Beer in the new era

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.

Agree on the DFH. It's like it is brewed with pumpkin as opposed to just squirting pumpkin flavoring in it.

New Holland Ichabod is the only pumpkin beer I've had that didn't make me want to retch.

btw I have been drinking cheap beer a lot lately, been <3ing Victoria

hear good things about hacker-pschorr's.

― only ad hominem strawman can troll me (Edward III), Sunday, October 17, 2010 3:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

split a 6 of this w/my dad on saturday--definitely good stuff imo.

yes, that is some tasty brew. i dread winter though as i am yet to find a "winter warmer" i like. any suggestions?

i hate all winter seasonals!

sam winter is a bore; harpoon winter tastes like a christmas tree.

im getting the feeling i hate winter brews too. sierra nevadas celebration ale makes me gag, a lot of my friends love it. it tastes like leather crossed with santas choad.

sick! (tho i kinda like celebration when i tried it last year)

yeah its good for maybe one or two sips and then it instantly makes me feel like i have to take a dump.

celebration is sticky-sweet to me. i can have maybe one.

sierra nevadas celebration ale makes me gag, a lot of my friends love it. it tastes like leather crossed with santas choad.

Tastes are tastes, and I know a person can't possibly convince another that something is "delicious" when it triggers the reactions described above, but man... I could pretty much drink Celebration every day for the rest of my life.

honestly i think its the smell that does it for me.

Was in Michigan over the weekend and had a good Saugatuck Singapore IPA.

Also, steer clear of Bell's Oarsman, which was like drinking a Triscuit.

(Coulda been the tap at the brewery, who knows.)

irl lol at Triscuit Ale!

I've been drinking Victory's Yakima Twilight, which is billed as a Dark IPA or a strong ale, but to me seems akin to a barleywine like Bigfoot. 8.7 ABV, so it's strong, and malty, yet with a hop finish that lasts for like 10 minutes.

I've been looking for Surly Wet, haven't tried any yet.

love your name.

I like Anchor's Christmas Ale, but never so much as the first time I tried it. They do change the formula from year to year.

problem is come winter time i get stuck drinking budweiser because i dont like winter brew.

any dark or brown beer does it for me in the winter. fuller's london porter or wolaver's brown ale f'rinstance.

but I'm kinda focused on autumn here guyz

im still focused on autumn beers too...just anticipating the winter beer duldrums.

so if you had to pick one lawnmower beer what would it be?

Miller High Life for me.

i also love thinking about beer at 9:46am.

Winter is like the best time for beer drinkin' -- stouts and porters and all things dark and malty.

Though right now I'm loving Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin'. Super hoppy, but more citrus/floral than aggressive bitterness.