(From "Yourself i n 3 words" thread)

 

Monkeybun Hillsboro, Oregon Posts: 3006

03/05/2010 05:51 PM Quote Reply Alert It's still weird seeing Import on the kinds of beer I drank in Canada.. and it doesn't taste the same And American beer is just nasty. Forgot onething: SMARTIES! They don't sell them here!! My hubby has never even heard of Smarties

MimzMum Interior Alaska Posts: 4878

03/07/2010 04:51 PM Quote Reply Alert What?? No Smarties in Oregon?? That does it, not moving there! lolz... Gosh you see them all the time here. Especially at Halloween. Those little rolled tart candies that are like mini Sweet Tarts...right? Or are you guys talking about something totally Canadian that I have no clue about...which wouldn't be the first time? lmao Beer...bleah. I've never gotten used to it. When Olympia still made beer I would drink that, but nothing else tastes good at all to me. I can remember having to drink a can of Lucky Lager or something foul like that to get my milk started when I had my son...YUCK.

bunnytowne florida Posts: 5555

03/07/2010 05:36 PM Quote Reply Alert Yep american beer is bad.    I got this drink mix  from Jamaica.  It has jasmine in it.    I made it last nite it taste like wine.   Strange.   Without teh alcohol.   that isnt' what it is supposed to be wine.

Sage Cat Denver Posts: 1638

03/08/2010 10:34 AM Quote Reply Alert Hello - Microbrewery make excellent beer! American Beer is NOT nasty - You are just drinking the wrong kind! I have worked with several local Colorado brewery's. They even make small batch beers that all are only available for one season. New Belgium - Fat Tire; Odell's - 90 Shilling; Breckenridge - Avalanche are a few of my favorites! Okay my all time favorite is a Black & Tan made with Guinness & Bass - really not American!

Elrohwen Danbury, Connecticut Posts: 1470

03/08/2010 10:41 AM Quote Reply Alert Thank you Sage Cat! I was just going to say the same thing. If the only American beer you've tried is Coors and Bud, you're really really missing out. There are a million different fantastic American beers. Heck, Sam Adams is a huge brand and is actuallly really good. It's not that hard to find good stuff, especially in the Pacific Northwest - Portland is beer heaven. I would also get angry in England when they assumed all lagers were either Fosters or Bud. Uhh, hello! There are a ton of awesome lagers that taste nothing like Fosters and Bud. Silly British. eta: And which Canadian beers are we talking about here? If it's Moulson or Labatt, I beg to differ that those are no better than Coors, Bud, and Miller  Even if you get them in Canada or on tap, they're still gross.

LizzieKnittyBun Jacksonville, FL Posts: 771

03/08/2010 11:52 AM Quote Reply Alert omygosh my favorite American beer... Yuengling!!! SO DELICIOUS. I recommend it to everyone and have only received positive responses. Haven't found it yet here in Colorado... but I am enjoying Jack Whacker Wheat Ale, especially because of its adorable label. It is unfiltered, however, which makes it look a little like pee... Tasty though! Also, like Sage Cat said, Breckenridge is muy refreshing and we've enjoyed that too.

Elrohwen Danbury, Connecticut Posts: 1470

03/08/2010 11:58 AM Quote Reply Alert Lizzie, Yuengling is from my home state of PA. It's so good! It's really cheap too, so if I don't want to spend a lot of money that's what I'll get. It's definitely the best beer for the least amount of money. Their Black & Tan is really good too. My favorite beer is by Saranac - they're an upstate NY brewery and not available much out of the state. The Black Forest variety is the best!

Monkeybun Hillsboro, Oregon Posts: 3006

03/08/2010 12:00 PM Quote Reply Alert I've tried several of the microbrews around here.. most are just bland and tasteless to me.

LizzieKnittyBun Jacksonville, FL Posts: 771

03/08/2010 12:02 PM Quote Reply Alert omygosh Elrohwen... Yuengling nom nom nom

Elrohwen Danbury, Connecticut Posts: 1470

03/08/2010 12:03 PM Quote Reply Alert We should start a thread on beers! MB, what Canadian beers do you like? Also, what varieties did you try? I can think of some bland beers, but plenty of really flavorful ones too - it just depends on the variety.

bunnytowne florida Posts: 5555

03/08/2010 12:13 PM Quote Reply Alert You know   you brought to mind  Coasters.   We have a Coasters.   The specailize in imported beer and american beer.   They have the yucky ol Bud but they also have some really good not well known of beers too.

