The Beer Thread

Burton Baton is delicious, especially on tap

BAGLEY wrote:
Burton Baton is delicious, especially on tap

The artist who designed to label is Jon Langford, of Waco Brothers/Mekons fame.

Had this (from Ommegang) at Christmas, went great with chocolate covered cherries:






Had these two (from Dogfish and Founder's, respectively) for New Years Eve:








And these two Saturday night at Churchkey (from Ommegang and Smuttynose, respectively):








I think my favorites were Three Philosophers, Backwoods Bastard, and the Big A IPA. The weakest was the Obamagang Inauguration Ale, though it was pretty decent.



Drank the New Year's Eve beers while watching this movie. Movie was decent, but not terribly insightful.

for "something different", my friend served me this before we headed out to the 930 on NYE:




"Fraoch Heather Ale
Brewed in Scotland since 2000 B.C. heather ale is probably the oldest style of ale still produced in the world. From an ancient Gaelic recipe for "leann fraoich" (heather ale) it has been revived and reintroduced to the Scottish culture. Into the boiling bree of malted barley, sweet gale and flowering heather are added, then after cooling slightly the hot ale is poured into a vat of fresh heather flowers where it infuses for an hour before being fermented." (source: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/80/245)

t'was awrite, but as most of the reviewers on BA note, it's not something you'd want to drink more than one of.  its floral flavor is more interesting & unique than it is good & satisfying.

I've heard alot of hype about this beer over the years but had never gotten around to tasting it, mainly due to the limited supply and "blink and you'll miss it" sales window.

The hype is definitely worth it. I like hoppy beers incl the various Dogfish offerings but this one is head and shoulders above the rest, mainly because the honey they use in brewing cuts through a little of the bitterness that excessive hopping can cause. Think of it as a more approachable and flavorful 90 minute IPA.

I had two pints of this at The Big Hunt yesterday. Its probably gone by now as any bar that could get it was restricted to 1 keg.

Picked up a few 6 packs at Rodmans also.

bells really makes some good beers

godsshoeshine wrote:
bells really makes some good beers

Second best brewery in Michigan.

to founders? what should i try a sixer of from founders

godsshoeshine wrote:
to founders? what should i try a sixer of from founders

Are four packs also acceptable?

Haven't had a Founder's beer that I didn't think was great.



I'll stick with the Breakfast Stout as the best of the bunch. Comes in a four pack.

Backwood Bastard comes in a four pack. You get a heavy bourbon taste at first. Whether that's a good thing to you will probably determine whether you like it or not.

Red Rye Ale is the #1 rated rye beer on beeradvocate. Comes in a six pack. I've only had a single, but it was excellent.

Centennial IPA is perhaps my favorite IPA that's not an imperial. Though I'm just getting into IPA's so haven't compared it to some that I should. Comes in a 6.


I think that's all that I've had.

Bell's is very good, but I haven't had one that really, really blew me away. (I've had cherry stout, double cream stout, two hearted, expedition, kalamazoo…what else should i try??? I reckon hopslam for sure…)

mostly i like sessionable ipa's, and i dont think 2 hearted ale can be beat. i do enjoy dark beer this time of the year, though

I wish I could find Bells near where I live… tried the 2-hearted one time and really enjoyed it.

had these this weekend, both delicious.  Ten Fidy is one of my favorite stouts, the Stone (probably my favorite brewery) is an amazing dark ale.



this Stone I didn't enjoy as much… a 'Belgian IPA' just doesn't work for me I guess

Half price draft happy hour at Birreria last night.

Having always scoffed at paying $10 for a 12 oz bottle of beer at a retail store, this was my chance to finally try World Wide Stout, I jumped at the chance to split a 10oz draft of it for $5. Having had it, I have to agree with the BA reviewer who said it tasted like nail polish. Better than drinking a PBR or Bud, but definitely no better than a C+ beer. Never again, even if it were much cheaper.

In better news, I had Bell's Expedition for the second time. Liked it alot more (could the cask conditioning have made it that much better?). Yum. A-

Also had the Victory Yakima Twilight Ale. One beer site called it a DIPA, the other an American Strong Ale. Regardless of what it was, it was very good. A-


Georgetown Draft Menu:

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Geants Saison Voisin
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
Schnieder Aventinus
Bells Amber
Avery 14ers ESB
Allagash Fluxus
Hitachino Nest White
Avery New World Porter
Bosteels Pauwel Kwak
Otter Creek Quercus Vitis Humulus
Rogue Yellow Snow IPA
North Coast PranQster
Ayinger Brauweisse
Victory Yakima Twilight

Cask: Bells Expedition

brennser wrote:


I've heard alot of hype about this beer over the years but had never gotten around to tasting it, mainly due to the limited supply and "blink and you'll miss it" sales window.

The hype is definitely worth it. I like hoppy beers incl the various Dogfish offerings but this one is head and shoulders above the rest, mainly because the honey they use in brewing cuts through a little of the bitterness that excessive hopping can cause. Think of it as a more approachable and flavorful 90 minute IPA.

I had two pints of this at The Big Hunt yesterday. Its probably gone by now as any bar that could get it was restricted to 1 keg.

Picked up a few 6 packs at Rodmans also.

Took your tip and picked up a six pack. Painful to pay close to $20 for a six pack, but just had to try to it.

And the verdict is….best DIPA I've had. Simply outstanding. My wife thinks it's not as good as Three Floyds' Dreadnaught, but I may like this one better.

RFD is listing it as "coming soon".

Bought it at Fair Lakes Whole Foods. Great place to go and burn money. They have four in-store eateries, two of them with two taps each…and I heard that they have plans to add four more taps in a third eatery. While there, we has Avery New World Porter and Founders Dry Hopped Pale Ale. They also do free beeer sampling on weekends, about eight or so different varieties.

James wrote:
Bell's is very good, but I haven't had one that really, really blew me away. (I've had cherry stout, double cream stout, two hearted, expedition, kalamazoo…what else should i try??? I reckon hopslam for sure…)

Best Brown.  It's been my favorite Bell's offering for quite a while.  I picked up a few cases of it back in October at total wine for my wedding and haven't looked for it since, but should still be available for another month or so.

i do believe that somehwhere in here i stated the name of my favourite beer . . . but if there is a beer to attempt a title fight for the distinction it would be this:

Cheers! Baltimore decides to join in on all of the fun with The City Tap House. (Crappy name but sounds promising otherwise.)

Not all that far from Soundgarden either so one could make quite a nice day of it. All you need to do to really do it up right is to finish off with a show at some place like the Metro Gallery, the Ottobar or another area venue to your liking.

The Tenley Whole Foods has a bunch of Hopslam. Also $20. They also had Brooklyn Black Ops as of last night.

Hopslam is on tap at Brickskellar for a limited time, prolly starting today. I was at the Brick last night for the Tupper's Hop Pocket return, and once the last keg ran out, Hopslam was next. Pretty good beer but excited about the Hopslam even more.

And now for the complete opposite experience of Hopslam…

I threw down $9 to have one of these at Church Key and nearly threw up. I felt a bit vindicated when I read the low, low scores on beer advocate and ratebeer, relative to other DIPA's.

It was so bad I bought a 4 oz size porter from Brooklyn Brewery called Cookie Jar Porter to wash it down. Unfortunately, it was only marginally better.

I did notice that Great Lakes beers have finally come to the area. Their Edmund Fitzgerald Porter may be my favorite porter. Yum.

hey rhett - you've stated that you often limit yourself to just one beer.  well, if you're only going to have just one:

Brewer fights back with 41 per cent beer

this beer can't be very tasty, can it?