OT: Beer, etc.

[JackB1]

anyone ever try Pilsner Urquell?

[davet010]

Yep - it's good stuff, like most of the Czech lagers.

[GameSeven]

Just tried a damn fine beer.

Lawson Creek Vanilla Cream Stout...

yumm...

I've been partial to Murphy's Cream Stout and, just this week, enjoyed for the first time, Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

I'll have to give LC a look. Thanks for the recommendation.

-G7

[Boltman]

Just tried a damn fine beer.

Lawson Creek Vanilla Cream Stout...

yumm...

I've been partial to Murphy's Cream Stout and, just this week, enjoyed for the first time, Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

I'll have to give LC a look. Thanks for the recommendation.

-G7

C'mon boys!!


We talkin' Beers, or we talkin' shakes!?

[Kazuya]

C'mon boys!!


We talkin' Beers, or we talkin' shakes!?

LOL!

Yeah, I never heard of half of these yuppie beers you guys are pulling out (don't drink beer, some evil person got me started out on whiskey) but I'm definitely intrigued by some of the descriptions. I'm going to write a few down and head to the beer store soon. I have tolerated a Guinness under extreme circumstances (read: no whiskey available), but only when Billy Beer and JR Beer were't available....

[JackB1]

I have been trying a new 6 pack every week. Here is what I tried so far:

-Labatt Blue - liked it a lot. similiar to my old standbye...Icehouse
-Becks - didnt like at all
-Molson Ice - not bad......better than Becks, but not better than Blue
-Samuel Adams - liked a lot. Very distict taste...an "acquired" taste, I think. Could get used to it quickly.
-Yuengling - liked it. middle of the road beer. lots of carbonation.
-Stella Artois - very smooth, very easy to drink, but not a lot of distinctive taste. A bit watery, IMO.

my ranking of these so far:
1-Sam Adams
2- Labatt Blue
3-Yuengling
4-Stella Artois
5-Molson Ice
6-Becks

Next up.......
Grolsch
Pilsner Urquell

[Brando70]

Yeah, I never heard of half of these yuppie beers you guys are pulling out

If by yuppie you mean "not cold-filtered pisswater," then yes, I drink yuppie beer

You should give the Young's Double Chocolate Stout a try, Kaz. I know it sounds like a disgusting beer shake but the chocolate adds a really unusual kick to it.

[pk500]

my ranking of these so far:
1-Sam Adams
2- Labatt Blue
3-Yuengling
4-Stella Artois
5-Molson Ice
6-Becks

HERESY! None of those beers is better than a Blue, you piss-water drinking DICK!

Once you tried a Sierra Nevada Porter, the race for second on your list would begin. But I know you don't like darker, heavy beers, Jack, so the porter wouldn't suit you.



Take care,
PK

[Dave]

PK,

Doesn't this picture more accurately display your love for Labatt Blue, you can drinking mofo?



I tried Newcastle again a couple weeks ago. Damn, I like it a hell of a lot more than I did in my college days. Good stuff. In fact, I might pick up some of that when I make my Labatt run tonight.

[Kazuya]

Yeah, I never heard of half of these yuppie beers you guys are pulling out

If by yuppie you mean "not cold-filtered pisswater," then yes, I drink yuppie beer

You should give the Young's Double Chocolate Stout a try, Kaz. I know it sounds like a disgusting beer shake but the chocolate adds a really unusual kick to it.

I think I will. I might try a new six-pack every weekend like Jack is doing. Chocolate beer sounds wacky, but also like something I might go for.

[pk500]

Dave: Yep, you're right. Frau brought home a 30-pack of Blue cans last night. A 30-pack of Blue costs $13.99 on sale here -- bargain!

Kaz: What style of beer do you like? I'd be happy to offer a few suggestions for your Brew World Tour.

Take care,
PK

[JackB1]

It's fun. Every Fri when I am heading home from work, I stop off at the local ABC liquors and get something new. Kind of makes Fridays even more enjoyable!

I think I will. I might try a new six-pack every weekend like Jack is doing. Chocolate beer sounds wacky, but also like something I might go for.

[Dave]

Nothing could beat working for a minor league hockey team that had Labatt as a sponsor. Free post-game Blues, are you kidding me?

After reading this thread, I definitely need to widen my beer drinking horizons.

