Beer in the new era

La Fin du Monde in Quebec if you find the right happy hour? Get sooo happy with delicious beer at a good price

I just finished a Fin du Monde and kind of feel like I drank a bunch of 9% beer.

LG I think thir "Beer Geek Breakfast" is my favourite coffee stout in the world - it's achieves a balance which is not common. The one bottle I tried of the weasel coffee variey (Beer Geek Brunch, but the one I had was aged in something or other) I liked less. I treat myself to a bottle of Mikkeller from time to time, and they beer's always interesting, but they are keener on US-style heavy hopping than I am, so sometimes it becomes more of an exercise in appreciation than true love. I went to their bar in Copenhagen the other week, which was good: using the guidance of the bar staff I stayed away from the hoppier end and the drinking was A ++. We were there on the Sunday of the Copenhagen Beer Festival, so the bar was busier and a bit less chilled than I understand it usually is.

My current favourite trendy eurobreweries: De Struise (Belgian, famous* for their chewy dark beers Pannepot / Pannepeut / Blck Albert but I love love love their lighter oneslike Svea and Rosse) and De Molen (Dutch, kinda experimental whic results in occasional misses, awesomely nerdy). Less trendy but just as great: T'IJ (Dutch, I always end up raving about this lot after I've been to Amsterdam). I have also been enjoying beer by Evil Twin (Danish, kind of an answer record to Mikkeller, I have deliberately stayed away from their hoppier stuff which I reckon I won't like, they explicitly play to a hipster market, with one beer that they name after hipsterville in whichever relevant market (eg in Stockholm you find Sodermalm Hipter, in Copenhagen the same beer is Norrebro Hipster).

Proper beer nerds will be laughing at how mainstream my experimenting is, I know. :(

releasing a million beers which all cost a fortune is not a cool model.

It's an understandable shame the beer costs so much, but I do really like the fact that the insane variety of their beer presents a real challenge to beer tickers - you'd have to be insanely obsessive to try all their stuff, for practical purposes you can't relate to their beer in terms of collecting the set.

Mikkeller needs an editor. I've tried a ton of them and quality is all over the place.

Three floyds Barrel aged Robert the Bruce with raspberries last night. Delicious. Also had some Surly Five. Always nice when it turns up in chicago.

Three floyds Barrel aged Robert the Bruce with raspberries last night. Delicious.

You had me till "raspberries." Of all the fruit beers I've seen, that would be the last I'd want to try. Subtle I presume? I had an apricot beer called Aprihop (can't remember the brewery) that I liked a lot.

The raspberries is subtle, makes it a little tart. Definetly doesn't taste like a fruit beer.

mikkeller nelson sauvin brut is an incredibly good beer (though expensive), and it almost makes up for all their dusty ipas clogging bottle shop shelves until the end of time

whoa fucking christ, this sierra nevada hoptimum is crazeeeee.

100 IBU, 10.4%.

also worth grabbing if you can find them before they vanish - the Lagunitas undercover investigation shut down ale and the new holland rye hatter ryePA and the black hatter black ipa. the black hatter is the first black ipa i have actually really liked.

also bottled our insane imperial ipa, looks like its going to hit about 10%, now it gets to bottle condition for 4-6 weeks. luckily in the meantime we just started opening up some of our bitters (turned out pretty dope, altho not really like any bitter i have had before, very peppery, which is a good thing imo) and the saison is going to be ready next weekend. mmmmm yum yum beer.

Drank in honor of Sly Stallone's bday:

Equinoxe du Printemps by Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel
Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche by Brauerei Schlenkerla
Lava Smoked Imperial Stout by Ölvisholt Brugghús
Rye-on-Rye by Boulevard Brewing Co.

Couple of Smoked beers, doppleboch and stout, one that had something to do with maple syrup, and one of the best rye beers I've had.

And I drank more Parabola, which I will do anytime it is there.

I don't like the Farmhouse Hatter -- I've had better saisons -- but the Rye Hatter and Black Hatter are indeed both pretty good.

mikkeller nelson sauvin brut is an incredibly good beer (though expensive), and it almost makes up for all their dusty ipas clogging bottle shop shelves until the end of time

Hmm, must try this. Love other nelson sauvin beers that I've had.

this expensive beer talk is cool and all, but who wants to list their top 3 commercially available lagers?

1. Stella
2. Kroney
3. Birra Moretti

"commercially available" = macro? (I've never heard of 2 or 3, but I presume you're in the UK...)

Oh wait, Kroney = Kronenbourg?

