Yeah, I can't really thoroughly recommend any of those ancient ales, except maybe Midas Touch, but you'll want just a single bottle of that or so since it is a bit on the cloying side.

DFH makes a number of tasty brews. The 90 minute IPA is probably their flagship but you'll be well-served starting with the 60 minute or Indian Brown Ale.

You should definitely try their Hop Stoopid. Probably my favorite beer of theirs, nice and deliciously hoppy.

Ahhhhh, finally an interesting post for me, huzzah!

For whatever reason I was under the impression that the craft brewpub I had heard about in the city was somewhere off in the middle of nowhere, but then I stumbled across it just off the main drag in the restaurant/bar/club district up near the universities. I had a sip of the hefeweizen, which was pretty straightforward but well done, a really decent pale ale and their "Strong IPA". At 5.7% I think "strong" might be a...strong word for it, but hey, that's a good deal higher than most Korean beer I've come across. Anyway, it was actually pretty thoroughly (and deliciously) hopped, quite sticky and had plenty of malt body, so it smelled ace and was actually pretty fucking spot-on in the taste and mouthfeel. I would actually go so far as to say it was a pretty damn good IPA and one that I'll happily buy again.



I will be returning, and giving their stout a try next time I'm there. In other exciting beer news, the new bar that opened just down the street from my apartment has a pretty decent cream ale as their house beer. Nowhere near mind-blowing but it's actually the cheapest draft beer I've found so far in Korea (just $2.50/pint) and the place has a pretty nice atmosphere, so I will be going there on all of my more relaxed nights out.

My favorite beers include anything from the Black Sheep brewery, Marston's ales (Old Empire, Pedigree), Bishop's Finger, Old Speckled Hen, any of the Wychwood Brewery ales, Snecklifter, Bass (good old Bass bankers!! <3), Abbot, any of the Badger brewery ales, Fursty Ferret, most of the York brewery ales... will probably think of more later

I am currently drinking an interesting beer, brewed by Dunham : a coconut/chipotle porter.

Pours a pitch black body topped by a huge foamy mocha head. Nose is of chocolate, coffee and a subtle touch of vanilla. Aromas of coconut emerge as the beer warms. The coconut gives this one a slightly creamy texture. Immediately, you are greeted by a sharp, quick attack of chipotle, but nothing overwhelming. Roasted coffee and malts follow along with notes of cacao and vanilla. Ends on a nice roasty and better finish. Everything's balanced, nothing's outrageously dominating. A damned fine offering from the best brewery in Quebec.

Also, they had a bottle release event last Saturday. I brought back some amazing brews from them, notably a bourbon barrel aged version of this porter. Can't wait to try it, along with their black ipa aged in Pinot noir.

Really wasn't a fan of this. Something seemed off in the flavour...

All the Zombie Dust and Gumballhead has been consumed. Feel like I should play taps or something.

Next up is tracking down a 4-pack of Founders Breakfast Stout.

No next up is getting wildly drunk on dreadnaught tomorrow night. Money and ride permitting.

That stuff won't be hard to find. Binny's has tons of it. Be on the lookout for Founder's Harvest Ale. That's the one that's gonna disappear fast.

Correction: be on the lookout for Founders Backwoods Bastard, that's the one that will disappear quickly.

Also: every single person reading this go buy two or three bottles of Stone Xocoveza Stout the next time you go to the store. Right now, it's a one-off collaboration they won't brew a second time. I want this thing to sell out so fast they decide to make it again. So, so good.

True, but Backwoods Bastard hasn't hit the shelves yet.

Well into my first bomber of Lagunitas Sucks at the moment. Really nice stuff, very sharply, aromatically hoppy but not at all overbearing or overbitter on the palate. An ideal IPA, dangerously drinkable stuff.

I am really hoping to see it in six-packs again. I bought it numerous times every release, which isn't the same for most DIPAs. The problem is that one of the hops in the beer is a brand-new and still obscure variety that hasn't been fully introduced to market yet, so production (#acres planted) is low. I'm about 99% certain it's the primary aroma/late-addition hop in the recipe, so they can't really substitute it if they want to ramp up production of SUCKS! right now.

Enjoying a Stone Xocoveza right now. So good.

Hey, Crushed! I'm having my first Ballast Point Big Eye, courtesy of Herr Starmere. It's goooooood.

Went back to Tap Five last night and gave their "Black Roasting" stout a whirl. Pretty bland stuff, really, which was a huge letdown considering how surprisingly tasty their IPA was. Really light and lager-y stuff, far too little malt and just a hint of roasty flavors. Also far, far too heavily carbonated.

I finally got around to trying out Dogfish Head after King Diamond the other night. I had the 90 Minute IPA and it was a mighty fine beer, going to be looking for some other their other stuff to try as my next thing to do.

Glad you like it. It's a great IPA, and one I (obviously) always keep in the fridge. Sharp and tasty...

