Beer in the new era

I swore by Aviator Red (which you can get at Wegman's) for a while. I still think it's good but have gone off it a bit. Are there other good FB beers?

I wanted to make it to Dieu du Ciel when I visited Mtl earlier in the month but couldn't make it. Drank a lot of St-Ambroise (and some nice micro wheats) instead.

They have seasonal beers (which I can remember the name of), that friends would bring me in growlers. I never managed to locate the brewery, which apparently is on the West Side (on Niagara, maybe?). Anyway, I remember enjoying the summer and winter ales quite a bit.

Available in Wegmans!? Ahh! This was not so when I lived there! I love you, Wegmans!

"Dude, Zywiec"

One of the benefits of my area of London filling up with large numbers of young eastern Europeans is the availablity in the cornershops of excellent Polish beers at ridiculously cheap prices.

Zywiec is one of the better ones, at about £1 a bottle. The dark lagers especailly are a revelation.

Ronan WTF?? This is truly a new era for you!

Saku from Estonia is pretty good

Saku or Saku Kuld, anyway. The dark variety has that soy saucey aftertaste I can't get with.

Ronan WTF?? This is truly a new era for you!

is this a joke? heh...I don't get it if so. is it that unusual that I ask about trying new beers?

I had a Saku Porter that had a weird aftertaste, that was probably the same one.

Wheats: Last night I was drinking Sprecher Hefe Weiss, which was all right.
Non-Wheats: Last night I was also drinking New Holland Mad Hatter, which was goddamn awesome.

I guess I am in the dark :/ I thought you were still teetotalling because of your stuffed-upedness-in-the-cabesa.

I was wondering if Tracer was assuming Ronan only drank Irish beers or something.

Zywiec is indeed a fine beer. love that red temperature indicator on the back too.

The dude who runs the Polish Sausage and Liquor emporium near my place warned my friends and I of the strength of Polish beer when we were there picking up samples of each variety. Then he gave us kielbasa with whole garlic cloves stuffed inside.

Zywiec in hand and Kielbasa on the grill = heaven

i want beer now!

i want kielbasa!

lets have a bar-b-q guys!

Recommend some beer. Not too heavy, not too wheaty, crisp and refreshing in the style of Tsing Tsao or similar.

This is kind of a lame answer; it's not a microbrew or particularly exotic...but as a pretty beer-snobby person, I have to say that Beck's is a really nice beer in that sense, especially considering its ubiquity and inexpensiveness. It's tastier than Heineken, at any rate. Also the Reinheitsgebot (I would say "German purity law", but that sounds a bit, er, y'know...) means that you are drinking barley, hops, yeast and water; not rice and corn or other shitty American craplager filler.

In general, and as far as the second part of your question goes, (the Paulaner, etc.) I would go to a pub with a deep selection, or else to a shop with great beer choices, and basically sample whatever German beers you have never heard of...there are so many amazing ones (off the top of my head, I'd unreservedly recommend anything from Weihenstephan,
Franziskaner, Hofbrau Munchen, Schneider Weisse). There are much "crazier" Belgians, American microbrews, and so forth...but it sounds like you are looking for crisp lagers, pilseners, and wheat beers...in which case I'd point ya towards the German stuff. (as well as the Eastern European recommendations that people have mentioned above)

Did you ever try the house Hefeweizen at the Pearl St Brewery, Molly? It's really wonderful, with a peculiar but very nice strong banana flavour.

I've been enjoying Franziskaner's brown ale and Spaten's Hefeweizen as well.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1344/965723386_5fb67caad2_o.jpg

Another vote for Zywiec! Polish beer generally seems to be on a level with German or Czech, but for less than half the price here in the UK.

Truth: I really dislike Hefeweizen. I do not like fruit in my beer, as a rule. I do, however, strongly approve of their Trainwreck, which is really dark and sturdy. (NB when I used to work across the street from Pearl Street, that was my choice of locations for the liquid lunch). Also, we're having the wedding reception there in a year! Microbrews all around!

i like okocim too tho it's a little more low-rent.

Some beers I've sampled lately:

Blue Moon - I found this to be not bad at all for a domestic version of "white beer" (in the style of Hoegaarden). It was a hot, humid New Jersey summer day, and a cold pint of this with a wedge of lime on top hit the spot in so many ways.

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA - This is a nice, smooth, well-rounded IPA. I would consider this as an alternative to my usual standby, Sierra Nevada - though the flavor seemed a bit less intensely floral than the SN - almost a little too well-behaved.

Spaten Lager - This is a good straightforward German lager, in the style of Becks or Lowenbrau. Perhaps a bit more dignified and balanced than those two (esp. Lowenbrau, which can be a bit inconsistent). Goes well with subtler-flavored food, since it doesn't overpower it the way stronger ales and American-style lagers (like Brooklyn or Sam Adams) can.

and a cold pint of this with a wedge of lime on top

waht

Actually now that I think about it, it was probably an orange slice.

prob'ly

Another vote for Zywiec! Polish beer generally seems to be on a level with German or Czech, but for less than half the price here in the UK.

