The Beer connoisseur thread

[natedogg]

Quality beer is clearly the neglected bastard stepchild compared to quality wine. And it's unfortunate. I find that good beers can contain rich and sophisticated flavors in variation just as wines.

With that said, here's some great beers I recently discovered. Please share, i'm always looking for great new beers.


1. The Delerium Noel, which is the christmas brew from the same belgian brewery that makes Delirium Tremens. I found a pace with the Delerium Noel on tap and it was heaven. This may have been the best beer I've ever tasted. I cannot recommend it enough. Less sweet than most Belgians, it was rich and heavy, but not tart. Absolutely the perfect winter ale. And strong too, which is important.

2. A long time favorite of mine, I just have to mention it: The Russian River's "Pliny the Elder". This is probably the best microbrew IPA in the world. If you like your IPAs, hoppy, strong, and bold with a flavor you can smell before you even taste it, this is the one for you. It is a double IPA, and has an alcohol content of about 10% so be careful, because it's so damn good you'll want to drink more than one. And then you're ruined.

I'm not a big fan of lagers and pilsners but please, recommend your faves of any kind.

natedogg

[El Diablo]

nate,

February is strong beer month!

For anyone in the Bay Area, these are some incredibly delicious and very strong beers. So far the Diesel Imperial Smoked Porter and Blind Lust (strong Belgian with a hint of Framboise flavor) are my favorites (haven't been to Magnolia yet).

Wookie has a great beer thread over in the lounge, but as far as I'm concerned, the more discussion about beer the better.

My favorite beers are rich and dark porters and stouts. I'll write up a couple of reviews here.

[Rupert]

Greene King IPA brewed in my town Bury St Edmunds here in England has won many awards including bitter of the year last year (I believe). It has become very very popular in England in recent years for being both hoppy and aromatic in taste and smell. I highly recommend it if you can get hold if it in the USA

[Matt Flynn]

i live in beer hell. many bars and restaurants offer Corona and Heinekin as their "import" or "specialty" beer. there's one store that carries a couple dozen microbrews, and the macromicrobrews like Sam Adams can be had, but that's about it. and everyone drinks light beer. wtf.

the moonshine is excellent however.

[limon]

i love delerium. its on tap at at great little restaurant in silverlake called blairs. lately ive really been enjoying Saison Dupont.

[RiverFenix]

I dont like the delerium noel and if I see one more moran drinking it out of the large bottle next year I'm going to punch him. Get a glass slob.

[gumpzilla]

My experiences with 9-10% ABV beers haven't been so phenomenal. The flavors in that range don't really tend to do it for me. I tend to prefer to stick to more conventional IPAs or brown ales (though the occasional stout is good.)

[cbloom]

"Whitbread" currently at Trader Joe's for like $5.99 or something is an excellent beer. It has a very nice balance of hops and malt, it feels thick on the mouth but doesn't have a lingering aftertaste of bitter or sweet, which makes it good with food.

Fuller's London Pride
http://www.fullers.co.uk/main.phtml?history=2023

is more of an IPA type (I guess it's a "bitter"), it's quite clean with strong notes of hops, really delicious.

St. Peter's
http://www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/

everything they make is incredible. I like the "Best Bitter" and the "Organic Ale" but I haven't tried them all.

"Kona" beers in Hawaii are really excellent, but the ones you get on the mainland aren't the same.

"Mac & Jack's" African Amber was my favorite beer in Seattle, so thick and chewy and flavorful, slightly sweet but balanced by the hops. I've never seen it outside of Seattle

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/858/3589
African Amber - Mac and Jack's Brewery - Beer Advocate

[Boris]

I wasn't long after Natedogg first invited me to his home game that he started drinking beer. You've come a long way son. I'm so proud of you.

Lately I've been sticking with Coors Light. It's good beer. Seriously.

For IPAs, I'm a big fan of Full Sail. Nasty, nasty hangovers though.

[turnipmonster]

matt,
you mean the peace st market, formerly known as the 7-even? they had a decent selection there a while back. I never really thought about it, but there does seem to be a dearth of good tap rooms in the area.

[IggyWH]

I hate IPA's with a passion. Granted, my limited experience has been with American IPA's, and fron what little I know, American IPA's are quite different from the normal IPA style.

I had a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale on Christmas that my strange uncle gave me. I thought I was going to throw up half way into the beer. Then, the kicker, it gave me probably my worst case of heartburn ever.

I'll drink a stout here and there, but it's usually not my thing. They almost always taste like coffee to me, and I hate coffee. Chocolate stouts aren't bad at times.

I know I'll get crusified for saying it, but I'm mostly a lager drinker, and a good bit of the time a light lager drinker. I'll switch to a brown ale or a Belgians wheat from time to time, but lagers are my bread and butter.

[adsman]

I know a heap about microbrew beers but they're all Australian and I seriously doubt you can get them in the States. Pity, as my best mate from school has his own brewery now but there's not much point writing it if you guys can't buy it.

[Bicycles_Biatch]

I love Chimay... tastes like it's coming straight out of a barrel.

[MrWookie]

ads,

I can only get respectable beer from one Aussie brewery: Cooper's. The rest is all crappy pale lager (Foster's et al.). They might not have the absolute best selection of US micros (they're mostly from the Northeast, CO, some CA, and Rogue in OR), but their selection of imports is better than or equal to most any beer store anywhere in the States. Kind of a shame, too, since AussieBattler has been trying to get me drinking some of the good Aussie brews, too.

[adsman]

Matt,

Coopers sparkling is one of my favourite beers. I'm very jealous that you can get it over there. I'm going to contact my mate and see if they export and if they do I'll post some info up.