Sammy, you GOTTA tour Orygun. We have more breweries in Oregon than can be found in Germany.

A simpler man with simpler taste, here is my daily quaff:

http://www.onmilwaukee.com/images/ar...ife_story1.jpg

I don't care for Blue Moon or Yuengling.
Or Bud.

When I'm in a mod for something different, I enjoy Paulaner Hefe-Weizen and Spaten Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier - both more suitable for cooler weather, IMO.

Corona used to be an interesting distraction for me, but it's lost it's novelty over the years.

At the local pub I'll usually have them pour up a pint of Irish snakebite (50% Harp & 50% apple cider).
(True Irish would require the cider to be C&C Bulmers or Magners - I usually find Woodchuck on tap locally. Whatever.)

Suprisingly, some beer does, or at least have changes in character ("better" is debatable I guess). Beers that are "bottle conditioned", that is, have live yeast in the bottle, continue to ferment and like wine, change over time. I know, I know - who cares, right? Now, time to go have a beer...

Its good to here the microbrewery thing is thriving in the US, if and when my next holiday takes me to North America, my choice of which State to go to will be based around the choice of beer available in that area! :D

Current favourites in no real order.

Newcastle Brown Ale - Geordie Land!
Guiness - The emarald Isle
Leffe Brune - Belgium (I think)
Pelforth Brune - France
Kronneburg 1664 - France
London Pride - Brewed in North Korea or maybe not.... :eek: :D

pwd72s, you might have to give up on me as far as educating my taste for beer. I actually like the tast of Olympia, even though I can't find it around here ;)

Seriously. One of these days I'll find an excuse to get up there.

you guys are too euro-centric...

http://www.soaresantiques.com/images...ttles/8370.jpg

Elephant Beer....the real kind, not the stuff they import here. Dee Lish.

My first taste was at Tivoli Gardens and I couldn't get enough.

My New Favorite
 

**** Four Stars
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165624356.jpg
Available locally
Problem is, wife likes them too...

I've drunk cheap beer, but I couldn't finish a 12 pack of that stuff. I do have to agree with Livi that Carlsberg is very good.

Well I'm a VERY simple man I guess. I like the taste of Miller Lite. But lately I'm strayed to Captain Morgan. I'll be back, I'm going to make another one.....

This time of year I like Troegs Mad Elf...very good. Victory Old Horizontal and Hop Wallop are excellent too. Great cold weather beers...

Man Law: No fruit in beer!

I strongly agree with that, but for some reason the mad elf seems ok - just for the holidays.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165675697.jpg

Coniston Brewing Company's 'Bluebird Bitter', thre's also an 'XB' version. Originally brewed in the Black Bull in Coniston, in the English Lake District. Coniston Water is the lake where Donald Campbell attempted, and broke, several world water speed records in his Bluebird boats, hence the name of the beer.

A great pint!

Oh yeah! This is good stuff, but not too easy to find outside of southwestern Germany. One of my favorite German beers, which I believe is only sold in eastern Germany is Radeberger.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165689448.jpg

But the real best beer in the world is sold under the BS name "Czechvar" in the US because Anheuser Busch bought the real name "Budwesier" and defiled it into the piss some call the king of beers. In Europe Czechvar is still called Budweiser/Budvar and it's the best.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165689544.jpg

B.A. Reviews
 

Here's what B.A. has to say.

http://beeradvocate.com/top_beers

Unibroue - U....Haven't had La Fin Du Monde yet, actually never knew they were from the same brewery!

Barbar

http://www.kegliquors.com/santasbutt.jpg

Have not tried it, but it's made the news lately. Seems people are upset about Santa and his butt.

butt(4) [buht]
-noun
1. a large cask for wine, beer, or ale.
2. any cask or barrel.
3. any of various units of capacity, usually considered equal to two hogsheads.

La Cervoise Lancelot pour moi...!
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This is my vote

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165712612.jpg
Hadn't had it for years though......:(

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165713680.jpg

I am smooth like Billy Dee....

that or Carlsberg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165715326.jpg

My all-time favorite beer....and Iam all out of it right now :(
I guess a Paulaner will do

if you think santa's butt created a stir, do you remember bad frog beer ? came out of michigan, had a frog on the label giving the finger. it was deemed unsuitable for sale here in new york.

Have any of the Southern Californians on the board tried Stones brewery products?

I loved those beers when I was down there, some really hoppy monsters. I think supply is limited to the area around San Diego, I certainly can't find any in Georgia.
My Uncle commented one one of his visists, that the hops in one bottle of Stones would probably keep a mainstream US beer producer in hops for a year.

There are some great beers available in the USA lately. Before I moved over here I had been visiting since the early 80's and, I think it would be fair to say that the beer situation has improved dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years.

Arrogant Bastard is one of my favorite beers!!!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165723404.jpg

I buy by the case since I can't get it in FL.
For regular drinking, Fosters does a good job, and use to sponsor the Porsche Indy Carhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165723542.jpg

Dead Guy
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165765716.gif Dead Guy Ale is deep honey in color, and has a markedly malty aroma, as well as a hefty content of alcohol:D Actually, the only beer that I don't like is St.Pauli Girl.

Well, after trying some yesterday I can say that IMO Sam Adams knows butkis about hefeweisen.

We can get that here in the Phoenix area. You're right about the hops! Great beer.

BTW, I was in East Tenn in early October. My friend needed to get some wine so we stopped in the liquor storee and guess what? They had the 22oz bottles of Arrogant Bastard! They said due to the alcohol level, they could carry it as a "novelty ale".

You should call some of the local distributors. You'd be surprised at what they can get!

