MrWookie, these statements are not the same.

There's very little hop flavor in pale american lagers. So it is possible that she likes all these weird microbrews but not B, M, or C.

In the end, I do agree that this is extremely unlikely.

Basically what you're trying to do is find beers that she, as someone who would say she doesn't like beer, should not like. People who say they don't like beer should not like really hoppy beers until they have developed a taste for them. In other words, most people who have never tried them will be put off by their strong, atypical flavors upon first trying them. If she says she likes those beers, she is most likely lying, but it doesn't have much to do with her also not liking typical american lagers, in my opinion.

Well KB4Z, in any case, be glad this girl is willing to try new beers. My girlfriend placates me by taking a sip of whatever I'm drinking, gives me the "it's alright," and goes back to the white wine. Oh well...

Got a new review today. I picked this one up a week ago and is a fitting follow-up to my Schneider Aventinus review. I give you: Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock. I bought this 12 oz. bottle for $4.49 and it contains a huge 12% ABV.







This poured very dark, between reddish-brown and black, but no head formed. My glassware may be to blame for that though, perhaps I didn't clean it thoroughly enough. This is my first eisbock, and what an experience it was. For those unfamiliar with the eisbock style, it was an accidental creation in which the original beer partially froze to yield a much more concentrated version, with the water separating out. As far as I know, this is the only wheat eisbock.

Upon first opening it, I caught a whiff of berries followed by red wine and then the cloves I’m used to from wheat beers. Later on the aroma became more like a port, if I recall port correctly. Simply spectacular from an aroma standpoint. The taste was also port-like, with dark fruits, caramel, and cloves in the mix. Very slick on the palate and the finish was alcoholic. What did you expect from something 12% ABV? I liked this a bit better than the regular Aventinus. This seemed a bit more complex aroma and flavor-wise. I must say that this is the best beer I’ve had thus far on my journey into the craft beer world and I've got to go back and get me some more. and a half

heh. I went into my local homebrew shop tonight (brewing a Dry Stout btw) and asked the grizzled homebrew guy the same question I asked you guys. his answer was "it's probably b/c she's only tried terrible beers".

also, wookie you mentioned the sweetness, which I didn't realize. that's a good call.

KB4Z,

I thought of another sort of beer to try: fruit wheat beers. There are a number of these out there, such as Abita Purple Haze and Sam Adams Cherry Wheat that she might also find more appealing than crappy lagers.

Miles,

Yeah, I should have been more clear. "I don't like beer," means "I don't like crappy American lager." "I don't like THAT beer" often means "I don't like hops" when said by a novice beer drinker.

Maxx,

Nice review. I'll almost certainly be picking up the Aventinus and Aventinus Eisbock next time I'm out shopping (not too far away. I'll check on the Moonglow, too, and see if I have anything else to add to your reviews.

Quick review. No pics because I have no batteries.

Last night I tried a 22 oz.'er of Lagunitas' Cappuccino Stout, limited release. Brewed with real coffee. I had high hopes for this beer, because coffee is probably my favorite thing in the world.

The beer poured a typical stout color. As I was pouring the beer, the coffee scent came through strongly. It had a nice, three finger head. Once the beer settled, the nose was underwhelming. I would've liked a more prominent scent.

The taste was good, but nothing amazing. F fairly typical stout. A nice roasted flavor, but again, I could've used more coffee undertones. I did notice that I enjoyed the second half of the 22 oz. bottle more, as the beer warmed a little bit. The coffee flavor came through better, and it had a bitter aftertaste (which I like). Perhaps I served it too cold. I give this beer , but I'd be willing to try it again and try not to chill it as much.

