GRM beer tasting

I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help here.

When I drink beer, I'm much too busy drinking to even think of words like "earthy", "orange marmalade", "wood", "terrior", "saffron", "invigorating" or "fun farm flavors".

In fact, I'm not too sure I want to think too much about "fun farm flavors"!

Nice reviews, Salanis. I might have had a few too many beers to understand them, but nice reviews.

Good to see this is moving along. I'm on call for two weeks, but I strongly hypothesize that after that, I'll be able to put up a couple of reviews.

I did find and sample some Widmer Bothers Pitch Black IPA and Kostritzer Schwarzbier Black Lager.

Pitch Black was very good, quite a strong flavor, well developed citrus and very tasty.

Black lager was good but not as suited to my taste as the Pitch Black.

Here is my review from the Nashville Brewers Festival

Drank much beer I have never had before,

None of it memorable past the pass out.

That is all

I'm enjoying one of my homebrews right now. Is reviewing home brew allowed? Or are we better off just reviewing commercial beers that other people will have the opportunity to enjoy.

aussiesmg wrote: Black lager was good but not as suited to my taste as the Pitch Black.

I know a lot of Schwarzbier use smoked malts. Was this one smoked? What did you think?

Oh... and while we're on the topic:

Trader Joe's Stockyard stout:

For five bucks a six pack, this is one of the better beer values out there.

Without much hop character, this beer is letting the malts do all of the talking. It starts dry and then blossoms into a full on coffee and burnt molasses flavors.

This is a great sipping or dinner beer. Don't get it too cold, just make sure you finish the bottle before it gets too warm, as the entire flavor palatte turns into "gym socks" once that happens.

Salanis wrote:

I'm enjoying one of my homebrews right now. Is reviewing home brew allowed? Or are we better off just reviewing commercial beers that other people will have the opportunity to enjoy.

This thread is responsible for me finding this website:BEER

I'm liking beer more and more.

Well, I will have a lot of stuff to put up here in the next couple of days. Sierra Nevada Beer Camp begins tomorrow. Oh yeah!

On that topic. SN Summerfest is one of my favorite beers right now. Perfect for summer.

It's like floating down a river in an innertube.

Aside from the high end Ovilla stuff, this is probably my favorite Sierra Nevada beer. An excellent Pilsener style beer. Short of getting the original stuff at the source, this is incredible. It's fresh and clean with a nice bit of toasty sweetness and a strong earthy hop character to round it out.

My dad and I popped some of this after a day wrenching cars. He's normally a big IPA guy, but he had to agree that this was the perfect beer to cap off a day of wrenching.

I don't know much about beer, but I know what I like. Paulaner Hefeweizen is my all-time favorite. It is basically the opposite of an IPA, so most of the small craft beers are not to my liking. Blue Moon is about the closest I can find in the states, which ain't bad, but I am open to other similar style beers if you have any suggestions.

In reply to Pinchvalve:

Well, there are lots of hefeweizens out there. Tough to find a good German style one though. North Coast brewings Blue Star is excellent. Widmer is ubiquitous and quite good.

If you like Blue Moon, which is a Belgian White (wit=white, although it is still a wheat based beer), Allagash White, and Hoegaarden are both examples in that style that are significantly better. At least around here, Hoegaarden isn't much more expensive or a whole lot harder to find.

Yep, as someone from Southern Germany (hefeweizen is a Bavarian thing, they didn't use to drink that further North), I do like the Widmer one - it's quite good and 'almost' there. Paulaner is a bit so-so compared to some of the other Bavarian ones but most of them seem to be really hard to get over here.

If you can, try to get some of the Weihenstephan ones.

Osterkraut wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Beer? It tastes like piss and doesn't give you a buzz unless you're a 12 year old girl. HTFU and drink yee some whiskey, homos.

In my mind, poopie, you're Ron Swanson.

I just now read this, and shed a little tear. A whiskey tear. And I hope not to disappoint, but I come here, to the beer thread, with my tail tucked between my legs, eating crow.

I stopped by the liquor store half-way home (40 mile drive) from work to grab my usual fare (McCormicks Vodka in the summertime) and thought, "Damn, I'm thirsty. Damn, I'd really like to suck down a coldie on the way home." Behold. The best berkeleying beer I've ever tasted:

Holy berkeley. I'm an addict. I can't do this whole "Let's talk about beer like women talk about wine" thing. I can only say it's berkeleying delicious.

