yeah. shiner bock sucks imo. left hand milk stout is the best stout i have ever had. it was from a nitro tap though. i just came back from colorado. its beer lovers heaven there
That's awesome. I've been debating on doing the whole Beer Cicerone and BJCP tests but I've been dragging my feet on it. I'm not concerned about my palate but my sinuses are weak - meaning I don't always get the complete smell. A buddy of mine is working on opening up a brewpub here in the area. He's currently doing all of the market research, including loans, buildings, recipe development, etc. It's a lot of work. That's completely true. What kind of system are you using to do 10 gallon batches? That's awesome. Saisons are one of my favorite styles, especially during the summer months, mainly for the same reasons as you (though I do like a nice Helles when it's super hot). Not sure if you can get Boulevard where you are at but if you can you should try to find Saison-Brett. Should be obvious but it's a Saison finished with Brett in the bottle. Their Tank 7 is also really tasty. Another great commercial example is Ommegang - both Hennepin and Ommegeddon are excellent. Rare Vos is quite tasty as well, though it's not technically a Saison. Back on Boulevard for a second, I had their Two Jokers last night while out at dinner. I'm not a huge fan of Wit beers and this one had always been a bit much in terms of spices, specifically coriander. But it tasted like they revamped the recipe a little bit, cutting back on the spice and accentuating the lemon character of the wheat. They've also ramped up the sourness of it, so it has almost a Berlinerweiss character to it. And the label is pretty cool, though I still prefer St. Lupulin. Two Jokers: St. Lupulin:
Left Hand is pretty solid. I like their Sawtooth as just an everyday drinker - it's very decent and close to being a session ale. No love for Avery or Great Divide?
My Little Sumpin' Sumpin' story. I manned Lagunitas' booth here at the last brewfest. After seeing I had everything under control early on, the damn Lagunitas rep decided to go walkabout, and never came back! It ended up being just me all afternoon, and as such, while pouring everyone else 2 oz samples, I was pouring myself 30 oz samples in my complementary "Men Drinking Beer" stein from the party of the same name earlier in the day. I got crushed. My brewing partner was pouring for New Belgium right behind me, and he got obliterated too. We even got our illustrious mayor totally polluted. All I could remember was that we couldn't stop laughing. In the end, A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' won the peoples choice award. I'd like to think that the jovial nature of my booth had a hand in that. I still don't remember getting home that night, but the next morning, I went out to see if I left my cell phone in the car. It was there, as were six cases of Sumpin' Sumpin' in my back seat! Bwhahahahahaha!!!
Don't let that stop you VO. I've had three reconstructive nose surgeries, so I'm in the same boat as you. It has even robbed me of some of my sense of taste. But, the more you judge, the keener your senses will become. And, you don't have to wait for your BJCP, you can judge right now. You will just be considered an "apprentice" and will most likely be paired with more experienced judges. However, all your judging points will be saved and awarded to you when you get your cert. So start now and answer the call for judges in your area. You'll be glad you did. Yes it is. I have a 20 barrel system that is mostly converted dairy tanks. Aquiring that was the easy part! My home brew systems are pretty diverse. My 10-12 gallon system is made of converted 15 gallon kegs. But I have a stove top "mini" system where I can brew down to a 6-pack. That's my recipe tester. I also have a CO2 system, so I force carbonate most of my brews. See what I mean? You just picked out a world class beer in that Boulevard! Go judge a competition! Love Brewery Ommegang, especially since Duvel bought them out (not a fan of Vos though). Our local distributor messed up, and World Market here was selling Hennepin for 3.99 a bottle! I cleaned them out a few times before they caught the mistake. Not long after, I met that rep at a Bell's tasting, and thanked her. Right there with you. HATE corriander, and even grains of paradise, but love the citrus whether its from the yeast or the hops. Can't stand the banana, or even worse, the bubblegum (which is an off flavor from too high a fermentation temp for that yeast strain). As far as sourness.......I LOVE IT! Mark my words, next summer people will be going ape over sour beers. I have a 7.5 gallon batch of true lambic going, that would taste like a very pedestrian Belgian golden if you drank it right now. But in 18 more months, the lacto is going to sour it beautifully.
