What beer are you drinking? Winter 12/13

[Clavius]

Drinking some Bells Hopslam with dinner. I'm gonna need to pick up some more of this because its fantastic.

Cannot wait until it hits here! One of my favorite beers.

[unclebunk]

I'm drinking some Oskar Blues Old Chub Scotch Ale. I poured the can into a mason jar and am enjoying it very much. It's smooth but not overly sweet, and the alcohol provides a nice bite. My only other experience with Oskar Blues was their Yella Pils, which I found very disappointing. The Old Chub is redeeming, and is something I'll buy again to enjoy during "winter" (I use quotations out of respect for those who deal with actual cold, as I'm in Southern California).

Don't forget to check out Oskar Blues' Dale's Pale Ale which is another good one for you summer-like 'winter.'

[compliance]

Can't talk Oskar Blues without mentioning Ten Fidy. Horrible name, awesome stout.

[unclebunk]

Can't talk Oskar Blues without mentioning Ten Fidy. Horrible name, awesome stout.

Very true. Outstanding beer, that Ten Fidy. Tonight though it was back to Deschutes' Black Butte Porter which I'm really enjoying.

[stevegoz]

Yes, Steve. All of them!! Well, not lagers of course but all ales really should be appreciated in cask-conditioned form whenever possible. When you consider that nearly all ale styles (excluding Belgians), be they pale ales, IPA's, brown ales, ESB's, porters, milk stouts, etc. originated in England and that cask-conditioning was the sole method of producing these beers for centuries, it is no wonder that an organization like CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) has become such a vocal activist (and political) group in the United Kingdom, as they are truly trying to preserve a way of life that centered around the village pub, where cask-conditioned ale was the beer of choice. I don't know as much about the history of bottled beer as I ought to know, but even after bottles were first introduced, beer was still "bottle-conditioned" (making it a close cousin of cask-conditioned beer) until mass production took hold and using CO2 became the preferred method of carbonating beer. So, for me anyway, cca (like all homebrew that hasn't been put in a keg) is greatly preferred because it is naturally carbonated, rather than artificially infused with gas, making it smooth and creamy (and less likely to cause a hangover too!).

Perhaps it is because we have grown up in a nation that historically tends to like their beers minimally hopped and aggressively carbonated that English ales have erroneously earned the reputation of being "warm and flat" by comparison. But when I lived In England and drank the finest fresh ale on the planet, I soon discovered that nothing could be further from the truth. A well-kept cask at cellar temperatures of approximately 45-58 degrees (certainly not warm or room temperature) produces the most flavorful, aromatic ale with a dense, creamy head that you could ever hope for and the furthest thing from "warm drool" one could imagine. The one distinction I would make is that there can be a difference between cask ale in an insulated jacket sitting behind the bar and those that are drawn from a cool cellar via a hand-pull, with the former naturally being at more risk of having a tepid quality than the latter. Check out the link below for more info:

http://www.camra.org.uk/aboutale

So if I understand correctly, you are somewhat fond of CCAs?

Thanks for all of the great info and the link. I'll have to explore more!

[unclebunk]

So if I understand correctly, you are somewhat fond of CCAs?

Thanks for all of the great info and the link. I'll have to explore more!

You've got that right! I'm bewildered by the fact that all brewpubs don't have at least a pair of hand-pulls serving up cask-conditioned ale. It's been a while, but Revolution definitely had one or two the last time I was there and the beer was outstanding.

[BradleyC]

You've got that right! I'm bewildered by the fact that all brewpubs don't have at least a pair of hand-pulls serving up cask-conditioned ale. It's been a while, but Revolution definitely had one or two the last time I was there and the beer was outstanding.

I'm not sure how up to date this is but my area seems pretty accurate. Take a look at this:

http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/us/cask-be...r-america.html

[dean_martin]

Wanted to post this earlier, but came down with the flu right after Christmas.

My two sons and I sampled 4 Christmas beers just before the big day:
Abita Christmas Ale
Bell's Christmas Ale
Sierra Nevada Celebration

But the winner was a bottle of 2009 Anchor Christmas Ale that I found in the back of the beer fridge. It aged very well.

[unclebunk]

I'm not sure how up to date this is but my area seems pretty accurate. Take a look at this:

http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/us/cask-be...r-america.html

Thanks for the link, Bradley. That's fantastic! I will check it out and make some calls to see how up to date it is.

[bigtoys]

Ninja vs Unicord double IPA from Chicago's Pipeworks Brewing Co.
yeah, I bought it for the label
turned out to taste pretty good.