Official GCMB Beer Aficionado Thread

[Captain Sasquatch]

Am I the only one that likes Bud Light Lime? I didn't bother to go through the entire thread.

 

[Gatorbait25]

I don't think Ive ever seen a thread dedicated to quality brews so let's start one. Rules are simple and short. Post about your favorite craft beers. Anything from a microbrewery, anything foreign or imported, anything unique. No budweiser or coors light posts please, this is a thread for quality craft beer selections.

My gold standard list would contain (but not be limited to) the following:

• Southern Tier - double IPA, creme brule, black IPA, pum king, etc.
• Terrapin - Hopzilla, hopsecutioner
• Stone - their signature IPA, arrogant bastard, etc.
• Bells - 2 hearted among others
• Dogfish Head - too many to list
• New Glarus - spotted cow among others
• New Belgium - Fat Tire
• Kona - Fire Rock, longboard
• Big eye - a few good ones
• Innis and Gunn - a couple of very fine selections, all infused with bourbon/whiskey

As you can tell I'm an IPA guy, the hoppier and higher abv content, the better. So what are some of your favorites?

I refuse to drink Terrapin simply based on where it's brewed.

 

[GatorBart]

As it so happens, I went to the Oregon Brewers Festival over the weekend - some pretty good stuff to be had. My favorite for the festival was the Lagunitas Sucks 366 (a well balanced red IPA).
A few of my favorite beers are below (I'm obviously a hop head who has a taste for yak piss).
Stone - Ruination IPA, Enjoy By Series IPAs, Go-To Session IPA
Bear Republic - Racer X IPA, Racer 5 IPA, Hop Rod Rye
Ballast Point - Sculpin IPA
Ninkasi - Tricerahops IPA
Founders - Devil Dancer Triple IPA
Bells - Two Hearted (a classic)
Rogue - Old Crustacean Barleywine

I also like big stouts on occasion - here's a few to look for if you can find them:
Goose Island - Bourbon County Stout (one of the best stouts out there)
Alesmith - Speedway Stout - the best stout on the market, IMO
Clown Shoes - try any of their Unidragon beers, they're very prolific with what they do with stouts at Clown Shoes and they're all usually monstrous and quite good
North Coast - Old Rasputin (at 8.3% ABV, this is lightest of the stouts I've listed, but still ranks up there in my book)


There's several worthy breweries out here in the NW that are so small they don't distribute beyond Washington and Oregon, so listing them is not worth the time. But there's some good stuff coming out of some these small breweries (my current favorite is Reuben's in Seattle and the two best beers I've had this year have come from there - big IPAs of course, Blimey and Gobsmacked).

Drink on!

 

[Durty South Swamp]

As it so happens, I went to the Oregon Brewers Festival over the weekend - some pretty good stuff to be had. My favorite for the festival was the Lagunitas Sucks 366 (a well balanced red IPA).
A few of my favorite beers are below (I'm obviously a hop head who has a taste for yak piss).
Stone - Ruination IPA, Enjoy By Series IPAs, Go-To Session IPA
Bear Republic - Racer X IPA, Racer 5 IPA, Hop Rod Rye
Ballast Point - Sculpin IPA
Ninkasi - Tricerahops IPA
Founders - Devil Dancer Triple IPA
Bells - Two Hearted (a classic)
Rogue - Old Crustacean Barleywine

I also like big stouts on occasion - here's a few to look for if you can find them:
Goose Island - Bourbon County Stout (one of the best stouts out there)
Alesmith - Speedway Stout - the best stout on the market, IMO
Clown Shoes - try any of their Unidragon beers, they're very prolific with what they do with stouts at Clown Shoes and they're all usually monstrous and quite good
North Coast - Old Rasputin (at 8.3% ABV, this is lightest of the stouts I've listed, but still ranks up there in my book)


There's several worthy breweries out here in the NW that are so small they don't distribute beyond Washington and Oregon, so listing them is not worth the time. But there's some good stuff coming out of some these small breweries (my current favorite is Reuben's in Seattle and the two best beers I've had this year have come from there - big IPAs of course, Blimey and Gobsmacked).

Drink on!

Yak Piss crowd unite!!!

I'm a bit of a beer snob myself, and IPAs are my favorite (for years). The hoppier the better. To each his own.

 

[alcoholica]

I refuse to drink Terrapin simply based on where it's brewed.

I think it's partially owned by one of the big guys too. I simply cannot deny their Wake n Bake stout tho.

