FWIW I'm also going to this with my 2 roommates. We will most likely have a hotel in the area on fri/sat nights. I will be going to the first session as well just because you said some beers can run out and i want my choice!

No, I have not. It's from Belgium? I'll have to see if I can find it.

RDH,

I recently tried a pint of Saratoga Lager when I was out at a bar in Albany, mostly because I just wanted something simple and cheap, you know, Sam Adams or Yuengling lagers. However, it turned out to be a fairly dark brown color, and was much more complex in flavor. Upon further inspection, it turns out it's a Maerzen-style beer, a variety I've heard of, but up until then, hadn't tried before. You have any recommendations in this style, having spent some time in Germany? I think this is one I'd like to look into more.

Off the top of my head, Maerzens are bock-style beers. I know Paulaner makes a Maerzen that you can get here in the States. Also, if you see a beer labeled Maibock, its probably the same style.

No real recs, though.

Marzens are very similar in style to Oktoberfests.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category3.html

Bocks are a different style.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category5.html

Paulaner Oktoberfest is a Marzen and it's quite good, especially on draft. It's available year-round, but I'll usually only drink it during the fall.

Yes, Mannequin Pis is Belgian. I think it's tap-only.

Clearly we have not had enough beer drinking in this forum lately. I'm going to come back and post another review. Hopefully it'll inspire some of you other guys to do the same .

Out at the bar tonight I got myself a bottle of Brooklyn Monster, their barley wine. This beer weighs in at 11% alcohol, and oddly enough, it ran me only $4 for 12 oz bottle at this bar. I'm not sure why it's so cheap, or if this is just a price discrepancy at this bar. I'll have to check it's price at BotW. Anyway. This beer pours with very little head, which is a surprise compared to other barley wines. It doesn't have much hop aroma, either, which is even more peculiar. Instead it just smells malty, and wrought with alcohol. Taking a sip, this beer is fairly sweet, quite malty, and just barely hopped. It's quite shallow in character compared to most barley wines, but it does go down much easier, lacking the bitter hoppiness. I can pretty easily taste the alcohol. This is a strong beer. If someone wants a barley wine, this is a pretty shoddy offering, as its lack of hops make it pretty far from most other beers of this style. However, this might be a great beer for someone looking to get drunk quickly without wanting to deal with bitterness. If this is in the $7-$8 per sixer price range as its price at the bar would indicate, this beer would be pretty unmatched as far as buzz for your buck. This beer tastes more like a brown ale that's been fermented for much longer than usual rather than a barley wine, and while that's disappointing, I do like brown ales. I'm going to give this beer , although I considered 1.5. Barley wine lovers and hop heads shouldn't bother, but alcoholics who like brown ales might give it a go if it's cheap.

Because it tastes like [censored] perhaps? I really like the Brooklyn Brewery. They make a lot of good, even great beers. The Monster is by far their worst. It should've been killed at birth

There's a generel consensus to divide BW's into two groups: American style BW's and English style BW's. Most BW's brewed in the US are (surprise, surprise) American style, but the Monster is clearly (a bad version of) English style.

The normal distinction between the two styles is precisely as you describe.

Americans: Alcohol and hops with hops being the dominant flavour
English: Malt and alcohol with the latter as the dominator

Well, I didn't think it tasted all that bad, it just wasn't what it could be. However, I find it pretty funny that you make an assertion in the form of:

There are two different kinds of _______, American style, and ________ style...

And then you finish it by saying the American style is better? Whoa! That's not something you hear every day . I do trust that there are better versions of the English style out there, though, but I can't say I'll be all that anxious to look them up.

I've still got a number of beers to review from my last shopping trip. I've gotta do a Belgian-style golden ale round up, and I've got a few stray beers from North Coast and Unibroue to do. After that, I'm not sure what I'm gong to do. I might pick up a batch of Maerzens or Bocks to try out something I'm not really familiar with. I've also been meaning to do a round up of fairly inexpensive brown ales to see if anything can knock Brooklyn Brown off its throne as my favorite every day staple beer. Anyone ny other ideas for styles of beer you'd like to hear about, or selected beers I should look up?

