Beer in the new era

if any of you are in the denver area: www.denverbeerfest.com ... ties into the Great American Beer Fest next week.

Been slowly making my way through a 6pck of Dogfish Raison D'Etre. Very satisfying.

Picked up a 6 of the first new Bell's I've tried in a while, Oarsman Ale. Pretty unremarkable, sadly. Fairly light and very drinkable, something that I'm sure could be called a "session" beer. Nice touch of sour taste in place of the hops, and nice label art. But overall kind of boring, sadly.

curious to see the reaction to the london ipa smorgasbord - of the ones you listed, i LOVE the odell and am indifferent to the rest iirc - but not in a bad way (hopdevil can be a little bit of sork tbh.

actually i think there are two odell ipas - which one is it?

yeah the oarsman ale was kind of a miss, like a really boring sour ale. and as a dude who loves sour ale, thats the last thing they should be.

just spent a mixed 12 pack confirming that i think that the flying dog stuff is indeed shit

going to City Beer Store now, psyched

southern tier pumking on draft today = one hell of a beer

followed by ayinger and paulaner oktoberfests. my local is rad right now.

is the pumking strongly pumpkiny or super allspicey? i have yet to find a pumpkin beer i liked

pumking is pumpkin pie in a glass. it's incredibly rich dessert beer stuff.

hmmmmppphh. that prob wont be the one that will sway me then tbh

yeah most pumpkin beers are mediocre at best imo but it sounds like it's just not the flavor for you possibly?

flying dog is sort of okay but a bit sweet or something. i hate the marketing of stuff like that which is offputting enough too!

odell was great, maybe the best. i thought hopdevil was maybe the great too tho, really good aftertaste.

the odell i had was this bottle http://www.freewebs.com/johnnydrunkenirishman/Johnny%27s%20pictures%20024.JPG

flying dog has the absolute worst labels which is saying something

not as bad as the brewdog craft beers in the uk....."PUNK IPA" etc......i have to tear off the labels if i'm drinking with friends as i am scared someone might think i believe in the brand.

the two brands are really similar tho....

http://www.brewdog.com/slideshow/pic3.jpg

http://www.kbsinstitute.org/images/pullo/244_4414.JPG

they do look different but the shared dog name makes me lump them together

yeah the odell stuff is amazing - if you see a bottle of 90 shilling ale, pick it up (although honestly ive liked everything theyve done so far so its hard to go wrong). i was hoping it was the elephant label - thats the one i like better as well. also speaking of label/bottle design, odell is way ahead of the pack on that front.

yeah the label on the bottle is really nicely designed. the craft beer place i went to is actually pretty amazing so hopefully can get more odell stuff, i love a trip there, so good and got a friend into the idea too...

xp yeah i just felt like posting them both--they are equally aesthetically terrible--though flying dog offends me more

And the Odell has a great label! (xpost)

We should do a separate thread on best/worst beer labels.

Meanwhile I've lately resolved to stick to Trader Joe's beers (or the ones they sell at TJ's prices) until I run out of ones to try and get sick of them. I can't really justify $12-14 for a sixpack when these are so perfectly good for $6-7. So far I've done the TJ/Josef's Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen, Bavarian Lager, Vienna Lager and Hofbrau Bock. All of these are good, my favorite is probably the Dunkel, and I need to taste the Vienna and Bavarian side by side because I don't know what the difference is. I've also had Mission St. IPA and Blonde Ale, both of which were fine and as good as some of the premium IPAs and Blondes I've had, if not the best, and now I have a sixpack of Stockyard Stout, which I like very much. Once in a while I'll buy a pint or two of high-end stuff to round this out I guess.

I had a really nice Japanese wheat beer called Ginga Kogen with some yellowtail ceviche the other day.

SOMEone's living the life

Try Mendocino's beers at TJ's, Hurting, if you haven't yet. I like the Eye of the Hawk and White Hawk types (8 and 7% abv, resp) when I'm looking for a stronger beer.

mendocino is good beers.

am drinking a stone 14 "emperial" IPA. bought due to the momentary sense that there was too much dirty ugly money in my pocket. tastes like a stone beer, which is to say excessively hoppy up front and syrupy underneath. not bad, not great.

Went to the Goose Island brewpub last night.

I had Red Felt, a hoppy red ale I liked, and Green Line, which is available on tap throughout Chicago but is quickly becoming a favorite of mine: a wheaty pale ale that's just very well-balanced and refreshing.

My lady friend started with Sai-Shan-Tea, a saison brewed with lemon tea which was one of the more interesting beers I've ever had but also sort of tasted like Lemon Pledge. Then she had Grahampagne, a beer brewed in collaboration with chef Graham Elliott Bowles, which was also pretty unique: it seemed to have no body but just went down smoothly with a light bubbly aftertaste.

Then she had Grahampagne...

Coming after the beer brewed with lemon tea, I was half expecting this sentence to end with "brewed with graham crackers!"

I recently tried Redhook's Big Ballard Imperial IPA, hoping against all odds that being "inspired by" their original Ballard Bitter would actually make me care about a Redhook product again. I used to LOVE that weirdly estery stuff back in the day, and still regularly wear my old logo sweatshirt, but the reformulated Redhook IPA isn't the same, nor is Longhammer IPA, nor is this. Okayish for what it is, and not as pricy as other 22 oz. Imperials, but not enough to win me over.

http://blog.redhook.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/RH_BBIPA-crop460.png

Caledonian Oktoberbest.
Mcewans 80 shilling.

need more oktoberfest recommends plz

my go-to sam adams seems a little off this year

just had some sam oktober and it was a little disappointing. from now on i'm only drinking ones that actually come from germany.

hofbrau, ayinger, hacker pschorr, all make good ones.

beck's--not so good.

trying brooklyn's 2nite, will report back

good luck--don't think i've had that one.

innis & gunn.....just tried this Scottish beer tonight for the first time. Quite aley...really amazing toffee/vanilla flavours in there. so good.

yeah this is good stuff. packs a punch too.

u will laff cad, but the dude at my neighborhood craft brew shop told me a new oktoberfest beer beat both leinenkugels and wachusetts in a taste test

it was a 'GANSETT

hahaha waht!!?

gansett has an oktoberfest??

Tampa, FL has this newish bar/brewery called Cigar City. Best IPA around! And at 8.5%/$5 pint, something you should not missss

Drinking Erie Railbender Ale. Good beer with hideous packaging, and 6.8%.

southern tier pumking on draft today = one hell of a beer

― call all destroyer, Thursday, September 16, 2010

holy cow this.

certainly not an every day beer or even something i'd drink more than one of in a sitting but that was one tasty beer

yeah, apparently 'gansett did an oktober this year. gotta find some, says the lover of perversity inside me.

brooklyn's oktober was watery + blah. tried spaten's, which was too what? winey? sweet? I dunno, I just didn't like it.

hear good things about hacker-pschorr's.

new Brau Brothers Hundred Yard Dash is the shit if you can get it. That and the Surly Wet are good contenders for best overhopped things ive had in a while.

Troubadour Magma. Holy hell that was good. The smoothest, most drinkable tripel IPA I've ever had.

i agree with the sam octoberfest, i think recipe changed a bit this year. Dogfishhead Punkin....so great.

yeah the dogfish punkin is far and away the best pumpkin-y beer i've ever had. the others i've had have been pretty bad, so the bar isn't too high, but I really loved the dogfish.

of course 10-11 for a four pack is a bit steep, but again...its dogfish

i know shipyard pumpkinhead is not a popular beer around strict beerists, but i love it.