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Author Topic: The Beer Thread  (Read 644813 times)

Spotcheck Billy

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #300 on: December 29, 2009, 04:06:32 PM »
revisited the O-so Lupulin - still an average hoppy ale but the hop in the bottle thing annoys me.   Does not add to the flavor, if you drink out of the bottle you get a wet leafy thing hitting your mouth, if you try to pour it in a pint glass, the hop blocks your pour....

annoying beer....

I respectfully disagree, I have shared this brew with a few friends and we are all in awe of this beer


why are you drinking it out of the bottle anyway? I've only had 1 bottle (out of a dozen) where the hop blocked the pour and all I had to do was tip it back upright to drop the hop back down

no worries though, I've been stockpiling this as I doubt that O'so will brew it regularly so more for me if you pass it by  ;)

madtownwarrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #301 on: December 29, 2009, 05:34:56 PM »
drank it out of the bottle after my attempt to pour got blocked 6 or 7 times by the hop...

it's pretty good beer but is not in the same class as Alpha King or Two-Hearted Ale (and I want them to succeed as they are located where I grew up - want to see them do well, just they don't stack up with kings of hoppy ales)...
« Last Edit: December 29, 2009, 05:37:29 PM by madtownwarrior »

MU B2002

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #302 on: December 31, 2009, 08:13:25 AM »
Tried 2 "Bohemian Black" style beers recently, Shiner Black (Texas) and Black Art Black (Ohio/Germany).  Both were very tasty at a lower price point ($7.99) for a 6 pack.  I think this the style that 1554 from New Belgium is going for, but both of the previously mentioned beers do it cheaper and with a smoother finish.
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Hards Alumni

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #303 on: December 31, 2009, 04:51:21 PM »
Picked up:

Three Floyd's Alpha King:  Honestly, I'm not all that impressed.  It's good, but not the world changer I expected.
Lake Louie Milk Stout: Easily the best Milk Stout I have ever had... Nothing compares... maybe Left Hand's is close
Lake Louie Mr. Mephisto Imperial Stout:  Will update after a bottle
Great Lakes Brewery Christmas Ale: Will update after a bottle

Happy New Year!

akmarq

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #304 on: December 31, 2009, 05:55:24 PM »
Would def. like to try some of the stouts listed above.  We get a different selection of beers in the Northwest, but I've been digging Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte Porter lately.  Their Obsidian Stout is also very tasty.  Both feature that good, sweetish malty flavor that makes Porters and Stouts so great.

Henry Sugar

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #305 on: January 04, 2010, 11:15:01 AM »
Based on the recommendation of the Whole Foods beer guy, I tried Lagunitas Brown Shugga.  It's a holiday-ish beer.  Delicious, sweet, hoppy, high ABV.

I've seen Lagunitas beers lots but have never tried any of their stuff (really try to drink local beers first), but this one was very good.
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rocky_warrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #306 on: January 04, 2010, 12:30:22 PM »
Tried 2 "Bohemian Black" style beers recently, Shiner Black (Texas) and Black Art Black (Ohio/Germany).  Both were very tasty at a lower price point ($7.99) for a 6 pack.  I think this the style that 1554 from New Belgium is going for, but both of the previously mentioned beers do it cheaper and with a smoother finish.

In the "black" theme, In December I accidentally discovered Session Black from Full Sail in Oregon.  Excellent beer! But I only picked it up because a 12 stubbies were on sale for $9.99. 

Nonetheless, I went back and picked up two more cases while it was on sale :)  BTW, after I got my poker group to fall in love with it, I looked it up more, apparently trained beer judges agree cuz it won Gold at the GABF last year.

Find some if you can!

Chili

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #307 on: January 04, 2010, 12:55:11 PM »
Based on the recommendation of the Whole Foods beer guy, I tried Lagunitas Brown Shugga.  It's a holiday-ish beer.  Delicious, sweet, hoppy, high ABV.

I've seen Lagunitas beers lots but have never tried any of their stuff (really try to drink local beers first), but this one was very good.

I have had this twice and hated it both times. Way too sugary to increase the alcohol content in my opinion. The booze is too upfront. I have tried so many Lagunitas beers that so many people love and but I just tend to dislike everything they produce, kind of like Sierra Nevada.

But I like to throw handfuls...

reinko

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #308 on: January 04, 2010, 02:05:37 PM »
I have tried so many Lagunitas beers that so many people love and but I just tend to dislike everything they produce, kind of like Sierra Nevada.


Never had the Laguntis, but have you had the Torpedo Extra IPA by Sierra Nevada?  Very nice, especially for around $7 for a sixer.

Chili

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #309 on: January 04, 2010, 07:24:12 PM »
Never had the Laguntis, but have you had the Torpedo Extra IPA by Sierra Nevada?  Very nice, especially for around $7 for a sixer.