^^yesss.

I've found them cheap in Aus too. It's good stuff.

unofficial poll.

favorite ice beer:

natty ice
beast ice
bud ice
miller ice
ice house
ice house xtra cold
ice house dry

you forgot labatt ice.

i think there's a molson ice too

I've enjoyed all the house brews at Pearl St, esp the oatmeal stout.

Yeah, I was gonna say, Blue Moon is served with an orange slice. Your post made me wonder what it'd be like with a lime, though. I'm not usually a fan of orange slices on white ales or lemon slices on Hefeweizens, but I do like limes in Mexican beers.

blue moon is made by coors

tylski is the polish beer to buy.

blue moon is made by coors

True. One reason I don't drink it anymore. (The other being that I've found Belgian-style whites that I like better, including Hoegaarden and even Sam Adams White.)

Hey, just as a public service announcement, if you ever consider ordering a Summit Scandia? Don't.

Yeah, I was gonna say, Blue Moon is served with an orange slice. Your post made me wonder what it'd be like with a lime, though

I was typing too quickly without thinking - but yes, it was an orange slice. I think the orange would probably go a bit better with a white beer than lime, because the sweetness of the orange would balance the tartness of the beer a bit. I just found out about Blue Moon being made by Coors recently - but I don't think that would affect my decision to buy it either way.

I had something called Innis & Gunn last weekend, and it was really, really good.

Is there a boycott against Coors or something?

just saying, if you want real craft brewers to get more shelf and tap space, you may want to refrain from supporting the same old megabreweries as they jump from one seasonally popular style of import/craft beer to the next (this summer I have had to stop myself from buying Beach Bum Ale, made by anheuser busch)

the large breweries rarely know how to make a good seasonal brew anyway
http://z.about.com/d/beer/1/0/e/2/-/-/ABCask.JPG

(YUK)

I just tried La Caracole Artisanal Belgian Amber Ale. Holy shit.

Wonderful, sweet, spicy, yeasty rotting apple cider-like quality. My description isn't even doing justice to it.

Is there a boycott against Coors or something?

Yes.

I want some updates on what you all are drinking.

I recently discovered Laurier Depanneur, aka "Paradis de la Biere," which carries a staggering number of Quebecois microbrews in bottles, but so far the 3 or 4 I've tried have been pretty dud (but I am realizing that the older I get, the less I am liking new and exciting beers and the more I keep just falling back on the same old shit, so take that for what it's worth).

Did I ever mention Innis & Gunn here? I liked that a lot, I remember. Also, had some of that Zwyiec (sp?) people were talking about, it was nice.

Rogue Brutal Bitter: Not all that brutal, or even all that bitter, but very good. A more amber-ish pale ale perhaps?

I had some Anchor Porter last night, and it was good.

I wish I liked Belgians more, b/c Lucky Baldwin's in Pasadena (and Sierra Madre) has the best selection I've ever heard of. Seriously impressive.

As to the TOMBOT michelada: I have on good authority from my Northern Mexican friends (East LA born and raised) that what is called a michelada can vary, even from neighborhood to neigborhood. The only static elements are beer, ice, citrus and some sort of salt flavor, be it hot sauce (vinegar is a big part of most) or kosher salt.

MY current favorite version of the michelada - beer, ice, Clamato, Tapatio, and Worchestershire sauce. Amazing.

Oh, and lime, of course.

I'm all about the de zenne brewery right now, beautiful (although very hoppy) beers and amazing labels too:

http://www.brasseriedelasenne.be/images/zinnebir.jpg

http://www.brasseriedelasenne.be/images/tarasboulba.jpg

let's try that again:

http://www.brasseriedelasenne.be/images/zinnebir.jpg

http://www.brasseriedelasenne.be/images/tarasboulba.jpg

Hmm, so it's just a ... release party? He's not speaking?

It sounds like a more informal event than a lecture. he termed it "open forum" for questions and conversation about the beers, the monks, the book, etc. He said to me: "I want the release to be in tune with what the monks want their beer to be doing."

The event also gets you glassware and the entire Trappist lineup that he researched. He'll be doing formal lectures down the line, I guess.

I will be at the beer thing, sounds interesting.

Event was good, glad I went!

Glad to hear, I really wish I could have made it but it wasn't in the cards. Depending on which time slot you attended you might have been there with a sizeable chunk of my Chicago friend group.

I was at the 1-2:45 session. I would have passed on a hello to Marty but it would have been weird. "I don't know you, but hi from a guy you know that I interact with on the internet!"

I learned that the closest Trappist monk collective to Chicago is in Iowa. They make caskets.

https://trappistcaskets.com/

They need to turn those caskets into casks.

haven't really been following this but this dude seems like a piece of shit (unless someone tells me different)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/04/small-investors-turn-on-james-watt-after-brewdog-founder-admits-many-mistake

lol this guy is still around?