Sell me on beer snobbery

Cafe Society
61

Eel River makes a decent Porter. Silenus’ rules rock! Bud, Miller and Coors are not beer lol They’re pisswater imo. We have a few local micro-breweries around here, and my local pub changes out what they serve. I’ve had quite an education as regards beer in general. My kids have tasted Guiness across the pond, and what you get in the States, in their opinion, just doesn’t even measure up. They figure it’s the transporting that just ruins Guiness.

I don’t much care for lighter brews, my taste usually runs to Porters and Stouts, so you really need to try various types. There is a big difference in body, texture and flavour. I am amazed at how complex some brews have been that I’ve tried.

If you can find a pub that will do a sampler, that’s the way to go. One of the breweries up here (they don’t even serve food), does a sampler of oh, I think 6 - your choice which ones. They were so different, it was surprising. I ended up enjoying a Scotch Stout, which surprised all of us :smiley:

62

Cannot go wrong with the Saranac Adirondack Trail Mix.

63

Since you’re in Southern Cal, you’re in luck.

Total Wine carries more than 1000 varieties of beers, and sells almost all of them as singles. It looks like it might be a bit of a drive for you, but the ability to sample a lot of different ones on top of the large selection will make it worth your while.

There’s also The Yard House. It’s a restaurant/bar chain with an amazing selection of beers on tap. Here is the beer menu from their LA location (warning - pdf).

Go out and discover! You’ll find an incredibly varied world of flavors and I’ll bet that you find one (or many, many more) that suits you.

A few bits of advice:

[ul]
[li]There are not only many many styles, there are many sub-categories within that style. Stouts for example. A Dry Irish Stout will be very different than a Milk/Sweet Stout or an Oatmeal Stout.[/li][li]Along those same lines, different brewers’ versions of the same style can be quite different. Don’t assume you won’t like all of a style because you didn’t care for one. In my case, I find Porters to be very “hit or miss”, depending who makes them.[/li][li]Don’t believe your first sip. As a beer sits and warms slightly, a lot of flavors and complexities that aren’t immediately apparent may start to appear.[/li][li]Assume that your tastes will change as you go. A year or two from now, go back and try a few that you might have written off as not for you. You might be surprised.[/li][/ul]

Lastly, don’t forget to come back and report on what you’ve found.

64

The Belgians are the absolute, possibly on hallucinogenic drugs, masters of beer. I haven’t spent all that much time in Belgium, but by god the beer is strong. A favourite semi-memory is drinking a dozen glasses of some raspberry flavoured stuff, and then trying to get my rucksack out of a locker in the train station in Brussels. Thank you, random Belgian Railways employee, I am forever in your debt.

65

Next time you’re in Edinburgh, you should check out the Brauhaus. If you like Belgian beers, you’ll probably like it (even though it has a German name):

66

Where’s the Brauhaus? I’m not in Edinburgh much these days, unfortunately.

67

Lauriston Place. If you know the big road junction at the top of Lothian Road at Toll Cross, there’s a fire station on the road leading towards McEwan Hall and the central area buildings for Edinburgh University. It’s opposite that. It’s quite easy to miss as it looks more like an estate agents than a bar, but holy shit have they got a huge selection of beer!

68

So it is. Learn something new everyday. Thank goodness it tastes better than regular Coors though.

If the OP wants to try Californian microbrew, there’s a restaurant called The Golden State on Fairfax that specializes in Californian beer. Occasionally, they’ll have an out of state beer on tap. When that happens, it’s usually because the beer is too good to pass up.

69

OK, know where you are. Can’t imagine there’ll be much bother in that pub, given its reasonably close neighbour!

70

OK, so the decisive moment. I swung by BevMo today and picked up 2 new brands of beer: the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Dogfish Head “Aprihop” (brewed w/ apricots, of course). The latter was on a special display that touted how it is really special and only brewed once a year - even though it was pretty pricey at $9.99 for a 4-pack, I had to try it.

Right now I’m sipping the Pale Ale. It’s undoubtedly better than any beer I’ve had to date, although I’m not going to go so far as to say I’m an instant convert. But it is good enough that I’m interested in experimenting further - the Dogfish is still cooling in the fridge so I’m looking forward to trying that one.

