Just had Founders Breakfast Stout for the first time. It's one of the few beers that is worthy of its hype. Like drinking a delicious, alcoholic mocha. One of the best dark beers I've ever had.

^Definitely an awesome brew! Just recently tried Founders' Porter, as it happens, which was basically like a lighter version of the Breakfast Stout. Really dark (opaque) with a pretty rich head, same strong coffee notes, but perhaps lighter on the chocolate and a little drier overall. Great stuff for sure, but probably wouldn't take it over the Breakfast Stout, given the choice.

The Kentucky Breakfast Stout definitely lives up to the hype, too. Absolutely phenomenal stout, if you can manage to ever get hold of it.

Earlier tonight I had a glass of Flying Dog's Amarillo from their Single Hop series. Really a perfect beer after a long day's manual labor - huge IPA, with decent bitterness, but the Amarillo hops are all floral notes and citrus and just about none of the astringent pine or grassy flavors. It was also quite a sweet beer, reminding me a bit of something like Dogfish Head 120 minute, though not quite as cloying and "knock you on your ass"-ish as that - much more easily drinkable and not so much of a sipper. 10% abv, apparently, but you'd never know it by drinking it.

had one of these last night - nothing terribly exciting but a nice drop nonetheless. with a colour like that i expected a little more, though - the label on the back really talked up the malts used to brew it, but there wasn't really that much to notice. i guess i would've expected a more bitter flavour along the lines of an english real ale, but nup.

What does everyone think of Steenbrugge? I bought a four-pack of their tripel, and while at $10.99 it's about half the price of its Belgian rivals, it's also only about half as good. The use of gruit instead of hops sounds like it would be unique but it doesn't change the taste that much.

I tried the Belzebuth 13º this last saturday night:
http://www.brasserie-graindorge.net/strongest-beer.php





http://viviendoapesardelacrisis.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/cervezas.html

Macro-Belgian. Alright in a pinch if there's nothing else good and you're craving a Belgian. Good for cooking as well. If you're making a carbonade flamande and only have enough cash for one blue Chimay, you can get by with a bottle (or two) of the Dubbel Bruin and have the Chimay as a drink with the stew.

The Belzebuth is horrid, horrid stuff. No wonder beer sometimes gets a really bad rap in France.

Just had some St Bernadus Wit (the grocery store now sells this too!), great stuff though a little watery once it's not really cold anymore.

Had some piraat ale last night. I don't like it as much as the brewery's gulden draak but it's still really good stuff. Spice, apple, and some grassy, lemony hops.

Since I've started drinking spirits, I'm going to give the world wide stout a second try, because when I first had it it was way to burny.

Isn't there some website where you can type in the name of a beer and it will tell you what places in the United States stock it?

^ More breweries have begun implementing a "beer finder" on their respective sites where you can punch in your zip code, a mileage radius, and whatever brews of theirs you're looking for and it'll display locations on a Google map or something similar. The implied caveat, of course, is to call ahead first to be sure what you're looking for is in stock. They also list their regional distribution liaisons with contact information whom are very receptive to questions and often like to keep customers in the know of where new product hits the streets in their area, details about planned tasting events, and things of that nature through social media.

So last night after my week of work, one of my friend and co-worker showed me on Facebook the list of breweries that will be at the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston at the end of May. At first I was like "OMG" then 20 minutes later, the hotel was booked and the tickets were bought!

Had some new brews - Cuvee St. Antoine (dark), Sur Les Bois (dark), Mont Des Cats (amber), Merveilleuse de Chevremont (blonde). St. Antoine has plenty of yeast, a fucking weird/putrid/porky (?!) taste somehow similar to Duchesse de Bourgogne, though rawer and less fruity - arguably less "special" than Orval. Sur Les Bois is another Belgian wacky brew, housey-looking label, but when you get a mouthful, it comes off as quite medicinal, bitter and syrupy without being actually sweet. Mont Des Cats, French Trappist beer, is another bittery yet less medicinal one, and Merveilleuse de Chevremont is a remarkable mix of peach and polenta. Intriguing shit, and after drinking 4 like these you also get a li'l bit fucked up.

Just picked up some of this on my way home:

I like what I've tried from New Holland so far, so I'm hoping this will continue the streak.

The Poet is tasty indeed. Man, I wish I could get New Holland around here

Had my first one about a week ago. Chocolatey, oak flavored goodness with a hint of coffee. Great stuff. Wish it wasn't so hard to get, but eh. Tonight it's Collaboration, Not Litigation. A teaming up between Russian Rivers and Avery when they both found out they had a beer named Salvation in their line up. It's almost like a dark Belgian, if that makes any sense.

Yeah it was really tasty, very rich and deep flavor with a nice chocolatey taste to it. Unfortunately I dug in a wee bit to early so it wasn't chilled all the way but I won't be having that problem tomorrow. Sometimes living in the Midwest pays off . I had a summer seasonal called Elder Betty from Magic Hat earlier in the week an damn was that tasty. Fairly light and a superb kiss of elder berry at the end of every sip. I had gotten it on clearance at Jewel and ended up really liking it but I don't think they stock it anymore so hopefully I can find it somewhere that isn't Binny's.

Hey, apparently Beer Advocate publishes a monthly glossy magazine. Kind of pricey (especially for international folks). I might check out the digital version just to see what it's like.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/

I subscribed to it for awhile when it first came out, but ultimately found it wasn't worth it (and I really like the website); was too short and infrequent. "All about beer" is a good one I used to subscribe to, but now I just get "Brew your own".

