Beer!

[Sock Puppet]

Originally Posted by Demimonde

Sock, you will laugh at me.

The name sounded familiar, and upon googling it I can say I have only tried St. Arnold's root beer! It was quite good though. I will have to seek some out. I imagine that I can find it, if they've been grandfathered in the distribution pipeline. Any particular brew you would recommend?

I've tried their Brown and Amber ales, as well as a beer they call Lawnmower. The Lawnmower is okay for a pilsnerish beer, but not my thing. The ales are great. I like the Amber Ale the most. I like amber ales in general, and theirs is a nice balance between drinkable (i.e., I can pound 'em down if I so desire) and flavorful.

Actually, my favorite ale is still Drake's Amber ("a pint a day keeps the scurvy away"), but I can't get that down here in the swamp. When I visit my friend in California, I always instruct him to stock up on it.

[Demimonde]

Originally Posted by Sock Puppet

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Sock Puppet

I think I tried Sierra's Celebration Ale way back when, and at that time it paled in comparison to Anchor's. I'll try it this year; I bet that it kicks Anchor's butt now.

Yeah, give it a shot. Like pretty much every other one, it is a little different from year to year, too; but it's hard to tell how much because by the time the new season's is on the shelves, it's been like ten months since I had last season's, and there's always the possibility that the differences I discern are the result of mental deterioration or spiritual growth or something.

For what it's worth, I like bitter, hoppy beer. I can drink a stout or a porter or whatever and enjoy it, but then I'm always like, "Oh, hey. I think I would like to have a beer now!"

So my default beers for lowering my social barriers and saying hateful things to my loved ones every night are pretty much always IPAs and ESBs. The Celebration Ale is like a more complex version of SN's Torpedo IPA, which is like a bitterer version of their standard IPA. Celebration has some fruity notes to it, but they're subtle, and they're more grapefruit fruity than the usual sweet fruity in most Christmas ales I've tried. But your mileage may vary, depending on your preferences.

Anyway, it's not my favorite beer in the universe or anything, but I like it as a winter default.

[Watser?]

Disaster may be brewing - or not - in beer-loving Belgium, where supplies of two of the country's most famous beers may be down to the last dregs.

An industrial dispute over planned job cuts means a blockade is threatening supplies of Stella Artois and Leffe.

BBC News - Belgian beer dispute hits supply of Stella Artois

Leffe!

[JoeP]

Supplies of Belgian beer to SA have been shockingly bad for many years.

[Watser?]

Butbutbut...

That's the best part of Belgium!

[Bastard]

I am going to make a rather unusual recommendations, (considering my nationality..)

[Iacchus]

It's too bad I can't find it around here locally anymore. The store I bought it from carried it only temporarily, and has since discontinued it. It was just enough time to get me spoiled ...

[Watser?]

We will run out of Jupiler here next week!

[lisarea]

With Celebration Ale season over, I'm back to Dale's Pale Ale by Oskar Blues as my default. It's a nice hoppy pale ale from a local brewery, and it comes in cans.

But I am not going to post a picture of the label! If you want to see pictures of it, you have to go look on some search engine or whatever! HA HA!

[Shelli]

I'm drinking a "beer" called "Sparks" that my step-son turned me onto who recently moved up from . It's some good shit.

[Doctor X]

--J.D.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Shelli

I'm drinking a "beer" called "Sparks" that my step-son turned me onto who recently moved up from . It's some good shit.

Sparks is the shit!

Between the sparks and the bawls can we conclude you are back on caffeine?

[256 colors]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Sparks is the shit!

I have heard Sparks called a lot of things, but never "beer."

[Watser?]

Bought some of this:

[Shelli]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Sparks is the shit!

Between the sparks and the bawls can we conclude you are back on caffeine?

Yeah, I'm drinking caffeine again, but I'm keeping it reasonable. Workdays, I stick to one Bawl in the morning () and one x-bold k-cup after lunch. Weekends, it's one Bawl a day only and no later than 2:00. If I keep it there, which I intend to, it's all good.

[lisarea]

I am resurrecting this thread to bring you some shocking news.

I just bought a 12 pack of New Belgium's Ranger IPA in cans, after drinking Dale's Pale Ale almost exclusively for a while (except during Celebration Ale season, when I drink that). I was a little scared that the dog might not recognize me and attack me when she saw me come into the house carrying a different kind of beer, but happily, I was able to pass safely.

They're obviously sorta ganking the Dale's concept, which launched this recent trend for craft brews in cans. I like cans because they are more compact when you go to the recycling center, so you seem like less of a drunk. Also maybe the environment or maybe not lol.

It's p good. Not as good as Dales, but it might actually be bitterer. It's a little hard to tell so early, because I've been sticking with Dale's almost exclusively so my palate might just be acclimated to it, but so far, the Ranger seems to be a little flatter--tastewise not carbonationwise. It is nice and crisp and bitey, though. I like it so far.

