I'm pumped that you liked the Weihenstephaner so much, and managed to find a new style you could relax with (I consider American hefes a completely different style than Germans). If you can get your hands on Schneider Weisse, that's actually my favorite. I subsisted on it in Germany, but haven't seen it available in the States, and haven't had it in a few years. Weihenstephaner is the best I've found in the States, though.

I'll look for the Schneider next time I'm at BotW. It's probably one of the American beer shops most likely to have it.

I totally agree on the Schneider Weisse. Had some when I was in Switzerland last summer, and it reopened my eyes to how great hefeweizens can be.

I have just returned from a trip down to Raleigh, and I've come back with a brief beer review. I was out at a wine bar where I mostly drank what turned out to be mediocre wine for too much money. However, I saw that this place had the Allagash Belgian White on tap. While I felt a little guilty getting beer at a wine bar, I knew as documented in this thread, that they put out good beer. I had to try it. I don't actually know how much I paid for it, since I had a tab open, and my final recipt wasn't itemized.

Taking a sip of this, I pretty quickly saw that this was the best Belgian white I've had to date. It's just a hair sweeter than most, but not overly so -- not as much as some Belgian golden ales or tripels. It has fantastic flavors of wheat, orange, coriander, a little clove, a little banana, and it had a great, refreshing finished. Some guy I was with who also ordered it said he liked Hoegaarden better, but I think he's crazy and doesn't have great taste. I award this beer and a half .

Have you had Mannequin Pis? I think that in Belgium it's called Lefebvre's or something like that. It is flat-out the best beer I have ever had. Absolutely exquisite. I enjoy Hoegaarden a great deal, especially during the summer, but Mannequin Pis blows it away.

FWIW I'm also going to this with my 2 roommates. We will most likely have a hotel in the area on fri/sat nights. I will be going to the first session as well just because you said some beers can run out and i want my choice!

No, I have not. It's from Belgium? I'll have to see if I can find it.

RDH,

I recently tried a pint of Saratoga Lager when I was out at a bar in Albany, mostly because I just wanted something simple and cheap, you know, Sam Adams or Yuengling lagers. However, it turned out to be a fairly dark brown color, and was much more complex in flavor. Upon further inspection, it turns out it's a Maerzen-style beer, a variety I've heard of, but up until then, hadn't tried before. You have any recommendations in this style, having spent some time in Germany? I think this is one I'd like to look into more.

Off the top of my head, Maerzens are bock-style beers. I know Paulaner makes a Maerzen that you can get here in the States. Also, if you see a beer labeled Maibock, its probably the same style.

No real recs, though.

Marzens are very similar in style to Oktoberfests.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category3.html

Bocks are a different style.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category5.html

Paulaner Oktoberfest is a Marzen and it's quite good, especially on draft. It's available year-round, but I'll usually only drink it during the fall.

Yes, Mannequin Pis is Belgian. I think it's tap-only.

Clearly we have not had enough beer drinking in this forum lately. I'm going to come back and post another review. Hopefully it'll inspire some of you other guys to do the same .

Out at the bar tonight I got myself a bottle of Brooklyn Monster, their barley wine. This beer weighs in at 11% alcohol, and oddly enough, it ran me only $4 for 12 oz bottle at this bar. I'm not sure why it's so cheap, or if this is just a price discrepancy at this bar. I'll have to check it's price at BotW. Anyway. This beer pours with very little head, which is a surprise compared to other barley wines. It doesn't have much hop aroma, either, which is even more peculiar. Instead it just smells malty, and wrought with alcohol. Taking a sip, this beer is fairly sweet, quite malty, and just barely hopped. It's quite shallow in character compared to most barley wines, but it does go down much easier, lacking the bitter hoppiness. I can pretty easily taste the alcohol. This is a strong beer. If someone wants a barley wine, this is a pretty shoddy offering, as its lack of hops make it pretty far from most other beers of this style. However, this might be a great beer for someone looking to get drunk quickly without wanting to deal with bitterness. If this is in the $7-$8 per sixer price range as its price at the bar would indicate, this beer would be pretty unmatched as far as buzz for your buck. This beer tastes more like a brown ale that's been fermented for much longer than usual rather than a barley wine, and while that's disappointing, I do like brown ales. I'm going to give this beer , although I considered 1.5. Barley wine lovers and hop heads shouldn't bother, but alcoholics who like brown ales might give it a go if it's cheap.

Because it tastes like [censored] perhaps? I really like the Brooklyn Brewery. They make a lot of good, even great beers. The Monster is by far their worst. It should've been killed at birth

There's a generel consensus to divide BW's into two groups: American style BW's and English style BW's. Most BW's brewed in the US are (surprise, surprise) American style, but the Monster is clearly (a bad version of) English style.

The normal distinction between the two styles is precisely as you describe.

Americans: Alcohol and hops with hops being the dominant flavour
English: Malt and alcohol with the latter as the dominator

Well, I didn't think it tasted all that bad, it just wasn't what it could be. However, I find it pretty funny that you make an assertion in the form of:

There are two different kinds of _______, American style, and ________ style...

And then you finish it by saying the American style is better? Whoa! That's not something you hear every day . I do trust that there are better versions of the English style out there, though, but I can't say I'll be all that anxious to look them up.

I've still got a number of beers to review from my last shopping trip. I've gotta do a Belgian-style golden ale round up, and I've got a few stray beers from North Coast and Unibroue to do. After that, I'm not sure what I'm gong to do. I might pick up a batch of Maerzens or Bocks to try out something I'm not really familiar with. I've also been meaning to do a round up of fairly inexpensive brown ales to see if anything can knock Brooklyn Brown off its throne as my favorite every day staple beer. Anyone ny other ideas for styles of beer you'd like to hear about, or selected beers I should look up?

IIRC North Coast's Old Stock Ale as well as Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot are better examples of English style BW's

For superb examples of American style BW's, try the Old Ruffian from Great Divide or Hog Heaven from Avery