Not in Finland per se - On one of the cruise ships between Finland and Sweden. I think they had Happy Däze and Voodoo Queen something as well as Death from Above.

"Cruise ships"

I'm putting a Bernardus Christmas Ale aside for some aging, as that's how I prefer the abt 12 (two or more years on it). Think I'll have one tonight before dinner and take some notes.

Having that Christmas Ale now before dinner. Interesting, it's definitely got a spice or two added to it but I can't narrow it down beyond "something minty." Reminds me most of spearmint and wintergreen. Apart from that aspect, a lot of the usual suspects in Belgian quads (dates, sugar, figs) with Bernardus' signature blend of high carbonation and pleasant dryness. Tasty.

On my last Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at the moment and man this was easily worth the $20/6 pack.

I just found a bar near the new apartment that regularly has Grapefruit Sculpin on tap. Glorious.

bigfoot barleywine ale, $20 for a 4 pack! Bargain price for here, bought 4 of them. Currently having an "up and about breakfast stout" by Bootleg, it's basically an oatmeal and coffee thing. Like most of their stronger beers it doesn't really have that much body to it, but it's really tasty nonetheless. Lots of bitter coffee, dark chocolate and malt up front with a super dry finish; probably the best beer they've ever made.

I'll have to give that one a shot sometime when I can afford to spend twice as much on a six pack as usual.

caspian, $20 for a 4-pack of Bigfoot would make me groan slightly but I'd say that's hardly a criminal price in the US, so in Oz that's a bargain. Fuck, I'd kill to pay $5/pop for beer that good here.

And you know, that's AUD, so in your US dollars it's like... a buck a bottle.

How often do you guys have beer? The other day I found this place for beer enthusiasts, called beer advocate, and it seems like people there drink several beers a day. That's crazy man. And I thought I drank a lot by having 2-3 beers every 2-3 weeks.

"several beers a day" seems crazy to you? That's nothing. Wait till you start regularly reading the "what beer are you drinking now?" threads on beeradvocate.com. They make a new one every day because if they didn't it would exceed the length of our Free-for-all thread every couple of months. The first person who posts in each new edition is generally posting between 6 in the morning and 12 noon. Meaning they're apparently starting their day off with a 10% imperial stout before work.

I used to have between 0-3 beers a day, averaging around 2, generally at home while playing a game or reading a book. But for most of the last year it's been more like 1-2 every 3 days with a bunch more on Friday. What happened is instead of being boring and staying in all the time I started going out on Fridays with friends and not getting home till four or five in the morning, then often doing a boozy brunch on Sunday. Add in a midweek networking happy hour or two and it just got to be too much to do the social drinking/partying unless I cut out the leisurely drinking at home.

Lately it's been closer to a beer (or cider) or two every other day, and then Friday is just vodka and rum. Haven't been doing networking happy hours as much.

I don't read the forums there but when I work third shift I have no problems downing a few beers before bed. Usually ends up being between 8-10am.

I don't drink a whole shit ton maybe a six pack a week, if I'm just drinking at home. If I'm with friends or at a party it could be a six pack a night or more, depending on how strong the beer is and if I have a ride.

Drinking several beers a day not only must weight on one's wallet but also on one's liver as well. I mean, I know beer and wine in moderation are actually good for your health, but a 6-pack a day is pretty much binge drinking every day. And I only speak for myself, but if I want to enjoy a nice stout or ale, I won't drink it fast just to get buzzed/drunk. I drink it to appreciate it and relax/enjoy. If I buy a bunch of beer I don't drink it all in 1-2 days. Of course, if they drink a lot of beer all the time their tolerance levels are probably pretty high...

I also cannot drink in the morning. When I wake up I want to eat and drink some water and my morning cup of espresso coffee. Also, how do people manage to binge drink for like 4-5 days in a row during the holidays? Whenever I get a hangover, I can't even stomach the thought of drinking alcohol in the next days. I think my record was getting drunk 3 times in 9 days back in May 2013. It was not a very pleasant experience. Damn freshman year of college.

According to my Untappd profile, which I started in January, I average just over 6 beers a week. Honestly thought it would be more than that, although I have been switching to gin+tonics at shows which definitely lowers my beer consumption.

Wait, there's an app where you can track what you drink? Last.fm/Myanimelist/Goodreads for booze? What the hell? Every activity we do has an app to keep track of it now? What's next? Apps to share everytime you take a dump or have sex in order to compete with your friends?

It's more like Facebook for beer. You post what you drink and while it does track it the app also gives you awards and whatnot based on what and how much you drink. Plus it allows friends to post and comment on what beers you post about.

I definitely drink a shitload more now than I did in the past few years in the US. Back then I'd go out and buy a couple of six packs plus a few loose beers every month or two, plus occasional beers at restaurants/brewpubs, and a couple times a year I'd get maybe six or seven strong beers and get rip-roaring drunk at a friend's house, sharing beers and conversation.

