Beer Thread
 

Two questions: What's your favorite beer right now and what was your thought when you first tried beer (and your age).

Of course most people, as far as I know, disliked beer upon their first taste, and for most people, as far as I know, tried it during their mid-teens, which means their pallet was quite pre-mature anyway. I personally don't acknowledge the average teen's opinion on most things, but their opinions are valid on some level I suppose.

I recall tasting it for the first time and thinking how awful it tasted. I used to ask my mother why she would ever drink it (she drank a beer once in a while, mostly wine coolers for the old lady) and she'd tell me it was an acquired taste. Well that was horseshit for me at the time and thought it ridiculous.

Fast forward a decade and all I've had to drink tonight was beer! Lionshead, to be more exact, and not to mention my present favorite. Why is it my favorite? Well, first of all upon opening a Lionshead twist-off you'll find a small puzzle inside the cap, which is just fun. Then the flavor. Mild, as I like it. Call me a panzy, but I'm no Guinness fan. I'm into that girly shit that's easy to down like a nice loaf of white bread. Ah, yes. I'm also quite fond of some hefeweizens, though I must say the bottled hef is not so great for me.

Anyhow, please, tell me, the answer to my questions!

There's a reason for that. It takes anywhere from 20 to 25 years for the taste buds to fully develop to the point where they can detect the subtle nuances of beer. To any teenager, it's horridly bitter. Unless that child is into bitter foods - and most aren't - beer will taste rather bad. Any 16 year-old who tells you he loves beer is full of shit. He loves getting drunk, that's it.

My first beer experience was born of complete naivete. My stepfather had horrible taste in beer. His preference was Genesee Cream Ale. I don't even know if it's available in most of the United States. If not, you aren't missing a thing. Stuff was swill. Pure swill. Even though I wasn't going to like the bitterness of any beer you gave me at age 14, I think Genny Cream Ale is probably the best way to make sure your child never becomes an alcoholic.

As for beers that I like, I haven't sampled enough of a variety to have a concrete opinion on the matter. Usually, I just try out whatever is in my friend's refrigerator and hope it's halfway decent. He's into microbrews and imports, so there has been some odd stuff. He had some pumpkin ale that I liked. And the chocolate ale was really good. Don't ask me to remember the names of them, however. But over time, it's become apparent that I'm more likely to enjoy a beer if the flavor is exotic. Plain beers bore me and I can't be bothered with them.

Whenever I buy my own beer, which isn't often, I usually get Sam Adams because I know that for a commonly available beer, it's probably not going to totally suck. I liked the blackberry witbier enough that I'd buy it again.

I might've had a taste of beer once or twice, but I really didn't start drinking it until a year or two ago.

I'm a big fan of belgian beers, and lighter beers for the summer. Although I did buy a Konig Ludwig Weissbier when I went on vacation a little while back, and it was rad; I hope they sell it around here.

Yes sir! I'm up there with you. Most of my favorite Belgian trappist beers are Chimay and La Trappe. Another fantastic Belgian beer is Leffe. I recommend Leffe to everyone.
I've even had beer-haters convert because of Leffe.

But yeah, lighter beer for the summer. I'm getting better at enjoying pale ale and IPA, but I still prefer weissbier/wheat beer. I love Franziskaner, or if it has to be really wheaty, Hoegaarden Grand Cru.

Of course I love most stouts and porters too. In fact, I started really liking beer after I discovered Guinness. My taste has evolved a great deal since then though.

A lot of microbreweries has popped up in Denmark the last ten years or so. It's very fortunate to be living here, if you're the kind of person like me who likes to try something entirely new every time you go out.

Fuck beer, y'all should drink lager. It tastes better, you can drink more of it without needing to shit, you don't smell like a tramp after drinking half a pint of it and it gives you all the energy you need to smash up a French cafe.

I used to drink Harvey's when I first started going to the pub, mainly because I was a bit too young to know what I actually wanted to drink. Then when I turned 15 I had a few nights out on the lager and saw the light.

Beer drinkers inevitably have stupid beards, large guts, wear sandals and socks and bang on incessantly about the relative merits of Old George's Hop Wrangler or Smokey Nun's Squitty Finger in dingy pubs with horse brasses all over the walls. They can all essentially fuck off in my opinion.

Sad to hear that parts of the world are still confined to that image, but yeah, that was also what I saw, at least outside of London.

Coming from the UK, you shouldn't be unfamiliar with some of the really good shit when it comes to cider either?

I gotta be frank. Beer, lager, cider. I love all of it.

My first beer experience was when I was twelve, and staying at my brother's house for a week while he was at uni. I drank five bottles of Stella. I was nonplussed.

