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Beer/Ale/Lager Appreciation Thread


MacabreEternal

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A hobby of mine is sampling traditional ales/beers from around the world. I am not an alcoholic, I am a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings! Anyway I was bought a book recently by my father - "300 Beers To Try Before You Die" by Roger Protz. Most of them I was familiar with already but many more are new to me some I working my way through the whole book. My preferred drink is porter or stout. My regular stout is Mackeson Stout which has been about for ages with its coffee aroma but I also like St Peters Cream Stout & Old Growler (hint of liquorice) also. I recently discovered Samuel Adams Boston Lager which is really amber in colour with spicy flavour and I also tried Brooklyn Lager which is much the same but is more peppery. I have also recently been sampling wheat beers (cloudy beers to the layman) such as Weinhenstephaner Hefe Weissbier and Hoegaarden. Although I enjoyed Weinhenstephaner Hefe Weisbier I am not the biggest fine of too many citrus notes in my beer (at least not too obvious anyway) so I have struggled to find any other wheat beers to enjoy. I did try Franziskaner Weissbier on Friday but it is full of banana flavour that dominates the mouth. Favourite bitters include Adnams Broadside, Ringwood Old Thumper & Wychwood Hobgobiln. For extra strong or vintage ales I like Brakspear Triple or Theakstons Old Peculiar. I have so far only found one IPA I like and that is Timothy Taylor's Landlord. Yesterday I opened a bottle of Greenwich Meantime Bourbon Barrel Aged Ale. It is basically the same recipe as their London Porter but they then leave the ale to age for 4 months in Bourbon barrels and you get a real kick of vanilla and caramel as a result. It was fucking marvelous! Anyway I could go on but the purpose of the thread is to see if there are any other ale appreciators on the board and to give us the opportunity to put up recommendations for each other and maybe compare notes?

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Well, as I'm sure at least a few of you know, I'm kind of a beer nut. I like a ton of different styles of beers, though my favorites tend to be the stronger varieties, Belgians, IPAs/double IPAs/imperial IPAs, porters, stouts/imperial stouts, dopplebocks, barleywines, etc... I love trying all different kinds of beers, it's something of a hobby despite my geographical impairment (living in a state controlled by Mormons makes being into beer a bit more difficult). Anyhow, here are some of favorite beers by style: Barleywine: Cockeyed Cooper - Uinta Brewing Company - Salt Lake City, UT - BeerAdvocate Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale - Full Sail Brewery & Tasting Room & Pub - Hood River, OR - BeerAdvocate Anniversary Barley Wine Ale - Uinta Brewing Company - Salt Lake City, UT - BeerAdvocate IPAs: Stone Ruination IPA - Stone Brewing Co. - Escondido, CA - BeerAdvocate Hercules Double IPA - Great Divide Brewing Company - Denver, CO - BeerAdvocate Double Jack - Firestone Walker Brewing Co. - Paso Robles, CA - BeerAdvocate Stouts: The Abyss - Deschutes Brewery - Bend, OR - BeerAdvocate Belgian Style Yeti - Great Divide Brewing Company - Denver, CO - BeerAdvocate Labyrinth Black Ale - Uinta Brewing Company - Salt Lake City, UT - BeerAdvocate Dubbels: Maredsous 8 - Brune - Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat NV - Breendonk-Puurs, Belgium - BeerAdvocate Affligem Dubbel - Brouwerij De Smedt / Brouwerij Affligem - Opwijk, Belgium - BeerAdvocate Westmalle Trappist Dubbel - Brouwerij Westmalle - Malle, Belgium - BeerAdvocate Tripels: La Fin Du Monde - Unibroue - Chambly, QC, Canada - BeerAdvocate Westmalle Trappist Tripel - Brouwerij Westmalle - Malle, Belgium - BeerAdvocate Gulden Draak (Dark Triple) - Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V. - Ertvelde, Belgium - BeerAdvocate Quads: Trappistes Rochefort 10 - Brasserie de Rochefort - Rochefort, Belgium - BeerAdvocate The Sixth Glass - Boulevard Brewing Co. - Kansas City, MO - BeerAdvocate La Trappe Quadrupel (Koningshoeven / Dominus) - Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven B.V. - Berkel-Enschot, Netherlands - BeerAdvocate Doppelbocks: Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock - Privatbrauerei Franz Inselkammer KG / Brauerei Aying - Aying, Germany - BeerAdvocate Wolfgang Doppelbock Lager - Great Divide Brewing Company - Denver, CO - BeerAdvocate Weihenstephaner Korbinian - Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan - Freising, Germany - BeerAdvocate Weisse Biers: Schneider Weisse Tap 1 Mein Blondes - Weisses Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn GmbH - Kelheim, Germany - BeerAdvocate Schneider Weisse Tap 6 Unser Aventinus - Weisses Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn GmbH - Kelheim, Germany - BeerAdvocate Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse - Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu - München, Germany - BeerAdvocate Black IPAs/Cascadian Dark Ales: Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale - Stone Brewing Co. - Escondido, CA - BeerAdvocate Hop In The Dark Cascadian Dark Ale - Deschutes Brewery - Bend, OR - BeerAdvocate Dubhe Imperial Black IPA - Uinta Brewing Company - Salt Lake City, UT - BeerAdvocate I dig other beers as well, but don't drink other styles as much as these. I don't drink a lot of red ales anymore, as I find most of them to be quite on the safe side, and while easily drinkable, they don't tend to be very flavorful. I would very much like to explore styles that I have only sampled a few times but enjoyed, like lambics, saisons, rauchbiers, etc... Some of the fun is just trying new stuff and sampling all of the flavors that are out there, so I'm up for pretty much anything.