IIRC North Coast's Old Stock Ale as well as Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot are better examples of English style BW's

For superb examples of American style BW's, try the Old Ruffian from Great Divide or Hog Heaven from Avery

Oh, that's what the Old Stock is? I have had a couple of those, and have a few more in my fridge. It's one of the ones I've been meaning to review . Sierra Nevada, though, is an atomic hop bomb. It's even hoppier than the Old Ruffian or Hog Heaven.

I'll have to retaste the Biggie Footie then

Bigfoot is most definitely an American style Barleywine. It's basically the gold standard for American Barleywines. Hops, Hops, Hops!

Honestly, I didn't like it all that much when I had it. It has hops, and nothing else. It's kind of like the Great Divide Double IPA, except hoppier still. There's not much else too it, and the hops are a little too much to take. I much prefer the Old Ruffian Barleywine that has a deeper character beyond just the hops, and is toned back just a notch.

bigfoot is awesome

Today I went to BevMo to pick up some Stone brews and a Rogues's Chocolate Stout. But damnit they don't accept out of state licenses. I'll go back tomorrow with my passport and I'll do some reviews this weekend.

It appears this thread is kind of dying. I may do a few more reviews if people are interested, but I'd like to see some more people trying some things out. Regardless, here's my next installment:

Belgian Golden Ale Round Up!

First up is Ommegang's Rare Vos. I paid $7.99 for a four pack of this beer. It packs 6.5% ABV. I've enjoyed this beer many times before. Here are the obligatory pictures:





This beer has just the right amount of head. It smells strongly of lemon and spice. Taking a sip, well, it's very good. I taste the malt, the lemon, some pear, and a lot of spice. I think coriander, a little clove, and something else. This beer tastes sweet on sipping it, but it finishes dry with the long-lingering spice flavor. This is a great beer to sip slowly, and it's pretty reasonably priced for the style. I award it .

Next up is Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde. Not swinging into the Canadian section of Beers of the World, I probably would have never found this beer if it wasn't for other afficianados here. I paid a whopping $9.69 for a four pack, and it weighs in at a mighty 9% ABV.





This beer smells much more strongly than the Rare Vos. I picked up peach and apricot right away, along with a little citrus and spice. Taking a sip, this is clearly the superior beer. It's got more fruit flavor to go with the spice. Its spice make up is very similar, however, as is its finish. I really like the apircot and peach flavors in this beer. It's a little sweeter than the Rare Vos, but I wouldn't know from the taste that it has almost 50% more alcohol. I'm always relucatant to award things full points, but if any beer has earned so far, this is it. It took the spice from the Rare Vos and the fruit from the Pranqster and combined them into something special. This is a truly fantastic beer that would be sweet, pleasing and fruity for non-beer drinkers, satisfying and deep to veteran connoisseurs, and it packs a whallop for the alcoholics.

The last beer I'm reviewing here is going to be a dark horse, I suppose. I'm going to review the Unibroue Trois Pistoles, which is a Belgian dark ale. I paid the same price for this as for the LFDM, and it is also 9% ABV.





By smell, I'd guess that the beer most like this that I've tried is the Chimay Blue. It smells sweet, with dark fruit and spice. Sipping, I taste plum, clove, fig, but not as much spice. It's a little sweeter than the LFDM, I think. Its finish is mostly just the lingering sugar rather than as much distinct flavor. This is a little richer, fruitier, and tastier than the Chimay blue, however. I award this beer and a half . It's pretty clearly an outstanding beer from an outstanding brewery, but I thing the LFDM is the superior beer from Unibroue.

i'm a big fan of the La Fin Du Monde whenever i get it at my local beer store

DFH 60 and 90! Summary: 60 good, 90 incredible.

I recently met up with an out-of-town friend at The Flying Saucer. For those of you without one in your area, its a place with about a hundred beers on tap and another 200 or so bottled. Besides having a great selection, they'll frequently have pints priced at $2.50 on a rotating basis. Great place.

