Beer! Glorious Beer Thread!

[Flarega]

Had the Sculpin IPA from ballast point tonight. Pretty damn good, and the guy I bought it from said it was their best brew.

[Kiro]

Dunno why but lately I've been drinking a LOT of Haywire Hefeweizen. $14 a pitcher, but hnnnnnnnnnnnngh it's so worth it. Also a lot of Dos Equis Amber for some reason, I think it's due to lack of decent Ambers. Any suggestions?

Mandatory suggestion--Boddington's Pub Ale. If you go out and they have it on tap, please please please try it. $8 a pint I believe, but it's.. golden and smooth, almost looks like milk when they first fill the glass up. I could live in the stuff.

[Pirian]

Ehh I'm really not much for wheat beers at all. I've gradually gained an appreciation for the bitterness of IPA's, but wheat beers all have a very distinctive flavor that I just can't grow on.

[Zoolander]

Ehh I'm really not much for wheat beers at all. I've gradually gained an appreciation for the bitterness of IPA's, but wheat beers all have a very distinctive flavor that I just can't grow on.

ditto. something fundamentally wrong with wheat beers to me and a lot of the serious beer drinkers i know.

wtf@ $8 for Boddingtons. That seems a bit much. Def a solid brittish beer though, I loved trying the bitters in England. The taps for the bitters there were wooden pumps they would hand pump to serve, and it was served cool as opposed to uber cold. forget the exact temp, but it was different.

[Kiro]

I don't like a lot of wheat beers either, but try Haywire at least once. It is very very good. $8 for Boddington's is worth it, not a regular thing unless you have that kind of disposable income. It's an import and you can only find it at english/irish pubs, and even then some don't have it.

I need some Amber recommendations, I'm tired of drinking Dos Equis Amber. Nothing but overpriced swill as far as I'm concerned. I've been going to the "natural" grocery stores in Seattle to find something new because they tend to carry mainly local breweries over the usual grocery store stuff. Found some really good stouts, but nothing too amazing. I found an Irish Cream Ale (can't remember the name, green & cream/tan colored can), fucking $10 for a 4-pack. It was amazingly well done, but even I have a hard time paying that much for 4 cans that aren't even a pint each.

Ambers Ambers Ambers! HALP!

Edit: Also why the fuck don't stores carry Moosehead Lager anymore? That stuff is goddamn carbonated deliciousness.
Edit2: Oh, the Irish Cream Ale is called Wexford. Apparently they are pint cans. /shrug
Edit3 (gdi): If you see Boddington cans for sale at a grocery store, don't do it. Get it on tap or not at all. It's kinda like the Guinness rule.

[Kiro]

Fuck editing.

I have a hard time stomaching IPAs. First one I ever had was Stone Double Bastard and that kind of set the standard for me. Haven't found anything half as decent as that yet.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1361/...9ec77b.jpg?v=0

[Zoolander]

Thats not actually an IPA.

Double Bastard is awesome though, thats raising the bar pretty high. You're talking about Dos Equis and then name drop that haha, those two beers are galaxies apart. It sounds like you aren't a big fan of hoppy beers if you can't stomach IPAs (although 2xBastard has some hops in it). Have you been drinking decent beer for a while now? I always suggest the 60 or 90 min IPAs from Dogfish Head to ppl trying out IPAs. If you're up in Seattle you should have some really nice local breweries, although I can't recall any atm. Seattle and Denver were kind of the birth places of craft beers in the US afaik.

Red Ales/Ambers...Smithwicks is easy enough to find and I like it quite a bit, especially since its not too expensive (should be like $7.99/6 pack). I can't say ive had a ton of Ambers that I remember...I'd prolly just find a decent brewer in the store or bar and if they had an amber/red ale...try it.

[Dontkare]

If you are in Seattle I highly recommend checking out Elysian Brewing Company. They have a host of excellent beers. Alternatively, a short ferry ride across the water will land you near Silver City Brewery in Silverdale. They have a couple worthwhile brews including their Panther Lake Porter, Indianola Pale Ale, and Ridgetop Red. And if you're willing to make about an hour and a half drive north, definitely check out Boundary Bay up in Bellingham. I just went there last week and had an amazing Imperial Oatmeal Stout.

[Reality]

i don't like IPA's because they're bitter as fuck, dunno how you guys can stand it tbh

[Kiro]

Friend of mine I used to work with back in 2007/2008 has been going through beers 2 weekends a month since then on a fairly regular basis with me. We've gone to every pub & bar in Downtown Seattle and West Seattle. Summer this year a store specializing in nothing but beer and wine opened up a few blocks from his house so we've been steadily making our way through their inventory, which is always changing. Gone to a few tastings of some great and not so great beers. In a day I can go from Hoegaarden to Sam Adams, Guinness to MGD, and some "refermented in bottle" stout called Damnation right down to PBR. I really don't know where my tastes in beer go, but they're always changing when something new shows up. I dunno. I have no "regular" beer except a pint of Guinness.

Edit: I've had a lot of beers from Elysian and lots of other local breweries, all very good but pretty damned expensive. Can't really make them a regular thing. Probably why I always go back to the borderline swill beers. Exploring beer is pricey sometimes, lol.

[Dontkare]

If you live in Seattle and want some good reds/ambers, look into Rogue beers. They are brewed in Oregon and you can get them almost everywhere in the Seattle area. Try Santa's Private Reserve, American Amber, and St. Rogue Red. All are amazing beers. Or, you can try local with Elysian's Men's Room Original Red. It's a very tasty red ale and one of my personal favorites.

