so im drinking some new belgium La Follie. It is supposedly highly sought after and one of the best so I decided to see what all of the hype was about it. This is the most interesting beer I've ever had. It pours a brownish red w great tan head. The smell is overwhelming of sour fruits. This beer tastes just like it smells. Sour fruits at first and then a hint of a brown ale. This beer is phenomenal if you like sour things, if not I would prob still taste it for the experience of it. This stuff goes fast so if you run into a bottle of it I'd pick it up

What did it run you?

13.99

Edit: 750ml obviously

That's still pretty steep. I'll have to see how it compares in price w/ the Rodenbach Grand Cru.

hey y'all,

I was recently back east visiting folks and family and tried some more beer. Sorry I got no detailed reviews, just a couple of quick notes.

I don't get dogfish head in Cali, so I headed to the store for some. I picked up a six of the Indian Brown, a 750mL of Black and Blue, and a 12 oz bottle of the 120.

Indian Brown is very solid with a little extra bite than your standard brown ale. I'd probably usually opt for the cheaper versions out there though.

Black and blue was good, but wasn't all that memorable either.

The 120. Two words. Hated it. Poured out half the bottle. Not sure what it was. Just didn't appeal to me at all, and I love hoppy beers. Hate this crap. Never again.

Quick note for any Boston folks who read this: while visiting friends I checked out a bar in Allston called Deep Ellum. It's at Brighton/Cambridge/N. Beacon intersection. The only knock on the place is its in Allston. This place was awesome. I'm assuming its on the new side, as I know it wasn't there when I lived there. Besides the great food, the beer list is incredible. They got everything. Some of the Belgians are pretty expensive and are only available in the 750mL bottle. I must've gone through the Unibroue list (La Fin Du Monde, Maudite, Trois Pistoles, Don de Dieu). Actually, they had Blanche De Chamblay too but I didn't order that. Trois Pistoles was on tap, rest in 12 oz'ers. The waitress was really cool and made fun of pretentious hipsters who order "end of the worlds).

I probably should've ordered more stuff on tap. They had a ton of stuff. I was pretty bombed by the time I found the on tap list anyway, so I just settled for a Racer 5 IPA (incredible). But the list was very long.

Worth checking out. Probably a hipster madhouse on weekends, but we went on a Sunday and it had a decent crowd but nothing overwhelming.

If you ever get a chance to purchase it, I wholeheartedly recommend it. La Folie is spectacular; the best sour ale I've had yet.

Are there any folks from Wisconsin out there? If so, there's been an interesting development with our friends at Leinenkugels (AKA Miller). They just bottled their Big Eddy imperial stout and thus far it's been getting rave reviews. I'm curious if anyone has access to it and could give it the ol' yea or nay. What do people think about Miller's (and other macros) dip into the craft brew scene?

Oh, I didn't know Leine was a Miller subsidiary. Huh. If their imperial stout is good, they may usurp Coors's Blue Moon line as having the best offering of macro craft brews.

Ok, today was not a good beer day for me. I tried two new beers:

Oat - Southern Tier and Black Chocolate Stout - Brooklyn Brewery.

I didn't finish the Brooklyn and probably won't finish the Oat either. I won't give a review. I'm thinking that I'm just not an 'Imperial Stout' person. Only one more stout to try in my fridge on the positive side.

Yeah, if you don't like the Brooklyn BCS, I don't know what to tell you. It's not the best imperial stout out there, but it's solid, and one of the best values. Probably just not your style. Since you seem to be enjoying an IPA, if you want to give strong, dark beer another shot, you might try Flying Dog's Gonzo imperial porter. It's a cousin of the imperial stouts, but it has a strong hop character that you might enjoy.

On a similar track, see if you can get your hands on Great Divide Yeti, a very hoppy imperial stout.

And now that I think about it, Victory's Storm King is also a hoppy imperial stout, IIRC moreso than the Yeti.

I'm going to do a couple reviews tonight. The first one was from last night, and I didn't take pics. I picked up a couple new brews from Smuttynose from their apparently new Big Beer series. The first I'll review is a new style, a so-called Wheat Wine. They describe it as a barley wine made with wheat, but also with a light hopping. I was a little skeptical, since I haven't really dug English-style barley wines, but I figured I'd give the wheat version a shot. It may incorporate some of the flavors I enjoy from German wheat beers. It's bottle conditioned, so that bodes well for it. I paid a reasonable $5.59 for a 22 oz bottle of 10.7% ABV beer.

