Beer Thread

Yeah, it was hard work being on holiday in the US at that age as back home we were out drinking beers with our friends every weekend back home!
 
JDOD said:
OK, we all know American beer is shite,
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I did not know that. There are over 3,000 breweries in the US. Some of them are pretty good. I've been to several in my area. My favorite is called Caboose. They are very small and unknown, but they are very good. We also have Port City, Fair Winds, and DC Brau - which are OK but not as good as Caboose.

About Us — Caboose Brewing Co.

If you are referring to Budweiser/Miller/Beast, then yes, those beers are crapola.
 
Tadpui said:
Personally I hate IPAs and all of the other super hoppy beers. I don't mind hops if they're balanced out with other flavors, but the whole "how bitter and undrinkable can we make a beer and still sell it" approach grosses me out.
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It is good to know I am not the only one. Some of these beers are so hoppy I wonder if the people drinking them have a functional sense of taste.
 
The craft beer explosion has really taken the place by storm; I guess part of the reason is that small brewers - as in individual, single restaurant / bar breweries - can actually brew decent beer in small batches and not lose their shirts. It somehow makes financial sense, as the price of a pint in the US has risen to a point where you no longer need to serve diluted water to meet the demand. So experimentation is king of the hill at the moment. Vermont has some remarkable breweries. One famous brewery is the Alchemist, which developed initially to make a house brew for a single restaurant in Waterbury. The Alchemist is famous mostly for brewing Heady Topper, an unpasteurized, unfiltered moderately hoppy IPA. Heady Topper availability is guarded like a trade secret, but locals know when their store will be getting a delivery - say on Wednesdays at 2:25 PM. By 3:00 the store will be sold out, and most outlets limit purchases to a pair of four packs.

Stuff like that is happening all over Vermont, and I expect it mirrors other growth elsewhere in the country. Ratebeer, a big online beer rating information clearinghouse, just rated Hill Farmstead Brewery (Greensboro, Vt) as the 2015 "Best Brewery in the World." I'm no connoisseur, but the beer tastes pretty good to me. Hill Farmstead Brewery

I am not a huge fan of the over-the-top hoppy taste that seems to be the rage, and sometimes I'll prefer a pilsner. Otherwise I'd be drinking porter, or else a chewy red wine or a single malt whiskey. So who said I had to be consistent.

Ben Franklin is said to have declared that Beer is evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Then again, Abe Lincoln always insisted that he never said half the stuff the internet claims he did.
 
ibleedburgundy said:
It is good to know I am not the only one. Some of these beers are so hoppy I wonder if the people drinking them have a functional sense of taste.
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I know right? I'm just not in the slice of humanity that thinks that hops taste like citrus or spice or pine. They taste like lawn clippings and soap. They must be the same people that like cilantro.

Treeline said:
Vermont has some remarkable breweries. One famous brewery is the Alchemist, which developed initially to make a house brew for a single restaurant in Waterbury. The Alchemist is famous mostly for brewing Heady Topper, an unpasteurized, unfiltered moderately hoppy IPA. Heady Topper availability is guarded like a trade secret, but locals know when their store will be getting a delivery - say on Wednesdays at 2:25 PM. By 3:00 the store will be sold out, and most outlets limit purchases to a pair of four packs.
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My friend lives in Montpelier, and he brought a few Heady Toppers with him last time he visited. While not my style of beer, I could definitely appreciate it for what it was.

Another actual pale ale (ish) beer that I did enjoy was Pliny The Elder from Russian River brewing in Santa Rosa, CA. If you ever get a chance, give that a try. It repeatedly wins the ABA top honors every year.
 
I drink quite a lot of IPA and don't find it too hoppy or bitter. Maybe IPA is just done differently over there.
 
JDOD said:
I drink quite a lot of IPA and don't find it too hoppy or bitter. Maybe IPA is just done differently over there.
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An IPA stands for India Pale Ale. It's basically a standard pale ale that, when they had to ship to it to India way back in the day, in order to preserve it, they would add hops (which acts as a natural preservative). As a result, the beer became more bitter due to the hops but also a very pronounced aroma of hops. The style has changed recently with all of these hybrid styles that have been the rage for the last 5 years or so but that is the classic style.

I apologize, I know way too much about beer.
 
I know that, I'm not a total rem!!

I still don't find IPA particularly bitter though
 
JDOD said:
Odd, in the UK, Carlsberg is the cheap "curry house" beer and in continental Europe, particularly northern Europe, there's so much good beer (Delerium, Beck's and many other German pils etc) that it wouldn't figure. Saying that, its a lot better than shite like Carling and Fosters and is usually a similar price.

I had a couple of pints of Heinekin (and a Brains SA) last night actually. They were lovely!
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Yeah. In most of the world Carlsberg is a local cheapie, brewed under licence by one of the big companies. They don't go out of their way to advertise that, of course...you have to look for a very small "made in Denmark" or "made in Illinois" or whatever on the label.
 
I do like some of the names that are getting attached to some of the newer beers...

150 Lashes
Fat Yak Pale Ale
Feral Boar
Angry Man
Thirsty Turtle
Little Creatures
Hatlifter
Rudeboy

Makes buying a beer a more interesting experience for everyone - walking up to the bar and shouting "150 lashes please!" is always fun.:D
 
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