Yuengling is probably the best if I had to serve up a lot of cheaper beer and not break the bank. Killian's Irish Red is my more typical go to when options are slim. Sam Adams are pretty good in general too I find.
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Beer |OT|
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Yuengling is probably the best if I had to serve up a lot of cheaper beer and not break the bank. Killian's Irish Red is my more typical go to when options are slim. Sam Adams are pretty good in general too I find.
Mostly the size of the brewery, and also to an extent a focus on quality vs marketing.
Macro = Miller, Coors, Bud etc..
Craft = Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, Stone, Bell's, New Belgium, Dogfish Head etc..
Breweries like Miller make over 40 million barrels of beer a year. where someone like Lagunitas produces around 400 thousand barrels. Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) is probably the largest brewery that is still considered craft making around 2.5 million barrels, however many people are calling them too large to be considered craft.
Most craft breweries however are much smaller making under 30k barrels or so.
The Brewers Association defines Craft Breweries as such:
another difference is the lager. Most macros are pale lager beers, while it's near impossible to find a pale lager at a craft brewer. Crafts use different hops, different flavorings, different methods to brew ales, pale ales, india pale ales, stouts, porters, and some specialty lagers. While they're both 'beer', they don't share much in common beyond the name.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Mother of God. They had Barrel Aged Old Rasputin on the shelf. It is so expensive at $23 for a 17oz bottle, but I had to bite. I would hate myself for not getting it, no matter how expensive it is.
distantmantra
Member
Yep.
I've really been loving this lately. It's better every time I try it. It's a good farmhouse ale with glorious sorachi ace hops in perfect balance. They compliment the beer so well it's ridiculous. Outside of sours and IPAs it's rare that I find a beer under 8% that wows me this much anymore. As far as I know it's not hard to find either which is a positive.
This might be Brooklyn's best beer, only Hopfen-weisse contends imo.
That Winos tap and bourbon list for today is pretty legit too. Hoping to track down some Blot Out the Sun from 3 floyds as well
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Great tap list. And looking at their site, I didn't realize that was Raison D'EXTRA I saw at liquor barn instead of the regular.
Systemwarrior
Member
Cracking this open tonight. Any others suggestions on bottles I should get for a New Years party?
distantmantra
Member
Got a final Christmas present today from our friends at Crux:
Trading takes a huge hit on the budget. You still buy all the beers you were going to already, but now buy more to cover the other stuff. Be strong, brother.
Trading takes a huge hit on the budget. You still buy all the beers you were going to already, but now buy more to cover the other stuff. Be strong, brother.
It's not like I said Bud Light and Blue Ribbon, geez.
distantmantra
Member
It's not really any different. Geez.
bumbillbee
Member
Bar I was at on Sunday had it and the bartender didn't know he was supposed to pour it in a tulip and not a pint glass. Ended up drinking two full pints for less than the price of a bomber lol
Blue Moon in particular is vastly superior to Bud.
distantmantra
Member
Just keep telling yourself that.
My taste buds do.
distantmantra
Member
Drink better beer. Support your local brewer, brah.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Did you let it warm up? I am curious.
Started this afternoon with Dogfish Head Olde School. Then did the bottle of barrel aged Old Rasputin. Now for champagne.
weremichael
Member
Yeah, move to LoDo and drink Blue Moon at the brewery in Coors Field. You can then support a local brewery.
Their beer isn't unpalatable (it's tasty actually). I prefer other Wits (especially fresh ones that still have a touch of sulfur from the yeast), but it's not a bad beer.
Dr.Horrible
Member
Blue Moon is good. Fuck the haters.
Pretty hyped on this little Cincy package I put together for the homie. I kept it real 513, hyped to send it out, even if it ain't the greatest, it definitely showcases the best Cincy has to offer and is super super local. Like I didn't even grab anything from outside the city limits and yet I got all the super limited shit too.
I did actually. I had one 8 and one 10 in the fridge. So I had the 8 cold. And at the same time I took the 10 out of the fridge to it could warm up a good while. Tasted very well. The 10 surely has a richer taste than the 8. Also more bitter I think. Well I suck at describing taste, but it was good.