I guess PBR and Stella would be my top 2. Schlitz and Red Stripe aren't bad, either. I don't drink enough Mexican lagers to have a preference, but those are often better than the American varieties.

they don' thave moretti in chicago? moretti is good. like it much more than stella.

faves for me:
bud bottle
yuengling bottle
pbr is fine, tied for third w a lot of cheap lagers tho -- 'gansett, tecate, coors, miler high life -- all very drinkable for me. tbh i only want to drink lager when it is really hot out and i need something refreshing & crisp.

Maybe they do? It doesn't sound familiar. Peroni seems to be the most common Italian brand I've seen.

it's not everywhere but i def see it in some grocery stores & bars here. shrug.

They're all largely the same IMO. V v little difference.

1. Black label
2. Pbr
3. Miller high life

I got nothing. I never have a need to drink lagers when I always have styles I like better available.

1. Moretti dark (which i don't see very often)
2. Tecate
3. Pilsner Urquell

i think these count but i don't quaff them often

Does cost factor into these rankings? Pilsner Urquell is good but won't ever be my default hot weather beer because of the expense.

I used to have Miller Genuine Draft as my go-to cheap lager, but eventually realized they all taste so similar it doesn't really matter. Bud lite and Coors lite are now my hot weather cheap beers - refreshing with no off flavors (I sometimes get a whiff of formaldehyde from PBR), and I can kid myself that drinking them won't make me fatter.

wasn't factoring cost, but honestly Lagunitas Czech Pils makes Urquell redundant for me (but it's a micro i guess)

1. Leinenkugel
2. Old Milwaukee
3. Stroh's

urquell (i won't count jever as "available" enough)
red stripe
modelo especial
hon. mention for coors heavy

black label is totally good--good call. local bar has a can of that & a shot of evan williams for $4.

also worth grabbing if you can find them before they vanish - the Lagunitas undercover investigation shut down ale and the new holland rye hatter ryePA and the black hatter black ipa. the black hatter is the first black ipa i have actually really liked.

what did you think of the summit black ale (which is local to you iirc)? i agree with you that there are a bunch of bad black ipas out there, but i was very impressed by it when i was in wisconsin last fall

favorite macros = natty boh, modelo, high life and bud in bottles - i usually pay the extra dollar to sub out boh for stroh's (yuck) in my local bar's shot-and-a-beer combo

I think that the summit black was a seasonal/temp brew, so I never tried it - summit EPA is a solid go to beer, but most of their one-offs seem to fall into the mediocre to dreadful category, so I tend to steer clear of them. I'll keep an eye out for it in the future though.

Bud can
Bud can
Bud can

Lot's of them being drunk in the Magill household lately, what with the weather. Thank god for the 36 pack.

this expensive beer talk is cool and all, but who wants to list their top 3 commercially available lagers?

1. Stella
2. Kroney
3. Birra Moretti

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, July 8, 2012 11:18 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I find all three of these strangely gross and would rather just drink cheap american beer tbh.

italian beer is pissy and the green bottle skunks it something awful in the summer sun

otm

in fact I think all three of those come in green bottles, and all are pissy. Maybe Kronenbourg is in a brown, I don't remember.

The thing is, euro pissy lager is usually just as expensive as a lot of craft beer, at least in Chicago. So what's the point? If I want a pilsner, which I often do in the summer, I can get a lagunitas or a victory for the same price as a peroni or whatever.

yup

reckon most people would fail a pepsi challenge with one piss euro beer v another.

japanese and thai lagers are better, but still things I'd only order in a restaurant.

I swear there was some blind taste-test experiment on the web where someone determined people rank grolsch and a couple others as the "cheapest" if they're given a bunch of beers to sample and try to blindly rank them.

Probably bc of the brown bottles. Maybe Kronenbourg is actually good when you get it in France? Then again, it's made by Carlsberg, purveyors of some of the worst imaginable euro piss.

There's a little French-themed bar close to me and Askance Johnson, and they have Kronenbourg on tap for $4/pint. It's not bad.

As for Stella, I don't go out of my way to drink it, but I'll order it if I want a little flavor and the only other choices are watery domestics or malty low-hopped ales. PBR is best for when I want to keep it light -- as the last beer of the night, or as something to drink while I'm sweating.

I'd like to see a favorite beer styles poll. But there are too many options.

That's a good idea! There's fifty poll options allowed, right? I'm sure you could whittle all the beer styles down to that? Maybe?

Though picking one beer style as a favorite would perhaps be impossible.

Beer Advocate lists 105. I could definitely pick a favorite style.