Trying out Trader Joe’s Coffee Peanut Butter Cup Porter, brewed by Campanology Brewing. At 9%, a little strong to be a porter, with a strong peanut better vibe when first tasted and a good espresso aftertaste. Yummers.
Left Hand Brewing’s Peanut Butter Milk Stout Nitro is quite tasty.
6.2% Alcohol and 25 IBU.
The Peanut Butter flavor tastes brewed in and not an added flavoring. Chocolate & Coffee Hints are there.
One nice thing with beer tasting. An expensive beer is still usually cheaper than a moderately priced wine, whiskey or vodka.
Heh, until you go really crazy. Sam Adams brews Utopias, a barrel aged beer that tops 28% ABV. It is released every other year. Sam Adams used to give a bottle to every stockholder attending their shareholders meeting in Boston. I’ve seen it for $250 a bottle. Empty bottles sell for $60 - $100 on EBay. One xmas season I was at a bar that had a bottle on display. I really wanted a taste, but they’d only open the bottle if there were >3 buyers.
I convinced two other drinkers to enjoy a shot ($30 a shot). Then another guy watching us decided he wanted one. I drank mine and the bartender poured me a second. Observers eventually accounted for a few more shots being poured, then at some point I was gifted the last shot.
Three shots of Utopias on top of what I’d already been drinking. I had to ask the bartender to pour me a cab.
Yeah, but was it any good? $30 a shot good? I might buy one shot just to have a taste but I doubt anything is actually worth that for more than a one-time experience, at least to me.
My question is; Is something at 28% ABV still beer? That seems to fall out of the range of beer.
Well, I guess that becomes almost semantics but for my purposes, my beer tasting rarely goes above 10% and the most expensive beers I’ve had work out to $4.50 a bottle or $9 for a pint out someplace.
Dragon’s Milk is among the most expensive I’ve bought. I’ve never seen it on tap. Samuel Smith gets very expensive too.
It was worth it for the experience. I’d never buy it again, but I really enjoyed the one exposure.
Yes, it fits the definition. Brewmeister Snake Venom (67.5% ABV) is water, yeast, hops, barley, and wheat. There are other things as well, but it is beer.
Picked up a 4-pack of Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin Ale the other day. Tall cans, 9.0% ABV. Pretty good. Very pumpkin-y. It was fairly late yesterday when I had one and a half of them (gave half of one to my wife), and it kicked my ass! I’ve generally got a very high tolerance, but I’ll be sticking to one just one of those a day.
It’s not the ABV that determines whether it’s beer, but rather how it is made. A beee must be fermented and not distilled (though freeze distilled beers are still often called beers—I don’t think they technically qualify as such, but I may be wrong.) How you get something as high as those Brewmeister numbers, I don’t know and I need to look up. With Utopias, they have a high alcohol tolerant proprietary yeast or yeasts if I remember right.
As for Utoipas—I was gifted some about ten years ago. It’s interesting for its novelty and does actually taste pretty good, something akin to a brandy (more so than a whiskey, as I remember it, but it’s an old memory.) It’s not something I’d pay that price for, though. Maybe $50-$75 I’d pay, but that’s about it. I put it in the category of something like Johnnie Walker Blue, where, while it’s solid, you can spend your money better at that price point.
From wiki
The strongest ice-beer, Strength in Numbers, was a one-time collaboration in 2020 between Schorschbrau of Germany and BrewDog of Scotland, who had competed with each other in the early years of the 21st century to produce the world’s strongest beer. Strength in Numbers was created using traditional ice distillation, reaching a final strength of 57.8% ABV.
Don’t know how this squares with @kayaker’s Snake Venom
I’ll accept the traditional ones as beers because they’re “grandfathered in”. New record-breaking attempts? Not so much.
j
Warsteiner Dunkel is my newest find. Very tasty.
I’ll have one with dinner and review.
Anyone tried the Rush beer yet? I haven’t seen it in my local stores, but will buy should I see it.
This Dunkel would go great with cheese or a soft pretzel.
It has a dark roasted flavor.
Currently drinking a Crowler (can+growler) of a West Coast IPA from Invisible Man Brewery in Greensburg, PA. Doesn’t get much more micro than that.
Funny you should mention Warsteiner. I drink the regular in the summer and bought my first Dunkel just a couple of weeks ago. I agree its quite good. In general, I prefer German lagers (marzens, especially) over the hop-crazy IPAs that have been all the rage in recent years. Doppelbocks in the winter are the rule. Optimator is a good one, IMHO.
I will try it as well. But most Canadian beers are no better than the average American macro.
Anyone here had Strike Brewery’s Big Wall Imperial Stout? I can’t get it here in AZ, so I buy it when in CA. Very good.
Reviving a good subject, and boasting (just a wee bit).
As per tradition, the ladies picked out my Friday beer, which must be something I have never had before. I get home last night and they say “it’s in the fridge!”, so I open up that fridge and I am looking at a large Goose Island Bourbon County Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, rated at a very rare “100” on Beer Advocate, and definitely made to be very slowing sipped from my rarely used snifter glass at over 14% alcohol…and that is what I damn well did last night, folks. perfectly carbonated, finely and darkly laced, and after-tasting of caramel and fudge.
Merry Christmas, me!
Which variant?
I like it quite a bit, but damn has BCBS gotten expensive. Most variants are $25 a bottle near me. The original is $15, also super high.
The 2024 aged for a year straight variant.
If someone could ship me a bottle of the Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine It would be greatly appreciated, by the way. 