Can only get it here about half the time, but it's delicious.

When I can't get that,



An awesome porter, and even gas stations around here carry it sometimes. Central new york is pretty great for craft beer.

To be fair, I don't know all that much about beer, though last week I had the opportunity to go try a few. Unfortunately memory doesn't serve me right seeing I only remember one name, that being the 'Pirate'. Usually I'll drink me a Stella, Jupiler, Hoegaarden or a Duvel though.

As long as you're living in Belgium you should freely indulge in Chimay . What is it over there, 3 euros? Easily twice as much in the States. Goddamn excellent stuff. Stella, on the other hand.. Duvel's a good standard, though. Ever try La Chouffe?

Any beer is good really besides Dutch Gold. I love going over to Germany and having their beer. So much better, not full of chemical and hardly any hangovers no matter how much of it I drink. Even though I'm from Ireland, never was a fan of Guinness or any type of stout.

Not yet, though I'll keep it on the list.

Now that you're mentioning Chimay, I don't recall ever having tasted one either. Have had others though, like Westmalle, Westvleteren, Rochefort and Orval.
But yeah, we don't have to pay that much for a good beer.

well, so far I have traveled to the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, England, Australia. I guess I havent tried all the beer from those countries, but... I can say that my favorite beer is Mexican, Bohemia Obscura (dark bohemia beer). http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bohemia-O ... 2478758732 In Mexico, dark beers are a good choice, there's also "Negra Modelo". After that you can always go to a bright beer like Modelo or Corona, that cant be bad.

However, I can give you a few tips, in Canada it would be better if you try "Kokanee Gold", and not "Canada Dry".

I tried "Heineken" in Holland and it was as tough as water, same goes to the common Mexican "Sol" beer, however Holland has this beer called "Marilyn", that was good. In Germany and England there's many different brands for beer and some of them are very good but and other ones are plain aweful, I remember liking German "Kölsch" beer from Köln and the British "Guinness".

oh and Budweiser sucks

Tried a bottle of Yuengling's new bock. It's Yuengling with caramel color added, I think. Not terrible and maybe a little tiny bit better than the regular lager, but if I'm ever in some sort of bind where I'm forced to drink some sort of Yuengling product I'll pick the porter or black & tan if I've got the option.

I bought a six pack of each of these and tried them back to back as I hadn't had any pale or India pale ales. The Mirror Pond was smooth going down and the Torpedo had a full rich flavor but the Hop Ottin', oh man, now that one took some time getting used to. It reminded me of Hop Devil with its extreme hoppy taste but as opposed to that one this one eventually settled on my buds.

Those look mighty tasty! The darkest stuff around here is Rasputin and Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout.

With the The Great Baltic Adventure (re-doing the journey of the imperial stout from England to Russia) landing in Helsinki last weekend, some real ale-equipped pubs in Helsinki and Espoo had an event with imperial stout cask ales being served. Tasted the whole bunch though granted that my taste buds weren't probably at their best with the last ones. The best ones were probably Black Sheep's Imperial Russian Stout with its loads of dark cherries in the aroma and flavor, St. Austell's Imperial Stout with the dark fruits spiced with liquorice, cocoa and warming alcohol notes and the 2007 vintage Left Hand Imperial Stout (not real ale of course) with its loads of cocoa in the smooth flavor and palate. In the 30 degrees celsius heat, probably not the best kind of beer for that, but still pleasant.

Russian ale sounds pretty much as American vodka, for instance

Russian and Baltic stouts are actually pretty damn good stuff. Don't expect them to make sophisticated Trappist beers or refined spiced ales that are drunk with stiff little fingers, but when it comes to strong stouts, they are quite good in it.

EDIT: oh, you're Russian... Odd...

It's not actually Russian. They were and are made in Britain (and well, by microbreweries everywhere nowadays and especially popular in the US), but imported to Russia because Catherine the Great was reportedly very much taken in by the drink. Hence the name Imperial Russian Stout or Russian Imperial Stout or whatever.

Traditionally beer in Russia (we call it ''pivo'' from the verb - pit'- ''to drink'') is thick and stout. In 9th century already it was very popular in Novgorod, one of our most ancient cities in the centre of Russia. It was very stout. Here every fairytale ends up with words ''and I was there drank honey and beer..'' We also have'' kvas'', something like beer but almost fully non-alcoholic beverage made by adding to ingredients processed wort, the thing that is made by fermentation of sugar or starch but not to the terminal point. To keep metal connection, at one of our local social networks there is a page dedicated to Darkthrone and they ritually drink beer in honour of the band every saturday.