I quickly bought up all they had, and pisser, it's seasonal and I can't find any more. All of their other offerings (21st Amendment) are pretty tasty. They have a traditional and black IPA, and some weird ass watermelon heifweizen E36 M3 that I refuse to try.

I've since been chasing the dragon. The only thing I've enjoyed close to as much is Stone Ruination. I've got a sixer of Lagunitas Maximus chilling in the fridge right now.

poopshovel wrote: I stopped by the liquor store half-way home (40 mile drive) from work to grab my usual fare (McCormicks Vodka in the summertime) and thought, "Damn, I'm thirsty. Damn, I'd really like to suck down a coldie on the way home."

Please tell me you waited until you got home to crack it open.

EDIT: and I realize that your BAC would only be .01-.03ish. But it is still not a good idea (in Illinois, if there is open alcohol in the car, the driver gets a DUI--no questions, no breathalyzer)

mtn wrote:

poopshovel wrote: I stopped by the liquor store half-way home (40 mile drive) from work to grab my usual fare (McCormicks Vodka in the summertime) and thought, "Damn, I'm thirsty. Damn, I'd really like to suck down a coldie on the way home."

Please tell me you waited until you got home to crack it open. EDIT: and I realize that your BAC would only be .01-.03ish. But it is still not a good idea (in Illinois, if there is open alcohol in the car, the driver gets a DUI--no questions, no breathalyzer)

I did not. I am okay with that. I'd say I'm probably running .01-.03 BAC when I wake up in the morning. GA open container law is a ticket not to exceed $200...which is a whole lot cheaper than the bogus 81 in a 55 I got in downtown ATL last week. One beer while traveling on a 4 lane north GA highway with the cruise set at 5mph over the speed limit isn't going to get me in any trouble or put others' lives in danger.

In reply to poopshovel:

94 IBU? berkeley yeah.

If you like that, try to find a bottle of Pliny The Elder. Doesn't come in packs though. Just one oversized bottle of hop perfection!

For big hoppy beers I've been enjoying Lagunitas L'il Sumpin WILD lately. 9% ABV, 73 IBU, Belgian Yeast, and a healthy amount of wheat to give it body and some sweetness.

IBU = International Bitterness Units. 10 ~ Light Lager, Hefeweizen. 20 ~ Bocks, Belgian Dubbel. 30 ~ Pilsener, CA Pale, English Bitter, 50 ~ IPA, 70 ~ Imperial IPA, 100+ ~ so hoppy that more hops don't really mean much.

BoxheadTim wrote: Yep, as someone from Southern Germany (hefeweizen is a Bavarian thing, they didn't use to drink that further North), I do like the Widmer one - it's quite good and 'almost' there. Paulaner is a bit so-so compared to some of the other Bavarian ones but most of them seem to be really hard to get over here. If you can, try to get some of the Weihenstephan ones.

Weihenstephan and Ayinger are both excellent but tough to find. Best one I've found produced in the US came from Lightning Brewing in San Diego. It was very faithfully German style. They're too small to have much distributorship though.

I really wish we got Pliny the Elder here in Ohio.

I love the Hop Crisis as well. Their IPA (Brew Free or Die) is great and for a lighter beer I love the Bitter American.

I opened a Founders Devil Dancer the other night that I have been aging for a year. It was good but I didn't like it as much as when it was fresh.

(not my picture)

Poopy I figured it would be a Bourbon County Stout that brought you over to the beer side.

MMMMMM

Mama.

Salanis wrote: Weihenstephan and Ayinger are both excellent but tough to find. Best one I've found produced in the US came from Lightning Brewing in San Diego. It was very faithfully German style. They're too small to have much distributorship though.

Looking at their website makes me thirsty. Almost worth shooting them an email to check if they're able to Fedex me some beer.

I said I'd have lots to share from Sierra Nevada beer camp. I have too much to share. Last night was 6 hours of free drinking.

Actually, one of the most interesting things that stuck out is the Chocolate Malt they make. Best malts ever. They actually condense down the first portion of liquid from the first stewing of the grain and make real malt syrup. Amazing.

Interesting. Sierra's the first IPA I ever had.