General Chat / Sens' beer tastings

@Ling I just had a friend who lives near you say just the opposite.

Where does Ling live?! 

It's his choice to disclose that, not mine.

Vancouver, WA. Surprisingly small craft brewing scene and shockingly small selection at grocery stores. There's one big liquor store in town but never seen anything like these there. I'll look for some of them next time I go, but the liquor taxes here are prohibitive (20.5% sales tax plus $3.771/liter) so there's not much of a... "scene". Drinking here is significantly more expensive than other places I've lived and it doesn't seem that popular.

Do they tax beer the same as liquor on that side of the state? I don't think I pay more than our normal 8.9% sales tax on beer or wine, only hard liquors.

Also shit, 20.5%? That's rough... Is it any cheaper over the river?

Also my friend lives in Vancouver but was talking about the Portland beer scene. I assumed it kinda all blended together but with taxes that steep perhaps not...

I don't spend too much time in Portland, it's too hard to get in and out. There are only two roadways over the river, both are only two lanes, both are permanently backed up. And yeah the sales tax applies to beer/wine, the additional per liter tax only applies to "spirits". Oregon has state-owned liquor stores so their prices are at least fixed for the whole state, but their selection is very limited. They don't generally stock beer. We did find a place in downtown Portland that had a small "craft beer" section but it was pretty limited. The microbew scene is definitely alive and well but that's a long way to drive for a beer. I'm more talking about the stuff that's available at the local grocery store, because that's all you can buy this side of the river. And it's all big-name stuff, and 95% IPAs, pale ales, or pilsners. No one here likes dark beer.

Deschutes has a solid variety of good stuff, and I'd be astounded if they didn't have anything stocked near you. They're based in Bend. Black Butte Porter is a great dark beer. Nothing super adventurous like these reviews however.

Deschutes has a solid variety of good stuff, and I'd be astounded if they didn't have anything stocked near you. They're based in Bend. Black Butte Porter is a great dark beer. Nothing super adventurous like these reviews however.

I wouldn't consider a lot of these that adventurous

The milkshakes are, and that's what spawned this offshoot conversation.

Deschutes is freely available here. I don't like their porter at all. Their stout is okay.

 

In Montana, grocery stores would have huge selections of beers/ciders, and we had stores dedicated to smaller breweries from further away, or imports. Nothing like that here. Although you can get spirits at grocery stores, which is cool and all, except everything's marked way up.

 

It doesn't help that while I'm down the street from a microbrewery (Mt. Tabor's sister location in Felida) they only do growler fills of their least popular brews, and they're thirteen fucking dollars plus tax for 64oz. I lived in walking distance of a brewery in Bozeman and could get growler fills of literally anything they made for $8, seasonal/specialties for $10. Considering the cost of living is about the same it's just a really weird contrast in availability/pricing of alcohol.

Deschutes is freely available here. I don't like their porter at all. 

 

I can't be your friend any more.

I like my home state of New Jersey but it's often hard to defend. It's certainly not the best state in the union by far, and many people who who have only been to Newark airport and watched the Sopranos will describe it as the worst. But one thing this state has done right is cider. They really hit the nail on the head.

Ironbound Cider is named for the neighborhood in Newark they are based in and has quickly become a mainstay in NJ culture. Their standard cider is one of the few that favors tartness rather than sugary sweetness, much to their own benefit. But I'm not talking about their standard cider today (even though I love it). I'm gonna talk about their new farmhouse cider. Reminiscent of the classic Belgian farmhouse ales from Brasserie Dupont, Ironbound's Highlands Farmhouse is subtly sour, making sure not to bring it to an extreme, but rather let the apple flavor come in first, and then finish with a satisfying tartness that leaves you craving another sip. Ir's a rare instance of dialing back intensity that really makes this cider come together in a way similar to the best sour ales. I'd even say those not usually fans of alcohol (looking at you Liam) would probably enjoy this if you enjoy a sour apple. But be warned, this isn't the most broadly appealing cider I've tasted. The sourness is often off-putting to people who expect ciders to sweet and sugary. And the farmhouse style gives it a weird, self-described 'funky' flavor that some might equate with bad. But all-in-all, if you're feeling adventurous, and want to try something just a tad sour, Ironbound's Highland Farmhouse is the perfect cider.