Like the Choklat. I'm a huge fan of the Oatmeal Stout. I'm waiting for the Heavy Weizen to be released around here. Can't wait to try it
So what are your guys' thoughts on: I've been sifting through a LOT of different premium beers the past few months trying to find the perfect Sunday football beer, one that will last me through all 3 games without becoming annihilated. I've realized I enjoy APAs for normal drinking, and if I want a sipping beer for pure pleasure indulgence I turn to dubbels (Ommegang Abbey Ale) & quads (Rochefort 10 must contain trace amounts of crack & crystal meth).... and stuff like Duvel. Unfortunately most beers I like are a little boozy which is a bummer b/c I thought I found the winner in Dale's Pale Ale when in Denver. Didn't realize it was 6.5% and got itfaced after 4 20oz glasses within a couple hours. (don't think the high altitude worked to my sober advantage either). So then I try Weihenstephaner Original (Munich Hells Lager) at 5.1% ($9.99 6pack).............. I like Sierra Nevada PA, but I think this became my personal Holy Grail of Sunday football beer. It was somewhat light, incredibly smooth, crisp, clean, delicate, and perfectly balanced for me to not grow annoyed with any hops or malt dominating while drinking 12-15 of them. Alcohol content is ideal, and the carbonation was spot on for a beer I want to drink all day. This is such an easy drinking beer for my palate that, even at 5.1%, I'll have to be careful to not turn 15 beers into a case, because if I get to 14 or 15 and games are still playing, someone's going to the store to pick up more. lol. But the kicker for me was------> there was something interesting saying hello to my mid palate and slightly through on the finish that I just couldn't quite identify. Then it finally hit me.......... No, it can't be......... Why yes, it's Bazooka Joe grape bubble gum. Not Hubba Bubba or that Bubalicous crap, but distinctly Bazooka freakin Joe, a grape gum I haven't had in over 20 years. This beer brought me back to memories of Little League Baseball (not b/c of the beer, but b/c I loved Bazooka gum back then). How serendipitous is that?------ to rediscover your favorite gum as a kid in a beer 20+ years later. So I was curious if any of you drink this, and if so, did you pick up a hint of grape Bazooka?
I really like the Helles style ... it can be very easy drinking and is perfect if you are looking for that "lawnmower beer" - something you can drink easily and is relatively sessionable. I personally think that is one of the directions craft beer is heading, because I, like you, enjoy drinking for volume sometimes and when I'm doing that I'd prefer to have something that isn't going to reduce me to a slurring wasted Viking. I personally haven't had Weihenstephaner, as it's a green bottle beer and those just don't do well in my neck of the woods. Most of my local liquor stores are slightly above average in terms of how they treat their beer, so imports don't usually do all that well. If I do pick up an import it's usually something Belgian, or something dark, like Celebrator. As for having beer remind you of a residual memory in your brain, it's quite nice. Often it's a specific taste you remember (like in the case of Bazooka Joe), while other times you'll find that it reminds you simply of flavors. One of the most recent examples for me came a few Fridays ago, when tasting a firkin of Oasis spiked with candy cap mushrooms. The mushrooms activated the Umami portion of the tongue, and offered this earthiness to the Oasis that simply wasn't there before. Beyond that it had the flavors of the malt and the mushroom combined to create this wonderful maple-syrup component that offered a hint of soy sauce. It was unlike anything I've ever tasted in a beer before, but quite nice at the same time. Good beer is like that; just when you think you've got it all figured out you run across something that totally surprises you and blows you away.
Dogfish released their version of a light beer this summer. Called Lawnmower. My understanding is you can only get it in kegs as of right now. The bar I work at carried it earlier in July. That same bar is soon going to be requiring every employee to pass the beer Cicerone. I hope they offer a study guide....
The website, http://www.cicerone.org, has a syllabus as well as some practice exams you can take. I have gotten as far as the introductory course but have not yet had the opportunity to go further with it. I would like to actually take it myself, as I feel like it is something that could help me break into the beer industry here in the midwest. I just don't have the venture capital to start my own brewery.
Any advice on some cheaper, good, high alc % beers I can try at the local market? I am so sick of just buying crappy keystone or coors light because its cheap. I want something decently priced, a 6 pack that I can enjoy, and still get a nice buzz.
It's tough for me to help because I don't really know what you like to drink and I'm not really sure what you have access to in your local market. As far as local stuff goes, I would look for Terrapin (Wake & Bake Stout), SweetWater (420 Extra Pale Ale) - heh, this reads like a stoner's best friend. If you are going to Florida you should check out the stuff from Cigar City, they can be quite good. You may be a bit far south but I also like a lot of the stuff by Victory - their Prima Pils is another example of a "Lawnmower" beer and can be quite good. And of course, there's always Dogfish Head, but it's an extremely popular brand and I don't know how easy it is to get in NC. Stepping down a bit, you could try out the stuff from Flying Dog (though fair warning the Gonzo Imperial Porter is a bit of an acquired taste) or going even further, Yeunling.
