Hopdevil is definitely not the way to go for a more "balanced" approach from an English perspective. I'm biased here, as I just don't like that beer period, but someone used to an English take on IPA would probably be overwhelmed by it regardless. The thing with modern English IPA's is they often are either fairly bitter without being all that hoppy (early-boil hop additions, as opposed to American dry-hopping) or just not all that hoppy at all. Some are also a lot weaker than American ones, even below 5% alcohol (unheard of in an American IPA).

My rec: just find Dogfish 60 Minute IPA. It's fairly balanced as is, plus it's pretty easy to find an older-than-it-should-be bottle that's already lost some of the hop flavors and hop bitterness. While you're at it, maybe give 90 Minute IPA a try (just avoid 120 Minute like a gangrenous leper).

Lately, I've had a fair amount of this:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42 ... pr&start=0


as well as a bit of this:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/15 ... pr&start=0


and this:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/11 ... pr&start=0



All are quite exemplary of how fucking awesome American beer can be. I've also been stocking my cellar with plenty of barleywines/old ales/stock ales/Burton ales/strong fucking beer-ales for future winters. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Dogfish Olde School, Traquair 2020, that sort of thing. Plus I've pulled a few out as well recently, and have at least three more coming out this month. My two Stone Vertical Epics are coming out for the tasting (the magic date just passed but we don't have 12-12-12 in stores yet), Central Waters BBS 2011, Goose Island Matilda 2010, possibly a 2007 Samichlaus or 2000 J.W. Lees Harvest Ale....haven't decided which of those I'll bring out for the holidays. Either would be drool-worthy.

I've got just over 100 bottles now. The late winter-early spring (February through April) period of 2013 is going to be nice. I've got 1-, 2- and/or 3-year bottles of North Coast Old Stock, Founders Curmugdeon, Allagash Odyssey, Stone Old Guardian, Goose Island Pere Jacques, Goose Island Fleur, Gouden Carolus Cuvee van de Kaizer Blue, and Bell's Third Coast Old Ale coming out in that time period.

Founders makes a fucking excellent brew. My favorite of theirs is the breakfast stout, but their Dirty Bastard is also really good. Probably my second favorite brewery, next to Samuel Smith's.

I'm drinking Left Hand's Milk Stout right now. Damn good beer. I've been in a milk stout mood lately, and am finding Left Hand to be about the best. Their Nitro milk stout is outstanding as well.

Two I have tried recently (one isn't a beer though):



Old Guardian Barley Wine, and Aspall Premier Cru cider. The barley wine was something else, and also my first, and I have to say that it's a massive amount of sweet, strong flavours. Perhaps they improve with maturing? I would certainly like to try one after it has cellared for a time. At 11% ABV you don't really notice the alcohol sting, due to the abundant sticky, bittersweet profile present.

As for the Aspall, well I consider this to be one the best ciders around - just beautifully crisp and clean goodness. Delicious.
Now for two I will be treasuring over xmas:



Chimay Grande Reserve, and an Abbey Ale. The Abbey Ale is brewed in Western Australia, and there are some pretty fine breweries over there, so at least on paper, it promises to be reasonable. The Chimay I will be looking forward to with pleasure.

Went to a Japanese restaurant this week and bought a few Asahi Black and thus far it is the best beer I have had in a very long time. Went down very smooth but also packed a punch. Sadly it doesn't look like my local beer stores, or lcbo's stock it Well every so often I'll stop back in for some dolsot bibimbap and have a few bottles.

Got a six pack of Dogfish Head Raison d'Edtre and a six pack of Wasatch The Devastator Double Bock to celebrate graduation.

Five over the course of an evening gave me a pretty nasty headache.

Yeah, as I said, I know basically nothing about single IPAs, especially of the english variety. =/



I actually don't really care for the breakfast stout. The coffee kind of just tramples everything else; i prefer the imperial stout. Samuel smith's nut brown ale is awesome, huge and toasty, and not syrupy sweet like tommyknocker imperial brown.

Don't ever buy Köstritzer Schwarzbier. It's awful. Bland and with a cringeworthy aftertaste.

The postal order I got recently. Missing duplicates of the Guldenberg, Goudenband and Ecaussinnes Penneffoise since they couldn't fit the table.