[Brando70]

Yeah, I never heard of half of these yuppie beers you guys are pulling out

If by yuppie you mean "not cold-filtered pisswater," then yes, I drink yuppie beer

You should give the Young's Double Chocolate Stout a try, Kaz. I know it sounds like a disgusting beer shake but the chocolate adds a really unusual kick to it.

I think I will. I might try a new six-pack every weekend like Jack is doing. Chocolate beer sounds wacky, but also like something I might go for.

It's usually in pint-size individual bottles, so you don't have to get stuck with a sixer of it if you think it resembles Pepsi's "brown and bubbly" slogan

[Jimmydeicide]

Just tried a damn fine beer.

Lawson Creek Vanilla Cream Stout...

yumm...

My dear Mozart That beer has too many notes.

LOL and Vanilla in it.

[Kazuya]

Kaz: What style of beer do you like? I'd be happy to offer a few suggestions for your Brew World Tour.

Paul, as I mentioned earlier I don't know jack about beer outside of chug-a-lugging a 40 oz as fast as I can before entering the dance clubs in my late teens/early twenties. If I had a limited amount of funds, I would buy a 40 of Bud Ice and down it in the parking lot. Pretty smooth, but tasted horrendous. I'm more of a scotch/whiskey type. I do know from my limited experience that I like smooth better than well, "not-as-smooth", and it seems like I liked the dark beers better.

I guess my main problem with beer is that it's relatively weak for the purpose of getting a buzz, and I've never really cared for the taste of any that I've tried, although I would imagine it goes better with food than a lot of other booze (I don't like wine).

[Boltman]

Kaz: What style of beer do you like? I'd be happy to offer a few suggestions for your Brew World Tour.

Paul, as I mentioned earlier I don't know jack about beer outside of chug-a-lugging a 40 oz as fast as I can before entering the dance clubs in my late teens/early twenties. If I had a limited amount of funds, I would buy a 40 of Bud Ice and down it in the parking lot. Pretty smooth, but tasted horrendous. I'm more of a scotch/whiskey type. I do know from my limited experience that I like smooth better than well, "not-as-smooth", and it seems like I liked the dark beers better.

I guess my main problem with beer is that it's relatively weak for the purpose of getting a buzz, and I've never really cared for the taste of any that I've tried, although I would imagine it goes better with food than a lot of other booze (I don't like wine).

This would be a great read for you....


http://www.allaboutbeer.com/features/225darkbeer.html
Leap Into The Dark


Leap Into The Dark
There's A Dark Beer for Everyone

by Gregg Glaser

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
--John Milton (Samson Agonistes, line 80)

Milton’s words could be the lager drinker’s mantra when contemplating anything other than the lightest colored brew. Fear. Dread. Horror. Apprehension.

A dark beer? How awful! How heavy! How bitter! How fattening! How strong! "Dark beer is so thick, you can stand a spoon upright in glass of it!" Yuck. Who would want to drink something with all those distasteful attributes? And you know what? The answer is, not many people.

Most Americans, indeed, most beer drinkers worldwide, prefer light-colored lagers. Ah, the serenity of a cold glass of clear, golden lager. And often, the less golden, the better. Water, over which a miniscule portion of malt and hops have passed, as if being ceremoniously blessed but by no means contaminated with their flavoring or darkening properties--yes, this is real beer.

For some beer drinkers, there are only two types of beer--light and dark--and never the twain shall meet in their gustatory experiences. Forget all that nonsense the beer experts, writers, critics and snobs say about beer being classified as either ales or lagers. What’s that got to do with anything? Beer is light (good) or dark (bad). Period. End of discussion. Now pour me another (light) one.

Is all this true? Well, yes, but only to an extent.

Yes, beers are correctly classified as ales and lagers. And you know what? There are both light and dark ales and lagers. And you know what else? Dark beers aren’t all heavy, bitter, fattening and strong. Some are weak, wussy and watery, with just a touch of color to make them appear exotic.

From Whence Comes this Darkish Color?

So why are some beers dark? In the meanest examples, the brewer has added a touch of food coloring or dark sugar. Most often, however, and in the best examples, dark beers obtain their color from dark malts. That is, the barley grain from the farmer’s field is malted: germinated, dried and then kilned to varying degrees of color ranging from pale gold all the way up to roasty, pitch black.

