posh beers and ales and stuff thread

  On 12/24/2019 at 3:31 PM, beer badger said:

I would love to quaff many flagons of these peculiar named ales, with a fine fellow like your own good s(elf) . Java Head Stout sounds particularly fantastic!! 

I haven't tried the Java Head stout, but I did get a stout that I knew was good in CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout, brewed with coffee and chocolate and aged in bourbon barrels that had just aged Michigan maple syrup).  Take a gander.

  On 12/24/2019 at 3:41 PM, darreichungsform said:

Black beer is very common here and I will enjoy a Köstritzer from the local brewery later.

Thuringian detected.

I had some when I had to go for a training session in Jena with the company I worked for. Interesting stuff - the light taste completely did not match the pitch dark color.

It’s since spread to the point where you can buy it all over Germany. Kinda killed the magic for me.

  On 12/25/2019 at 8:37 PM, rhmilo said:

Thuringian detected.

I had some when I had to go for a training session in Jena with the company I worked for. Interesting stuff - the light taste completely did not match the pitch dark color.

It’s since spread to the point where you can buy it all over Germany. Kinda killed the magic for me.

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You know Jena? It always surprises me that a not so large city like Jena attracts so many international people. A haven of reason and sanity in the right-wing swamp Thuringia has become

Maybe it’s the university?
 

I live in a city in the east of the Netherlands which is also quite right wing swampy - but the city itself is lively, reasonably cosmopolitan and left wing (well, green part left wing, anyway). Mostly on account of the university it has.

  On 12/26/2019 at 9:06 AM, rhmilo said:

Maybe it’s the university?
 

I live in a city in the east of the Netherlands which is also quite right wing swampy - but the city itself is lively, reasonably cosmopolitan and left wing (well, green part left wing, anyway). Mostly on account of the university it has.

Yes, for sure it is. Also Jenoptik and the Zeiss factory attract people. I guess it's just very common that rural areas are more right than cities. Merry Christmas

Trying to drink up my sours before the weather gets too cold...

Man this one started off with such a funky smell that it scared me a bit.  It calmed down quickly, though, and turned out to be a great geuze.

anyone mentioned harveys brewery out of lewes?

best ales around, keep an eye out for Old Ale, that swigs a bloody dream

I love lambics in the first place, but this has to be my favorite.  Usual sourness and bit of funk perfectly balanced by a little bit of brown sugar sweetness.  It's amazing how consistently good it is with wild yeast.

  On 12/26/2019 at 6:34 PM, drome said:

 

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That was the last gear I ever got drunk on. Lovely jubbly, even if wheat beers can rub certain folks up the wrong way. Can’t recall a bunk one, but don’t miss any alcoholic beverage with hindsight either.

Booze culture is so fucked up here, both sides of the Irish Sea, but somehow we tolerate our cities being turned to wastelands every weekend. The endless fighting, cunts getting glassed, bouncers cheap-shotting ejectees, women pissing openly outside the chippy on Caroline St (classy), so the filth just batter anyone. A good pub is increasingly rare & footy away day pubs are guaranteed carnage. Maybe it’s genetic. The Italians drink as many units, but without the histrionics. Nevertheless, John Keane seemed to be a pretty chilled bloke:

New glassware.  CAROL CAROL.

Any you bomboclaats into NEIPA?

I've never really liked IPAs in general, probably because my palate is very sensitive to bitter flavors.  However, I've found that my tastes have evolved over the past year or two and I am beginning to enjoy and explore IPAs more thoroughly.

At the same time, I am really starting to dislike stouts and porters. 

Tastes in beer shift all over the place. I used to be obsessed with IPAs. Lately, I've been going for crispy lagers like Pilsner Urquell or a lot of non-hoppy stuff by Jack's Abby, a brewery in MA. I'm also really into sour beers, and those have gotten a lot more popular lately, which is nice.

  On 4/24/2020 at 12:06 AM, randomsummer said:

I've never really liked IPAs in general, probably because my palate is very sensitive to bitter flavors.  However, I've found that my tastes have evolved over the past year or two and I am beginning to enjoy and explore IPAs more thoroughly.

