The Beer Thread

[Monte Carlo]

"Beer," wrote a wise person who's name escapes me, "is God's way of telling us he loves us."

 

I like beer. In fact, I think I might like it even more than wine and I love wine. A lot. But someone else can start a wine thread because this one is about beer.

 

Although drinking whilst operating machinery is foolish, drinking whilst playing computer games is mandatory. When else would my paladin-led party let off a Cloudkill spell in the Copper Coronet? I love an evening all on my own, a few (OK, a shed-load of) interesting beers in the fridge, and a new PC game to play. For any bloke with a young family this is a rare and precious treat.

 

So please share with me the beer from your corner of the world we should all be trying. And, if you feel like it, why?

 

For your delectation, I urge you all to try Badger Ale's Golden Glory by Dorset-based brewers Hall and Woodhouse (I also recommend their 'Blandford Fly' for the adventurous). When I first saw that Golden Glory had peaches in it I scoffed. Peaches? Bah. Then I tasted it. It is nectar, I'll tell you. And I've drunk about ten gallons of it as a quality assurance measure. I know, I'm selfless.

 

What should I be trying next?

 

Cheers

MC

[Hurlshort]

I'm a big fan of any hefeweizen or wheat beer. I probably drink one or two beers a month, I don't touch alcohol very often. But a beer with a good flavor can really compliment a steak dinner.

 

For the summer I bought a six pack of this Great White beer, http://www.lostcoast.com/. It's pretty good, not too bitter and it has a clean wheaty taste. It migh be better with a slice of lemon, but I haven't tried it.

 

My wif also got a cool Christmas present, a case of Beers of the World. It had a great variety of international beers. We still have a few left.

[Kelverin]

BIG fan of beer. Most any beer, not a beer snob by any means. Prefer to drink Sierra Nevada. The wife loves her Corona with lime and a lot of salt.

[qt3.14159]

This is probably the only bottled beer I drink

 

 

Other than that I really like the stout and the Irish red my local brewery makes. Good stuff.

Edited July 23, 2008 by qt3.14159

[Monte Carlo]

BIG fan of beer. Most any beer, not a beer snob by any means. Prefer to drink Sierra Nevada.

 

Yes, I like Sierra Nevada. Whenever I've gone to the States I've really enjoyed the Microbreweries. Americans are good at making hoppy beer that tastes like ale but tastes good cold. A lot of English beer tastes better a bit warmer.

 

I think some terminology is in order. In the UK we use the generic term beer, but what we really mean is:

 

Lager: The cold fizzy stuff, usually from France, Belgium or Germany. Having said that, I'm currently enjoying Morretti (Italy) and Sagres (Spain).

 

Bitter: what everybody else might call ale, darker beer that isn't necessarily served chilled. My favourite is Fuller's London Pride.

 

Now, I'm getting into the real ale hybrid of cold summer bitters, like Golden Glory that is the best of both worlds.

 

Lastly, Hurlshot's comment about beer complementing food is extremely well made. Can you imagine eating Indian or Thai food without beer? Or Mexican? Lots oF English food goes extremely well with beer (in fact, a lot of the stuff I cook has beer in it too).

 

Cheers

MC

[taks]

sigh... my favorite is a scottish/scotch ale. unfortunately, it is beginning to look as if i have a sensitivity to either wheat or yeast, both of which are fundamental components of a good beer, and yeast is more prevalent in the micro-brews that i prefer to drink anyway. sniff, sniff.

 

oh well, i am a bacardi fan, and i do have a bottle of some good stuff sitting at home.

 

taks

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Been an Ale drinker since I can remember, I've tried a countless number in my days, but amongst my most memorable would be, waggle dance, helegan honey(sp?), and hongoblin... mmmmm Hobgoblin.

 

Edit: Fat Tire wasn't bad for an American beer, but alls said it had nothing on my native british ale.

Edited July 23, 2008 by @\NightandtheShape/@

[taks]

odell's: 90 pfennig

bristol brewing: laughing lab

sam adams: scotch ale

 

i do like a good lager, too, but they simply aren't that popular in colorado. there are several good porters that come out of CO breweries, too. breckenridge brewery has a vanilla porter that i adore (normally i would not like the fact that it has vanilla in it, since that's contrary to the whole german brewing philosophy, but a porter is not technically a "beer" anyway).

 

taks

 

edit: Fat Tire is crap compared to other colorado ales, IMO. it's just got good marketing.

Edited July 23, 2008 by taks

[Hurlshort]

That Mackeson beer was in my Beer of the World set, it was very good.

