What BEER(s) have you been drinking?

I like Pete's. It's cheap, and it can hold its own against the micro browns. I doubt it's still all malt, but it's a great fridge beer.

Well, it's FINALLY getting above 60 degrees up here, so I thought I'd pick up something in the way of an outdoors beer.

First, I grabbed the Cooperstown brewery's Old Slugger Pale Ale. It's weird. The yeast is just IN YO' FACE (yes, yeastier than Dead Guy), but it's balanced out by a really dry, really sharp lemon-y character that I really like. Not something I'll buy regularly, but it's definitely distinctive, which is rare and appreciated in an APA.

Next was Southern Tier's Hop Sun. I don't particularly care for wheat beers, and only drink them on rare occasions, but I like the brewery so I decided to risk it. It's filtered, which I imagine would be off-putting to true blue hefe fans, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Being filtered, it loses that nice head and cloudiness, but also that mealy taste wheats tend to have, leaving a light-bodied, crisp, refreshing thirst-quencher, but still with a nice kiss of hops. Not really a cookout beer (for that, I'd go with either more macro stuff or Porkslap), but would go really nicely with a salad or sandwich on the porch on a hot day.

Went for one of our regular walks last Sunday, the 2/3rds (8 miles) point in the walk just happened to be a town called Yapton in Sussex which was having it's annual beer festival so we had to pop in and see what was on offer;

Pictish Brewery
Alchemist Ale (4.3%) - light golden summer beer, could drink it all day
Pictish Porter(4.5%) - a nice dark chewy porter


Arundel Brewery
Sussex Gold (4.2%) - light golden citrussy beer

Ballards Brewery
Nyewood Gold (5.0%) - very hoppy, more and evening beer


The last 1/3rd of the walk was a bit wobbly

I'm spending all day at the Mondial tomorrow. Anything you guys think I shouldn't miss from the list?

Tons of beers to try

Spotted Cow by New Glarus Brewery in Wisconsin. A friend had brought some back from Wisconsin, I guess they don't sell outside the borders of the state. I just had a bottle of it this afternoon.

It is labeled as a cream ale, I found out...but not surprising b/c I used that exact adjective after I took my first few drinks. It is pretty malty, wheat and corn flavor.

I don't even want to look up what the "experts" say--it was one of the best beers I've ever had...I gotta figure out a way to stop in Wisconsin and pick up a case! Seriously, if you're in Wisconsin and you get a chance to try it, you should.

I prefer malt over hops nearly every time...I'm not into IPAs, etc. that beer aficionados seem to prefer. It goes down smooth...it isn't fancy, but it also tastes "simple" if that makes sense.

Anyone else ever tried it?

Drinking the duchess last night at the local watering hole. I like sour ale, especially the duchess though.

Ah, what a good time to bring this thread back up since we're getting into Fall beer season...reminds me that I need to go see what Oktoberfest beers are out.

My favorite brew right now is 21st Amendment's Back in Black. It's an American IPA...but hang on. It's a BLACK American IPA. It's got the big hops-forward taste, but it has a more malty, darker, and woody flavor that works really well with the citrus notes of their hops. It's surprisingly smooth and drinkable. Comes in cans, which is something I hope is becoming more and more of a thing- less environmental impact, and let's face it, drinking beer out of cans is _fun_.

I've also been drinking Sierra Nevada's fall brew, Tumbler. It's a simple brown ale, and it's got the SN signature "nothin' fancy" quality. It's not as good as something like Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, but it's a great pick at the grocery store or gas station.

I had a Sweetwater 420 at a pizza joint over the weekend and it was probably the best beer I've had in a long time though...very simple, straightforward, and great-tasting. Usually 420 is just kind of OK, but for whatever reason this draught was outstanding.

Some shitty beers I've had lately- Founders' Cerise, which tasted like a black cherry soda with malt liquor poured in it and Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre, which was so bad it almost put me off beer for months. Also, Southern Tier's Phinn and Matt's Extraordinary Ale. Nothing extraordinary about it all.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre, which was so bad it almost put me off beer for months.

This is a fantastic beer. You should see a doctor about getting your tastebuds checked.

I've been drinking mainly pumpkin beers or homebrews lately. Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout, that's right a stout, is pretty good although you hardly taste the pumpkin. Post Road Pumpkin Ales are okay, but didn't do much for me. Southampton Pumpkin Ale was probably the best I've had this year so far. I'll be picking up some of my yearly staples in the coming weeks though and I expect those to set the standard. Plus we're probably going to brew a spiced pumpkin wheat ale at home soon.

Merkles wrote:

Spotted Cow by New Glarus Brewery in Wisconsin. A friend had brought some back from Wisconsin, I guess they don't sell outside the borders of the state.

Anyone else ever tried it?

New Glarus is terrific beer. It's true that you can't buy it outside of Wisconsin, but the Twin Cities are very close, so every once in a while I'll get a bottle from friends who have been over to Hudson and taken the opportunity to buy some. In fact, one of my coworkers lives in Hudson, so I ought to be working that angle...

The last bottled beer I had was a Bell's 25th Anniversary Ale. It was wretched. But thankfully I had a couple cans of Surly Coffee Bender to help me forget about it.

