Happy birthday to me... now what?

Dear alt.beer, Just signed up tonight to get some advice. I turned 21 in September and, naturally, persued my newfound legal ability to imbibe drinks of an alchoholic nature. Unfortunately I am unimpressed so far and I am looking for help. I've only had a couple of beers and most, I think were microbrews. A friend of mine had me try what he described as a "wheat" beer and it didn't go over well. I bought a six-pack of Budweiser recently thinking, "It's popular, it must be good." I can't take more than three drinks from a bottle. Is there anyone I can turn to for help without spending hundreds of dollars finding a beer that doesn't make me gag?

Thanks in advance! Binkman

Begin ßinkmån quote:

; Just signed up tonight to get some advice. I turned 21 in September and, ; naturally, persued my newfound legal ability to imbibe drinks of an ; alchoholic nature. Unfortunately I am unimpressed so far and I am looking ; for help. I've only had a couple of beers and most, I think were microbrews. ; A friend of mine had me try what he described as a "wheat" beer and it ; didn't go over well. I bought a six-pack of Budweiser recently thinking,

When I was "just legal", I preferred wheats and pilsners. Now, while I still like a good pils, I find I have no taste for the wheats anymore.

; "It's popular, it must be good." I can't take more than three drinks from a

Just because something is popular, doesn't make it good. It just makes it popular. About the only good thing about Bud is it's cheap. That is also a large part of what's bad about it, too. I've been to their brewery in NH. Big, clean, industrial, and no soul whatsoever. Their brewing is a purely technical process, calculated to be as inoffensive as possible, which results in an incredibly bland product in taste, appearance and alcohol content.

Sprite has more body than Bud. My mouthwash has a better flavor, and probably more alcohol.

; bottle. Is there anyone I can turn to for help without spending hundreds of ; dollars finding a beer that doesn't make me gag?

Are you still in college? With your email address/domain, I can name a few places down the street and/or otherwise local to your main campus. In no particular order:

Cornwalls. In Kenmore Square roughly across from the bus station on the westbound side (McDonalds is on the far side of the square). This is an English style pub with English and English style beers, mostly ales.

Boston Beer Works. On Brookline Ave across from Fenway Park. American brewpub with great beers made on the premise and great food. (There's another BBW near North Station, too. The Kenmore one is first and better.)

Bukowski's. Beer bar on Dalton Street, near the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton. An amazing selection of beers on tap and even more in bottles, encompassing damn near every kind of alcoholic beverage made with barley and/or hops.

Coolidge Corner Clubhouse. On the northbound side of Harvard Street in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, north of Beacon Street. More of a sedate sports club bar with about 30 different +good+ beers on tap and very decent food. (When I worked nights in Coolidge Corner, I'd frequently order dinner, but no beer, from there.)

Anam Cara. Westbound side of Beacon Street, Washington Square, Brookline. Irish style pub with beers from all over.

Redbones. Chester Street, Davis Square, Somerville. The food is Southern barbeque, and the beer selection is eclectic from the "usual suspects" to imported Belgians.

Cambridge Brewing. 1 Kendal Sq, Cambridge. An American brewpub. OK food, good to great beers.

In all of these places, and anywhere else for that matter, if you tell the bartender that you are new to beer and tell him/her what you found so far that you like or dislike, you should get some good advice on what to try.

And as Scott also said, go for samplers, so you can try several smaller amounts of different beers. Samplers will generally cost a little more than "one beer", but you'll get anywhere from four to eight(!) different items to try. When doing samplers, a good way to try them is in order from lightest to heaviest, otherwise if you try a stout before a pils, you won't taste the pils at all.

But there are cheaper beers too. I've never understood the middle ground. If Bud doesn't taste much better than the cheap beers, and doesn't cose much less than good beers, why does it even exist? Is the middle of the road crowd THAT much in the middle? I can understand when it's a sliding scale, and each increase in price matches an increase in quality, but that just isn't the case here (or with Panda Express, but that's a whole 'nother thing).

As to Binkman's original dilemna, I should note that it's quite possible that he may -- zounds! -- not like beer at all, and no matter what he tries he won't like it. That being said, try whatever you come across, and remember what you've tried and what you thought. If it all comes to nought, so be it, but you'll delight in the small discoveries along the way, and the big ones will change your life.