Malted barley gives beer both flavor and color.

Heavy-handedness

Are all dark beers heavy beasts of burden? No. Some may be, but others aren’t. Take Guinness, for example, probably the most famous dark beer of all. The Guinness Foreign Extra Stout brewed in Kenya is indeed a heavy beer. There’s lots of heavy mouthfeel (viscosity, if you will) to this beer, the reason being that this big beer contains a whole mess of unfermented sugars--sugars that weren’t turned into alcohol by yeast.

Draft Guinness, on the other hand, the one served in pubs from Dublin to San Francisco and beyond, is a light beer (almost watery, in some people’s minds). It’s one that can be quaffed pint after pint as a session beer and quite refreshingly so, even though it is a dark beer.

Dark beers are also no heavier on the stomach than light beers. Draft Guinness’s quaffability is proof of this. In fact, some light-colored beers, such as the wonderful golden Duvel from Belgium, are notable for their full body in the mouth and filling nature in the stomach.

Our gut feels that a beer is heavy not only when it has loads of unfermented sugars, but also when the brewer has a heavy hand on the CO2 pump. Many beers have carbon dioxide added before they leave the brewery, and the more gas bubbles there are in the liquid, the more full we’ll feel after drinking the beer. Any highly carbonated "lite" beer can fill you up more than a softly carbonated draft Guinness or dark English ale.

The Bitter Dregs of Fortune

But, of course, dark beers are much more bitter than light beers. Sometimes, but not always. Beer derives its bitterness from two different sources–hops and malts.

A generous use of hops (the green, cone-like flowers of a climbing vine) will always impart a sharp bitterness to ales and lagers, whether dark or light. American craft brewers are famous for making clear, pale, golden ales that are packed with hop bitterness. Another example, Pilsner Urquell, brewed in the Czech Republic and known as the grandfather of all light lagers, has a wonderful hop bitterness in its taste.

But bitterness in beer can also come from dark malts. The kilning process in the production of malted barley adds not just color, but also flavor to the finished beer. These bitter flavors can be described as acrid, ashy, toasty, chocolaty or coffee-like, depending upon the type and quantity of malt used by the brewer.

Guinness is often described as having a coffee-like roastiness, and that’s an interesting comment, considering that Guinness incorporates unmalted, highly roasted barley in its recipe. Sweet stouts, however, such as Mackeson Stout or Sam Adams Cream Stout, mask a great deal of any malt bitterness with sweet, creamy flavors, often derived from lactose sugars.

Fatten Me Up for the Slaughter

"I don’t care about all that," you say. "One thing’s for certain. Dark beers are more fattening than light beers."

Well, yes, if you take "lite" light beers into the equation. These beers are designed to be low calorie, and for the most part, are.

Most beers, ales or lagers, whether light or dark, contain about 140 to 150 calories for every 12 ounces. A few are bigger in the calorie department, most notably those with a great deal of those unfermented sugars we’ve already mentioned. German maibocks and helles bocks, such as those produced by Spaten, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Lowenbrau, Hofbrauhaus, Ayinger and others, are big, heavy, alcoholic--and calorie-laden--blonde and golden lagers. Guinness Extra Stout, the bottled version available in the United States, has about 152 calories per bottle. Budweiser is just 10 calories lower.

Strong as an Ox

Just to completely debunk the dark beer myths, a dark beer can be low in alcohol or high in alcohol or smack dab in the middle. The same is true of any light-colored beer.

For example, Draft Guinness, about as black as black can be, is approximately 4.2 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). Budweiser is stronger at 4.6 percent ABV. The heavy, golden Duvel mentioned earlier comes in at a whopping 8.2 percent. Many maibocks and helles bocks are 6 to 7 percent ABV. Boston Beer Co.’s Millennium Ale, the strongest beer ever made, is honey-gold in color and hits 20 percent ABV. The next strongest, Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout, is deep black and 18 percent ABV.

Is there any rhyme or reason here? Yes, there is. It’s the malt. The more malt there is to begin with, the more alcohol can be produced. Light or dark, dark or light, the story’s the same.