Tried a couple of new brews tonight: Evolution Craft Brewing's ESB, which was...ok. Sam Adams Wee Heavy was actually really good. The alcohol was hidden a hell of a lot better than I was expecting at 10%. Very malty and very sweet. Thick and creamy even for a wee heavy, too. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's my favorite beer in the style, but it was definitely tasty and I'll definitely be buying it again in the future. Finally, I had some of Dogfish Head's Squall, which is a bottle conditioned version of their 90 minute IPA. I think 90 minute is already one of the most well-rounded IPA's out there, so this just better still. Very cool artwork on the bottle, too. If only this came in six packs!

I've also got some Heavy Seas barleywine and a Baltika porter still in the fridge, but I probably won't drink those for a good while.

Cooper's Sparkling: I'm drinking it now. Still my go-to beer, and still the greatest export of my otherwise shitty state. Along with the rest of the Cooper's stable, of course.

I live near the Black Sheep brewery but I've never had this one. I'll have to look out for it, Black Sheep beers tend to be excellent. This week I've their Riggwelter which is a strong-ish ale of 5.9%, as one would expect it's got a nice, full flavour.

"Riggwelter" is apparently some ancient local dialect that means when a sheep's stuck on its back and can't get up.

Hi, I'm new in the forum... I'm chilean and here in Chile also we have good beers. One of the that I always drink is called "Escudo" . In fact now, I'm drinking one bottle haha

Had a Crown Lager on Friday for the first time in a long time...I missed you, old friend.

"Es mas cerveza"? I'd challenge that claim.

Presently drinking Gösser, hair-of-the-dog-style. As the biggest Styrian beer it's naturally ubiquitous around here (and in Austria in general). It's an okay beer, I guess, a bit undistinctive in its taste, but certainly drinkable. Nothing beats Murauer, though.

Black Sheep brews are definitely excellent. I'm not sure if you'll be able to find their Imperial Russian Stout. As far as I know only three barrels were brewed and they all shipped out withe sailboat on the Great Baltic Adventure. Then again, wouldn't surprise me if they have another batch aging in the cellars already.

I've seen, and got many beer documentaries but today i watched this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832368/ which i really recommend - if not only to reassure you that beer is indeed one of the greatest pinnacles of human civilisation. Some interesting points including Pasteurisation being invented in order to solve the problems of brewing, beer being responsible for building the pyramids, and possessing a super-antibiotic that kept ancient Egyptians healthy. Worth a watch.

"We have brewed 50 barrels in total to allow us to produce 20 exclusive firkins for the trade, which have already been snapped up (click here for a list of stockists) - and a 30 barrel run of limited edition 330ml bottles that will be available in time for Easter from our Sheepy Shop, online shop and selected retailers."

Looks like I'm out of luck on that one I think their beers are generally not taken care of in shipment, because once I get them in the US, they have been sitting for a long time, and likely exposed to temperature changes. Holy Grail Ale was skunked a bit by the time I had it.

I really want to brew a RIS with cherries now, that sounds like an amazing idea. Cocoa might be a good addition, but it might be hard to get it to blend with the cherry flavors in the context of the beer. I'll need to brew this in August or so and expect that it is drinkable by January.

Okay so, as aforementioned, I don't have that much knowledge about beer. However, I graduated and would like to give a bottle to my major's teacher. Right here I have three choices:

- Ename
- Sloeber
- Adriaen Brouwer

I'm thinking of choosing either the Ename or the Adraien Brouwer. Anyone know what's best? They're all classics though.

// Nevermind the question, I just gave the guy both.

Here is three beers I picked up recently, and I can't wait to get into them. They seem to me like they will make some excellent cold weather beer. Yum!


I have heard and read plenty of good things about Chimay beer, but never tried one, so looking forward to this tastebud experience. I have tried Samuel Smith beer before, but not these two (Taddy Porter and the Oatmeal Stout). The other beer of theirs I had was an Old Brewery Pale Ale, and was truly delicious (and tasted better once it warmed up slightly), so I'm expecting good things.

As far as American IPA's go, Souther Tier has an excellent one. Very strong and piney.

