The Beer Thread: 2007 – 2008

[datrain711]

yes i've had the young's double chocolate. i thought it was definitely solid. I'll have to check out the LH milk stout. I live 10 minutes from discount liquor in waukesha, so I am going to have to go in there someday and let loose.

 

So for my trip tonight to woodmans, I'm doing to try and get a few of the following:

 

Left hand milk stout

Tyranena devil over a barrel coffee

sierra nevada harvest ale

russian imperial stout

founders breakfast stout

duvel

double bastard/arrogant bastard

ANYTHING ELSE AWESOME I FIND

[Kwakhead]

Train,

If you're interested in Arrogant Bastard and headed to Woodman's, I'd pickup Oaked Arrogant Bastard instead, it's twice as good. I know they had it last week.

And if you're into dark beer, which by your shopping list it appears that you are, definitely get Dark Horse's Special Black Beer. I'd give it about nine thumbs up.

Did anyone hit the Great Lakes Brew Fest in Racine last weekend? Good times.

[datrain711]

how much does the oaked cost?

[logan82]

datrain711 wrote:

russian imperial stout

My wife likes the Sprecher Russian Imperial Stout. She also likes the New Glarus Uff-da. If she was home I would ask her for more Stout and Porter recommendations.

[datrain711]

datrain711 wrote:

russian imperial stout

My wife likes the Sprecher Russian Imperial Stout. She also likes the New Glarus Uff-da. If she was home I would ask her for more Stout and Porter recommendations.

 

yeah the uff-da is pretty good in my opinion too. I definitely need to try more of the sprecher beers. the few that i've had are very good. I'm going by New Glarus (the brewery) on saturday so I'm going to see if the unplugged bohemian is out yet, as the calendar says september is the month for it. I'll let you guys know if I get my hands on it.

 

once again, thanks to everyone here that is helping me formulate a "must-have" list. Its weird how it seems like i've had 10,000 different beers, but the must-have list keeps growing http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[logan82]

When the New Glarus Road Slush comes out, get that. My wife really liked that as well, but it is a seasonal. Looks like March to May.

[Kwakhead]

The Oaked wasn't cheap, $12 for a sixer maybe. They had it at Romans' last time I was there also. If you just wanted to try a pint.

[fstorm1]

Good info on the stout's, everybody. Not one of my favorite styles, but if I'm going to try a few, at least I now know which to look for.

 

Finally had some dough to spend, so treated myself today with trips to Woodman's, Flanagan's, and Festival (a trip to the liquor lady was unnecessary as my nice lady friend stopped yesterday and cleared her out of her stock of Dancing Man, which was 2 sixers...in the immortal words of Jackie Gleason, "Nice lady"). Sad to say that although I have been shopping on and off at Woodman's for about 10 years, I never went into the liquor department to just "look around". Very nice selection. I snatched up their last three sixers of the D-Man (as I will now refer to it as...or maybe it should be DaMan Wheat), grabbed my regular 12er of High Life and then found a real jewel: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. It's one of the 2 hefe's rated higher than DaMan Wheat at BA (the other being Live Oak, which I'll get to shortly). I'm very exited about it, as it's had tons more reviews than either the Live Oak or DaMan. Big honkin' bottle went for about $3 or so. On my way out, I also grabbed a Hacker Pschorr Sternweisse, also a big honkin' bottle with a fancy shmancy top. Not as highly rated, but there have been only 22 reviews thus far. ALso noticed that if you buy two 12 packs of the regular H-P Weiss, you get a rebate coupon for $4 off each 12er. Sweet deal that gets better as if you buy the two, you get a free H-P Weiss Weizen Glass. I already have two (one I got here in the States, an H-P Munchen glass boot, the other, a regular Weisse Weizen glass, while I was in Germany back in '94). Also, if you purchase a case of the H-P Oktoberfest, you get a gigantic Oktoberfest glass stein. Didn't get that either...maybe later (I have a gigantic glass beer stein, but it's from St Wolfgang in Austria...same trip). Total for the Woodman's trip: $34. Amount of enjoyment from my purchases: priceless.