The beer pours a clear reddish brown with virtually no head, even with an aggressive pour. The smell is much like an English barley wine, but perhaps not quite as fruity. The taste is a bit of a let down. I don't notice much of an addition by using wheat instead of barley. Instead, this doesn't seem to be quite as complex as the better English barley wines I've had. It's mostly a sweet, darker malt, and then there's the light grassy hopping in the finish. This isn't a bad beer, but it's not outstanding, and it's not really my style. I'm going to award it and a half .

For the second review, I picked up a bottle of Rodenbach's Grand Cru. I'm finally going to try me a Flemish sour ale. Ran me $8.89 for a 750 mL bottle, just 50 cents more than the 750 of the standard Rodenbach, so getting the Grand Cru was an easy choice. Apparently this is a barrel-aged beer, but it weighs in at a fairly light 6% ABV.



The beer pours a fairly dark red. It has a decent head at the start, but it dissipated pretty quickly.



When I first smelled this beer, I thought it might have spoiled. The cork in the top of the bottle looked a little old, and the smell was unlike any other beer. Taking another whiff, though, and I get wood and sour cherry, which is I think what I should be smelling. The taste, whoa. That's sour. It quickly overwhelms the back of my mouth. I knew what I was getting myself into for the second sip, though. There's a good bit of flavor in here behind the sourness, notably sweetness, cherry and wood, of course, but also a little more I can't quite place. I want to like this beer more than I did, but that's not to say I'm going to give it a low rating. I'll give it . Drinking a 750 of this beer is a bit on the tough side given the sourness. It has just too much of a medicine flavor from the sweet and the sour for me to want to buy this beer again. Regardless, this beer is a unique surprise for someone looking for something different.

Couple mini reviews tonight, both from Blue Moon that I've been putting off reviewing.

Blue Moon Harvest Moon: their pumpkin ale. Not as spicy as spicy as some, and I don't particularly taste the pumpkin. However, the hint of spice in there is still decent, even if the malt leaves a little to be desired. Still, the spices that are there work well with the rest of the beer. It's a pretty drinkable and affordable beer if you're curious if a pumpkin-flavored beer is something worth drinking. : and a half .

Blue Moon Full Moon: their winter ale. I wasn't really sure what I'd be getting myself into when I bought this one. It pours a clear medium brown, a little lighter than I expected given the advertisements about this being a dark beer. On the scale of Coors products, though, this may be the darkest thing they make. In spite of the advertised Belgian character, this beer isn't that exotic. It's a little sweeter and less hoppy than a brown ale. It's mostly just a solid, malty brown beer. I'm going to give it the same rating, and a half .

Wookie, FWIW I enjoy the reviews in this thread.

I am more of a common beer drinker but I do like my beer and do enjoy trying different beers every now and then.

Do you recall if you have ever tried or reviewed Moose Drool Beer brewed by Big Sky Brewing in Missoula Montana? It is not as crazy as English Barley Wines or sour beers but is a nice dark beer that I enjoy on occasion.

I've seen it in stores, but I think only when I'm back visiting my parents in Seattle. I haven't tried it myself, I don't think. There's nothing wrong with "boring" beer, either. I buy Brooklyn Brown by the case, and it's nothing more than a (great example of a) brown ale. It's probably the beer I've had more of in my life than any other. I love treating myself to something exotic, but sometimes something simple and familiar is just the ticket.

I'm actually curious what beer(s) people who frequent this thread drink most often. We report on the new and exciting beers, but I'd be surprised if any of the other beer lovers in here were putting away a barley wine every night with dinner or something.

Everyday drinker is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - the reference standard pale ale.
Also Corona (dont' know why - it's easy to drink) and Yuengling -(very cheap at my local pub)

Lately belgian beer appears in more and more bars in New York. So I drink Hoegaarden and Chimay Blue most of the time, and Corona on the occasions when I can't find anything else. Always keep St Bernardus witbeer in my fridge, too. New York.

Have you tried many wits other than St. Bernardus and Hoegaarden? How does the former stack up? I haven't tried it, but I the style.

