Greetings fellow Hubski Beer enthusiasts!
Following in the vein of the Photo Challenge, Book, Music and Film threads, I thought I'd start one for those of us who appreciate a good, cold combination of hops, barley, water and yeast.
I'm thinking much like the Photo and Music clubs/threads, perhaps once a week we can run a continuing "Share an interesting/awesome/new beer you've tried", ideally with photos, tasting notes, mini reviews, and subsequent discussions?
More than happy for local, craft, homebrew, commercial etc etc; this is all about sharing with each other, as there'll be beers we know about, and beers we have yet to learn about!
To get the ball rolling, I'll present possibly the most intriguing beer I've seen and tried: Doctor's Orders 'Cephalapod', a fermented sour ale in the Black Berlinerweisse tradition. Hand-pumped at Hart's Pub in Sydney during the annual Craft Beer and Cider Fair, a little over a week ago.
Needless to say, having this poured and handed to you raises many questions; namely flavour. The taste was slightly sour and malty, tart at the end, but quite light and pleasant to drink. Not something you'd want to spend all day/night on, but definitely one to revel and savour the experience, if only for the looks people give you drinking a glass full of sputum.
So have at it Hubski, share your interesting brew of the week!
I don't know much about beer, but i bought this in Latvia this summer. I've drank other beers since then that I liked a lot, but I didn't take a picture and can't remember the names now. I like non filtered beers but I've started appreciating darker stuff more lately. I really like the "Lion d’Or Bitter" they renamed as "l'Ile Noire Bitter" at this pub in Montreal. It's not too bitter but still has a lot of taste. I'm not really a beer connoisseur so I can't really describe it :( I've been meaning to learn more about beers for quite some time now, thanks for the reminder with this post.
Playing tennis with a fella from Montreal, he asks "which pub"?
L'ile noire on St-Denis. They specialize in whisky but they still have a pretty good beer selection. I've only been there once so I wouldn't be able to say much about the ambiance but the beer was good.
Thank you, it looks like a really nice place. I'll ask him next week (we play Sundays) if he is familiar with it. Tonight I had some beer that was prefect for the occasion. We've been drinking beer and playing doubles tennis for the past few Sundays. It's a blast and no beer would be better than Bud Lite. Why? Because it might as well be water.
Well there's nothing wrong with that, I'm certainly no expert either! But that's part of the point behind this thread: Tasting notes, appreciations, reviews, and of course, liquified education. Never heard of the Cēsu in your photo, it looks great in the glass though! How would you describe it to drink? Heaviness, bitterness, first taste, aftertaste?
Not necessarily "weird", but definitely interesting: Great lakes Brewing Co's Christmas ale. Anyone know where I can buy some Spruce beer? I really want to try it.
Either way, I'm not sure where to find a good Spruce beer but at least we know you're not too far away. Next time we have a hubski-gathering in Michigan, who knows... maybe you can join us!
could be a fun time I'm thinking I might have to look at upstate new york or maine for Spruce beer. places where old school traditions hang on.
Great idea, this will be a fun one to participate in. cW, b_b and mk I think you all would enjoy this. Last night I drank one of my favorites, which I've mentioned on Hubski before, it's the Hitachino Nest White Ale. It's a Japanese Ale that is unfracking believable. Do check it out. I'll be getting more adventurous in my beer selections moving forward and I'll take notes on what I drink and share in these threads.
Thanks for the encouragement, more than happy to follow suit running this until it's established better, then passing the torch so others can add their input. I'll start a shoutout on Week 2 with everybody mentioned here! As for level of adventurous with beer selection, widely encouraged but not mandatory, I think it'd be great if someone reviews an 'everyday beer' (saw it in a grog shop yesterday, thought it was a beautiful term) that's leads to others walking past it in store and going, "You know what? I'll give it a go: So-and-so made it sound alright". Looking forward to your selections and notes!
A couple weeks ago we grabbed Leifman's Sour Beer from the local beer shop. It was really interesting. Great flavor. The first few sips, I was a little confused and didn't know whether I liked it or not. But I was hopeless at not sipping it and it grew on me fast. Very funky and dynamic taste - tart and tangy and unlike anything I've ever tasted before. It has so much flavor but is so light as well. My main problem with beers is that some of the best one's fill me up completely but the sour beer wasn't like that at all. It was really good. My friend said that he discovered sour beers at one of the bars that has 100+ beers on tap and the first one he had was an apple flavor. I imagine that would be very good. I went back to that bar this weekend to try to find it but they no longer had it. Instead they gave me some other one that was good but much heavier and I think had a coffee aftertaste. I'm quickly becoming a big fan of sour beers. They force you to drink slowly and enjoy the flavors but don't fill me up. The wikipedia on sour beers is super interesting too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_beer Because of the uncertainty involved in using wild yeast, the sour beer brewing process is extremely unpredictable. The beer takes months to ferment and can take years to mature.
Unlike traditional beer-brewing, which is done in a sterile environment to guard against the intrusion of wild yeast, sour beers are made by allowing wild yeast strains or bacteria into the brew. Traditionally, Belgian brewers allowed wild yeast to enter the brew naturally through the barrels – an unpredictable process that many modern brewers avoid. The most common agents used are Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces, and Pediococcus. Another method for achieving a tart flavor is adding fruit – most commonly cherries (to produce kriek) or raspberries (to produce framboise) – during the aging process, to cause a secondary fermentation.
I can't enjoy sours. I've tried a few because it's one of the varieties of beer I have never given a fair shot, but over the last year I've had a handful of them that are considered in the top 10 for US craft brewers, and I still found them to not be great. I finished them, but pretty much just because I hate to dump things out.
What a crazy looking beer. I'd give it a shot. I haven't tried anything too out there lately, but I did enjoy a Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale recently. It went really well with the sushi I had.
Oh definitely worth a try, if only for the experience. Speaking of Rogue, my housemate picked up the Chipotle and on other recently and said they were great; yesterday I picked up a Dead Man Ale to try. Apparently it goes great with spicy food, so I may have to wrangle up some good Thai or something. What a shame haha.
Well, I've off found a beer goes well with spicy food, and I am rather partial to both as well; will report back if I mix the two together. On that note, I've found Kingfisher Lager goes great with Indian (vindaloo, lamb gosht), but I'd rarely drink it without the food.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9629/76287 This bad boy by Shorts Brewing, Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. I'm a newly minted Hop-head and this Double White Belgian IPA is awesome. Tastes of mixed fruit (Pineapple and Guava are top mentions on beer advocate, I only really remember the pineapple.) It's delicious, 7.5% and a really pretty color in the glass. However it might just be a limited run. Shorts is notorious for creating beautiful one-off brews but if I ever see this on tap again it's a must have.
You and me both on being newly-minted to Hop goodness: There's a beer specialist beer work who has 400+ beers from Aus/NZ and around the world; a great number of dry and wet hopped beers; my housemate and another mate are planning to go when we have ridiculous money to spend and stock up. I recently tried a Sierra Nevada Season Harvest (if I remember right), and good grief was it a hopped wonder to bestow. Not so great at $14 a bottle but, that's Oz for you.