I opened this thread assuming nobody would mention the Delirium series. I was wrong. First beer listed, cheers NateDogg.

Noel is my favorite, then Tremens, then Noctornum. But they're all awesome.

All,

This was mentioned above, but I tried the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout yesterday. I think it was $8 for 4 bottles at Whole Foods. Enjoyed it a lot. It was very rich and smooth, I think people who haven't tried a lot of stouts would probably enjoy this one as well.

http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/ras.htm

Grunching so I don't know if this beer has been covered, but at my local store tonight I saw a $15 750ML bottle of beer. I believe that you get what you pay for, so I bought it.

It's apparently called the Brewmaster's Collaboration Signature Ale. It's labeled with the names Tomme Arthur, Port Brewing; and Dirk Naudis, De Proef Brouweru.

There's a goddamn book written on the back of the bottle that I'm not going to summarize, but this beer is fantastic. Smooth and solid but with a little bite, it's got a little of everything I like. Even at this price I think I'll buy more.

hmm, sounds great, but $15 for a 750ml is verrrrry expensive. you can buy a fantastic Belgian Dark Ale (which this sounds like for) for $6 or $8. Examples being an Ommegang Abbey Ale, or 3 Philosophers, or Chimay Red Label, or something like that.

Wow it would be great if this thread came back to life.

I've been in the suburban wasteland that is central florida for the last month and the only place I've been able to get decent beer is -- get this -- Barney's Coffee and Tea (which I think is a national chain).

Barney's had the following available: three different sierra nevada beers (pale ale, brown, and ipa i think), a couple Sam Smith's (which I love as far as mass market brands go), Anchor Steam, and a few other solid beers. Sure on the West Coast this means nothing but for FL this is like finding filtered water in the desert (particularly the Same Smith).

can you get beer shipped to you in FL?

Did somebody say hops? Here are some beers on my recent rotation. Nothing "exceptional", but all very worth drinking.

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA
Terminal Gravity IPA
Full Sail LTD #2
Full Sail Vesuvius Belgian Golden Ale
Anything on tap at the nearest New Old Lompoc pub

Well, it's almost October, which means that Pyramid Snow Cap will be hitting the streets soon. God, I like autumn...and living in Portland.

Easily my favourite beer is Double Maxim
http://www.dmbc.org.uk/
Not sure how easy it would be to get in America, its pretty awkward to find sometimes in Britain, mostly seems to sell just in the North of England.
I dont really know how to describe flavours, so if someone else knows this beer, maybe they could describe it.

Black Sheep is also very nice, again, not sure how easy it would be to get hold of in America
http://www.blacksheepbrewery.com/Bee...kSheepAle.aspx

Some good Australian beers I really enjoy:

Very Widely Available:
Carlton Premium Dry. Very "open" flavour, and it is smooth and good all the time.

Widely Available:
Coopers Pale Ale - A great unfiltered beer, but it makes me sad when I'm out at a pub or something, and they open the bottle for you, while letting the sediment sit at the bottom.

Rarely Available:
Just about anything from Matilda Bay Breweries, esp. Rooftop Red. That has got to be my favourite beer... I can't describe it well, but it is always perfect - not too harsh, not too dry, just perfect.

Very Rarely Available:
Living in North-East Victoria in Australia, there are a handful of microbreweries that only sell their beer at the brewery, and Bright Brewers do a great beer they call their Australian Ale. I had two bottles of the stuff, they warned me that one was underdone (and I should leave it for a couple of weeks before drinking) and I love the individual flavour of each bottle.


Honourable mentions:
Kirin. I find that it has a bit of bite, and as a Tooheys beer (distributed by Tooheys in Australia) it's a great choice when Carlton Draught isn't available.

Great bump. With Michael Jackson's recent passing, I'll tip a pint to the homebrewers out there and acknowledge that the state of beer in the US would not be what it is today without him.

El D,

I just read this thread (not sure how I missed it). Russian Imperial Stout is one of the few beers that will cellar well. Cellering beer has nothing to do with bottle conditioning as was stated previously in this thread - it has to do with alcohol content first and foremost - alcohol acts as a preservative. Other factors are temperature control and exposure to light, but alcohol content of ~10%+ is required for a beer to age well.

Barleywine is another beer that ages well. I have done blind tastings of aged barleywine, both Mad River Brewing's John Balreycorn and Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot, and the sweet spot was about 3-4 years in the cellar. The hotness of the alcohol has tamed significantly and the hop flavor is still forward. The older beers (went up to 8 years old) had lost some of the hop characteristic and the malt flavor was overpowering.

I haven't tried this with a Russian Imperial Stout, but I will start saving them up and let you know in 8 years or so

this isn't true for lambics

As with anything overgeneralized. . . but I think we can agree that lambics are a special case. They require long secondary fermentations, specific bacteria capable of hydrolysis of what in any other beer would be considered a weed infection, and also bacteria capable of fermentation of dextrose in order to inhibit growth of other bad bugs in beer during the later secondary fermentation process.

But yeah, lambics have like 5% ABW and take 2 years just to be ready for consumption, then cellar well.

How about this - for any beer made in America or made according to the Reinheitsgebot, my statement is correct.