[Doombear]

Was just at the Rogue Public Ale House here in Portland night before last... so delicious. Did a couple samplers with my brother. By far my favorite was the McRogue Scotch Ale and the Northwestern was not that bad either. My next favorite was the Morimoto Soba Ale, very very light. The Chipotle Ale was ... strange to say the least. I had had it before and it was spicy that time. At the Ale House though, it really just tasted like I was cleaned a BBQ grill with my mouth. It was... strangely nice.

Rogue ales are easily found all over, and well worth picking up. Surely everyone has seen a bottle of Dead Guy Ale around, but there are tons more and all worth trying.

[Eratosthenes]

Drinking this right now:

It's awesome.

[Zoolander]

holy shit lol, about half way through my first bottle of Bell's The Oracle DIPA. This shit is insane, not for the feint of heart. Was like $16 for a six pack of it (Bell's is pretty reasonable with their prices actually) and well worth it. Try it if you like Hopslam, its very similar (both 10% abv. & DIPA).

[Skyylya]

holy shit lol, about half way through my first bottle of Bell's The Oracle DIPA. This shit is insane, not for the feint of heart. Was like $16 for a six pack of it (Bell's is pretty reasonable with their prices actually) and well worth it. Try it if you like Hopslam, its very similar (both 10% abv. & DIPA).

bells is a very good brewery. their two-hearted is also very good.

that karmeliet tripel was recommended to me by the bartender at the local Brass Tap which is a craft beer spot here. she said it's her favorite.

[Konohamaru]

that triple is delicious, i'm usually not a huge fan

[Pirian]

Ahh hell, I've been so bad at updating with the beer we've drank.

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000452.jpg

The same lineup, but closer (starting from the very left of the picture above):
http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000453.jpg
http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000454.jpg

I have more photos on my phone, but we didn't get through half of the beers, lol. Not sure what's going to happen to them, because the majority of us are going to be too busy to drink like that again


edit: A special shout out to the 5th beer from the far left (It looks like the 4th beer in the first picture because I accidentally cut out the first one). It was quite possibly the smokiest beer I've ever had, and I loved it! I would really love to make burgers with it some time. Also a special shout out to the last beer in the lineup, Tsjeeses. It was an amazing beer and if you can happen to find it then pick it up for sure. Pretty sure it's a winter seasonal

[pahnphoenix]

Ahh hell, I've been so bad at updating with the beer we've drank.

Spoiler: show

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000452.jpg

The same lineup, but closer (starting from the very left of the picture above):
http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000453.jpg
http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/P1000454.jpg

I have more photos on my phone, but we didn't get through half of the beers, lol. Not sure what's going to happen to them, because the majority of us are going to be too busy to drink like that again


edit: A special shout out to the 5th beer from the far left (It looks like the 4th beer in the first picture because I accidentally cut out the first one). It was quite possibly the smokiest beer I've ever had, and I loved it! I would really love to make burgers with it some time. Also a special shout out to the last beer in the lineup, Tsjeeses. It was an amazing beer and if you can happen to find it then pick it up for sure. Pretty sure it's a winter seasonal

i keep hearing about that oak smoke beer, but haven't had it yet. it's on tap at this new bar in new haven (a bit of a trek for me, but they also have some other shit so i'm considering it...). i see backwoods bastard in that line-up. i had that beer for the first time on xmas night (friend brought it from boston--no founders in CT. i split a year old saison rue in return, which was great). while i've liked other bourbon barrel aged beers more, i think only goose island bourbon county stout really nails the balance of bourbon/oak influence and base beer better than backwoods bastard (all those 'b's).

speaking of backwoods bastard, i'm not sure this beer even exists anymore, but if you ever see founders sappy slappy bastard on tap anywhere, i recommend drinking as much of it as possible. it's dirty bastard (the base beer for backwoods bastard) aged in maple barrels. it basically tasted like a smoother, creamier backwoods bastard with a huge dose of yellow cake thrown in. competitive with cambridge brewing company's cerise casée for best beer i drank in 2010.

currently waiting for a trade to come in. i sent out new england brewing company's imperial stout trooper and wet willy (and several extras) for deschutes abyss 2010 and mirror mirror 2009 (and extras). finally getting to try some deschutes beer after hearing how great they are for years.

in other news, i recently stumbled upon a kind of remote beer store that has a bunch of 2004 cantillon beer. this will be bought by me gradually over the next several weeks... (started with this, which i'll drink as soon as i have a night to myself with nothing to do).

finally, i've had 8 of the 18 beers in that last pririan pic (BB, nemesis--though not '10, troegenator, empirial IPA, double bastard--one of my favorite beers, bashah, burton baton, and nugget nectar). range from very good to very very good, i'd say (bashah is a bit like drinking potpourri, but is pretty interesting to try once, empirial IPA is an experiment a lot of beeradvocate ppl hated but i loved, and the other 6 are all classics).

edit: @eratosthenes, i love tripel karmeliet (which i apparently haven't reviewed... that's weird). underrated beer. (A- on BA is about right, but i've read people kind of refer to it as a 2nd class tripel or something, which it's not at all. for me, it stands with the trappists and saint bernardus)

[Norellicus]

I had some of this last weekend

http://carbon111.com/brew/delirium_noc.jpg

So good

Edit: Also had a Dogfish Head 90min IPA; tastes ok but I found the finish to be a little vile. There was also some kind of tripel there that had the flavor without the bite...can't remember the name of it though >_>

[Tokitoki]

I had some of this last weekend

http://carbon111.com/brew/delirium_noc.jpg

So good

Going to second this. Girlfriend turned me on to it a few years ago. The distributor near our school carried it so we snagged some. Dark enough, but not too heavy. Plus the bottle is awesome.