The Beer Thread

And speaking of P Street Whole Foods, they had a bunch of various singles from Maine Beer Company on the shelves tonight.

I grabbed a (16.9 ox bottle of) Lunch and didn't really register what the price was.I asked the cashier to do a price check and it wasn't in the system. She asked me how much it was (but i just asked you for a price check, how would i know?)…so it was basically name my price…did I saw $2 like a Westy 12 cost at the abbey? Did I say $3 like a Heady Topper cost at the brewery? No, like a retard I said "Oh, I think it said $6.99", which is what i think it goes for in New England.

So I'm a proud owner of an overpriced bottle of Lunch.

woa, need to hit up that WF tomorrow.  is $6.99 the correct price?  any idea how fresh the beer is?

I think it was actually 7.99. I shaved a dollar off. They had Peeper, Mo, and Mean Tom as well.

Bottling date is 11/18/12 on the Lunch.

sweetcell wrote:
woa, need to hit up that WF tomorrow.  is $6.99 the correct price?  any idea how fresh the beer is?

No Westy 12 in VA, according to Rick's newsletter.

No.  Apparently, Shelton Brothers never went and got label approval in the Commonwealth of Virginia, meaning that it is illegal to sell here.  Perfect.  This is just about the point where I had my own ideas on the above listed points.  I'll cut myself of there.  Point being, you will not be seeing Westvleteren 12 on our shelves, or any shelves, in Virginia.  If you really want it, you're gonna have to trek to another state and battle others in the venue known as the Wal-Mart of beer. 

had peeper.

thought neat bottle . . . ok beer.

Zoe was really good. But not as good as Nugget Nectar, which is about half the price per ounce for the same style.

James wrote:
half the price per ounce for the same style

This is always good input.  Wish we had a "master list" of beers that met this criteria.

I know some folks like to knock Goose Island for being a pawn for Inbev, but I tried the Bourbon County stout and loved it. It tasted like chocolate pancakes!

i knocked on some of that there goose island . . . but mister ford was correct; i was basing my opinion on mass produced intakes such as honkers ale and the sort.  i had sofie, i do believe it was called, not that long ago and it was delightful!

James wrote:
Zoe was really good. But not as good as Nugget Nectar, which is about half the price per ounce for the same style.

nugget nectar has become a sort of golden standard of beers for me. it's relatively cheap, well-hopped, good color/aroma, and even though it's seasonal, it's readily available and incredible fresh.

Unsanity wrote:
I know some folks like to knock Goose Island for being a pawn for Inbev, but I tried the Bourbon County stout and loved it. It tasted like chocolate pancakes!

You should try Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout, if you haven't before. 88 on BeerAdvocate, 98 on RateBeer. The truth, as usual, is somewhere between.

http://www.stbcbeer.com/black-water/creme-brulee-beer-page/

You do realize that the numerical score given by Ratebeer and the numerial score given by Beer Advocate are two entirely different things, right?

Ratebeer actually gives two scores. The first is the percentile compared to all other beers, the second is the percentile within style. For example, a beer with a score of 65/64 would be above 65% of all beers and 64% of beers within the style. This would probably be indicative od a beer that is pretty decent, though not earth shattering.

A beer scoring a 65 on Beer Advocate would actually be considered "poor" and a beer that one should "avoid".

http://beeradvocate.com/help/index?topic=ratings


And Creme Brule scores a 98/73 on ratebeer, and 88 on beer advocate. Those scores are actually pretty comparable. Although as I said the numbers have completely different meanings.

Anyway, sorry, I'm a stats geek and a beer geek.

Darth wrote:

Unsanity wrote:
I know some folks like to knock Goose Island for being a pawn for Inbev, but I tried the Bourbon County stout and loved it. It tasted like chocolate pancakes!

You should try Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout, if you haven't before. 88 on BeerAdvocate, 98 on RateBeer. The truth, as usual, is somewhere between.

http://www.stbcbeer.com/black-water/creme-brulee-beer-page/

Thanks for the info. I don't usually look at Ratebeer, but it's good to know.

I'm also more of a Beer Advocate person myself (prefer the forums, website appearance, etc), but the percentiles that Ratebeer uses makes more numerical sense, imo.

There's also stories all over the web about what nazis the Alstrom brothers of Beer Advocate are when it comes to running their website. The one time I posted in their forums, I posted in Mid-Atlantic, name dropped Alexandria, VA in the post, and within minutes Herr Alstrom had moved my post to the South-Atlantic forum. Guess he's not much of a geography guy.

Darth wrote:
Thanks for the info. I don't usually look at Ratebeer, but it's good to know.

I think I did try that Creme brulee stout and didn't like it. My friends did. I think I am just way too picky haha.

I been on a sour beer kick so I tired 2 more. Bacchus was the first one. It was very mild and kinda floated on my tongue. The other was a lambic by the same brewery but I cannot remember what it was called. Man, oh man was that one good. Super fizzy and sour. Noticed they were imported by a company in Sterling VA.

Bought a bottle of that Creme Brulee Stout last winter and was really looking forward to drinking it because it sounded like a perfect fit for me. I tend to love sweet beers. Really like creme brulees. Often like cream, caramel and vanilla based foods. My favorite coffees tend to be French Vanilla or some sort of a vanilla nut flavored. Unfortunately, when I drank that beer, I found it disgusting to the point that it was turning my stomach. Something about the flavorings were just way too intense and over-powering and not in a good way. It also tasted very artificial to me which was I think the thing that got my stomach rolling. What a dissappointment.

Lately, the beer that I've enjoyed the most is Burley Oak's Barreled. I'd recommend it to those who like Guinness and/or Newcastle Brown Ale because it has that really nice deep dark brown sweet taste without being overdone. Wouldn't go as far as saying it's like mixing the two but it would tend to appeal to those who like these beers. It's thinner and lighter tasting than Guinness but richer and tastier than Newcastle. The downside is that about the only way to get your hands on this stuff is to go straight to the brewery. You can buy growlers of it but those things are too big for my refrigerator shelves and I just can't drink that much beer in that short of time.

Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout is released in June, according to their website. if you bought it in the winter, i suspect it was sitting on the shelf for a long time. Also, I've had it both ways, and it tastes far better on draft in my experience. It's supposedly flavored with real creme brulee, but I do wonder how that is possible. The flavor is very intense, and it certainly may not be for everyone.

Cantillon at Walgreens?

And look at the other beers sold at Walgreens.

http://www.beermenus.com/places/5877-walgreens-greektown

Darth wrote:
Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout is released in June, according to their website. if you bought it in the winter, i suspect it was sitting on the shelf for a long time. Also, I've had it both ways, and it tastes far better on draft in my experience. It's supposedly flavored with real creme brulee, but I do wonder how that is possible. The flavor is very intense, and it certainly may not be for everyone.

No, don't think it was the aging that turned me off. If there was a difference due to age, it was only minimal. It was that very heavy artificalness that I just couldn't stomach. Sort of like how I can't stand those flavored coffee creamers. They all sound wonderful and I would usually love all those combinations when done other ways but every single one of them that I've tried were disgustingly artificial tasting. The creme brulee beer though was much, much more intense and, though I tried, I just couldn't stomach the stuff. On tap may be different but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

putting on my over-analytical hat:

Jaguar wrote:
If there was a difference due to age, it was only minimal.

how do you know that?  have you had it both fresh and aged?