Good Bud, Good Beer, Good Blog

Jivex5k

Well-Known Member
LOL
Sorry I couldn't resist the triple B title.
Anyways...
As much as good Bud is a hobby of mine so is good beer.
I enjoy nothing more than to load up my Vape with a nice glass of beer by my side and Call Of Duty ready to rock!
So I started a blog about the beers I like, more for my own enjoyment than anything. But I'd like other beer lovers to feel free to check out my blog or even suggest beers to try.
I make no claims at being a connoisseur, just an alcoholic looking for justification.
http://briansbeerblog.wordpress.com/
I consider it a log of great beers I have had, complete with a high-res picture of the bottle and pour!

I'll be updating it pretty often. Will probably trickle down as I run out of beers to try but that is a long way away!
Enjoy it or don't I'm having fun doing it!
 
Jivex5k,

WatTyler

Revolting Peasant
Ahh Fullers Porter. A favourite of mine. May I recommend their 'London Pride' as well? It's a nice bitter.

And if you can get any Shepherd Neame ales I would encourage you - again produced at a similar scale (pretty available, rather than tiny micro brewery), but originating about 5 miles from the farmhouse I was born in in Kent, where it's been brewed continually since 1698. Right in the heart of English hop country, and one of the very last places in the UK where we sill produce hops. 'Bishops Finger' is my personal favourite of theirs, followed by 'Spitfire' (in honour of the WWII fighter). A nice 'Oyster Stout' and 'Whitstable Bay Ale' as well. Although they can produce shite sometimes too :lol:.

Old Speckled Hen is another easily available favourite of mine. It's an IPA, although they've just started marketing it as an 'ale' in recent years. Dunno why, some commercial reasons- more appealing to the masses i think. Anyway, nice and malty, toffee, yummy....

My favourites are mostly south of England- it's the style i was raised with, and it sucks living where the tradtional beer tastes are different (anywhere else in the UK or world!). It's hard to get something with the strength of flavour I like in Scotland in many pubs- traditionally in their beer they use fewer hops and have a softer sweeter darker taste. Not a problem getting what I like best bottles etc, but a well cared for and conditioned pint on tap is a different story.

But I can also recommend Theakstons from Yorkshire (which is northern England), who you should now be able to get State-side. Their Old Peculier is interesting- an Old Ale, really sweet.

There are loads of brilliant small and micro breweries popping up nowadays, but it's not good ranting about them- it can be hard enough to find something specific in the UK sometimes, let alone elsewhere.

I was in the USA a couple of years ago for a business conference in Washington DC and got a couple of days free afterwards- I spent an evening sampling at the 'Dogfish Head Brewery' in Delaware. I gotta say I was so impressed. I though American beer was Budwser, Coors and Miller. At least that's what we get here. Boy was I wrong :lol: MUCH better taste than that! I gotta say, quite high on the alcohol content though :ko: - I like to be able to drink pints all night and still stand :cool: :lol:


And nice blog btw, it was an entertaining read :lol:
 
WatTyler,

Jivex5k

Well-Known Member
Hey thanks for all the recommendations! I figured some beer advocates would be lurking here =)
I do enjoy Old Speckled Hen, it's got a great taste like you say. Believe it or not they have another brew called "Hen's Tooth" which is a stronger version of it. I'll be heading to the beer store tonight to see what I can find.
Finding great beer on tap is a fun challenge indeed. I have one local bar that offers Spaten on tap in 3 varieties no less! I really enjoy Spaten Optimator, it's a nice double bock that is quite rich.
Unfortunately beers like Coors and Bud Light dominate the market here in the US, but there have been more and more craft breweries and micros gaining recognition.
Dogfish Head is one of my favorite breweries, in fact they have a show about the different beers they make. They go after very interesting beers like an ancient recipe recreation called "Midas Touch"

I'm glad you enjoyed reading the blog I was trying to be somewhat entertaining lol.
 
Jivex5k,

WatTyler

Revolting Peasant
I've not come across 'Hen's Tooth', although there is one called 'Crafty Hen' which is a bit stronger. I wonder if it was renamed for export?

But after I wrote that I started reading brewery websites, which made me get thirsty...... I'm now on the second, probably time for a third before bed.

But I did discover that the Kentish beer taste I grew up with and love so much is distinctive enough that the European Union has granted it PGO (Products of Degisnated Origin/Geographic Indication) status- on the level with Parma Ham (from Parma!) or Champagne (from Champagne :lol:). So it's a distinct product in its own right, and definately worth being sourced out and tried ;)


I didn't realise Dogfish Head were well known at all, but their beer was fine. They even had a 'vintage menu' in the bar- beers that were years old. I've never come across that before! I think I sampled quite a few, but it's all a blur! It was in a nice seaside town too.
 