As for preferences...

http://j.photos.cx/leffe-cf0.jpg

Leffe's fucking bitching, and at a pint for a euro fifty in the market towns I spend my summers pissing about in, you can't go wrong.

http://j.photos.cx/344837496_cdf8198499-860.jpg

Kunstmann Miel is probably my favourite beer of all time, though. Damn shame it doesn't seem to be available outside of Chile; I think it could really become popular over here. It's got a lovely honey tinge to it (and it's reasonably strong.)

Yeah, Leffe is the beer. My preference is Bruin, though I'd never say no to a Blonde.

How does the Kunstmann compare to other honeyish beer like Fuller's Honey Dew?
Fuller's might be the best one I've personally tasted yet.

Cider's a different matter. Whereas beer drinkers get wanky and anal about where the Hops was sourced and what phase of the moon the brewing started in and smell funny, cider drinkers know that drinking cider is all about getting fucked up as fast as is humanly possible. My mate's pub has a range of ciders and perries on tap and rotates guest ones from time to time. There's a fucking ton of organic and otherwise cider producers round here (Sussex being prime apple country after all) and fucking yourself over on scrumpy is an essential part of growing up after all.

Most people start off on the cheap and nasty White Lightning and Diamond White, get really ill then give up drinking cider for years. Then in later life you get back into it and cider drunk is always fun drunk. Old Rosie is a great Perry and at 11% or there abouts will fuck you over almost immediately. Even the bottled ones like Brothers are pretty decent, especially the festival strength one.

Cider is great, mainyl because even though there is the occasional cider bore, they still tend to enjoy getting smashed, unlike beer bores who are just boring. Of course if you really want to lose a day, Stella and strong Perry snakebite is the only way to go. I challenge anyone to drink three pints of Stella/Old Rosie snakebite and walk in a straight line. I've seen five pints of that put a hardcore alcoholic on the floor. :)

Leffe is decent enough. Tried Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout last month, and it was surprisingly good, for my first "chocolate" beer ever.

I like my beer mostly dark or wheat, and in that department much goes. Zubr might be my favourite nowadays, but only from tap.

With less darker beer it's usually Abbot, Stella Artois and Urquell. Those are the ones I rather enjoy. Especially Abbot - you can smell someone is drinking a pint of Abbot to the other side of the bar, that's how much aroma that shit gots. Love.

I'll definitely look out for that. I'm also partial to Kriek:

http://legalbeer.com/images/oud%20be...k%20sample.jpg

..but most of the places near me only sell Lindermans' kriek which I hear is basically alcopop.

Also a big fan of saison.

http://www.lukasliquorstl.com/beer/SaisonDupontAle.jpg

A lot of microbreweries do belgian-inspired brews, and although I haven't had a saison inspired beer like Dupont (haven't tried other belgian breweries yet) Heavy Seas does a good variation.

http://www.ccbeer.com/files/ccbeerfiles/Red-Sky-297.jpg

As for non-belgians, I've been trying to get back into IPAs. I've been burned pretty badly by a beer I drank when I first started out (only a few years ago, mind) but I think I'm over that for the most part. Don't remember what it was, just that it was on sale for $2 a bottle.

I haven't had too many non-us beers but I love draft Guinness and Stella is pretty good.
Last chocolate stout I had was Brooklyn which was ok.
I'm always a fan of Sam Adam's, especially cherry wheat.
I like to try new stuff like this wild dog blueberry beer I got a month ago or so. Not bad stuff but one is pretty much the limit for taste.
Harp's another solid one for me, but I'll pretty much drink whatever unless it's a cheap beer with ICE added on the name or IPAs, they taste too coppery to me.

This thread is making me thirsty!

I myself had my first taste of brew at the age of 11, and I drank three or four bottles of Carling (blech) and about the same amount of one of my brothers' friends' dad's homebrew, which I recall tasted like licorice. Since then, I've grown to be a fanatic of the brew, as exemplified by the fact that just reading through this tread has made me reach for one at 11:50 in the morning.

http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/p...ricotWheat.jpg

I'm lucky enough to be in a province where microbreweries are plenty, and many of them produce at least a few varieties of quality beer. My personal favorites of all the breweries here are the McAuslan brewery with their Apricot Wheat (pic) and Oatmeal Stout beers topping the list, and the Barberie Brewery which produces, amongst others, a fine Blackberry White ale. The McAuslan brews should be available in other parts of the world (almost certainly in parts of the US) and their two main branches are the St-Ambroise and Griffon labels. I have yet to taste a brew as sweetly bitter as their Oatmeal Stout.

What's unfortunate about living in Quebec is the relative difficulty of locating a given import brew. Malmer's mention of Chimay has reminded me of how long it has been since one has crossed my path. At least we have a good chance of finding a bottle of Maredsous or two relatively easily. Another good brew, which I could lay hands on back home with relative ease, is Holsten. Their Festbock was my staple brew for a number of years, along with the occasional Premium Beer.

