Beer!

Discussion in 'Food and Drink' started by jexby, Sep 28, 2015.

  1. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    More like "Do you want to take a shot of it and just drain pour the rest?"

    Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold is a great beer.
     
  2. C.C.S.

    C.C.S. Friend

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    Some brief notes on Old Ruffian Barley Wine. Hoping to have a photo of my own pour along with a description of its presentation at some later date, so if you're interested in my beer reviews, I'll be updating this one soon.


    Aroma

    · Hops immediately on the nose
    · Floral
    · Malty
    · Apple and burnt caramel

    Taste

    · Mild hop bitterness is immediately apparent
    · Followed quickly by strong sweetness, similar to a caramel apple
    · Slightly tart
    · Piney, bitter hop aftertaste
    · Alcohol taste and gentle afterburn

    Mouthfeel

    · Foam fills the mouth on first few sips
    · Beer coats the mouth, but is not thick, oily or filmy
    · Some body prevents the beer from feeling thin or light, but it is also not heavy

    Overall

    Great Divide's Old Ruffian is quite a potent ale (10.2% ABV) and very flavorful; it is exactly what I would call a one-and-done beer. Sweet and bitter in almost equal measure, but edging slightly toward the bitter side, this beer is too complex for me to really do it justice in such a brief review, having only consumed one 22oz bottle. I personally would not put it in my top 5, if only because its impact is so great, that I could not manage to drink a second one in a day. However, it is certainly worth anyone's consideration, especially those who enjoy flavorful double or triple IPAs or bold, sweet beers.

    Bottled on December 19, 2012.
     
  3. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    I bought Guinness Nitro IPA thinking it was going to be horrible. It's a decent, English IPA on nitro with the typical muted nitro flavors but not offensive.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2015
  4. CEE TEE

    CEE TEE MOT: NITSCH

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    ^Another alternative to standard Guinness but a touch sweeter is the Oskar Blues Old Chub Nitro if you can find it on tap. Similar to Sapporo "Creamy Top" which was Japan's answer to Guinness when the license to make it ran out. Sapporo said "we can make this and will make it a little sweeter for Japanese taste". That was a little too sweet, IMO. Not sure if they still make that and I never saw it here in the U.S. But Old Chub hits a nice balance and can be found on tap sometimes with nitro for the same creamy characteristic.
     
  5. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    If you want an excellent beer, pick up Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. Easily the best beer they brew.
     
  6. DrForBin

    DrForBin Friend

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    hello,

    @Psalmanazar you are absolutely spot on! (and pulled, again, from the US market.) :(:mad:

    the best Guinness there is!
     
  7. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    Give Left Hand Milk Stout a try. There's also a nitro version.
     
  8. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    I'm from South Africa...SABMiller (South African Breweries acquired Miller in 2002) is merging with Anheuser-Busch in a £68 billion deal. Our wonky little country will have a hand in one of every three beers drunk on the planet. We may suck at politics and equality, but we sure as %$#^ know how to drink.

    Thank god the micros are taking off here :drunk:.
     
  9. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    It's still here. It just sells a lot less than Guinness draught and is bottle only as it's bottle conditioned. Check bottle shops or Total Beverage.

    Not really as the US will force them to sell Miller to Coors and China will just take Snow from them at the minimum. Chinese regulators told InBev they couldn't buy any more breweries, brands, or distributors in the PRC after they purchased AB.
     
  10. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    La Folie isn't bottle conditioned and ages like schiit. Just had a vinegar bomb of the 2015 vintage. Drink it when you buy it.
     
  11. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    If I'm not mistaken, La Folie is a Flanders Brown, so it should have the vinegary acetic acid in it. I've never had it, but that's acetic acid is a defining characteristic of Flanders Brown. La Folie isn't bottle conditioned because it's pasteurized.

    Have you ever had Rodenbach Grand Cru, Duchesse du Bourgogne, or Monk's Flemish Sour?
     
  12. Altrunox

    Altrunox Friend

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    f**k, taxes on beer in my state in Brazil probably are going to rise, price should increase nearly 20% o_O
    Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
     
  13. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    Yes I have. Those are Flemish Reds. La Folie was supposed to be a oud bruin but is closer to a red. This year was slightly off and more than slightly vinegary. The closest actual Belgian sour I've had to this batch was an off bottle of Cuvée des Jacobins Rouge which had something go wrong compared to the rest of the pack and was a vinegar bomb.