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as always, I love hearing what people think so please go ahead and comment your thoughts or if you wanna check out a certain beer

I've never been a fan of Ciders, flavors are too strong I think, either that be sweet or sour in this case.  Maybe I need to try more though, mostly stuck to the Rhinegeist offerings and a few other ones local to the Cincy or Cleveland areas.

I've never been a fan of Ciders, flavors are too strong I think, either that be sweet or sour in this case.  Maybe I need to try more though, mostly stuck to the Rhinegeist offerings and a few other ones local to the Cincy or Cleveland areas.

I'd say you might be barking up the wrong tree if you're looking for ciders that don't have too strong a flavor. While this is one is nice and subtle, it still might be too much for you. A hard seltzer might be a better way to go 

I don't have any pictures I took myself of the beer because I tried it at a tasting so I'll be using photos I pulled off the internet

I should preface this by saying that I'm not biased against German beers, my favorite hefeweizen is Weihenstephaner's dunkel as mentioned in an earlier review.

Bitburger always caught my eye at the liquor store I work at, largely because it was one of the few German beers we carry that is sold in cans rather than bottles, and sold in four packs nonetheless. So when we had a tasting of all of our Bitburger products, I was excited to finally try some more German beers after being satisfied with the one I had already tried. Sadly, Bitburger's Premium Pilsner disappoints in the exact same way most other pilsners disappoint: it's boring. It tastes mostly of water and a little hoppiness but no real strong notes of any flavor. It also lacks the sort of unique aftertaste you might get from Pilsner Urquell. It just really has no curves or edges. I cannot recommend a beer like this when not only are there much better and similar styles of beer like lagers or dare I say IPAs, but there's also much better pilsners like Urquell or Metric. Overall, I'd say this beer is 3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible.

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The thing with pilsner (or any lager really) is that it really should be drunk as fresh as possible to taste as good as it can. In this case, being sold in cans is advantageous since they provide a better, tighter seal than a bottle. While I have the same experience as you regarding Bitburger (nothing special, but there are far worse beers), it's worth keeping the freshness aspect in mind when tasting lagers. Lager should preferably be drunk as fresh as possible, and as draught beer rather than canned or bottled. An IPA, for comparison, isn't at all as fussy in my experience. Indeed, IPA was created to withstand the long transport by sea from Britain to India without spoiling. My point is that I have several times been very positively surprised when drinking a fresh draught lager, that I'd previously only tried on can or bottle. Even a lousy Heineken can taste good under the right circumstances (clean taps and a fresh keg)! So if you're ever in Germany and find Bitburger on tap, it might be worth trying even though it doesn't impress on can!

 

Nice thread this. After initially thinking I didn't like beer at all after drinking too much bad lager in bad nightclubs, ten years ago I was bitten by the IPA-bug and have been a big beer afficionado since. After having run the whole course from IPAs over to wild things like imperial stouts, Belgian quadrupels and exotic sour beers, these days I mostly drink regular lager actually. As mentioned above, when fresh and properly served most lagers have the potential to taste very good, though of course something like an unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell is something very special. I prefer traditional, rustic German, Czech or Belgian beers, and have mostly left behind the obscure micro-brewed experimental imperial-whatevers with silly amounts of strong hops. I've done some home brewing with friends and I think my real appreciation for lager as a beer type started after we made our first lager and got incredibly lucky (it was reaaaaallllyy good) and then making our second one that was a total failure, haha. It's hard to get it right.

Stouts are the best beers for people who don't like beer. They're roasty, dark, and bitter.And while those who prefer the sugary sweetness of soda will despise a stout, those who like morning cups of black coffee are sure to find solace in a nice stout. And America seemingly embraced that coffee-ish appeal by being the torchbearers in this new movement of brewing stouts with other, non-alcoholic ingredients. Commonly, milk stouts are the alternative to stouts, adding a milky creamy finish and lightening the taste of the bitterest type of beer. 