All I drink at school is Natty Light, which is not very good, so when I go home this is a nice change and also my favorite

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ney1321/ac.jpg

but hold the lime please

Are you kidding? Natty Light is great. Only PBR is better. In college, when we were so poor, we couldn't afford to pay attention, I was lucky enough to be in a band and we got sponsored by Anheuser Busch. When they offered us free beer, we always asked for Natty Light. Our rep. would call up the nearest distributor and tell him his boys were coming by and to give us a few cases of NL pounders. Oh, those were the days.

Like Porsche, there is no substitute regarding beer.

http://homepage.mac.com/drew1/.Pictures/guinness.jpg

+1 for Carlsberg. Polish beer such as Lech, Zywiec, or Warka is pretty awesome. "Berliner" German beer is probably #1 on my list though.

For those of you who can't get Stone products, I have attached a recipe for making a stronger version of Stone's Ruination Ale. This is based on their recipe, scaled up to Triple IPA strength. I only used the first runnings for this beer, and sparged the rest to make an XPA. I am just finishing off the keg, and it is some beer! Stone's recipe follows as well.

Stone Ruination (Triple IPA version)
Grain:
23# Domestic 2 Row 70%
5# Crystal 20L 15%
2# Crystal 80L 6%
3# CaraPils Dextrine Malt 9%

Hops:
2 Oz Magnum 11%A Pellet First Wort Hop
2 Oz Centennial 9.7%A Whole 10 Min
2 Oz Centennial 9.7%A Whole Dry Hop

Single Infusion mash at 154 F for 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Drain grain bed into boil kettle on top of Magnum hops, boil for 90 minutes adding Centennial hops 10 minutes before end of boil. Rack to fermenter, chilling to ~70 F, aerate wort and pitch LARGE scaled up batch of Chico Ale yeast. Rack to secondary fermenter once fermentation is nearly complete (about a week in my case) and add Centennial dry hops. Let sit on dry hops for a week, prime and bottle.

Enjoy!

And here is the article the above was based on:

So you love hops? And Alcohol? And massive flavor? All to the extreme? This beer is for you. Ruination was originally an anniversary beer for Stone Brewing, but demand was so high that they eventually made Ruination a part of the everyday lineup.
I spoke to Chairman Greg Koch and Head Brewer Lee Chase about their obsession with hoppy beers to get the lowdown on making Ruination IPA. Both Greg and Lee are clearly in love with this beer. Ruination is high alcohol and high hop bitterness. And both are higher than the IPA style calls for. The label on the back of the bottle says it best:
“Stone Ruination IPA. So called because of the immediate ruinous effect on your palate. The moment after the first swallow, all other food and drink items suddenly become substantially more bland than they were just seconds before. By the time you develop a taste for this beer, you may find that you are permanently ruined from being able to enjoy lesser brews. Good. We freely admit to doing this. On purpose even! People are sometimes crazy enough to thank us for this assault. To which we reply “You’re Welcome.”
Now there is a pint full!
At over 100 IBU’s of hop bitterness, this beer is bitter. Stone uses Magnum hops for the bittering hops. Magnum hops have a low co-humulone value, which allows for a high level of hop bitterness with a low level of hop harshness.
Lee says that Stone tries to keep it simple when making their beers. For Ruination they employ a single infusion mash at low temperatures to create the maximum amount of fermentable sugars. They add the finishing hops in the whirlpool (at the end of the boil, just prior to going through their wort chiller), and then add the dry hops to the fermenter just as the beer hits terminal gravity (dry hopping is adding raw hops, either in pellet or leaf form, to the beer after fermentation is done, to achieve high levels of hop aroma) Leave the hops in for dry hopping for about 3 to 5 days, and then bottle and enjoy!
For more information you can visit the Stone Brewing Company web site at: http://www.stonebrew.com or by calling 760-471-4999.

Stone Brewing – Ruination IPA
(5 gallon, extract with grains)
OG=1.075
FG=1.010
IBU’S = 115-120
SRM= 6
Alcohol 7.7% by volume
Ingredients
6.6 Lbs Northwestern gold (light) malt extract syrup
2.0 Lbs. Northwestern gold (light) dry malt extract
1.0 Lb. Briess 2-row malt
1.0 Lb. Briess 15L Crystal Malt
1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min (boil 60 minutes for clarity)
36.0 AAU Magnum hops (bittering hop)
(2.25 Oz. of 16.0% Alpha acid)
15.7 AAU Centennial hops (aroma/finishing hop)
(1.5 Oz. of 10.5% alpha acid)
21.0 AAU Centennial hops (dry hop)
(2.0 Oz. of 10.5% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast or Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming.
Step by step
Steep the 2 crushed grains in 3 gallons of water at 149º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add Magnum hops, malt syrup, and bring to a boil. Add Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the first addition of Centennial hops at the end of the boil, and let steep for 5 minutes.
Now add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 75º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º, and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermentation. Then add last addition of Centennial hops for dry hopping. Dry hop for 3 to 5 days, then bottle your beer, carbonate and enjoy!
All grain option:
This is a single infusion mash. Use 13 Lbs. Of 2-row malt, and 1.0 Lbs of Crystal 15L malt in your grain bill. Mash your grains at 149º for 60 minutes. Stone uses fairly hard water, so Lee said that you should harden your water with things like Burton water salts to make this beer. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (approximately 7 gallons). Lower the amount of Magnum boiling hops to 1.75 oz. to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.

The closest you can get it is TN, I have checked, and I buy a lot of beer:D

Fullers London Porter
 

Mmmm...Coffee, honey, molasses
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1165879075.jpg

You guys must try Tits&ass beer.

Aurel