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I noticed tonight the Meantime London Hospital Porter I had was a special edition aged for 4 months in Islay Whiskey barrels to give a hint of peat - it worked really well with the roasted coffee and chocolate flavours in there. It was a perfect accompaniment to the chocolate cake my girlfriend made me for my birthday, it also led nicely onto me having a couple of glasses of the Jura single malt that one of my staff bought me (also slightly peaty). Enjoyable night so far. I enjoy some of the stories behind some of the ales I drink. For example Weinhenstephaner do a beer based on the story of a monk who was travelling by horse to far climes and he was attacked by a bear which ate his horse. The monk allegedly tamed the bear and made it carry all his luggage for the rest of his journey as compensation. Great story.

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I noticed tonight the Meantime London Hospital Porter I had was a special edition aged for 4 months in Islay Whiskey barrels to give a hint of peat - it worked really well with the roasted coffee and chocolate flavours in there. It was a perfect accompaniment to the chocolate cake my girlfriend made me for my birthday, it also led nicely onto me having a couple of glasses of the Jura single malt that one of my staff bought me (also slightly peaty). Enjoyable night so far. I enjoy some of the stories behind some of the ales I drink. For example Weinhenstephaner do a beer based on the story of a monk who was travelling by horse to far climes and he was attacked by a bear which ate his horse. The monk allegedly tamed the bear and made it carry all his luggage for the rest of his journey as compensation. Great story.
Barrel aging does tend to produce some pretty great results IMO, a few of the ones I listed on my top beers were barrel aged. They tend to drive up the ABV, give an extra dimension of sweetness, in addition to other subtleties from the wood that tend to work especially well with stouts. My only problem with them is they tend to be much more expensive than beers that are non-barrel aged, and I can't imagine that just letting something sit in a barrel for a few months could cost the brewer than much more.
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barrel-aging would' date=' unless the manufacturer only brews beer for that purpose, require the production of a surplus so I can understand why it could be a little more expensive[/quote'] Sure, maybe some additional expense, but not the degree it is usually taken. Most large bottle imperial stouts I see sell for around $5-8 here, but if it's barrel aged, they tend to go for $14-21. Seems like quite the hefty difference just to let it sit in a barrel for a few months.
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On a different (although still alcohol related) note, when I went to the English Whiskey Company last year and went on their tour I asked the guy showing us round why the longer aged whiskey was so expensive. He basically said it was bullshit that you were paying for anything better as after a period of time the flavour won't improve or develop any further. In fact over time the whiskey will evaporate so in the end the price gets pushed up because the distillery has less to sell so you are paying for the whiskey they have lost through natural evaporation in the barrel. When I went to the Edinburgh Whiskey Tour a couple of years back (highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Scotland) they have a room of bottles of whiskey donated by some Brazilian guy who collected bottles of single malt but he didn't actually drink any of them. As I went round I noticed that some bottles had marginally less in than others and the guide explained that this was due to evaporation because this guy had kept some of the bottles for so long.

