Re: Favourite Beer

Lets See, Favorite year round beer Ever: The Nut brown by the now defunct Western Reserve Brewery

Favorite Seasonal: Bockzilla Bock by same defunct Western reserve brewery

Favorite Still in production Samuel Smiths Nut Brown

Bruce in Cleveland

Mmmmm... that's a pretty good beer. I think I'll give "favorite" status to the MacTarnahan's Blackwatch. Too bad the store I work in doesn't have any more, and no plans to get more, if anyone has it. Does anyone know if Pyramid is planning on continuing the MacTarnahan's stuff?

Lurker Matt

You "know" it is? Or, you hope it is? I'm sure, right now on lots of shelves (often on the "warm" shelf in the bright light) around the country, there's "local" microbrewed beer (in dusty bottles) much older than the Bud, Coors and Miller shipped in from several states away.

Not blaming the brewers, necessarily, (altho' I see alot of blanks on the labels where it says "Best by __________" and un-notched labels that are obviously not dated at the request of the distributor), but the retailers are obviously going to kiss the asses of the big brewers and neglect the little brands. And the neglect of the little brands keeps beer lovers out of the store, so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A couple of years now I moved to a new county and a brand new liquor store opened up at the same time. Typical selection, but they saw me checking it out and asked if I was looking for anything. I mentioned the Victory brands. I went in a few more times but never saw anything interesting (I think I bought a lot of the their Saranac boxes that winter). About a year later (after continuing to buy beer near work), I stopped in and found some HopDevil (on the bottom shelf), looked at it and it was about 6 months past the BB date. "Opps," I thought, "they bought this for me and no one else bought any so I guess they'll never take that chance again..."

My "local" brewer is Heavyweight, in the same county that I'm in. Their beers are often not seen in area stores 10 or 20 miles away (or, sometimes just the 4 pack sampler or 1 type), even in stores near the shore with pretty good selections. Certainly have NEVER seen any of their beers on tap anywhere other than Old Bay (once of the better selections in the state) and, by reading their press, they seem to concentrate their marketing on NYC and Philly, where they're appreciated.

Have you guys ever had a beer - "very strong lager" called Tennent's Super?

This stuff is sold > >

I've seen Carlsberg Special in local supermarkets, but I'm highly suspicious of it. I bought a can of Pirate 8.5 once. It said "extra-strong lager" on the can and I naively thought, "Oh, great! A doppelbock!" It was some of the vilest crap I ever tasted, and believe me, the rest of it went down the drain.

Just started reading all your posts yesterday (5/18/04). What a great group!! So many IPAs, pilsners, lagers, stouts, and porters I have never heard of....

My favorites currently are Young's Double Chocolate Stout on tap, which I've had in San Francisco at Toronados many times and at Frog and Peach in San Luis Obispo......Anderson Valley's Oatmeal Stout, a great taste and wonderful finish and a local here in San Luis Obispo at SLO Brew called "Saphead" which is a Russian Imperial Stout. I should throw in that I really like all the Sam Adams seasonals as well.

I guess my big question should be.....it sounds like most of you are on the East Coast. Any chance in seeing the beer you talk about out here. I'm interested in trying the punjabe I have seen spoken of and a few others......

You should be able to find Victory beers from Downingtown PA in CA. Do yourself a favor and give 'em a try! Looks like you're a stout fan, so look for Storm King. Personally, I'm hooked on their Prima pils and Golden Monkey.

-------->Denny

The V10 was excellent on tap at the brewery a couple weekends back, and judging from the taste of the Vienna from the conditioning tank that one should be quite fine, too. But yeah, the Prima Pils is a nice one that I'd like to see on tap around here.

As for favorite beers, I have to many to list.

I've tried V10 once when a friend brough back a growler to OR...excellent, but I still prefer the Monkey, personally. Damn, I'd love to get back to the brewery again sometime!

Word.

--------->Denny

I've tried the V10 twice and both times I really didn't care for it.(bottles shipped from Va) Now, the Grand Cru and the V12...that's another story. ;^)

Best regards, Bill

PS: Me big fan of Prima, Storm King, Old Horizontal, and Hopdevil, naturally. Tried Golden Monkey long before Belgian styles caught my palate.

