Beer.
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Not long ago I asked about Cider v. Spice and your thoughts on it. Let’s do the same here with beer, but I’ll leave this more open since it’s a much wider field. What is your favorite brand or style of beer? Do you have a favorite seasonal beer you can only get around Oktoberfest for instance? Maybe you only drink imports? Do you make your own?
And since we’re talking about beer here are some Normisms from one of my favorite shows “Cheers.”
- 28 comments, 68 replies
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I’m a fan of brown ales. I try lots of beers and I’ve never disliked one enough to not drink it. IPAs are probably my least favorite, though.
@medz Agreed IPAs are typically too hoppy for me personally.
@Targaryen The can have a higher alcohol content, though.
/image it’ll get you drunk!
@medz My go-to brown ale.
@medz You are my new best friend.
@parodymandotcom
Hate beer. Don’t want to “get used to it” either.
@RiotDemon You like what you like. What about ciders or mead perhaps?
@Targaryen don’t think I’ve ever had mead. I’ve tried a bunch of ciders, haven’t found one I’ve really liked.
Malt drinks are usually the only beverage I’ll buy. Smirnoff ice grapefruit flavor is delicious. I didn’t find it this summer. So sad. The rare occasion that I’m at a bar, I’ll get a Disaronno Sour.
Most alcohol makes me sweat, so I’ll skip it.
@RiotDemon @Targaryen if you can find it, try Golden State Cider Mighty Dry or ACE Pineapple Cider. The ACE is a porch pounder that taste like vacation in a glass and it is not overly sweet
@ddcarman @RiotDemon This is my favorite description of a cider I’ve seen yet.
@RiotDemon Mead is interesting the first time you try it. You could probably find it at any renaissance faire or a some places that sell wine. That’s my experience of finding it at least. You might like the “Not Your Mother’s” line since they come in flavors like cherry cola, root beer, Mountain Dew but with some alcohol.
@Targaryen if you mean, Not Your Father’s, I’ve tried some of those. They were just ok. I don’t like root beer or vanilla cream soda, so those flavors were a no go right away.
@ddcarman @RiotDemon @Targaryen I make hard cider and I’m currently experimenting with a pineapple-apple cider (I was inspired by the Ace product). I’m finding it difficult to get the pineapple flavor through over the apple base. I think maybe it has to be much sweeter than I usually make the straight apple cider to actually taste like pineapple. Still working on it…
@ddcarman @macromeh @RiotDemon @Targaryen that sounds delicious !
@RiotDemon I don’t know if you’ll like it, but if you ever happen to see Schofferhafer, you might want to give it a try. It’s a hefeweizen combined with grapefruit juice- very low alchohol, and rather tasty.
Radlers are the same basic idea- a beer blended with a lemon-lime juice or soda usually.
@dashcloud if it has hops, I can almost guarantee I’ll hate it. I think that’s what I hate about beer.
The bestest is root beer.
@Barney I assume you mean this?
@Targaryen Need to pick some of those up again. Went on a kick of trying different brands a couple years ago. Tasty, but I wouldn’t want to drink a lot of them at once.
@medz Yeah 1-2 was enough, tasty but it was a little too sweet for me. I feel like we probably shop in the same section of the beer store.
@Targaryen Maybe, but I’ll admit my cheap, fridge-stocking choice is 24 packs of 16oz Miller Lite. They’re usually on sale around here. Refreshing during the summer time. Good for after mowing the lawn and such.
@medz @Targaryen This works for me.
@medz I go a little higher like local beers or Sam Adams usually.
@Barney I haven’t had a root beer float in forever.
@Targaryen Me neither, but I’d prefer it over a beer beer.
@Barney @Targaryen I have had a couple beer beer floats before. One was some sort of chocolate porter or something and the other was strawberry blonde. Not bad, but not as good as beer or ice cream separately.
@medz Oh, yuck.
@Barney @medz Never had a beer float before. I did have a burger that included a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it though. It was pretty novel, not good though.
@Barney @Targaryen I can conceptualize an ice cream burger…basically like taking a bite and then drinking from an ice cream shake. Same thing…
Really enjoying the New England style IPAs lately. Loving the haze.
Cloudy beers seem to be thing here lately (NW Oregon). I just don’t get it, maybe because I’m a home brewer and have worked hard to make clean, clear beers for years, but to each his own I guess.
Love IPAs & New England style, too, but give me Delirium Tremens any day! That’s the stuff of dreams, but dreams that actually come true! Sadly, those dreams don’t come true nearly as often as I’d like, 'cause that shit’s not cheap…
Editing this to add something if anyone is interested in giving beer gifts for Christmas! There’s a site “Give Them Beer” that has a beer advent calendar! I always go there for gifts for my fiancee & you can personalize lots of different “gift baskets” with beers of your choice! Happy beer-ing, y’all!