If you like Belgians, try La Fin du Monde from Quebec. It's a Belgian-style beer, but it's not just a clone of a popular Belgian brew. It's one of my favourites. In fact, basically anything that Unibroue makes (Blanche de Chambly, Trois Pistoles, Maudite, etc.) is good.


I find that too. Sometimes it seems like they're just trying too hard.

EDIT: Samuel Smith is nice stuff, but the only thing I can get here is the nut brown ale. Let me know how it is!

Unibroue does make some pretty damn fine stuff. I do enjoy the La Fin du Monde as well as the Maudite, but the best of the three that I've had is the Trois Pistoles... though unfortunately it seems to be one of the hardest to find. For some reason I usually only see the former two in stock almost everywhere I find Unibroue. This was in Calfornia, to be precise... out here in New York I haven't even bothered looking, as I'm much poorer now than I used to be

busch

While the Taddy Porter and the Oatmeal Stout are excellent for cold weather and excellent brews in general (well, Sam Smith is always more or less quality), the Chimay Tripel is not so much for colder weathers rather than a drier and hoppier beer. Drier than most of its kind though tripels tend to be drier than most other Abbey-style beers.

Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is the defining beer of that style for modern beers, I don't normally drink it during the summer though. Chimay makes good stuff, it's just too expensive around here (CT/USA) compared to other beers, and the price in other states.

e: removed pic from quote

Oh, I forgot to mention that I finally, after years and years of waiting, had a bottle of Guinness Foreign Export Stout. Truly tasty stuff. It's very different from plain ol' Extra Stout or Draught (or any other Irish dry stout) and has more in common with American imperial stouts, but it still has just enough of that particular Irish mouthfeel and flavor to it to make it something truly unique. I'm pretty sure the bottle I picked up was a gray market type of thing as they only had a couple of singles behind the counter, and it was also on the expensive side. I really wish I could get my hands on this stuff on a regular basis, though. Very tasty and highly recommended.

The Taddy Porter was utterly delicious, truly wonderful, rich malt flavours. And yeah, Samuel Smith do make excellent beer...

Must get more!

My standard drinks are the Latitude 48 IPA and Noble Pil from Sam Adams, although I tried Beck's and thought it was pretty good. Other than that I haven't tried too many other beers and don't know that much about beer to begin with.

Anyone here drink Erdinger? I had the Erdinger Dunkel and Weissbier when I was in Austria this past week and it was amazing. Then again, the only other beers I've had are piss-flavored light beers at parties

Erdiner's weiss is alright, but I prefer Weihenstephaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Ayinger and Schneider to it.

I am a n00b when it comes to alcoholic beverages. I will be 21 soon, so what would be some good American beers for me to start off with?

Sierra Nevada is a really solid brewery with lots of nice choices. Full Sail also has some really tasty, straightforward stuff (I very much enjoy their Amber, and recently tried their Session Black, which was pretty great). Mendocino is also pretty good, with their Red Tail, Eye of the Hawk, and others. Definitely enough to get you started there!

Check this out:

http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/TopAmerican.asp

I wouldn't doubt a lot of the beers on this list are from small microbreweries or are from limited runs, so they might be pretty hard to come by, depending on where you are in the country, but at least you can do some research. The ones I listed above are more widely distributed and would be a lot more likely to be found stocked in stores.

What state are you in? A lot of the great beers are only available in some regions, smaller breweries often only distribute to a few states.

The nationally available ones to start out with would be Sierra Nevade Pale Ale (the standard of a hoppy pale ale), Magic Hat #9 (a nicer fruity beer), Sam Adams Boston Lager (try a variety pack, they mix it up a lot). Stone Brewing Co. also makes a ton of good stuff, mostly some of the styles that might be a bit harder to get into, but they are loved by beer fans. I wouldn't recommend Ruination or a Russian Imperial Stout to start out, wait until you have tried some stronger beers until you have those or you might not enjoy it.

Oh right! I just had this for the first time the other night and it was quite good. Thanks for reminding.

Wouldn't recommend starting out with those. RateBeer (and BeerAdvocate) tend to rate stronger beers and especially Imperial Stouts and Double IPAs much higher than other beers. You definitely don't wanna start out your beer drinking from those since they're not very... I hate to use the term, but easy. As Zodijackyl said, start out with something like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Samuel Adams's Boston Lager or Brooklyn Lager. Or some of the other fairly low ABV% products.