Regarding stuff: Old Guardian is superbly tasty to me. Strong malt as well as strong hop presence. Both bitter and sweet at the same time, though not overtly of the latter in comparison to some barley wines. One of the best barley wines I've had. No need to say anything about the Chimay Blue I gather. Haven't tried Aspall, but I imagine it's a pretty good cider going by what I've heard, especially the premier cru. I like ciders every now and then, but usually they're a bit too simplistic with just the apple thing going for them. There are some pretty good ones though. As for the Köstritzer Schwarzbier, I didn't find anything wrong with it. Oh, it's nothing special, a schwarzbier as German schwarzbiers go. Nothing wrong with it.

Drinking this right now:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bernardus_Brewery

Not bad. Makes me remember of the Affligem Dubbel I use to drink lately but with a stronger last bitter taste. I prefer the Affligem because it's smoother and with a sweeter last taste.

Tonight, this one:



http://augustijn.be/en/augustijn-dark

REALLY nice one!

Past few days I've tried Westmalle Trappist, Barbar Bok and Hopus at the Belgium Beer Cafe in Adelaide. Also tried Choc Hop chocolate stout from Mildura Brewery as well as downing copious amounts of Vale IPA (damn McLaren Vale Beer Co. is turning me into an alcoholic...). Now for tonight's indulgence...

Summer = hops!

Grabbed a carton of the Tower 10 IPA, a 4-pack of the Alpha (at $90 a carton buying that much is too expensive... but damn it's good) and a single of the Young's. Also photobucket made my photo look cruddy.

Two or three nights ago:



http://www.orval.be/en/8/Brewery

Less amazing than I remembered.

Recently tried Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter. It's got a great chocolate cocoa taste and a 6% ABV. Not bad at all.

-Terrible is one of the best beers I even got, 10,5% dark ale with a small fruity taste, it's only offered for a limited time every year, it's great
-Winter Ale was meh, way too sweet for my taste. I'll need to try other Ontarian beer, this one was not good

You can see a bottle of Blue Bombay too, gin tonics <3

Bonus picture!

Nice bonus pic! Nice work with the gin as well. The missus and I were drinking some G & T's last night, with the Blue Bombay too, yummy! Going to pick up some more tasty beers before new years I believe...

Bought four of these tonight. It's a single batch bock style (dark) beer. Usually whenever Little Creatures release a single batch beer, it's always good - and this is no exception. It doesn't deviate from the traditional bock flavour, colour and alcohol content (6.5%), but it's a delicious, malty brew, and goes down well. Very drinkable.

Ill try to get a picture up when I'm home form work. Last night I went out an purchased some Wells Banana Bread Beer......I was very wary about spending 10 dollars for 4 bottles of beer, in the end, it was WELL worth it. I think I'm obsessed, I'm gonna buy more after work today. Anybody here tried it? If you love banana bread or banana brewed/flavored things, you gotta give it a shot!

$10 for a 4-pack of craft brew is cheap in Aus.

The current selection in the fridge (minus the Knappstein, which is on it's way to my stomach!).

The Harvest, Black Giraffe and Knappstein are all solid tasty brews there. The Black Giraffe was an eye opener for sure.

Two I have indulged in lately:



Mountain Goat Rare Breed dark IPA. This was bloody delicious, and packing an about 7% ABV was a head turner too. Great fruit notes and well balanced hop-driven flavour with dark malt undertones. Wonderful.



Stone & Wood Pacific Ale. Goddamn this is a good one! Fruity, fresh and just utterly moreish. Beautifully flavoured and finished beer.

The Pacific Ale is just a great summer brew. Very easy (too easy!) to down a few pints without any worries in the world.

Wasn't a huge fan of the Knappstein (though I'm not a big lager person). The My Wife's Bitter was quite nice, the Gage Road's The Convict was great (very similar to Cooper's Vintage to give you an idea where it sits flavourwise) and the Harvest was indeed excellent!

Still yet to try the Black Giraffe. I've only had one or two dark/black lagers before and I wasn't a huuuuuuge fan (much prefer a porter), but I'm still keen to try it.

Huvila Oak Porter

and


Helsinki Portteri

I'm relieved to find there are good beers brewed within these borders too! Neither of these is a violent bludgeoning on your senses like Koff's Porter, though I won't hold that against either. All aforementioned are good. Malmgård brewery, which makes the first of these porters, has been lauded in many beer reviews, and I can understand why. It's not just a battery of alcohol and roasty flavour but a rather balanced beer with plenty of roundness to it. Although the latter one by Suomenlinna Brewery is not quite so memorable, it too is tasty with a hint of licorice.

