Sell me on beer snobbery

Cafe Society
21

If I were starting out, I would basically try to do a “flight” of various beer styles to get a sense of what flavors work for you. Anchor Steam is always a safe bet. Sierra Nevada is a good introduction to the hoppier varieties of beer. If you want something heavier and maltier, I would suggest at least one bock beer: Ayinger Celebrator or Spaten Optimator. Also, look through your stouts: Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout or Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout are good places to start (if you can get Bell’s in your region–a lot of the distribution is regional, so I’m trying to throw out mostly breweries that are widely distributed.) Hell, I even think Murphy’s and Guinness are good places to start if you want a more middle-of-the-road stout. I enjoy both of them very much.

Also, Belgians do all sorts of crazy shit with their beer and end up with a product that is often quite different than what you typically associate with beer. A lot of people who don’t typically like beer enjoy the Belgian beers. The easiest-to-find introduction to this country’s libations would be Chimay. The most common types come in either blue, red, or white/yellow label. They’re all good. If I were you, I’d buy one of each and try them over a few evenings (or one, if you’re really ambitious, although these usually come in 750ml bottles and pack an alcoholic punch.) But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more styles to explore in this country if you like them.

There’s just so many really good beers out there, it’s hard to exactly pinpoint a place to start. Just start drinking!

22

The place to start with Belgians is Duvel. It even converted my Bud Light drinking wife.

Kiros, I second the love for Stone Brewing. I just wouldn’t recommend it for a novice. Arrogant Bastard could kill the dude!

23

This is the difficult part. Due to the f’ed up distribution laws most good beers are hard to find. For example, I was going to recommend you walk to the nearest beer garden and order a Smuttynose or Dogfish Head (two of the best beers I’ve ever had). But there not available anywhere west of the Mississippi.

You should be able to find Lagunitas, Ommegang, and Magic Hat. I don’t know what kind of greatness you’re looking for though. Some are infused with fruit, others go for a balance of a very dry bitter mouth feel followed by a sweet malty finish. So stop buying beers from the big 3 and explore.

Yes, yes, we’ve all seen the Monty Python skit. That meme started 28 years ago at a time when there were around 50 breweries in the country. It was 2 years before the boom of microbreweries in the 80’s during which Sam Addams and others were founded. At present there are ~1,500 breweries in America. If you think American beer is glorified fermented piss water, you haven’t looked.

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I’ll agree that you should try something besides Budweiser or Miller- they’re great for a refreshing coldie on a hot afternoon after mowing the lawn, but for a more “Sophisticated” drink, try something… Foreign.

Some of the Mexican beers are actually really good- Dos Equis and Tecate are very nice, IMHO. There’s also a lot of good stuff in the UK; I recommend Spitfire and Old Speckled Hen.

From Asia, there are several good ones- Kirin, Asahi, and Tiger are all very good, especially as an accompaniment to an Asian meal.

25

Bass Ale is very tasty and usually not hard to find.

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Anchor Steam don’t screw around. Took a tour of their brewery last October and did the free tasting after. There wasn’t a soul there that didn’t leave at least partially red faced. Even the burly guys were asking for half glasses by the end. :smiley:

27

Actually, silenius and Grey, if you’re drinking your Carling Black Label and Molson Canadian in the States out of bottles that say “Imported From Canada”, trust me, it’s not the real thing at all – it tastes nothing like the beer you would buy in Canada. I’ve had not only the American Black Label and Canadian but also the Labatt’s Blue as well. For some reason, they all taste like crappy like American beer when you have them in the US.

But, hey, don’t take my word for it – I only grew up a just a block from the border.

And, Crawlspace, I was downing Anchor Steam Porter way back in the early '80s. I know that there have been many microbreweries that have been founded since that time, and a lot of them do have damn tasty product.

However, the bulk of mainstream American beers (Hamm’s, Grain Belt, Coors, Blatz, Schlitz, Michelob, Budweiser, Old Style, Olympia, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Genessee, Pearl, Lone Star, etc., etc., etc.) all pretty much taste the same and are typical of the American style of beer – wet and watery. This is the crap most people think about when they hear “American beer”.

By the way, Carling Black Label has been brewed in the US off and on since 1933, and is also brewed in the UK and South Africa. It is not a big Canadian brand, and hasn’t been since the mid-1960s; in fact, from approximately 1970 to about 1987, it disappeared here altogether.

