[depascal22]

This thread will be for any beer drinking conversation. Post your favorite micro-brews, local brews, or macro brews. Anything beer is cool here.

[munch]

IPA is king!

[Toireht]

Guinness and Boddingtons shall always reign supreme.

[dmaul1114]

I'll start by listing these sites as good places to look up beers, beer bars etc.

www.beeradvocate.com
www.ratebeer.com

I'm a huge beer snob, along with my buddy and I we have a spread sheet tracking beers we've tried over the past year or so. It's up to around 220 beers so far, it's missing a lot we've tried as it only covers stuff we've bought in stores and is missing a lot of good beers we've had on tap as we hit some good beer bars once a week or more. Nerdy for sure, but keeps us from forgetting we tried something and didn't like it, as well as being a good thing to skim through before heading to the liquor store.

Below are a bunch of my favorites from the list. I won't give details on the styles etc. as curious folks can look them up on the above sites. They're just listed alphabetcially since I'm just grabbing them from the spreadsheet.

Allagash Dubbel Ale
Aventinus- Wheat Doppelbock
Avery 14'er ESB
Beamish Draught Irish Stout (Can)
Belhaven Wee Heavy
Clipper City Hang Ten Weizen Dopplebock
Corsendonk- Abbey Brown Ale
Cuvee de Noel Belgian Speical Ale
Deleirum Nocturnum
Delerium Tremens
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine
Harpoon IPA
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout
Lagunitas Imperial Stout
Lagunitas Lumpy Gravy
Mc Chouffe Aritsanal Belgian Brown Ale
North Coast Old Stock Ale
North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Oskar Blue's Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
Podge Imperial Stout
Rogue Chocolate Stout
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Rouge Double Dead Guy Ale
Rogue Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale
Rogue Mocha Porter
Rogue MoM Hefeweizen
Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Sam Adams Cream Stout
Sam Adams Double Bock
Sam Adams Summer Ale
Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner
Samuel Adams Pale Ale
Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout
Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout
Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter
Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale
Southampton Abbot 12
Southern Tier Back Burner Imperial Barly Wine Style Ale
Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout
Southern Tier Imperial Oatmeal Stout
Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
Stone Double Bastard Ale
Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Stone IPA
Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Style Ale
Stone Ruination IPA
Stone Smoked Porter
Tetley's English Ale (can)
The Czar Imperial Stout
Troegs Troegenator Doublebock Beer
Troegs Hopback Amber
Troegs Nugget Nector
Unibroue Maudite
Urthel Hibernus Quentum tripel ale
Urthel Samaranth Quadrium Ale
Urthel Vlamese Bock
Westmalle Trappist Ale Dubbel
Weyerbacher Blither Idiot
Young's Double Chocolate Stout (can)
Young's Oatmeal Stout

Edited by dmaul1114, 20 November 2008 - 06:27 PM.

[mrchainsaw]

I'm one of those loser college kids you see drinking Keystones and other cheap stuff every weekend.

[John_Smith420]

I like beer.

[depascal22]

Pabst is a decent cheap beer if you ever get tired of the Natty/Busch/Keystone Trinity.

[depascal22]

Anyone like the new Budweiser American Ale? I think it's decent. You can tell they made it with Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada in mind.

[dmaul1114]

Anyone like the new Budweiser American Ale?

I had it on tap after the tour at the Anheiser Busch Brewery in St. Louis last week. I didn't care for it. Just tasted too watery and bland to me. Better than Budweiser for sure, but not much.

But again, I really dig strong "big" beers like Imperial Stouts, double IPAs etc. so those types of more bland beer styles just aren't my cup of tea.

[depascal22]

Yeah. A stout is good after a long day's work. Feels like a meal in your glass. For some reason, Guiness doesn't do it for me though.


EDIT -- dmaul, are you from St. Louis? I went to high school on the east side of the river.

[dmaul1114]

I like Guinness but don't drink it often anymore as I'd rather pick up a good imperial stout over it.

[wubb]

Not a fan of Bells dmaul? They brew good stuff.

I've had just a handful from your list but may print it out for my next run to the place that stocks a ton of singles. Just had my first Troegs Hopback Amber a few days ago.

Ever had Moose Drool? I finally had it on a trip out west a few weeks ago and it's a fantastic brown.

[depascal22]

I second your recommendation of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, dmaul. I haven't had it in a while but I'd love to track it down. That's the only problem with the South Side of Indy. All the good brewpubs are on the North Side or down in Bloomington.

I'd also recommend Hitachino Nest if you're into Japanese imports that aren't Sapporo, Sapporo, or Sapporo.

[Fragonard]

Flat Tire and Alaskan Amber. Mmmmmmm.

[Dark_Sage]

A family friend brews his own beer. That stuff is straight up amazing.