Why the need for East Coast beers? You could take a couple of years working through all the beers coming off the West Coast--Stone, Bear Republic, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Alesmith, Hair of the Dog, Full Sail, Rogue, many more are all producing top-notch stuff!

--NPD

This is true. Same is true of the East Coast. Except, I would argue that the East Coast has greater variety, both in styles and expression of styles, than the West Coast, and that alone makes seeking out the EC beers worthwhile.

The WC beers tend to, as a general rule, rely too much on hops to the exclusion of anything else. There aren't many subtle beers (you get West Coasters whining about SNPA being too "tame" ferchrissakes), there are virtually no lagers, there are few beers that rely on hops other than the four C's, etc.

Out East, there are lagers. There are more English expressions of familiar styles. There are subtle beers. There are ballsy beers. There are Ringwood beers. There are balanced beers. There are beers that are content with simply being good instead of being over the top. There are adventurous beers.

If I had to make the choice, I'd go with the East Coast (and Midwest) for the variety of styles, and for the variety of expression within the styles. Because my personal tastes and preferences place far more value on a nicely balanced beer like Goose Island IPA than a balls-to-the-wall hopfest like much of what Stone produces, and on breweries like Goose or Victory that are adept at brewing ales and lagers alike, instead of one-trick ponies like Rogue.

If I had to make the choice. Fortunately, I don't, and there's room in my palate to appreciate both a New Glarus Edel Pils and a Diamondknot IIPA.

-Steve

heard of some of the, good stuff, east coast has some good stuff to before you dismiss it out of hand...

As a general rule perhaps, but there are plenty of well-made exceptions. The WC craft-brew drinkers tend to be the ones demanding the hop monsters, though, the WC brewers are loath to ignore them. Doesn't mean there aren't nice things like Belgian-style ales, Bavarian-style wheat beers, malty lagers (lagers? yes, lagers), and the like. And new ones crop up, like the new "Kolsch" from Hale's. Very pleasant surprise, that one. Even my local brewpub, amid the hoppy pale ale and IPA, does a nice Belgian-style blonde ale.

But it easy for those more subtle beers to get lost in the crowd of hop monsters out west.

Don't forget Deschutes Bachelor ESB!

They tend to get overlooked, and they're handily outnumbered by top-fermented beers, but "virtually no lagers" ... ? Nah. Gordon Biersch, Sudwerk, La Conner, Maritime Pacific, Deschutes, Full Sail (sometimes), Boundary Bay, Alpine Brewing (in Washing- ton state), Baron Brewing (little place in Seattle), Roslyn Brewing, Pyramid/Kemper, Far West Ireland, Lagunitas, Anacortes Brewing (who do a Schwarzbier!) ... not what I'd call "virtually no lagers," and I doubt I've named all the brewers with lagers out west. More like "typically overlooked lagers." We got 'em, many of them are first-rate, and they deserve to be better-known.

'Cause 4-C hops are sooooo wonderful (and where I live, they're, like, kind of local and shit).

C'mon, there are goodies out west too. No Ringwood-fermented ones that I know of though.

Problem is, the brewers that make the variety of styles out west are just plain underappreciated. There's a great little brewfest near Seattle over Father's Day weekend that puts paid to the notion that we lack variety, but it's still all too easy to find the hop monsters.

Hey now. Vertical Epic 04-04-04 isn't that at all. Of course, it's pretty damn atypical for Stone, but at least they gave it a shot. You gotta like kafir lime aromas to enjoy it though. Gives a new meaning to "citrusy," I guess.

That's the tough one out here on the West Coast, ain't it? La Conner does a nice Pils and a decent Vienna lager alongside their ultra-grapefruity IPA, but brewers that do a good range like that are all too rare out here on the left-hand side of the country.

You want to try malty and well-balanced, though, that's Alpine Brewing (again, the one in Washington; there's more than one brewer with this name). The beer is made by a Bavarian brewmaster who very much knows what he's doing. Nicely balanced malt- accented Pilsner with just the right touch of crisp hops, and you want malt? Alpine Maerzen, and the seasonal Oktoberfest. Damn good beers.

