Beer in the new era

Apparently they have Aphrodisiaque in now. And I'm destitute poor and going away for the weekend! NOOOOO!

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

Also recommend some beers like Paulaner or the white Kronenberg with the fruity taste whose name escapes me.

I am in the mood for trying different beers.

Dude, Zywiec

(re: light, crisp, refreshing, not wheaty)

I was at the nashville beer fest and the best thing there was a homebrewed bock that they ran out of by my second go-round. After a while though all you care about is that the beer is cold, because it's nearly august, and you're outdoors in nashville.

I think I might have talked my dad into getting a 30-gallon kit from Boot Lager. (ha ha, "boot lager")

I also finally made myself a michelada with a little kosher salt on top of a can of tecate with a lime in it. not half bad, if you don't mind a bit of foamy foam foam.

Sundar, have you tried Flying Bison? I can't quite remember which bars serve it (I think the Ulrich's, but they have closed, I think). I miss it dearly.

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.

An English Dark Mild on cask is an instant order for me, but so rare in my experience.

After being a hazebro for most of the last 8 years, I've been making a conscious effort to expand my palate again. I've been drinking a bunch of Rothaus Pils "Tannen Zapfle" and Weihenstephaner Festbier for the last couple of weeks and loving the change.

Oops, that's MacLeod brewery.

https://i.imgur.com/5xigM3n.jpg

Where have you been all my life

Dunno about that one

The other day I had a Grodziskie beer, and oof, not my thing. By design, really light, bubbly and low-alcohol, which are all fine, but also smokey, which made it taste like drinking a kielbasa. I assume all smokey beers are kind of controversial, but this one was especially not my jam.

I really like these (and Sketchbook's in particular), though the friend I tried it with didn't like it at all as well. I've had a few smoked lagers since, American and German Rauchbiers, and dug them as well. Kind of surprised they didn't have a moment in the 2010s when smokiness was featured in so many condiments, especially having that barrel-aged flavor without the syrup-ness of barrel-aged stouts.

To each his own but for me there’s no better clue to “pass” on a menu listing than “smoked”

I’d just as soon as have smoked Gouda or something at home instead of in a beer gag

Assuming that post wasn't from me, I had one of those smoky beers some months ago, and boy was it gross.

“Smoked lager” is a thing blue point brewing offers and vomits

To each his own but for me there’s no better clue to “pass” on a menu listing than “smoked”

Otm

I tried to make one recently and it was the worst thing I'd ever tasted. I thought I just botched it but I went and bought a bunch of smoked beers and nope, turns out that's just how they taste

iirc there was an interesting "why" behind that style, but ... so?

yeah hard pass for me as well

Wow, more for me, I guess!

Feel like it needs to be recorded somewhere that Sligo's own The White Hag brewery have achieved some rare brilliance in the imperial stout department. Yours, Rapidly Ensozzled

Gonna be in North Carolina for a couple of days, what are the typical menu beer option go-tos?