Petzy Northern AB Canada Posts: 2211

03/10/2010 10:46 AM Quote Reply Alert Posted By Elrohwen on 03/08/2010 12:03 PM We should start a thread on beers! she says. she means it.

corpathina Posts: 213

03/11/2010 02:44 PM Quote Reply Alert we should definitely start a thread on beers! i brew my own. =)

Tis Done!

LOL! Jersey dealt with it.
I imagine the beer fans on here wanted to indulge a little more, enjoy the discourse you know like in a ... bar, so to speak.

y'all feel free to "indulge a little more" here at the beer thread!

 

@ Elrohwen, I can edit out your pic if you don't want it heading up this thread... Just lemme know.

-raises a glass to jersey-

 American Beer gets a bad rep cause people think Budwieser and Miller when American Beer comes up.

But as stated above there are tons of micro brews that blow some of the best German beer I have had out of the water.

On top there are major companies like Yuengling (which i am running out of ) and Sam Adams.

Some great ones are Flying Dog is a great one as well, high alch% and great taste for their porters as well!

I like beer, but I don't know anything about the different brews. Don't get mad, but I drink Bud Light. I'm open to any suggestions of other types I can try.

don't feel badly if you don't many beers. while it's the most popular alcoholic beverage in the US, Americans are known for their mass production and consumption of it, not for selectivity in taste.

still, there's a whole world of beers out there with a variety of different characteristics for your tasting pleasure.
http://larchris.dk/Filer/BeerPeriodicTable.jpg
this is probably the coolest thing i've found in all my beer research. it's got every type of beer you can think of and includes descriptions and all sorts of fun info.

i think the main thing about beer is that for most people it only takes getting one that you don't like to scare you away from trying new ones. but really, the only way to really formulate a taste for it and figure out what you like is to try as many as possible (not all in one night!! haha!).

after collecting and trying beers for a while, my boyfriend and i started to brew our own beer about a year ago. it's a lot of fun and isn't too hard. the beer makes great presents and gives us a good excuse to have people over. in fact, we're bottling a cherry stout this weekend. =)

also, i'd like to add that picking out beers to try isn't nearly as difficult as choosing wine. i know a small amount about wine, but i seriously try a beer just because it has a funny name or cool label. i found one of my favorite beers this way - corsendonk. funny name, eh? delicious beer.

yayyyyy! i love talking about beer. okay, someone else's turn. =)

My turn! Thanks, jersey, for starting this. Because it's GREEN BEER TIME! Yes, the dyed to match St. Patty's day beers are starting.

Beka, I once read an article on American beers and why some people preferred some over others. It actually demonstrated why you are either a Bud fan or a Miller fan, but rarely both. It has to do with the type of ingredients, probably the hops, they use. Maybe the technique. Anyway, if you like Bud Light but don't love it, try switching to Miller Light. It's mildly different. Miller is my favorite summertime-hot out-want-a-thirst-quenching-sittin'-on-the-porch-old-standby-beer. I am buying Miller 64 for my WW diet, because it's only 1 point, almost no buzz but still refreshing. Though I wouldn't recommend it normally.

Sam Adams used to be a local microbrewry, that's why it's still so good. I like most of their flavors. And they're from Boston.
I had a friend at work years ago who brewed his own and gave it to me for holiday gifts. Yum!

Corona is a nice beer - Mexican. Smooth.
I really like a dark beer sometimes.
Corpathina, trying new beers for their labels sounds fun.
One beer is usually 3 weight watchers points, but it's much less than mixed drinks and even less than wine - a good diet drink option.

Yay for beer thread!! I'm proud to have my picture of me with a 1L beer at the top of the thread :-P

DH and I big into beer, especially DH (I tend to manage the wine purchases). We love to just buying all sorts of new things and trying them. I will admit that I'm pickier than he is - there are definitely types of beer that I dislike, but after trying so many I usually know if I will or won't like it before I open it. For example, I know that I'm not a fan of super dark beers so I usually avoid porters (though there are some stouts I really like) and I don't like super high alcohol beers like DH does (7% is probably my max). I think it's so much fun to buy some different types and really figure out what you like. I also find that my tastes open up over time - I used to really dislike IPAs, but I like them more and more.

