I have to agree with the Stella lovers...once you have it, you'll be hooked, despite the premium pricing. Nothing finer than a nice Stella after a hockey game, a round of golf or any damn time....

Taking a look at the list of some of the beers, I am reminded that I must start looking at microbreweries more often for new experiences. However, taking a look at all the varieties of Sam Adams makes me realize how much I'm missing here in Canada.

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried Moosehead? It's brewed in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and is a nice lager that is pretty well mainstream in Ontario. However, when I was visiting Vegas a few years ago, I actually saw a bottle that was distributed by a brewer in San Antonio.

I've been on an oatmeal stout bender over the holidays, too. A really delicious one is Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. Check it out here, along with the other spectacular Anderson Valley brews. Good shat, maynard.

Drank Sam Adams Winter Lager yesterday. Good stuff. One of the best bottled beers I've ever had. I've always been partial to dark wheats.

My brother-in-law just in from Germany (stationed there) turned me on to this:

http://paulaner.com/paulaner.htm

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen (natural wheat) was a very heavy un-filtered beer. Very tasty and you don't need many - just don't pour out the whole bottle and don't look at the bottom of the bottle...

My first Air Force assignment was Germany, in the early '80s. German beer's the best. Strong, too. I drank one (large) doppelbock at lunch once, and literally couldn't function at my job the rest of the afternoon.

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but next time you find yourself in a quality pub give Smithwick's a try (and when pronouncing it, the "w" is silent). Great pint. Will get you going too. When I'm not drinking Guinness I am usually on the Smithwick's or cider.

Funny you should say that.... I am in the middle of a Moosehead right now. Love it... crisp and refreshing. Jwvdcw, try Moosehead - inexpensive and flavorful without being overpowering. I think you'd dig it.

Mine is brewed in New Brusnwick, imported by The Gambrinus Company in San Antonio.

I just picked up two more beers that I'm about to try:

JW Dundee's American Pale Ale: It had a "New" sticker on it, so I thought I'd give it a try

Grolsch: They were actually sold in 4 packs of 16 oz bottles and had swingtops instead of caps that caught my attention. Was kinda expensive(over $10 for the 4 pack), but I'm excited.

I'll report back later.

Wachusett makes some fine beer, the October fest is solid if you can find some. The blueberry is damn good to, can't go wrong with any of their brews.

Edit to add, if you're in the Mass area.

I'm not too crazy over the JW Dundee's Pale Ale. Maybe I just don't like Pale Ale much because I remember several people raving about Sierra Nevade Pale Ale and I didn't like that all that much. What exactly is Pale Ale anyway? Overall, its not terrible but nothing special. I'd grade the JW Dundees a 6.5/10.

I love Oatmeal Stouts as well when having just a few. Otherwise, I usually go with best value which might include your mass marketed domestics. However, if a really good beer is also on sale and is too good of a value to pass up, I'll pay the extra couple of bucks. A convenience store near my house has been selling 12 packs of St. Pauli for $9.99 which is a good deal. Occasionally, I see Newcastle on sale for $10.99 or cheaper and I love that beer. Not a big fan of wheat beers or anything flavored with some kind of fruit.

If you have the time to do it, I highly recommend attempting to brew your own beer. I've only done it twice but had excellent success for a beginner with an oatmeal stout and an Indian pale ale a few years back. Clean up sucks though.

Samuels Smith's Oatmeal Stout is the benchmark for all Oatmeal Stout's. Try it, if you haven't already.

Grolsch goes down pretty easily for me. Average taste, however, though imo. I'd say 6/10.

Mildly disappointed with my selections for the day.

I was over there for Oktoberfest. Had a few of them. And Augustiners. Many more Marzen/fest beers. I personally like Schneider Weisse better. But, it's very close.

If he's still stationed there, tell your brother-in-law to go to Andechs if he hasn't already. One of the best beers in the world. the trip there is worth it. Get him to find some of their dopplebocks (many markets there have them) and send them to you. You won't be sorry. And then, send me some. I'll be indebted to you for life. I got a few bottles at the train station for about a Euro. That's a half liter of one of the best beers in the world for about $1.30. I would have bought more but I didn't want to have customs ask why I had 20 bottles of beer in my suitcase.

Geary's

Didn't read the whole thread, so these may or may not have been mentioned.

Abita Purple Haze - fantastic if you can find on tap. Good out of the bottle as well, but not the same as draft.

Tennent's - Scottish lager that's one of my favorites that I don't have often enough.

Fat Tire - impossible to find around here, but I really enjoyed it the few times I had it.

If you guys haven't tried it yet, the Sam Adams Chocolate Bock is out of control. They actually age it on a bed of chocolate.

I've tried a lot of chocolate beers but this one is far and away superior to Rogues, Youngs or Saranacs. The price tag, however, is very painfull. At $15 for a 22 oz, it should be something that you think about trying once and maybe only once (unless you really really like it).

And of course, drink at the proper temperature to really let the chocolate flavor blossum.

Live 45 mins from the brewery.

GB the brewery tour with free (unlimited) samples afterwards. The Amber, Wheat, and Turbodog are also all really good.

All of Anderson Valley's output is top-notch. This is far and away my favorite brewery (Boont is there signature brew)

I didn't read the whole thread, and I've mentioned these in other brew threads, but if you can find them, I HIGHLY recommend:

Rogue (Dead Guy)
Mendocino Brewing Co. (Redtail)
North Coast Brewing Co. (Red Seal)

I have not read this whole thread. I stopped at this post.

These are great suggestions and just about all of my favs are listed here. And I also like Sam Adams.

I am probably piling on here, but here are my current favorites"

NewCastle Brown Ale
Sierra Nevade Pale Ale (has some bite to it)
Sam Adams Lager, and especially Golden Pilsner
Fat Tire Ale, and also Blue Paddle Pilsner
Pilsner Urquell
90 Shilling - similar to Fat Tire

I did the brewery hop in Fort Collins earlier this year. Great time. Went to New Belgium Brewery (maker of Fat Tire, Blue Paddle, others), and O'dells (90 Shilling and others).

For cheap cold beer, I am a big fan of Miller Lite. All around best in class cheap beer. Low Carb to boot.

I am stuck with fighting through a twelve pack of Shiner Bock, UGH! I had heard so many good things about it.

I think I will try to Samuel Smith Oatmeal, based on this thread.

Any others I am missing (too lazy to read the whole thread right now.

Other than the price, you won't disappointed with a Samuel Smith Oatmeal. Great stuff. Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Great too and not as expensive. A pretty good Belgian that I'm drinking right now is La Fin du Monde. One of my favorite beers that's probably available in most places is Celebrator Dopplebock. Again, expensive but nice to try.

La Fin du Monde is technically Canadien. Errr, Quebecian to be exact.

But it is a Belgian style. Everything that brewery makes is spectacular except for the Raftsman.

I was going to add that. By Belgian I did mean style rather than where it came from. I haven't tried anything else they make. Don't even know if I've ever seen anything else. hmm, sounds like a search I might want to make. Have any suggestions? I've heard that Unibroue 10 is good.

Good advice above if you're in the mid atlantic area. Victory is a wonderful brewery.

First, find a local brewpub, go there, and try the beer. Don't do a sampler, necessarily - but do order a couple of pints each time. See if the brewer is around - he or she will give you all kinds of information and will be happy to point you towards better beers that are available in your area.

Second, go here. The best beer resource on the web, run by a couple of guys who are passionate about beer.

Beers I'd recommend:

If you're near NY State, search out Southern Tier and Middle Ages products, especially the Southern Tier IPA and MA Beast Bitter. That bitter, citric flavor is hops. Glorious, wonderful hops. Western MA? Berkshire Brewing does a nice job. Maine? Cadillac Mountain Stout is insanely drinkable.

Get a bottle of Ommegang or Hennepin. If you like these, you may have the dreaded Belgian curse. This means that you'll run to the bank account and drain all kinds of funds for big Belgian beers in big Belgian bottles. Proceed immediately to Saison Dupont, Abbaye de Val-Dieu, Delerium Tremens, and (for hard-core) Fantome, Cantillon...

For fun, seek out some Heavyweight beer from Ocean Township, NJ. Strongly recommend Baltus, Lunacy, and Perkuno's Hammer. As with Middle Ages in Syracuse, great beer made by great people.

Cheers!

bakes, 2000+ different beers and counting.

Just had my first Real Ale Coffee Porter tonight. It made me all hot in the britches. I've got a new favorite.

I've always liked Maudite from that brewery (malty brown Dubbel style), but Trois Pistoles and La Fin are also excellent. Raftman is not now what it once was - I think they cut back on the peat smoked malt.

No beer discussion is worth a grain of salt if my Holy Trinity is not mentioned:

Westvleteren 12/ St. Bernardus Abt 12 (similar brews, the first one trappist and not officially imported, the other brewed outside of the abbey to a very similar recipe)

Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel (not imported, but I've known people to have a religious experience with this beer - brewed at a monastery outside of Munich, and worth egging, borrowing, or stealing to get some)

Middle Ages Dragonslayer Imperial stout (out now, their winter stout, 9.5% of insane malt complexity - soon to be bottled).

Three best beers in the world IMO.

Good call here Lord. Bought a six pack tonight that I'm halfway through at Whole Foods. Very smooth. I like it.

I will give this a shot. Thanks for the suggestion Billy.

Agreed. See my earlier post on page 4 about Andechs. Brought some back with me. Not enough though. I was so hungover when I made the pilgramage to the monestary. But the elixir of the Gods healed me.

For that matter, Samuel Smith's are the benchmark for EVERY one of their styles.

It's all damn good.

If you like Pilsner try a Peroni. Italian, awesome.

That's actually weak for an Imperial. I would expect something in the 11%+ range.

I don't like Oatmeal Stouts, so I can't speak for that, but I was surprisingly pleased with their Imperial Stout.

I'd love to try it, but I can never get past their Oatmeal Stout. It's so ####### good.

If you like Imperial Stouts, try North Coast's Old Rasputin . . .

Try out some of the Vermont blueberry flavored brews. They don't taste fruity--just earthy.

Ditto here. I'm just over an hour away in BR.

Update:

Just tried Dogfish Head Aprihop. The description on the bottle says "An Indai Pale Ale brewed with real apricots." I really really like it. I don't want to get too carried away, but it may just be one of my favorite beers I've tried so far. Its a little pricy: $8 for a 4 pack in MD(which is usally cheaper than NY), but it was worth it imo and I think that it was a little stronger than most beers(Correct me if I'm wrong here, but 7% is stronger that most, right?)

I need to update my first post againto add in all of my new favorites.

I like some of the local stuff here. I doubt you can find it anywhere other then Southern AZ. I like Dos Equis,Becks,Fat tire.
After reading all this I am wanting to expand my horizons. I do tend to try a lot of local micro brewery stuff. I'm really just putting a bookmark here.Dont mind me.

Old Raputin makes me pretty hot, too. North Coast is one of my favorite breweries (along with Avery, Sierra Nevada, and Real Ale).

7% is on the strong side. Especially for a wussy thing like apricot (jk. they make for great farts).


Bud and crap beer is closer to 3.5-4, with most micro's in the 5-6 range.

On the cheaper side, and not too tasty, Molson XXX tips in at between 7-8% I think, and doubling your drunk with no more piss is worth the bad taste.

Picked up a 6 pack of Boris tonight to try. They're small bottles(8.5oz I believe) and carry the label "The Alsatian Flask". I like em, but nothing spectacular imo. I'd say about 6.5 out of 10.

FYI - Budweiser is 5.0% Bud Light is 4.2%

:confirmed:

Drinking Guinness Draught right now...still kinda hard for me to get too into it. Maybe its just like Sierra Nevada to me- a beer that everyone raves about but I just don't seem to like it even after giving it several chances. I think I may pick up some Newcastle Brown Ale tonight and give it another shot, as I liked it the first time IIRC(its nice to have this thread because since I've tried to many new beers recently, its hard to remember which ones I liked and which ones I didn't). Two beers that I've been wanting to try for a long long time but havn't been able to find them around me(New York) are Dogfish Head(had once and oved it) and Sam Smiths since everyone talks so highly of it. Also wouldn't mind trying Anchor Steam again, but I can't seem to find it either around here.

So I imagine you are familiar with the Heineken ####s? Really unique smell and comes out like pudding.

I had a FANTASTIC beer from Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago at a party. It's called Hofbrau Bock (I think). I need to buy a case of this stuff stat. Really, really good.

My favs are:
Sierra Nevada (but kinda sick of it now)
Fat Tire (Don't see this in SoCal much. More popular when I was in AZ)
Stone Pale Ale
Anchor Steam
Guinness (only on occasion)
Corona (only with lime on a sunny day)

if you like Corona, I would think you'd like Pacifico better. Its just a better Mexican beer all the way around. Don't forget the lime.

Tried Harpoon IPA tonight...I liked it a lot. Pretty sweet and easy to drink imo...8/10.

Which Dogfish Head are you looking for? The 60 Minute IPA? If so, let me know where you live and we might be able to set up an exchange.

I've only had the Aprihop, which I liked a lot(see my post a few up). I got in in Maryland, but I live in New York now and can't seem to find a place that has a lot of selection.