[dolemite]

Any thing Shiner is off the chain. And I also agree with the IPA guy. Have you tried the Brooklyn IPA? Don't forget about Newcastle

[dmaul1114]

Not a fan of Bells dmaul? They brew good stuff.

Never heard of them. Just checked their site and they don't have any distributors in Maryland. They do in DC and VA, so I'll keep an eye out for them next time I go beer shopping down that way since I live in the MD, DC suburbs.

A family friend brews his own beer. That stuff is straight up amazing.

I've been dying to try it out, but I'm just so busy lately that I don't have the time to put in the time to learn homebrewing right now.

[Fragonard]

My dad makes his own beer, its really good. Better than most stuff in stores.

[Moxio]

Water!

[wubb]

Never heard of them. Just checked their site and they don't have any distributors in Maryland. They do in DC and VA, so I'll keep an eye out for them next time I go beer shopping down that way since I live in the MD, DC suburbs.

I'd suggest their Two Hearted Ale.

[dmaul1114]

EDIT -- dmaul, are you from St. Louis? I went to high school on the east side of the river.

Nope. Was just out there for a conference last week.

[depascal22]

I went old school and picked up a 40 of MGD. It sucks but I'm a Broke Ass Drunk until this weekend.

[dmaul1114]

Yuck!

Thankfully I'm beyond my college days of needing to drink regularly and having a tight budget. Now I drink less and have a less tight budget so I just drink the good stuff or don't drink at all.

[ArthurDigbySellers]

Not a fan of Bells dmaul? They brew good stuff.

Last winter I picked up every stout that Bells makes (and that my local beer shop stocks) and pretty much every one of them was amazing.

I'm really into the German stuff right now. Bocks, dopplebocks, eisbocks - give me something malty, especially in the winter, and I'm a happy man.

If you want to try something amazing, track down a Samichlaus by Eggenberg. It is a 14% abv lager that pours coppery red, is very sweet, and doesn't hide its alcohol at all. It definitely isn't an every day drink, but it is perfect for special occasions.

Bed time for me but I'll post a bigger list of my favorites tomorrow.

[mvp828]

I will say that working at a Minor League Park the past 4 years has made me grow a little loving towards Bell's and Leinie's. It is kind of sad though that when you get to college and people offer you free beer and you turn it down because it is Busch, Bud, Miller, Coors, etc. I can't even count how many times following games the F&B people and my bosses would go ahead and let me grab whatever I wanted. Spoiled me too much.

I have to admit though... One of my cheap beer pleasures that I will catch hell for is...

Red Dog... I don't know why, but for some reason ever since the summer before my sophmore year I have kind of liked it. Maybe because it is $12 for a 30 pack.

Magic Hat is also another one that I have grown to like over this past summer...

Edited by mvp828, 20 November 2008 - 05:47 PM.

[John_Smith420]

I will say that working at a Miner League Park the past 4 years has made me grow a little loving towards Bell's and Leinie's.

Do you guys keep a canary behind home plate?

[depascal22]

Magic Hat #9 is good but I've never had any of the others. Oh, and dmaul, I'm not in college and I don't need to drink regularly but sometimes you need an ice cold 40 after work. MGD isn't really that bad for a night of Gears.

[ZenTrickster]

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned Delirium Tremins yet. It's a Belgian style beer that's apparently one of the most popular in the world. Not one of my favorites though.

As for Bell's, their stuff is fantastic. They were the fastest growing beer brewery in Chicago about 3 or 4 years back before they ran into problems with distributors (I hear the owners a strange guy). They started selling under the name "Kalamazoo" before they got the contracts cleared up. But, yeah, they are great.

Has anyone tried He-Brew? I'm interested in getting some opinions about it.

Also, anyone know of Kronenbourg? It was one of my favorite beers when I was visiting Europe, but I can't find it at all over here. Sad Face.

[shieryda]

Do you guys keep a canary behind home plate?

:DYeah, when the bird dies, you know it's time to GTFO of the park!

Bell's is located in Kalamazoo, MI. Chicago couldn't sell "Bell's" for a long time, so they called it "Kalamazoo" instead in order to sell it in this market. And I'm glad they did. It is mighty tasty.

I used to drink Bud Ice, Molson Ice, and Busch Light in college. I've moved on to more refined tastes:

Molson/Golden
Bud Light
Coors Light
Guinness
Old Speckled Hen
Dos Equis
Hacker Pschor (sp?)

When I was in Australia, I was drinking some awesome brews that I cannot find here. But, Outback does serve James Boag's, which is nice.

[wubb]

Old Speckled Hen

Remember it's actually "Old Speckled Hen" We were over the quotes at a party once. I think somebody JFGI and turned up some sort of reason for them.