Had the two on the right in the past week. Used some of the rodenbach to make a belgian beef stew. Usually use ommagang, but I think the sour beer works better.

Brewing a belgian session beer tomorrow and then pitching a tripel onto the yeast cake in a week or two.

South Bay Drugs currently has Pliny in stock as of 12/31.

mmm la chouffe is definelty one of my favorites. i saw a bottle of the winter one, called n'ice chouffe. anyone ever had it?

N'ice Chouffe is excellent.

Nice, thank you ... just put my order in, hopefully it's still around

Rodenbach definitly my favorite on that picture

took a tour in their brewery a few years ago... the smell there makes you fall in love

Started brewing with a friend of mine this summer, pretty interesting to me. I've done two hefeweizens (in the style of New Belgium Mothership), drinking a chocolate stout now that's incredible, and we have a porter in primary.

My buddy has all of the equipment, what he's done to cool down after the boil is take a copper pipe, coil it so it's about as tall enough to run the length of the boil pot, and connects his garden hose to it with a rubber hose and with a rubber hose on the other end as well. The cool water runs through the copper pipe, and out the other end, into his yard, and getting the liquid cool enough to pitch yeast never takes very long. We stir while the water is running to ensure that the cooling takes place evenly.

guess I didn't read down far enough

I did a 60 min clone last Thursday then went out of town Friday morning. I made a 1.L starter with some washed 1056 yeast I had from 2 weeks prior and pitched it at about 9pm Thursday, it was bubbling away about 2 hours later.

I then went out of town and when I cam home Sunday morning I found quite a mess, I always heard that washed yeast can be pretty explosive so luckily I decided to ferment this in the tub. The stopper and airlock actually shot off and hit the ceiling...

Decided to treat myself and bought a 4 pack of Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. The rumors are true, this beer is delicious. And it's like the darkest thing I've ever seen. I tried shining a LED flashlight through it and I could barely see it.

Blow off tube ftw

I find this RIS way too hot with not much balance ... I don't enjoy it

Don't really know what you mean by "hot" but if you mean alcohol taste this is a relatively low ABV (9%) for a RIS. Can't taste the alcohol in it one bit. This one is really quite good.

Beer Advocate vehemently disagrees with me ... I'll have to give that one another shot

Yea I know, I just didnt think it would be that bad.

Two things I've adopted when homebrewing:

1) Don't ever leave when the water is running, no matter what
2) There's no reason not to use a blow off tube

Yea makes sense, Im brewing up a Brown ale on Saturday morning then heading out of town Monday night for 2 weeks. I think this time I'll use the blow-off

you didnt toss the 60min clone did you?

Absolutely not.

Same thing happened with mine, except I had mine in the closet. Then it ran under the door, and under the refrigerator. It was one hell of a mess.

I'd do it again though, as that beer was awesome. And gone.

RIP, 60 minute clone.

Well, enough of this home brewing stuff.

I picked up a 6-pack of this.



I wasn't expecting much but wow, it's pretty damn tasty. It's not too hoppy but hoppy enough and has a nice fruity (but not too fruity) aftertaste. I really enjoyed it!

Good to know you enjoyed it, someone left me an Encore in my fridge, havent tried it yet.

This year's batch of Bell's Hopslam is out for those that are fans of DIPA's. Hope you guys can pick some up.

This is my favorite beer.

Picked up a case yesterday for only ~$60 after getting a 15% discount for buying an entire case.

The aroma was even better than I remembered, though I thought it actually tasted a little boozy this year. Its always been the smoothest beer to me given thats its 10%.

Had an international beer day on Saturday. The idea was to have a ton of different expensive/strong imports that my friends and I don't drink because we have cheaper (and in some cases, better) options available locally. I was inspired by the desert island draft thread in SE.

We started at about 3pm in preparation for the Ravens/Steelers. We drank/ate/watched football until halftime of the Packers/Falcons when we deemed that game over and switched to NHL '11. With the exception of the last two (where I had full bottles) I had 1/3 to 1/2 a bottle of most of these. The bottles ranged from 11.2oz to 500mL.

Here is what I consumed:

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast



Delicious oatmeal coffee stout from the great (and prolific) Danish brewer, Mikkeller. Actually rated the #1 stout on ratebeer. On the strong side for a non-imperial at 7.5%. There is a post on their blog saying they brewed 76 different new beers in 2010.

Rochefort Trappistes 10



Amazing Abt/Quad from Belgian, currently sitting at #9 in ratebeer's top 50. I've had it before but drinking it again was an instant top priority after I came up with this idea.

Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout



Solid oatmeal stout from England. I rarely drink non-imperial stouts, but this is a good one.

Lots of Germans:

Schneider Aventinus

1/2

Strong (8.2abv), dark, German wheat beer. Delicious.

Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Doppelbock



Strong, smoked lager. A non-beer-geek friend of mine who tried it said it was like drinking bacon. The smokiness is that overwhelming. I enjoyed it but didn't love it as the smokiness might have been a little much for me. If you like your beer smoky, though, this one is for you.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier



I've had this one a few times before, but being basically the standard for Hefes, it had to be included.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel



And the dark version. Tastewise, I think I might actually prefer this one. Not as perfect for summer, but given that it like 0 degrees (Fahrenheit) here on Saturday, that doesn't really matter.

BrewDog 5a.m Saint

1/2

Amber ale from the now-famous BrewDog brewery in Scotland. Very solid but not spectacular. Got a 4-pack of this rather than just a single bottle or two.

Budweiser Budvar (Czechvar) 12°




Best Czech Pils I've had. Like 5am Saint, chosen to be a lighter, drinking beer to have between the stronger tastings.


I also had sips of a handful of other Belgian golden ales but none of them stood out. Piraat was one. I can't remember what the other two were.


Still in my fridge:

Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout

According to ratebeer this is Norway's best beer. And it comes from their best brewery. Beers from both their top breweries are pretty widely available in the US.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

Stronger version of the Beer Geek Breakfast. Both were actually brewed by Mikkeller at the Nøgne Ø brewery. Also:

Who knew?

Mikkeller Big Worst Barley Wine

Purchased as more of a novelty, although reviewers tend to actually like it. 17.5abv Barleywine. 375mL bottle means like 4-5 drinks, right? Crazy.

Harviestoun Ola Dubh (18 Year Old) - http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/harvies...ear-old/98520/

The 18 Year Old means it was aged in Highland Park 18 Year Old Scotch casks, not that the beer is actually 18 years old. Also available in 12, 16, 30 and 40. My options were 12, 16, 18 and 30. 12 was like $8 for an 11.2oz bottle and 18 was $11 I think. 30 was $17.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. I went like 8-1 in hockey. My partner in the loss went 0-5 or something. Because we were drinking 5-8oz at a time everyone got to taste a bunch of different beers without getting too drunk.

I tried this for the first time over the weekend after reading so many good things about it ITT. It was foul.

One of the only times I've ever pour the remains of a beer down my sink.

I haven't had it but I'd be willing to bet you got a bad bottle. IPAs are relatively fragile, I think.