As to Molson Canadian, I’m willing to bet that since Molson merged with Coors it probably tastes even worse, less like Canadian and more like Coors, I’m betting.

As far as what I drink, usually it’s a Sleeman product http://www.sleeman.com/ or something from the Tree Brewing Company http://treebeer.com/ whose Cutthroat Pale Ale I am currently partial to. For a local product, this means the Fort Garry Brewery http://www.fortgarry.com/ who makes one hell of a Dark Ale.

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What do you guys think of the Periodic Table of Beer Styles? You have to check the head notes for typical brands.

29

If you’re going to be a beer snob, I recommend checking out the Beer Advocateweb site. It features beer reviews and ratings and will also educate you about the many styles of beer out there (e.g, lagers, pale ales, IPA’s, porters, stouts, hefeweizen, Belgian-style ales, doppelbocks, barley-wines, etc.).

As to where to find these beers, I see from your profile that you live in LA. I would think that any supermarket there (not just high end ones) should have a fairly decent beer aisle that would include beers from some craft and microbreweries. Just going by what’s in California, I’m guessing you’ll probably be able to find beers from Stone, Sierra Nevada, and North Coast among others. Also, if you want to try someplace that has an even wider selection, there should be more than a few specialty beer places within short driving distance.

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Since you’re in LA, I find that the Trader Joe’s around here usually have a pretty good selection.

If you want to start out with a beer that everyone can enjoy, there’s the Lambics. These are fruity beers without a lot of the bitter hoppy taste. This was my introductory beer and it got me hooked. Trader Joe’s usually has the Lindeman’s brand in Peche and Framboise. Both are good for the novice drinker.

For a heavier beer, I second (or third?) Young’s, especially Young’s chocolate stout. Sometimes Trader Joe’s has it, sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, they usually have Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout. Stouts tend to be creamy and thick.

Other American beers that I like include Full Sail, Bass, Sierra Nevada, and Anchor Steam. For non-American beers, I like Guiness, Blue Moon and Sapporo. At least a few of them will be available at Trader Joe’s.

Enjoy!

31

Eagle Rock Brewery is a great microbrew/bar to release your inner beer snob if you’re in the LA area–they’re so snobby that they don’t even have a sign out front!

32

I live in Korea, the Land that Beer Forgot. As I type this I’m enjoying an Asahi Black (Munich-Type), which is pretty damned good. Last week, I had the first really good beer I’ve ever had in Korea; turns out it’s Canadian (Red Rock). When I lived in Virginia, I lived down the street from a wonderful beer & wine store and in the past year discovered the wonder that is Dale’s Pale Ale, and other wonderful beers foreign and domestic. I lived in a place within five miles of three brew pubs. I’m never going back to Budweiser. I don’t understand wine snobs, but on a recent visit to Seattle I enjoyed the best and worst wines and beers available. There is a difference.

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My favorites:

Dinkel Acker Dark (image)

Blackened Voodoo (Lager) (An American beer!) (image)

Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest (seasonal) (image)

Not as good but much easier to find:

Spaten Oktoberfest (seems to be available year-round) (image)

34

Of course a real beer snob would point out that Bass is from England and Blue Moon is made in Colorado :smiley:

35

The best American beer I’ve tasted over here was a Rogue Mocha Porter. I’ve liked several others from that brewery (they do a nice amber ale, and I don’t even like ambers that much!), but that is my top pick.

36

Here are my favorites:

Dogfish Head Raison d’Etre
Bell’s Oberon
Bell’s Winter White (when the former stops appearing in stores, the latter starts)
Unibroue Fin du Monde
Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale (just started seeing it on shelves again after a two-year hiatus)
Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Bell’s and Great Lakes may be tough to find outside of the Midwest. Unibroue is Canadian, Dogfish Head is out of…Maryland, maybe? Rogue is from Oregon.

37

I’ve spent plenty of time in Canada, and this is bullshit. They taste plenty terrible north of the border. Canadians are delusional about the quality of their mainstream lagers.

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No, it’s pretty much light, slightly hoppy and probably has too much wheat in it. More or less what its always been, and pretty much what most of the bigger mass market beers in North America tend to be.

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Bass is (was) a British brewery.

40

Yeah, this is my experience as well.

My tastes lie along the range From the Brown Ales to the American Lagers, with favorites being Brooklyn Brown and Brown’s Oatmeal Stout. I absolutely don’t get all the fuss about Pale ales and IPA’s they all seem to have this overriding taste of PVC (to me anyways).