And the cans are beautiful. They're nice clean graphics in brown and citron green, which gives them a few points over the Dale's cans, which are all busy and patriotic looking. So I look a little cooler drinking it, and after all, that's what really matters.

So I'm a new man now, people, all buying a different kind of beer today. Mark your calendars.

[Qingdai]

Check.

I am liking Deschutes Brewery Bachelor ESB

[Gonzo]

I appreciate your distinguished tastes in beer, fellas. I just drink what's available, which is usually Coors Light.

[teasasue]

Originally Posted by Shelli

I'm drinking a "beer" called "Sparks" that my step-son turned me onto who recently moved up from . It's some good shit.

Yeah I will not touch those again after I drank so many of them took off up the dirt road we live on barefoot, and as I was walking back got sick all the way home, sat in the drive way once I reached home and was sick some more. Bad night bad night that was. Never want a repeat.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I'm liking Beez Neez honey wheat.

Lisa, I really like New Belgium's stuff. Fat Tire, naturally (get it in bottles, do not get the cans!), but Mothership Wit is also good. Another good local one is the chocolate stout from Fort Collins Brewery.

[lisarea]

I don't really care much for Fat Tire, so the only times I have it is if the selection is really limited, and then, it's usually on tap. Generally, I'm just not into sweet or overly malty stuff. I can appreciate a pint of stout or amber ale every now and again when I'm out somewhere, but if I'm committing to even a six pack, I am going to go with something much hoppier.

Is there a reason you don't like the cans, though? Have you tried it? I prefer cans when I can get them, in part because they're easier to recycle; but also because they don't have the problems with light and air getting in and spoiling the beer that you get with bottles. In fact, can't think of any beer-related reason to prefer bottles over cans. Most of it seems to be residual stigma from only crap beer coming in cans.

Oh, and Gonzo? You're grounded.

[Watser?]

I prefer cans because I have no car, so I have to take all the bottles back in the backpack or something, which sucks mighty, mighty donkey balls. Cans I stuff in the garbage, so the garbage men take them (and a magnet picks out all the cans before they burn the rest).

Luckily they are now selling more and more Belgian beers, like Leffe, in cans too.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I have tried Fat Tire in a can and it tasted different from the bottled. I don't know what the difference was, but I noticed it.

Personally, I prefer maltier beers - I don't like hoppier ones.

(Mothership Wit is an organic wheat beer. D'you like wheat beers?)

[Ensign Steve]

I'm drinking Gordon Bierch beer right now, Czech Style Pilsner to be specific, and I'm pretty buzzed* so I am going to bore you with a beer-related story or three.

On the night me and bey first met in person (you could call it our first date if you knew at the time we were going to hit it off), he took me to the Gordon Bierch brewery restaurant in downtown Atlanta, just up the road from the show we went to see. We had good food and got pretty hammered on beer and played some pool and generally hit it off. And we have GB-branded souvenir pilsner glasses still from that night.

Then like many years later when I was living in Los Angeles, I was taking a trip out to Georgia to visit him and he was going to take me to dinner at the same brewery and propose to me. Not the most obvious venue in a generic romantic sense, but as it was the location of our first date, it was appropriate. But! There was weather and airplane mechanical issues and all manner of problems that left me stranded in Chicago for upwards of nine hours and I didn't make it to Atlanta until like two in the morning. So he went to Gordon Bierch anyway, without me, and told his sob story to the waitress and showed her the ring and drank many beers all alone while I was stuck at the airport in Chicago and texting him updates every five minutes. He ended up proposing to me in the hotel room in the middle of the night wherein I accepted and immediately passed out from exhaustion.

But then! We were in Las Vegas the day before our wedding and we stopped at AM/PM to pick up some drinks and supplies, and they had Gordon Bierch beer at the AM/PM and he's like "OMG! They have Gordon Bierch!" So we bought a six-pack or two. Then as we're leaving the store to walk back to the hotel, this lady comes out and she goes, "Wait! I have something for you!" And we're like, okay, so we hang out for several minutes waiting to see what she has for us. Since it's Las Vegas, I'm concerned that it might be another time share presentation, because you get that a lot out there, but she sounded so sincere so we waited. And it turns out what she has are GB-branded souvenir pilsner glasses that she got as a promotion from the beer dealer. She had heard how excited he got that they had the beer and figured he was a fan and she could unload the swag on us. So of course we had to be all "OMG" and tell her the whole story of our first date and the proposal and how we were getting married in her fair city the very next day and how it was all like kismet and junk.

So the point is, I have a very special place in my heart for Gordon Bierch beer, and also more GB-branded souvenir pilsner glasses than I know what to do with.

* not off the beer, but off the double margarita I had at lunch.