I just noticed that Grolsch Amber is an Altbier. Haven't really ever bought it, so I hadn't read the packaging too closely before this weekend. I'll pick up a sixer next time I'm browsing too long at the store.

anyone had some of this:



yes, that does say 32%. beer fest i'm going to tomorrow has it, not sure if £4 a shot is really worth it but i think it has to be tried for novelty/comedy value

where is the festival ? my friend paid i think £35 for a bottle of it and said was def not worth it

Yeah all of the spirit strength beers I have ever had have always been terrible over priced gimmics.

Had a Don de Dieu. F'n delicious. 5/5. I poured myself half a glass and said to the wife "this is really nice, you'd like it." I putzed away at whatever I'm doing for a few minutes and when I turn round she's poured the rest into a big 20 oz glass and just about scooped it! fml. I guess my wifie gives it 5/5 too.


Tried the Terrible by Unibroue as well; not so impressed but it was drinkable enough. Tasty at first and hid the 10+ abv well. Problem is it had what I immediately called a "blank bitterness" at the end that I didn't like; not the alcohol but just bitter without much redeeming quality was what was left in the mouth. Mebbe just me but 3.5/5.... [follow up edit. it grew on me more later; maybe I started drinking it too cold. bump it to a 4/5]

I had a 2010 Stone RIS last night. Very good stout, exactly what you expect from the style. Pitch black, tan head, lots of roasted malts, and a hint of chocolate. It's a little warm from the alcohol but not overwhelming. I doubt i could tell any difference from a fresh one, which came out recently.

i had this one on tuesday.pretty tasty stuff:P

"Our brand new beer is a malty imperial amber ale enhanced with hemp seeds and kilos of US hops.

The result is heady wonder of the highest order with rich malt and hop charms topped with a dank, aromatic nose. Get it while it lasts. 7.8% ABV"

http://www.wynkoop.com/our-beers/251...ool-maltuwanna

Hemp ale is nothing new. For a more clever take on the marijuana reference, try legal weed.

There is a new German Biergarten opening up 2 blocks from my house called Frankford Hall that will have this on tap exclusively for a period of time. The place opens on Tuesday and I know what my first beer will be, very excited.

Big brew day 2011 video from the Humboldt club. I was unable to attend, but by all accounts it was a great success. Maybe we can plan a 2+2 version for big brew day 2012.

How could I have never seen this thread before!? Local bar to me just had a dogfish head total tap takeover, so needless to say world wide stout, my Antonia, and Pangea were all well consumed.

World wide stout is BIG, that's all that needs to be said.
My Antonia, I agree with lew189, very good beer and very drinkable
Pangea, pretty wild, love the ginger (though being Jamaican I prefer a carribean ginger to the southeast Asian ones)

Side note - I picked up two bottles of Sam Adams Utopias hoping to crack one open to celebrate the purchase of my new house and property but the title isn't clean so it got pushed back. If anyone has drank it, is it worth the wait or should I just open if now? I did have a 2oz pour of the 2009 batch that was pretty fricken good.

If you liked the 2009 batch relatively fresh (I assume it was close to 2009 when you had it?) then go for it, open it up. By some accounts the Utopia's will get a lot better with years on it, the heat will mellow, etc; but this will take 5-10 years likely. I've had a 3 year old sip and it was still hot, while a 5 year old sip I've also had was calming down a lot and more enjoyable for me.

LAGUNITAS HAIRY EYEBALL

9.0 abv.. a darker style Lagunitas.. not a hop bomb but, excellent.

not much alc bite for 9.0.. dark frothy head.. another excellent brew by these guys..

Brewed a hefeweizen and a kolsch last weekend. Forgot to TR my trippel, more alcohol burn than I expected, but that settles down after the first drink. Took over 4 weeks to properly bottle condition where it now has head, although retention isn't great. That seemed long to me. Seemed closer to a Chimay than it did a trippel, I don't get as much of the coriander and orange peel as I expected. Still drinkable but not my favorite of the few I've brewed.