It's got the big hops-forward taste, but it has a more malty, darker, and woody flavor that works really well with the citrus notes of their hops. It's surprisingly smooth and drinkable.

Well, this explains why you didn't like the new DungeonQuest. The "Beer" in Beer & Pretzels games is referring to something along the lines of: MGD, Icehouse, Red Dog, Bud Light, etc.....

Space Ghost wrote:

It's got the big hops-forward taste, but it has a more malty, darker, and woody flavor that works really well with the citrus notes of their hops. It's surprisingly smooth and drinkable.

Well, this explains why you didn't like the new DungeonQuest. The "Beer" in Beer & Pretzels games is referring to something along the lines of: MGD, Icehouse, Red Dog, Bud Light, etc.....

"What PRETZEL(s) have you been eating?"

Ah, what a good time to bring this thread back up since we're getting into Fall beer season...reminds me that I need to go see what Oktoberfest beers are out.

It's really too bad you can't get Great Lakes beers down there. Their Oktoberfest is top_shelf, but then again, so is everything I've had from them.

Flying Dog's Dogtoberfest is pretty good, though not as good as their others. It's more on the smooth, sweet Oktoberfest side, as opposed to the bold, spicy varieties.

Whatever any of you do, stay away from Magic Hat's Hex, their not-really-but-sorta' Oktoberfest. It's just a big mess of a beer.

...Comes in cans, which is something I hope is becoming more and more of a thing- less environmental impact, and let's face it, drinking beer out of cans is _fun_.

Here's hoping it doesn't.

First of all, there are too many variables involved with getting an aluminum can to your lips vs. a glass bottle that cans don't necessarily represent a smaller environmental impact. Besides, most of these craft brewers are tree-huggin' hippie fuckers anyway. They're already printing their labels with soy ink, recycling their spent mash as cow feed, and operating brewpubs that use organic, local produce, so get off their goddamn backs already.

And, this is just my experience, but I find people (myself included) are less likely to recycle cans than glass. Cans get mangled easily, plus they're lightweight and easy enough to just throw away. Glass bottles are big, bulky, and pile up quickly, so there's more of an incentive to get rid of them quickly and properly.

Also, it doesn't matter what the beer comes in, because you're supposed to pour it into a glass. Beer needs to be allowed to breathe. The pour stirs up all those wonderful aromas, which is important because you taste with your nose more than you do with your tongue. And why would you want to miss out on the visual aspect of drinking beer? The head, the lacing, the color... that's all part of the full experience of drinking beer.

But even if you are going to drink straight from the original container, give me glass any day of the week. Beer out of cans tends to take on a metallic taste after a while, and I haven't found any beer so far that's immune to this quality. Beer in bottles can fall victim to oxidation pretty easily if left in direct, bright light, but you can still knock a bit of that skunk out of it if you pour it like you're supposed to.

But yes, I'll grant you drinking beer out of cans is fun. It's fun, though, because it's a novelty. Once it becomes more of a thing, it won't still be fun.

I've also been drinking Sierra Nevada's fall brew, Tumbler. It's a simple brown ale, and it's got the SN signature "nothin' fancy" quality. It's not as good as something like Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, but it's a great pick at the grocery store or gas station.

This is really unfair. If Tumbler isn't as good as the OBD, it ain't by much. I've had a lot of both, and I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard time distinguishing one from the other in a blind test.

SN still make_damn_good_beer, as does the Boston Brewery (though not as often as SN), but even when they make a legit, true-to-style beer that's about on par with their less popular, often more expensive counterparts, they still get that backhanded "for a grocery store beer" compliment.

We had a party/BBQ and I'm still keeping busy ripping through the huge pile of PBR we had left over. I was surprised by how much I enjoy it. It's certainly a change of pace from all the super serious homebrews/craft I usually drink.

Being sort of new to beer and having skipped out on being a college drinker (I drank the fuck out of shitty hood 40s in high school, then took ten years off only getting into drinking cause I started brewing) I think a lot of people like to get all nose in the air about cheap beer, but fuck them. Some cheap "shitty" beer is damn fine drinkin. Coors light can fuck right off though.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Some shitty beers I've had...Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre, which was so bad it almost put me off beer for months.

All of Dogfish Head's beers suck donkey nuts. And they also singlehandedly destroyed the Old Dominion brewpub (as well as every last one of the beers by changing the fucking recipes) after they bought [backed by An-Busch's money] the label. That brewery was .25 of a mile from my house and they ran it into the goddamned ground until the regulars stopped going altogether and it closed.

The world would not be worse for the loss should DfH's brewery burn to the ground....

Virtually all of my beer-drinking peers around here LOVE Dogfish Head brews. I've not been too crazy about any of them aside from their Punkin Ale (which should be stores now). The 60/90 minute IPAs are IPAs, sure enough. Festina Peche is soda. Apri-Hop is just weird. India Brown is kind of meh. Midas Touch is good but it's not a beer. Raison D'Etre tastes terrible. Paolo Santo Marron is OK though.

Somebody told me that Butternuts went out of business. Say it ain't so.