I have tried Allagash and Ommegang and yesterday had some disgusting Japanese wit (Hitachino, I think). God that last one was awful. St Bernardus is clearly the best wit of all those. However, I've only seen in bottles, and maybe it gets refermented there, and thus becomes stronger than others that are sold on tap. So that might be the reason why I like it. Bottled Hoegaarden and that on draught have rather different taste and feeling, for one. But StB's is a good brew regardless.

Well, putting it above my beloved Allagash will mean I have to try it. I was underwhelmed with Ommegang's, and I haven't tried that Japanese one, but it got a glowing review in here earlier.

Wook,

It's a rotation of sorts. Fat Tire is pretty common for me. During this time of year, when SN's Celebration is available, I pick that up quite a bit. I'll occasionally go through a High Life phase.

kutuz,

not to get in a city dick waiving contest, but I don't think beer variety is strictly a NY thing. You can get Chimay in a lot of the bars I've been to in SF and Boston (and I'm sure elsewhere, just speaking from experience). And I know Boston has quite a few "beer" bars. See my post up above about Deep Ellum in Allston. Their beer list/draft list blew me away.

Some bars in SF rule because you can get some really good California brews on tap for relatively cheap ($4 for a pint of Racer 5 is two thumbs up in my book).

wook,

what happened to the rest of this thread?

kutz,

No way! Hitachino Nest White Ale is awesome! I reviewed it some ways back. Beeradvocate bros agree with me, fwiw. I tried finding one of their reviews, but their site isn't loading right now for some reason.

got it: link

KC,

Posts made between OP and 9/1/07 were not imported in this and every thread on the site. The down time this weekend should fix that.

Beer in bottles can't undergo more than a token fermentation. Fermentation produces not only alcohol, as you noted, but CO2. Too much fermentation, and your bottle blows up. Many a homebrewer has rued bottling his beer before fermentation is done, only to wake up in the night to the sound of breaking glass and spilling beer. It's more or less impossible for bottled beer to be more than a tiny fraction stronger than kegged beer as long as they're both packaged from the same source.

As I've said before, a number of reasons could exist for this. One of the most common is that the bar you frequent the most often isn't overly scrupulous about keeping their lines clean. Gunk builds up, your beer gets filtered over it on its way from keg to pour, and it lends a distinct flavor to your beer. Drinking the beer from the bottle instead of a glass will also change the flavor a fair amount. But in almost every case, there is zero difference between the beer in a bottle and the beer in a keg when it leaves the brewery. After it leaves, there's nothing the brewer can really do, and handling by distributors, retailers, etc, can and does have a large effect on the beer. But it's all brewed in the same kettle and fermented in the same tank, and then just packaged differently. Usually. For brews like Hoegaarden, this is definitely the case.

Boston is a bit of a unique case, almost as much so as California. Boston Brewery has contributed a ton to craft brewing, Boston is the home base of Beer Advocate, and it's a bit like the chicken and the egg to try to determine whether Jim Koch had a bigger effect on the beer IQ of Boston or whether his brewery is so successful because of the beer IQ of Boston (although my uneducated guess would tend towards the latter). Cali, especially the central/northern parts, are basically the birthplace of the American craft brew movement, so it's not surprising that you can find a ton of great beers there. All that being said, I can get Chimay in stores here in Nashville, so it's not as if that's an obscure brew.

I tried Ommegang's new Chocolate Indulgence tonight, and I was sorely disappointed. A 750 mL bottle of it ran me almost $13, too. The advertise this as a stout blended with Belgian chocolate. As a stout, it wasn't bad, but I didn't notice the chocolate all that much. The head on this beer was thick, persistent, and creamy, and it laced my glass nicely. Now, maybe my expectations were too high for the malt of this beer given all the Brooklyn BCS I've been drinking, but it was somewhat mild and watery by comparison. Granted, this doesn't seem to be an imperial stout, just the standard variety, but IIRC, this cost me more than Great Divide's Oak Aged Yeti. I'm giving this beer . That shouldn't be a bad rating, but for a beer this pricey, it is. It's not a bad beer, but it's one of the worst values in any beer I wasn't tempted to spit out. Definitely don't buy this dud if you see it in the store.