What Beers Did You Drink Today? Or Yesterday? (Part 1)

[ChefCrash]

Duvel with a Macanudo Robusto

Bite shot a la Daniel

Ahhhh...

[mizducky]

I'm not a very prolific beer drinker, but when somebody brought some Lindemans Framboise Lambic to the after-party following our big concert this past Saturday night, I made a beeline for the stuff. Yum. Major yum. Like, "can I get a whole 'nother five or six bottles for myself?" yum. (Purty label, too!)

[Susan in FL]

Bite shot a la Daniel

LOL! Good one! I think that's a first on the Beer Forum. Daniel is an inspiration everywhere.

[Susan in FL]

I'm not a very prolific beer drinker, but when somebody brought some Lindemans Framboise Lambic to the after-party following our big concert this past Saturday night, I made a beeline for the stuff. Yum. Major yum. Like, "can I get a whole 'nother five or six bottles for myself?" yum. (Purty label, too!)

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I have never tasted it. I always assumed it would be too sweet for me, but I think it's time to give it a try. Thanks for the post, Ellen!

[mizducky]

I'm not a very prolific beer drinker, but when somebody brought some Lindemans Framboise Lambic to the after-party following our big concert this past Saturday night, I made a beeline for the stuff. Yum. Major yum. Like, "can I get a whole 'nother five or six bottles for myself?" yum. (Purty label, too!)

←

I have never tasted it. I always assumed it would be too sweet for me, but I think it's time to give it a try. Thanks for the post, Ellen!

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You're welcome!

The stuff has definitely got some sweetness to it, but it's cut by the natural tartness of the berries. Plus my understanding (from a quick Googling to augment my previously non-existent knowledge on this topic) is that the lambic style of beer brings its own natural tartness to the party.

[jeffc666]

Scaldis Prestige. Very impressive. A very, very good oak-aged beer, quite possibly the best oak-aged beer I have yet had.

[petite tête de chou]

Widmer Hefeweizen. Eh. Much better on tap. Wheat beer has such a creamy, wonderful head that is lost when drank (drunk?!) from a bottle. Mmm, wheaty!

[BrentKulman]

The stuff has definitely got some sweetness to it, but it's cut by the natural tartness of the berries. Plus my understanding (from a quick Googling to augment my previously non-existent knowledge on this topic) is that the lambic style of beer brings its own natural tartness to the party.

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Lambics are meant to be very tart and are definitely an acquired taste. I like some of them but have not yet found a way to enjoy a pure lambic, which has no fruit flavor at all. Lindemann's, however, deviates from the style by producing a relatively sweet (for a Lambic) product. Lambic lovers (of which I am not one) look down their noses at Lindemanns as they view it as the alco-pop of lambics. I'm not taking a position on the debate; just sharing some information.

[planojim]

Had quite an enjoyable Pale Ale tasting with some buddies yesterday after travelling to Austin for some of the best BBQ in America:

Stone IPA

Great Divide Titan IPA

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

Great Divide Denver Pale Ale

Left Hand Jackman's Pale Ale

Flying Dog Snakedog IPA

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

Shipyard Fuggles IPA

The winner out of all of those, was the Titan IPA. The loser, by far, was the Shipyard. Anyone out there had the Shipyard Fuggles IPA? Did I get a bad couple of bottles? Because that thing was almost downright undrinkable.

[TongoRad]

The winner out of all of those, was the Titan IPA.  The loser, by far, was the Shipyard.  Anyone out there had the Shipyard Fuggles IPA?  Did I get a bad couple of bottles?  Because that thing was almost downright undrinkable.

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Aside from the Shipyard it looks like you had quite a nice assemblage of beers (though I must confess to not having tasted your winner). I do agree with you about the Fuggles, though- a really nasty butter bomb. I've had some within the past year and I'm surprised they are releasing their beer in that condition to tell you the truth- the amount of residual diacetyl in the final product goes beyond a quirk of the yeast and straight into poor brewing techniques IMO. It didn't always used to be like that, the beer was much better 10 years ago. Same thing with Middle Ages. Sadly both breweries are now on my 'to avoid' list now.