I completely forgot to report my weekend beer trip. So this past weekend at Hop Devil Grill in NYC, they had their Daze of the Devil Strong Ale festival, where they featured over 15 beers with 8+% ABV. They offered 4 and 12 oz. servings of the heavy hitters. They had quite a bunch of rare stuff that generally isn't available in the New York area, so it was a little slice of beer heaven. The beer I most looked forward to was Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock, which is made in Michigan and is only sold in 6 oz. bottles. Apparently, the keg at the bar was one of the only two ever made. I won't be rating everything I tasted, because quite frankly, I don't remember many of them. I'll give you two: Russian River Pliny the Elder and the aforementioned Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock.

Pliny the Elder is an Imperial IPA from Russian River out in California. This was the only beer I had a 12 oz. serving ($8, 8% ABV) of because I was drinking it with lunch. I’m not much of a hop head, but I figured I wouldn’t be seeing a beer like this on tap in New York for a while and I should be developing my tastes anyway. It had a nice golden hue with some creamy white head. Pleasant aroma of pine and grapefruit. The taste was more on the grapefruity side. Though I’m not much of a fan of grapefruit itself, I did enjoy this particular flavor. Plenty of hop bitterness to go along, as was expected. Didn’t catch much alcohol in the taste though and the bitterness didn’t linger too long in the finish; both pluses. It seemed very well-balanced to me. In my very limited experience, this is a really good IIPA and would love to have it again.

I only had a 4 oz. serving of the Raspberry Eisbock, which went for $6 (10.6% ABV). They must put some kind of effort into making this bad boy for that price. Had a reddish-brown color with no head in the tiny glass. I couldn’t believe what I smelled: chocolate-covered raspberries. Simply amazing. And the taste...boy did it ever deliver. Just wonderful. Again, a nice melding of chocolate and raspberries with some caramel hints as well. It also had that port feel that the Aventinus Weizen Eisbock had. It felt very silky and thick on the palate and the alcohol wasn’t very discernable. The finish was predominantly raspberry. This is definitely a dessert beer...hell, it could easily be dessert too. I don’t care how much it cost for the sample, it was totally worth it. As close to perfect as I've tried, so for the time being, Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock gets a full

Maxx, you're in NYC? Have you ever gone to this Belgian beer bar on (I think) 4th and 6th? Sort of hard to find, as they don't really have a sign out front. Tons of Belgians on tap, more bottled, and they've got a cool little courtyard you have to walk through to get to the bar which is perfect for smokers or just hanging out and drinking outside when its nice. Reminded me a lot of beer gardens in Budapest, actually.

I've never been there, but is it called Vol de Nuit? I looked it up through this handy website: Beer Mapping

Thanks for the suggestion RDH.

Wow. That site is sweet. Cool find.

I haven't posted in this thread for a long ass time, but I had to to second this! This site is sweet.

/edit Awesome, I just found a brewpub whose beer I really liked at the Autumn Beer Review beer tasting festival a couple of months ago and it is a lot closer to me then I thought!

Wow, that's it. Definitely check it out. Looking at their website, the dude who I thought was the busboy is actually the owner.

Anyone been to the Dogfish Head restaurant/brew pub in Rehoboth Beach, DE? I was checking out the "Whats on tap"
link at their website

http://www.dogfish.com/

It looks like they have many of their beers on tap, although I did not see the 120 min IPA. The spirits selection looks interesting. Do they make their own spirits or just slap their label on something made by others?

Edit- never mind, found my answer. I guess they have a small distillery - interesting.

What's the brewery? I'll be back in Seattle before too long, and I'm always up for hitting a new brewpub .

There'll probably only be a couple of people interested in this but,

Along with the release of Wyeast's Flying Dog VSS, they included a homebrew recipe for their pale ale. Details here. I'm headed to the homebrew shop to pick some stuff up and if they've got the yeast, I'm definitely going to brew it up and see how it goes.

Well, I just got back from another beer-buying binge at Beers of the World. I got a few beers highlighted by MaxxDaddy, some more darks, and some things completely out of season because my last dark beer binge left me craving some variety. I'll be reviewing a whole lot of beer here.