These days, though, I usually only have a beer or two at home a couple times a month at most since there's just not enough interesting beer available in shops in Korea (plus what is available is expensive) to justify drinking more often than that. I've more than made up for it with social drinking, though - I typically go out once or twice a week, often starting at the neighborhood pub for a couple beers but I'll wind up having five or six then wander off to bars/clubs where I drink even more. About 10% of the time I'm drinking interesting stuff, but the rest of the time it's just cheap Korean lager and soju. I do need to cut down on the binge drinking though, probably.

Meh, I pass.


I cut down a lot on binge drinking. Nowadays I tend to stop drinking once I either get buzzed or in that state in-between being buzzed and flat out drunk. You know ,when you realize that half of a beer glass will be enough to make you drunk and get a hangover in the morning? I haven't gotten really drunk since October or so. Only buzzed about a handful of times since then.

And I honestly never read/heard many good reviews about East Asian beer overall. I notice that Belgian, German and small American and Canadian breweries are usually the highest rated beers out there.

And finally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... per_capita

I guess I shoudl nto be surprised after all that many people in North America and Central/northern Europe drink a lot of beer lol. But then you see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... per_capita

Too bad I dislike wine.

I don't use the social features at all. It's great for tracking what you've had in case you want to try something and can't remember what you thought of it or if you've had it before. And since it's pretty commonly used it can show what's on tap near you in case there's something specific you're looking for.

Off to a nice start.

Yeah, well, I'm about to go spend the evening drinking shitty beers in front of a convenience store, ya filthy yuppie peasant!

Make sure you put it in a brown paper bag first! Only then will it be real!

So I'd like to offer an anecdote to my picture. Yesterday I bought those to take over to a friends house for a wee bit of day drinking. He had a couple of Three Floyd's bombers waiting for us as well. After a nice few rounds of quality beer he decided to save the rest of his portion for latter but chased it all down with freaking Coors. Blech.

I mean, I honestly don't think I'd want to drink more than two consecutive Zombie Dusts myself lest my pallet get ripped to shreds, so I do kind of see why he'd want to switch to something light and neutral if he still wanted to keep the buzz going. I'm sure there's probably some kind of light craft beer that would still taste better though.

New Holland's White Hatter is a really good lighter craft beer, throwing that out increase you haven't tried it yet.

It was actually a bomber of Blackheart then an assortment of Zombie Dust and Gumball Head. Alls I'm saying is that's like washing down a fine T-bone with dehydrated box mashed potatoes. Kinda gross and not right.

Public drinking is a vital part of Korean culture and is totally legal (or perhaps it's illegal but the law is universally ignored). No brown bag required!

More La Trappe quads for me tonight, though last night I polished off two 700ml bottles of Coopers Best Extra stout. Quite tasty.

Three Floyds was easily the best beer I found in America. Tellingly, the company was founded by Englishmen.

Public drinking is legal in many countries. It's the most common sight you see here on weekends. People just use the bars to buy their beer... and then drink it while walking down the street before hopping into a different bar to buy a new drink.

Hm...just poured my first Ommegang Witte and I'm honestly not that into it. Expected this to be really tasty and it's leaving me really underwhelmed, especially in comparison to the other wheat beers I've enjoyed recently. It's pretty thin/watery, lacking in complexity. Nice aromas and it's really pretty-looking, at least. But yeah, probably the worst Ommegang I've tried. Normally this brewery puts out really consistently great stuff.

It's kinda funny, 'cos Budweiser advertises itself as an "all-American" beer when it's actually owned by Belgians.

Also, I highly recommend Surly and Summit.

just started a untappd profile. name is Chairman Drew if anyone cares to add me.

I'll add you. I only have two other friends on there (I'm not very popular). Could be fun to get an MA collective on untappd.

Couldn't Untappd also be an excellent name for an app that helps virgins locate virgins? Sort of like Grindr for the celibate? This has to have confused tons of people by now.

C'mon fishman surely you're on untappd. Also that was funny, new signature time.

Damn can't fit both. Oh well it's been forever since I changed it, guess now is good as any.

Haha! I'd actually never heard of Untappd before you guys mentioned it. I'm not really an app person and I don't do social media, so yeah... I'm really not that excited about 99.3% of what people use the internet for so I tend to not be too savvy about such things. MA is the closest I get to being "in touch with what's going on culturally." Looked at in a certain way that might sound kind of frightening but it's actually remarkably relaxing. Every time I look at my girlfriend's Facebook I feel righteous and vindicated in my hermitic ways.

Nah homie I feels you. MA and now untappd are the closest thing to social media I have. And these are on quasi at best. It's super nice not being tied to world/stupid people/all the shitty drama that comes with being so damned linked into the world and all it's nonsense. And like I said, I only have two friends on untappd and both of those people I know in real life.

Having a Leffe Bruin atm. Belgian stout. I love this beer.

That's not a stout at all.

The Mexican restaurant in town just got some Ballast Point stuff in stock and will hopefully have it regularly. So far they have the amber ale, Sculpin IPA and Dorado DIPA. The owner dude said he's gonna try to get some Victory at Sea Imperial Porter and Sea Monster Imperial Stout in, too. The stuff's pretty damn expensive (I had a Sculpin and a Dorado...for $13 each D:) but a worthwhile occasional treat for sure.

Just picked up a bomber of Firestone Double Jack and I've got some of my new home brew chilling in the fridge right now.