@LindyNC73 That’s awesome.
@Targaryen They used to have a beer briefcase. It was metal & had beer shaped foam cut outs they’d fill with your choice of beers! I got one for my sweetie for his birthday & he takes it with him whenever he travels for work so he can bring back whatever cool, local brews he finds wherever he goes! He says it works way better than wrapping them in assorted socks & clothes…
@LindyNC73 I made our own beer advent calendar last year. It was a lot of fun! Each night would would take the next number and put it in the fridge so we would have a cold beer the next night.
@LindyNC73 @stardate820926 that looks heavenly
@stardate820926 Dreamy sigh That is the most amazingest, beautifullest idea in all of ever!!! I may (will!) TOTALLY have to steal (borrow?) this idea!!!
@LindyNC73 go for it!! It was awesome
@LindyNC73 @stardate820926 This is brilliant! my kids and their spouses may be getting an awesome Advent calendar this year!
@LindyNC73 @mehcuda67
I made it as a surprise for my husband. Even though I bought all the beer and built it, each day was still a bit of surprise to me. I bagged up all the bottles and then went back and randomly attached the numbers so I had no idea what each one was. I know advent calendars end on the 24th but I added a bomber for Christmas Day because…beer lol
I don’t drink the lower-end, ‘contractor grade’ American beers (Coors Light, Miller Lite, Bud, etc), but I love to try crafty brews from the huge variety currently available. My go-to/standby favorites are Shiner Bock, Bass Ale, Sam Adams, Vanilla Porter. I prefer malty over hoppy.
Best beer I ever had was Gouden Carolus Classic.
/image Gouden Carolus Classic
The last “Normism” is my favorite!!!
/image Ginger Beer
@therealjrn interesting, I haven’t seen that one before. Good?
@Targaryen I dunno. Ask /image, I like ginger beer. It’s like root beer but more better.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Targaryen @therealjrn if you’re ever in seattle, you have to try Rachel’s Ginger Beer. It is THE BEST.
@Targaryen @therealjrn do you like dark and stormy drinks. Ginger beer, goslings rum , lime
@therealjrn that one packs quite the punch. So far i haven’t found one i actually like. I’m not a huge beer fan but when i do drink it, i lean towards darker like shiner, newcastle, etc. Tho i do like rolling rock and harp ok too. I tought i would like cider but I’ve tried 4 flavors and so far i don’t. The hard root beer is great but yeah - 1 is pretty much the limit. They’re not something you can knock back a bunch of, but one sure tastes good ice cold on a hot day. My husbands fav is from a brewery in rolla, mo. It’s called revolution from public brewing company or something like that. It’s sometimes hard to find so when i do find it, i buy it. He also likes guiness draft. That’s another one you don’t slam lol
@ivannabc I don’t know about beer, I drink the non-alcoholic ginger and root beers.
@moonhat @Targaryen @therealjrn
Had a nice ginger pineapple sage beer on tap from Ginger’s Revenge in Ashville, NC.
Also had a killer Moscow Mule with Goya ginger beer and Catdaddy spiced moonshine. I like my ginger beer with some peppery spice heat.
@mike808 @Targaryen @therealjrn nice!!
@moonhat @Targaryen @therealjrn
FYI - the Ginger’s Revenge was clean and crisp, like a carbonated Pinot Grigio with no fruit notes, like a dry champagne.
Perfect pair with the smoked trout on toast we had at the eponymous Speckled Trout in Blowing Rock, NC.
I usually prefer sweet or milk stouts but any stout, dark beer will do. My favorite is Lakewood’s Temptress but Peticolas’ Great Scot is a very close second. I also enjoy goses and saisons but don’t really care for IPA’s.
I mostly drink local craft beer and have admittedly become a bit of a beer snob. I bought a Bud Light Lime (a beer I used to drink pretty often) at a concert not too long ago and thought I was doing to die haha
I mostly do IPAs in the summer. I prefer the hazy New England style to the piny west coast ones, but honestly, I like em all. As it gets colder, though, my preference gets darker and stronger: stouts, scotch ales, barley wines, Belgians. We’ve got a lot of great breweries here in Des Moines–Confluence, Madhouse, Barn Town–that do good seasonals, but in terms of stuff that’s widely available, I like:
@dseanadams I prefer to avoid coffee flavors in my beer. How are your faves in that regard?
@dseanadams You might try Leinenkugel’s Vanilla Snowdrift Porter and it should come out fairly soon.
@Targaryen That one is delicious! I’ll keep my eyes out for it.
@compunaut - Ha! I do love coffee in my beer. But the Shake tastes just like, well, a chocolate shake. And the Brown Shugga has no coffee at all.
