December 03, 2003

• Wolof, my friend, I am sipping on a homebrew, brewed on my own stove, fermented in my own brew room. A fairly lush porter tonight, but I also have a nice rauch back, a couple stouts I saved from last winter's batches (smooth as Lena Olin's smile after 10 months of curing), some light summer ales, a half-minikeg of Irish Red, the odd hefeweizen, and one lone Kolsch, lording it over my beer fridge like a prince of Prussia. I do keep some store-bought around for company, though - usually Molson Canadian (a rarity around here, and subsequently pretty cheap, but the same liquid gold I remember from my wonderfully misspent youth in Chicago), your Grolsch, Red Stripe, or bottled produce from St. Louis' finest microbrewery, Schlafly Brewery. To your health!
• Excellent, excellent.
• Although NOTHING compares to the beer I had the pleasure of consuming when I lived in Germany, in America my favorite would have to be Miller Lite.
• I'm a big fan of Red Stripe myself. If the people in Heaven don't stock their refrigerators with it and Guinness (along with a little Bailey's for the car bomb), then I will be sore disappointed.
• I'm partial to Farmer's Tan Red Ale by Tractor Brewing. Not so much for the taste, which is fine, but for their tagline and URL.
• If any of you monkeys come to New Zealand, I'll shout you a Ginger Tom at the Dux de Lux, best pub in Christchurch. And I think American beers taste like crap.
• Oh, and Steinlager is terrible too, especially if you leave it long enough to lose its chill.
• Well, I like a Steiny. But who wants a hot one?
• La Fin du Monde. One of the finest (and strongest) beers on the planet. Its sister brew, Maudite has almost as good a name (and a terrific looking label), but I found it a bit disapointing after drinking LFDM. A brewer friend of mine has pronouced LFDM "a first rate beer". (So now I know it's safe to take to his house.) I also really like white ales, beers brewed from wheat as opposed to barley. (This page says that white beers generally have a strong taste, which I haven't really found, but maybe that's because my local bar only has the very light-tasting (aka bland) Hoegaarden. I once had a Konig Ludwig, but I don't remember much about it, except that I really liked it.) If you are anywhere in the New York area (and it's worth a commute), the dark, dank and scuzzy Peculier Pub of Goats fame has over 500 different kinds of beer in stock. The Canadian selection was terrible (I don't know if they had ever heard of any Canadian breweries other than Molsen's and Labatt's), but the English, German and Belgian selections were impressive. (I think they even had Hobgoblin, an Oxfordshire ale my friend was obsessed with. It tasted faintly of chocolate). On preview: tracicle, the saving grace of American beers seems to be the microbrews, especially here in New England. If you ever have the chance to try it, Samual Adams seems to be a good company; I know British ex-pats who drink it because they like it better than the British stuff which has been shipped here. I'm really not obsessed with beer or even a connoiseur or anything - (in fact, I've been drinking cider mostly lately because it is more refreshing) - but I'm picky and I have access to google. There are a lot of sites about beer on the internet.
• I work in a pub, and I can tell you that every time you order a pint of Foster's, baby Jesus sheds a tear. Do you guys get that vile piss over in America?
• Do you guys get that vile piss over in America? We have it in Canada, and folks seem to like it. Living out Paul Hogan That's-Not-A-Knife fantasies, or something. But people get that way with any foreign beer, no? I saw Fes describe Molson Canadian as liquid gold, and I thought "yeh, Liquid Gold." Chacun a son gout.
• Sadly, I am alergic to something in beer -- just one of the suckers and my eyes redden, my sinuses clog, and I sneeze like... someone who really needs to sneeze. Over and over again. Have I mentioned how much I like vodka? (heading joke off at pass: Sinuses clog? I didn't know they had feet!)
• Do you guys get that vile piss over in America?
  We sure do, and it's pretty popular, I see it a lot of times on tap. I'm not a huge fan but I don't think it's horrible.
• A fresh pint of Theakston's Old Peculier, off the wood at The White Bear in Masham, Yorkshire, home of Theakston's. In my research I also visited Weihenstephan in Bavaria, which calls itself "Alteste brauerei der welt - seit 1040" Oldest brewery in the world - established 1040.
• I'm with Pez. That Red Stripe is fantastic stuff. I also can't get enough of Mexican beers with Mexican food. It's not great beer, but it's something about that beer with the lime, the chips, the salsa ... very tasty. Corona, Dos Equis, Negro Modelo, any of them will do. In a google search for why they put the lime wedge in Mexican beers, I found this handy product. No more pulp all over my fingers!
