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Craft beer

Started by Takumi, August 14, 2017, 05:41:29 PM

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TheHighwayMan3561

New Glarus (WI) has a heavy cult following. I'm not much of a drinker but their Spotted Cow is my favorite beer. They have no interest in distributing outside Wisconsin and wear that as a badge of pride, but you can readily find it anywhere in the state; I lived in Superior which is about as far away from their brewery as you can get while still being in WI and it was everywhere in town.
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MNHighwayMan

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on August 20, 2017, 07:43:43 PM
New Glarus (WI) has a heavy cult following. I'm not much of a drinker but their Spotted Cow is my favorite beer. They have no interest in distributing outside Wisconsin and wear that as a badge of pride, but you can readily find it anywhere in the state; I lived in Superior which is about as far away from their brewery as you can get while still being in WI and it was everywhere in town.

I've had their beer and didn't think it was anything special. Maybe it's just because I'm a spirits guy (I love rum) but I don't get the hype around their (or anyone else's, really) beer.

Brandon

Quote
"how do people drink this shit and enjoy it".

My attitude toward beer and wine in general.  About the only wine I can stand is dessert wine made from/with berries, and beer is just disgusting.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

tchafe1978

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on August 20, 2017, 07:59:50 PM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on August 20, 2017, 07:43:43 PM
New Glarus (WI) has a heavy cult following. I'm not much of a drinker but their Spotted Cow is my favorite beer. They have no interest in distributing outside Wisconsin and wear that as a badge of pride, but you can readily find it anywhere in the state; I lived in Superior which is about as far away from their brewery as you can get while still being in WI and it was everywhere in town.

I've had their beer and didn't think it was anything special. Maybe it's just because I'm a spirits guy (I love rum) but I don't get the hype around their (or anyone else's, really) beer.

New Glarus is one of my favorite breweries. In fact I just visited the brewery last week with a friend. Their beer goes way beyond Spotted Cow. It is good, but once you try some of their other stuff you'll be hooked. The only beer or theirs I've had that I can truly say I didn't like was Moon Man IPA. IPAs are probably my least favorite style anyway. I like most ales, pilsners, lagers, porters, and stouts. New Glarus does do a lot of experimental brews and seasonal brews. Their Staghorn Oktoberfest is outstanding. The best part about New Glarus is they distribute only in Wisconsin, so it's all ours! Though it does draw a lot of people across the border.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: tchafe1978 on August 21, 2017, 08:35:02 PM
The best part about New Glarus is they distribute only in Wisconsin, so it's all ours! Though it does draw a lot of people across the border.

IMO that's the worst part about it. No one chooses to go to Wisconsin voluntarily. :bigass:

cl94

I might be the only craft beer person who thinks Alchemist is meh, but that may be due to not liking insanely-hopped American IPAs like they're known for (I do like a good European IPA, though). Vermont has a ton of better breweries (i.e. Long Trail, Otter Creek, Magic Hat).

I guess I'm lucky, as I have at least 3 very small to regional brewery taprooms within walking distance of my apartment, plus a craft beer bar that typically has a couple dozen on tap from around New York and New England.
Please note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of my employer or any of its partner agencies.

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Brandon

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on August 22, 2017, 02:33:33 AM
Quote from: tchafe1978 on August 21, 2017, 08:35:02 PM
The best part about New Glarus is they distribute only in Wisconsin, so it's all ours! Though it does draw a lot of people across the border.

IMO that's the worst part about it. No one chooses to go to Wisconsin voluntarily. :bigass:

Maybe from Minnesota or Iowa, but tell that to the FIBs that penetrate the cheddar curtain every weekend.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

epzik8

I have a bar and restaurant "Alchemy Elements" down near me in Bel Air, Maryland which specializes in craft cocktails. So it expands upon the concept by going beyond craft beer.
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csw

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empirestate

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on August 20, 2017, 07:59:50 PM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on August 20, 2017, 07:43:43 PM
New Glarus (WI) has a heavy cult following. I'm not much of a drinker but their Spotted Cow is my favorite beer. They have no interest in distributing outside Wisconsin and wear that as a badge of pride, but you can readily find it anywhere in the state; I lived in Superior which is about as far away from their brewery as you can get while still being in WI and it was everywhere in town.

I've had their beer and didn't think it was anything special. Maybe it's just because I'm a spirits guy (I love rum) but I don't get the hype around their (or anyone else's, really) beer.

I had a similar reaction; for a Wisconsin brewery, give me Lakefront any day. They make a wide variety of styles, and they make all of them excellently.

Quote from: Brandon on August 21, 2017, 02:37:47 PM
Quote
"how do people drink this shit and enjoy it".

My attitude toward beer and wine in general.  About the only wine I can stand is dessert wine made from/with berries, and beer is just disgusting.

This may not be quite the right thread for you, then... ;-)

As for myself, my most preferred styles are usually dark lagers and real ales, also going into the Oktoberfest/Vienna lager category. I've developed a taste for hoppy beers out of necessity, but my preference lies much more on the malt end of the spectrum.

