BrentKulman

I've never heard that Buffalo Bill's sets the standard for pumpkin ales. If you look on beeradvocate.com, it is one of the lowest rated pumpkin ales in the market. In the Carolinas, we get the Cottonwood Pumpkin this time of year which is superb, particularly on draft.

Admittedly I'm biased, but I think it is an outstanding pilsner. What I love about it is its floral noble hops nose and its nice bready opening with a hoppy flash mid-palate and crisp, clean finish. I find a lot of other imported pilsners are much less flavorful and their aromatics suffer from a bit of the skunk as they often insist on using green bottles. Just curious, but what don't you like about it?

In fact, you are often better off buying beer that, while fresh, is not refrigerated as most refrigerators are lit and light is a greater enemy of beer than room temperature, particularly if the beer is in green or clear bottles. When buying beer in green or clear bottles, try to get it from an enclosed cardboard case where it hasn't been exposed to light.

Check beeradvocate.com Four of the brewery's beers are listed there although from your description I couldn't figure out which ones you tasted.

I purchased a chunk of Basturma from a Russian deli. They told me that they couldn't slice it and asked me how much I wanted. When I got it home, I wasn't sure what to do with it so I cut off a small chunk (with great difficulty) and nearly broke my jaw trying to eat it. Having done a little research on the web, I see that it is a cured beef that is related to pastrami. I still have most of the chunk left. How can I slice it thinly enough to make it edible? Anyone have any ideas what to do with this?

Allagash is a great brewery. I have been enjoying a sixer of their Summer Beer to end the season. Not overly complex, it has enough Belgian style to be both interesting and refreshing.

While I am surprised about that comment, I suspect that it is true in many parts of the country. It certainly is true here in Charlotte. In a city of around 600,000, we have at least half a dozen major upscale steakhouse chain style restaurants and all appear to be thriving. Fortunately, we have some very good chef-driven restaurants and some interesting ethnics, too.

In addition to the Sam Adams Utopia, which is ridiculously priced at $100-150 a bottle, Dogfish Head and Avery are making some very high abv beers. Avery's "The Beast" is a Belgian Strong Dark that weighs in at 18% abv and Dogfish Head has several very high gravity beers, notably their "120 Minute IPA" (21%), their Belgian Strong Dark, "Raison D'extra" (20%) and their "World Wide Stouts," which differ every year but have been as high as 23%. Frankly, I could give a flip about the abv of a beer as I am more concerned with their taste than their alcoholic content. Having said that, all of the beers I have referenced above are very good beers. But there are also plenty in the same styles that are equally as good, if not better, that are well below those abvs

Being interested in both wine and beer, I have noted the differences in how quality is measured in the two communities. In the wine world, the experts are given much greater latitude and wine drinkers look to them for direction. Walk around any wine shop and you will see how the expert opinions (ranging from Parker to "staff choices") are all delivered by third parties who are deemed to have superior palates. In the beer world, the impact of the two primary beer rating sites, beeradvocate.com and ratebeer.com make for a much more democratic sense of quality. At these sites, anyone can argue the merits of a particular beer and the composite ratings reflect the collective judgments and biases of a range of reviewers from novice to experienced. I haven't found any wine sites that track the beer model but I think it would be a healthy thing for the industry to move away from the expert model to the democratic model so that winemakers don't feel so compelled to create wines to the style of Parker's palate.

Zywiec Porter is a style known as a Baltic Porter that is made by a number of Polish brewers (as well as other brewers in the Baltic region). I very strong flavored porter with a lot of dark fruit flavors and a high alcoholic content, it is my understanding that these Baltic Porters may have more popularity in the US market than in their home markets. I have tried the Zywiec Porter and think it is a wonderful beer.

You are absolutely on target, here. Guiness has dumbed down its taste for the US market which, by and large, prefers tasteless beers (despite some of the clever ads which might suggest the contrary). Samuel Smith's, Young's and St. Peter's are three brewers from the British Isles that make far superior stouts to Guiness, in my opinion.

I lived in Australia back in the 80s and my impression was that all of the beers were pale lagers. Like the American beer scene at that time, the differentiating features were all about marketing (and geographic loyalty) and not truly about taste. (Personal confession - I don't care for pale lagers and generally drink ales; the only lagers I like are in the bock family.) From what I see over here 20 years later, Coopers produces some interesting beers but the others that make it to these shores (and there aren't many that I see) are all pale lagers. Has a craft beer scene developed in Australia (or New Zealand, for that matter) or is it still the same?

