When the juices flow...

[Warrior of the Light]

The reviews at ratebeer.com are very promising. Can you only get this at the brewery?

[swingdjted]

To my knowledge, yes. Even then, they get out empty glass jugs and fill them upon ordering (so it's very fresh) and then they seal the big screw-on caps with a ton of electrical tape of all things.

[swingdjted]

The Red Hook Brewing Company used to have quite a good reputation for making good beer. Now much of the company is owned and products distributed by Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated, which as you can imagine, caused the company to sacrifice quality in the name of increased mass production and distribution. The company tries its hardest to hide this, only making mention of it in passing buried deep on this page, hoping you will have stopped reading before noticing.

The beer is relatively bland and has a taste of a watered down ale and tastes nothing like a real porter. It does have a brown color that would suggest at least a full-bodied ale, but the taste doesn't meet even this compromised expectation.

It lacks a lot but it at least doesn't instantly and ******dly offend me the way a more common macrobrew taste would. Had this beer been given to me for free by someone else, I would be able to stay quiet and drink without feeling the need to complain. However, I paid $7.49 plus tax for the six pack, a heavy price that would require a much more delightful experience to make it worth it.

In other words, spend your $7.49 plus tax on something else. This wasn't worth it.

[edit] the o u t w a r filter hit again. The word with the ***stars*** was supposed to be o u t w a r d l y without spaces. Can an admin or mod get rid of that filter? It's long past being an issue requiring filtering.[/edit]

[mikm]

It's always a sad day when a microbrew gets taken over by larger company.

I might have to road trip with some friends to Rapid City (it's only 12 hours away). Firehouse sounds like it makes damn good beers.

[swingdjted]

12 hours is an incredibly long one day drive, but if you're ever interested in going there, be sure to hit Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse monument, and some Black Hills sites. Tell me in advance if you're planning a trip and I'll give you some suggestions including sight-seeing, outdoor activities, wineries, and antique shopping.

Labor Day weekend - I love a holiday that celebrates only being back to work for about 2 weeks...

Extended weekends are exceptions to my personal rule that says I can't drink during the school year.

This beer (Ommegang Belgian style "Abbey Dubbel") was a winamp forum member recommendation given to me by Razzinno. I brought the brewery up in a phone conversation with another beer lover, and he had bad things to say about it. Personally, after hearing this, I put off trying it for a couple weeks while it stood in the back of my refrigerator. Tonight I got it out and tried it.



It was a rather large bottle (750 ml, or 1/5 gallon), a rather high alcohol content for a Belgian-style beer (8.5%) and had a wired-down cork a la champagne.



The directions on the bottle basically tell you to pour gently enough not to make a mess but rough enough to give good head. I tend to find that there's nothing wrong with good head.

The experience of taking the wiring off and popping a cork to the ceiling is always a nice little novelty.

Belgian style beers tend to be very expensive and hard to find, and they are very much an acquired taste. I have very little experience with them. The person that told me that this is a poor example of a Belgian style beer probably has a better idea of what one should taste like, but I still wanted to give it a try for myself anyway.

Personally, I liked it. It wasn't absolute perfection for me, but it really did hit the spot. Although somewhat expensive, I don't at all feel I wasted money, and I would gladly buy another if I had regular access to it. It was creamy but not as much as a cream ale. It was hoppy, but not as much as a bitter. It went down rather easy compared to other Belgian style beers that I have tasted, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what the taster wanted. I was able to finish the entire bottle (a little over 2 beers worth of liquid) in less than the time it would take me to drink a normal sized good bitter or imperial stout. This could make it a bit dangerous considering the somewhat high alcohol content.

Overall, it's worth what I paid, and a good beer to drink.

[Tuggummi]

Oh man, I haven't been posting in this thread for so long time you'd thought I would have gone sober. But do not fear my friends for I am as beer loving raging alcoholic as I ever was!

[img]http://www.kalja*******lapin_kulta2.jpg[/img]

Is what's for dinner, and lunch, and breakfast, and inbetween meals.

[Warrior of the Light]

I need to get my hands on one of those one day.. Lapin Kulpa is a bit hard to get over here. (although available if you search for it)

[swingdjted]

Tonight was rather simple, but good. This is from the producers of Guinness, but instead of a stout, it's a good ale. Not too hard to find in a decent import beer store, and is my dad's favorite beer. I had to find and change camera batteries before taking the shot, hence the disappearance of the head, but it's normally full and creamy.