The first one I tried was the Aventinus Eisbock. MD was such a big fan, I couldn't pass it up. I'm not going to write a full review since he covered the bulk of it. However, to me, it seemed to be more of a medium brown color rather than as dark as his pic would suggest. I also got a respectable amount of head w/ an aggressive pour. The flavors are great, and I do like that this beer has the idea of red wine in there. However, to me, there's a little bit of cough syrup in the aftertaste that holds this beer back from perfection. This is still a great beer, but I wish it skipped whatever gave it the little bit of cough syrup flavor. I give it .

wow...this is my first look into this thread...seems like I have some beers I've got to check out...

For my second review tonight, I picked up a bottle of Franziskaner Hefeweisse. It was on sale for, like, $1.69 for a 1 pt 9 oz bottle, but checking my receipt, I see I actually paid $2.49. Beat. I wouldn't have bothered for full price. Apparently this beer is from Spaten. It's one of the most ubiquitous German Hefes. It doesn't specify its ABV, but it's almost certainly 5% +/- 0.5%, since that's par for this style.



It pours the usual cloudy gold with a hefty head. I swirled the last of the beer in the bottle to mix in the yeast before pouring it all in. As a bonus, it's got extra head.



It smells of yeast and fruit, mostly apples and a little pear. It tastes pretty mild, moreso than the other hefeweizens I've tried. It doesn't have much spice, and it doesn't have the hint of hops that some have. The fruit flavors are nice, though. This is a good beer, but it's not up to the standards of the other German hefes I've had. I'm going to award it . I wouldn't bother paying full price, but for the sale, it's decent. Not quite as good as when the Julius Echter was on sale, though .

Part of my craving for variety this last beer run was a desire for a good, hoppy barleywine. I picked up a sixer of the Victory Old Horizontal for $12.99 and cracked one open for my football-viewing accompaniment. It packs a nice 11% ABV. I didn't take pics. The beer pours a nice golden brown without too much head. It smells nice and malty, but there isn't much in the way of hops. It tastes, well, just the same way. There are hops there, but not much more than the average ESB. The malt is rich and somewhat sweet. It's good, but I wish there was a little more hoppiness to go with it. I'm going to give this beer . It's a good beer, but barleywines can do better than this, esp. for this price.

[/quote]

Me and a buddy of mine have a habit of drinking Young's double choc with Lindenman's Framboise. We don't consider ourselves beer connoisseurs by any means, but we think it just tastes good. We don't mix it, mind you, just drink it simultaneously. I always wanted to get the opinion of a beer "expert" to figure out whether or not this practice was absurd or delightfully inventive.

RJ,

Doesn't sound like a bad plan at all .

All,

Two beer reviews tonight, one while watching 24, one while watching Heroes. First up is the Middle Age's Brewery Dragonslayer Imperial Stout. I paid $5.89 for a 22 oz, which packs a respectable 9.5% ABV. I picked this one up largely on a whim, since I hadn't tried anything from this brewery.





The beer pours a nice dark color with a good amount of head for this variety. I smell mostly caramel and hops, and less coffee, chocolate, and malt than I expected. In the taste, the hops come through quite nicely. I actually really enjoy the hop flavor. It uses some of the floral hops I enjoy most, but the bitterness isn't overpowering. It's not particularly malty or sweet, though. There's a touch of nut flavor. There's a little bit of caramel and coffee w/ the hops, but overall, this is fairly mild for an imperial stout. On the other hand, as I'm sitting here typing this instead of sipping, I'm noticing that the flavor lingers quite nicely. I was thinking 3.5 at first, but I'm going to give this . It's a little bit milder than many imperial stouts, but it still lingers quite nicely. It's also a good pick for hop lovers.

Heh, looking back through this thread, I see MaxxDaddy beat me to this one. I guess he doesn't dig coffee as much as I do, but I agree this is a thinner beer than most imperial stouts. This might just not beer your style of beer, bro, eh?

