The Official Beer Thread - Page 94

Where did you find that bottle of Doppel-Hirsch? I used to buy that at a beer store in Germany but never thought I'd see it stateside. Its good - that brewery also does a few others that are tasty.

^^ I picked up this particular bottle at a local wine shop for $8.99 but it's available through several east-coast distributors. It's an excellent duppel-bock. I enjoyed it even though I'm not very fond of the style.

Tyranena Brewing Company - Sheep Shagger Scotch Ale: caramely, smokey and malty scotch ale. Amazingly thick mouthfeel. Will be buying a couple more six packs of this while its around.

x-poasted from the "What are you drinking now?" thread: (that is a Bell's Oberon pint glass)

Tonight's west coast DIPA trials:



Tonight, I tried something different - I had them all ice cold, then let them get room temp. Here's the verdict:

ICE COLD:
Port Brewing's Hop-15. Harsh as ever. Waaaaay f'n bitter, no flavor. Sad, really.
Iron Springs Casey Jones. Malty, nothing, then a nice floral finish. Surprisingly good.
Drake's Denogginizer. Damn. Best DIPA evar. Srsly. Perfect balance of citrusy hops, & malty backbone.
Boonville's Imperial IPA. I've always thought the hops they used were odd. Still do. Malty as hell. Bleh.

Funny how DIPAs taste as they get warmer...a lot changes.

ROOM TEMP:
PB Hop-15. Soapy hops now, but easy maltness. Not bad.
Iron Springs Casey Jones: Grassy, but heavy on the malt still. Good for those who need a solid foundation to their DIPAs.
Drake's Denogginizer: Lost quite a bit of its hoppiness, sadly. This one is amazing cold, but looses its amazingness as the temps increase. Sad, but still fuggin awesome.
Boonville's Imperial IPA: A little hoppiness, then quickly turns malty, in a sticky sweet way. Not great at all. These guys need to get their game on, fosho.

Final verdict: Drake's Denogginizer is the best, hands down. Never thought someone so local could do it so good, but there you go.

i had high hopes for Iron Springs, since their brewer used to brew the best IPA ever at Triple Rock in Berkeley, but eh....way too malty for my tastes.

Hop-15 is more of an experiment than anything else, but that's like most of PB's stuff. Hits & misses, and this is better than most, but misses the sublime mark.

Skip Anderson Valley's Imperial IPA. Not worth it, at all. Hella malty. What is this, the east coast? Sheeeeeiiiiiit.

Granted, I'm a west coast hophead. But I stand by what I taste.

Denogginizer is better - far better - than RR's Pliny the Elder, but Pliny's better than the others - as far as balance goes. Iron Springs' Casey Jones is a close second, tho, and harder to find. I've talked to Christian, the brewer of Iron Springs, and he said (as do many others) that they tried to emulate Pliny. He's the only one that comes close.

Not sure I have an all-time favorite, but here's a recent discovery:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/49789

if your able to find it (not sure if its a year round or not), their Scurvy IPA is incredible. I really like their beer but that one took me by surprise.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/784/43385

Man this forum has really come around. I remember like 2 years ago talking about beer and there wasn't that many people talking about it. Was just people who think nice beer begins and ends with chimay just because it's the most widely distributed "high end" beer.

I've always appreciated, cellared and traded beer, I just never really ventured outside of the SWD or Health threads until this year...

well the micro market is heads and shoulders above what it was 2 years ago. so predictions/hopes for the new year: really excited to see where the cask conditioned trend is going to go. think the over-hopped trend will continue to fade. really hoping to see more new stuff on hopping traditionally unhopped beers (goose islands nightstalker and some of those belgian IPA mashups) think we're going to see more collaboration beers. huge hopes USPS changes laws and allows shipping booze... that would be a game changer. Think we're going to see more interest in lagers and Rye Ales hitting the market.

I can find that and have some at home now. Very good IPA. Lots of both sweet citrus and pithy citrus.

Interesting predictions. Since it's so difficult to import beer here, we have a kind of closed market for microbrews. While we still have some bad breweries that are unaccountably still around after several years of putting out very poor quality beer, I'm guessing that consumer tastes will mature and that the bottom tier of microbreweries will go out of business. There are too many breweries and only a handful consistently make quality products.

More lagers would be great, though we do have a very good brewery that makes all kinds of obscure ones (Kellerbier, Weizenbock, etc.). I haven't seen a single bottled rye beer but some brewpubs offer it.

As in the overhopped beers do you mean the Arrogant Bastards and 6 hour IPAs? People have been raving about these types of beers and I have never been able to get into them. Honestly, I felt like I was missing something ;\\.

Does Victory Wild Devil count as a Belgian IPA mash up? Had some Victory Wild Devil not too long ago and did not enjoy it at all.

I say that kinda generally, theres been a number of beers the past 2-3 years where the goal seems to be how high they can get the IBUs. Arrogant Bastard is one of the least offenders, but you get the idea.

wild devil is a good example. a number of american craft beers have been using bremens yeast for their IPAs which is typically only something you would find used in Belgium beers. Lagunitas just released one that I thought was great: a little sumpin wild. Now theres also the flip side of the coin and if you ever see it, I really suggest checking it out as its one of my favorates: the Belgians' attempt at an american craft IPA.. Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel. its epic.

I'm totally with you on the IBUs. I feel like if someone puts out a mediocre beer (IMO Arrogant Bastard is mediocre beer, sorry) people will rave about it if it has a ridiculous amount of hops.

I will keep my eyes out for Houbon Chouffe, and wouldnt be surprised if I found it at a local shop.