 

[alcoholica]

I also like big stouts on occasion - here's a few to look for if you can find them:
Goose Island - Bourbon County Stout (one of the best stouts out there)
Alesmith - Speedway Stout - the best stout on the market, IMO
Clown Shoes - try any of their Unidragon beers, they're very prolific with what they do with stouts at Clown Shoes and they're all usually monstrous and quite good
North Coast - Old Rasputin (at 8.3% ABV, this is lightest of the stouts I've listed, but still ranks up there in my book)

The Bourbon County Stout is pretty overrated. They do a great job of hyping it up tho. Their barleywine is awesome as well as the coffee stout. Here are some of my favorite stouts

St. Peter's Cream Stout - Great English Stout that is a benchmark beer for me.
Bell's - Kalamazoo is a solid stout, but unremarkable compared with some of their others. Cherry, Double Cream, Java, Expedition (imperial), Black Note (which I haven't had, but it's on everyone's wish list)
Cigar City - Marshall Zukhov's which is a legend. Haven't tried Hunahpu, but it's supposed to be one of the best beers out there.
Left Hand - Milk Stout is a solid stout
Wells and Youngs - Double Chocolate Stout, Courage Russian Imperial Stout
Founders - Breakfast Stout & their Imperial stout
Terrapin - Wake n Bake for sure and the MooHoo Stout is a nice lighter stout
Dogfish Head - World wide after it's been aged a bit. Chicory Stout is a nice lighter stout, but I think it's draft only now.
Nogne Brewere - Dark Horizon is ridiculous
Brooklyn - Black Chocolate Stout
Le Coq - Extra Double Cream Stout
Mikkeller - Breakfast Geek, Black Hole, and another one with a black dude with an afro on the label
Great Divide - Yeti Series
Samuel Smith - Imperial Stout, chocolate stout is good for a dessert type drink
Avery - Mephistophele's

I'm sure I missed a few that I've liked, and plenty more I haven't tried yet.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

During Indy's winter micro brew festival last year i tried sour aged beer for the first time ever and it changed my beer drinking life...simply amazing. If it weren't so damn expensive and sometimes hard to find i wouldn't drink any other kind of beer again.

my favorite so far

 

[-THE DUDE-]

Just recently tried this one out too and it's also very solid. Boulevard Tell Tale Tart

 

[WobbleGator]

my favorite so far

That is just sad Dude.

 

[Swamp Queen]

That is just sad Dude.

We had to get Coors Light at the wedding just for him. Didn't want him to be thirsty.

 

[GatorBart]

We had to get Coors Light at the wedding just for him. Didn't want him to be thirsty.

But I thought the report was that Dude made up for your not drinking on your wedding day - could he seriously do that with water in a can?

 

[-THE DUDE-]

We had to get Coors Light at the wedding just for him. Didn't want him to be thirsty.

I still like coors light as my light beer...if quantity is the goal. Though i probably drank more shandy's at the wedding...oops

 

[AlexDaGator]

Got into good beer in the mid 90's. One of my roommates was a licensed beer judge (yes, that is a thing, you get tested and licensed before you can judge a contest) and a homebrewer.

I joined the local Gainesville homebrew club, it was called the Hogtown Brewers and the president was a dude named Ray Bidowski (I know I'm spelling that wrong) who owned a place that sold homebrew supplies and quality beer back in the day. Last time I saw Ray was in the 2000s. He had gotten a job with Unibroue, the Canadian company that made beers like "La Fin Du Monde" and "Maudite" (which translate to "The End of the World" and "Dammed", respectively). He was exhibiting some of their products at one of the Orlando theme parks.

I fell in love with Belgian beers. Duvel. Orval. Chimay. We couldn't get much of that stuff in FL because back then by law beer bottles could only be certain sizes (like 12 ozoe 16 oz) so you couldn't get a British pint or anything metric (funny coincidence, that law was passed at the same time Budweiser opened their brewery in Tampa and wanted to limit foreign competition). Every road trip we made would result in a trunk full of exotic beer coming back to Gainesville with us.

The real hop-head craze came later. I'm not a big IPA guy. I get that people like flavor and an IPA has a lot more flavor than a generic American lager but for many of them, the bittering hops aren't balanced with enough malt. For a hoppy beer, I like Anchor's Liberty Ale which is balanced.

Other than the Belgians, I also like Bocks, Doppelbocks, and Oktoberfests.

I served as an associate judge one year for the Sunshine State Challenge homebrew contest in Orlando. Associate judge means my vote doesn't count, but I get to taste as much of whatever I want as I like. It's supposed to help you train to be a judge but I was just getting wasted on the cheap.

Funny story about that roadtrip. Involves an English stewardess, a Danish nanny, and a huge mansion on a lake in Orlando with the fabulously wealthy owners away on vacation.

Alex.

 

[Ray Finkle]

And Ray - if you're ever in the Nashville area let me know. I'd love to try some of that home brew.