Go to

Phil ====visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:

Well another day and another adventure. Hit up a local bar with a couple of college buddies who came to visit and have now moved on to bigger things. Both decided that I should try a Guinness. At the risk of sounding like an ignorant n00b its A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN BUD. That being said I still had a hard time finishing it. It's the after taste that keeps getting to me. That last wash of taste as it goes down that claws back to the recesses of your both of the deep inexorable pit of one's esophogaus. Still, it wasnt too bad and I think I could learn to like Guinness some day when I actually have disposable income. One of my friends suggested I try some cider drinks as he thought I might have better luck with something sweet. Anyway, I want to say thanks, guys, for all the help. Along the way I've discovered what kind of beer I do like and what I should never buy again as well as a great pub with awesome pitcher and pizza specials and a wonderful atmosphere. Thanks again everyone!

Binkman

You might want to try different types of stouts then -- oatmeal stouts maybe, or a nice sweet stout (try Mackeson Stout or Dragon Stout), or others like Sheaf Stout or Old Australia Stout. They might fit you nicely.

I'd also suggest looking into doppelbocks, and possibly brown ales.

Or move to England where the beer is the right temperature and we call Budweiser what it is, lager! You know why lager is served cold? Because it masks the taste. Same with Bud if you ask me. But, I found some really good beer when I was over there a couple of years ago. It was in a brewery/bar in Savannah and it brewed its own beer (name of the place was something to do with the moon), outstanding. However it was impossible to get a decent beer and somewhere nice to drink it when we were just out and about. What you need is pubs (not bars with juke boxes, neon Bud signs and pool tables.. shiver!), real ale (that's going to be a brownish colour by the way : ) @

I appreciate your point of view, mate, but did you ever consider there's more to it than just ale vs lager. When I get off a hard days work doing manual labor in 90-100 deg F heat, I darn sure don't want to drink a nice room temperature ale. I want to inhale a nice ice cold lager. I've come in from 12 hrs in the summer heat so dehydrated from sweating all day it was nothing to inhale two full cans of beer in as many gulps. And I sure as Hell don't wanna see no log on no fire!! No doubt if I'd spent the day freezing my tail off in some wet, chilly, job, I'd surely want to warm up to a nice thick ale to put some viscosity back in my blood.

That's not to say the two can't exist in the same temperate zone. IPA's were born in the heat of the tropics. But, look where ales dominate. The rebirth of ales in the US was in the Pacific Northwest ...the wet, dank, I-ain't-seen-the-sun-since-August Northwest. But, when you're standing over a smoking BBQ rig on a hot sweltering day, an bucket full of icey lagers of

nb

Are you trying to torture me? I live in England. We're lucky to see the sun two days running in the middle of summer let alone see 90 F!.... BBQ, you are having a laugh!!!! But, I take your point mate. I suppose if we had the luxury of anything other than this terrible, and it is terrible, British weather I may fancy a lager as well. Until global warming kicks in (we pray for that here), I'm going to stick with my nice warming real ale : )

Nice talk>> need is pubs (not bars with juke boxes, neon Bud signs and pool tables..

Plenty of stuff not right in this country, customer service etc you leave us standing but beer.. get your holiday booked to Masham North Yorkshire. Small village, Theakstons AND Black Sheep breweries within half a mile, a dozen pubs, each with a log fire... and a fish and chip shop : )

Yes, plenty not right here. Having tried 100's of brands, (living in Vegas), I always come back to my good ol' Bud Light. Your 'holiday' sounds wonderful however! DOS

, real ale (that's going to be a brownish colour by the way : ) @

an bucket full of icey lagers of

True to myth, I think you guys got it backwards- most real ale is, comparatively, low in alcohol aka "session strength" (that's why they drink it by the Imperial pint) and most "Industrial Light Lager" in the US has actually gotten higher in alcohol in the last few years- Bud is now 5%, for instance, tho' in the past it was often listed at 4.82%,

Examples-

Fuller Chiswick 3.8% ABV Fullers London Pride 4.1 ABV Gales 4.0 % ABV Gales HSB 4.8% ABV

Budweiser 5.0% ABV Miller High Life 5.5% ABV Coors 5.0% ABV Pabst 5.0% ABV

Now, if you're looking for a lower alcohol lager with more flavor than the US ILL's, there's: Pilsner Urquel 4.3% ABV Jever 4.9% ABV

Source- For UK beers- Brewers' website

For US beers-

Popular, must be good.......? That is a big misconception in America. Popular beer like Miller, Bud, Coors, ect.... are terribly nasty. If you want to taste a good beer, they are out there. Not just micro-brews. Micro-brews might be an acquired taste. I recommend trying a Sierra Nevada pale ale. If you want a good dark, drink a Guniness (sp)? What to start off averagly good.... Molson Ice is good. Sam Adams is Great!

