Official Beer Thread

Been a bit more adventurous in my choice of beers this last year. Sweden has an alcohol monopoly, meaning we have one chain of state owned, non profit stores with exclusive rights to sell any alcoholic beverage over 3,5% ABV and an insane alcohol tax on top of that, but it also means you can get anything, anywhere. Anyway, I'm not adventurous enough to import wheat beer from a micro-brewery in Guam yet... But I have at least been trying some other stuff, except for the standard lager, safe-choice type of beer.

Please give examples of some really out-there types of beer. I want to see what it costs to import, and see if this facade of 'best store in the world' actually holds up.
 
None of those Brewdog beers sound or look super hipster.

The labelling on Drygate, however, ugh. I'm glad my brewery has clean, conservative labelling.

As for out-there types of beer, @Maturin, a lot of places are doing wild yeast type stuff where the beer ferments without much interference from the brewers. A lot of sours are hitting the market these days. Personally can't stand them, but some people seem to like it.

Barrel-aging, putting big alcoholic beers into former whiskey and gin barrels for months at a time, has become a fad.

Also, New England style IPA's made with or made to resemble hazy juice drinks have become very popular over the last year.

Of course, my knowledge is strictly limited to the US. Not sure if these trends are global.
 
Ontario has a pretty robust craft market as well. I guess it comes down to what you're interested in trying. I, personally, am not much of a porter or stout person, and I can't really recommend any of those. Ales and lagers, I can probably dig out a few good ones.
 
Norwegian brands Ringnes and Frydenlund is pretty good. I have no idea if its possible to get outside of Norway. Im drinking Ringnes now. Been my Main Brand for 20 something years...
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
As for out-there types of beer, @Maturin, a lot of places are doing wild yeast type stuff where the beer ferments without much interference from the brewers. A lot of sours are hitting the market these days. Personally can't stand them, but some people seem to like it.
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I'm familiar with Lambic beer. Unfortunately we only get the stuff with artificial fruit flavours and sweeteners - not bad stuff at all, but it's more of a less sweet alternative to mixed drinks and ciders than beer.

MrKnickerbocker said:
Barrel-aging, putting big alcoholic beers into former whiskey and gin barrels for months at a time, has become a fad.
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Haha, can totally see that - we do that with Julmust now (basically a soda, only available at Christmas, that looks like cola but is quite a bit more like very, very sweet non-alcoholic beer in taste and texture due to containing hops and malt) - basically paying $3+ for a 0,75l bottle of soda with a weird taste, aged 6 months in bourbon, calvados, rum-barrels or whatever they can get ahold of. :P

A lot of local micro breweries have sprung up producing anything from Lager's and IPA:s to Porters and god knows what.. Tried a "bourbon mash beer" brewed in part with corn where the producer, on the bottle, stated the inclusion of corn reeks low quality reminiscent of the American 70's... But anything to stand out in the market, right? :P

CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Dunno about "out there" but here's some hipster beer from hipster places, in Glasgow:
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Apparently have BrewDogs entire regular offering in my local stores, will try them out. :)
 
Maybe this will be aimed more at the American folks (as I don't know the trends in other countries), but like...

...WTF is the deal with hazy/juicy IPAs? I mean, I've had a few of them and I've had ones that people seem to hold in high regard and all I can taste is a lack of clarity and too much metal. I don't get it. Is this a thing in other countries? Why is it a thing in the US?
 
Its a thing in the UK too the 'craft beer' craze is in full effect!

I dont actually mind, some of tham are quite nice but I agree there are too many fruity/citrus-y/cloudy beers around!
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Maybe this will be aimed more at the American folks (as I don't know the trends in other countries), but like...

...WTF is the deal with hazy/juicy IPAs? I mean, I've had a few of them and I've had ones that people seem to hold in high regard and all I can taste is a lack of clarity and too much metal. I don't get it. Is this a thing in other countries? Why is it a thing in the US?
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I dislike most modern IPAs in general. I don't like citrus beers very much - if I wanted to drink juice and get drunk, that's what screwdrivers are for. I don't actually think anyone likes those beers, and when you look into the history of IPAs and WHY they were citrusy you get the opinion that it wasn't a like, it was a necessity.

Most craft beers are failures. That's the simple fact of them. They get produced once, sold, and then the brewery doesn't have enough demand for them and moves on. Sometimes they are really good, sometimes they aren't, but it's just how it is.