So you want a stranger you met on the internet to meet up with you and drink alcohol said stranger concocted in his home?

 

[alcoholica]

Shiner Bock is about as light as I get. That's my yard work beer. Anything else and I just can't justify the lack of flavor. It's about the only beer I'll drink if I want to drink a lot, like on a boat.

Otherwise, I'm drinking 8% or higher beers for the most part.

BTW, if you want to try a good fruity beer, Blushing Monk is pretty bad ass

 

[Gatordiddy]

So you want a stranger you met on the internet to meet up with you and drink alcohol said stranger concocted in his home?

Sure - what could possibly go wrong?

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

Got into good beer in the mid 90's. One of my roommates was a licensed beer judge (yes, that is a thing, you get tested and licensed before you can judge a contest) and a homebrewer.

I joined the local Gainesville homebrew club, it was called the Hogtown Brewers and the president was a dude named Ray Bidowski (I know I'm spelling that wrong) who owned a place that sold homebrew supplies and quality beer back in the day. Last time I saw Ray was in the 2000s. He had gotten a job with Unibroue, the Canadian company that made beers like "La Fin Du Monde" and "Maudite" (which translate to "The End of the World" and "Dammed", respectively). He was exhibiting some of their products at one of the Orlando theme parks.

I fell in love with Belgian beers. Duvel. Orval. Chimay. We couldn't get much of that stuff in FL because back then by law beer bottles could only be certain sizes (like 12 ozoe 16 oz) so you couldn't get a British pint or anything metric (funny coincidence, that law was passed at the same time Budweiser opened their brewery in Tampa and wanted to limit foreign competition). Every road trip we made would result in a trunk full of exotic beer coming back to Gainesville with us.

The real hop-head craze came later. I'm not a big IPA guy. I get that people like flavor and an IPA has a lot more flavor than a generic American lager but for many of them, the bittering hops aren't balanced with enough malt. For a hoppy beer, I like Anchor's Liberty Ale which is balanced.

Other than the Belgians, I also like Bocks, Doppelbocks, and Oktoberfests.

I served as an associate judge one year for the Sunshine State Challenge homebrew contest in Orlando. Associate judge means my vote doesn't count, but I get to taste as much of whatever I want as I like. It's supposed to help you train to be a judge but I was just getting wasted on the cheap.

Funny story about that roadtrip. Involves an English stewardess, a Danish nanny, and a huge mansion on a lake in Orlando with the fabulously wealthy owners away on vacation.

Alex.

God dammit Alex. Here you've got me googling British pint to find out that not only is a British pint not 16 fluid ounces, but the imperial fluid ounce isn't even the same amount as the US fluid ounce. WTF. I've been to England twice, drank many pints there and had no f'ing idea.

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

What this guy said. I don't get the love for IPAs. I feel like they just got big a few years back and now everyone has to say they like them or be shunned by the "beer snob" crowd. I am a beer snob, and those things are just awful.

I dunno. After drinking IPAs for a while you drink something else and you're like, wait -- there's no beer in this beer, what is this? Coors Lite?

 

[Delg8tor]

I'm not a big fan of the boutique beers or beers with fruity accents. I was at a bar the other day and the bartender went on and on about how I should try this certain beer so I relented. Just as I figured it would, it tasted like the water left over from boiling old socks. Disgusting.

I'll stick with a good lager like Yuengling or Rolling Rock.

That's what I'm talking about as well. Dark beers are too heavy and IPA's are just disgusting. Give me a Yuengling, Rolling Rock, Killians Irish Red, and I am good to go. Every time I go to a bar that serves only craft beer I try all sorts of beer and most every time I am sorely disappointed the only one I have been truly impressed by is Abita brewing company Purple Haze. That's pretty good.
My wifes , well ex-wifes, uncle practically runs a brewery up in the Lehigh Valley near Allentown PA. Over the last twenty years he has brought my ex-brother-in-law and I a case of mixed beer that they brewed any time there was a family get together. They were a Stroh's brewery for a while and then were bought by the company that owns Guinness and most recently they were bought by Sam Adams. They have brewed everything from the traditional Sam Adams to McSorley's Ale (that's some nasty stuff. I used it for slug bait for a while in my garden.) to flavored Smirnoff Ice which is really just flavored beer or malt liquor if you didn't know.

 

[Delg8tor]

Funny story about that roadtrip. Involves an English stewardess, a Danish nanny, and a huge mansion on a lake in Orlando with the fabulously wealthy owners away on vacation.

Alex.

Forget about beer. You write a dissertation on beer and end it with a lousy two sentences about a stewardess and a nanny in a huge mansion and give no details? Come on man. That's torture and totally not fair. This is the lounge so just about anything goes. I bet even Queenie would like some details.