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Whats the main drink over there in Australia RO? Is it as the British press would have us believe that all Australians drink Fosters and Castlemaine xxxx? Is Castlemaine still going - havent noticed any for years now that I mention it? I remember through the 90s a terribly stereotypical series of adverts for Castlemaine on TV, largely that all Aussies were drunks who spent all day in the pub drinking xxxx or in search of a pint. Reverting back to whiskey for a mo - I have some whiskey called Cardhu which came in a bottle inside a leather pouch. Why do they make some whiskey packaged like aftershave?

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Covering the latter point first I have no earthly idea. Castlemaine became XXXX Gold and isn't that popular really, Foster's is perhaps the least popular beer in Australia because let's face it no one with taste buds could drink that shit. The most popular beers are Victoria Bitter, Coopers, Carlton Draught, Toohey's and Heineken which is a shame givven there are many more beers which are of higher quality such as Crowne Lager (my personal favourite) and James Boag's (which is just fantastic really)

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Re: Beer/Ale/Lager Appreciation Thread

It's a shame I can't get a better variety of imported beers where I live. The most available ones here are Foster's and Heineken. I'll take either' date=' but the nearest store that has anything different is 45 minutes away. I'll have to move. :)[/quote'] You can have beer shipped to you, unless you live where I live. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is a government institution (created by the Mormons) controls all alcohol being imported and exported through the state, and anything that circumvents them is illegal and can get you a hefty fine if you get caught. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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Having beer shipped to me is an option I am seriously considering - especially some of the more exclusive brands (I am interested in trying some proper smoked beers for example). Tonight I have had some Theakstons XB which is more fruity than I remember but very ruby in colour and has a real hoppy aroma to it. I have also picked up some Cains Formidable Ale which is much more promising from the title than it actually turns out to be. The malty and biscuity taste balances the fruit flavour nicely but I am still not in love with it.

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Tonight has been Morrhouses Pendle Witches Brew. A golden ale brewed in Burnley (not far from me up the motorway). Pendle Witches are allegedly the evil women who performed all manner of nasty acts in the 16th Century. IN reality James I (having survived the gunpowder plot) decided to exact revenge on the Catholics esp in Lancashire which was a Catholic stronghold. In his book "Daemonology" the text clearly shows that qualifying to be witch often involved little more than having a birth mark or blemish. The majority of the innocent women where hung. Anyway - they have made a beer out of this historical miscarriage of justice and it is a bit wishy washy and dull on the palate but still drinkable with it's biscuity flavour and malty taste.

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I picked up some bitters the other night from the supermarket as I had been out to the pub but was driving so had to not drink in the pub. Got some Ridley's Old Bob and Hook Norton's Old Hooky. Both have fruity flavours but Old Bob balanced it so much better with a real wholemeal biscuit kind of a taste, Old Hooky was a bit too much sultana and raisin tasting and nothing else was there to really take that flavour away. Whilst the weather has been nice all day I have gone through 4 bottles of Samuel Adams Boston Lager this afternoon and it some how made the temperature that much more bearable. Does anybody used the Untappd website or app?

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