Beer ...I Drank Some.

IPA fan all the way. The more IBU's and higher alcohol % the better. Cannot even start to drink pale ales (let alone 805) or those sweet English and Irish beers anymore. Once you've developed a Hop Head pallet and went over to the dark side it's hard going back.

 

Lost Abbey Saison, Chimay Grand Reserve (Blue), Samuel Smiths Organic Chocolate Stout, and the newer Mutt Brown by Stone. For something lighter, Golden Road Saison in Cans (was great on Baldy last week). Not an IPA fan, so Daytime by Lagunitas is more my pace there.

Brother Thelonius is also a nice way to kill some time.

I'm not allowed to go into Total Wine with a credit card, or a cart. Cash only, and only what I can hand carry. Otherwise I'd be broke.

Newcastle and Guinness are also go-to...but for Guinness "room temperature" translates to 60-ish like inside an Irish Pub, and even then only when its cold/rainy/snowy...otherwise its cold, but never ice-cold.

As for the lighter beers...this pretty much sums up my opinion:

 

Chimay of any color is a good thing. Lagunitas Maximus is better than Daytime. Censored also good.

Light beer...why? That's like porn. Not the real thing although the end result may be physiologically the same. Getting there is a voyage in itself.

 

I would never EVER drink a Bud Light. However, IPA for me is like Disco, one can just grin and bear it and wait for it to DIE!

 

Love most of Lagunitas offerings, especially Maximus. Hairy Eyeball is great too.
Watching the Blackhawks, having a Wipeout IPA, and a bit of Buffalo Trace bourbon.

 

I predict the Ducks will score 3 goals in 37 seconds, but it still won't be enough to win the game.

 

For the IPA-appreciating crowd, the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye is a very good concoction.

 

For those who can appreciate a fine IPA, Uinta Brewing has done a fine job.

 

RwS...
I belch in your general direction! :thumbup:

 

I'll drink to that!!

 

F*ck Yeah!!!!!!

 

Hey mikie how about this.... my friend works for distribution of nice beers and got us this 12 pack, on the pic it says "Not for resale" and the other pic shows its 16oz and makes my other beers look like midgets...

 

^^^Mikie endorses the post above^^^

 

Alright, it's fall, right?! time for Oktoberfest beers, Yeah!

Picked up at the grocery some 2015 Sierra Nevada "One Time Only" Oktoberfest Festival Lager (longest beer name ever). Very tasty, low IBU (nothing bitter like an IPA), high maltiness, full of flavor. Highly recommended. Some collaboration with an actual German brewery http://www.mensjournal.com/food-dri...ada-made-the-worlds-best-oktoberfest-20150807

Cheers to a cool and wet fall!

 

I found something in my garage this weekend; while cleaning it out to move our old fridge downstairs I kicked a grocery bag and heard bottles clanking. I checked it and found approx. two dozen beers-mostly stone brewing stuff!
It turns out that when I was out of town recently my brother popped by and dropped-off a bunch of beers he wasn't going to drink. I guess he mentioned it to my gf but she'd forgotten. So a week or two later, I got a nice surprise for my new (old) beer fridge in the garage.

 

I took this picture a couple nights ago, just for my own entertainment. But I'll share it with you guys, because it's "Knock Your Socks Off" amazing. It's a twenty-one year old mead that I created from locally grown honey.

Back in early 1994 my wife and I were playing in the hills near Valyermo, when we came across an apiary. We decided to knock on the door and see what was up. There was one guy there. The hills around Valyermo were a lonely place back then, so he was more than eager to chat and to show us around. Did you know what a strange place an apiary is? Bees all over! Buzzing around, piled high in the window sills... this place was the real deal. He had 55 gallon drums filled with honeycomb from all sorts of flowers. I can't even remember all the exotics. My favorite was the sage, it isn't too sweet, and I love the spiciness. We bought quite a bit of honey that day.

That was at the height of my beer brewing mania (full mash, yeast farmer, petri dishes, the works). It made sense to try my hand at mead. I whipped up a batch, and after several months I bottled it. The date on the bottles is December 1, 1994. I marked all my bottles back in those days. After six months, I sampled a bottle. YEUCH! My mead was a hideous, cloyingly sweet syrup. The experiment was a bust. Soon thereafter, I was bottling some beer and needed bottles. I poured the mead down the drain and reused the bottles for the beer.