For my second review, I'm having the Weyerbacher Insanity. I knew I had seen this beer mentioned in this thread before by someone, and it turns out, it was by MaxxDaddy again. He didn't do a review, though; it was just a mention, mostly for the label. I paid $8.49 for a 22. I had planned to take pictures, but apparently I was sufficiently tipsy after the Dragonslayer as to forget. Oh well. The ABV of this beer is not specified.

I had thought, based on MaxxDaddy's post, that this was an Imperial Stout. When I poured this beer and saw a reddish brown instead of the usual near-black, I knew I was wrong. The beer smells quite sweet. I smell cherries, wood, nuts, alcohol, and the malt. Sipping, it's clear that this beer is an English-style barleywine, not a stout. Those of you who've been following this thread closely will remember that Skjonne cleared me up on the differences between American (mmmmm, mega-hops) and English (mmmmm, malty, sweet) barleywines. For people new to this thread, well, this is not a hop bomb. Indeed, it's very sweet, and quite malty. The fruit is pretty mild. There's a little bit of woodiness that comes through from the oak aging, but it's not as pronounced as the Oaked Bastard. While I neglected to do a full review of the North Coast Old Stock 2005, I like this one better. I'm going to give it . While I was disappointed with the Weyerbacher Quad, the Insanity is a solid offering. I'll likely be looking up much of the rest of the beer from this brewery.

Haha Wookie, this wouldn't be the first time we didn't see eye to eye on a particular beer offering. It's not that I'm opposed to coffee per se, I just thought it was a bit overwhelming in the Dragonslayer. Or maybe the hoppiness got to me, as the other impies I've had tended to be more malty and on the chocolate end of the roasted malt spectrum. I'm expecting a bottle of Founders Breakfast Stout tomorrow, so we'll see how well I tolerate the coffee in that one...should be interesting. As an aside, what year was your Weizen-Eisbock, just to see if we were drinking the same vintage?

I've found that in my short time posting here I've started to grow fonder of IPAs and DIPAs. One of my first IPA experiences was Stone IPA and I couldn't handle it; just way too bitter for me. I bought a six-pack of Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA this week and it's very good. I can only imagine what the 90-minute is like. It's probably just a matter of time before I can appreciate very noticeable hop presence in imperial stouts. Speaking of hoppy imperial stouts, the newest rage over on ratebeer is an imperial stout called Surly Darkness, from the Surly brewing company in Minnesota. Anyone in here from around that area?

Maxx,

I think it was 2004, but I'll double check when I get home.

I think the DFH 90 might actually be one of the most broadly appealing IPAs. It's not overly bitter, and the hops are not only more complex than most IPAs, but they're also balanced by a lot of sweetness and maltiness from the rest of the beer. Def. give it a go.

Edit: I was wrong on the date. It's 2005.

Well, since I've been following MaxxDaddy around lately, tonights beer is the Victory Moonglow, which he reviewed earlier and awarded a 4. For the most part, I agree with his review, but I have a couple additional comments. One, there's a lot of apple flavor in this beer that he didn't mention. I notice that more than the banana. Two, I guess this beer must be bottle conditioned, because I've got lots of chunks of yeast floating around in it. It doesn't really detract from the flavor or texture, but it does detract to see lots of crap floating around in your beer. Oh well. Also, I'm shocked that this beer is 8.7%. I would have guessed 5%. Buyer beware, eh? I agree with Maxx's rating.

Its in Minneapolis

For the record I was talking about Barley John's. It is pretty much in my back yard and I'm shocked I've never been there, much less that I was completely unaware of its location.

The two beers I had there that I really liked (they had 4 or 5 total) were:

Wild Brunette (Wild Rice Ale) (84th percentile at ratebeer.com)

Old Eight Porter (94th percentile at ratebeer.com)

"Old school porter. Dark, rich chocolate and coffee notes with huge malt characteristics. This beer is a meal unto itself!"

Apparently the they do a double fermented bourbon aged version of the same beer occasionally that is excellent.

The Dark Knight