Beer?

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bitsandbobs

Über Member
The Sierra Nevada beers are watered down and aren't even in the same class as the Dogfish Head. Funny how we all have our own personal tastes. Another popular beer here is Blue Moon. I love wheat beers and especially the white style of Belgian wheats. But I much prefer Hoegaarden. I find it far superior. And then there was the time I visited London with my wife. I was really looking forward to having what we call here "hand drawn" ale, which I believe you call cask ale. Basically it sits in the basement unrefrigerated and you have to pump the tap to get the beer to flow. I think you folks perfected it. A bar in NYC that I went to alot always had a couple and was one of the few places you could find it. So I go to London, found a pub, ordered up two and while he was pouring them I look around and all of the locals are drinking.......wait for it......Budweiser. Out of an aluminum bottle. Are you kidding me? That stuff is just pxss water. I find that generally speaking the beers found from Europe are far better than what you can find here. I love love love Chimay. All of them. Too many to name. I really enjoyed the beer while I was there and then got the chance to visit again when our son was about 7. I treated myself to something different in each pub we went to. To each his or her own I suppose.

A bit harsh on Sierra Nevada - the Pale Ale is the exemplar of APA and if it's good enough for Vinny Cilurzo, it's good enough for me!

For me, pretty much all the best beer these days is coming out of the US. Over the past couple of weeks I've enjoyed really great IPAs from Toppling Goliath (Iowa), Adroit Theory (Virginia), Burley Oak (Maryland) and Lupulin (Minnesota). Going back a couple of months I had some spectacular super fresh Trillium (Boston) and Other Half (NYC). I think the cans were less than two weeks old - pretty impressive to get from the US to Belgium so quickly. No one in Europe can brew beers of this quality - at least in this style.

Hoegaarden is pish though - Allagash's White is a much better bet, although so difficult to find Allagash in Europe.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Fourpure, who are just down the road from here, delivered a case of beer today. They're the maddest selection of beers. I think they got a bit unhinged with the lockdown and no customers so started playing around. I'm kicking off with a coffee sour.
533226

Lemony sourness with a gentle hint of coffee. Surprisingly, it works.
 

MntnMan62

Über Member
Location
Northern NJ
A bit harsh on Sierra Nevada - the Pale Ale is the exemplar of APA and if it's good enough for Vinny Cilurzo, it's good enough for me!

For me, pretty much all the best beer these days is coming out of the US. Over the past couple of weeks I've enjoyed really great IPAs from Toppling Goliath (Iowa), Adroit Theory (Virginia), Burley Oak (Maryland) and Lupulin (Minnesota). Going back a couple of months I had some spectacular super fresh Trillium (Boston) and Other Half (NYC). I think the cans were less than two weeks old - pretty impressive to get from the US to Belgium so quickly. No one in Europe can brew beers of this quality - at least in this style.

Hoegaarden is pish though - Allagash's White is a much better bet, although so difficult to find Allagash in Europe.

I do agree about the Allagash White. Great stuff. I forgot about that one and I will say I prefer it over Hoegaarden. I have to admit I'm a little rusty on my beer vocabulary since lately I've been sticking with the stuff I've mentioned or just drinking spirits like bourbon, single malt scotch, dark sipping rums, Ketel One and Bombay Sapphire. I guess I'm going to have to start taste testing again and since it's the beginning of summer, not better time to start than the present. But I stand by my opinion of Sierra Nevada. I'm just not a fan. But that's just me. And we've already established how little my opinion counts. You gotta drink what ya like.
 

stephec

Legendary Member
Location
Bolton
The Sierra Nevada beers are watered down and aren't even in the same class as the Dogfish Head. Funny how we all have our own personal tastes. Another popular beer here is Blue Moon. I love wheat beers and especially the white style of Belgian wheats. But I much prefer Hoegaarden. I find it far superior. And then there was the time I visited London with my wife. I was really looking forward to having what we call here "hand drawn" ale, which I believe you call cask ale. Basically it sits in the basement unrefrigerated and you have to pump the tap to get the beer to flow. I think you folks perfected it. A bar in NYC that I went to alot always had a couple and was one of the few places you could find it. So I go to London, found a pub, ordered up two and while he was pouring them I look around and all of the locals are drinking.......wait for it......Budweiser. Out of an aluminum bottle. Are you kidding me? That stuff is just pxss water. I find that generally speaking the beers found from Europe are far better than what you can find here. I love love love Chimay. All of them. Too many to name. I really enjoyed the beer while I was there and then got the chance to visit again when our son was about 7. I treated myself to something different in each pub we went to. To each his or her own I suppose.
I remember you saying this a while ago now, unfortunately cask isn't as easy to look after as kegs and bottles, there's still a lot of places where we can get it though.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Fourpure contd: a Pinot Noir Gose. What else?
533427
 

bitsandbobs

Über Member
I remember you saying this a while ago now, unfortunately cask isn't as easy to look after as kegs and bottles, there's still a lot of places where we can get it though.

When in the UK, it's one of the things I try to track down. The Brits are the masters when it comes to packing flavour into low ABV brews.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
What's the oldest but still drinkable beer you have consumed? I've just finished a bottle of Proper Job that I found in my overspill beer crate in the back bedroom. Normally I try to drink the oldest beers in stock so they don't get out of date, but somehow this and a couple of other PJ's got missed. It's best by date was November 2015! :eek:
Not one to be easily deterred, I decided to drink it anyway. When opened, it was extremely gassy, the equal of a any keg lager, and even though poured very slowly it had a head like an ice cream cone. I left the last half an inch in the bottle as there was a lot of solids in it. I was bracing myself, expecting it to be foul - but surprisingly it was still drinkable. Not the best Proper Job I've ever tasted by a long way, but it wasn't actually bad at all, which considering it was brewed in 2014 is a good result! The hop flavour was noticeably attenuated, much less prominent than normal. I bet the alcohol content was well above the official 5%, if the amount of gas is anything to go by. Clearly quite a bit of secondary fermentation took place during the last six years.!
 
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