Typing this while hungover as well...
Went here last night, before moving on to the pub proper to see a friends band play;



It's called the Hop Factory, where they have four international beers on tap at the front of the bar, but then out in the back bar they have 16 taps of Australian craft breweries. These change fairly often too (especially the international beers), and they have a few staple craft beers that I already know, and drink regularly, but they also had some interesting brews I haven't. One of those was from the Little Brewing Company, and it was called Breaking The Cardinal rule, and is a Belgian styled tripel IPA.



This was pretty good gear, and it clocked in 9.7% and $10 a glass, but certainly worth it I felt. Delicious stuff, though as with most beers that try and imitate the Belgian style, they just somehow don't quite nail it. Having said that though, it was very tasty.



The other tasty drop I had was this Punk Monk from Murray's brewery. The head brewer says "The basic idea for this beer is that it is an invented style - a hybrid of a few Belgian styles and influenced by Saisons, Belgian Blond Ales, with a nod to Belgian Trippels." Interesting brew indeed, and at 7.5% the alcohol is well hidden and is rather smooth, and goes down easy. Well drinkable beer.

This place is pretty awesome and only a 15 minute cab ride from home, so I'll definitely be going back to sample more beers - and the food they have is simple but pretty damn good too.

Currently drinking a growler of Founder's Oatmeal Stout. One of my favorite breweries lately, for sure. The liquor store down the road from my house put in a tap system about a month ago, and it is titty sprinkles.

Currently enjoying Dunham's black IPA aged in Pinot Noir. This is beyond amazing. Great Pinot presence right in the begining, giving nice sweetness and a winery texture, before letting the hops and malts setting their act. Nice piney hops notes followed by the coffee bitterness of the roasted malt.

I swear this brewery is on fire right now. Hands down the best brewery from Quebec. If there is anyone here near Vermont, it's worth the trip north of the border. They are located in the town of Dunham, about 15 north of the Vermont/Quebec border.

I haven't tried anything from them yet, I definitely want to though. They have a bunch of IPAs too!

I tried Malt Aimé from Le Grimoire this week end, a decent brewery so far but they try a bit too hard. This IPA was good, a sweet mix of honey amber with the bitterness of the india pale ale hops. On the other hand, their Vie de château was basically like eating a rum cake and I almost couldn't finish my pint.

Honestly, stay away from anything by Le Grimoire. Artificial flavoring + insalubrity = Nope.

As for Dunham, you're in for a treat. They most common IPA, is the Leo's Early Breakfast, a collaboration with Kissmeyer from Denmark. IPA brewed with Earl Grey tea and guava jam. Their Imperial India, Black IPA and Imperial Black IPA are awesome too. They have some very great Saison too, like Saison Rustique, Saison Framboise, Saison du Pinnacle and Saison Réserve (both are godly).

Their Assemblage line is out of this world too, but quite hard to find since they are released in limited quantities. To give you an idea, all 3 of them are blend of 2 kind of beers, fbe it rye beer, Saison or IPA, all aged in wine barrels with brettanomyces.

I think Dunham is the most consistently amazing brewery in the Province. And they recently started to barrel age a lot of different beers in all kind of barrel, from white wine, to bourbon. So far all these products are beyond awesome and since it's the direction they are heading in, it's very promising.

Bought three of these bad boys tonight;



Yep Sierra Nevada Fresh Hop IPA. Considering how much I like both the southern and northern hemisphere wet hop ale lines, this will be damn good. No question. Probably buy another three tomorrow before they run out.

At the moment though I'm currently sitting in 34 degree summer weather (in October ) while enjoying a Sierra Nevada pale ale.

Had a bit of a beery weekend this past one. The biggest craft beer event in Finland took place and while I didn't go to the event itself - didn't have the time to invest in such a thing - I did visit some of the sideshows i.e. Tap Takeovers - Finnish style. What does Finnish style mean, you ask? Well, basically it means that it is actually A tap takeover: Only one tap is taken over by the brewery in question. Don't ask me how they came up with that. The big Norwegian craft brewery, Nøgne Ø, had one where they showcased their new IPA done in collaboration with a Polish brewer, AleBrowar. Unfortunately it was a bit thin affair with not enough freshness to it. It's a single hop IPA with an old, aromatic, Polish hop Iunga. There was also a tap takeover in Black Door - probably the premier craft beer place in downtown Helsinki - by a new Swedish craft brewery, CAP. Their Great White Hype IPA was a good mixture of IPA hoppiness and zesty wit. The star of the place was Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum on tap - first time in Finland. A fresh triple IPA with a powerful backbone of caramel maltiness as well as a lot of resinous and citrusy hoppiness. The kind of stuff you sip at the end of the night. There was also a Beavertown (London microbrewery) tap takeover of actually six taps. I'd mostly had my fill at this point, but their low ABV saison, Quelle, was too tempting to resist a half and it didn't disappoint at all. No trace of thinness on this one - Just a whole bunch of fresh, zesty hoppiness as well as saison spice and yeast. A definite winner. Saison seems to be the new big thing in craft brewing and while the US and UK brewers seem to be doing fairly low ABV ones, the Finnish brewers are going for the more Belgian high ABV. Bruuveri, a brewpub right smack in the middle of Helsinki and a pilot brewery for Saimaan juomatehdas, are doing a series of three saisons with different hoppings and spices to see which one is the most popular that will be put into mass production at Saimaan juomatehdas. The #2 was with slightly lower IBUs, more traditional hop varieties and with cumin, and fresh off the tap it was tasty. Citrusy and crisp, the cumin doesn't really show up very well, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Had a couple of bottles at home as well. Craft beer is on the rise in Germany as well of which BraufactuM - a 'craft' brewery of the Oetker Group - is a clear example. While I usually try to steer fairly clear of these attempts by big brewers to make headway into craft - mostly because the quality is usually rather poor - BraufactuM's The Brale came with recommendations as being a good, fairly low ABV yet highly hopped brown ale and in that respect it delivers. Or at least in the hoppiness, a whole lot of fruitiness in the form of grapefruit, passionfruit and guava. The brown ale is a bit lost underneath it all, but since the body isn't thin, it doesn't really matter if you know what to expect. Another one was Brooklyn's Blast! - really fresh tasting double IPA.