I have. I am just not a fan of the types of hops Sierra Nevada uses. Just not a mix I prefer.
But I like to throw handfuls...

madtownwarrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #310 on: January 16, 2010, 09:35:59 PM »
have to bump up the Beer Thread - revisited the O-so Lupulin AGAIN.     Slightly better this time - maybe this time it's because the bottle did not have the hop in it and it poured nicely.   It;s pretty good but Alpha King and Two-Hearted is better...

reinko

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #311 on: January 16, 2010, 10:59:33 PM »
Great article on a beer joint in Maine, looking forward to driving up there soon!


Nowhere like here for beer
Interest became expertise; now the world points to Lovell if you want a best of brew

By Steve Greenlee, Globe Staff  |  January 17, 2010

LOVELL - Once you get through the town of Fryeburg, you keep heading north on Route 5, through several miles of dense white pines and ramshackle houses with RVs parked out front, past The Wicked Good Store (breakfast, lunch, take-out pizza, 12-packs of Miller and Coors Light), past the local self-storage facility, past Lovell Hardware and not much else, and there it is - whoops, you passed it - down a dirt road but barely visible from the main drag: Ebenezer’s Restaurant & Pub.

Ebenezer’s is a world-renowned bar, but it looks like any other house in the area. If not for the carved wooden sign hanging from the tree out front, you would think it was just a house. Once you step inside, you can hardly believe you’re deep in the woods of western Maine.

The restaurant seats a few dozen people, and the bar is so tiny it would be crowded with 20. But this is beer heaven. Ebenezer’s has 35 Belgian ales on tap and several hundred varieties in bottles, most of them stored in an astonishing beer cellar.

Belgian glasses - tulips and goblets, each tailored to a specific beer - glisten from racks above the gleaming copper-top bar. Behind the bartender is the huge array of tap handles. Dozens and dozens of bottles sit on shelves in the glass case to the right. The iconic pink elephant that is synonymous with the Delirium Tremens strong pale ale, one of the finest beers in the world, sits on a tap at the front of the bar, there in a class by itself.

People come from all over, even from the West Coast, just to sample the selection here. Devotees have been known to plan vacations around a trip to Ebenezer’s. It is no wonder the place has been named the No. 1 bar, beer restaurant, and beer destination in the world by the likes of Beer Advocate magazine and RateBeer.com. (A sign over the entrance boasts about these superlatives.)

So what is the world’s greatest bar doing in the middle of nowhere? Chris and Jen Lively bought the place precisely because of its location. They were living in Los Angeles - a trained chef, Chris was a food and beverage consultant for a hotel chain - and they decided to get out. They came to Maine, where Jen’s parents lived, to have a go at running a restaurant. In 2001, they stumbled across Ebenezer’s, which was up for sale.

“My wife found this place, this restaurant that had this house attached to it, with 3 acres of land, and it was basically the same price as a two-bedroom house in the ghetto of Los Angeles,’’ said Chris Lively, 36. “We took this over, and we never expected it to become what it did. It had Coors, Bud - it was a redneck bar. . . . We wanted to build a restaurant. That was the dream, the restaurant. We wanted to have a few nice beers, too; we brought in Westmalle, Chimay, whatever we could get our hands on.’’

But Lively’s interest in fine beer was growing, and it didn’t take long for word to spread that a bar with A-class beers had popped up in tiny Lovell (population 974), far, far from any city. Lively got more Belgian beers, rare ones that can be difficult to find in this country.

The Boston area’s finest pubs can’t match Ebenezer’s offerings. The selection is said to exceed even those of Belgium’s best bars. On a recent Saturday night, I tried a De Ranke XX Bitter Belgian IPA, a rare Pannepot Grand Reserva quadrupel, a Gulden Draak dark ale, and a Struise Tsjeeses pale ale, which is nearly impossible to find in the United States. The beers on tap included such unusual ones as Balthazar, a strong ale brewed with coriander, ginger, and cardamom; and Cantillon Rose Grambinus, a sour ale made with raspberries. Unfortunately, on the night I went, Ebenezer’s was out of one beer for which it has become famous: Black Albert, a Belgian royal stout brewed specially for Lively by De Struise Brouwers.

Some people come here for the low-key atmosphere, some come for the amazing selection of brews, and some come for both.

“They have a better beer selection than anyplace I can think of in a 200-mile radius,’’ said Anna McGreavy, 26, of Brownfield, who was seated at one of the eight stools at the bar and drinking a dark Belgian ale. “And it’s a nice, mellow, local scene.’’ The lack of pretense is important to people here. Drinking a Trappist ale or a Coors Light, you are equally welcome.