The best is finding a store where you can buy one bottle at a time and make your own six-pack with different beers. Then if you don't like one, no big deal, just grab another. I grew up in PA where you can only buy by the case (for the most part) and it really limits trying new beers. They just don't stock many microbrews and who wants to buy a whole case of something they may not like?

My all time fav beer company is Saranac - specifically their Black Forest. Anyone else from the New York area? The brewery is located in Utica and it's available all over NY (and a little in CT and Mass). Amazing. And I can't say enough about their Pomegranite Wheat beer. I think it was one of the first "fruity" beers in the US and there have been a lot of others over the past few years. I love how light it is and that it's not super sweet and fruity (I think the Sam Cherry Wheat is a bit strong with the fruit for my tastes).

I think Sam Adams makes fantastic beers for being such a large popular company now. They give brewery tours where they let you try some random new beer that they've been making for fun in their pilot plant. It's pretty cool.

Beka, I've spent a lot of time in your home state, but I can't really think of too many microbrews other than Great Lakes. Have you tried their stuff? The Eliot Ness is my favorite, though it tastes just like the Sam Adams Lager really. But you should be able to find those easily. I know there's a Rock Bottom Brewery in Cleveland - it's a chain, but they do brew their own beer and always have interesting choices. You can order a flight, with small tastings of a bunch of different beers. Then if there's one you really like you can order a bigger size.

Corpathina, we've done some of our own brewing too. We always say we're going to make another batch, but we're lazy :-P So far we've only made stuff with a kit, where the ingredients are all pre-measured, but DH wants to visit a brewing store and buy some ingredients and find a recipe online. What's your favorite kind that you've made?

elrohwen - i haven't had saranac, but i'll have to keep my eye out for it. down here in louisiana i find i have better luck of getting imports from across the globe than from a few states away, unfortunately. that's why i make sure to try all the local brews when i travel within the US. and i totally agree on the make your own 6 pack thing. love doing that!

we haven't really started to alter recipes or anything either. we order the kits and do it that way, but we've taken a few liberties and adjusted the amount/brew time of the hops before and also added some malt when we had extra. i'd eventually like to make our own recipes, but we're making sure that we have the brew process down to a very fine-tuned operation before we start changing anything. so far my favorite has been a honey porter, but i think we're about to start doing some lighter beers and i'm excited about that. also, we're finally getting our kitchen set up to do lagers. we've got a mini-fridge and are putting in another cabinet specifically to house the beer so we can store the lager properly during fermentation. i can't wait!

I've had some of the Great Lakes stuff but nothing really caught my eye (or taste buds). I am not into change, when I go to restaurants I always order the same dishes. Not very adventurous I guess. Plus everyone that we tend to hang out and drink with drinks Bud Light, so it's easy to pick up a case and bring it over b/c we know it's not going to waste. (And I'm not really one to drink beer for taste as much as just drinking in a social situation.)

Pam, I'm surprised that a beer is less points than wine! I was always under the impression that wine had less calories than beer (unless it's lite beer).

I really dislike lite beer though. If my only options are in the Bud/Coors/Miller family, I won't even drink. I just can't enjoy them even a little and I don't know why since my tastes are pretty broad. I used to drink them in college because that's what people served at parties, but once I was 21 and could buy my own stuff, I became a beer snob :-P

Corpathina, so cool that you're going to do lagers! It always made me sad that it's not easy to do those at home. The only thing we've made so far is a brown ale, but we have a kit for a red ale in our basement right now. I mostly hate the sterilizing process - that's why we've been too lazy to make another batch. There's a brew store not far from us, and I really really want to go and see what they have. I've even found some recipes online that are supposed to mimic stuff you can buy (like Rogue Dead Guy, etc) and I think that would be fun.

My only complaint with home brew is that it seemed to go downhill faster than commercial stuff. For the first month or two it was way better than anything commercial, but after two months, it was kind of flat and slightly stale tasting. Not sure why. It was still good, but not great.

Oh, my other favorite thing to do is fill up our growlers. Local breweries will usually fill them up, or there's a beer store that keeps about 8 beers on tap at all times. They have a really wide variety and most are things you can't get in bottles (like a special beer from Brooklyn brewery or something, only available on tap).