Stealth La Trappe photobomb, which was what my father was drinking.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
Hefeweizen? Typically has hints of banana and clove due to the yeast. HB is good, also look for Weihenstephaner, Franziskaner or Ayinger.
weremichael
Member
You can get banana from a dunkelweizen and kristallweizen as well as the typical hefeweizen. It's all about how the yeast is treated (pitching rate and temperature). Pitching low and then ramping up the temperature gives banana. I like to use the weihenstephan strain when I make dunkelweizen. It's like chocolate covered bananas.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
I know, they were just referring to a HB beer they had and figured it was their Hefe.
distantmantra
Member
I do trades with a friend in Bend via people who travel. Our friends who own Crux came up for NYE, so he sent stuff with them and I gave them some Fremont Sour Weisse bottles to take back for him. My parents often mule stuff down for him or we do in person trades whenever I go down to Bend.
Totally love the fact that De Garde ramped up their production levels to a point where these are $4 shelf turds. Awe yeah.
weremichael
Member
I didn't intend to insinuate you didn't. I was just geeking out on the process involved with having that flavor so prominent. You've proven you're a beer nerd and extremely knowledgeable time and time again in this thread.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Best thing about winter months? I can buy a 4 or 6 pack of something before work, leave it in my trunk, and it is nice and cold by the time my shift ends so I can open it the moment I get home.
So Sierra Nevada is about to release a year round wet hop IPA:
http://www.esquire.com/_mobile/blog...ter-ipa?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_126924957
Sounds kinda easy to replicate for other breweries?!
http://www.esquire.com/_mobile/blog...ter-ipa?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_126924957
Sounds kinda easy to replicate for other breweries?!
distantmantra
Member
There goes Sierra Nevada and their "fresh hop" technical loop hole again. Cool idea, though.
yeah when you get home.....right.......lol all jokes aside must be nice if I did that they'd be frozen solid
distantmantra
Member
Lots of breweries use hop oil in addition to whole cone, pellets, etc.
SN responded over at BA. They'll be adding the oil along with traditional dried hops.
Bubbavelli
Banned
I found Brown Shugga in my area and it changed my life. Its baffling how a 9.9% brew can not really be as bitter as it theoretically should be. Lagunitas is easily my favorite brewery
...freshness on another level...
I'm gonna fry my potatoes in some "fresh olives" tonight and add some "fresh pepper".
Strong beers will (almost) always taste sweeter than a lower ABV beer with similar IBUs.
Otherwise I don't see a connection between bitterness and strength. A lot of really strong beers aren't bitter at all.
distantmantra
Member
I was gonna come in and say the same thing. It's really interesting what marketing has led people to believe about beer.
Bubbavelli
Banned
I like Sierra Nevada, I'll have to keep an eye out for a bomber or 6 pack of this
distantmantra
Member
Alcohol in beer is fermented sugar from malted grain. Hops don't produce alcohol. The hops are used to balance out that sweentess with some bitterness, but of course if you increase the amount of hops it become more bitter.
Like distantmantra said, ABV depends on the amount of fermented sugars. So if you wanna drive up the ABV, you need more sugar and usually end up with residual sweetness.
Try some Belgian quadrupels or (English) barleywines to taste for yourself.
Bitterness (and other flavors) comes from the hops. Bitterness can be measured too (in international bitterness units/IBUs), which you'll sometimes find on the labels.
Problem is that these IBUs will only give you a rough estimate of the bitterness you taste, as it depends on other factors, mostly the aforementioned residual sugars (and maybe also the alcohol). For instance, an (American style) barleywine with about 70 IBUs and maybe 11% will usually still taste mostly sweet, an IPA with the same IBUs will taste pretty bitter, and a drier, lower alcohol style like maybe a pilsener would probably be undrinkable with that amount of bitterness.
This also kinda explains why there has been a trend of increasing the ABV level especially in America, as it will give you more body and a malt backbone for a full blast of hops with all its desirable aroma and flavor. And it explains why trying to recreate that same hoppy flavor in lighter "session" beers fails so often.
tl:dr: Try all kinds of beers instead of reading my nonsense. You'll figure it out easily enough.
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