Grabbed this at the store today:
Hopping it tastes good, I guess I'll find out in a bit.

Edit: yeah not so much. Won't be buying this again.

Bought a bottle of this last night



St Stefanus blonde. Apparently it's cellared for three months before becoming available to buy, and will improve it's complexity with time. This particular bottle is from the November 2013 batch, so it's about five months old already (if not more I guess), so will have to see how it is.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and I'm not an IPA fan, so that can make things tough for me. German style lagers are my favorite, and very few American micros focus on them so I always try anything in that style I can get my hands on. I think my favorite along those lines is the Full Sail LTD Lager series. Their standard beers are decent, but these lagers are exceptional. They're always releasing new ones and at $8/6-pack it's an incredible deal. Highly recommended if you're into lagers.

Beers for this evening



La Trappe quadrupel (four pack), Rogue dad's little helper (BIPA), Sierra Nevada northern hemisphere ale and a Rogue chocolate stout. Never had anything by Rogue before, so I thought I'd give them a run.

Ah, you're in for a treat. Both of those Rogues are great. Get the Dead Guy Ale if you can!

I also like Rogue's Mocha Porter. And yes, Dead Guy Ale is ace indeed!

It's cold, dark and pouring with rain this Sunday, so it may have had a hand in my beer selection below



St Ambroise scotch ale, Black Albert Russian Imperial stout (batch "0" apparently) and a Red Hill RIS. There was another St Ambroise I wanted to get but balked at the $22 bottle price, so maybe next time... so we'll see how their scotch ale goes. The Black Albert sounds really, really, really good. Beer Advocate has it rated at 94, so this should be a wonderful, rich (13% Belgian) stout experience. Looking forward to this one. Red Hill is another first timer for me, and they're Australian so this 8% Imperial stout should be interesting.



Rogue Dead Guy ale, Founders Backwoods Bastard and a Founders Breakfast stout. All of these beers have been mentioned, and praised in this thread, so I'm giving them a go myself. Kind of keen to try them all actually, but especially the Founders, as they sound tasty as hell.

But back to Rogue now, and 'batman if you read this, the chocolate stout was indeed very good. Nice roasted coffee and bitterness, however the chocolate seemed to be subtle in the overall flavour for me... but the excellent body and lasting, yet still smooth, bitter aftertaste was most delicious. Going to crack the Dad's little helper tonight.

Gouden Carolus Easter is delicious, but at 10.5% ABV in a big 750mL bottle, it is too much alcohol for me to take.

Had a Rodenbach Caractère Rouge last night. I was already a fan of the Rodenbach Grand Cru, but this one was godly. I want more, but it was the last bottle they had at this cool ass bar.

Beer smells funny.

Non-alcoholic beer tastes like drinking your own spit. :x

And it turns out the beer I had today was censored in Canada because of the fucking Easter bunny on the label being "marketing to children". Fortunately here in America we don't have to worry about Communist children sapping and impurifying our precious barley malt fluids.

Just beer! Doesn't matter which beer!

I just spent the last few hours rather unsuccessfully trying to find anything by Three Floyds for my birthday so I decided up this while at the last liquor store:



It just looks like something you should drink while listening to metal so I went with that.

That reminds me, my coworker went to Dark Lord Day at FFF this past weekend and I'm pretty jealous. There were cool bands (Eyehategod and High on Fire headlined) but just as importantly there was Dark Lord RIS on hand. I've been to lower-key release day things in the past (Kentucky Breakfast Stout at Founders, I was at Dogfish Head for the release of Palo Santo Marron), but they were usually like, "we've got X kegs of this stuff, and Y bottles available for sale" sorts of affairs where it lasts until it's gone. Apparently Dark Lord Day has like an appointment/lottery system where you only get one beer and you've gotta stand in lines and enter raffles for chances at extra beers and shit. Sounds slightly overblown to me, but I guess at least you're guaranteed a beer.

Yeah it's some straight b.s. trying to get a hold of some of the smaller breweries products. The guy at the last store I went to which happened to be a Binny's told me that the beers by the particular I was trying to find almost always sell out same day they get them in and within only a few hours.

If I'm remembering Perkulator right it's like cold coffee with bock sweetness on top.

Having me a 6 of Ziegenbock. Pretty balance, though lifeless beer, but I still like it.

I really enjoyed the Perkulator last night, they went down nice and smooth and paired well with cake and rocky road ice cream.

Well, since you live in the area, if you like that beer I recommend looking for Pipeworks Hey Careful Man, There's a Beverage Here! It's made with cold-pressed coffee, vanilla beans, lactose and coco. They claim it's inspired by the White Russian/Caucasian cocktail, but I've never had a White Russian that tastes like that. Also, don't be deceived by the title, it isn't really a stout/porter.


Plus, Big Lebowski reference for the win.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profil ... pr&start=0

Awesome, I'll definitely check it out, thanks man. Also for everybody in the area or those close enough to come in for a day or a weekend Chicago Craft Beer Week is coming up soon. I'm pretty stoked about this and I plan on making it to the Three Floyds event downtown on that weekend. Date range is May 15th-24th.

Yeah I won't be in the area.


It isn't exactly warm weather beer but Pipeworks Game of Jones is pretty spectacular as well.