Beer!

Are you autistic about beer styles or something? Spouting off BJCP or Brewers Association style guidelines doesn't make them true or applicable to the real world. The BJCP styles are often just as bad as a black rye kolsch and sometimes worse as they sometimes call for expired beer or are completely fabricated. Stone was at least trying to describe the beer they made even though it's obviously not a kolsch but neither is stuff like Lancaster Kolsch. Nothing should taste like anything; they're supposed to be descriptive. Do you think most of the forward thinking US craft brewers or any of the British, Belgians, Germans, or Czechs care about the BJCP? No they don't. Budvar/Czechvar is not a pilsner, geographically can't be and tastes nothing like Pilsner Urquell except for the same origin of ingredients and Saaz aroma hops. It's a perfectly a legitimate representation of an 11-12 degree Czech pale lager. The Czechs define styles mostly by degrees Plato and color with most corresponding to a Germanic equivalent but they all taste substantially different from the German and Austrian ones as they're made with local ingredients and not cost reduced as much.

 

Okay.

 

Fresh Sam Adams is very good. It's not a Vienna or Czech style lager or whatever they claim it to be, just a general American amber lager with a nice amount of Noble hops that tastes exactly like it's ingredients. There's no Vienna malt and I'm not even sure about Munich malts, just 2-row pale and a bit of of Caramel. Why can't all of BBC's beers be this simple and good? 4-5 months old it tastes like pale malt + tomato juice though.

 

Troegs Troegenator is hands down a top 10 beer for me. I love being able to grab this stuff!

 

Giving this a go tonight:

 

I've only had that expired @OJneg

Was good anyway. Not very smoky. Not Aecht Schlenkerla smoky, not peated malt smoky, just a little smoky.

 

Mine's almost expired.

Seemed smoky to me but I've never had that.

 

Dogfish Head Fort. This is the second 15%+ beer I've had from them in the past month, the other being their 20th anniversary birthday abomination. Both have a strong sugary malt liquor finish, with the Fort being somewhat bearable. Fort holds merits of aging out the crap, but it's not worth buying given it'll probably be 2 years until it's drinkable. I've had this many times in the past before it was discontinued and re-released and it didn't have this sugary artificial sweetener nonsense going on. It tastes like they underattenuated badly because they used artificial sugars to boost ABV. I hope that isn't the case but this is beer #2 over 15% that's been damn near garbage when it was fine in the past.

 

I tend to avoid the huge Dogfish Head beers. 60 minute and Indian Brown Ale only.

 

@keanex
Your post made me pick up a sixer of Indian Brown Ale. I forgot how good this was. Roasty, hoppy, fruity. The sugar lends a lightness of mouthfeel. It's almost like a strong dark mild + a wee heavy. The Dogfish Head yeast strain is especially good: very fruity, almost English.

I tried Duclaw's 80 Shilling recently too. Very well done Scottish Ale. Fruity and toffeeish up front, peated malt in the middle, and a bitter fuggle hop finish. I wish Duclaw would brew more traditional beers like this (a good Scottish bitter with a smoky kick) instead of Sweet Baby Jesus bullshit gimmicks for fans of Boston Beer Co's and Coor's crappy seasonals.

 

Indian Brown Ale is a great beer that takes from a few of the styles you mentioned. It goes great with a burger, though I might be biased in saying that as I once read Sam say that they designed that beer to be paired with a burger

 

So despite the terror warning I am going to visit Brussels in a couple weeks. Anyone know of some places I should visit when it comes to beer?

 

Tonight I'm drinking



Too astringent all around, no carbonation, and too much lactose sugar. Shame.

 

If you are staying in Brussels, any good cafe or bar will carry all the top brands. However, if you want a real treat and have wheels, get yourself to Sint Sixtus Abbey in West Vleteren. Cafe across the street from the Abbey & home to one the most highly regarded Trappist beers on the planet. 6, 8 & 10 degree (10 is my preference, not for the alcohol content, but full bodied creamy taste) One caveat, have a designated driver ....

 

More than Sam Smith's Chocolate Stout? That one basically tastes like chocolate milk with alcohol. Not that I'm a big fan of Left Hand's nitrogenated regular milk stout. I'd actually rather have Guinness Draught.

 

Sam Smith's Chocolate was like drinking a melted Whopper's to me, you know those chocolate malted milk balls. This Bittersweet was a chore to finish to say the least.

 

This is a Brussels only trip. In the future when I do a tour of Belgium I will definitely visit Sint Sixtus since it's been on my list for a long time.

 

So I am near Brussels and was going to various beer shops and then look what I managed to find!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4Ja8JQUxJLzN3Frcmtiblg2a1E/view?usp=docslist_api

 

At work today I made a joke about Corona being terrible. Guy I work with, in his 30s, says, "So is Corona like a light beer or something?" I just stared at him for a couple seconds before realizing he was serious.