When I walk in, I always check what the $2.50 beer is and what's new. The $2.50 pints were Yazoo brews, a local brewery that I've had plenty of, so I moved on to what's new. I was delighted to see they'd just gotten Dogfish Head's 60-minute IPA and 90-minute IPA in bottles. I've seen some DFH beers in stores around here over the past year, but the selection has always been the Worldwide stout or the Raison d'etre; I've never seen the IPAs I've heard so many good things about.

I went with the 60 first, and it came out to me in a pint glass. Standard golden, coppery color for an IPA, nice head on it. Definitely smells like hops, and tasting it the first thing I though was, "Yup, American hops all over the place." Nice citrusy character and a good consistency through the finish. My buddy got a Stone IPA, so I had a sip of his for mid-pint comparison, and still like the Stone better. DFH's is a good IPA, though, and I'd be happy if that was all I could get. Weighs in at 6% ABV, btw.

The 90-minute was up next, and it came served in a goblet. It had a darker, more ruby color to it, and not as much of a head (maybe because of the pour, though). Sticking my nose down in there, I wasn't struck by as much of a hop aroma as I was with the 60. Taking the first sip, it seemed like the hop flavor was both more pronounced but also more balanced, if that makes sense. Its a bit hard to describe, but overall I thought it had more flavor. Very good bitterness, but with a great malt presence to stand up against. I love hops, but if I wanted to get blasted with them, I'd just get a Stone Ruination. I feel like I could actually have more than one or two of these (provided I didn't pass out first). I loved it, and had to check the bottle to see that it was 9% ABV. Couldn't even tell.

I'm glad you got to try the DFH IPAs. I agree with your assessment of the 90 completely. I actually don't really dig the super mega hop bombs, when it's just straight up hop flavor. However, the 90 has an intense, complex, but more balanced flavor and good malt.

i had stone's 10th anniversary india pale ale the other day.

i forget the abv but its between 9-10 iirc.

if you like stone ipa, you will like this. think of it like stone double ipa, because that's pretty much what it is. better all around, but not as good as the alesmith yulesmith which is so good, but pricey! i got the 22oz stone 10th for 4.59 but the yulesmith is 5.99. for the price, i'll take the stone, sir.

also, tried hog heaven barley wine. i think sierra nevada, moylan's, lagunitas, and stone all make better barley wines. the bitterness in this just stood out like a sore thumb for the first few sips.

This is also why I prefer Stone's Arrogant Bastard to its Ruination (though I really like Ruination).

I recently sampled Rogue's Chocolate Stout and took pictures Wookie-style. I'm at work, I'll review it later.

I've been sampling different beers for a little over a year now and I couldn't agree more with this post. If there'd been a camera on me I think my pictures would have been even worse. This is the only beer that I couldn't finish. Actually, I couldn't even get past the first sip. It burned as soon as it touched my lips. I like spicy food but this was way beyond hot, and had no real flavor to make it worth it.

best beer ever hands down natty ice... second is red dog..

no seriously, I prefer yeugling but actually I was wondering how do you guys try these exotic beers... I havent even had the more traditional ones sold in grocery stores such as IPA and red stripe mostly because I dont want to buy a 6 pack and hate it.. any suggestions for someone cheap and broke? Im 22 so most beer I haven't tried but I have a friend who swears bud light is the best beer ever and well this can't be true... any suggestions on where to try new beers in tampa?

I'd recommend that, instead of picking cheap beer, pick "safe" beer. If you've been drinking nothing but cheap to mid range pale lagers, really, you're probably already accustomed to drinking most things that beer haters hate about beer. If you don't want to get too exotic, then avoid the exotic things. You can do really well drinking brown, amber, and pale ales that are generally considerably higher quality that Yuengling but are still agreeable to just about any beer drinker. Just go to the grocery store and pick up a sixer of a brown ale and a pale ale from a brewery you haven't tried before. I wouldn't be too afraid to spend a buck or two more on a six pack because these are just such classic varieties of beer that you can't go wrong. Once you've tried those, ask yourself if you liked the darker malt of the brown or the hoppiness of the pale better, or both. That'll guide you into your next purchase, where you may pick up something darker like a porter or a stout, or a hop bomb like an IPA or a red bitter.