Malmgård are probably in the top three as far as Finnish breweries go and Oak is probably the best I've had from them, though I haven't tried their more extreme ones: Häijy Markku, Everfrost and any of the Dessert Stouts. But they do good work with what they've got and Oak is great, though could've done with even more vanilla and oak in the flavor.

Suomenlinna's beers on the other hand wear their background on their sleeve: It's a restaurant with a brewpub on the side so they're all rather mild and went to go with food. That's the case with the Helsinki portteri as well. It's a slightly beefed-up English-style porter with a little roast and a lot of malt, something to go well with your stews and darker meats.

As for good Finnish beers, I would say there are plenty. It's just too bad that most of them have quite limited availability i.e. you can only drink them at drinking establishments. Can't bring bottles home. And even when you can, the batches are so small the prices are too high like with both of the bottled Plevna extreme beers: Barley Wine aged in sherry casks and Siperia imperial stout aged in whisky casks.

Has anyone here ever tried Dragon's Milk? It's a bourbon barrel ale, 10%, made in the Michigan New Holland Brewery. Strong as you'd expect, but with a surprisingly sweet and creamy taste as well. Honestly my favorite beer ever right now; shame they don't distribute it in Iowa and I have to stock up whenever I visit my parents in Wisconsin or my roommate visits his in Ohio.

Picked this up last night, enjoying it now:



Drinks really easy despite being heavy as hell. Not bitter at all, and the 8% ABV gets the job done. Oskar Blues has only recently started selling in my area, and they've introduced a handful of different brews of which I've had two or three. If you're looking for a smooth, rich stout try the Ten Fidy if you come across it. The 10.5% ABV will put you in a good place and the flavor is unreal.

I've never had that one as I've honestly not heard many good things about it. I will say, however, that I rather enjoyed last year's batch of their Pilgrim's Dole. It's a wheatwine aged in bourbon barrels, allegedly with a grain bill of about 50% barley and 50% wheat. Not sure I really believe that last part, as it had none of the crisp fluffiness of malted wheat and minimal wheat flavor. It did, however, taste like a perfectly acceptable bourbon barrel-aged barleywine. I've still got a bottle to cellar, and I'll happily buy a four-pack of the next batch. As I recall it had a lot of burnt brown sugar flavors.



I recently had a two-year bottle of Stone Old Guardian BELGO 2011; it was a variation of their 2011 brewed with Belgian yeast. All over the place flavor-wise, and it amazingly (and annoyingly) still had a shitload of hop flavors, including bitterness (it's two years old......WHY?). Warming and eventually numbing alcohol presence was probably the worst part, along with being too dry for the style. Had flavors of honey, grapefruit, apples, bubblegum.

And since you mentioned a barrel-aged stout, after having one of the most recent releases of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout (September 2012) I must say this isn't the same as it used to be and it's a better beer because of it. It's warming but it doesn't burn going down like it used to. I could actually taste some of the barrel where older batches were nothing but ash and fire when fresh. I'm sure this will age well, but it probably won't improve as much because it starts off better than it used to.

So, first legally purchased alcohol!


Dogfish Head Chicory Stout - I picked this one because I liked the design of the box. It tastes really yucky.

Tonight, Dominus Dubbel:
http://www.anthonymartin.be/en/our-beer ... bel/-9-14/



REALLY nice one! Makes me remember the Affligem Dubbel I also REALLY like. Nice discovery!

Love Becks!

wish i could get dogfish head anything where i live. mmmmm

Never had the Chicory. Something about it always strikes me as suspicious.....



I do love Palo Santo Marron. That beer is crazy good. Strong as hell though. Not really a beginner's beer.

Okay... been beer shopping today to a local(ish) bottle shop which boasts over 1000 beers from fifty countries, and was... well, rather impressive and had me acting like a kid in a candy store... anyway, here is what I came away with:



Stone & Wood Pacific and Garden Ales. The Pacific Ale is just gorgeous and lovely to drink, so I can't imagine the Garden Ale being anything other than awesome. The Westmalle Dubbel I haven't had before, but I'm expecting great things.



