Thread O' Beer!

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Originally Posted by Frank Zappa

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.

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Beer has come a long way since the 80s, when it was thought of as little more than a means to get really wasted while hanging outside a stadium waiting for your football team of choice to start playing. Nowadays, beer is a virtual cornucopia of varieties, with styles to suit every taste and sensibility and is taking its rightful place along other libations such as wine as a compliment to food and friends. Beer sommeliers are starting to turn up everywhere.

Beer has been discussed before, often in passing in the gastronomy thread, but Benny, Megs & I, beer brewers the lot of us, thought I would be cool to give it its due, a thread all its own, advocating 30 great beers from 30 different world class breweries, each offering the unique perspectives of guys who actually know how to make the stuff.

So, here's how its gonna work. The three of us have lists of 10 of our favorite beers. Each of our individual lists can not repeat a style more than once. Furthermore, none of us can list a beer from a brewery that has already been represented in this thread.

Should be interesting, eh? We'll get a lot of great beers getting talked about here, and you'll soon find out that great beer is, quite literally, everywhere.

Anywho, I have my first beer for review in the fridge. I'm gonna crack that bad boy open, pour me a pint, and get the review under way. After that, keep checking this thread out, cuz Benny & Megs have their lists too. Should make for some great back and forth.

Stay tuned! First review is on the way!

bac0n's Beers:

1. Founders Harvest Ale (Wet-Hopped American Pale Ale)
2. Bells Oberon (Weiss)
3. Smithwick's Brewery Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale (Irish Red Ale)
4. Sprecher Black Bavarian (Schwarzbier)
5. Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven Tilburg's (Dutch Brown Ale)
6. Unibroue La Fun Du Monde (Tripel)
7. Lagunitas PILS (Czech Style Pilsener)

Benny's Beers:

1. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (India Pale Ale)
2. North Coast Brewing Brother Thelonious (Belgian Abbey Style Ale)
3. Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale (Brown Ale)
4. Deschuttes Brewery Black Butte (Porter)

Megs' Beers:

1. Scotch Irish Brewing Black Irish Plain Porter (Porter)
2. Steam Whistle Brewing Steam Whistle (Pilsner)
3. Shepherd Neame Bishop's Finger (English Ale)
4. Hockley Valley Brewing Hockley Stout (Irish Stout)
5. Wychwood Fiddler's Elbow (Wheat Ale)

http://www.drunkenpolack.com/images/fharvestale.JPG

Harvest Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
Brewery: Founders Brewing Company, Grand Rapids MI

Among my gaggle of brew-buddies, Founders is the favorite discovery of 2009, cuz, damn can they work some magic with hops. Their straight-up IPA is world class, their Rye Pale is fantastic, they make a helluva Triple IPA, but their crown jewel is their wet hopped American Style IPA, Harvest Ale.

What is a Wet-Hopped Ale, you ask? Wet Hopped ales mean that the hops are taken off the bush and quite literally thrown right into the boil. Some breweries such as Sierra Nevada that have their own fields take the hops off the bush and have them in the boil in a matter of minutes; others ship them in, but regardless, no more than 24 hours can pass between bush and boil. The result is fantastic florals in the bouquet and wide, expansive citrus notes that spread across your palette like a blanket. And Harvest Ale has each in abundant generosity.

Appearance: moderate golden color, hazy like a wheat beer, small head that dissipates rather quickly.

Smell: Citrus explosion, particularly grapefruit.

Taste: The bitterness typically associated with hops is there, but takes a backseat to the intense citrus notes of the fresh hops. No, these aren't notes - these are entire chords, dammit. Finishes with a touch of pine. Delicious. The flavor lingers long after the beer is gone. I would recommend something to clear your palette between beers.

Mouthfeel: Light as far as ales go which compliments the...

Drinkability: very smooth. The temptation is to throw this down quickly, which would be a waste, cuz there's a lot for your tongue to enjoy with this one.

Preferred Serving Type: served cold in a wide-lipped pint glass.

As you could probably guess, wet hopped IPAs are fall brews, starting to show up in mid september, about 6 weeks after harvest time for the hops. I'm sure there are a few wet hopped IPAs lying around here and there. If you can find them, you really ought to pick some up, lest you be SOL and forced to wait until next fall.

Okay, Benny & Megs - lets see what you got!

C'mon Black Butte Porter. They, Deschutes, have some better specialty beers (The Abyss, Mirror Mirror and their anniversary porter), but as far as their regular line goes, this one's tops.

I'll be keeping watch...

I'd like to participate.

Coors Light
Style: Light American Lager
Brewery: Somewhere in Colorado, I think.

wUnce I want t get drunkern shit!!!1 i lookered over hitler and yawn, foun my shoos an tied them t my feets and walkered sevin miles to big drunk billys howse. all he haz waz a cuple a coors lites in a warm diaper and I thunked hell I eated worser stuffs so i kan handle diaper beer. i got drunked an woke up in the pleass stashun.