 

I swung by Flanagan's as I was almost sure that I had seen the Live Oak Hefe there some time back. Couldn't find it, and the nice owner fella, when I asked, told me he never heard of it. So, now the call goes out: anyone here live near Austin, Texas? I'd be happy to trade a DaMan for a Live Oak, if you can find one (proally out of season already). BTW-they had 2 sixers of DaMan left. Tempted to grab them, but I figured I'd leave those for some other poor alcoholic slob like myself.

 

The final leg led me to Festival, and a quick "build-your-own-sixer": Pyramid Hefeweizen, Pyramid Crystal Hefeweizen (which I tried and was sorely disappointed), Bell's Oktoberfest (same folks who make the excellent Oberon Ale), Goose Island Harvest Ale, Point's Oktoberfest, and Red Hook's Late Harvest Autumnal Ale. Looking forward to all of them. They did not, however, have any DaMan left. Sold out (alright, which of you got there first?).

 

Again, the call goes out for the Live Oak Hefeweizen from Live Oak Brewery in Austin, Texas. Boy, now that I look at their other beers numbers, they make a slew of good ones.

 

I now have 5 sixers of DaMan...I'll keep one in the upstairs fridge and grab one every once in a while, two go into the fridge behind the bar in the basement, and the other two go into the root cellar next to the pickles, etc. I'm gonna try and stretch out my supply as long as I can, see how well it holds up over time.

 

Geez, now that I think about it, July is an awfully long way off. I may have to scoot around to the other liquor stores and grab some more.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Beerambassador]

I think I posted in here earlier about the Viking Brewing Company sampler pack I bought. I haven't had all of the beers in it yet, but all in all, it's been pretty underwhelming.

 

The Lime Twist, a lime wheat beer was pretty awful. The lime tasted like lime candy. Really flat beer (almost all the beers in the sampler seemed flat). The CopperHead Märtzen was pretty nondescript. I really wanted to like the Whole Stein Breakfast Beer, which is advertised as a coffee, oatmeal, milk porter. It was pretty "eh." I didn't really get the coffee in it at all and it seemed to lack the smoothness I think of in an oatmeal porter. The Honey Pale Ale, J.S. Bock and Sylvan Springs (Bohemian Pilsner), were all inoffensive. Nothing I'd buy again.

 

Now for what I liked, the Mørketid German Schwartz beer was pretty good. Reminded me of the Sprecher Black Bavarian. I would buy that again.

 

I really like their Big Swede Swedish Imperial Stout, which I had a few months ago. They have some intriguing looking seasonals on their website that I want to try, particularly the Rauch beer (smoked beer), JuleØL, a Scandinavian Christmas Beer and the Hot Chocolate, a cayenne chocolate stout. My impression is that they're a pretty uneven operation. Some very tasty stuff, some downright terrible stuff and a lot in the middle.

[datrain711]

Ok so this weekend got to have a few different beers.

 

Duvel-Belgian Strong Pale Ale.....Very very good, and very strong. Had a few bottles of this as I was waiting for my girlfriend to pick me up.

New Glarus-Unpugged Imperial Weizen--Not as good as Dancing Man, but still pretty tasty. a little more conservative on the flavor, in my opinion.

 

Sprecher russian imperial stout--awesome. Was wanting a beer that tasted just like this and it hit the spot. I am going to have to drink more sprecher products.

 

New Glarus Staghorn Oktoberfest--Had this at Cheese Days in Monroe. Was very good, a better drinkability than most Oktoberfests that I have had. Went down very smooth and it felt perfect drinking it in the late afternoon on a cool day.

 

 

Now this upcoming weekend I'm going to get into some of other stouts that you guys have recommended. That left hand milk stout and the breakfast stout are first on my priority list.

