of my beer around 55F, so if you've put it in the fridge for 30 minutes, it's ready to drink now. ;)

Definitely do NOT drink the Midas Touch at fridge temp. You won't be able to taste a lot of the malt notes and the saffron will be muted significantly.

Noted!

If you like the Samuel Smith Organic Chocolate Stout, you ought to try the Southern Tier Choklat. I haven't had them close enough to each other to compare, but they're both really good. The latter tastes more like the imperial stout it is, but they both have the delicious and, imo, subtle-but-not-too-subtle chocolate taste.

I'm sorry to disagree, but the Sam Smith is subtle like a kick in the balls from a third-degree black belt. It was like drinking a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing. If that's your idea of subtle, I'd hate to see your definition of obvious... :D

That's exactly how subtle Choklat is!

Hence why I prefer Southern Tier's Mokah: The chocolate shake flavor is still there; it's just more balanced.

I had a silly conversation about beer with a drunk girl on the knitting forum this morning. She was drinking stout. She ONLY drinks stout and NEVER anything else and her favoritest stout ever is creme brulee from Southern Tier and why oh why would I want beer to taste like beer and no she WON'T try a brown ale because ALL SHE DRINKS IS STOUT GODDAMMIT.

Annoying girl was annoying. And fun to laugh at.

Oh, man, that's a sugar bomb.

Got me a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12. This one is a Belgian style, though darker than most, and richer as well. It's barely sweet and it covers about a half dozen flavors in about 3 seconds. I am pretty mad it's a one-time brew.

I haven't seen those yet around me. I've got a collection of about half of the Vertical Epics (about a dozen each); I'm going to have to start drinking some of them!

They came out 3 days ago, for what it's worth.

I'm quite jelly of you. I only really started getting in to craft brews a year ago, so no time to stock up!

Oh, hey, I forgot to tell you all -- the other night I found a beer I absolutely can't stand. Innis & Gunn rum cask. UGH. I had to give it to Quat. I couldn't stand more than three or four sips of it.

Yeah, all of the Innis and Gunn beers have ranged from mediocre to vile, IMO.

Oh, good, it's not just me. The beer guy at the liquor store thinks it's amazing stuff, which is why I bought a bottle. Ugh.

Tonight I'm sipping Southern Tier's double milk stout. It's a wonderful winter brew, and one I should really get some more of.

I swear I can still taste last night's brew, though -- Hill Farmstead's Juicy, a limited-release, barrel-aged wild ale. Man, that was deep, funky, and almost Burgundian.

This is where the different strokes thing comes in. There are apparently enough people who like Innis and Gunn for them to sell beer to keep them in business, but to me, it's some of the most off and rank stuff I've drank.

Finding out what you like is part of the adventure. ;)

I thought their holiday beer (barrel aged brown porter w/ molasses) was OK. Not something I'd really ever seek out again, but it wasn't swill.

Some beers I've had lately:
- Sam Smith's Yorkshire Stingo. Barrel aged english strong ale. Good stuff.
- Some american DIPA from Goose Island. Not Bourbon County. Rather hoppy, surprisingly drinkable. Also very good.
- Goose Island xmas beer. Also good.

I really ought to start taking notes when I drink a new beer. The problem is that half the time I'm playing video games or something; I don't want to interrupt just to write down tasting notes!