I would say to anyone who has a chance to lay hands on any of these brews to give them a good tasting, as you will surely be quite pleased.

On a final note, I daresay I agree with Shin's sentiment that if you're going to be tearing a place up, nothing equals a good pint of lager, or a sweet pilsener to get the job done. Most of the beers I've mentionned are great for a tasting, and even to get you a bit of a light head, but ingesting heavy quantities of them will surely result in a painful wake.

Moderation is your friend, good people. :cmb:

Yes, I love how microbreweries are getting more popular, of course Portland was the best place I've been for these. Always something new to try, though it can DEFINITELY be hit or miss when you have so many around. I've had a brew that tasted like a damn boot... and I think it was called Boot Brew or something like that.

I myself love to try new things all the time, I'll rarely pass on it even if it's something I've disliked in the past such as an IPA or particularly dark brews.

Anyway, Shin, it's funny you mention the obsession with hops. Miller Lite is running inscensent ads about how they add their hops THREE TIMES as if that's supposed to be impressive to the average consumer. I'm pretty sure Miller drinkers aren't really looking at the craft of brewing but their wallets.

I need Boot Brew in my life. Link to online store plox

If I'm going to drink an actual beer, it needs to be ultra-dark shit from Germany (local brews ++ mode) or taste like bread/yeast.


Sam Adams has a Blackberry Witbeer that tastes like Blackberries and yeast. It's FANTASTIC.

Otherwise, I prefer a nice Woodchuck Amber. It's not a beer, but it's tasty.

Bass is my standard issue.

For special occasions its Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout.

For getting absolutely wrecked beyond the ability to walk its Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (18% ABV)

First beer I ever had was New Castle. Its been downhill ever since.

My palate for beer changes every now and then. Lately I've been a sucker for Yuengling. Beer's so expensive in New York that I prefer to buy cheap since I'm pretty far from a beer-lover. Regardless, my mainstays are always Woodchuck Amber, Sam Adams (any variety), Killians, Blue Moon, and Harp.

This year Sam Adams is putting out some more bottles of their Utopias. Have you guys heard of this? Supposedly the strongest commercial beer in the world at 27% ABV. My friend is thinking of getting a few.

fuckin' thank you

I had that once with dinner because it was on special, but I couldn't remember the exact name. Other than it was dogfishhead and it was a stout (they have like 50). But I'm pretty sure that was the one.

I can't imagine ever getting drunk on stout, there's just too many calories in there to counteract the alcohol, plus after a couple of pints you feel like you've eaten a large meal and my stomach just can't take any more. I've seen people get pissed on stout so I know it's possible, it's just not something I think I'd ever manage personally.

It's no problem getting drunk on regular Guinness, it's practically water taste wise. That, or it'd have to be 10%+ for a quick hammering. Haven't done that though, it's usually 2-3 stouts or porters max, before I crave something else.

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout <- that one sounds pretty damn interesting.
Also the Samuel Adams Utopias sounds like something I shouldn't, but really want to, drink. Pricey though.

You should give some of the Sam Adams Imperial Series a try. Those are also quite strong (10.3% ABV) but very tasty and far easier to find.

I'll be on the lookout for some of those. I've had Samuel Adams before, just don't don't remember what - I think it was an ale.

Speaking of strong beer, the Belgian Rochefort 10 (11.3% ABV), is a little piece of heaven. Smooth and tasty, you kinda forget it's so strong.
The taste is fulfilling but heavy, you'll have your taste buds exhausted after one or two. It's one unique Trappist beer.

My Grandfather worked for the Genesee brewery....Now they call Genesee Cream Ale the "Green Grenades"

In the same light, I grew up on Genesee light. My sister is nine years older then me so she would always have me drink whatever she had left over. I probably started drinking when I was about 14. I'll be honest I liked beer. Maybe I like bitter tastes, or maybe I'm just very prone to alcoholism. Both may be true. I do tend to show certain signs of being an alcoholic...

Or I just know how to have a good time...grumble...

I drink alot of cheap beer because really, it's all I can afford at the moment. Out of the cheap stuff I enjoy my Genny Light still once an a while, and I can handle a Busch from time to time

Molson is probably my favorite Canadian beer. This is a beer I just like to enjoy, and not binge drink.

I wish I knew more about microbrews however. I like a nice Hennepin from the ommegang brewery or a Flying Bison from here in buffalo.

I guess the thing I enjoy the most about beer is that the more you travel the more you find. I guess it's the same with wine, but wine is for you fancy drinkers. A nice cold beer is just an awesome stand alone drink.