[Chio151]

If you want to taste pure beer heaven, go try a Unibrou "Tres Pistoles". It's a hardcore Belgian style amber -- bursting with flavor and spiciness.

 

They also make one called "La Fin Du Monde" -- lighter and fruitier.

 

Available at large liquor stores or World Market.

[datrain711]

If you want to taste pure beer heaven, go try a Unibrou "Tres Pistoles". It's a hardcore Belgian style amber -- bursting with flavor and spiciness.

 

They also make one called "La Fin Du Monde" -- lighter and fruitier.

 

Available at large liquor stores or World Market.

 

is this comparable to the chimay grande reserve then? I finally had the "blue" 6 months ago and it was awesome.

[Chio151]

If you want to taste pure beer heaven, go try a Unibrou "Tres Pistoles". It's a hardcore Belgian style amber -- bursting with flavor and spiciness.

 

They also make one called "La Fin Du Monde" -- lighter and fruitier.

 

Available at large liquor stores or World Market.

 

is this comparable to the chimay grande reserve then? I finally had the "blue" 6 months ago and it was awesome.

Yes, very similar to Chimay but cheaper. One of the monks that founded Unibrou left the Chimay monestery. They are based in Canada.

[datrain711]

Chio151 wrote:Yes, very similar to Chimay but cheaper. One of the monks that founded Unibrou left the Chimay monestery. They are based in Canada.

 

do you think they sell this at discount liquor? I'll need to find a place that has this and try and get it this weekend. How much does it cost actually?

 

Thanks for the recommendation

 

Edit: i called discount and they DO have it so i will stop by their soon to pick it up. 8 bucks for a 4 pack, that sounds nice to me!

[fstorm1]

They also make one called "La Fin Du Monde" -- lighter and fruitier.

How's the hop/bitterness in this one? Sounds good, but I'm not a fan of hoppiness getting in the way of yumminess. I assume it has a bit of a bite from the alcohol, but as long as I can taste something other than the hops/grapefruit, well, I know how to sip and drag out a beer.

 

Finally cracked open the Weihenstapher, but was moderately disappointed. It was good, very good, but it's about the same level as H.P Weisse. Not really that close to topping DaMan. The H.P. Sternweisse was good as well, probably the strongest bubble gum smell of any hefe's I've had. Good, but a tick below the regular Weisse and the Dark Weisse.

[datrain711]

Finally cracked open the Weihenstapher, but was moderately disappointed. It was good, very good, but it's about the same level as H.P Weisse. Not really that close to topping DaMan. The H.P. Sternweisse was good as well, probably the strongest bubble gum smell of any hefe's I've had. Good, but a tick below the regular Weisse and the Dark Weisse.

You sure are a dancing man freak http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

I had it and the belgian red this weekend out of a tap. awesome.

[fstorm1]

I had it and the belgian red this weekend out of a tap. awesome

DaMan? On tap? Oooh, brewery tour. Very nice. How many different beers did they have available (on tap)? I may have to ask my nice lady friend if we could maybe make a trip down there Saturday.

 

Until then...I envy you.

[datrain711]

I had it and the belgian red this weekend out of a tap. awesome

DaMan? On tap? Oooh, brewery tour. Very nice. How many different beers did they have available (on tap)? I may have to ask my nice lady friend if we could maybe make a trip down there Saturday.

 

Until then...I envy you.