[Tuggummi]

Originally posted by Warrior of the Light
I need to get my hands on one of those one day.. Lapin Kulpa is a bit hard to get over here. (although available if you search for it)

Kulpa? wtf. man?

It's Lapin Kulta, "Lapland's Gold" in english you bastards, get it right or gtfo my beer thread :<

[swingdjted]

Crosspost for reference. Russian Imperial Stouts seem to be the topic.

[Tuggummi]

This is what im drinking tonight


When it comes to cheap light beer, this is one of the better ones to drink here in Finland

[swingdjted]

I'll be having Goose Island Oatmeal Stout tonight. It's the only good beer I can get in this town other than Guinness.

I'll have it with a good steak dinner (with bread, potatoes, and stir fry veggies with Mae Ploy sauce that has been helping the steak marinate for the past 3 days).

I'm re-celebrating my birthday with a decent dinner since on the official day (March 3) all I could do is work all day and stay late, then come home and have a couple drinks and go to bed. This is an old scan of the 6-pack cardboard. I guess I never took a picture of it poured. I'll try and remember to do it tonight.

[swingdjted]

Past the edit time limit, so here's my double post. (after already having crossposted earlier). The beer gives much better head than what you see - it just took me a while to get the camera set up plus I was on the phone. This caused the head to disappear before I actually took the shot.

This beer is an oatmeal stout, a bit heavier than the Guinness Draught, but lighter than Guinness Extra Stout (although any of the oatmeals would fit this description). It's nothing extra special compared to beers like Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout, but it's still very good, a compromise between the other types of stouts.

The 6-pack is costs dollar less than Guinness, and yet in my opinion tastes a bit better since it's a tad thicker and a bit more bitter.

I've had good results with almost every variety that Goose Island puts out, especially this one.

[fc*uk]

^ oh how I miss chicago and being able to take the EL to their brewery....

All the beers they make, except for Honkers, are of exceptional quality in my opinion. The also make some wicked ones at the brewery that they do not bottle.

[swingdjted]

Their Bourbon County Stout is exquisite. Their two bottled Belgian style beers aren't quite my taste (I've only had one of each and I didn't really like them), but others have told me that they're good.

I like Honkers, but I could see how someone wouldn't. There's really nothing special about it, just a common but clean ale.

Follow the link for the others that I've tried including above mentioned (you'll notice that since I don't really like lighter beers, they're not listed).

http://img5.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=...urboncount.jpg

I forgot to list Matilda.

[swingdjted]

ZOMG! GUINNESS MAKES A PORTER??!!??!!!!1!eleven...



...Well, no. They don't.

They just fool you into thinking they do with that label, when if you turn around the package you get the following picture, showing that you just get two glasses with the porter logo and two tall widget cans of regular Guinness Draught:



Now, I like Draught, but I'm pretty pissed that I was fooled into paying extra for less beer than I originally anticipated (it looked like an enclosed 4-pack), but It'll be nice to have the "limited-edition collector's" glasses around I guess.

I just wanted you guys to be aware, no new beer - just a gimmick.

[fc*uk]

Wow, you have had some of the best that Goose Island has to offer. About that only thing that I would add to your list that I believe they export as well, is the Demolition 1800.

From reading the label you posted for the Matilda, it seems like the Demolition 1800 is a lot like that, the major difference being the demolition comes in at about 9.5% abv.

I just checked their website, and they do list a Demolition under their Claybourn Heritage beers .... it is not the demolition that I am referencing. Maybe they renamed it and scaled it down some...

I so need to get some of their nut brown again.

[swingdjted]

The nut brown, luckily, is relatively easy to get, and very, VERY good.

I passed on some "Mild Winter" from them today due to the availability of some more appetizing stuff, and I still haven't tried it yet. If you've had Goose Island's "Mild Winter", let me know how it was.

I have high res. non-cropped pics of any of those beers I listed available on request if you need them.

Today, in addition to what I had bought and bitched about (and really, it's no big deal), I picked up:

Brau beers are new to me - never tried them. The single batch series is an oatmeal stout in this case. I have no idea how it'll be, but I'll give it a try.