At the same time, I am really starting to dislike stouts and porters. 

Same here. Got dragged to this weird drum n bass night at a pub once which only served these weird IPAs that all tasted like shit.

yeah me too, gone right off all that well hoppy craft IPA shit. just too fucking hoppy innit. i was into it for a while, but am just liking crisp lagers these days - pilsner urquell is a good one yeah, also peroni and birra moretti.

  On 4/24/2020 at 11:17 AM, Candiru said:

 I'm also really into sour beers, and those have gotten a lot more popular lately, which is nice.

I love sour beers.  I've tried so many on the sour/funk spectrum and have rarely been disappointed.  The only ones I really can't handle are the Hanssens Artisanaal.  I love their Oude Geuze, which is one of my favorite styles of sour, but their other offerings are just too funky and flat for me.

One of my other favorites has to be Lindeman's Faro Lambic.  It's is one hell of a beer, maybe one of my favorite sour/sweet lambics. VERY highly recommended.

Same here! At the moment just into quality lager, pilsners and pale ales. Nothing under the radar.

Tribute served real cold in a lager glass is great, Camden Hells/Pale, Pilsner Urquell, Wainwright Golden Ale. I would also recommend served cold from the freezer into a lager glass Sharps Atlantic Pale, man this beer is awesome, I was a bit sceptical about it when I bought it but its a great beer, I've even turned a few mates onto it and they love it. It tastes better the colder it gets imo, don't serve cool but cold. Always have time for a wheat beer. Never understood the worship of those IPA's, maybe had a few good ones' like Oakham Citra IPA but most of them are foul in my humble opinion. I think it's the mosaic hop which I struggle with, it's a cool name for a hop though.

One of my friends from work, his dad is starting a brewery in his retirement.  He started off brewing lagers, which he tells me are more difficult to brew because they take longer than most beers to brew and it's also hard to mask any unintended off flavors.

I asked him why there are so many craft IPAs out there right now.  He said that it's because they're quicker to brew and also the hoppy, bitter flavors often mask any off flavors that may have shown up during the brewing process. 

I have home brewed a few IPAs and I can tell you that is true. It’s a lot easier to replicate hyped DIPA#653367886 than you may think. I made a couple good wheat beers too, though. 

  On 4/25/2020 at 2:16 AM, randomsummer said:

One of my friends from work, his dad is starting a brewery in his retirement.  He started off brewing lagers, which he tells me are more difficult to brew because they take longer than most beers to brew and it's also hard to mask any unintended off flavors.

I asked him why there are so many craft IPAs out there right now.  He said that it's because they're quicker to brew and also the hoppy, bitter flavors often mask any off flavors that may have shown up during the brewing process. 

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Yup. Was a member of a brewing society for a while and all of the members looked down on IPA’s for exactly this reason.

Another reason I myself don’t like them (other than that too much bitter makes something taste disgusting) is that they’re essentially just sugared soda with alcohol. The hops mask the fact that they are often ridiculously sweet.

(which in itself is another sign it’s not brewed properly) 

Well, double (or imperial) IPAs, are a little too popular for their own good and an example of what can be so wrong about hoppy beer. I’ve had good ones, but I guess I’m a bit over it. 

There are tons of truly excellent, well balanced IPAs in the 6 to 7% abv range. 

Indian Pale Ale tastes like power, tastes like the tears of the colonised. It obviously tastes very soapy but that's not the point.

  On 4/25/2020 at 12:03 PM, darreichungsform said:

Indian Pale Ale tastes like power, tastes like the tears of the colonised. It obviously tastes very soapy but that's not the point.

Don’t talk about things you know nothing about, you inhabitant of a nation that at the height of its power had colonized no more than a handful of rocks in the Pacific, some barely habitable slivers of the coast of Africa and the swampiest and most unpleasant bits of the island of New Guinea.

IPA is bitter to make the quinine colonial administrators had to drink to ward off malaria seem sweet in comparison.