Try these beers along with food and you will be a beer fan. Try the Sam Adams with a fat resteraunt style burger. Try Molson with anything or,,,,, crackers&sharp cheddar with a splub of yellow mustard. Believe it or not. Try that one first. Wine and food or beer and food have the same taste excitement. It's all how the bitter clashes with the other tastes in your mouth.

My favorite beer companies of all time are Rogue, Anchor, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada.

Jim

No offense, but you've obviously tried the wrong "100s of brands" if you even think about Bud Light any more except as an example of bad decisions you used to make.

"Carl Young" schreef in bericht news:cndisn$fo0$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...

Allow me to disagree - seriously. First. "Lager" - in fact a German word, means maturing, after brewing, leaving the beer its time to develop full flavours by natural means. As such, Bud is anything but a "lager". It's a bottom-fermented - cylindro-conical would be more accurate, though unpronouncable - force-bred pale beer, made in the shortest measurable interval of time. Second. "Masks the taste". Of those beechwood chips, I presume? There's nothing to mask. I've had mineral waters with more stamina than "Bud". Third. I'll be the last to disdain the English pub as a true institution of life, but I still have to visit the first British pub with more than 5 cask ales, where at least one of them was off - seriously infected by too slow consumption. I've been once in the US, and found myself in a pub with about

Jorisslightlycynicalby experience.

Damn, that musta been one long night...

I don't know, those mega-multi-tap places usually scare me with concerns about freshness. I come across a lot of bad draft beer in places with "only" 10 beers. I've been in places with 20 or 30 or 50 beers on tap, on a weekend night, with 10 or 20 people in the place and, for me, the math just don't add up for a turnover that ensures fresh beer from every tap (especially when half the bar is drinking Bud or Coors Light out of bottles...).

There's a place I came across in the pine barrens of NJ with 30+ beers on tap, usually 3 cars in the parking lot and many of the beers I've had were "off". (It's on the way home from a market I go to, so, yeah, I keep trying...). One day I stop in, the same guy who's ALWAY there is behind the bar and I figured I'll try a new approach with, "Hmmm...I don't know what to have today. What have you tapped recently?"

"Oh, I don't know, I haven't worked in a few days...it's all fresh."

Ummm...rancid flat Hop Devil!

Joris,

Unfortunately you are right about British pubs. More and more are going with Sky Sport BIG screen TVs. Even some of the older better pubs. It's a real shame. There are still places to go and plenty of them but its a downward spiral. I suppose that in the USA as well as the UK there are landlords (bar owners?) who are in it for the money and some that are in it for the love of it. Derby has a pub called The Flowerpot. Wooden floors, food you see cooked by two lovely friendly women who look like your mom, and around 30 ever changing beers and ciders, most of them straight out of the barrel, propped up behind the bar where you can see the beer being poured into your glass. Nice. One of two of what used to be excellent pubs here in Derby. The second, The Silkmill was fantastic when I moved here five years ago. Brilliant food, great atmosphere and outstanding beer. Now it just has outstanding beer plus a big screen and the local youth. I just stopped going in there a couple of years ago. As for opening hours, yes, 11pm close for pubs mostly, even in the cities. Some close from 3pm to 6pm and others like my local don't open at all some lunch times. There is talk of 24 hour opening here but do we really want it.....? F*&ing right : )

Regards,

Carl

"Carl Young" schreef in bericht news:cngh57$as$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

Maybe I should have a look in Derby before the last one's gone too. ;^} Hey! I've got a niece living there, IIRC!

Cheers, Joris

Amen to that. For you, I hope the talk fulfills. Me, in Vegas, I have access

Don't paint all lagers with the same brush...there are some fantastic lagers out there. Of course, Bud isn't one of them, but open your mind and look around.

--------->Denny