 

I actually didn't take the tour this weekend, but will be doing so hopefully soon. I was in Monroe for Cheese Days, and we were at some bar near New Glarus that had Dancing Man and Belgian Red on tap. They were just finishing up the Dancing Man and then they were replacing it with Staghorn for the season. They also had a New Glarus beer and cheese pairing that was pretty good at the Cheese Days

[fstorm1]

So, poking around I noticed that the Great American Beer Festival is coming up in a couple weeks, and I thought I'd try and see what the big winners were last year. Found a pdf, is anyone is interested in perusing it themselves. Couple things caught my eye: first category listed "American-Style Cream Ale or Lager" featured not one but two Pabst beers, gold and silver winners...Lone Star and Old Style. Seriously? The gold winner in the second category, "American-Style Wheat Beer" was Pyramid's Crystal Weizen, which I just had for the first time a time back. Good, but not gold medal worthy. But the biggest shock to me was the winner in the "Fruit Beer or Vegetable Beer" category...Berry Weiss!?! WHA?!?! Geez, four categories in and I'm already shocked. Take a look if you have a moment. Some interesting stuff.

[ManOfTheBeer]

DaMan? On tap? Oooh, brewery tour. Very nice. How many different beers did they have available (on tap)? I may have to ask my nice lady friend if we could maybe make a trip down there Saturday.

 

Until then...I envy you.

Let me preface this by saying that New Glarus is probably my favorite of the Wisconsin breweries. Nearly everything they make besides Spotted Cow, Yokel, and Totally Naked are golden in my book. I toured their brewery (the old one) last fall and was really underwhelmed. It's a self-guided tour with a little talking handpiece that you carry around. You tour at your own pace, which took me about a half hour. Then you are brought into a tasting room where you get to try 4 samples. Each sample was about 4 oz, but you don't get to choose which tap beers you can try. They have you taste Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel, a seasonal, and a 2 oz sample of Belgian Red. It so happened that the seasonal when I toured was their Staghorn Oktoberfest. It wasn't a bad tour by any means, but I like brewery tours that make me feel like I'm experiencing beer in a way that I couldn't do at a bar or at home.

 

My top 3 favorite brewery tours so far:

 

3.) Great Dane: Our tour was given by the brewmaster himself, which was awesome because we were able to ask a lot of questions and get a pretty hands-on demonstration of brewing machinery. I thought it was really interesting because of the insight gained from someone other than a tour guide. He also let us sample a few beers that weren't ready for tapping yet.

 

2.) Lakefront: 2 large samples, lots of history, really entertaining tour guides. It's very cool walking right under the giant keg/chalet from County Stadium. The tour concludes with a group singing session of the Laverne and Shirley theme song, complete with glove on bottle down the assembly line.

 

1.) Capital: Good, informative tour. Random appearance by brewmaster Kirby. Tons (and I do mean tons) of pitchers of samples. For a few bucks, it's incredibly to easy to get good and tight while learning about Capital's brewing. I've taken this tour twice with three of my friends and we've never received less than 5 pitchers during our time there.

[fstorm1]

My top 3 favorite brewery tours so far:

 

3.) Great Dane: Our tour was given by the brewmaster himself, which was awesome because we were able to ask a lot of questions and get a pretty hands-on demonstration of brewing machinery. I thought it was really interesting because of the insight gained from someone other than a tour guide. He also let us sample a few beers that weren't ready for tapping yet.

 

2.) Lakefront: 2 large samples, lots of history, really entertaining tour guides. It's very cool walking right under the giant keg/chalet from County Stadium. The tour concludes with a group singing session of the Laverne and Shirley theme song, complete with glove on bottle down the assembly line.

 

1.) Capital: Good, informative tour. Random appearance by brewmaster Kirby. Tons (and I do mean tons) of pitchers of samples. For a few bucks, it's incredibly to easy to get good and tight while learning about Capital's brewing. I've taken this tour twice with three of my friends and we've never received less than 5 pitchers during our time there.

Thanks for the infos, most appreciated. I've taken the Miller tour and the Leinie's tour (twice), but I'll now happily add all three that you mentioned. Been dying to take the New Glarus and Point tours, although your description of the New Glarus tour is a bit disappointing.

 

For many years now, I've had this fun road trip idea: take several weeks during the summer, tour the state and hit every Historical marker, brewery, and cheese maker. I've mentioned this to friends and family and been laughed at by each one. Ah well. Probably have to win the lottery to do it, anyway.

