There is a tradition at our house where the ladies pick out a “Friday beer” for me. The rules are that I have no choice in the matter, and that it must be something I have never had before. Cerridwin leans towards dark beers, but My Beloved(Rahne McCloud) leans towards strange labels and any collaborations between Rogue Brewery and Voodoo Donuts. The Lemon Chiffon Cruller beer was the worst they ever presented to me…but the most unusual had to be the *Grape Guerrilla. That’s right-Grape beer. The Beer Advocate’s description of
Traditional lambic and gueuze at the Cantillon Brewery in Brussels. Not my favorite style (and hard to get anywhere else), but very, very interesting. Very low carbonation, which is probably why I didn’t love it.
Sam Adam’s Utopias tasted like a Bual or Malmsey Madeira. Sweet, toffee, higher alcohol, smooth. Glad I wasnt buying it, but a neat, albeit strange experience. Even Tom Hardy’s Ale didn’t transform from beer into something else the way Utopias did.
Cave Creek Chile beer was unusual for how unusually nauseating the taste was. I like lighter lagers, I like chiles. Just not the two in the same bottle, I guess.
I have had a bottle of the extremely rare “Romulan Ale” from El Salvador, but beyond the large amount of blue dye it contained it wasn’t so much unusual as it was skunky to the max. If you ever acquire a bottle, just keep it on display-do not pop that cap.
I don’t remember the brand name, but I once won a mixed six-pack of imported beer in a fishing tournament, and one was a Belgian lambic* framboise*. Yes, raspberry beer. Bleah indeed!
Seaweed beer (Kelpie) sounds weird but is actually a very good beer.
I actually liked each of the Rogue/VooDoo Donut collaborations. The Bacon Maple Ale was my favorite. Realizing that the flavors were arrived at naturally is amazing.
The only strange beer I really did not like was a nasty stout made by a small local craft brewer using Habanero and Scotch Bonnet peppers. The brewer admitted the beer was too much, and was offering shot glass tastes at an event.
Most people took a sip, gagged, coughed, and threw out what remained in the glass. I worked at drinking an entire shot, then had two more to give the beer a chance. I had nasty diarrhea for 2 days.
I love sours. At a beer tasting I offered a free seat at our table to a late arrival. The guy had a bomber bottle from Cantillon, not available in the US, that he had lovingly carried home from Brussels. He opened the bottle and shared it with us. Mmmmmm.
There’s a little village in Germany, name of Bamberg, that is famous for its smoked beer. I’m not sure why. To me, it tasted as if someone had taken a nice glass of beer and dropped an oily piece of smoked salmon into it. Yuck.
Me too. Lindemans makes a great one. I’d love to try Cantillon’s version, which is supposed to be dry. If you like framboise lambics, you should give Rodenbach’s red ales a try. Less sweet. very fruity though. Definitely unusual as beers go.
About chile and beer, I don’t doubt that there can be a good combination of the two, but Cave Creek ain’t it.
Aecht Schlenkerla Brauerei is the famous one there. I like them, especially the Märzen, but they are an acquired taste. Alaskan Brewing Co.'s Smoked Porter, I find to be even more intensely smoky, almost undrinkable on release. The beer does develop with modest age (9 months-2 years) though, and is complex and wonderful.
For the record, my favourite beer is Lindeman’s Kriek - same thing but with cherries.
As a style, yeah, I’ll go with geuze. A friend brought me six bottles back from Belgium. You never forget your first geuze. I was horrified by it, but stuck with it out of loyalty to the friend. By bottle six I was gently hooked.
I think your and silenus’s opinion is shared by most people.
It was hilarious looking at the face of the German beer-styles lover and owner of the brewery I was tasting at, when I asked him, “So, you like making traditional German beers ? Are you going to make a rauchbier?” His face looked a lot like my Highlands-drinking father-in-law’s did after he asked, “What’s that Scotch you’re drinking? Laphroaig? Can I try?”
LOL, well, that brewery in Bamberg has been in business since 1405, so I guess more than a few people enjoy the style! Just not me, silenus and a German beer-styles lover.
I do enjoy Laphroaig, though. I guess I’m half-weird.
I really hate to be “That Guy” (even though apparently for many around here, at least in threads to do with matters of personal taste, being “That Guy” is a celebrated art form) but to those in the know, there are Belgian lambics, and then there are A La Mort Subite beers.
Simply put, they are truly the pinnacle of all fruit beers.