"Cheap," "high-alcohol" and "good" is an impossible combination. Unlike liquors, beer isn't fortified with additional alcohol, or distilled and then diluted; to get a high ABV in a beer you have to have a lot of grain in it. You also have to have specialized, alcohol-resistant yeast that keep eating the sugar from the malted grains and farting alcohol and CO2 even when the ABV has risen above the "normal" 5% or so. All that takes money, in the form of expertise and extra time to let nature do its work. Or, you can go the route of malt liquor and add a bunch of adjunct fermentables like corn and rice...but that doesn't fit the "good" definition. Try the Name Tag lager made exclusively for Trader Joe's in Wisconsin by an old-line, traditional brewer; it's not terribly high-alc but at $2.99 a sixer you can buy one hell of a lot of it. And it's an all-malt beer, no corn nor rice...take THAT, Anheiser-Busch! You CAN make a good beer cheap and not use pig feed.
Dale's Pale Ale and Lagunitas IPA are both over 6% alc, and if you're lucky, you can find them for $7.99 a six pack. You can look for stuff by Unibroue. They're typically well-priced for high alc % quality beer: 'La Fin Du Monde' (9%) is $6 for a 750 ml. Ommegang Abbey Ale (8.5%) is like $6 @ 750ml. Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock 6.7%, 22 oz @ $4.79 These are all pretty highly rated.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x78/frostwestcoast/beer-amp-boobs-beer-boobs-****-funb.jpg I guess the brand really doesn't matter !!
Figured a bump of this thread was in order, as I'm sitting here enjoying what can only be described as the perfectly sublime Union Jack from Firestone Walker. I actually had this a couple of weeks ago at the GABF (Great American Beer Fest) and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts from the fest. GABF is 4 individual sessions spread out over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This year I actually stayed sober enough to take notes. Sour is the new hoppy. Sour beer was the name of the game this year, as it seemed like every booth I visited, even the smaller and lesser known breweries, had some kind of sour beer on tap. A couple of the highlights were Coolship Resurgam from Allagash, which may just have been my favorite beer of the whole festival. Ching Ching from Bend and Brain of the Turtle from Trinity rounded out the highlights. But the sheer number of sours this year was impressive. The Midwest is on the rise. Maybe this is my bias showing through, but I felt like the breweries from the Midwest are really on the rise. I couldn't even sample anything from New Glarus; that's okay as a buddy of mine has a sampler pack from them that I plan on tasting. Likewise the lines to Shorts were ridiculous, despite having 40 taps (!) on the floor. Three Floyds has long been known for Dark Lord, but their other stuff, like Behemoth, Moloko, and Gumballhead,were are fantastic as well. Sun King, which remained my favorite "under the radar" brewery until they won Small Brewer of the year, also had a ton of great beers, like Osiris, Wee Knuckle, and Pappy Van Knuckle. Some of the best things involve food. Friday night we attended the "Farm to Table" pavilion, which is located just outside the main floor. There, 12 breweries partner with master chefs to produce amazing beer and food pairings. Pretty much everything here was incredible. The breweries ranged from the obvious, like Dogfish Head and Jolly Pumpkin, to the less well known (at least for most), like the Nebraska Brewing Company. Even if you couldn't make it in on Friday night, the beer and cheese pavilion, put on by the American Cheese society, was a highlight as well. That said, there were a number of things that I did while in Denver outside GABF that were a highlight. Walking into the Cheeky Monk and seeing Greg Koch (of Stone Brewing) standing on a chair with a megaphone preaching against the evils of "fizzy yellow beer" almost has to be seen to be understood. Walking into a bar and having the chance to sample some unreleased Samuel Adams beers was a fun diversion before the start of a brew session. Great Divide Brewing isn't nearly as big as you may think it is. Falling Rock Tap House, though always packed, still is the best place in town for something special - nothing like a Russian River Temptation on tap. The highlight outside the fest for me though, was the 1 Up Barcade, which had pinball machines on one side, a nice small bar in the middle, and old school arcade games on the other. Overall, it was another fun year. If your a beer geek at all, I recommend going, at least once, just to see what it's all about.
Love Sun King brewery, have a growler I fill up there about once a month with their beer of the month. My favorite year round brew is the Osiris pale, seasonal is their Crab apple wit, amazing crafters!
Tallgrass Brewing here in town just released a Belgian Trippel that is amazing. It's not Westmalle, but it's damn fine in it's own right. But don't take my word for it. [video=youtube;YF6yrp24-os]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF6yrp24-os&feature=colike[/video]