• I don't understand American (mass-produced) beer. Dis-gusting. Now Oregon or Colorado micro-brewed beer is another stor--it is truly mighty fine. MmMmm beer. It's such a shame that I just got into work and that it's 8 in the morning. phooey.
• tracicle -- I don't know what American beers get shipped to NZ, but even if all you get is Bud/Miller/Coors, "crap" is misleading: I would guess that your average crap is far more flavorful than your average American light lager. However, the good news is that there are many, many smaller breweries in the U.S. and Canada that produce stellar beers in a variety of styles. The best-known are probably Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Pete's Wicked Ale and Sam Adams Boston Lager, but there are also lots of adventurous smaller brewers: Rogue, New Belgium, Dogfish Head, New Glarus, Unibroue, and of course Bell's. Sadly, I am at work now and cannot imbibe any drugs more potent than caffeine.
• *it's another story too.
• Nicepersonality: JINX!!
• My tipples of choice: Budvar, a smooth fruity Czech lager, and the aforementioned Old Peculier, which is a very bitter bitter but very nice all the same.
• I've always liked the slight tang of a Newcastle. Boddingtons is also quite nice (even better when served by a waitress with a British accent.)
• When I was living in New Zealand I consumed many a can of Lion Red. LOOOOVED IT. I think it was inferior beer as far as the Kiwis were concerned, but I never did come across a beer I enjoyed as much, either there or once I was back home.
• 1) Guinness 2) Sammy Smith's Nut Brown Ale 3) Anything by Stoudt's-- a fantastic brewhaus in Pennsylvania 4) Pure Nostalgia--Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve-- the first beer I ever got drunk on.
• Good gravy, has nobody here experienced the glories of Belgian beer? I'm not crazy about lambics (which is what a lot of people think of when they think of Belgian beer, because they're so fruity and weird), but Belgium has as many styles of beer as France has wine, and most of them are fantastic. My favorites are the Trappist ales, particularly Chimay, but the witbiers are great in summer and the amber ales (especially Artevelde), golden ales (notably Duvel), and others are great anytime. There was a time when I had kind of lost interest in beer (I used to love Lowenbrau when it was imported, then they started making it here and it sucked); then a very intense food-and-drink maven I knew whisked me off to a weird bar in the East Village where the waiters dressed as Trappist monks and ordered me a Corsendonk. I tasted it and said "This tastes like wine, like... like Burgundy!" (that being my all-time favorite form of wine). He grinned and said "Now try the Chimay." I was hooked. I bought a bunch of different bottles at a beer warehouse in Brooklyn and tried them all. I beg you, you lovers of beer -- investigate the Belgians! Oh, and Anchor Steam is great too. And Guinness. As a guy I knew in Ireland said, "Guinness: there's food in it, there's drink in it, and there's a night's lodgin' in it!"
• I used to love Lowenbrau when it was imported, then they started making it here and it sucked. It just doesn't taste the same without the umlaut. (Psst
• My friends, if you're ever in Philadelphia, PROMISE ME you'll head over to Bridgid's Bar and Grille. Dunkels on tap, amaaazing Belgian selection, mayonaise with the frites, and a duck confit i would crawl through broken glass for. It is nestled away in the Fairmount section, just blocks from my old Grad School digs... This is perhaps the Second Best Bar I've ever come to love in all my 41 years..
• And if you're in NYC, for god's sake go to d.b.a. in the East Village. It's got the best beer and single malt selection in town. This is perhaps the Second Best Bar I've ever come to love So what's the Best?
• Sooooz, Lion Red is one of my favourite beers. And yes, you're right, it's not one of the "cool" beers. Sadly.
• I spent
• I hope the Krony was 1664. Their regular line is imbuvable. French beers lack hops.