Moylan's Old Blarney barleywine will be a first, and after my experience with the Stone's Old Guardian, I'm looking forward to some serious flavour and deliciousness. Want to try more barleywine ales in the future...

On paper the Fullers Brewers (No.4) Reserve looks like it will be lovely, as it's aged in Armagnac oak barrels, and it's limited (apparently). Looking forward to sampling. Not pictured is a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout which I bought because it's been a while since I had one and I just love the stuff.

I know that feeling. Always get it when going to the beer section of a market in a foreign country, though especially Whole Foods in Vegas as well as Cracked Kettle and De Bierkoning in Amsterdam. Regarding the stuff: Westmalle's Dubbel is pretty swell, yeah, but being a dubbel, it's not a very overwhelming experience. Love barley wines myself as well - No matter if they're the American kind with loads of hops and bitterness or the more traditional kind filled with caramelly sweetness and warming alcohol. Old Guardian is a excellent (Belgo or no), though Tenaya Creek's Old Jackalope and Plevna's are my favorites. Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout is indeed great. The Brewers Reserves have been good too so far though I haven't tried number four yet and completely missed number one. Three was kinda odd with its almost lambic-like acidity.

Always love beer shopping! so many new flavours to explore. This place is pretty damn awesome, and I'll be going back, though they were rather limited with their selection of barleywines, with the American variety being the only available at this time. Maybe I'll check back later to try and nab some...

Do you ever see any Australian beers up in northern hemisphere territory that isn't the shitty Foster's (or similar dreck)? Because if you ever stumble across some Stone & Wood I highly recommend it haha. We have some good brewers over here, with a booming craft beer market full of interesting, delicious beers.

Actually, the Fosters here is brewed locally and a lot of markets stock VB. Never tried either though. Coopers you can often see around in some bars and the Original Pale Ale at some specialty stores because it's so low ABV that they can stock it. Yeah, I know craft beer is pretty big there, but they don't really make their way here. I think Holgate's been around in Finland and I've had Bridge Road in Amsterdam, but that's about it. It's too bad, really.

If you don't mind, what would you consider to be more of a beginner's beer? Having only had a couple of brands, I'm not very experienced at all in beer, but I would be interested in trying a relatively wide variety to see if there's anything that appeals to me.

I'd be hard pressed to start telling people I don't know what would be a good beginner beer for them. You could try regular, bland, big brand beer like Bud or Miller Lite or Rolling Rock or Yuengling or whatever you have over there. Something with a bit more flavor yet still catering to a pretty common denominator is stuff like Fat Tire, Shock Top, Blue Moon. Again, not knowing where you are or being that familiar with what craft you can find where in the States, can't recommend really any smaller brands that you'd be able to find. I suppose Samuel Adams Boston Lager/Summer Ale/Cherry Wheat at least, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale/Kellerweis/Tumbler, Goose Island Honker's Ale, Brooklyn Lager or Anchor Steam. Or if you get foreign stuff: Guinness, Kilkenny, Pilsner Urquell or Czechvar, Paulaner/Franziskaner Hefeweizen. Most pale ales, hefeweizens, brown ales or pilsners are usually good beginner stuff as well as low ABV stouts and porters (below 6 or 7%). Or well, I suppose pale ales over there might have much more bitterness than they usually do here.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to write down anything before going to the grocery store but I know I saw Shock Top, Blue Moon, tons of different Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada's stuff, Goose Island, Brooklyn Lager, Guinness. I only quickly glanced over everything, so I'm not sure what else they had. I ended up getting Walt Wit which is a local-ish beer and is labeled as whatever a "unfiltered Belgian-style white ale" would be (I know a guy who really liked it, so I thought it'd be neat to try).

Out of the few kinds I've had so far, I haven't really cared for whatever fruity or floral taste any of them have had, but I have liked whatever oat or wheat taste they've had. I'm probably wrong, but from what I understand, the former is a characteristic of "hoppy" beer while the latter would be of a "malty" beer. Given that, is there a particular style I'd prefer?

Does anyone have some recommendations for good bourbon barrel ale? I loved Dragon's Milk but can't get it in Iowa so I'd like to find something in the interim.

Tonight... Corsendonk Pater Dubbel.
http://www.corsendonk.com/



Not bad at all but... I prefer my Affligem Dubbel.
P.D: In quite obsessed with the dubbels! LOL!
Anybody uses http://www.beeradvocate.com or http://www.ratebeer.com?