Beer is water, yeast, barley, and hops. I’ll try anything with that combination of ingredients. I have my favorites, but every variety has something to offer.
But for all that is good and holy, please leave the other crap out of it!! Beer does NOT contain coffee, citrus, herbs, spices, or (dare I say it) pumpkin…
Though my wife’s seasonal favorite is a beer called Pumking by Southern Tier Brewing, and I gotta say it isn’t half bad…
@shahnm Just roasting the barley to varying degrees provides flavors of coffee, chocolate/cacao, and caramel, among others. And then there’s ‘aging’ in boubon barrels.
Neither really changes the recipe
@compunaut @shahnm
As does using heated stones (steinbier) to carmelize the sugars in the wort.
@compunaut @mike808 I’m all for techniques that bring out flavors of various things. I just don’t agree with actually putting those things in the beer… In other words, beer that is made in such a way as to have flavors of coffee, chocolate, caramel, etc - skilled brewing artistry. Beer that contains coffee, chocolate, caramel, etc - a sin against all that is righteous and decent…
I like lagers.
/image Heineken beer can
/image old style beer can
/
I like IPA’s, and the hoppier the better. I love an Elysian Space Dust IPA esp. when I find it on tap somewhere. Mmm I also love Bastard Kat IPA from Kulshan Brewing and so many many more…
@moonhat One of my favorite treats is a home-baked Nestle’s Toll House cookie washed down with a nice IPA. Mmm… The contrast between the slightly salty, buttery, chocolaty cookie and the bitter, citrusy beer is heavenly.
@macromeh Mac, I have been trying to stop eating so many sugar and carbs but that sounds pretty darn good. I’ve gotta try it.
I like IPAs, and I have long before they were cool. It wasn’t much of a step in the hoppy direction from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which was my go-two twenty years ago when not many other American beers had decent distribution.
I don’t really have a favorite. Since I started playing Untappd a couple or three years ago I try to get something new as often as possible. I don’t drink a lot (maybe three or four beers a month unless I’m traveling), so I like to make them count. I don’t remember when I started playing Untappd, but, since I started, I have 440 unique beers of 488 total, so I’ve been pretty good. Of those 440 beers, 221 have been IPAs. (A lot of those are tasters at breweries, liquor stores, etc., so they add up.)
The first sour beer I had tasted like canned orange juice someone forgot to shake up, but since then I’ve had some good ones. I think, from a marketing perspective, if they’d called them “tart beers” or even “acidic beers” they wouldn’t scare as many people away.
Not a huge fan of the newer, tropical stone-fruity hop varieties, but I still drink beers made with them. I’m more of a traditional pine and grapefruit guy.
On hot summer days I like Munich-style wheat beers (hold the fruit), with their banana and clove esters.
@craigthom I’ve had some really funky sour beers but I may need to give them another try. Tried a cranberry gose which tasted straight up like vomit.
@jmoor783 I’m not fully on board, which is why tasters are nice.
The best sours I’ve had were bright, not funky.
I like most beers. I really like doppelbocks. Paulaner Salvator, Andechs Doppelbock, Troegs Troeginator, Spaten Optimator. It’s dark and a little sweet with a high ABV. Very malty, not bitter at all. I do enjoy hoppy beers but the doppelbock style is my favorite, especially on a cold fall day.
I’ve honestly loved reading everyone’s different tastes in beer! Local breweries are GREAT! We have one called Naked Dove here in the Finger Lakes that makes a black raspberry beer called Berry Naked that’s not as fruity as it sounds. It’s just perfect! Although as I read about spices, coffee, cloves & all, I guess maybe I do lean towards more fruity stuff…? I dunno. I just like/appreciate good beer, so cheers, y’all!
Haven’t had too many, but the ones I like the most are Corona and Strong Bow (citrus).
If Casemates sold some kind of beer or wine sampler, I’d check it out.
@JT954
they have had wine … don’t want to call them samplers but boxes with various wines in them
you just have to watch.
@JT954 I had mentioned that maybe call it “sixes” or something. I’m sure the leap from wine to beer isn’t too far. There are some good abbey beers I’d love to try, like the one in my hometown. It’s only sold locally up there cannot get it down here.
/youtube beer song
Westvleteren (a tiny, but famous Belgian Trappist brewery) is my favorite. I have but one bottle left.
I had a couple of real oenophile friends over to dinner once and broke out a Westvleteren 12 to share. One of them (not particularly a fan of beer) said “If all beer tasted like this, I would switch!”