• What a wonderful thread! Languagehat is dead on target in his discussion of imported ales: beer in Belgium is a religion (quite literally when you consider that those four Trappist monasteries support themselves entirely on the profits of their rich beers). I only have one to add: Delerium Tremens. It's powerful stuff, though, so treat it with respect. As microbrews go, some of the best but little-known brands come from my neck of the woods. I am particularly fond of the New Glarus Brewing Company--their Spotted Cow is what all my friends drink in town (Spotted Cow: The beer of the midwestern intelligentsia), but I harbor a special love for their rarer Coffee Stout. And then, of course, there's the top-rated beer in America: the Wisconsin Belgian Red. And then, about half an hour away from New Glarus (and about five minutes from where I live) is another great microbrewery that deserves its national reputation--Capital. Their seasonals are the Good Stuff, and their Maibock is one of the best things about summer. If you ever find yourself in the distribution range of these great breweries (and I've found bottles of their beer at least in Iowa), I urge you to pick up a six-pack and experience the renaissance in Wisconsin beers!
• Seattle monkeys: patronize the Stumbling Monk for the all-too-hard to find Belgians hereabouts. Belgians (and others) are hard to come by because of our embeerassment of riches. In no particular order The Elysian, Pike Place, Pyramid and Hale's all make and serve fine beery products on-site.
• I trust that all Seattle monkeys already know and pay homage to Bottleworks on Wallingford.
• Being that I went to school in Wisconsin with its multitudinous micro-breweries, I was a lucky, lucky bear.
• Nothing funnier than a drunk bear. Except maybe a masturbating bear. Wait a minute... A DRUNK MASTERBATING BEAR!!!!!!
• I have now had Old Speckled Hen. Very good. Belgium beers are very good - I think trappist ales are my favorite, along with white beers.
• Good lord, I'm a sucker for the hearty, and strong, German Hefe-Weizen ales! For the past half-year, I have been hooked on Schneider Weisse's "The Original." So far, it seems to be fast approaching as an all-time favorite. If I'm in a particularly good mood, I'll opt for Schneider Weisse's wheat doppelbock clocking in at 8.2%, Aventinus. *takes the last swig*
• Trappist ale is good stuff. I drained an entire gift magnum of Chimay Grande Resérve last night, then tried to visit the gym this morning. The results were not pretty. Hideous as that workout was, it probably salvaged the rest of my day. Emboldened by some recent successes in bread baking, I restarted my long-fallow homebrewing practice last autumn. (Everything works much better this time, now that I know how to wash dishes. Glad to know that the last fifteen years of my life weren't completely wasted.) I have a promising Scotch ale in secondary fermentation right now. The brew room is so cold, I probably should be lagering instead of trying to make ale, the fermentation proceeding at a crawl. Hopefully by next week I can bottle it and put this batch to bed, because I'm thirsty.
• réserve
• résérvé
• i méänt résérvé dämn it
• (Thanks.)
• My introduction to Trappist ale was in college; I was tutoring music at my college, and one of the students I was working with (an older guy who was returning to college after a lengthy hiatus) gave me a six-pack (is that the right way to refer to it? Not a beer snob, and haven't drunk nearly enough of the Trappist brew) at the end of the semester. I was 19 or 20, and that experience ruined shitty beer for me forever.
• it's good stuff
• Around Ottawa, a lot of bars have St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout on tap. Takes the concept of stout seriously. At my local, I don't order a beer anymore, the bartender just hands me a pint of stout. Makes Guinness taste like piss. (And I like Guiness)
• Speaking of Trappist ales... if I have some spare change (ahem, perhaps I should say "bills"), I will grab an Orval. I suffered when visiting the relatives over the holidays, as they live in a rather remote area of the Southern US... The beer! Agggh! The best offering was Amstel Light. I passed...
• Aaah, the oatmeal stouts... yummy.
• The Beertender appeared in a supermarket near me just before xmas. It's a small draught system for the home, with temperature control, quantity indicator, and freshness indicator. I was sorely tempted, but Heineken seems to be the only option in France and I don't like it enough to fork out the cash for the system. In the Netherlands, there seems to be a wider range, so perhaps there's hope.
• *passes an iced tea to SMT*
• *wipes mouth* What the heck was in that?
• I saw those, roryk! They had tons of them at that beer boutique on the Champs Elysees, but no prices attached to any of them. I was tempted, too, but given that a) they wouldn't work on N.A. electrical currents, b) I couldn't restock the thing, and c) I'd have even more overwieght, I had to leave it behind. But still, it took a long time to bow to the inevitable. You're right, though -- the Dutch selection is pretty impressive, and with both Affligem AND Wieckse Witte available... *sigh* Beautiful machines. But even so, I'd want to dress it up on game days. And fimbulvetr, you might want to check out the companion to Blanche de Chambly, Chambly Noire.