I friggin' love beer.

Cafe Society
81

A lot of darker ones are more hoppy, but that’s not always the case. Certain kinds like Baltic porters tend to be very malty but low in hops, not bitter at all. I’m not a Rolling Rock fan at all (that and Corona taste foul to me regardless of how fresh the beer is), but I’d say your taste definitely beats that of your Bud-swilling friend.

drool Sounds like my taste in beer. Might I recommend the aforementioned Baltic porter style? Typically high alcohol content, chocolate-molasses flavors, low hops, good stuff. I’ve bought some at Bobek’s, a Polish deli/supermarket/restaurant.

I’ve had a number of Unibroue’s beers, I think I like their Maudite best. Haven’t tried the Quelquechose yet, though.

For local brews, I’m a fan of Goose Island (their dunkelweizen on tap is to die for, omg - I’m brewing one now that I hope can manage to hold a candle to it) and Two Brothers in Warrenville.

82

There are many “not that bitter” dark beers. Bock’s tend to be sweet. So do Scottish style ales. So do O(c | k)toberfests.

83

Never had Baltic Porter. I must try it.

I don’t care for Rolling Rock either. I don’t dislike it (the only beers I really dislike are the mass produced swill ones), but if their are other alternatives, I’ll generally take something else. I feel similar about Sam Adams, Corona (which greatly pales in comparison to Dos Equis), and Heineken. These four seem to be the standard (although RR is rarer) non-swill choices when trying to find beer at a sporting event, concert, or restaurant with a liquor license but no bar.

Fortunatley, I’ve noticed Newcastle beginning to show up in more places with limited selection. While I wouldn’t rank it among my favorites, it’s a solid choice anytime and far superior to the four mentioned above.

As for Weiss, I’m not a big fan of it. I can’t even really explain why. My wife loves the stuff, I can take it or leave it, and generally leave it.

And Goose Island is pretty good. I especially like their Christmas and Hexnut. I don’t think I’ve head their Dunkelweizen, but I’ll try it sometime. Being that it’s a weiss, I’m not getting my hopes up. I don’t care too much for Goose Islands regular brew. To me it has a boring non-descript flavor with a tad too much bitterness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad in of itself, but it pales in comparison to Goose Island’s other offerings.

84

I adore weiss beer as does my husband, so frequently I’ve got some kind of a wheat (American, Belgian wit, German weizen) brewing, otherwise it’s some variation on a brown ale. Goose Island’s Hex Nut Brown Ale is one of my favorites, but their pubs have tap offerings that you never see in bottles. Sigh, I go there far too infrequently. Their dunkelweizen (only saw it on tap my last visit, never bottled) is a pretty strong dark weiss beer, high alcohol, and just huge, huge scents of banana and clove from the hefeweizen yeast plus warm fermentation. I don’t like their Honker’s Ale (their regular, IIRC) much, either.

85

Thank you all for your darker beer suggestions. **Ferret Herder ** mentioned something about “chocolate-molasses flavors”. Hey, I could do that! And all this darker beer drinking will make the hubby so, so happy. What I good wife am I! :smiley:

86

When I was but a wee lad in my teens, I found that the stuf my friends were using to break the drinking age laws was unpalatable to me. Weak, watery, unlovable.

Then, in college, after I had found I preferred harder drink, a lass with the unforgettable name of Beth Ellen O’Mullen dragged my underage hiney to an authentic Boston area Irish Pub, and introduced me to Guinness. Ah, now here was a drink! From there, I developed a taste for porter, bock, even finely crafted ambers.

Flash forward to the mid-1990s, when I played music accompaniment for one of the many local improv comedy groups. A new member, a transplant to Boston, had found he needed to drop out because he couldn’t squeeze us in with the responsibilities of the job that had brought him to town: a brewmaster for the Samuel Adams company.

But he kindly remembered us, and within a year recommended us to his higher ups as part of the entertainment for the Sam Adams corporate Christmas party in Jamaica Plain.

Now, folks, I’m here to tell you there are no more festive people at a party than those who know that if they run out, they can just make more. We performed in a rather mediocre fashion compared to our usual standards for ourselves, but that mattered not one whit to our hosts, who, having sampled our craft and enjoyed themselves thoroughly, embraced us as family and insisted we sample theirs.

Stout with a shot of vanilla
Woodpecker Cider
The thick, syrupy Triple Bock with nary a bubble but plenty of alcohol to be found in it
The cask ale, oh, friends, the cask ale, a finer brew than which is not to be had on this earth

Glass after delicious glass. Then, the lady who actually had done the hiring gave young Andy a come-hither glance, and led him to the loading dock. Only slightly to Andy’s disappointment, she gestured to the stacks of cases on the platform awaiting distribution and said, “Pick four. Any four.” And so he did, and we split them betwixt the six of us the next day.