Ayup. And hey, Diamond Knot does a Bavarian-style hefeweizen. Even those guys can do a malt-accented style when they want to.

I can see why you might believe this. Let's face it, most WC breweries go straight for an IPA in their lineup. With our history, it's not likely to change anytime soon. The West Coast IS hops! I grew up working on hops ranches. I grew up in suburbs built on plowed under hops fields. Even 30 yrs later, after moving a hundred miles from where I grew up, I'm still within a short crow's hop from a major thoroughfare, Hopeyard Rd, named after ...you guessed it... former site of huge hops fields. Hops! ...We like 'em, we use 'em, we drink.... well, you get my drift. Besides, like I always say, "Give me hops or give me ....uh.. ..mmmm... wine! :)

No, seriously, WC breweries do put out an amazingly diverse variety of beers. But, it's the stuff with a malty/hoppy profile that gets the press and the distribution. There are wits and lagers and pils, but they take a back seat to the ales.

Yes, I would like to see more WC breweries do high quality lagers and pilsners. There are few. None, in my opinion are what I would consider good. OTOH, nothing I've seen from the EC makes me want to cheer either. Sammy Adams? ...puh-leeze! Skunked Urquell is better. Are we, on the WC, likely to see any of your really good lagers and pils? Not likely. Just like you aren't really seeing the best of the West (ale or lager).

I think you meant more expressions of English styles, but I get the drift. To that I answer, look at who won the British style ipa at the GABF ...WC! I know, an IPA. Hey, let's face it. We got IPA's cornered! :) [1]

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the really good stuff is going to remain local, as it should. And don't feel like the WC is dis'ing (dising? ..dissing?) the EC. Actually, the whole WC has spent years trying to recreate what the EC already accomplished ...some would say threw away... I'm talking about Ballantine's Ale and Ballentine's IPA, the holy grail of American ales.

Bottom line ...find the best in you area and support it. They're working hard to provide for you. :)

nb

Which does help explain and, to a certain extent, justify the strong tilt toward hops in many WC beers. Historically, beer styles developed according to what was available locally, made with local ingredients. And the varieties grown in the western half of North America tend to be much more assertive than English, German or Czech varieties.

Of course, many of them have been *bred* to be that way, but that's another discussion for another day.

Yes, they do. In reputation, prestige and demand. And, I would venture to guess that if you did an evaluation of all labels produced in the WC states, the percentage of beers devoted to styles other than the stereotypical WC beer lineup is pretty small. Granted, it's not huge out east, either, but my impression is that there's significantly more out there. And, there's greater variety within the standard styles.

There are some I would consider quite good. LaConner in Washington brews a very nice pils, and their Vienna ain't too bad. Deschutes' pils is pretty nice.

Victory brews some excellent lagers, including one of my favorite beers: Prima Pils. Goose Island brews some outstanding lagers. Great Lakes in Cleveland. New Glarus in Wisconsin. I'm not a fan, but a lot of people really like Sprecher out of Milwaukee. The DeGroen's beers out of Baltimore. Heavyweight Brewing Co. in Jersey brews at least one outstanding lager. These are just the ones off the top of my head.

I'm on the West Coast, actually. Near LA.

Actually, I meant it exactly the way I wrote it. Pretty much everyone brews a bitter/ESB, pale ale, IPA, and there are more breweries out east brewing them with British hops and in the more balanced approach that English beers take. I've had beers out east that get that a bitter actually isn't extremely bitter. Too many WC breweries take that name way too much to heart.

Yes, and no. Beers do suffer with transport and always taste freshest close to home.

There are certainly drinkers in the West that appreciate the sorts of beers I point to in the East. But, sales are sales, and there is clearly something that dominates out here that isn't quite as prevalent out East.

Not that eastern drinkers are paragons of balance and selection. The majority of beergeeks out there suffer from the same bigger/bitterer/ballsier affliction that WC beergeeks seem to have.

Sadly, I'm far too young to know the comparison firsthand (and, it's a little sad that mid-30s is now far too young to have experienced a beer that everyone who has had it back in the day seems to rave about).

Oh, I do. In one case, they closed.... But I try to practice what I preach as much as possible in my purchases, especially at multitaps that do serve more than just the typical ale lineup.

-Steve