Help recommend a beer.

Cafe Society
1

I’ve never been a huge beer drinker. Oh, I’d occasionally have a Bud or whatever was on hand, and there were definitely some I liked better than others. I do know that beers can have as much variation and subtlety as wines, so I embarked on a project to figure out what sorts of beers I liked. I would pick up a six pack every week or so, never buying the same one twice. After about 40 different beers, I now have some idea of what I like. I figure maybe if I mention my favorites here, maybe some more knowledgeable than me can point me to other similar beers.

My #1 favorite to this point has been San Adams Octoberfest. I would buy that all the time if it weren’t seasonal. Their Winter Lager was also pretty good. Other favorites have been Yuengling Black and Tan, Blue Moon Belgian White, Bass Ale, and Shipyard Export. The one I disliked the most would have to be Miller Genuine Draft. I found that one to be pretty disgusting. And as a general rule, I didn’t like any light beer. The only exception was Sam Adams Light.

2

Try Fat Tire if it’s in your area, if not :frowning:

3

Well I was going to recommend you try Bass, I see that you have. It is an excellent tasting beer with the advantage of tasting good Ice Cold to Warm.
Sometimes this is a huge advantage. I like the fact it is available year round and on a steadily growing number of taps.
Hackershore Oktoberfest is even better than Sam’s but same problem of Seasonality.

Jim

4

Give Boddington’s a try if you can find it. It’s a pub ale, but it’s also fairly creamy. Most people who try it like it, and I find it’s not bad out of a can (pour it into a glass though please).

AND if you like it, then you can make a pilgrimage to the UK for real pub ales.

  • Peter Wiggen
5

I’m a Pabst man by choice, so disregard if you must, but the two imports I go for on a regular basis are Red Stripe Jamaican lager (not heavy at all, great for summer-time cookouts and sweaty punk shows) and McEwan’s Scotch Ale, which is strong compared to American beers (I want to say it’s at 8%) and has an almost sweet, thick flavor that I really dig.

6

Try Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – that’s often a good introduction to West Coast microbrews.

Otherwise, let me just recommend some domestic breweries. Any beer from any one of these breweries should be good:

Anchor
Bell’s
Dogfish Head
Rogue
Sierra Nevada
Three Floyds
Victory

My personal favorites are Dogfish Head and Three Floyds.

If you liked Blue Moon, try Hoegaarden Wit. That’s pretty much the beer it’s based on, and a good reference point for the flavor profiles of a typical Belgian white.

Now, Belgian is a bit of a Disneyland for beer drinkers. There’s so many different types of crazy beers being brewed there. I’d give these a shot:

Chimay (go for Red or Blue if you can)
Lindenman’s (try the Kriek)
Rochefort (#8)
Westvletern (#8)
Paul Kwak

If you like Oktoberfests, there’s a good chance you’ll like Irish Red Ales as well. Also, look out for imported Oktoberfest beers bottled by companies like Spaten or Hacker-Pschorr.

7

My Bolding.

I’m glad you spelled it correctly I couldn’t remember. Both are better then Sam’s.

Jim

8

I love Blue Moon and Red Stripe, another good one in that vein is Pyramid Curve Ball, seasonal only. Harp is great as well, but I’m not a big fan of Stella Artois.

Right now in my fridge resides: Guinness, Moose Drool, and Pyramid Apricot Ale. :smiley:

9

Another vote for Dogfish Head, Rogue and Sierra Nevada. Red Hook is high-quality beer, but you may or may not be able to find it around you.

10

Another couple of domestics to try are Shiner Bock and Boulevard Brewing Company’s Porter. Based on the types you’ve like, look for others of the Vienna or Munich styles, like Negra Modelo and Dos Equis Amber.

11

Seems as though you like a pretty wide range of styles, but I don’t see anything very hoppy on your list.

So you may prefer styles that lean more toward the malt side of the scale. If that’s the case, try some beers on the extreme side of “malty”, like bocks, dopplebocks and scotch ales.

12

But Hoegaarden is much, much better than Blue Moon, which needs half an orange stuffed down into the bottle before it can be considered drinkable. :wink: There are a wide variety of Belgian-type ales, from sweet and light to syrupy and heavy. Chimay is a good place to start and the 750ml bottle is enough for dinner for two and classy enough to stand in for wine with the right dish. (They make Red, White, and Blue labels with different alcohol contents and different flavors; the blue is the premium.) Delirium Tremons is another good one, and Cheval is a nice lighter ale. I’ve started to see some Belgian ales coming out of Oregon and Washington so I guess someone in the States is picking up on it, but I haven’t tried them yet.