Although how we had managed to get ourselves home alive the previous night, driving drunkenly through Boston’s winter midnight streets, I’ll never know.

87

This is the thing that annoys me with Sam Adams. They make decent beers but mislabel every one of them. This is not so much a Triple Bock as it is a Barley Wine. As Barley Wines go, it’s pretty good. Sample it at different ages and you can see it mature. Same goes with their Scottish Ale. It’s far too thin to be a Scottish Ale and should be called an English Mild, of which it is a passable representation.

Why must they do this?

88

Some of my fondest memories begin with beer.

89

Damnit, here I was trying to cut back my beer drinking so I could lose some of my gut and I go opening this thread. Now I’m going to have to go out tonight and pick me some up. Bastards, the lot of ya.

90

The chorus in this song (Are Ya drinkin’ with me Jesus)
are ya drinkin’ with me Jesus
I can see you very clear
are ya drinkin’ with me Jesus
wont you buy a friend a beer

Mojo Nixon and Jelly Biafra - Prairy home invasion - Are Ya drinkin’ with me Jesus?

91

I love beer so much, I bought my brother a brewing kit. Now I go to his house!
:smiley:

92

Ed, don’t you know your beer gut is your buddy? At least, according to Da Yoopers…http://www.dayoopers.com/Lyric1o3.html#3.%20Beer%20Gut

93

Let us now bow our heads and give thanks;

Our Beer,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
I will be drunk,
At home as it is in the local,
Give us this day our daily beer,
and forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spillest against us
and lead us not into poncey wine tasting,
but deliver us from alcopops,
For mine is the bitter,
The stout and the porter
for ever and ever
Barmen.

94

Barmen.
Barleyluiah.

95

Praise the port
Barleyluiah

Barmen

96

It’s less than 45 hours until the start of my pub crawl . . . Barmen, indeed, my brothers and sisters. :slight_smile:

97

And I love you, man.

You’re like… like a… like a brother to me man. I mean it, man, it’s not just the beer talking…

For those in Western Massachusetts, The Berkshire Brewing Company brews a very nice Drayman Porter. I drive over two hours for it, and don’t regret a minute of it.

Harpoon, of course. Magic Hat makes some nice beers. The list goes on. Offhand, I’d say that New England seems to keep up its end of the bargain…

I will never reach for a Bud if a better beer presents itself, but to me Bud is okay for what it is: a beer mass-brewed for consistency, with in a style guaranteed to offend the least number of people. It’s the sort of beer I call “lawnmower beer”, better than nothing on a hot summer day after mowing the back yard and if nothing else in the fridge. Of course, if a crisp wheat beer is in there with a slice of lemon :smiley:

I’d die of thirst before reaching for a Coors, but then again, we’re talking about beer here, aren’t we? :wink:

A question to the group: I used to like Bass Ale on tap here in the States. Over the past 10 years or so, however, it seems to have changed. Has the quality gone downhill, or have my tastebuds changed?

best to all,

plynck

98

*He’d like to have been an admiral, a sultan, or a king
And to his praises we shall always sing
Look what he has done for us, he’s filled us up with cheer
The Lord bless Charlie Mopps,
the man who invented beer beer beer beer…

A barrel of malt, a bushel of hops, he stirs it with a stick
The kind of lubrication that’ll make your insides tick
Forty pints a wallop a day to keep away the cracks
It’s only eight seventy a pint, but it’s three fifty with tax*

(From “Beer, Beer, Beer” - traditional; as performed by the Minstrels of Mayhem.)

99

Plzen and Budvar have a strong hops (beer) taste and are delicious fresh from the tab but I can only do a few. But Staropramen, now you see it, now it’s gone. Lovely.
If I want something special I might try to find Velvet. Ummmmmmm
The danish årgangsölet was a special interest as well, had the same alcohol % as the last two letters of the year, so 9.8 for 98, etc. Serious Y2K problem there :slight_smile:

100

Those all beat the song this guy I dated wrote:

Beer, yeah, more beer, yeah beer yeah.
Beer, yeah, more beer, yeah beer yeah.

Beer, yeah, more beer, yeah beer yeah.

Beer, yeah, more beer, yeah beer yeah.

Beer, yeah, more beer, yeah beer yeah.

More beer, more beer, bear yeah.

(Repeat.)

(I think he learned song writing in Victoria, BC from the Dayglos)

By the way I like beer too!

I think I’ll get me a pint of Alexander Keith’s at the pub on the way home.

Keiths, yeah, more keiths, beer yeah!