Discussion The Beer Thread!

[kkck]

Technically not cooking but this is probably the safest place for this thread lol. Simple, which brand or type of beer is your favorite?

When it comes to beers I have 2 rules:

1.- There is no such thing as an excuse to put ice in a beer (not even it being warm).
2.- No light beer.

As for my first rule, I think there is something inherently wrong with making beer blander. The explanation for my first rule would explain my reasoning for the second rule lol.

As for my favorite type of beer, I am reasonably standard and particularly enjoy lager. My favorite at the moment is grolsch, followed by becks and heineken. I also enjoy pilsen although at the moment there isn't a particular brand I enjoy more than others. Occasionally I also enjoy a good stout although my choice in this ones has also been rather limited, I have tried only franziskaner (however it is supposed to be written) and enderger (or was it endenger?). I have tried ales but I have yet to develop a love for it (it will have to be an acquired taste contrary to the others which were love at first sip back in my teens lol).

 

[Koen]

Re: Your favorite beer?

No excuses for messing up your beer or messing up your way of drinking beer. Whoever has the idea of doing ice cubes in his beer is crazy

Give me a good trappist or Karmeliet, heavy blond beers are a win

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

I actually have been looking for a good lager these days (not a pale lager like heineken, grolsch or becks). Any recommendations (specially if they are available at the US).

 

[mikkih]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Although I hardly drink, Black-and-Tan (Guinness & Harp) is a piece of art. It is so beautiful~.
I think canned Guinness and Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout are rich and awesome.

*edit: kkck, would you care for Harp lager? Would it be too pale for you?

** edit: forgot to mention Pilsner - another pale lager...

*** edit: another awesome beer: Spaten

**** edit: If you don't like any, brew your own. (You need to live in a colder area to brew lager.)

 

[shinsengumi]

Re: Your favorite beer?

best 2 - Efes Pilsen and Tuborg
Miller from times to times - tho i consider it juice rather than beer
i only seriously dislike heineken ,its so tasteless

 

[k-dom]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Yes Koen, long life to belgium biers !!!

All the trapist are grate in particular the rochefort and chimey.
I tend to prefer brown bier so i also enjoy a guiness from time to time
In US the only i liked were the micro breweries type

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

I haven't tried harp lager. I googled it and it seems pretty standard pale lager so I wouldn't mind trying it (most of my favorite beers are pale lagers anyways). I have tried spaten and I do enjoy it, excellent beer IMO.

I never got the impression heineke was tasteless though. Perhaps you simply are used to more bitter beers than me though lol.

Went to the supermarket and made my own six pack from a selection of beers. One of my picks was shock top. Did not enjoy it at all.

 

[k-dom]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Today one of my german colleague offered me an Einbecker Winter bock dopplebock. From what I understood, bocks are seasonal biers (there is also a may bock). In this one, the taste of malt is stronger and the alcohol is bigger than average german bier (7,5%). But for me it was perfect :-)

 

[mikkih]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Today one of my german colleague offered me an Einbecker Winter bock dopplebock. From what I understood, bocks are seasonal biers (there is also a may bock). In this one, the taste of malt is stronger and the alcohol is bigger than average german bier (7,5%). But for me it was perfect :-)

I sure do vote for Einbecker~ It's a great beer.

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

tried Guinness today. It was ok but not particularly a flavor I am used to lol. Good stuff though.

 

[mikkih]

Re: Your favorite beer?

tried Guinness today. It was ok but not particularly a flavor I am used to lol. Good stuff though.

Did you try a can or a bottle? (Canned one is much better imo.) Stout is probably an acquired taste. Do you like amber?

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

I tried the bottled one. I usually avoid cans because there have been cases in which I can actually taste the metal lol, I was under the impression the flavor would be purer from a bottle so to speak (I don't have the facts on the matter though, if evidence suggests beer is better from a can then I would have to reconsider my position).

What do you mean by amber? I know I have tried amber beers but I don't particularly recall any.... Aren't amber beers pale ales? If they are I have tried a couple but I can't say I enjoyed them (although I think it is because of the particular beers I picked rather than I disliking the overall style). Now that I think about it, I have an amber 2 equis in my fridge however dos equis is more of a pilsner than an ale....
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Well, on another matter since it is the thanksgiving break and I am not from the US and have no family whatsoever there I am naturally completely bored (naturally most people I know left). To kill time I have taken the time to actually research beer in hopes of becoming an enthusiast and learning a bit about the whole thing (I knew I didn't know much about beers to begin with but I did not think it would be THAT little lol, I would have thought 6 years of trying different beers at every time I had would teach me something). If anyone is familiar with a web site or book that can help it would be awesome. What would be even more awesome is something with recommended beers and a description of them (flavor, smell, color and so on) so as to see what exactly I am looking for in a beer and better distinguish flavors in them. I went to a wine thing which had something like that and now I can tell the acidity, amount of sugar and alcohol volume by looking at it lol (its the sort of thing you learn in 20 minutes so its not that big a deal either though). Maybe information of hoppiness vs maltiness (I find I enjoy the hoppiness so far).

