What's your favorite beer?

[ftrplt]

India Pale Ales for me; the hoppier, the better! Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA comes to mind; but so do many others. And at "English" warm temps also. I abhore ice-cold beer, except for some lagers and pilsners in the summertime. I'm also big on Stouts and Porters; no one inparticular brand. Steinlager (New Zealand) is about my favorite summer beer. But mostly, I just love beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FTRPLT

 

[PipeBrew]

I've looked, and in my area, Knoxville, TN, I can't find a place that sells most of these beers. The best selection seems to be at
http://www.leafandale.com/beerlist.php

What should I try? One can mix and match a six pack or case, so when I talk my wife into letting me use some money to buy some beer, I'll have something to go by.

Thanks.

 

[ftrplt]

PB, this is an excellent selection!! What is your taste in beer, or better still, what would you like to try????? FTRPLT

 

[Slow Puffs]

I like the micro brewries... in Alberta, this is my favourite:

http://www.bigrockbeer.com/

I generally like a dark beer... but then beer is beer, eh.

Paul

 

[Slow Puffs]

This is an alternate to the Canuk nation anthem...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WCXnlFWaIY

especially at Christmas time..

Paul

 

[PipeBrew]

PB, this is an excellent selection!! What is your taste in beer, or better still, what would you like to try????? FTRPLT

I enjoy each different style for the difference in taste, but I don't know all of the styles and what represents each style well. Tonight at Knox Cigar Company, I had a Rocky Mountain IPA, which was the best beer I've had to date. There are a lot of beers at Knox Cigar now that they have a bar, but that's another thread.

Basically, I guess I'm saying that there are so many to choose from, I don't know where to start. Very similar to when I first started with the pipe.

 

[ftrplt]

PB....as usual I have a few suggestions!!! First, since you've already tried the IPA and enjoyed it; try each of the other IPAs at the Leaf &Ale!! Now I'm going to list most of the breweries with which I'm familiar. Each time you visit the L&A, pick up a bottle from say, five or six, of them and keep a log/diary of which ones you like and/or dislike. Many of my favs come from one of these:

Anchor Steam, Avery, Bar Harbor, Bass, Becks, Calhouns, Duck-Rabbit (one of my wife's favorites!), Fort Collins, Flying Dog, Guinness, Hacker-Schorr, Left Hand (big fav of mine), Lost Coast, North Coast, Pilsner Urquell, Redhook, Sam Adams, Sammy Smith (IPA and Oatmeal Stout are awesome), Shipyard, Sierra Nevada, St. Pauli Girl, St. Peters, Smithwicks (pronounced Smith icks, no "w"), Warsteiner, and Yuengling.

Within each of these (other than the single brews like Bass or Becks), you'll find a range of lighter lagers to hoppier IPAs, different ales, and even a few fruit-based brews! Enjoy and have fun!!

FTRPLT

 

[pipemaker]

Good advice ftrplt.

Some of the imports don't travel well, and loose even more of their character if they sit on the retailers shelf too long.

Pilsner Urquell and some of the imported lighter color lagers are notorious for changing over time, but when fresh, they are superb.

I believe Smithwicks is sold as #1 in the U.S. market, but if you can acquire the Canadian version, known as Smithwicks Export, you will find it a much fuller and more flavorful brew.

Both the Hacker Pschorr and the Sam Smith's products seem to suffer little from their travels.

Fuller's ESB and the ale from Shepherd Neame seem almost indestructable.


Mike

 

[PipeBrew]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I'll keep you updated as I go.

 

[ftrplt]

Pipemaker....Besides not traveling well; many of the imports just weren't meant to be served ice cold. I absolutely adore a good hand-pulled English bitter or ale. Nothing beats it!! During our trip to Ireland last year, we were stunned when the Guinness was served ice frappin' cold!! Yuck! But even the worst travelin' English bitter beats the hell out of "Lite Beer from Miller!!!" Double yuck!!! FTRPLT

 

[hazmat]

For daily drinking and handing out to friends who like to suck my beer stores dry, Miller Lite. Hold the flames, gentleman, my tastes to travel upward from here

After that, Boddingtons is my favorite of all time beer. Exactly what I want when I go looking for a beer.

Micro-brews, I can take or leave them, depending on what they're offering. Someone mentioned Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout, that's good stuff. Love it.

The IPAs and Over the Top with Hops variations that are going around are slowly beginning to irritate me, though a few are tasty. But seriously, enough is enough, fellas. When a bar offers 15 micro-brews and 12 of them are of the hops-on-steroids variety it doesn't matter much who brewed them or in what manner, they all end up tasting the same. Two of these that I enjoy are Two-Hearted Ale and Dogfish Head 90 minute, but that's about where I've draw the line.

Not sure if Chimay is considered a true beer, but I love the stuff.

 

[PipeBrew]

At KnoxCigar's bar they have Boddington's on tap, next time I'm in there I'll have to give it a try.

 

[bolson]

Miller Lite....it really is the nectar of the gods....and it does taste great like the commercial boasts...what more could a thirsty person need?

 

[adauria]

I've taken a shine lately to Blue Moon as a real tasty, widely-available, Belgium style wheat beer.

But there are soooo many great beers of every genre... how can you pin down a favorite?

-Andrew

 

[JohnnyO]

I've taken a shine lately to Blue Moon as a real tasty, widely-available, Belgium style wheat beer.

But there are soooo many great beers of every genre... how can you pin down a favorite?

-Andrew

Just had a blue moon last night but my go to beer has to be Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing Co. excelent amber ale...

As for american lagers, I haven't had too many but during our easter bbq I had a miller and it was quite tasty compared to the usual bud/coors light

 

[PipeBrew]

I like Blue Moon quite a bit, because it is fairly tasty and widely available.

 

[GarWood]

If you guys like Blue Moon, you should try Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weiss. Probably not as widely available, but if you see it, definitely worth a taste

Miller Lite?! Is that even beer??? :darklord:

 

[hazmat]

One to add that I've recently come to be obsessed with is Oberon. Can't tell you who brews it, just that's it's sublime.

 

[GarWood]

One to add that I've recently come to be obsessed with is Oberon. Can't tell you who brews it, just that's it's sublime.

Bell's Oberon; Kalamazoo - excellent beer

 

[Natch]

Arkansas isn't noted for its microbreweries, (half the state is dry!) but Diamond Bear out of Little Rock has a Pale Ale and an IPA that are about as good as I've ever had. Not distributed very widely, though, in fact you can't get it much outside of the metropolitan area.

Anyone live in the Seattle area? They have a brew-fest each year at The Farm; a set amount to get in, they give you a nice glass, and you can fill it as many times as your hand/legs/liver/brain will allow. Last time I want they had over 50 microbreweries represented from Oregon up to Alaska, each with a couple of their best brews on tap. Mighty fine way to spend an afternoon.

Natch