That said, I prefer variety over having one particular favorite. I’ve managed to try almost all of the Belgian beers you’ll find on those goofy tourist tee-shirts in Belgium. I really liked most of them, even if I wouldn’t pick some as daily drinkers. I used to build a pretty impressive care package for myself and friends each time I visited Belgium, but the airline fees for second bags/ weight limits and security restrictions on liquids/ glass bottles really put a crimp in my style. I’ve had a couple of customs agents ask if I would invite them to my house for Superbowl.
Fortunately, the bar has been going up for domestic craft brewing over the past two decades, so there is no lack of excellent choices here. I’m not a fan of most light beers, extreme IPAs or overly fruited beers, but I’ll give anything a try.
We are living in the golden age of beer!
@mehcuda67 Seconded on Westvleteren 12°. With a St. Bernardus 12 as backup.
Drinking a WV 12° at a Brussels bar beer terrace / street patio in the fall is my winning “best beer I ever dranked” entry.
@mehcuda67
@mike808 This revives some great memories! I’m pretty sure I’ve at least walked by the establishments in the bottom two pictures; perhaps more than walked by. Somehow the specifics of certain Belgian brasseries are a little hazy. The bottom one particularly reminds me of a place that I had at least one Trippel more than was prudent and ordered the terror of Filet Américain on a dare (during the height of a mad cow scare, no less). (For those unfamiliar with classic Belgian cuisine, Filet Américain is a raw beef dish. Scares the daylights out of me - I refer to it as playing Belgian Roulette.)
It’s kind of humorous that the place advertising lambic has so few customers.
IPA’s and Sours are my favorites. Our local brewery/taproom Calicraft blurs the lines between wine and beer and makes some killer brews. Their tea sours are more sour than a warhead snd clock in above 8% and I love it!
I love lots of styles, and love to try beers from different countries- I’ve had them from US, Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Belgium, Scotland, and maybe even Brazil.
This covers my feelings on IPAs:
The Tyranny of the IPA
@dashcloud In my experience, Japanese beer is good. Chinese beer, however, is not.
Right across the Red River from Fargo in Moorhead, MN we have a GREAT micro-brewery called Junkyard Brewing Company. I’ve been to 40 (maybe more) breweries, and would put Junkyard up against any other! Wide variety of anything from IPA’s to stouts to experimental sours…the menu changes frequently, but there’s a few that are almost always in stock. They offer growlers & cans of their beers to go too.
i can’t stand IPA’s or any other super hoppy beers.
current favs Shiner Bock, and good ol’ Coors Banquet.
when it’s in season love a scotch ale(must remember they taste better warm)
if I can find it, love Fullers London Pride, but there’s like 1 store within 75 miles of me that stocks it…
@earlyre I’ve never understood the ‘they taste better warm’ concept. I think it’s more of a you drink em at room temperature but room temperature is like 50f
@LordSalem all I can say for sure, is I’ve consumed them right from the fridge, and the flavor was all wrong…( why did I like this? Kind of thing) let it warm up to ambient, completely different flavor profile ( that’s what I remember!)
I love beer. I suppose if I could figure out how to make money doing it I’d open a brewery. Lately my favorite seasonal beer is the White Oak Jai Alai by Cigar City. They’re from Florida and after moving out to LA I couldn’t get their beer but luckily a bit of talking to the guys at Circus liquor (yes the one that’s in clueless) they managed to somehow get it! Now if only I could find Southern Tier Creme Brulee stout
@LordSalem The Southern Tier brews can be hard to find in many places. At Total Wine, looks like they have some Creme Brûlée in Denver & St Louis. Cinnamon Roll is apparently available in AZ & SC.
My store only has Orange Peel and Tangiers.
On the topic of beer, I’d like some Meh-branded pint glasses to drink from.
@ncinko @Dave Here is an idea.
@dave @ncinko @Targaryen Dishwasher safe, please! Else they’ll be regular ol’ pint glasses right quick.
@ncinko ooooh that’s a good idea
I like beer. I drink beer. Almost all micros and imports except some of the flavored beers. Maybe I’m a bit of a beer-snob. I’ve turned down a Bud light a few times. I pour the beer into a not-frozen mug and enjoy the smell and flavors of a great beer.
Oktoberfest time? My two faves are:
Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen (an Americanized German Oktoberfest beer).
Paulaner Oktoberfect Wiesn (the German Oktoberfest beer).
Our Costco has the Paulaner Marzen, I bought a couple cases… I just love the malty German beers in the fall. Later into the winter, I switch to Stouts & Porters.
Now I’m getting thirsty…
Bought this because I saw it had a brown ale.
Didn’t look closely enough and discovered it had 2 IPAs… Doh!
@medz Sierra Nevada will always be “that west coast ipa brewery” to me.
@jmoor783 torpedo extra IPA actually isn’t that bad, but could be because I already drank the 4 brown ales…