I want to get a kegerator at some point too. I would love to get have fresh beer on tap at all times (though I'm afraid I would get very sick of a particular beer about half way through the keg, unless we only bought stuff we really love).

i'm surprised about the point thing, too. that makes me feel better.. though i can't imagine some of the beers i drink should only be 1 point. some of them i nearly drink for dessert because they're so filling. i wonder how many calories they actually have.. hmm

el - the space is what was keeping us from lagers. you're definitely right it's not easy. i hope we can keep the temperatures steady enough to do it right. we'll see! and yeah, the sanitation is such a bummer, but so important. we've slowly been collecting gadgets to make it easier (like the spigot you hook up to your sink to kinda power wash the bottles) but it still takes a while. we've got a wort chiller and some other stuff to speed up the process, so that makes the sanitizing not seem so laborious.

my neighbor decided to start brewing after we did and he's going to be the first to try one of the copy-cat recipes, so that'll be fun. he's a fan of dark beers and such, but all his friends and family have hated the stuff he's made because they're all bud light/coors light kinda people. so i'll be interested to see how it turns out and if his family approves.

as far as the homebrew not keeping well, i haven't encountered that yet. in fact, we did a porter that is getting better and better the longer we leave it in there. never had problems with losing carbonation or anything. i wonder if there was a problem with the caps sealing or something? or maybe we've just been lucky!

the kegerator is a great idea, especially because i'm in a pretty small town with a very limited selection of beer. but, i still can't imagine having beer on tap at my house every day. i can imagine myself accidentally turning my house into a bar room because i would no doubt insist that we needed help drinking the beer.. hmm.. on second thought, bad idea. lol!

Give me a Heineken

oh the brewhouse/restaurant idea is great. i'm going down to south la this weekend where there's a german-style draught house that serves german food and has a gigantic selection of beers on tap. it's pretty cool. it'd be so greatl to run a place like that.

i'd eventually love to be like your friend.. i'm realizing now why people say if you've been brewing under 5 years, you're still pretty much an amateur - there are so many types and so many nuances in brewing that it takes forever to get really proficient at it. but it's enjoyable from the get-go, that's for sure.

the bar in your house would be awesome. if i ever built a house i'd totally love to do that.

We have an awesome German place here too! I love it. They have a great outside area and we're waiting impatiently for the beer garden to re-open for the summer. Their food is kind of expensive, but it's as authentic as I've had in the US. And the beer is fantastic!

Having a bar would be so much fun. Some friends of ours have one in their finished basement - it just came with the house, they didn't build it. DH says the bar isn't living up to its full potential because there are no working taps. Haha. He would kill to have a set up like that and make it a functioning bar. Our wedding favors were even pint glasses with the Guiness logo (but our last name, instead of Guiness, etc) so we have enough custom glasses to stock a bar :-P

oh wow, that's a great idea for favors. gotta store that one away in the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, they were kind of expensive ... but since we collect pint glasses we thought it was totally worth it. Plus, it was actually cheaper to buy 144 of them (instead of the 100 or so we needed) so we have an extra 50 to start our own bar with :-P

Oh, and I know a few couples who have made their own beer and put special wedding labels on them, then used those for favors. I love that idea too! Far cheaper than what we did, too. If we were better brewers I think we would've done that.

Posted By Buri on 03/12/2010 11:13 AM
Give me a Heineken

EWWW!!!!  YUCKY!

 

and off the smarties topic apperently they dont sell ketcup chips in the states... i would diee!!!

 

You guys!!! Your making me cry!!!
\

Kokanee is a beer-we named her for chewing on a box of it. I still cannot drink it except for her anniversary. Which is carrot cake, Kokanee and crying.


But yeah-ok beer.

Totally like it ehhehhehe I like it only in spring-on patios which are spring time Get a beer and enjoy the sun which is limited in this area I love Corona (What I wanted to rename Rupert) Stella Artois or Kokanee. I liked Canadian until it was purchased by a company outside of Canada (my thing with that) I love the commercials but I won't support pretending Canadian beer that supports product of elsewhere heheheh And yeah not a big beer person but I always go to Kokanee Miss my sweet lady.

Posted By MirBear on 03/13/2010 01:11 PM

Posted By Buri on 03/12/2010 11:13 AM
Give me a Heineken

EWWW!!!!  YUCKY!

 

and off the smarties topic apperently they dont sell ketcup chips in the states... i would diee!!!

 

Yep, no ketchup chips, or all dressed for that matter... weirdo americans.

VERY weird amaricans

Mops and Neigey went to the Coors Light Mystery Mansion this past weekend. Neigey wasn't allowed in because he was under the legal drinking age.  Apparently Mops had a good time, but he won't talk about it.

LOL!!!