What Beer Are You Drinking? Spring '09

[nor02lei]

I did go for an eating and drinking day trip to Stockholm yesterday and had some good beers. Mostly Swedish micro but also Titan IPA and Goose island bourbon county stout. I believe Monks café is the only places were they have this stout in Sweden. They give you a chocolate truffle for free when you order it and it tasted as usual very good. When I have had it 2 or 3 times before I think it was about 11 % alc but this time it was 13. I think it must be very craftsmen like when the alcohol level differ that much between different batches.

Leif

[DrinkyBanjo]

I had a Ramstein Maibock last weekend. Ramstein is a wheat beer brewer based in NJ. I had this one on draft and it was excellent. Really nice beer with lots of great flavors. I need to try more of their beers but they are a bit hard to find even in NJ.

[jesskidden]

I need to try more of their beers but they are a bit hard to find even in NJ.

[DrinkyBanjo]

Ain't it a b*tch, too? NJ- one of the smallest states in area (so distribution shouldn't be too hard) yet one of the largest in both population density and per capita income (so, lots of potential customers for craft beer) but with only 5 actual craft breweries (as opposed to brewpubs) - most have very limited available throughout the state. In central NJ, I don't think I've ever seen High Point or Cricket Hill beers on tap, and Climax is pretty rare, as well.

A new "craft beer bar" (or, at least, an attempt at one- they've gone so far as call themselves a "microbrewery" even tho' there's no brewing on site- The Cellar Lounge ) opened in Hamilton, NJ. When I suggested to them (over on Beer Advocate) that with 15 taps, they should concentrate on getting some NJ crafts, the reply implied they'd consider getting a Flying Fish *or* River Horse beer. In the meantime they have 3 different Magic Hat beers on tap, and 7 different A-B-InBev beers. (And, yeah, A-B's got a brewery in Newark...).

[smokinjoe]

Picked up a large bottle of Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale. Enjoying it very much, right now. Very "piney". It's very chewy. Kinda rye breadish. Extremely long finish. This is seriously good beer.

[ODaniel]

Dark Lord, Ithaca 10, and some Saison from 1995. All amaaaazing.

[SBOmarc]

A local brew from Hangar 24. They are using local ingredients and this Orange Wheat expression recounts the Citrus industry that used to dominate the Riverside area. Refreshing and quite easy to drink.

[spun_cookie]

Remarkable Vanilla Porter by Breckenridge

Lion Stout from Sri Lanka

Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown

Cut throat porter by Odell

Hit a nice liquor store here in the Denver area and they have a great selection of Bourbon and beer... Good prices on the BTAC ($61) and the ORVW 10/107 is $28... I think that is a good price...

Next I head to the GraterDanes.

[unclebunk]

Just came back from Wisconsin with several excellent beers from the New Glarus Brewery. Digging the Spotted Cow right now!

[OscarV]

Remarkable Vanilla Porter by Breckenridge

Lion Stout from Sri Lanka

Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown

Cut throat porter by Odell

[cas]

Just came back from Wisconsin with several excellent beers from the New Glarus Brewery. Digging the Spotted Cow right now!

The New Glarus Beers are excellent. Too bad they aren't more widely available.

Craig

[nor02lei]

I did have my normally favourite Swedish micro IPA yesterday. It is called Amarillo in it comes from a very small brewery on Sweden’s second biggest island. However this bottle didn’t taste as good as it used to, with some yeast flavours and less hop bite than normal. I guess that is the price you have to pay sometimes for this type of small scale beer. Later I had some oak age imperial stout from Left hand. This is normally no favourite brewery of mine but this beer was very good indeed.

Leif

[Jono]

We ate at a favorite Mexican place and I had a couple of Negro Modelos.

[SBOmarc]

Stone Levitation.

Along side some smoked ribs and cole slaw.

[smokinjoe]

Heck, I guess it's close enough to Autumn, that we can start talking about the Oktoberfest beers. I'm somewhat surprised that I have not seen the Sam Adams Oktoberfest offering out yet. It's usually the first one up, as I move to the Autumn beers, and I usually get great enjoyment from it for a couple of months. Oh well, I'm sure it will be making it my way.

In the meantime, I picked up a six-pack of Left Hand's Oktoberfest. As a starter, it' servicable and drinkable.

[spun_cookie]

Oh c'mon, your'e just making these names up.

It was a great liquor store in Aurora CO... I spent 30 min just looking at the selection. It was hard as hell to pick what I wanted...

They had a nice bourbon set as well. ORips, PVans, Wellers, Staggs, etc....

[nor02lei]

I did have Shipyard xxxx IPA with my macaroni pudding with spicy India stile yoghurt sauce for dinner and Old Rasputin from North Coast right now. The Shipyard was mild for a double IPA but ok anyway. Rasputin was god as always but unfortunately my last bottle.

Leif

[nor02lei]

I did go to Stockholm beer and whisky festival yesterday on a buss tour both for the festival and for a big whisky event called whisky convention with my local whisky club SMAD. Besides 2 single malt tasting events I did drink a lot of good beer. Amongst them the strongest beer I ever had. Utopia from Samuel Adams. At 27 % alcohol it was a big concentrations of flavours. It tasted much better than I did expect and I did like it a lot. However the taste profile did remind me more of a well aged Madera then a beer. The best beer I had was not surprisingly a 2006 Bigfoot on tap that was a special 9 pm release. I was first in line and they started to pour 2 seconds past 9. They did also have 2007 celebration from Sierra Nevada on tap at the same station. I did not like that at all as it appeared as flat in general. I do recall I didn’t like one celebration on bottle not that long ago. Maybe it was the 2007 because I do recall both the 2008 and 2009 as being outstanding.

Leif

[smokinjoe]

Seeing that I've returned home from KBF to a deluge of 20" of rain, and another 5" expected, I felt it was fitting to break out the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that I picked up while there. It's exactly as the label describes: "Complex roasty aroma with a bittersweet, chocolate-coffee taste." Just the way I like it. But, for some reason I keep having this urge to occasionally shout out, "Gitche gumee!!!"

[callmeox]

If you ever remember to check in when you're in town, we can skip on over to GLBC and you can have it fresh from the tap there. :grin:

Seeing that I've returned home from KBF to a deluge of 20" of rain, and another 5" expected, I felt it was fitting to break out the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that I picked up while there. It's exactly as the label describes: "Complex roasty aroma with a bittersweet, chocolate-coffee taste." Just the way I like it. But, for some reason I keep having this urge to occasionally shout out, "Gitche gumee!!!"

[unclebunk]

Still sucking down the last of my case of Oberon Ale from Bell's Brewery in Michigan. Fantastic stuff, but a seasonal summer beer, so I always hate to see it go when autumn creeps up on us. Also been enjoying some Abbot Ale from the Greene King Brewery in England but was completely amazed when I went into Binny's last week and discovered that they had stocked one of my favorite English ales of all time, Bateman's XXX Bitter. That's the first time I've seen it in the US in more than ten years, so I stockpiled a bunch of it to get me through the new few months. Jump on it if you can find it!

[nor02lei]

I did drink bunches of beer at Stockholm beer and whisky festival yesterday as there isn’t much bourbon around. The highlights were Hercules double IPA on tap (same beer on bottle was less good) and Tokyo an 18,2% imperial stout from the amassing Scotch brewery brew dog. The brew master from great divide was there. Real nice guy that really seemed to like what he was doing. Lots of experiments going on at the brewery for sure!

Leif