I tried this a few months back when I bought a 4-pack for my buddy for helping me out with some car stuff.

I thought it was pretty damn good as well.

crashjr,

How many of the Stone Vertical Epic beers - specifically designed to age - are above 10%?

By ~ I meant approxiamte, not over. I assumed this was a universal symbol. I guess I was wrong. I was not familiar with Stone Vertical Epic but I googled it and saw recepies giving the wort a specific gravity of 1.078, which should finish > 8% ABW, which is sufficient alcohol for cellaring. If you have a few bottles around, don't be stingy!

I tried to be cool for awhile and drink connoisseur beer, but it's not cool to fake yourself out. Bottom line is I don't really like ale - I don't care for any bitterness.

I like Budweiser. I admit it. I also like Molson, Heineken, Grolsch, Moosehead, Labbat's, etc. Any other recommendations along those lines welcome. I guess I like lager or pilsner, not exactly sure what the difference is.

Surprising beer collection for such a dive.

try Hefewizens, or Stouts. both are low in bitterness

Hoegaarden (the most widely available witbeer), and St Bernardus Witbeer are the two names I'd recommend specifically.

Also, brown ales are much less bitter than doubles/triples you may have tried. They often have chocolaty/raisins undertones.

A knowledgeable bartender is always great help, by the way. Just tell them what you like, and they'll suggest something new.

Has anyone had trois pistoles? It is one of my favorite but I have only found it in a couple of places.

My first comment would be to drink what you like, and take small steps outside of those boundaries to explore areas new to your palate. Beer is, without question, an acquired taste; be active in acquiring it. Outside of drinking what you know, also try to appreciate the differences. Get a Czech Pils and then a German Helles, and try to find the differences in taste. In general, Euro Lagers run really close in taste; they're very delicate and thus have subtle differences. There's a chance that what you're looking for is a crisp, clean flavor that's often missing in American micro ales. You want something that washes the palate, not hits it with a sledgehammer, gives you a feeling of slight mixed sweetness and bitterness, and then goes away. American micros have always tended towards ales, and have lately trended to hop-bombs. Try getting some Brooklyn lager or Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. Both are exemplary beers in the Euro lager style. Once you move on to loving ales, but still don't appreciate a pound of hops in your bottle, look for rye beers. Rye gives the beer a very dry finish; Terrapin's Rye PA, which is great and won a huge award in 2005, was specifically designed because prospective costumers said they didn't want to taste their beer after they finished it. Rye lagers are sort of rare, especially in the US, but its something to keep in mind once you expand your palate.

Most of the time, what throws people off craft beers is the hop flavor. Malt sweetness and hop bitterness are the backbones of beer flavor, and just about no one says that something has too much malt sweetness. To get your feet wet with craft ales, maybe try some brown ales or even hefeweizens. The flavors of these two beers are really different. Brown ales have a big dose of malt sweetness, a sort of bready, earthy, sugary taste, with low hop bitterness. If you drank a Brown right now, I doubt you'd ever utter the word, "bitter." Hefes are light with a big dose of fruity flavors, from banana to orange to clove, and also have low hop bitterness. If you had a hefe right now, I doubt you'd utter the word, "malty." However, both are lighter on the palate than an APA or Porter or typical American Micro, both are low in hop bitterness, and the two can give you an idea of the range of flavors available in US micros. If you're really looking to find out the range of flavors beer can provide, and you don't want to quaff something you don't find appealing, there are still a ton of styles out there for you. Its a matter of identifying what you like about the beer you currently drink, what you don't like, and then which styles provide most of the positives with the least of the negatives.

Identifying those factors may be daunting, but an almost universal truth about beer nerds is that they love to talk about beer. Call your local micro - better yet, stop in - and ask for a rec. If you've got a regular liquor store with great wine guys, ask them about beer. They should be pretty straight with you about whether they know beer or not, or know anyone who does. There are tons of ways to find beer geeks, and once you do, look out: they may make an overly long post telling you what to do.

Anybody coming to Denver for the Great American Beer Fest?

RunDown, now you've gotten me interested in beer. I'm the kind of person who "gets into" something. Like a couple years ago I really got into wine and learned all I could about it. I'm satisfied I learned what I wanted to know, and I learned that while I like wine and enjoyed everything I learned, I'll never be a real wine snob and don't quite care about all the subtleties like true wine lovers do. But I'm really glad I had the experience and have some good knowledge of it now. Saves me a lot of time and money when dining out or buying a bottle for home, and I almost always like what I drink rather than rolling dice all the time.

I feel a similar endeavor coming on for beer before too long... :-)

This is my second favorite brew from Unibroue, which isn't to say it's anything less than awesome. This is a great beer. Have you had anything else from Unibroue?

Duvel is very good but very very expensive when I go to the beer distributor. Like $9 for the 20oz bottle or whatever it is. Or they have a 4 pack of smaller 12oz ones cant remember what that cost but also expensive.

Just wanted to see what anyone who has tried it thought of Kilkenny beer. I can't find it anywhere in the U.S, and only had it 2 nights on my last trip to ireland but it was SO good. All beer seems to taste better in Ireland but this was just a bit lighter than guiness and just so good. Of course you can never go wrong with a pint of guiness in ireland either but if your there give this one a shot.