Warsteiner is a large German brewery that makes several different beers. Link to USA site.

They make a hefeweizen, but I have never seen it. What most people think of as Warsteiner is their pilsner, a good German lager. Their dark beer (Dunkel) has a little more body and flavor.

I'm with diablo. I don't like warsteiner but I'm also not a hef fan.

acoustix,

I like the trust you put in your fiancee's opinion.

She actually drinks more beer than I do and generally has better taste than me. When she found me, I was drinking Bud Light and Corona. She introduced me to a little thing called Guinness. The rest as they say is history.

Beer: Moinette Brune
Style: Moinette (Ale)
Price: $9.70 for a 750ml bottle



Brewed by the world renowned Brasserie Dupont in Belgium comes this magnificent Moinette Ale. At a price of $9.70 for a 750ml, this may not be an 'every day' beer, but rather one to be enjoyed with a great meal, or simply when you feel like spoiling yourself.

Here is how it looks out of the glass:


Really a nice amber color.

The taste it slightly sweet, with a nutty and caramel taste. It is somewhat dry. It doesn't come out and shock you with an any overely sharp hop taste, but rather is a supremely balanced beer with a noticable herbal bouquet. There is a noticable alcohol taste, but it simply contributes to the well rounded taste this beer shows.

IMHO, a perfect example of the highest grade of Belgium brewing.

Grade: 5/5

I went to the Autumn Brew Review two years ago and it was awesome, especially when ol' Johnny puked his guts out on Peavey Plaza. This is is a much better event than the similar event put on by City Pages that I went to a month or two back. There was a much better selection of beers, and it wasn't so damned crowded. There also wasn't the ridiculous queue to get in.

Warsteiner's flagship brew is a pilsner. I'm not big on pilsners, and Warsteiner is about the same as any other decent pilsner as near as I can tell. They have/had a marketing campaign in the US where they say, "because life is too short to drink cheap beer." I couldn't agree more. Of course, Warsteiner is the best-selling beer in Germany. Know why? Because it's cheap.

The practice of putting lemons in hefe-weizens was started as a way to mask the flavor of inferior beer. I don't think the flavors go together, really. With a witbier, it at least makes some sense, because there's citrus (orange peel) in that style. No matter which style, I cast the fruit aside with disdain.

Seems to me that the Long Trail Hibernator is a winter seasonal. I liked it, but (1) it might be old and (2) I don't like winter beers when it's 80 degrees out.

I was about to write almost the exact same thing. So yeah, Warsteiner = lightish lager. Oh, and in my time in Germany I got the impression it was the German Bud.

I try to shy away from calling a beer the "XXX Budweiser," for the simple reason that Bud - and other US macrobrews - actively sought the least tasteful beer possible, while I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt to other breweries wrt being super-accessible. I've read rumors of AB using a grain bill and accentuating yeast so that the gravity is low enough they actually add water back, but those are just interrumors.

Recently AB decided to actually add more hops to their beers, which were previously a ghost on the IBU scale, just to add more flavor and combat the craft brews somewhat. Its not like smaller brews will ever be able to compete, but that particular baby-step makes me happy.

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
ABV=6%

I tried this solely because it was so highly recommended in other beer threads. I do not normally like IPAs but I decided that in order to be well rounded in my beer culture I would have to take one for the team.

Based on looks alone, the bottle design is kind of bleh. Simple green label with the logo and the beer name in standard typeface across. But what we really want is inside the bottle, right?

Upon first smell, one word comes to mind: Hoppy. This is pretty much par for the course for most IPAs, but in particular the 60 minute IPA has a strong smell. I tasted it, gently swirling it around my mouth. I notice a nice "bite" to it, that seems to linger on the back of your tongue for a while. The downfall to this, to me, is after a while the after taste started to seem almost metallic. Like I was sucking on a nickel. It is a bit bitter, but not overwhelmingly so. It is decidedly more mild than other IPAs I have had. Overall, I found more pleasant than I prepared myself for. I would drink it again if someone offered it to me, but I don't think I would load up my own cooler with it. Again, IPAs aren't my first choice in general.

It seems like this is a good beer to have with a mild tasting dish. Maybe a swordfish steak. Definitely not a beer I would chug while eating wings, though.

My Rating:
out of 5
GOOD
I liked it a lot upon first taste, but as the bottle wore on, the metallic taste kind of brought it down for me. I would like to try the 90 minute, and see if it suffers the same problem. The IPA lover will no doubt dig this.

Just had La Chouffe, which is a golden belgian ale similar to Duvel, so here are the notes I have for the two.

Duvel:

Pale yellow with a huge white head. Aroma is clove, sugar, pear, yeast. Flavor is sweet, with fruit and clove notes. Finish is a bit bitter but not as bitter as delirium tremens but stonger than leffe. Has enough of a bitter kick to keep it from being too cloying. Nice warmth from the alcohol as you finish the bottle.

my notes for Le Chouffe are,

Pours hazy golden with a huge foamy head. Aroma is sweet, with yeasty and candy sugar notes. Nice coriander hints. Flavor is sweet, spicy, slight hints of citrus, and medium bitterness for a belgian. Finish is nice, but could last a bit longer. not as hyped as Duvel, but just as good if not better in my opinion.

My rating for Le Chouffe
4/5 and just a hair better than Duvel. I reccomend it to those looking for a duvel-type beer, I think le chouffe is a bit cheaper and at least for me is easier to find.

Had hocus pocus tonight, which is an american wheat/ hefeweizen. ( For those who are unaware, most american beers sold as hefeweizens are not so, as hefeweizens are only brewed with barley, wheat, yeast, hops, and water. Specifically, they should be brewed with german yeasts which produce banana bubblegum and occasionally clove flavored esthers. Also, unlike krystalweizens the yeast is unfiltered which gives them the cloudy appearance. Most american hefeweizens are brewed with american yeasts and hops which gives them their citrus flavor.) I think a pretty close parallel of this is pyramid and Widmer brothers hefeweizens. My notes for the three are as follows.

Pyramid
Straw, hazy color. Medium white head. Slight citrus aroma to it Flavor had a distinct wheat taste, but not much citrus. not particulaarly good. Medium to low bitterness. ok mouthfeel. Nothing spectacular overall. Decently refreshing
2.5/5

Widmer brothers

Hazy yellow, medium to large white foam. Aroma has hints of banana, and you can smell the wheat malt. Light to medium body. Flavor tasted like citrus, hints of banana, low bitterness. Finish was dissappointing due to lack of hops. An ok american wheat.

Overall 3/5

Hocus Pocus

Pours golden with a small white head. Not really any hazyness to it. Aroma is weak citrus, honey, wheat notes,. Flavor is wheaty with weak hints of citrus. Nice amount of bitterness but a very thin mouthfeel. Overall a very boring brew.

overall 2/5

If you're a big fan of the style you might be a fan of it, but I think American Wheat is one of the worse beer styles out there, and this didn't do much of anything for me. Pass on this one for Widmer brothers or pyramid or sam summer if you're in the mood for a wheat beer.

I am too uneducated to review any beers however Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold has jumped to the top of my list. Wondering if anyone has ever tasted it and if so could you do a proper review in this thread?

Dortmunder Gold is really delicious and has a very pretty orange color. I believe it's bottled in Cleveland.


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