This cream stout looked good too, so I picked it up.

Summit Brewing Company is not new to me, but their porter is. So far, every Summit beer I have tasted has been quite noteworthy and delightful, although like the Goose Islands, I tend to skip the lighter varieties (IPA, Pale Ale, Pilsner, Amber, Blonde, etc.)


These are just cardboard scans - I'll get pics of them poured when I decide to drink them. I have no idea why I put so much attention on finding and making photo documentaries of new beers. Even in bars I often try to get the label off to scan later at home. I guess it's just a habit. It at least makes a good photo screen saver.

[swingdjted]

(Some blacked out due to confidential paperwork in the pic)

This stuff comes in an 11.2 oz. bottle without a widget. It tastes almost identical to the usual "draught" but with a little less head, and it seems to go down easier. Overall pretty good as long as you don't expect something much different than what you're used to. Worth the buy if comparable in price to the "draught" bottles.

edit - the brau turned out to be something that you might just want to pass on. Ok, but other beers at the same price and style are better. The Summit porter was quite nice and very much worth the buy.

[fc*uk]

Heh. I am breaking my general rule about beer (and drinking some).

I bought Hop Hound Amber Wheat.


I would take a pass on that one.

On the other side of the coin, I am brewing 6 gallons of a mexican cerveza. I'll have to post back in a few weeks about how it turns out ...

[P$ycHo™]

http://onipepper.de/wp-content/galle...hot_196776.jpg

:P

[Warrior of the Light]

... is that for real?

[P$ycHo™]

yea, i think they sent some out when they announced the game to magazines or something.

[swingdjted]

The Boston Brewing Company (makers of Samuel Adams products) have released an "imperial" line of beers; basically a much stronger version of old favorites (9.2% alcohol by volume for the imperial stout and 9.5% for the double bock). I bought and tried these two (sold in 4-packs), both of which I was very impressed with:




They make other styles in the new strong-imperial series, lighter-colored styles for those of you that prefer the blonds rather than the brunettes. They are pricey, but I will say they are worth the money.

As you can see, the first was strong enough to make the second look a little blurry...

[fc*uk]

I saw those a little while ago, was wondering about them. I'll have to get them now.

On a related note, I found Sam Adam's Longshot contest winners for this year. I would highly recommend that as well.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/thebeerhe...zpack_inc.html

[fc*uk]

I have always harbored a fond love of this one:



Used to be able to get it at will at Sam's Wine and Spirits out in Chicago; not so much here in Michigan.

On another note, the mexican cerveza I started out seems to be progressing well. Primary fermentation finished up a week ago, and secondary fermentation has just about completed. I sampled a bottle to make sure everything went well. It tasted great, like a Corona with a little more body (almost similar to a Hinano without the hint of strawberry). Was gassy as all get out. About another month and it should be good to go.

Next on the drawing board is a blue moon clone. Thinking of buying oranges and squeezing/fermenting them into the beer so adding the orange is no longer required.

[swingdjted]

^Sierra Nevada makes some great brews. I can't get them here, but when I go back to the eastern USA, they're easy to get. I love their variety packs.

Some good news and bad news...
Good - I'm done with the school year teaching, and I'm pretty strict about not drinking during the school year unless it's a major holiday or a very special occasion. Now it's summer and I'm free from that.

Bad news is that I'm really pissed and sad about losing this job (wife and I were laid off) and we both already miss the kids we worked for a lot. We got better jobs after crazy job hunting, but we've become quite attached to the kids here, and I'm guessing that kidnapping the kids here to bring with us would be frowned upon...

Anyway, I've been taking on some beers that I've been watching sit in my refrigerator for a while, and it's pretty good stuff.



http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/703/2041
This stuff I had a couple nights ago, and I was with company, so I didn't get to do as much in terms of thinking about what I was drinking (at least not enough to type out a decent review). I remember liking it a lot, and despite it's high cost, I would definitely buy this again.



Rogue "Double Dead Guy Ale", which is a high-alcohol content version of a maibock style beer.
http://www.rogue.com/beers/double-deadguy.php
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/132/41043
9% alcohol by volume, so I'll be nursing this tonight - already about halfway through. It's not bad for what it is, but I can't help but wish it were a heaver beer. It goes down very easy and is light in taste despite it's very red color. It's medium-bodied at best. Had I been doing blue collar work outside in blazing hot sun all day, it would hit the spot perfectly, but all I did today was pack boxes and clean for the move coming up - not enough for an easy-to-go-down beer.

