posh beers and ales and stuff thread

Sometimes I’ve seen Anchor Steam and California Lager. I think the Cali Lager was really nice. Again M&S use to do both but have discontinued them which is a shame. I’m about to chug on the Big Wave

  On 9/15/2021 at 5:41 PM, beerwolf said:

I would like to drink more American specialty beers but in my local area they are hard to find.

yeah there are a ton of excellent microbrews in the US that unfortunately don't make it very far out of region. the selection is somewhat overwhelming actually.

this place I go to on occasion - https://www.totalwine.com/ and am always stuck starring at aisles of colorful, very creative beer labels, trying to make an executive decision.

  On 9/15/2021 at 5:57 PM, zero said:

and am always stuck starring at aisles of colorful, very creative beer labels, trying to make an executive decision.

Hah! Yeah I know that feeling. Been there done that and got the t-shirt. I think it’s only natural I would always move onto wine as I always liked it growing up. Seems less expensive than buying beer (especially buy 6 bottles and get 25% off deals) and doesn’t seem to involve as much ‘executive buying decisions’ as you humorously put it. Once you know the grape and the region and price range you take your pick. Walking into a specialist beer shop is similar to taking a stroll in a strange dimension
 

Still good fun though.

Nothing better on a hot day than a Rodenbach caractere rouge with a homemade pizza with tomatoes & peppers from our garden outside.

Nice - 9%

Juicy.  RIP DOOM.

Burial Brewing Co.   

Beer is extremely creamy, juicy, hazy.   One of the best I’ve had all year.   Yum.   

Liefmans sour ale aged for 5 years in my basement.  It's good, more subtle than most sours I'm used to, maybe because of it's age. Paired with a homemade moussaka (not pictured) made with eggplant and tomato sauce from my garden, yum.

dossier

Straight OJ.  Zero bitterness - while creamy and juicy as f.

Took a bunch of random days off from work this month and been getting lucky with the weather.  Spend half the day doing yardwork and housework and then the other half sitting outside reading or drinking brew.

Saved one of my bucket list guezes for NYE. Been wanting to try this for a while, finally found it locally.

Not really a fan of American IPA but I could do with a few glasses of ice cold fruity tropical beer. Just to quench my parched New Year’s Day throat. 

This was really, really, really good.

Probably the best beer I had in 2021.

It’s the best I can get with minimum effort, but actually is exactly what I want to drink which is the good news. The bad news? 7 x £2.50

  On 1/1/2022 at 4:12 PM, beerwolf said:

The bad news? 7 x £2.50

 

My geuze was $66 USD (750 mL), will probably be a once or twice a year thing.

  On 1/1/2022 at 6:53 PM, randomsummer said:

My geuze was $66 USD (750 mL), will probably be a once or twice a year thing.

Holy wow. I’ve had Boon geuze before. And enjoyed it.

  On 1/2/2022 at 11:43 AM, beerwolf said:

Holy wow. I’ve had Boon geuze before. And enjoyed it.

Apparently it's a blend of seven batches of varying age, which makes it scarce and therefore expensive.

Boon is great.  My go-to everyday geuze is Lindeman's oude geuze.

  On 1/2/2022 at 4:46 PM, randomsummer said:

Apparently it's a blend of seven batches of varying age, which makes it scarce and therefore expensive.

Boon is great.  My go-to everyday geuze is Lindeman's oude geuze.

I’m sure I’ve had Lindeman’s as well. It’s funny back in the day before craft ale took off and before the internet made buying foreign beers a doddle, making lists of beers and rating them was kind of laughed at, similar to like a trainspotter is a super nerd. At the beer festivals you would have a crowd of people all sat round a table, looking serious with their notebooks, like librarians. Whereas for most it was all about having an adventure and a laugh. Now of course I wish I’d kept a log book of all the beers I’ve drunk. Nowadays I’d be left well behind and it would mean nothing but back in the 90’s and early 2000s I could go to any beer festival and know probably 80% or higher of every single beer being sold. Kind of wish I had a reference to that. But that’s nostalgic emotions tricking my brain, because if I did have that logbook it would just be gathering dust.

A beaufiful 13% bourbon/mead barrel aged Imperial Stout from Mikkeller in collab with 7 other brewers/distillers. (Hence the name "the ocho".

Was almost £40 a bottle.

(Stole someone else's photo off untappd as the only pic i had was a quite blurry dark photo of my almost empty glass.)

My £2.50 bottle of Kronenbourg is tasting more and more foul after each post!  

  On 1/2/2022 at 5:42 PM, beerwolf said:

I’m sure I’ve had Lindeman’s as well. It’s funny back in the day before craft ale took off and before the internet made buying foreign beers a doddle, making lists of beers and rating them was kind of laughed at, similar to like a trainspotter is a super nerd. At the beer festivals you would have a crowd of people all sat round a table, looking serious with their notebooks, like librarians. Whereas for most it was all about having an adventure and a laugh. Now of course I wish I’d kept a log book of all the beers I’ve drunk. Nowadays I’d be left well behind and it would mean nothing but back in the 90’s and early 2000s I could go to any beer festival and know probably 80% or higher of every single beer being sold. Kind of wish I had a reference to that. But that’s nostalgic emotions tricking my brain, because if I did have that logbook it would just be gathering dust.

 

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I came into beer kind of late in life, and by no means consider myself an expert in any aspect of it (plus my palate sucks).  In grad school (early 2000s) I became really interested in Trappist beers which led me to Belgian beers overall.  That's probably where most of my knowledge lies.  I've been trying to cross all Trappist beers of my list, but the Westvleterens are obv. really hard to get in the US, although I have had a Wesvleteren 12 that a friend brought back from Belgium for me.  It's interesting how my tastes have changed over the years; I used to hate IPAs (when IPAs were 3/4 of any beer menu in the US), but now I've come around to them and have absolutely lost my taste for stouts & porters.

Few years back I really got into lambics & other sours and I think they may have surpassed Belgian strong dark ales as my favorite style.  For the past few years I've been trying to explore lambics & geuzes more.  Cantillon is supposedly one of the highest rated producers of lambics & geuzes, and one of the only places in the US where you can get one is only 45 minutes from me in Philly.  Looking forward to that!

As I'm in France now I've been drinking so much imported 8-11% Belgian beer. There's one I tried quite recently which I can't remember the name of for the life of me which had this painting of St. Michael on the label which is absolutely delicious.

Beer always tastes nicer when the bottle/ can looks good. It's like a good album which has an equally good cover.

Nice to see people posting about geuze in this thread. In Norway it seems to be all about pastry stouts, pastry sours and sweeter and sweeter IPAs. I've been looking at those special geuzes from 3F, but they are expensive as hell and only available in big bottles over here. The standard 3F Oude Geuze is my go-to. I have a few Cantillons in my beer callar, but they are hard to get by.

I've been drinking myself through a lot of christmas beers as always. Over here it's traditionally dark lagers/bayer and bock, but nowadays everything is allowed. My favorite this christmas was To Øl: Yule M%&?!&k Bourbon & Vanilla BA (that's really the name). A massive 16,3% imp stout that lasted the whole night. 

  On 1/2/2022 at 6:53 PM, milkface said:

As I'm in France now I've been drinking so much imported 8-11% Belgian beer. There's one I tried quite recently which I can't remember the name of for the life of me which had this painting of St. Michael on the label which is absolutely delicious.

Beer always tastes nicer when the bottle/ can looks good. It's like a good album which has an equally good cover.

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Look like it's a new beer from a big industrial brewery who wants to compete with Duvel.