The food impresses just as much. This is no run-of-the-mill pub grub. There are salads and burgers, sure, but the menu also features appetizers like lobster quesadilla and coconut shrimp in sweet chili sauce and such entrees as mussels cooked in Belgian beer as well as a gourmet version of seafood scampi.

Some months, getting a table in the dining room or a seat at the bar is not much of a problem. The Saturday night in December when I visited, maybe 20 people came through the doors between 6 and 11 p.m. Several stayed by the bar, but others had come for the food - a family with a 3-year-old boy, a pair of elderly couples, another couple in their 20s. Other times of the year, the wait can exceed two hours. At the height of summer and especially in snowmobile season (the pub is on a popular trail), the place is often packed. During the pub’s Belgian beer festival in August, visitors camp out in tents on the adjacent golf course - despite the $250 per person prix fixe menu. (“It’s the greatest beer dinner in the history of mankind,’’ Lively said, laughing, though seeming not to be joking.)

Lively’s timing was fortuitous. Ebenezer’s rise has coincided with an explosion in the craft beer movement in the United States, which has in turn generated a surge of interest in Belgian ales, which are widely regarded as the gold standard. Websites run by beer aficionados point readers to Ebenezer’s. And Lively is building on his success: Last year he opened a second pub, the Lion’s Pride, in Brunswick, which has just as many beers but a more upscale menu. He says he’d like to expand further.

Yet Ebenezer’s doesn’t owe its success exclusively to beer geeks. The pub may be making its name by drawing people from all over the country, but something just as interesting has happened in Lovell itself. The locals were stopping by Ebenezer’s for an American lager and ended up sampling the Belgian ales.

“I was so pigheaded,’’ said Joe Davis, who lives in town and says he comes to Ebenezer’s every weekend. He drank Budweiser for two years here before Lively could persuade him to try a Belgian brew. Now that’s all he wants. “It took a long time, but it’s better quality - all these different flavors and everything.’’

Stephen Glasgow, who lives nearby, said he drinks at Ebenezer’s every weekend. He’s here so much that he and Lively have become good friends. But he, like the others, is only a recent convert to Belgian ales. He was drinking Guinness stout and American microbrews before Lively came to town.

“I don’t like beer, I love beer,’’ Glasgow said. “Where else can you find beer like this? Find me one bar.’’

Steve Greenlee can be reached at greenlee@globe.com. 


© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
 

rocky_warrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #312 on: January 18, 2010, 05:24:54 PM »
Beer Rave is back, Jan 30!  If you're in the denver/boulder area (or will be in the area), I highly recommend this.  Went last year, and it's exceptional.  About 50 hard to find microbrews available.  And even some special kegs from Boulder brewing available (loved the whiskey barrel oaked hazed & infused last year)

http://boulderbeer.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=101&osCsid=3d6cb635cf37216cb4fcd06912330c26

Chili

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #313 on: January 18, 2010, 06:34:26 PM »
This weekend had quite a few Avery New World Porters. Man this beer is fantastic. It is nice porter that has a surprising amount of hops in it. It is not a super hoppy beer, but has a good amount that lends to a perfect balance.

Great beer.

Also, Hopslam is back.
But I like to throw handfuls...

reinko

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #314 on: February 05, 2010, 06:08:10 PM »
Had my first Gumball Head this week, visiting from the East Coast.

And it didn't disappoint.  Top notch.  Now I just have to get Three Floyds to distribute in Boston.

MUfan12

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #315 on: February 05, 2010, 07:04:47 PM »
Got my Hopslam fix last weekend. Have had a few new ones since.

Helped a friend with a sampler from Tyranena. I've had, and loved a couple of their beers (Rocky's Revenge, Chocolate Porter) and had a few others for the first time. Their Stone Tepee Pale Ale was very good, and I was really impressed with the Bitter Woman IPA. The hopheads on here should try it, it was excellent. I stopped at their brewery on the way back from Madison awhile back, small operation but they make some great beer.

Really enjoyed the Founders Centennial IPA. One of the better IPA's out there, good citrus and bitterness with a strong malty backbone. Very drinkable for the ABV.

Also had Left Hand Haystack Wheat. A decent Hefeweizen, but couldn't hold a candle to Dancing Man.

The last newbie was the Winter Solstice from Anderson Valley. Very good beer. High enough alcohol to warm you up a bit but still drinkable. Had a nice caramel sweetness to it, balanced by some roasted malt. Really enjoyed it.

Has anyone had the New Glarus Honey Bock? I'm intrigued to see how it stacks up to Capital, who make some very solid Bocks IMO.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2010, 07:16:02 PM by MUfan12 »

Josey Wales

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #316 on: February 05, 2010, 07:15:41 PM »
Got my Hopslam fix last weekend. Have had a few new ones since.