Oh, and I asked the clerk about the tastings and he told me they have them every Saturday afternoon, so I’ll very likely be showing up to the next one.

71

Phew! I spent the whole thread worrying that you would follow some of the terrible advice that people have been giving you!

Some people have been suggesting some of my very favourite beers - but duvel, Flemish beer, west coast IPAs!!! Those things are not for newbies! You could hurt yourself!

The first two suggestions you got were the best - especially for someone who lives in California - anchor steam and Sierra Nevada. Enjoy those for a while and work your way up to something more callenging. I’ll add Full Sail Amber as another delicious but easy beer. Maybe London Pride.

Report back in month when you’ve let those settle and we’ll recommend something more challenging.

72

Blue Moon, Leinenkugel, enjoy the summer

73

This may be part of the problem.

You see, once upon a time there was a man named Henry Ford, and he looked at new ways of building stuff so that much could be made from little, and it was good. Soon many others were doing the same, money flowed like wine, and all manner of stuff found it’s way into even the poorest homes, and it was good. And yet, not all was good, for some, attracted by greed, used these methods for things that did not lend themselves well to this kind of production, and others, in their ignorance and poverty supported them, and one day, we looked around and saw that America had become a wasteland of Kraft cheese, and Parquay margarine. A flavorless void of Budwieser and Wonderbread, and we knew that we had gone too far.

But even in the darkest hours, there were many who continued to know a better way. Some were from other lands; some travelled for leisure or business, some, like me, with the armed forces, and came to know that some things could be better if they were done smaller, that some things were better crafted than manufactured, that a can of beans should have a long shelf life, but a bottle of beer should not.

True, the price you pay is a little investment of time and effort, and you won’t find it at every 7-11 in the country, but a brewery, like a bakery is worth the effort. In fact, a good brew is much like a good bread, a liquid bread, and like a fresh baked loaf, it doesn’t travel well. I scoff at snobs that gush over a German beer in a California tavern. Therefore, my recommendation, and a purely personal one at that, is some Mendocino Brewing Co. Black Hawk Stout.

74

Forgot to mention, Beer Wars is a pretty good documentary about the competition between microbreweries and the big 3. It features Sam Addams (as the the well established micro), Dogfish Head (still trying to get coast to coast distributorship) and Moon Shot (trying to get some legs). It’s available for instant viewing if you have Netflix.

75

What the hell is Rockford’s?

76

Is Sam Adams really a Microbrewery? I mean, you can buy Sam Adams here in Australia. I really don’t think that’s part of the criteria for “Microbrewery” status.

77

No, not by any definition I’m aware of (and it varies by region.) Sam Adams makes over a million barrels a year. It’s a lot less than, say, Anheuser-Busch with their 100 million+ barrels per year, but it’s well beyond what qualifies as a microbrewery (which is usually in the tens of thousands–Wikipedia seems to say around 15,000 barrels per year.)

Sam Adams is more properly referred to as a “craft brewer” if you want to make a distinction between a true microwbrewery and a typical macrobrewery.

78

That was how I would classify them too… I was just surprised to hear them being called a “Microbrewery”. I tend to think of Microbreweries as the sort of places where you almost can’t get their stuff outside the city they’re based in, nevermind liquor stores in a country 6,000 miles away.

79

Snobbery is correct-any American brewery could make a flavorful, Sierra Nevada style beer IF THEY WANTED TO.
The fact is, most US beer drinkers WANT a light beer-that is why the breweries make it. Beer making is a fast, well-known process. The reason why mass-market stuff is light and lightly hopped, is that the customers want it that way.
So, if you like your German “Raughtbier” ($5.00/bottle) go right ahead and buy it.
I’ll stick with my Genny Cream Ale!

80

Very few of the beers listed here would technically qualify as microbrews, although colloquially they are almost always referred to as such. The term “craft brewery” or “craft brew” is not really a common term for anyone but beer geeks really (and even beer geeks–at least the ones I know–don’t make the distinction very often.)