Be Not Fearful of the Dark Unknown

Fear not the dark beer of your nightmares. There’s a dark beer out there somewhere, without fail, for nearly every steadfast light beer drinker, whether you’re looking for heavy or light, bitter or sweet, caloric or not, strong or weak.

Be brave, dear beer drinker. As François Rabelais wrote (in Motteux’s Life), take the following as your new mantra: "I am just going to leap into the dark."

----------------------

Dark Beer Samples

For some people, a dark beer is any beer darker than slightly tinted water. That would include bitters, pale ales, IPAs, amber lagers, Octoberfests and a host of other beers that more knowledgable beer drinkers don’t consider truly dark. Here’s a simple list of some better-known dark beer styles with a few commercially available examples.

(I = import; D = domestic)

ALES

Brown Ales

I: Newcastle Brown Ale, Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, St. Peter’s Summer Ale, Wychwood Old Devil Beer, King & Barnes Brown Malt Ale, Adnams Nut Brown Ale

D: Brooklyn Brown Ale, Pete’s Wicked Ale, Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Goose Island Hex Nut Brown Ale, Pike Brown Ale, Lost Coast Downtown Brown

Porters - Brown, Black

I: Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter, King & Barnes Old Porter, Darwin Flag Porter, Shepherd Neame Original Porter, Fuller’s London Porter, Nethergate Old Growler Porter

D: Yuengling Porter, Stegmeier Porter, Anchor Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter, Lion Brewery Hill Caramel Porter

Stouts - Brown, Black

I: Guinness Stout, Murphy’s Stout, Beamish Stout, Mackeson Stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout, Young’s Oatmeal Stout

D: Sam Adams Cream Stout, Sierra Nevada Stout, BridgePort Black Strap Stout, Deschutes Obsidian Stout, Rockies Boulder Stout, Rogue Shakespeare Stout

Belgian Ales - Amber, Copper, Red, Brown

I: Affligem Double, Corsendonk Monk’s Brown Ale, De Dolle Brouwers Oudbier, Chimay Blue Cap, Rodenbach, Liefman’s Goudenband

D: Allagash Double, New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale, Snake River Diplopian Belgian Ale, Sprecher Belgian Double Style Ale, Flatlander’s Dubbel Ale, Big Hole Boogaloo Abbey Dubbul

Strong Ales - Amber, Copper, Brown, Black

I: Young’s Winter Warmer, Thomas Hardy’s Ale, Traquair House, MacAndrews Scotch Ale, Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout, Young’s Old Nick

I: Sam Adams Millennium Ale; Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Anchor Old Foghorn, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Rogue Old Crustacean, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

LAGERS

Dark Lagers - Brown, Black

I: Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, Beck’s Dark, Grolsch Dark, San Miguel Dark, Heineken Dark, St. Pauli Girl Dark

D: Michelob Dark, Sprecher Black Bavarian, Full Sail Black Pilsner, Dixie Blackened Voodoo, Capital Dark, Lakefront Eastside Dark

Bocks - Amber, Brown

I: Paulaner Salvator, Hacker-Pschorr Animator, Ayinger Celebrator, Spaten Optimator, Kulmbacher Reichelbräu, Eisbock, Park Primator

D: Sam Adams Double Bock, Paper City Goat’s Peak Bock, Full Sail Mercator Dopplebock, August Schell Dopplebock, Blue Ridge Sublimator Doppelbock, Crooked River Dopplebock

SMOKED BEERS

Lagers & Ales - Brown, Black

I: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, Kaiserdom Rauchbier,

D: Otter Creek Hickory-Switched Smoked Amber, Alaskan Smoked Porter, Rogue Smoke Ale, Lafayette Smokehouse Porter, Stone Smoked Porter, Blue Star Smoked Dark Ale

[pk500]

Kaz:

Since you're into scotch, as am I, I suggest you try Scotch Ale. It's a amber-to-darkish beer that has some of the smoky peat undertones of a really good single-malt scotch.

Sam Adams Scotch Ale is excellent, but it can be tough to find. McEwan's Scotch Ale also is damn good.

Along those lines, and since you seem to have an inkling toward darker beer, I strongly suggest the finest beer on the planet Earth: Sierra Nevada Porter. You can find that pretty easily at a lot of grocery stores or beer stores.

Good drinkin'!