Better than even the Coffee Cup? I had a great soul food breakfast there, though I must admit I'm not sure I'd rate it Top 5 in the country as some publications have. ← I haven't been to the Coffee Cup in a while and not since it last changed hands. I did go to the John Edge fried chicken dinner last year in Charlotte that was catered by the Coffee Cup and was unimpressed, although that may not be fair. In any event, I'd give Grandma's the nod over the Coffee Cup and Mert's too, for that matter, based upon my recent experience.

Having just had a fantastic soul food dinner this evening at Grandma's Country Kitchen in Charlotte, I'm going to nominate Abdul Bilal. More of a Chowhound place than what is typically discussed on eGullet, the food Abdul serves up defines traditional southern cooking for me.

Take that bottle of Saison DuPont over to your favorite Thai restaurant and uncork it with your dinner. The fruity spice complexity of a Saison would go great with a curry or a Pad Thai.

To capture some great publicity, Brawley's in Charlotte sold a Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout this AM at 7:30. That might be the first big beer sold in the state under the new law.

When I was in grad school at Penn, I would occasionly make the trip up to Koch's for their great sandwiches. It was a bit of a hike, but always worth it. I didn't go often enough to develop a personal relationship and it was so long ago now, that I hardly remember anything about the place, but I do recall they ran one fine deli.

I'm enjoying my after dinner chalice of Three Philosophers so much I just had to re-visit this thread. A blend of a Belgian-style quadrupel with a cherry lambic, it is one of the most extraordinary concoctions I have ever come across.

Bucky's must be darn good because Henry's is one of the best in both Carolinas. I'll have to try it the next time I am in the area.

I haven't tried their Brown but I am a big fan of their Old Stock Ale.

These high gravity beers have nothing to do with malt liquor and its unfortunate that the two are in the same family of beverage as it is making it very difficult to get the 6% cap lifted in North Carolina. In South Carolina, you will have to wait until next year at the earliest but I suspect that you will run into many of the same issues. Malt liquor is a lager and most of the high gravity styles, with the exception of the bock styles, are ales. If you are interested in beer styles, I suggest you go to beeradvocate.com or ratebeer.com as each site provides an excellent education. Most of these styles have been around for years but American craft brewers are really pushing the limits these days in so many fascinating ways.

Like a number of folks from North Carolina, due to the limitation on selling beers with an abv above 6%, I go up to Blacksburg from time to time to purchase high gravity beer from Vintage Cellar. In the next block on South Main Street is a great little sandwich shop called Lefty's Main St. Grille. Lefty's is in a converted Long John Silver's so you might pass right by the place thinking it was a fast food joint. Bad decision. Not only are the sandwiches, burgers and salads excellent, they have a small selection of great beers on tap.

Do you just rinse out with the iodophor solution or do you leave the solution in the carboys and growlers? If you leave the solution in there, do you fill them the whole way or to some lower level?

I don't give a flip what the foodies think, every time I am in NYC, I go by Schaller and Weber to pick up some blood sausage and liver sausage. I boil a pot of water, cut off the heat and put the sausages in for about 20 minutes to warm them up. Then I fry them with some sauteed onions. May not be what foodies like, and the rest of my family thinks I am nuts, but I just love it.

I am a big proponent of supporting local brewers if there are decent choices. So I did a little Nebraska reseach which may be helpful to you. Upstream, the brewpub where you tasted the Honey Raspberry Ale, has an interesting line-up of beers. You might want to have them pour a sampler of the various beer styles they brew so you can taste the differences in the styles. Given your preference for sweeter styles, you might enjoy their Dundee 90 Shilling Scotch Ale, their Blackstone Stout, and, possibly, their Heartland Hefeweizen. There is also a microbrewery in Lincoln, Empyrean Ales, whose beers may be available in Omaha. Looking over their list, you might enjoy their Chaco Canyon Honey Gold, their Burning Skye Scottish Ale, and their Dark Side Vanilla Porter, all of which are available in bottles. Also, you might look for their Fallen Angel Sweet Stout, which may only be available on tap. Apparently, their beers are available on tap at Lazlo's in Lincoln as well as other places.