FYI, Chicago-area folks, Citra has made an appearance at Binny's. My friend said that the Binny's near him (Algonquin) put a 1 bottle limit but the Binny's I go to had no such limit.

Recent ventures:

New Holland Carhartt Woodsman. Bought a case of this for a friend's gathering this weekend. Decent for cheap pounding with non-craft drinkers, but I don't think I'd consistently drink it on my own. The pale ale combined with the barrel aging gives sort of a weird sour/bitter taste that doesn't really resolve into anything.

Founder's Breakfast Stout: Good lord almighty, this is a perfect dessert beer. Rich, thick and sweet without being cloying. It's like eating a dark chocolate espresso bar; definitely going to grab a case of these before it rotates out of production.

Thanks mate.

Another heads up for all the Chicago folk: Beer Market in Bolingbrook just got a full liquor license as a pilot program for the chain. Apparently what this means is that they will be adding a shit ton of bourbon and bourbon related products to their menus. Also the dark ale mustard they use is beyond good. It's like eating beer.

Yes I'm double posting.

Currently drinking a pretty nice beer, New Holland's Carhartt Woodsman. I'm diggin it, APA aged in oak so it has a nice flavor. It's not ver strong which is cool so I can drink a lot . It's the working man's beer so it's perfect for a Friday night and apparently it's a limited brew as well. Mmmmmmm nummy. Thanks Gnu!

Glad you liked it! I'm about to crack into a Lost Abbey Judgement Day - nice raisin-y Belgian quad to relax after the insanity of the last 12 hours...Ugh.

Wandering into here because Gnu's piqued my interest in trying Gulden Draak. WHERE DAFUQ DO I FIND THIS STUFF? I checked a "Where to find X beer" thing and it seemed like all the places selling it were in America or Europe.

Are you even old enough to drink son?

Hey, if I am...

Aw, damn. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can find what Belgians distribute in your neck of the woods.

Edit 1: Try some Delirium Tremens - It's a golden ale (as opposed to Gulden Drak being a dark ale) but in the same Belgian category: http://www.thebeerstore.ca/beers/delirium-tremens

Also give this saison a try - It's a bit more on the floral / champagne side of things. http://www.thebeerstore.ca/beers/ommegang-hennepin

In my superior country, yes.



Ironically, my stepdad is arriving home tomorrow from Belgium. If I had found out a little earlier about this stuff I probably could have gotten him to pick some up in its country of origin, lol.

Holy shit, that would be amazing.

Here's some other good stuff:

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/goose- ... FU3DvldWSo
http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/la-fin ... FU3EfldWSo
http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/la-tra ... FU3JfldWSo

Huh, these all sound... Surprisingly tasty? I may make a trip to the LCBO next week, I guess. If I do, I'll report back with how I found 'em. Thanks!

Yeah, yeah, yeah go Canada.

I've never seen it on the west coast (not that I've looked particularly hard), but on my last trip to the east coast it was well stocked in a massive WE'VE GOT FUCKING EVERYTHING store. If you don't have one of those around you may want to maybe contact any bars in your area that sell Belgian beers and ask them. You may find out about a new bar in the process!


That's .. not really irony. But it is definitely a near miss. Good luck. It's definitely worth the hunt.

Drinking some Smuttynose Robust Porter and Shed's Mountain Ale tonight. Great stuff, and both are fairly local to me. I'm lucky to have several great breweries all within a relatively short distance from my house (which is remarkable, as I'm fairly remote and rural): Harpoon (about 5 minutes), Long Trail (30 minutes), Shed (1 hour), Otter Creek (1 hour), Magic Hat (1.5 hours), Switchback (1.5 hours), and Smuttynose (about 2 hours). Shed's Mountain Ale is a hearty brown ale (~7.4% ABV), and quite possibly my favorite beer ever. I love brown ales and porters!

lol, now if only I knew literally any bars. Or went to bars.

Drinking Feral Hop Hog IPA tonight. Pretty damn sessionable stuff this, and goes down easy. Also bought the last bomber (at my local) of Sierra Nevada's fresh hop IPA. Now I am sad.