 

On the topic of beer tasting, I've now had 8 straight Oktoberfest's via the build-your-own route. Not really impressed with any of them, honestly. Some good ones, none terrible, but nothing outstanding.

 

Good: Summit, Bell's, Sam Adams; Okay: Point, Red Hook, Beck's, Leinie's; Below Average:Victory

 

None of them comes close to the Capital. I think the Oktober's have become one of my favorite styles. Seems even the ones that are poor have some attractiveness, as long as the hops don't get in the way.

[Chio151]

They also make one called "La Fin Du Monde" -- lighter and fruitier.

How's the hop/bitterness in this one? Sounds good, but I'm not a fan of hoppiness getting in the way of yumminess. I assume it has a bit of a bite from the alcohol, but as long as I can taste something other than the hops/grapefruit, well, I know how to sip and drag out a beer.

The hops are not overwhelming at all. I think more of the flavor actually comes from the yeast in this beer. It has a certain fruity aroma to it and you can tell that it has been double fermented. The trappist style ales always have that full flavor without bitterness.

 

If you want to try something really strange, try the Maudite beer from the same company. It's actually.... spicy. It's not my favorite of their beers, but it's far different than anything I've ever had.

[ManOfTheBeer]

Thanks for the infos, most appreciated. I've taken the Miller tour and the Leinie's tour (twice), but I'll now happily add all three that you mentioned. Been dying to take the New Glarus and Point tours, although your description of the New Glarus tour is a bit disappointing.

 

For many years now, I've had this fun road trip idea: take several weeks during the summer, tour the state and hit every Historical marker, brewery, and cheese maker. I've mentioned this to friends and family and been laughed at by each one. Ah well. Probably have to win the lottery to do it, anyway.

 

On the topic of beer tasting, I've now had 8 straight Oktoberfest's via the build-your-own route. Not really impressed with any of them, honestly. Some good ones, none terrible, but nothing outstanding.

 

Good: Summit, Bell's, Sam Adams; Okay: Point, Red Hook, Beck's, Leinie's; Below Average:Victory

 

None of them comes close to the Capital. I think the Oktober's have become one of my favorite styles. Seems even the ones that are poor have some attractiveness, as long as the hops don't get in the way.

I've never done the Miller tour, but I have been the Leinie Lodge (no time for the tour unforunately). I've heard really good things about both. Point would also be cool. It's nice to see a relatively small, hometown type brewery keep running strong after all these years.

 

If you're in the Milwaukee area, I highly recommend the Brewery Tour run by the Riverwalk Boat Tours company. I believe it's around $30 per ticket. You arrive at Lakefront and take the tour there. Get on a pontoon and ride down the Milwaukee River with your beer until you arrive at the Milwaukee Ale House. Another (very short) tour and more samples. Get back on the boat and ride to Rock Bottom. Another tour and more samples. The boat then takes you back to Lakefront to conclude. I did it twice this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed both occasions. I did manage to spill one beer in my lap in a most uncerimonious manner before a crowd of stunned onlookers, but I chalk that up to part of the fun.

 

For what it's worth, I think that's a damn fine idea to tour Wisconsin's historical spots, breweries, and cheese makers. But this is coming from a guy who gets made fun of for bringing a notebook to a bar for tasting notes. I'm looking forward to your travelogue when you hit the jackpot!

 

On the topic of Oktoberfest beers, I am in full agreement. They never blow me away, but they never seem to be drainpours either. My top three are Capital, Sam Adams, and New Glarus (in that order). Sprecher's is pretty solid. Not as impressed by Tyranena's offering. I also liked Breckenridge's cleverly disguised Autumn Ale, thought it's got some kick at 6+%. I wouldn't place Oktoberfest as one of my favorite tasting styles, but that's mostly because I'm not a big fan of the understated German-style beers as a whole. I usually like more assertive flavors (sour beers, stouts, IPAs). Fall is my favorite season, even more so with the Brewers playing in October for the first time since I was a month old, so Oktoberfest beers will always hold a special place in my heart.

