Hoegaarden

Hoegaarden White is one that The Beer Store here in Ontario carries, possibly because it's brewed by Interbrew, the Belgian giant that also owns Labatt and, Labatt just happens to be a majority owner of The Beer Store. It is the best (read only) Belgian White that we can get on a regular basis. A few years back, Celis White was brewed under license locally by Brick Brewing in Waterloo. Having had both the original Celis from Texas, courtesy of a friend in the USA, and the Brick brewed version I'd have to say I preferred the Brick. Unfortunately, neither is currently available. Word from Brick was that they'd possibly have their own version of a Belgian White style coming down the pike but, nothing yet.

Ross.

You probably can't get it out there, but IMO the best witbier around is Allagash's White Beer. Light, crisp, nicely spiced, great stuff.

Wit seems to have become a "trendy" style in the last year or two. Went to two beer festivals last summer and it seemed like half the booths there had a wit, most of which weren't very good.

I've had some Allagash products before, though never the White.

Too true. One of the "staple" taps at my fav bar is Blue Moon White...

Best regards, Bill

"Bill Becker" wrote in news:c4tkve$2l8o1u$ snipped-for-privacy@ID-128382.news.uni-berlin.de:

Allagash is across the board pretty incredible. They just released their quad, Allagash Four, but I haven't opened my bottle yet. Looking forward to it. Their Speciale Reserve and Grand Cru are great, and I honestly think their tripel is the best example of the style in the world. Quite an accomplishment.

Mmmmm. Nothing like taking one of the world's great styles and Coorsifying it. I can't wait until we get Miller Tripel or Budweiser Flemish Sour Ale. Now with 99% less sour!

That reminds me, I had a Shiner "Hefeweizen" last weekend. It's good to know regional breweries can hose up good beer styles as well as the big ones. Blech.

I personally don't consider Shiner a regional any more. Since they were gobbled up by Gambrinus they've gone more to megabrewery style production and marketing.

snipped-for-privacy@FIGURE.IT.OUT (Joel) wrote in news:c4udnt$475$ snipped-for-privacy@brew.ncsa.uiuc.edu:

Point taken. As long as we can all agree that Shiner sucks regardless of size, I'm happy.

Yeah.. couldn't stand their Hefe.... and they're from TexASS!!!

Allagash is pretty good. Another new one we just got in our area (northern VA) is Flying Dog brews (from Colorado). Good stuff, IMO.

lol. As long as we can agree that there are others that suck more than Shiner, I'm happy.I'm a Beer of the Month customer and yeah...just because it's a micro brew, don't assume that it's going to make a positive impact on you. I've had some real "yuckers" sent to me.

I've always held the Shiner bock in the same sort of reverence as the Modelo Negra....it's a decent dark beer. Not outstanding but certainly not offensive in any way.

Best regards, Bill

Jack Slopehead wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Some I like. Thought their barleywine was pretty good and I liked the "scotch porter" but, all in all, I've been pretty underwhelmed. --

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004, it was written:

Just like they did with Shiner "Bock" (at least its malty)

I have to disagree. While I haven't had the barleywine and have heard good things about it, the rest of their stuff blows IMO. The labels were the only things worthwhile.

The barleywine IS good.

Allagash makes good beer, but the wit is too hoppy for my taste. I really like Blanche de Chambly if I'm drinking a wit, or Wieckse. Subdued, sweet, fruity, just a hint of savory spicing.

RE: Celis--the bottle I had from the Michigan operation was not a good thing.

--NPD

Really? Did it taste different? If it did then that's strange because it's being brewed on the same equipment that was in Texas by the Celis family.

_Randal

I've heard so many good things about Michigan's revival of Celis White, but my sampling (2002) at GABF was overboard on the phenols, it was bandaid beer all the way.

McEwan's Strong Ale is a "brandywine" inasmuch that it is sweet and yet has an alcoholic contents of some 12 % yet ! It is one of the strongest brews I have encountered, greatly popular among the teenage crowd along with all the other awful strong and tasteless

Ian Rankin mentions this vile custom of having a tot of Laphroig straight malt Scotch and following it up with a forty-shilling beer as above.Forty - shilling beer = barleywine.

You can only do this in Edinbourgh, the weather demands it .

Andy

Nick Dempsey wrote:

Unfortunately, I never got to try the original. The stuff I got from MI was thin, bitter, and yeah, a bit phenolic.

--NPD

Interesting. I was never a great fan of the original Celis, always thought Hoegaarden was head & shoulders above it. I was just wondering if people were going to put the 'original' Celis on a pedestal now that it is unavailable. I would bet that in reality the new Celis from MI is pretty much spot on for the original...

_Randal

Well I can only say that I drank alot of Celis White and Grand Cru back when it was still coming from Austin, and enjoyed them. Since Pierre Celis created both Celis White and Hoegaarden, I never thought of one being much different than the other. While I've heard many people declare the Michigan Celis White as great, just because its brewed in the same vessels doesn't mean its going to come out exactly the same. (my experience was overly phenolic)