WatTyler,

pakalolo

Toolbag v1.1 (candidate)
Staff member
I like porters. The one that hooked me was called Mac's Black Watch Cream Porter, by MacTarnahan's out of Oregon. I found it at the Safeway in Lahaina. (I spend my summers on Maui.) It was my favourite brew until Safeway stopped carrying it a couple of years ago. (I think MacTarnahan's stopped making it, it's not listed on their website anymore.) I was devastated because the selection of dark ales on Maui is dreadful. I still haven't found a substitute.

That's not entirely true. I did find something on my last visit, Pipeline Porter by Kona Brewing. I tried it and immediately fell in love. I thought it must be a new brew since I'd never seen it before, then I discovered the horrifying truth: it's only available September through March. :( My annual visit is usually July-August, and it was a fluke that we were there in November. Knowing that this wonderful porter existed but that I might never get to drink it again, I was pretty depressed.

When I got back to Ontario, I was still suffering from Pipeline withdrawal when I spotted a porter in The Beer Store I'd not noticed before: Mill Street Coffee Porter. It caught my eye because Pipeline Porter is made with Kona coffee and I liked the coffee finish. Score! Mill Street not only makes a porter that tastes remarkably like Pipeline, they do where I can easily get it for 10 months of the year. I still need to find a substitute to drink for the two months on Maui, though.

:cheers:
 
pakalolo,
Jivex, check out this 70 post thread on beer buried on the second or third page: http://www.fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=4433

On the issue of Pipeline porter and Kona in general, I've got a bone to pick with them. If you aren't buying your Six in Hawaii, you aren't getting the real stuff, you're getting a copy brewed in Oregon. I'm not sure who is doing it, but they sure as hell don't do as good a job as the Hawaiians.

My last visit to Maui was riddled with Pipeline porter. I loved that beer and bought at least three six packs, most of them drank on the beach, directly before or after a swim. When I came back to the west coast and purchased it again, I was seriously let down, and most of those bottles were gifted away. Alot of companies use this strategy to offset their huge transportation costs, but if the brewery they hire doesn't get it right, it can be a big disappointment.

Have you guys tried the Meantime porters from London (I thinks London, anyway)? They have a coffee porter and a London porter (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5062/25548) which are both excellent. From the looks of their beeradvocate page, the rest is just as good. Also, Lagunitas makes a Cappucino Stout which I used to dislike, but this year's version was damn nice and a great deal at Lagunitas' low retail price.

Dogfishhead is hot and cold for me. Some of their beers are superb, some are average, but they deserve great credit for being so damn experimental. I've also noticed a big tendency for spoiled bottles from them, with a far, far better chance of getting a delicious beer if you can find it on tap. Chateau Jihau, a beer fermented with sake yeast and based on the residue found in like a 4000 year old vessel found in China, was superb on tap, but when I bought a bottle, it was horribly infected.

I'm a tremendous fan of one of their seasonal six pack, Chicory Stout. It's made with Mexican coffee, licorice root, chicory and some other odds and sods, and is a truly excellent, lower ABV stout. Also, if you can find a bottle of their Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, BUY IT. That was a truly interesting beer. Honestly, if they were a publicly traded company, I'd buy some DFH stock right now.

Have you seen Brewmasters? It's a 6 episode (so far...) series about DFH, each episode is an hour long and is completely ripe with interesting and meaningful insights into the brewing industry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brew_Masters Edit: reading that wiki reveals that the show was pulled because of low ratings and the threat of pulled sponsorship from a major beer company. BMC probably shit themselves when they realized that everything contained in the show would lead viewers to pass over their shitty, dead, mass produced lagers.

As far as my own personal favorite beers, wild ales are undoubtedly it. Flemish Reds, Saisons, funky west coast sours, insane beers brewed with Brett... Yum.
 
charliedontsurf,

pakalolo

Toolbag v1.1 (candidate)
Staff member
I've only tried Pipeline on Maui. When I got back I looked into getting some here in Ontario, and discovered the same thing you mention: unless it comes from Hawaii, you get this stuff brewed under license somewhere else.

The micro/pub brewery scene around Southern Ontario is full of excellent choices in all styles. There are several amber and dark beers I've tried and liked, but I really love my coffee porters.
 
pakalolo,

Jivex5k

Well-Known Member
Wow a lot of recommendations to try now =)
Yeah Dogfish is hit or miss for sure but they deserve mad respect for the love in their brewing.
That show was great, its such a shame it got pulled.
Coffee Porter eh? I can see that being extremely good.
I recently had a Belgian Dubbel mixed with sour cherry extract called Kasteel Rogue. It's really good but a bit overwhelmingly cherry, I like there brown ale better for sure.

I managed to pick up London's Pride yesterday. I'll probably write a review over the weekend.
In the meantime I posted my review about an Italian Dopplebock.
http://briansbeerblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/birra-moretti-la-rossa/

It's pretty damn good AND affordable.
 
Jivex5k,
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