    La Folie is both filtered and pasteurized. It's not worth the money as something seems to have gone wrong with the older aging batch.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2015
  14. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    Oud Bruin is just another monicker for a Flemish/Flanders Brown. They're very similar to the Flemish Reds, in the fact that they're aged in oak and feature acetic acid from acetobacter. Vinegar is desirable in those beers. Cuvee Des Jacobins is supposed to be heavy on vinegar as well. I've had it many times, it's stellar. That's a Flemish/Flanders red.

    In-fact here's my 2 year old review of it: [​IMG]

    If you don't like those I highly recommend avoiding any beer with "Oude" in the name, as well as many of the Bruery's sours as they love to lean towards the Flemish style in many of their sours.
     
  15. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    Except it's not. I've had all this stuff and I like it. The vinegar is there with a heavy, sweet sour malt base and the balsamic vinegar finish to balance it out. There are off bottles of almost every sour kicking around and that was the only vinegar bomb in the four pack. La Folie lacks the consistency and has been in decline for a couple of years. Something is up with their older batches in the blend.
     
  16. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    I've had Cuvee Des Jacobins a lot man, I dunno what to tell you but it has a distinct acetic acid portion due to their intentional introduction of acetobacter. You can't just take the acetobacter out of the barrels that they're constantly reusing either, it's literally not possible without a highly caustic cleaner, which would destroy the barrels. I'd wager your palate had interference for the other bottles because batches don't have odd spots that taste differently. I dunno what else to tell you, I can't tell you what you taste, but I can say with certainty that they have no way of removing the bacteria/bugs from the barrels when they reuse them and that Cuvee Des Jacobins and every Flemish/Oud Bruin will have it.

    I dunno how else to back-up what I'm saying than BCJP style guidelines.

    Edit: It seems that I was a bit confused, as the Flemish Red are typically the moderate to high acetic style, while Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin shouldn't have much, though I would argue that every one on their list has a tinge of vinegar.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2015
  17. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    First of all the BCJP is just wrong and boneheaded about a lot of things. They were a bunch of craft beer guys who made up a bunch of styles up on the spot in the mid 80s and described what they thought they should taste like.
    Robust porter vs brown porter? Those don't mean anything other than color.
    Export Stout vs Foreign Export? I mean Lion Stout is different as Guinness Foreign Export as Guinness Draught nitro shaving cream beer is from brown, slightly smoky, blended to taste 18th century porter.
    Irish Red Ale? That's a color and a description of origin for beers that could be almost anything darker than piss and top fermenting.
    Look at their pathetic attempts to categorize Scottish beer.
    The oatmeal stout description is Sam Smith not that oatmeal stout really meant anything anyway after it became legal to throw whatever grains you wanted into your beer in the UK as long you paid the tax on them which is pretty much still the case. Sam Smith's was just the only beer described as a "Oatmeal Stout" for years.
    Oktoberfest is not a style. It's beer brewed in Munich sold at Oktoberfest.
    Czech pilsner? That's not even a real thing, that's one geographically designation referring to one beer of one brewery in that region of the Czech Republic. There are actually about 20 different lager styles that can each very greatly in taste. The style of Pilsner Urquell isn't even the most common style of beer in Plzen and never was.
    Oud bruin vs Flemish red? Yeah one's just darker, usually maltier, and Linderman's, the biggest brewer of oud bruin doesn't use barrels. Taste wise, they're both a hop-free free for all other than one tending to be maltier.
    End of drunk rage.

    Second. Shelf turds and New Belgium doesn't have the blending (or conditioning) capabilities of the Belgians. The Belgian sour brewers just have more batches under more consistent aging process as that's all they do. Fat Tire brews a clone of Palm.

    Yeah. This is pretty much like a D if I'm going to judge it to style but I don't care that much about the BJCP defined styles. As a beer? Fresh earlier this year? Maybe a C+ to B. Shelf turd I have now? C-. Not holding up that well after sitting in the distributor warehouse for months.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2015
  18. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    Deleted to change the posting style:


    Czech Pils is a distinct style, especially when compared to the German Pils. German Pils will be drier with a more assertive hop profile, while Czech Pils will lean maltier with a notable hop flavor, but not much in the way of bitterness. The mineral content between the water of the two should be different as well.