Enter Mast Landing Brewing Company of Maine. Gunner's Daughter is their milk stout, although it also closely resembles a coffee stout. Really, this beer feels more like a quality mixed drink using a stout as an ingredient, rather than a beer. Touting "bold flavors of peanut butter, coffee, and dark chocolate", they don't kid around, which each of those components coming through: the initial black coffee and chocolate taste, the stout taste as it settles, and the slight nutty finish. It really summarizes a good dark drink of any kind well. So well, in fact, that I'm comfortable saying that the now-drinkers of NE might still find enjoyment in this bitter romp through Maine's finest. This not only earns my recommendation, it's going in the six pack I'm preparing to bring to Jappy when I visit Belgium in a month.

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Now to American readers, you may be familiar with Grand Rapids, Michigan's Founders. They're well represented throughout this nation and I'd wager you can find at least some of their stock in your local liquor store. I bring them up because their summer seasonal gose-style ale is something worth talking about. Mas Agave is a highly alcoholic (10% ABV) lime gose brewed in tequila barrels. And while some of you may have seen other brands like Kentucky brew in Bourbon barrels to little effect, this is not the case with Mas Agave. The tequila shines through as the strongest flavor in this gose, which can be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask. But mixing that with the lime gose base gives it a flavor strongly reminiscent of a margarita. The key word here is reminiscent because those looking for the sugary sweetness of a good margarita aren't going to find it in Mas Agave. Instead, they're going to find a much more complex taste that ebbs and flows as you drink it, with sometimes sweetness reigning supreme, and other times the tequila taste coming about at full force. This gose is sure to please anyone interested in trying something that will help them beat the summer heat.

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Interesting tip! Not to rain on your parade, but this "gose" sounds rather ridiculous to me... A traditional gose from Leipzig in Germany is a pretty light beer, calling a 10% beer a gose simply makes no sense. On the other hand, I can imagine the tequila flavour fitting the lightly salty and sour charachter of a gose. I wouldn't want to mix in any lime with it, though. Gose is supposed to be a rustic beer. If I wanted to make a fruity sour beer, I'd go for a fruit lambic or berliner weisse instead (the latter being more similar to gose). But gose is the more fashionable thing to call a beer at the moment, I guess...

 

Anyway, I'd love to try this one if I could find it in Sweden, to see what a 10% "gose" is like (and for the tequila flavor!). We do get some Founders beers here, but it's mostly run-of-the-mill IPAs that haven't really impressed me.

 

A gose tip for those who can find it (not sure if it's even sold outside Sweden): Tempel Brygghus Isotonic gose. A very well-balanced, traditional gose. They also do a rather wild sour(!) stout with raspberries. Sounds silly but it really works! Taste reminiscent of raspberry jam. It's called Perdition. 

Interesting tip! Not to rain on your parade, but this "gose" sounds rather ridiculous to me... A traditional gose from Leipzig in Germany is a pretty light beer, calling a 10% beer a gose simply makes no sense. On the other hand, I can imagine the tequila flavour fitting the lightly salty and sour charachter of a gose. I wouldn't want to mix in any lime with it, though. Gose is supposed to be a rustic beer. If I wanted to make a fruity sour beer, I'd go for a fruit lambic or berliner weisse instead (the latter being more similar to gose). But gose is the more fashionable thing to call a beer at the moment, I guess...

 

Anyway, I'd love to try this one if I could find it in Sweden, to see what a 10% "gose" is like (and for the tequila flavor!). We do get some Founders beers here, but it's mostly run-of-the-mill IPAs that haven't really impressed me.

 

A gose tip for those who can find it (not sure if it's even sold outside Sweden): Tempel Brygghus Isotonic gose. A very well-balanced, traditional gose. They also do a rather wild sour(!) stout with raspberries. Sounds silly but it really works! Taste reminiscent of raspberry jam. It's called Perdition. 

Sounds interesting. Just here in the US, they market them as "gose-style ales" so it tastes like a mix of traditional gose (presumably) and an ale 

 

Sounds interesting. Just here in the US, they market them as "gose-style ales" so it tastes like a mix of traditional gose (presumably) and an ale 

Ah, well that really makes more sense! 

Haven't yet found a stout I like better than Dragon's Milk. Only problem is it's like $18 for a 4 pack....