I'm looking forward to the hef, we brewed it last year with good success, and made two batches. Using German yeast and not Belgian wit yeast. My friend is using Belgian wit yeast in his 5 gallons to try to get closer to Hoegaarden.

Missed the deadline to send our beer in to the Natl Homebrewers Convention, but I will be attending--looking forward to it!

This tasted wonderful chilled, really cut through a strong thirst with only a third of the bottle drunk. It poured much lighter than I was expecting. I'm definitely having this again soon.

Cigar City Neilsbohrium:

Crazy dark and thick like 10,000 mile old motor oil. Minimal dark brown head. Has a heavy chocolate and raisin nose with similar taste. Little alcohol burn but it is high abv so nothing unexpected. Going to let my second bomber age for a while to see if it'll knock down some of the burn. Overall phenomenal beer, I wish it wasn't a one off batch.

Finally got some Guinness Foreign Extra last night, and was very impressed. Pitch black, very thick head. Thick yet smooth texture. Flavor was so much more complex than guinness draught, I was surprised by the bite. A bit more hops that I thought. Anyways, very good stuff

My folks visited from StL and brought me some schlafly: sixers of the AIPA and Bavarian hef, and a 12er of the summer Helles. I'm pretty sure I've posted about the summer before, but to reiterate: its great. Lightly sweet/grainy, maybe some hops in there somewhere, but super clean, refreshing, crisp, great lager.

The AIPA... its good. I know its good. Its just that the second I poured it and took a whiff, I knew they used a good bit of Simcoe hops, and I'm really ambivalent on that hop. I loved the one time I've tried Pliny the Elder, from Russian River, and supposedly they change the hops on that one somewhat regularly and supposedly uses Simcoe often. But apart from that, I find Simcoe to be super catty, obnoxiously piney/garlicky... I just am not a fan, and can pick it out pretty easily. So I got a ton of Simcoe out of Schlafly's AIPA, and it distracted me. Still, a good IPA. Last time I was in StL, I got a 12er of the helles for $11, so assuming the IPA is ~$7-8 for a sixer, its definitely worth picking up.

The Bavarian Hef is a typical German hef, tasted like Weihenstephan's yeast although I'm no expert. Well made, definitely worth getting if you like the style, and it sounded like its a limited release.

I tried the Guiness Foreign Extra a while ago and wasn't as impressed as I expected. Didn't notice too much difference from the regular Guiness in a bottle (not draught). Maybe I'll havta try that experiment again.

Ive actually never tried the regular Extra but I want to try it soon. If it is comparable to the Foreign then I'll just buy the regular and save quite a bit of money whenever I want a Guinness

Had Cigar City Hillsborough River Dry Stout tonight and it was quite delicious. Classified as an Irish dry stout I didn't find it quite as "dry" as I was expecting (which wasn't a bad thing). It was the first I had heard of it and was available at my local World of Beer bar.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17981/56676

Also brewed up a batch of a "summer" pils last weekend. It was a Murphy Law type of brew day when I got caught in a FL rainstorm and tried to grab everything and bring it into the garage. I ended up grabbing the hot part of my turkey fryer which did not feel good, dropping a not so clean rag into the wort while it was cooling down, and either missed (or diluted my wort) my target og by .1 .

No sign of infection yet and I'm still looking at ~4.5% abv pils which is fine. Added some wheat to it which isn't traditional to hopefully give it a lighter frothier summer feel.

The CCB Hillsborough River Dry Stout is their old "Patio Tools", they just wanted to make it a year-round offering and thought the name change would be better. Solid beer though.

Ah okay. I saw Patio Tools at the end of it in parentheses but didn't connect that.

Wraths/33 Blinds - are y'all in the Tampa Bay Area? You guys sure seem to know a lot about Cigar City...