    I'm not sure what you're trying to say about Oatmeal Stouts, but they're a real style as well. Oats lend a distinctly different mouthfeel and the grainbill is distinct from other styles of stouts.

    You meant Liefmans, not Lindemann's. Lidemann's is a lambic brewer and I don't think they've ever had a beer with acetobater in it, it would possibly ruin their entire production for a while.

    This has absolutely nothing to do with what I was talking about. You said that one bottle out of 4 was super vinegar/sour. That's highly unlikely and impossible if filled from the same batch. There's 0% chance that those 4 beers filled from the same vat in succession could possibly taste that different. The only possibility is that the bottles sour bottle was a newer bottle mixed in with a pack of older Cuvee as it's definitely brighter with vinegar fresher. Either way, the beer 100% has acetobacter as part of the fermentation process and that 100% gives off acetic acid, which in turn adds a distinct vinegar taste.

    I'm not sure what you're getting at with Fat Tire, but it tastes nothing like Palm, at least not the Palm they sell in America.
     
  19. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    Most breweries tend to do whatever the hell they want in some general direction and slap a name on it. Are the hopped to shit with american hops bitters English pale ales, American pale ales, or American IPAs? Who cares?

    A Czech pilsner is one beer. It's one beer from one brewery in one city. The style is just some bullshit they made up in the 80s as they didn't know that much about the actual Czech brewing styles, some of which are very broad taste wise and Pilsner Urquell was just the only widely available Czech beer that tasted a lot different from the German pils. The BJCP does not acknowledge Czech styles at all despite them being just as legitimate as any others on the list.

    Oatmeal stouts can be almost anything taste wise. You can throw oats in a "regular" stout too which has been done before it was legal in the UK until non milk stout died out there post WW2. Oatmeal Stout was usually just a branding. The style is just a description of one beer from the 1970s and judged by how closely they adhere to how that beer tastes.

    You never know at Total Wine.

    Fat Tire was a clone of DeKoninck Palm but Fat Tire has been cost/flavor reduced for mass appeal over the years and it's hard to find Palm fresh. The yeast was the biggest change.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2015
  20. keanex

    keanex Martian Bounty Hunter - Friend

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    You're not going to get arguments from me about the stupid as shit styles some people create, Stone released a black rye kolsch a few years ago. That's f'ing stupid. I know there are a bunch of nonsense "styles" coming out, no arguments here. I really don't care what they put in what beer, just don't call it a "Black Rye Kolsh" because you brewed a rye stout with pils malt and used kolsch yeast because it resembles nothing of a kolsch in the least bit.

    Czech Pils is synonymous with Bohemian Pils. Budvar and Staropromen are also Bohemian/Czech Pils and as I said above the water minerality, malt content, and hop choice. One could argue that it's no different than West-Coast IPA vs East-Coast IPA of old and I wouldn't really argue much, but the marketing and history has created two brewing methods that create beers that are different enough to warrant BCJP styles and preferences among beer drinkers.

    Not necessarily true. Oatmeal stout should have restrained roast and black patent malt presence with a touch of sweetness. They should also have a somewhat of an oily mouthfeel, something not felt in the milk stouts or dry stouts it falls in between. Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout is a classic representation of this and Wolavers makes a a decent one as well. The key is that it should hang in between a dry stout and a milk stout in sweetness, while having mild roast. The grain bill is generally near the same as a milk stout, but with the addition of oats instead. In my mind you can't have a milk stout without also recognizing oatmeal stouts.

    [quote[Fat Tire was a clone of DeKoninck Palm but Fat Tire has been cost/flavor reduced for mass appeal over the years and it's hard to find Palm fresh. The yeast was the biggest change.[/QUOTE]
    I don't know what Palm has become, but when I had it I found it to be an incredibly generic beer. I don't know what it was originally intended to taste like, but it came off as super inoffensive and dumbed down for mass market. Not saying that Fat Tire isn't a pretty generic mass market focused beer, also not saying that it wasn't created in the likes of Palm, but I don't see any resemblance today other than color and style name. Fat Tire was a more robust and flavorful beer when I had it.
     

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