On another note, budweiser sucks.

 

[mikkih]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Ok, kkck, you are bored. Then I will give you a mission on Guinness. What trick does the can of Guinness offer that ordinary cans don't?

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

^The sad part about that is that I actually looked into it lol. You are talking about the widget right? Did not expect to see that lol, now I gotta go look for beer that comes with that. Still, from what I read bottles also include their own widget so wouldn't that be preferable to the canned version?

 

[mikkih]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Maybe you could experiment bottled one vs canned like this and write up a report here. What do you think?

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Seems interesting although writing a review on the whole thing is a damn pain (and me being unable to write the poetic stuff about flavor, smell and color would result perhaps in something similar to what he wrote to boot lol). I will definitely experiment though, I just need to finish the six pack in my fridge (or WTH, I might just go and get the damn things lol). It is kinda strange that the guiness from the bottle would be that different though. It makes sense that the can would provide the beer with more protection from light but the black plastic over it should be fairly protective as well (and it is not like they are left at noon exposed to the sun during transit either). Weird stuff lol. Anyways, I saw this on the guiness web page, dunno if you have seen it before.
http://www.guinness.com/en-us/thebeer-es.html

There are videos on exactly how to pour a guiness lol. The moment I saw this I just had to watch it and I swear to god it made me thirsty as hell lol.

Anyways, I did notice something completely off in the review you showed in closer inspection. I don't think the guiness from the can and the guiness from the bottle are the same at all. Once is guiness draught and the other is an extra stout, wouldn't they be completely different? not sure why the draft would be stronger than the extra stout though.

edit: Just confirmed that the draught is actually presented in canned and bottled forms lol, disregard previous part of the post lol. Still, something to look out for when buying guiness.

---------- Post added at 03:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:55 AM ----------

On another note, I have been having fun with this web page.
http://beeradvocate.com/
Review for hundreds of beers from several people. It has been fairly useful to me so far. Enjoyed seeing them butcher budweiser (a little disappointed that groslch was rated so low though but what ya gonna do...).

 

[Teubier]

Re: Your favorite beer?

Yebisu (gold, green and black), Bush aka Scaldis (amber preferably).
Not really beers but Asahi Sparx 9 and Desperados are really nice after physical effort.
As to the worst I drank, if I may, I would say Amsterdam Maximator.

 

[xi0]

Re: Your favorite beer?

kkck, if you want a good ale, go with Smithwick's Irish red ale. Nothing too fancy or overpowering about it.

As far as my opinions...I like a wide range of different types of beers. Belgium definitely has the best, most superior tasting breweries though. Anything from a Strong Pale or Dark Ale, a Tripel, to even Lambic if I want something sour. Most Trappist beers have that extra "umph" and complexity, but without really feeling as heavy as they are. Can't go wrong with a good Stout either.

There are smaller breweries here in the US who make really good beers though, like Magic Hat, Dogfish Head, and a local one, Flying Dog. They make a bunch of different types of beers. Naturally, you'll probably prefer certain styles over others. Maybe you just don't like Ale? A lot of Ale is ruined by too much filtering IMO.

If you want a good Amber Lager go with Honey Brown, if you can find it.

 

[kkck]

Re: Your favorite beer?

I have actually tried dogfish head lol. Tried their palo santo and the 60 minute ipa. I liked the palo santo better.... Anyways, dunno why but when I try ales there is something I have disliked so far... Obviously they are not bland or anything of the sort but there is a flavor in particular there which I dislike, not sure how to explain it (I suspect it is actually the ale flavor but I can't be too sure with what I know right now).

Gonna try a dos equis amber right now.

 

[xi0]

Re: Your favorite beer?

I have actually tried dogfish head lol. Tried their palo santo and the 60 minute ipa. I liked the palo santo better.... Anyways, dunno why but when I try ales there is something I have disliked so far... Obviously they are not bland or anything of the sort but there is a flavor in particular there which I dislike, not sure how to explain it (I suspect it is actually the ale flavor but I can't be too sure with what I know right now).

Gonna try a dos equis amber right now.

Dos Equis makes a pretty decent beer, at least in comparison to other "Mexican" brands. Let me know if it's good.