Appearance: kinda yellow and pale with bubbles

Smell: same to you, ashole

Taste: it gets you drunk so who cares?

Mouthfeel: mouth what?? what are ya, some kinda faggirt???!!!213!

Drinkability: you and yer big faggirt words

Preferred Serving Type: warm diaper

I have recently discovered that I like beer.

Carry on.

Awesome idea.

http://nuxx.net/gallery/d/82819-2/IMG_3597.jpg

60 Minute IPA, Yo.
Style: India Pale Ale
Brewery: Dogfish Head

This here beer was first released in 2003 and is now quite popular in the mid-Atlantic states, along with it's kissing cousins the 90 Minute IPA and the lethal as all hell 120 Minute IPA. (Drink 5 of those, two Jameson's, and three shots of vodka and let me know how you feel the next morning. Like bloody death!)

Appearance: Look at the pictar.

The 60 minute is rich in citrusy, hoppy flavors, and pairs very nicely with your standard bar fare, such as buffalo wings. Finish is smooth and dry. For me, it has the perfect amount of carbonation and balance. Whether I'm maxin' and relaxin' on the couch or at a bar looking to get loose, this is one of my go-to beers. Never lets me down.

Here's hoping we get away from IPA's soon. I have had the Dogfish Head, and yeah I guess for an IPA it is quality. I'm just not a fan.

Awesome idea for a thread! There is this awesome place in town called The Flying Saucer that has a cool rewards program. Drink 200 different beers and get a plate on the wall. I'm at #15, so I have a long way to go.

Nice Spun...

IPAs are my favorite style of beer. This thread is making me thirsty. I haven't had a beer since Halloween, been on a "diet" as of late...

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Originally Posted by Benny Profane

60 Minute IPA, Yo.
Style: India Pale Ale
Brewery: Dogfish Head

This here beer was first released in 2003 and is now quite popular in the mid-Atlantic states, along with it's kissing cousins the 90 Minute IPA and the lethal as all hell 120 Minute IPA. (Drink 5 of those, two Jameson's, and three shots of vodka and let me know how you feel the next morning. Like bloody death!)

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Dogfish 90 4life.

Mmmmm...IPA.

You guys doing stouts too?

*cheers* Cool thread. I don't drink that much anymore, but when I do it is mostly witbier (I guess the english translation would be "white beer", is that right?). I'm a sucker for sweet tasting beers, especially Belgian ones like Hoegaarden, Lambic and Grimbergen. Soo good.

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Originally Posted by Saya

*cheers* Cool thread. I don't drink that much anymore, but when I do it is mostly witbier (I guess the english translation would be "white beer", is that right?). I'm a sucker for sweet tasting beers, especially Belgian ones like Hoegaarden, Lambic and Grimbergen. Soo good.

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You'd probably love Ommegang Witte Ale. I had it at the Blind Tiger in New York and it's pretty fantastic as far as Belgian whites go.

Side note, the Blind Tiger is probably the best beer bar in the city, hands down.

I lurve IPAs. Bitter beer FTW!

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Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Style: India Pale Ale
Brewery: Dogfish Head

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I'm always on the lookout for new IPAs. How hoppy is this, on a scale of 1-10, or in terms of IBUs? (Int'l Bittering Units for the resta you guys - your typical well-hopped IPA will have around 70)

This thread is delicious.

For my tastes, nothing beats a good wheat/hef.

So it took a thread about being drunk to get Mr. Davis back, eh? I see how it is. :)

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Originally Posted by Spun Lepton

So it took a thread about being drunk to get Mr. Davis back, eh? I see how it is. :)

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Heh...

I've actually been drinking a lot of beer lately.

That was one of my priorities to get straightened out - DRINK MORE BEER!

The best I've had recently was the Blue Moon Grand Cru

http://media.marketwire.com/attachme...Cru_2.jpeg.jpg

But now it's sold out... :(

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Originally Posted by Spun Lepton

So it took a thread about being drunk to get Mr. Davis back, eh? I see how it is. :)

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The end justifies the means.

Beer is good.

Rep to the person who writes about Delirium Tremens.

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Originally Posted by Hugh_Grant

Rep to the person who writes about Delirium Tremens.

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Once I drank a large glass of DELIRIUM TREMENS and it was DELICIOUS. I would RECOMMEND it to anybody who likes drinking STUFF.


Rep now. :D

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Originally Posted by Dukefrukem

You guys doing stouts too?

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Yeppers!

And my most sincere apologies to bac0n, Benny et al. for not having my first entry up this aft. I'm still at work - ended up having to stay later than anticipated.

It will be up this evening :)