[colbyjack]

I made sure to stop in Fort Collins, CO last week to check out the New Belgium and Odell breweries on my way to Denver, and both offer really good beer that are really hard to find in Wisconsin (neither are distributed in Wisconsin, but my cousin told me he can find the New Belgium brews from time to time).

 

New Belgium has a great brewery with really friendly workers, and while the actual brewery at Odell isn't as nice, the beers IMO were consistently better. Odell makes a really fine IPA that I believe won the gold in that category at the World Beer Cup. It's super hoppy, and is very similar to the one that Lakefront has been producing for about a year now. Their 90 Shilling Ale and Levity Amber Ales are also really good, and I just missed their winter brew, Isolation Ale, which I've heard is really, really good.

 

New Belgium of course has their staple, Fat Tire, that you can't go wrong with, and I'm also a big fan of their 1554 black ale.

 

I didn't tour either place, since I had my wife and kid with, but I'm never opposed to doing some sampling at 10 in the morning http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif. If you're ever in the Denver area, or are looking for some fun stops on a roadtrip similar to the one I just got back from, I highly recommending making these two stops (there is also another microbrewery in Fort Collins, I think just called Fort Collins Brewery, that we didn't stop at).

 

Thanks for the info on the New Glarus brewery, one of the few in the SE to central part of the state that I haven't been to. I was hoping to get up there at some point this month for a mini-weekend getaway. As others have noted, Leinie's, Capital and Lakefront all have very nice tours, and Sprecher has a nice one as well (Sprecher's is a little more family friendly since kids and non-beer drinker can sample their sodas). I've been on the Miller one years ago, and the Budweiser tour in St. Louis about 15 years ago, and to be honest I just don't get into the macro-tours. My brother went to the Coors tour when we were out in Denver, and he said that brewery is absolutely huge. The tour is free, and they give you three full 12 oz. samples, as well as a half-sample during the tour (similar to Lakefront).

 

I have yet to have an Oktoberfest beer this fall, so thanks for the thoughts on those. I too am usually a big fan of that style of beer.

[ManOfTheBeer]

Colby,

 

That sounds like a great stop en route to Denver...I've had Fat Tire and enjoyed it. One really cool thing about New Belgium is that they're one of the leading "Green" companies in the US. They do a lot of environmental work and even encourage employees to bike more by giving employees bikes as part of the hiring package. I've heard a lot of really good things about them. I haven't heard of Odell, but from your description it sounds like a brewery I would love to check out sometime. I'm a sucker for strong winter ales, so their Isolation Ale is on my short list now.

 

I've had Major Tom's Pomegranate Wheat from Fort Collins Brewery and, well, let's just say that if it's representative of most of their lineup...you made a good choice by skipping it. Pretty rank stuff as I remember.

 

Given the choice between touring a true "craft" brewery and a major BMC operation, I'll always choose the artisan's side. But, I think it would be worthwhile to tour a Miller or a Coors to see how a large-scale brewery functions. Sure, the beer won't be as adventurous when you're sipping a High Life or a blue mountain-lined cup of Coors Light, but there's history in the giants of the industry. I draw the line at Budweiser though. I cannot let Bud pass through my lips or I die, as though I'm Socrates and its my hemlock. A cheap, watery, adjunct-laden hemlock advertised by scantily clad women. Sprecher sounds like a great stop when you have to coax a designated driver along...even I would almost consider skipping beer there if they have frosty mugs of their root beer on tap.

 

My beer of choice for this evening? Furthermore's Knot Stock (a pale brewed with black pepper). Really good beer from a really good brewery. For those looking for a beer to fit the season, try Furthermore's Fallen Apple, a cream ale made with apple cider. It's fantastic!