Take care,
PK

[10spro]

While still in Asia I have been savouring Asahi which has a share of its products already in Europe. If it ever comes to NA you guys should give this beer a try.

[Boltman]

While still in Asia I have been savouring Asahi which has a share of its products already in Europe. If it ever comes to NA you guys should give this beer a try.

Did you see this post in this thread!?


Was page two in this thread.....



dbdynsty25 wrote:
I only drink the one and only:

Newcastle



My sister that lives in Burbank, thats her favorite beer. My brother in laws is Moosehead.

I have always been a beer drinker, so here go my top five...


BTW Squid it's Sapporo not Sapparo heh (I'm assuming you were talking the Japanese rice beer).


If we are talking regional I have one list, if local then another, I also have lager lists and stouts/draughts etc..

But again my all time top five are......


In no particular order...... just top five...


Guinness Draught (not a Stout guy) a pint in a glass is as good as life gets, nice dark brew (love the head on that beer), goes well with a Rueben sandwich or Steak & Patatoes.


Steinlager The fine New Zealand brew, this is probably my favorite, and I buy 12's of it every time I'm in Hawaii because I can get it way cheaper than here in Cali (dunno why, but it's true). Goes great with a teriyaki burger or anything made with a teriyaki twist or pineapples as well.

Dos Equis Better seen as XX, up until its latest massive american ad campaign it was not known on a corona level, a truely great mexican lager. Goes great with a nice plate of Carne Asada (dont drink this lager with pollo) stick with Asada, get some black beans on the side (frijole negros) & pico de gallo (cilantro, onions, & tomatoes).

Asahi My favorite Japanese beer, every time me and the wife go out to Sushi (BTW DB I got a great place hidden in a spot you'd never expect here in the valley near where I live) I order this, it goes well with Hawaiian Poke' or any type of Ahi sushi as well. My wife will drink this with some bacon scallop rolls (yea boys, I said bacon hehe).

Modelo Negro I really could put any of about 12 beers here, but I thought I'd go with something California regional like. It is a great dark brew, yet tastes light. I drink this with something like Pollo asado (skinless non fried chicken off of a grill) with something like Habanero sauce on the side, and some good mexican style rice. Or try some Cornish hens split on a grill with it.


Sorry to add the "Chefs review" type list, but I love talking Beer, and telling others what I find tasty with said brews.


If any of you find any of this interesting, and want to talk "Brew & Food" combos, lemme' know, in this one area I surely can contribute.



Me Talkin'

[JackB1]

Update.......tried Pilsner Urquel last 2 nights......Not bad. A little too carbonated for me and a little bitter aftertaste. Liked Stella better.
Here is my updated rankings of my taste tests:

1-Sam Adams
2- Labatt Blue
3-Yuengling
4-Stella Artois
5-Pilsner Urquell
6-Molson Ice
7-Becks

Next up.......
Grolsch

[davet010]

Grolsch isn't too bad - try to get it in the bottles with the flip tops, rather than the cans - cans ruin good beer.

You might want to give the weissbiers a miss if you don't like carbonated stuff, although they do pack in a lot of taste. Try some of these if you are going to give them a go

Franziskaner Wiessbier
Hoegaarden
Schneider Weiss
Paulaner

There are a couple of dark wheat beers, but I can't remember the names of the top of my head.

Not the sort of things you want to go drinking loads of, unless you want a very bad head.

As for Aussie beers - I lived there for 6 months, and most of them are complete sh*te. The only ones worth even considering are

Castle Crown (aka 'Crownies')
Victoria Bitter (aka 'VB')
Avoid Fosters, Castlemaine or any Hahn beers like the plague. I never got to try Tooheys, so can't comment on them.

I once asked a local how the same brewery could come up with Crown and Fosters lager. The answer ?

'Crown is what happens when a batch of Fosters works'.

[Jimmydeicide]

What !!!! Heresy, One of the best weekends i ever had was in soho drinking Castlemaine 4x. Seemed alright after we got thru the first barrel in an afternoon sesh.

[davet010]

You were in Soho and you spent your time drinking 4x ?

Had you run out of money or something ?

[Jimmydeicide]

LOL . No, it was the morning after and about 11am , we went back to the peep shows with our 50 pence pieces weighing us down.
Have they made a smaller coin for 50p yet ?