I've always liked the Rogue brewery for their large, painted bottles (no sticker or glued-on labels). It adds to the novelty. Some of the bottles are resealable ceramic bottles, but this one is just painted glass.

I'm a bad product photographer - perhaps some day I'll put together a white sheet box for that purpose, with flashes outside the sheets. I sell a lot of stuff online, so it might be worth it. The problem worsens when I'm looking at a beer that I just want to drink instead of taking pictures...

edits are done now, this is the final post - had to edit a couple times to add stuff because I hit submit instead of preview, but I'm done now, so if there are errors or missing information, deal with it; I want to focus on my beer instead of this post now.

[swingdjted]

Well, it's time for another installation of beer pics to this glorious thread. These are most of the new beers I tried over the summer while I was away from the forums:

Trout Slayer Ale from Big Sky Brewing Co.
Skip it. It tastes like mainstream piss beer. Big Sky makes an excellent "Moose Drool" which is quite nice, but this Trout Slayer sucks.


Harbin Lager ~ not bad, but nothing to write home about either. Nothing special here other than the fact that it's made in China and doesn't suck.


Double Bag by Long Trail Brewing ~ 7.2%, but even in a rather large bottle, it didn't seem to affect me at all. Taste was decent, nothing special again.


Smokestack Series Imperial Stout from Boulevard Brewing Co.
11% yet mild taste as far as imperial stouts go. It went down incredibly smooth and tasted great, which is in contrast to other Imperial Stouts which by design have loads of kick to taste and don't go down smooth. Rather expensive and had a champagne top. This beer delivers, so drink this one when you don't have to drive. The bottle is a fifth-gallon (750ml) and was individually numbered a la small batch. This was by far the best of the group, and is strongly recommended by me for people who like stouts.


Orangeboom - for some reason I never got a good pic of this stuff. It's an acceptable lager that is a bit orange in color I guess - nothing orange about the taste, just a decent lager. I have found that it mixes well with stouts and porters.

[Warrior of the Light]

Originally posted by swingdjted
Orangeboom - for some reason I never got a good pic of this stuff. It's an acceptable lager that is a bit orange in color I guess - nothing orange about the taste, just a decent lager. I have found that it mixes well with stouts and porters.

I can't believe they actually export that stuff. It's considered to be one of the worst brands around here.

[swingdjted]

^Very good. Probably not worth the $13 they charge for the bottle, but I was glad I was able to try it. If this were around $8-$10 per 4-pack of regular sized bottles, I'd probably buy it more often. I'd recommend trying it at least once.

For those that are bored, here's the description from the web site:

Samuel Adams® partnered Felchlin, a renowned Swiss chocolatier, to develop a unique innovation, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock. We started with a complex selection of carefully roasted malts combined with hand-selected Noble hops from Bavaria, the world’s oldest growing area. After using a centuries old brewing process, called Krausening, we slowly aged the beer on a bed of rare dark cocoa nibs from Felchlin®, a renowned Swiss chocolatier. Known for their quality these wild cocoa nibs, harvested from the rainforest of Northern Bolivia, impart complex aromas and flavors of chocolate, honey and vanilla in the beer. The resulting beer, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock, has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate, giving this brew a complex full-body taste with a velvety finish.

Tettnang-Tettnanger and Spalt hops were hand-selected from the world’s oldest growing area and combined with a complex selection of malts including two-row Pale, Munich and Caramel to create a rich and satisfying brew. This dark beer has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate. Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock was aged on a bed of cocoa nibs to create its unique layers of flavor. As the beer matured, the fruity, tart, earthy and chocolate aromas were released into the liquid to give the brew a complex, full -bodied taste with a velvety finish. A hint of vanilla was added to meld the symphony of flavors together.

[swingdjted]

Tetley's English Ale. This is one of the few non-stout widget-beers I have tried along with the more common Boddington's and Wexford Irish Cream Ale. Beer Advocate gave it a pretty good review/grade.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/8535/706

I like it despite being mild and smooth, although it goes down so easily that it takes a few to keep me from having an empty glass. This might be a good transition beer for someone who needs to leave the shit-beer department and get into some more interesting brews.