Takumi

It's a bit cooler today, and I have nothing better to do, so I'm going to try this bad boy. 20% ABV. I've had the regular version of this before and liked it.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

english si

^^ 20% = drink like Port or Sherry ie small glass filled many times.
Quote from: empirestate on August 28, 2017, 12:51:21 PMAs for myself, my most preferred styles are usually dark lagers and real ales, also going into the Oktoberfest/Vienna lager category. I've developed a taste for hoppy beers out of necessity, but my preference lies much more on the malt end of the spectrum.
Quote from: kurumi on August 20, 2017, 04:35:41 PM
Connecticut beer fans, see Steve Wood's CT Museum Quest Beer Reviews. His goal is to visit and comment on every point of interest in the state, and that includes its local beers. He also shares an interest (mild compared to us) in its roads: there are pages for NY 120A and a few ferry crossings.
Good to see some cideries visited there. America is beginning to remember that they used to make that in spades. Sadly some of these places seem to be appeal to nonsense like the hipster shite I saw in Whole Foods in California, and obsessed with adding hops like it's craft beer or other gimmicks like it's bad beer. Sure, if you have two or three types of apples-only ciders, then there's nothing wrong with adding other flavours (pears, berries, spices - though hops is just weird) to broaden your range but if you only make one type of plain cider and the rest are just the same stuff flavoured, then you aren't really crafting cider. Others seem to be aimed at wine ponces, and while they seem to care less about gimmicks and more about the product, it's still pretentious when cider shouldn't be. this place seems to get it right - sell it in big containers, focus on the apples rather than additives, introduce and explain the differences between the different types they make while keeping it unpretentious, if a bit overboard on the rusticness.

Cider in the UK is mostly focused in the SW (Herefordshire, Somerset-Devon-Cornwall), though there's patches elsewhere (eg around by me, where we have more cider choice than in London and some places where there's a focus on cider), and every place that has booze would have a cider available, even if it's a crap one like Strongbow (which is at least not quite as teenagers-in-the-park as White Lightning). That said, having crewed beer festivals on warm days and had to deal with local lager drinkers not wanting the lighter ales (or after we'd finished those barrels), there's a lack of knowledge and we cleared out several big boxes of Scrumpy just because it was the only type of cider they knew, and trying to offer different ones didn't work "We have this Medium, that Medium, this Dry, that Dry, Sweet, Scrumpy and Pear - which one" (I gave better short tasting notes than 'this' or 'that' - things like ABV, whether it was more sharp, fruity or tannin).

A neighbour who grew up in Somerset was telling me yesterday that, as a (older) child, she'd be sent with a bottle to the local farm (now home of a reasonably-well known brand of cider) to get some cider to have with dinner and be asked "sweet, medium or dry?", which just meant how much sugar syrup they put in the bottle with the cider - a very lazy way of tweaking flavour. And, of course, this being rural Britain, no one cared that much about children handling alcohol or drinking it as long as no one was hurt.

While one can certainly be poncy about it, it's a rustic drink - I like these descriptions given to James May: gut rot, singing cider, fighting cider, (warning, you may need subtitles to understand the ziderrr maker).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgrI8ZFzwCQ

on_wisconsin

Bu-Bump...

Anyone try any good pumpkin beers this year? I usually get New Belgium's PumpKick and Blue Moon's Pumpkin.
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empirestate

Quote from: on_wisconsin on September 21, 2017, 04:47:17 AM
Bu-Bump...

Anyone try any good pumpkin beers this year? I usually get New Belgium's PumpKick and Blue Moon's Pumpkin.


Why yes; I just enjoyed me some Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.

CNGL-Leudimin

I like craft beer. There are several craft breweries in my area, and I'm in the process of tasting them all. There's even a bar dedicated to craft beer, which carries one or two American references among its extensive list of beers which changes from time to time (last time I visited they had one from Colorado, and the previous time there was another from California).
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jp the roadgeek

Southern Tier Pumking is the gold standard for pumpkin beers.
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empirestate

Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on September 21, 2017, 04:46:09 PM
I like craft beer. There are several craft breweries in my area, and I'm in the process of tasting them all.

You're supposed to taste the brews, not the breweries. :-D

Takumi

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on September 21, 2017, 05:09:21 PM
Southern Tier Pumking is the gold standard for pumpkin beers.
I had Imperial Pumking last year. Quite solid. A non-pumpkin fall beer that I really like is the maple brown ale from Starr Hill out of Charlottesville.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

JMoses24

#43
Cincinnati is a good area for locally brewed craft beers.

Specifically, my two anytime favorite IPA's are Rhinegeist's Truth (7.2%) and MadTree's PsycHOPathy (yes, that's really the name, and it's a 6.9% ABV).

As for the seasonal, right now I'm waiting for Southern Tier PumKing to hit Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, because the second it does, I do believe my roommate and I will be driving up there to buy a pack...or three. But right now, I'm getting by with Rhinegeist's Franz (Oktoberfest/Märzen, 5.9%).

cl94

Quote from: Takumi on September 21, 2017, 10:05:09 PM
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on September 21, 2017, 05:09:21 PM
Southern Tier Pumking is the gold standard for pumpkin beers.
I had Imperial Pumking last year. Quite solid. A non-pumpkin fall beer that I really like is the maple brown ale from Starr Hill out of Charlottesville.

Pumking and its variants are the only pumpkin beers I remotely like. They actually taste decent.
Please note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of my employer or any of its partner agencies.

Travel Mapping (updated weekly)

spooky

Pumking gets all the hype but don't miss Southern Tier's Warlock, an Imperial Stout brewed with pumpkins.



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