Really enjoyed the Founders Centennial IPA. One of the better IPA's out there, good citrus and bitterness with a strong malty backbone. Very drinkable for the ABV.

Also had Left Hand Haystack Wheat. A decent Hefeweizen, but couldn't hold a candle to Dancing Man.

The last newbie was the Winter Solstice from Anderson Valley. Very good beer. High enough alcohol to warm you up a bit but still drinkable. Had a nice caramel sweetness to it, balanced by some roasted malt. Really enjoyed it.

Has anyone had the New Glarus Honey Bock? I'm intrigued to see how it stacks up to Capital, who make some very solid Bocks IMO.

I was somewhat dissapointed by the honey bock. Not a traditional "bock" like I was expecting, because it was a maibock. It was very light, almost like a honey pilsner. Very drinkable, just nothing special. And I am usually a huge fan of NG.

Right now I am enjoying bells two hearted. Amazing beer. I am pretty depressed now that SN Celebration isn't available again till next November. However, I think that after discovering this beer I will make it, they are quite similar.
BEARS STILL SUCK

Hey Vikings, I like what you've done with the basement.

"Lazar Hayward. The L stands for leader, and the W stands for winner, Lazar Hayward is a winner."

reinko

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #317 on: February 05, 2010, 09:46:41 PM »
Tried out Sam Adams new spring offering; Coastal Wheat...not bad, but not awesome.  Probably pass on it again.

But right, enjoying very much an Otter Creek Imperial IPA.  Very hoppy, smooooooth too.  Reinko likey.

MUfan12

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #318 on: February 06, 2010, 12:01:12 AM »
I was somewhat dissapointed by the honey bock. Not a traditional "bock" like I was expecting, because it was a maibock. It was very light, almost like a honey pilsner. Very drinkable, just nothing special. And I am usually a huge fan of NG.

Right now I am enjoying bells two hearted. Amazing beer. I am pretty depressed now that SN Celebration isn't available again till next November. However, I think that after discovering this beer I will make it, they are quite similar.

Interesting to hear about the Honey Bock. New Glarus hasn't really gone that direction in the past, so that was my concern. They're introducing some new beer this year, including another bock. Looking forward to trying their Cherry Stout though. If it's anywhere near Bell's it'll be a treat.

Two Hearted is a great beer. If you like that one, try Founders Red's Rye IPA. One of the best beers I've had, in any style.

rocky_warrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #319 on: February 06, 2010, 01:34:34 AM »
I am pretty depressed now that SN Celebration isn't available again till next November.

Be aware, that the 2009 Celebration was very good right away.  Previous years have been good, but are usually better after about a couple (2) years of bottle aging.  If you can stand to keep from drinking a 6 pack of Celebration for a coupe years (kept semi-cool at least) it will be well worth your time.

No, I've never done it.  But in 2007 (I think) I was gifted a flight of Celebration from 2002-2007, and the 2004 was the "best" at that time. 

ohyahhey

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #320 on: February 06, 2010, 09:33:23 AM »
Generally, I'm more of a red wine guy, but when I do have beer, I favor Miller Chill (the poor man's Corona w/lime).  I'm a little depressed, though, because my local (St. Paul) liquor store told me that it's being discontinued?!?!?  Maybe you Milwaukee locals know more about that than they seem to around here.  Sometimes I have to cross the St. Croix and drive to Hudson to get some.

But in a pinch, I do like Magic Hat #9 (clean, and very little hoppy-ness), and for an all-night sipping beer, John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale does the trick.

rocky_warrior

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #321 on: February 06, 2010, 04:44:12 PM »
I favor Miller Chill (the poor man's Corona w/lime). 

Well, go out and get a case of miller lite, buy a couple limes, pop open the miller lite, squeeze a bit of lime into it.  Viola!  Beer with lime :)

Josey Wales

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #322 on: February 06, 2010, 05:34:04 PM »
It gets worse than corona w/ lime??? oh, boy
BEARS STILL SUCK

Hey Vikings, I like what you've done with the basement.

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MU B2002

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #323 on: February 06, 2010, 09:40:13 PM »
or if its cheap lime beer you like...  Bud light lime, or take a 4 pack of steel reserve, a plastic bottle of lime juice and go to town. 
"VPI"
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ohyahhey

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Re: The Beer Thread
« Reply #324 on: February 06, 2010, 09:46:48 PM »
Okay, okay, I get it!  :)  There are alternatives to Miller Chill.  Heck, before it came out, I used the Miller Lite with lime juice method (plus a little salt), for a poor man's Corona.  It's just nice to have the prep work done all done for you, right? 

So, has anyone else tried the Magic Hat #9 or the John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale I mentioned earlier?  I plan to toss back one of each during the Super Bowl tomorrow, chased by some homemade artichoke and spinach dip spread over bruchetta.  mmm..