Beer!

Picked up a bomber from a brewery here in Wa. called Black Raven.
http://www.blackravenbrewing.com/Beerfolio/feather-weather-coffee-stout

That sounds good but I'd like to try that coconut porter that's in the sidebar.

Got some Guinness Stout to try. I don't think I've had it before (I've tried and liked the Blonde)

Guinness Stout is average to me though I appreciate their history.

Isn't Guinness the one with that ball thingy in the bottle that turns the beer flat?  I've never been too impressed with Guinness especially compared to all the other craft brewery stouts out there.

This is actually the Foreign Extra stout. It's a very dark heavy drink but rather tasty, I think.

I've often wondered if the Guinness Stout I had was an "Americanized" version because it didn't seem nearly heavy enough.  It wouldn't surprise me because your average American beer drinker wouldn't know a good beer from a crappy one so why waste good beer?

I hear Guinness in the Isles is much different then here.

That's what I would expect.  "Dumb it down for the stupid Americans".  America's favorite beer is Bud Lite for crying out loud so anything with even a modicum of taste would be shunned.  Just like the old joke, American beer is like making love in a canoe...At least the mass-produced swill is.

Tonight it's Stone's "Lukcy Basartd"

It's a mix of their Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard and Oak-Aged Bastard.

Another one I haven't seen, we're so limited here. Arrogant Bastard is a good one.

Last night it was Shmaltz' "She'brew".  It's Shmaltz' triple IPA and I actually think I like it more than Founder's "Devil Dancer" which used to be my go-to triple IPA.

Good to see my ole beer thread is still going strong. Im rather fond of Kona Brewing Co. from Hawaii. Their Longboard Lager and Big Wave Golden Ale are very nice

This was a great idea for a thread Gooch since we have everything from beer snobs like Dark Horseman and me to people who will drink anything (I'm looking at you Fat Freddy).

Mglaffas81 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Has anyone in the U.S. found Iron Maiden's "Trooper" ale in their neck o'the woods yet? I haven't but I'm still on the hunt.

Struck out AGAIN this weekend whilst hunting for Trooper. A buddy of mine found it at a store here in North Jersey but when I made a trip down there, it was already sold out...  

Yeah, well - it'll probably be bland anyway - but I guess the label sells it

Hmmm...someone must have pruned this thread.  It shows Gooch as the originator but the quote above is the first post in the existing thread. 

Anyone know when this thread was originally started?  I'm trying to determine if I was a full-fledged beer-snob yet then or not.  There's a specific event in my life where I became a "snob" and now I'm curious if I was just a casual beer drinker when this thread began.

I've always been pseudo-snobby, never could stomach the mass produced stuff except maybe a Weinhards on occasion. The I found Grant's Scottish ale and my life was changed. Portland in the mid 80's was craft beer mecca with the Widmer Brothers, Bridgeport, Full Sail and Portland Brewing all starting up.

I had a Widmer Stout a long time ago that was really good.  I haven't seen anything in this area by them since. 

I became a beer snob thanks to a class I had to take for work.  It was at an off campus site for St. Louis University, right around the corner from a place called "The Wine and Cheese Shop".  On the second day of class my friend and I decided to wander into this place during the lunch break.  We soon discovered that while the front half of the store did indeed have "wine and cheese" the whole back half had  nothing but craft beers.  I decided to try a beer that had a cool label:



From there I learned all about the different styles of beers brewed by small breweries all across the country.  I learned facts like a triple IPA doesn't mean it's three times more hoppy than a regular IPA and I learned the differences between lagers, stouts and Belgians.  Not to mention all the different kinds of barrels beer can be aged in and how each type of barrel imparts a different flavor to the beer.

So now I'm a full-on beer snob.  I won't drink any mass-produced crap even if it's free; I'd prefer water.  Which isn't too much different from the mass-produced crap anyway.  Except for any variation of Budweiser.  Budweiser sure doesn't taste like water; there's a definite "taste" to Bud products.  Must be whatever they give the Clydesdales to drink.