My favourite IPA remains Alexander Keith's, which is a very, very crisp beer, only a hint of citrus, just enough to make it tart. Fucking good mass production beer, but it lulled me into believing I like IPAs in general. Now I am aware I don't.
 
It depends what you class as craft beer, but some of them look here to stay here. Three local breweries set up where I used to live and one of them in particular has quite a successful beer that's both bottled and sold on draught. It's better than the cloudy fruity stuff, but even that sort of beer is head and shoulders above the generic tasteless stuff churned out by the bigger British brewery chains. There were distinctive beers produced by the big breweries at one time, but after all the mergers and takeovers it just got poor, weak and samey.
 
Brigantium said:
It depends what you class as craft beer, but some of them look here to stay here. Three local breweries set up where I used to live and one of them in particular has quite a successful beer that's both bottled and sold on draught. It's better than the cloudy fruity stuff, but even that sort of beer is head and shoulders above the generic tasteless stuff churned out by the bigger British brewery chains. There were distinctive beers produced by the big breweries at one time, but after all the mergers and takeovers it just got poor, weak and samey.
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What beer is this out of interest?
 
LooseCannon said:
I dislike most modern IPAs in general. I don't like citrus beers very much - if I wanted to drink juice and get drunk, that's what screwdrivers are for. I don't actually think anyone likes those beers, and when you look into the history of IPAs and WHY they were citrusy you get the opinion that it wasn't a like, it was a necessity.

My favourite IPA remains Alexander Keith's, which is a very, very crisp beer, only a hint of citrus, just enough to make it tart. Fucking good mass production beer, but it lulled me into believing I like IPAs in general. Now I am aware I don't.
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IPA is such a tricky style. I have come to really love all styles of IPAs and I'd be lying if I said I didn't crave them from time to time. That said, I do have my preferences and opinions. The typical American IPA is generally following in the West Coast style, which means lots of pines, lots of bitterness, and very little maltiness. These are easily my least favorite because I feel like we've pushed the "how hoppy and bitter can we make it?!" train to its natural conclusion.

The Midwestern IPA has a lot of malt to back up the hops, making it more full-bodied and a little sweeter but also far less piney. Begyle makes these and I truly enjoy them. I'm not super interested in the current East Coast trend, which is basically fruit-forward, cloudy, murky beers with less bitterness and more hefty mouthfeel.

I've actually had a few English style IPA's that have a slightly musty, biscuity taste and they reawakened my interest in IPAs.

LooseCannon said:
Most craft beers are failures. That's the simple fact of them. They get produced once, sold, and then the brewery doesn't have enough demand for them and moves on. Sometimes they are really good, sometimes they aren't, but it's just how it is.
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The problem with a lot of small craft breweries is that they focus on experimentation instead of consistency. I'm proud to work for a brewery that focuses on approachable beers instead of hopping on trends or trying to out-hop, out-fruit, out-haze, or out-sour every other brewery. We're pretty lucky to be growing at nice, steady rate and selling out of our beers on a regular basis. The idea we have is: when we sell out of a beer, we make more of that beer instead of something new. If customers already like something, why try to get them to like something totally different?
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
IPA is such a tricky style. I have come to really love all styles of IPAs and I'd be lying if I said I didn't crave them from time to time. That said, I do have my preferences and opinions. The typical American IPA is generally following in the West Coast style, which means lots of pines, lots of bitterness, and very little maltiness. These are easily my least favorite because I feel like we've pushed the "how hoppy and bitter can we make it?!" train to its natural conclusion.

The Midwestern IPA has a lot of malt to back up the hops, making it more full-bodied and a little sweeter but also far less piney. Begyle makes these and I truly enjoy them. I'm not super interested in the current East Coast trend, which is basically fruit-forward, cloudy, murky beers with less bitterness and more hefty mouthfeel.

I've actually had a few English style IPA's that have a slightly musty, biscuity taste and they reawakened my interest in IPAs.



The problem with a lot of small craft breweries is that they focus on experimentation instead of consistency. I'm proud to work for a brewery that focuses on approachable beers instead of hopping on trends or trying to out-hop, out-fruit, out-haze, or out-sour every other brewery. We're pretty lucky to be growing at nice, steady rate and selling out of our beers on a regular basis. The idea we have is: when we sell out of a beer, we make more of that beer instead of something new. If customers already like something, why try to get them to like something totally different?
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Who do you work for? :)
 
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