What beer are you drinking? Winter 12/13

[squire]

I haven't found a domestic substitute for Kolsch and believe me I've tried.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Kolsch is a style of beer originating in Cologne Germany. That is one style that does not allow for much variation. Every kolsch i have ever tried tastes nearly identical. However I have never had a Kolsch in cologne.

[stiffchainey]

Kölsch has a lot of variations. Reißdorf, Peters and Mühlen are more on the sweeter side, whereas Gaffel, Gilden, Sion are more on the stronger side (taste-wise). I mean, there are so much different Kölsch-brands, and they do taste differently. I mean, yes, you can actually distinguish a Kölsch from an Alt, but I personally can distinguish the different brands from each other. Plus, it is a big difference, if you drink from tap or "Pittermännche" (which is a 5 liter ceg), or from a bottle. Really a big difference! You need to drink it from the original 0.2 l "Stangen", the small glasses. This is the real thing.

PS: My fave Kölsch is Peters. Sold in small 0.33 l bottles, really good stuff. But here is a brewery in Cologne, like a micro-brewery, and they do Kölsch the really traditional style, plus the kitchen is original "rheinisch", lots of very delicious stuff. If you ever visit Cologne, this is a must see:

http://www.paeffgen-koelsch.de/

It is right in the old red light district, easy access.

[squire]

You heard it here folks, directly from the man from Cologne.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

I stand corrected. My beer experience is from the American craft scene and mostly Belgians on the import side. German styles tend to get the cold shoulder in favor of hybrid styles. To relate it to wine, the German/English styles are old world where most American craft breweries are firmly new world.

[squire]

I can't tell the imports apart either, except when compared to the domestics.

[MyOldKyDram]

Trying an Avery Maharaja for the first time. Really nice.

[AaronWF]

I happened to walk into the Twisted Spoke the other night for some take-out dinner and asked the bartender what bourbon barrel-aged beer they had. He drew a blank for a minute then quickly recovered and brought out a pitcher of beer from the cellar-temp fridge. This is what they had:

Against the Grain/De Molen collaboration Bo & Luke

This is a smoked imperial stout aged in Pappy 23 barrels. BOOM! Poured from a pitcher into basically a large rocks glass, there was barely any carbonation, looked like black coffee and smelled like vanilla bourbon coffee. The smoked aspect is just perfectly placed, nicely emphasized and integrated, and moves out of the way just in time for the deeply oaked vanilla to bring a sweet, boozy kick to the chocolately malt. It was damn near perfect and completely ruined me to any other beer for the rest of the night.

I compare all BBA stouts to BCBS, and with the exception of a few fleeting tastes at FoBAB (barrel-aged Ten Fidy, yes please!), nothing has come close until this stuff. It's a big beer, but not so big that I didn't go back for seconds, and time permitting, would probably have gone back for thirds, fourths... fifths? I shouldn't even have written this out because now I'm jonesing big time!

[MyOldKyDram]

AtG puts out some really nice stuff and yeah, the Bo and Luke is awesome.

[Clavius]

Back to the Sierra Nevada 2012 Celebration Ale. I'll run out of this eventually...