Tonight it's Left Hand's "Fade To Black Foreign Stout".

The LH "Fade To Black" series used to be a seasonal that varied the ingredients with each release.  The last one I tried had too much pepper in it for me so I stopped buying the series.  A month or so ago I found that Left Hand has apparently started putting "Fade To Black" in cans.  When I read the labeling I didn't see anything about pepper so I picked up a 6 pack. 

I'm not sure if this is still a series or not or what a "foreign stout" actually is but this is a pretty enjoyable stout.  It weighs in with a drinkable 8.5% and it's not really thick and heavy like most stouts are so that makes it "dangerous" as well.

Have you had LH's milk stout on nitro? Amazing.

I don't like this "nitro" craze.  If I want a flat beer I'll simply open up the regular version and let it sit on the counter for several hours.

But LH's milk stout was the one that first introduced me to the milk stout style.

I've heard that. I will say, Nitro on tap is much different then bottled or canned.

Tonight it's a new one I found from New Belgium's "Lips Of Faith" series.  It's an imperial dark ale brewed with spruce tips and aged on white oak spirals (whatever all that means). 

To me it tastes like a dark Belgian ale with a tinge of the "piney" notes from the spruce tips.  It's good stuff but nothing I'd go out of my way to acquire again.

Unlike Founders KBS of which I just reserved a 4 pack at my beer store (you have to be a VIP member there to do that).  It's basically the Founders Breakfast Stout aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels.  So goooooood....and so in demand they only let you reserve one four pack.

Lucky. Doesn't look like KBS will even get to where I am.

tohostudios wrote:

Mglaffas81 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Has anyone in the U.S. found Iron Maiden's "Trooper" ale in their neck o'the woods yet? I haven't but I'm still on the hunt.

Struck out AGAIN this weekend whilst hunting for Trooper. A buddy of mine found it at a store here in North Jersey but when I made a trip down there, it was already sold out...  

Yeah, well - it'll probably be bland anyway - but I guess the label sells it

Hmmm...someone must have pruned this thread.  It shows Gooch as the originator but the quote above is the first post in the existing thread. 

Anyone know when this thread was originally started?  I'm trying to determine if I was a full-fledged beer-snob yet then or not.  There's a specific event in my life where I became a "snob" and now I'm curious if I was just a casual beer drinker when this thread began.

Search "Beer" and you'll find the original topic. Once it hit 40 pages, it locked out and started a new thread, just like this one will as soon as it hits 40.

And for this noob, what's the "nitro" craze all these kids are talkin' about? Purposely flat beer?

Yep.

I don't get it.  I guess some people like that it's "creamier" on the palate.  To me it just tastes like flat beer.

I found this summation on the Deschutes Brewery site:

Quote :

Let’s talk gas. Beer has it…and it shows up visually in the form of bubbles.
When you order a pint at your local watering hole, it will most likely be served using CO2 or carbon dioxide. During fermentation, yeast in the tank/vessel eat sugars from the liquid (called wort or sweet barley tea) and naturally there are two bi-products from this process…alcohol and CO2. Before the beer goes from the fermentation vessels to a brite tank (where the beer settles before bottling), or directly to racking for kegging, it is often force carbonated to give the beer fizz, flavors and aromas.

CO2 is a clear colorless gas that gives oomph to your liquids. Based upon temperature and pressure (psi), you can have a beer that is over carbonated, under carbonated or just right (sounds like Goldilocks and the Three Bears). We recommend serving your beer cool because if it’s too cold, it stifles the CO2 and if it’s too warm, you may get a gusher!
Nitrogenated beer, on the other hand, infuses nitrogen gas into beer and is largely insoluble (hard to dissolve) in the liquid. This gas gives beer a creamy and smooth mouth feel (tiny bubbles – now that song is in our heads). Nitro beers also tend to have less perceived bitterness because CO2 is acidic which adds to bitterness perception. There are mixed opinions on this so you must try a Nitro beer vs a Carbonated beer side by side and see for yourself (you can often get the CO2 version and Nitro version together at our pubs and tasting room).