Beer!

I put this and the Abyss entries I've tried in the same category of "meh".

Neither knocks off my beer-snob socks but both are still light years ahead of the swill most people drink.

On tap the Abyss is amazing.

The difference between some beers out of a bottle vs the same thing out of a tap is amazing.

Sometimes there's little difference (I'm looking at you Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout) and then other times there's a drastic difference.

Big haul today:

Criminally Bad Elf (English barleywine)
St Bernardus Christmas Ale
The Bruery's "11 Pipers" (Scotch ale with spices)
Narwhal (stout from Sierra Nevada)
Southern Tier's "Crème Brulee"

and the coup de grace...

A Dragon's Milk gift set that included a bomber of S'mores Dragon's Milk and two glasses (and yes, the dragon logo is on the glasses). I've been wanting a Dragon's Milk glass for forever since that was my "gateway beer" to true beer snobdom and now I have two!

Murphy's Imported Stout. An interesting coffee like brew. Very thick

007 wrote:

Murphy's Imported Stout. An interesting coffee like brew. Very thick

Sounds like something I'd like

Nice haul Toho, that Narwhal is a great stout.

I think I've had Narwhal before but I wasn't sure so I bought another 6 pack.

The Criminally Bad Elf is a decent barleywine but it's not as good as the 4 Hand Father Time one that's been around here lately. Although CBE is about half the price of FT so it's a good buy for the money.

The big surprise from yesterday (that I've had so far) was Mother's "Imperial Three Blind Mice". I've never tried their "regular" Three Blind Mice because it's just a brown ale and that just didn't interest me. But this is that beer aged in bourbon barrels and boy, color me impressed! It has the same butter, toffee/caramel taste that their BBA stout has. I'm not sure what it is about the barrels that Mother's uses to age their beers but apparently it imparts the same characteristics no matter what beer they put into the barrels. This one is like a BBA stout without being as "heavy" as a BBA stout usually is because it's just a brown ale but it has a sweet characteristic to it that is simply great.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24880/137690/

I'm jelly. Sticking to the basics, Deschutes Obsidian, lately it's all the budget allows.

Someone gave me a Boatswain DIPA. It sucked, couldn't finish it. Might've been a bad can but the dominant flavor was anti-freeze.

DIPAs are very hit or miss with me. But if it tasted like anti-freeze that sounds like an infected or expired can.

Having a Cold Mountain Spiced Ale by Highland Brewing

So, lately I have been digging some Blue Moon, Belgian White. Pretty darn good.

the sentinel wrote:

So, lately I have been digging some Blue Moon, Belgian White. Pretty darn good.

Ugh. That's a Millers/Coors "stealth" beer. It's like Shock Top which is one of many AB "stealth beers". These massive breweries like to pretend they're what the public really wants (witness the AB ad campaign talking about "for the many, not the few"). Yet they all have these "other" brands that try to market themselves as "craft beers" but they're really manufactured by the same brewery that says they cater to the masses and as could be expected the "stealth beers" taste as crappy as their better-advertised counterparts.

But if you enjoy Blue Moon, who am I to say you're wrong? Just be aware it's not actually a "craft brewery" like they advertise.

I don't read that much into it, brother. If I like the taste, I drink it.

Blue Moon could be a gateway to real craft beer.

All o' y'all who used to give me crap about drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon will probably get a kick out of this news:

PBR (and many other old-school, cheap-swill brands like Old Milwaukee, Colt 45, Stroh's, Schaefer and more) could be extinct by the end of next year cuz Pabst's contract-brewing agreement for those brands with Miller/Coors is up, and Miller/Coors don't seem terribly interested in renewing it.

https://qz.com/1469973/pabst-beers-like-pbr-could-stop-being-produced-in-2020/

Quote :

Miller Coors brews many of Pabst’s beers, an arrangement that’s relatively common in the industry. The arrangement has been in place since 1999. Now a trial is underway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—where Pabst was founded in 1844—to determine whether Miller Coors must renew a brewing contract that’s set to expire in 2020.
Miller Coors claims that it can’t afford to keep brewing for Pabst, and that it has to either terminate the agreement or make  substantial changes to the contract’s terms. Meanwhile, Pabst is suing for about $400 million in damages and an order to renew the deal, arguing that Miller Coors is trying to put it out of business by making an untenable hike in service prices a condition of the extension.

Before anybody asks, I'd survive if PBR went the way of the dodo - I haven't drank much of it in the past couple of years anyway (my beer consumption in general has gone down, as a by-product of my efforts to lose weight)... besides, Labatt's Blue 24 oz cans are roughly the same price as PBR 24's and it's better beer.

Labatts is swill.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Labatts is swill.

Yeah, but it's Canadian swill! Far superior to our American swill, eh? Take off, hoser!

I had heard something about Pabst going extinct and thought of you right away FF.

Place in town has Left Hand Milk Stout on Nitro. Amazing.

I like that milk stout but I'm not wild about "nitro" anything. If I want a flat beer I'll just open one up and let it sit for a day.

It's not great for everything but for stouts I really enjoy it.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Nice haul Toho, that Narwhal is a great stout.

I tried it last night and I agree with you.  I'm pleasantly surprised because none of the other Sierra Nevada beers I've tried have done much for me.  I liked this one so much that today I ran out and got another 6 pack of it.  It's got a year on the label so I assume it's a seasonal.

Looks like Miller/Coors and Pabst have settled their contract-brewing dispute, so PBR and the rest of its cheap swill brethren aren't going anywhere. You elitists can continue to give me crap about my terrible taste in beer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/it-s-not-last-call-yet-pbr-lovers-beer-giants-n941721?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma