School me on good beer

I like to "drink local" and I consider myself fortunate to live in Chicago. My favorite local (relatively speaking) bottled beers are New Glarus Native Ale, Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, and Three Floyds Pride and Joy. There is nothing really hoppy among my favorites. Pride and Joy, though labeled as an IPA, is not as hoppy as other IPA's.

I think the Two Brothers beers (from Chicago's western suburbs) have improved over the years, and were over-hyped at first.

Of course, if you can step into a microbrewery and talk FTF with the brewmeister, and ask what his "flagship" is, well, you know, that's a whole different experience.

From the tap, I love Sam Adams Boston Lager. It is entirely a different beer on tap vs. from a bottle.
 
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I guess I need to buy some Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout. It's been a long time. :-)
 
Don Nguyen said:
I've started trying out new beers lately and I'm wondering what are some you like. So far I'm a bit of a snob, and I favor lagers and ales. Nothing with too much of a hops taste.

I'm still very much a newbie though :)
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OK Beer 101.
Any fermented beverage made from grain is Beer. Sake is actually beer.

There are two main sub categories of Beer;

Ales are fermented at room/warm temperatures causing flavors and aromas contributed by the yeast/fermentation. Yes a German Hefe-Weizen is an ale and the characteristic banana-clove note are from the yeast.

Lagers are fermented cold and the yeast does not add anything but ethanol and CO2.

There are more complex descriptions having to do with top and bottom fermenting but that is less important than fermentation temps.

So all beers are either an ale or a lager.

I sell beer for a living and do a lot of beer education, this is how I start a class/presentation.

BTW Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold is a great beer. Can't get it here in Ca.
 
Overhopped beer is an American thing. Other beer people laugh at us over that.;)
 
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I got a 3 pack of Sam Adams barrel room collection at Costco last week. Surprisingly good Belgium beers.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...rrel-room-collection-3-pack-at-costco.142552/

The Sam Adams winter collection is always a nice seasonal filler for the bottom refrigerator shelf.

When I can, I drink dark malt, heavy ales. If it looks like coffee, and tastes like it may have been brewed in a very old coffee pot ... I probably will like it.

When I used to brew beer, I made amber ales, extra stout, and "bitters". The bitters was so strong flavored it was hard to drink straight ( the name says it all), but was perfect for " 'alf -an-'alf ". It is a half pint of ale with the bitters floated on top. Imagine a Guinness black and tan on steroids.



Good story:
When my father came here from Germany in 1930, you couldn't buy beer or wine because of prohibition. His family settled down in a little melting pot community in NJ. It was all Germans, Polish, and Italians. The depression created a barter community in the town. The Polish were mostly butchers and bakers. The Italians all made wine and baked, the Germans made sausage, beer, and kraut. They would trade what they made for what the others made. Dad remembers rolling his wagon down the street filled with bottles of beer that Grandpa brewed. They would stop at neighbors houses and trade. By the time they got home the wagon was full of sausage, bread, a few pork chops, sauce and pasta, cookies for dad and his sister.....and the empty bottles from that last run. Grandpa brewed the beer in a small cellar he hand dug under the house. Dad's job was charging and capping the bottles on every batch. Once in a while he would add a tad too much sugar in the charge and they would hear caps shooting off and hitting the floorboards. He would have to get up and go down in the cold cellar and re-cap the bottles all night long as they popped off ( he was seven or eight at that time).

Fast forward from the hard times of the depression to the good times in the late 1950's. Grandpa had just retired to St. Pete, FL, and was looking for some work to keep busy, being a young 65 year old. Busch gardens was just getting ready to open and a friend said he should go and get a job at the brewery. He showed up at the front office and went to the receptionist, saying in his very thick German accent he was there to apply for the "brewer's job". They sent him in to talk with the director, who asked how long he had been a brewing beer. He said, "In Germany since around 1900, and in the US since 1930". The director spoke no German, and could barely understand grandpa's accent, so he said he was perfect for the job and sent him down to the plant ( where a lot of the guys spoke German). They drove him there in a golf cart, and showed him the brewing room. It was all gauges and dials, pipes, and huge tanks. He asked what they wanted him to do, and they said, "You check the beer batches and tell us what to do." It then became clear that they had given him the job as the brewmeister. He thought he was getting a job just working in the plant brewing beer. They liked him so much that they kept him on for several years as the "German Brewmeister" who gave the tours when the visitors came over from the animal park.
 
nighthaxan said:
I second this recommendation, my personal favorite of theirs being the oatmeal stout.
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I'll third this; Oatmeal Stout and Imperial Stout along with their Samuel Smiths porter. These are aged and not gassed which makes a big difference in taste.
 
The only one kept in my cooler is Bass Pale Ale which I first discovered in Philadelphia in the early 70s.
 
Alagash's Midnight Brett Beer is a winner. Nothing else quite like it.
 
Yuengling....but you probably cant find it that far west. Im in Texas and have to have it bootlegged in from SC
 
Don Nguyen said:
I've started trying out new beers lately and I'm wondering what are some you like. So far I'm a bit of a snob, and I favor lagers and ales. Nothing with too much of a hops taste.

I'm still very much a newbie though :)
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Abita Beer from Abita Springs Louisiana has a very nice line up. I like their IPA's and if you want a double bock go for their AndyGator
 
We have many great breweries around BC, so I get to try lots of new beers all the time.

One of my favorite spots to stop for a pint is at the Howe Sound brewery. Its in a place named Squamish. It's on the highway from Vancouver to whistler. The view from their patio is one of the most amazing I have seen. Looming over their restaurant is the "Stawamis Chief," a popular hiking spot for the adventuresome kind.

They have some great beers like the "devils elbow IPA" for those who prefer something more bitter. Then theres the "Garibaldi honey lager" for a lighter slightly sweeter beer.

Here's the view from their patio:

7177707515_61c53730ec_z.jpg
 
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Stacy, that is a very cool story.

I recently found something in a bottle that I really like: Central Waters Mud Puppy Porter. It's from central Wisconsin.

I had it on tap about a year ago, but that was too long to compare the flavor to the bottled version.

From the bottle, it is very chocolaty, with a smoky edge to it. Not too hoppy. A good balance for me. The flavor stays on from first sip to last, but the foam disappears within about three minutes. Nothing's perfect.
 
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I think these two german beers were the best I've had. Especially the smoked one. 90% of the time though drinking MBI or Phillips screwdrivers. About 10 deep on the MBi's. Can't afford the good stuff though would definately splurge on these German beers again. Very tasty. Also recommend Oslo Aquavit with the white label. Need to get to the cities toget some more liter+ bottles.

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Mike Gesualdo said:
I thought I didn't like IPAs for a long time and avoided them like the plague until I accidentally ordered one and loved it. It might just be an acquired taste thing, but I think it's the variety and complexity that I like about them these days.
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I personally love IPA's, I find the hops has such a broad range of flavors and intensity depending on the variety. They're a little intense when you first try them. I was the same when I started drinking beer but as I had more they grew on me like Mike stated above. I've seen the same happen with a few of my friends. For a very mildly hopped IPA try Alexander Kieth's if you can find some! As others have said Hefeweizen are also delicious, and generally much less "strong" than IPA's.

Your taste will change a lot as you drink more and different types of beer. You just have to start trying them to see what you prefer. Beer is always better as fresh as possible and as close to the source as possible; Go to small brew pubs or pubs that specialize in having a variety of craft beer on tap! In the Vancouver area we're lucky to have a huge selection of micro breweries and brew pubs :D
 
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