 

I also prefer a beer on tap whenever possible. Fat Tire is good from the tap, but I've had it bottled and been less happy with it. It is interesting how different a beer can taste depending on what it's served in. Whenever I go to Outback (there aren't a lot of places for steak in California!) I always order the Hef, I think it's usually Widmer's, and it comes in a large frosty mug. Good stuff.

 

I haven't had beer in a can since college. I'm probably a beer snob, but I think it's more that I drink so little that I figure I can afford to drink the good stuff. My neighbor drinks Bud Light and he told me if he drank my stuff, he'd be fat and broke, because you can't knock back a few of those beers a night and not put on some weight.

 

When I was in college, I bought a keg of Gordon Beirsch's Marzen (a rich red beer) on my 21st birthday. That was a good night, I think.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Indeed, a Falstaffian girth is the price we pay for our love of the hop.

[Rosbjerg]

Being from a Beer nation I have to mention Carlsberg and Tuborg.. Although they really aren't that great.

 

Some of the better beer available here are

 

- Hoegaarden - a beer from Belgium, it's a Wiessbeer. It has a long history and was first made in the 15th century.

 

- Franziskaner - German beer. I don't know much about it but it's a good brand. Great taste!

[Kelverin]

^ Indeed, a Falstaffian girth is the price we pay for our love of the hop.

And well worth it!

[Gfted1]

I dont always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Exuis.

 

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Gfted1

[taks]

i've never found any mexican beers to be any good. not even drinkable, IMO. there's at least one beer by franziskaner that i like, but it's not the weissbier.

 

quality of beer out of the tap will depend largely on how often the establishment a) cleans their equipment and b) replaces kegs. places that carry micro-brews on tap likely clean their taps often, and probably go through beer fast enough that the beer is always fresh. in bottles, it just depends. the pool hall i play out of carries fat tire in bottles, but there are probably on a few people that drink it. as a result, the beer is likely always old, and thus a bit skunky. not that i like fat tire when it's fresh, either.

 

taks

[Sand]

For the most part I hate the taste of beer. It tastes like urine mixed with soap water. However there was this one imported beer I tried that wasn't too bad. It had a slight banana flavor, but I can't remember the name but it was most certainly an imported beer. American beers, for the most part, are crap.

[samm]

There's already a beer-thread

I should know...

[Kelverin]

i've never found any mexican beers to be any good. not even drinkable, IMO.

 

I dont always drink Mexican beer, but when I do, I prefer Negra Modelo.

[taks]

It tastes like urine mixed with soap water.

American beers, for the most part, are crap.

there are plenty of beers that don't taste bad, but any of the major beers (A-B, Miller, Coors, etc.) produced in the US, including the crap from across the border (particularly Corona), are arguably piss-water. good micro-brews abound, as well as a few major brands (such as sam adams, which is no longer a micro-brew but regularly wins beer contests around the world). oddly, pabst blue-ribbon wins taste-tests regularly, too.

 

taks

[taks]

yeah, but that thread went down in march, and MC hasn't been posting till recently. hence we get a new thread.

 

taks

[Gfted1]

As an aside, I was really surprised to see AB fall to the hostile takeover from that Belgian company.

[Hurlshort]

There's already a beer-thread

I should know...

 

Please don't do that ever again. I read my posts from that thread and realized I wrote pretty much the exact thing twice. Now I'm questioning my entire life...have I just been repeating the same tired mantras over and over again? *sigh*

[Sand]

It tastes like urine mixed with soap water.

American beers, for the most part, are crap.

there are plenty of beers that don't taste bad, but any of the major beers (A-B, Miller, Coors, etc.) produced in the US, including the crap from across the border (particularly Corona), are arguably piss-water. good micro-brews abound, as well as a few major brands (such as sam adams, which is no longer a micro-brew but regularly wins beer contests around the world). oddly, pabst blue-ribbon wins taste-tests regularly, too.

 

taks

 

True enough. There are a couple of gems in the manure, but only a few.

[taks]

well, there's actually more good ones than bad ones, just not all are available everywhere. you won't find either odell's or bristol brewing beer, for example, outside of colorado.

 

taks

[Shryke]

kilkenny

[Monte Carlo]

Sand, my love, look at the sub-title. To wit, a thread "for everybody that loves beer."

 

Now, where I come from we call that a clue.

 

Although I'm reasonably intrigued as to the provenance of your strange banana-flaovured beer, I'm not sure that this is the thread for you