These guys do what Guinness did a long time ago, and I wish more companies would do this. The Widget is actually glued to the bottom of the inside of the can, but I went ahead and pried one off to include in the picture between the glass and can (took a lot of work). I like this design a lot more than the loose widget design found in other brands because it forces the gasses to pass through the liquid rather than just release into the atmosphere. Guinness used to do this in their tall cans; now they use a ping-pong ball widget that doesn't always consistently give the beer what it needs.

This pic was taken while the gasses were still settling, hence the 3 layers of head, settling part, and straight liquid.

[swingdjted]

mmmmm.... BEER BREAD!

from Tastefully Simple

I used a bottle of Smithwick's. All you do is pour the mix in a mixing bowl, pour in a 12 oz. beer, stir for 30 seconds, put spray release on a loaf pan, pour the mix from the bowl into the loaf pan, pour some melted butter on top, and bake for 55 minutes. Then you eat and burp. You really can taste the characteristics of the Smithwick's, so I recommend it or another good quality beer, and not something cheap. I had already began slicing and eating when I took the pic. Wasn't patient enough to wait for a photoshoot.

[Tuggummi]

I absolute fucking love this beer.

It has everything that makes a beer great, a good taste, a flavour that is different from all the rest and even the colour turns me on.

[swingdjted]

^You guys always turn me into some little emo bitch when you show me something that really looks good but is unavailable in my area. I'm still glad you posted though. Anything for the cause.

Generally speaking, my reviews sound almost exactly like the review on the side of this bottle, so I'ma shut my ass up and let you read.

[swingdjted]

From England, a good porter. The beer gave good head, but it was gone before I took a picture. It was a bit pricey, but I still wanted to at least try it, and although I won't be buying this all the time, it was worth it.


Sorry about all the random shit in the background - I've been making sure my wife's personal laptop (right) and my work laptop (left) have all the goodies I want from my desktop computers. I grew tired of using one of those computers, noticing something missing that I would normally find on the desktop, so I'm having a pair of beers while adding a few apps.

[swingdjted]

Third and likely last beer of the night:

A decent ale from a small brewery in Kansas City Missouri, USA. They call it Irish Ale, but there's really nothing that makes it different from other USA-made ales that I can taste. It's still good though.



My camera fucking sucks at taking pictures of beer. No flash = noise and atrocious autofocus, flash = glare, manual = waiting too long to do settings when I just want to take a pic and have a damn beer (Canon S5 IS).

[fc*uk]

Love Fullers London Porter myself. There is a specialty market around here that always seems to carry it.

As for me ... you Ohio folks might be aware of this. I was not having left the state well before it was legal for me to drink. I mainly bought it for the laughs. Beer is quite good though. Oh, please excuse the shitty iphone camera...

[swingdjted]

I really like that brewery. I made mention of one of their beers on this old thread:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=303549

I never got around to mentioning their Hoppus Maximus which I also liked.

Here's one also from Ohio that I had quite a while ago (back in autumn) and forgot to mention. I've mentioned other beers from their brewery, but not this one yet. (Great Lakes Octoberfest)

[fc*uk]

I remember that now that you pointed it out.

A friend of mine from Cleveland came up to visit me before Thanksgiving. He brought with him a 6 pack of great lakes chirstmas ale. Holy shit was that good! Being in Detroit, it is amazing how hard it is to find beer from great lakes brewing co; never met one I have not liked... I have had all the ones you mentioned in the other thread, but not the oktoberfest ...

In the home brew area .... Right now I have 23 liters of a Sam Adams Boston Lager clone going, there is so much activity through the air lock the water in the lock looks as if it is boiling. Never seen it so active before ...

[fc*uk]

I remember that now that you pointed it out.

A friend of mine from Cleveland came up to visit me before Thanksgiving. He brought with him a 6 pack of great lakes chirstmas ale. Holy shit was that good! Being in Detroit, it is amazing how hard it is to find beer from great lakes brewing co; never met one I have not liked... I have had all the ones you mentioned in the other thread, but not the oktoberfest ...

In the home brew area .... Right now I have 23 liters of a Sam Adams Boston Lager clone going, there is so much activity through the air lock the water in the lock looks as if it is boiling. Never seen it so active before ...