Bass is my standard default; as jrfranchi points out, it’s good at different temps, in different environs, and with a lot of different foods. I’m also partial to Newcastle Brown Ale, though I definitely prefer it from the tap as opposed to bottle. Samual Smith’s Nutty Brown is probably my favorite of browns but is a bit pricey. I’ve never cared much for Sam Adams–to me, all of their beers have this kind of funny aftertaste–but if you like Octoberfests try the Spatan (which, despite the traditional seasonal nature of the brew, seems to be available for most of the year.) I also like their Optimator, but it’s a thick, heavy douplebock or tripplebock, and I can only handle one pint at a sitting.

Someone mentioned Boddingtons Pub Ale which is one of my favorites with a turkey sandwich; it’s like a creamy buttermilk in texture and a light but distinct flavor; and it does that cool downward flowing bubble thing that Guinness and some other stouts do. I’m also a fan of stouts but admit that they take a bit of acclimatization; if you’re game, try getting a Half & Half (stout over lager, typically Guinness on top of Harp) or a Black & Tan (Guiness atop Bass) if you’ve got a bar that taps both beers.

India makes some good lagers too. I’ve never been impressed with anything else coming out of East Asia, but Dansburg and Lal Toofan are my favorites. I’ll take Dos Equis Amber or Negro Modelo any day over Corona, and Red Stripe is decent for a hot summer day but most notable for the fat “bumblebee” bottle; don’t drink this out of a glass.

Point of note; when trying several beers at a sitting, go from least to most hoppy (just as you’d go from dry to sweet with wine). So, start with a light pilsner or a stout or somesuch and work toward a bock, a pale ale, or hefeweizen.

If you’re ever in Milwaukee, stop by Sprecher Brewing Company, do the tour and the tasting, and pick up a case or three. They make a great selection of beers (mostly German and English) and are some of the best American-made beers I’ve found; and they do follow the Reinheitsgebot (German purity law) with regard to their German beers. They only export beer to a very limited number of states (unfortunately, not California :frowning: ), but they also make some excellent root beer, orange soda, and sasparilla which is more widely available.

Stranger

13

It’s a shame you’re on the left Coast. I really think you would be a good person to hang out with. Many shared likes and interests. If you ever get near Jersey or NYC let me know and I’ll meet up and buy you a few pints of Bass.

Jim

14

It’s a shame you’re on the left Coast. I really think you would be a good person to hang out with. Many shared likes and interests. If you ever get near Jersey or NYC let me know and I’ll meet up and buy you a few pints of Bass.

Jim

15

Argh, I tried to shorten the quote and I ended up with a double post instead. :smack:

16

Er…a bock should be on the left side of that equation.

See what comes of not previewing? :o

Stranger

17

Bass? Boddies?

Crikey, looks like us Brits have gotten the “export all the undrinkable rubbish” tactic working well :wink:
You may have to search pretty hard, but I cannot recommed beers from the St Peter’s Brewery highly enough. They do a big range, from dark porters to infused light ales and wheat beer.

18

Likewise.

Stranger

19

I’ve only had it once, but Celis White is a great beer. I’d recommend it if you can find it.

Leinenkugels makes some good beers that are well priced for the quality. Oktoberfest is a good seasonal and their Berry Weiss makes for a nice change of pace.

20

To each his own and all that, but…eggghh, I tried the Berry Weiss once (picked up a six pack for a Saturday at a friend’s house watching some kind of sportsball and playing with the kids) and it was so bad we poured the other four bottles down the drain. To me, it tastes like cough syrup. Leinies makes some other good beers, though. The Red is an old standard and the Creamy Dark is pretty tasty. Back at the consluting company I used to keep a Leinie’s Red in the fridge for 4 o’clock snack. (Hey, it was that kind of place; they provided free Something Lite but I have my standards.)

And don’t skimp on the cheap beers, either. Generally speaking I’ve no use for the Miller and A-B products (and Coors, as the old joke goes, is like having sex in a canoe) but back in Milwaukee I spent some good Wednesday nights at BBC’s with dollar PBRs and two dollar hamburgers, then trotted up the street to Paddy’s for my fill of Guinness and Irish whiskey. Special Export (can you get that outside of Chicagoland?) is actually pretty good. It was always fun to make the tourists try dollar draws of Blatz at the Roman Coin or the Uptowner. And opening a can of Hamm’s is like playing the lottery; you never know what you’re going to get.[/nostalgia hijack]

Beer should be fun. We don’t want the up-nose-stuck faux-oenophile/bon vivants to come in and do to beer what they’ve done to wine and Scotch. :rolleyes:

Stranger