That would have been the end of the story, but about a year later I found a couple forgotten cases of the mead in the bottom of a closet. I was curious, and cracked open a bottle. HOLY COW! After eighteen months of conditioning, this mead was the most delicious, luxurious nectar that a brewer could ever hope to create! Amazing! So I carefully set aside the remaining bottles. Over the years I would forget about it, stumble across it, and then help myself to another bottle. Last week I ran across a bottle in the back refrigerator. After drinking the glass in the picture, I think there's only one bottle left. I'll let it sit there for a few months... or years... and then I'll drink it and it will be gone forever.

Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man, probably first discovered in an upturned bee hive that had filled with rainwater and fermented. The thirsty cavemen drank the sweet liquid, got high, and humans have been chasing the dragon ever since. Bees have long been associated with fertility and the sweetness of life. During the medieval times, a bride and groom were sent out after their wedding with enough mead to last them for one full moon. It was believed that the mead would imbue them with fertility and virility. From this custom we've derived the modern term, "honeymoon."

Prosit!

 

Awesome story Rob!

 

Very cool history lesson.

 

Very good history lesson! Thank you!

 

I used to live in Germany. I'm a lager man. Spaten Oktoberfest rocks my world... though the Paulaner tent is the best tent at Oktoberfest

 

I need to acquire some mead. A few years ago, I started feeling like crap every time I drank beer. Long story short the hops and myself do not agree. One of the great tragedies of my life, as I've been a beer lover from birth. Mead may very well be a suitable replacement for me. Hopefully it makes a commercial comeback, cuz this IPA craze (while amazingly tasty) wreaks havoc on my system.

 

I'm not a fan of hoppy beers. You might specifically look for beers without that bitter profile...

Or you could also try hard cider. It is the hot new thang right now. Angry Orchard green apple is pretty good. Not so sweet and has a crisper taste.

 

What about 'shine?? Let's build one of these out on the ranch!

 

Shazam, girl! Now I remember why those bottles were stashed away in the back refrigerator! The last time we rode together, I told you that I would bring you a bottle of mead on our next ride. Upon returning home, I took the remaining two bottles from the closet and put them in the fridge. That was years ago and I forgot all about it.

Since then, I've done a couple batches of cider. About once a year during apple season, we have a mob over for an apple squeezin' party. I buy a truckload of apples, and we use a 160 year old press to make juice. The older kids are put to work tossing apples into he apple munching machine, while the little ones guzzle juice straight from the press, and everybody goes home with all the juice they can carry. If we have extra, I'll do a five gallon batch of cider. It's pretty tasty. After a couple pints of this stuff, you can sing and dance like Shakira.

Here's a short video clip that Kelley did of the process.

 

@BonsaiNut yea I avoid hoppy beers when I do elect to drink the beer, but even the lower bitters beer still makes me feel like crap. I do like cider, but most of it is way too sweet for me (although maybe mead will taste too sweet as well.....it's been years since I've had mead and being a honey by-product it's probably sweeter than I remember)

@ChrisPBacon (whoever you are) I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such device at the ranch. You'll never know if you don't come!

@Rob S. I am ready to schedule that ride! Let's go Oh wait; my whole life is soccer right now.....uh.........let's go in December!

 

Who is I? LOL I guess I'll have to play "Revenuer" and search it out!

 

I've never heard of Burro Brewing out of LA before. I picked-up some IPAs of theirs at Trailer Joe's. We'll see how they taste today or tomorrow.
In related news; you guys hear Golden Road just sold to AB InBev?...That's a shame.

 

Perfect.
It's a date.
December.
2023, right after the kids graduate.
Incidentally, if I start another batch of mead this week,
it will reach its peak right about December 2023.

 

I just can't drink lager or pilsner anymore, since I acquired a taste for IPA...and IPA on steroids (think Lagunitas Maximus or equivalent). Herz equates it to licking sweaters...I like me some sweaters. The woollier, the better!!

I also like stout, porter, etc. Traditional Guinness, Sierra Nevada Porter, and the lightest beer I can stand anymore is a Bass Ale (the tan portion of a black & tan).

Budweiser's parent company's acquisition of Golden Road, while tragic, is not the end of the world. Thankfully, there are literally hundreds of microbrews out there and with the advent of BevMo and Total Wine & More, we can get them.

 

I am very much the opposite of a beer snob and do not like hoppy beers. If I want to splurge I get Kronenbourg 1664 or Pilsner Urquel but most of the time buy a cheap domestic and pick that out on price. The 12 pack that is the cheapest per can price wins and that is usually PBR or Bud.