List of my fav beers, I live in Belgium ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodenbach
Great Sour beer, my personal all time favourite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westvleteren_Brewery
Rated best beer in the world by ratebeer.com , also very hard to come by, I have one case. it can't be bought in shops if you want a case you can only buy one and you have to drive over there(it's like a 2 hour drive for us,my dad always buy a case when he needs to go to someplace in the area)

edit: quote: "Buyers were originally limited to ten 24-bottle crates of the beer per car, but as the beer increased in popularity, this was first reduced to five, then to two. For the Westvleteren 12 in 2009, it was limited to one case. When making an order now, the type and quantity of beer for sale are revealed. Sales are limited to one order a month per person per license plate and phone number. Also, the beer must be reserved on their "beerphone" (+32 (0)70 21 00 45) beforehand. The monks will never sell you any beer if you just drive up to the abbey hoping to get some. The reason for this is to eliminate commercial reselling, and hence give all visitors a chance to buy some."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoegaarden_Brewery
My favourite white beer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Breweries
This was the favourite beer of my grandfather who has passed away, I like to drink this beer to remember him, we would always drink this together in bars.

I've checked the thread a few times and decided to pitch in. I'm by no means an expert and just in the past year I've started getting into actual good beers. The problem I have is I live on Guam and we don't have good access to many different beers. There is a local restaurant that brews their own beer that is probably the best place to get a good brew. I was excited when I found some Leinie's in the store last year.

Anyway, I got some Guinness Foreign Extra for St. Patty's day and I found it to be delicious. I've had regular? Guinness and wasn't real impressed but the Foreign Extra was pretty damn delicious. I guess it's not sold in the states, is this true? Any thoughts on it? Is there a better brand that may be somewhat national so I may be able to find it? Thanks!

Here's a pic:

I picked up some Pilsner Urquell from the import section the other day and wow, it's great. Highly recommended.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner_Urquell

If you think that's good, give Prima Pils from Victory Brewing a shot, it'll blow you're mind.

This is good and so is their Saphir Pils. I have never seen it in a bottle but I had it on tap a few times last spring.

Yes, I'm not impressed by regular guiness either, and I don't believe you can get the kind you had in the states. That's the higher ABV one I've always heard better things about and have wanted to try.

As far as good stouts available to you.... where are you located?

I'm not a stout guy at all; I only just discovered a few I really like. Until recently, I just tolerated a couple a year. Now I drink these on purpose - but still sparingly, since they're all "Imperial Stouts," which tend to be very strong, not lending themselves to drinking many, and better suited to cold weather, which I don't get a lot of in Florida.



Weyerbacher Heresy



Lagunitas Imperial Stout



Bell's Expedition Stout

Honorable Mention:



Left Hand Milk Stout

I pretty much always have this one on draft at my place and it is definitely the one I recommend first to someone looking to step outside of the Guinness-Zone.

The Bells Expedition is great. Living in Florida, have you had a chance to try any of the Cigar City Imperial Stouts?

I had the Vanilla Maduro out of a wood barrel recently. That might be the only one I've tried.

Southern Tier - Choklat Imperial Stout review to come

Ingredients on 22oz Bomber -

11.0 ABV
27 degrees plato
195 degrees L
2-row barley
caramel 60 malt
barley flakes
chocolate malt
bittersweet belgian chocolate
kettle hope: chinook and willamette

Will drink with some brownies after dinner, now i search for a snifter-esque vessel to pour this chocolate beast into.

Just drank a spring 2009 vintage of Stone Imperial Russian Stout. It was delicious. It was a 22oz bomber so I'm feeling it.

Ingredients:

11.0 ABV
27 degrees plato
195 degrees L
2-row barley
caramel 60 malt
barley flakes
chocolate malt
bittersweet belgian chocolate
kettle hope: chinook and willamette
---------------------------------------------------------------------



No shot of the pour, its black with little head. Nothing too special.

I paid $9.83 for a 22oz bomber. I love New York.

The Pour: Pours a very creamy brownish black with subtle hints of a beige hue at the bottom, minimal head and lacing isn't as predominant as i would like it to be. When settled it appears nothing but black and tar like, yum!

The Nose: Wow! First thing that came to mind was chocolate and cherries. As well as other assorted darker fruits, figs, berries, etc. slight pinch of vanilla as well all of that delicious roasted and chocolate malt that comes through.

The Taste: To say this beer tasted like chocolate is a gross understatement. At some points during consumption it tastes like your going vertical on a jug of Hersheys Syrup. Mixed in with ripe cherries of course. Your also tasting slight fudgey undertones, powdered coco, more chocolate and more ripe dark fruit. Milk chocolate dark chocolate its all there. This beer does not go out of its way to hide the alcohol, i was greeted with the 11% ABV every sip i took, but not in a bad way.

The Drink-ability: This is no doubt a dessert beer, the word session does not belong near this one. Very thick and heavy with a creamy mouth-feel, I could drink two but i am not sure my stomach would agree with me, it is a filling beer!

This was one of the best Imperial Double Stouts Ive ever had, chocolate or not. Would snap re-purchase for the right occasion and would highly recommend it!

I had some Sam Adams Noble Pils the other day. It was good. Definitely well-made, nice malt character, OK hop character. I'd say it was closer to the Bohemian style than German, but not indicative of one more than the other. Take that with a grain of salt, since it's been forever since I've had a Budvar or Urquell or anything actually Czech.

Also drank a Victory Prima Pils last night, not for the first time. It was good, but just too hop-forward for me. Too much bitterness, too much hop flavor, too much hop aroma. Don't get me wrong, I like that beer, but if I want a great German pils, I still reach for Paulaner. A while back, I did a Pils tasting with Victory, Oskar Blues, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, and either Budvar or Urquell (hard to stomach buying a sixer of green bottles), and Paulaner was my favorite, in large part because of the exceptional balance. Not sure if I posted about that at the time.

Dominion Oak Barrel Stout is pretty good and worth a try if you like vanilla stouts aged in bourbon barrels.

You need to all get into HARP, it an amazing beer from northern ireland

Had a bunch of 60/90 minute IPAs from Dogfish head today, 4/5 and 4.5/5 respectively.

Some friends went to Amsterdam for the week and brought back this:



Trappest Westvleteren 12. Russian Imperial Stout at its finest.

One great thing about beer is that everyone can have different tastes. It would not be unreasonable to assume that many participants in this thread have tried Harp and left it at that.

If you had a bunch of DFH 90 Minute IPA's today that would speak well for your capacity for alcohol.

come to Australia and try VB

so much win and so much fail

Russian?

dude
westvleteren brewery is 2 hour drive from me and I live in belgium, and it's impossible for your friends to buy them in Amsterdam

Epic Fail.

Anyways Thisj908, is there anyway for me to get the westy 12 in NY, could you perhaps mail one to me? :-D

Hmm, pretty sick coincidence i'm going to NYC this sunday haha .

I have one case right now, you can only order one case a month and they don't do deliveries, we don't usually buy more then a few cases a year, kinda a hassle to get

A store receives cases of them and sells them for approximately 11 euro a bottle.