[BrentKulman]

Had quite an enjoyable Pale Ale tasting with some buddies yesterday after travelling to Austin for some of the best BBQ in America:

Stone IPA

Great Divide Titan IPA

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

Great Divide Denver Pale Ale

Left Hand Jackman's Pale Ale

Flying Dog Snakedog IPA

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

Shipyard Fuggles IPA

The winner out of all of those, was the Titan IPA.  The loser, by far, was the Shipyard.  Anyone out there had the Shipyard Fuggles IPA?  Did I get a bad couple of bottles?  Because that thing was almost downright undrinkable.

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I haven't had the Titan but its on my list to try as I have heard great things about it. Knocked off the Stone's! Must be darn good.

[jsolomon]

Beast Ice, baby.

Beast ice.

[eje]

The winner out of all of those, was the Titan IPA.  The loser, by far, was the Shipyard.  Anyone out there had the Shipyard Fuggles IPA?  Did I get a bad couple of bottles?  Because that thing was almost downright undrinkable.

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As sticklerman, I feel it is my duty to point out that American Pale Ales and American IPAs are really separate styles of beer.

I'm a big fan of IPAs, not so much the Pale Ales. My wife prefers the Pale Ales, and not so much the IPAs.

Do shipyard make "Pumpkinhead"? We tried that and thought it was downright awful.

[Susan in FL]

....... It didn't always used to be like that, the beer was much better 10 years ago. Same thing with Middle Ages. Sadly both breweries are now on my 'to avoid' list now.

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I'm kind of glad to hear that about the Shipyard brews, because I was starting to doubt my own palate for beer tasting. It was about 10 years ago that I drank them more often and loved most of them. I have had the Fuggles more recently than 10 years ago, and didn't find it that distasteful, but I do trust the opinion of you all who regularly post on our Beer Forum.

Any ideas about why they have gone downhill? Please pardon me if that has been discussed before and I missed it.

[ghostrider]

I'm sure someone must have posted about this before me, but I can't resist: CASK ALE, or "REAL ALE."  I had the pleasure of trying some on Wednesday night.  It was incredible.  Hand-drawn from a cask instead of a keg, it was served at a perfect cellar temperature.  Low carbonation, but definately there... such a warm rich flavor.  It was Fuller's Ale.  I had it at D.B.A. in Manhattan.  I was told by the bartender that there were only five casks of it in the world that night.  My friend and I both had some, and it changed my perception of what the ideal of beer should be.  I can't write a good flavor descriptor because it's not fresh in my mind anymore.  I'll have to go get some more of the stuff and post again if anyone is interested.  Or, if you are in the NYC metro area, go down to DBA and get some for yourself.  They serve some "real ale" every night on a rotating basis.  That pint was spot on! 

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Fullers! Omigosh, but that takes me back to trips to London 3 decades back, CAMRA guide in hand.....

[BeerGut]

Last night I had a Smuttynose IPA, a 2002 Brooklyn Black Chocolate, and later, a 2001 Samichlaus Bier. Good night!

[BeerGut]

ghostrider, I see you're from Jersey like myself, so I thought I'd let you know about a northern NJ bar with those cask draft pumps. Andy's Corner Bar.

Michael Jackson (beer guy) stops by when he is in the NY area, they got a good write up in the Bergen Record, and 201 Magazine, and the Ale Street News, and a high rating on Beer Advocate.com.

Andy's Corner Bar in Bogota has 6 beers on tap, and 2 draft "engines" (hand pumped from the cask, not CO2 or nitrogen propelled) like you described.

Fuller's has been here routinely. This is where I had the Smuttynose and where I got the Samichlaus.

No food (unless pretzels and popcorn count) but they are next door to a pizza shop; they have the obligatory jukebox, satellite TV, and colorful patrons. Always a good time when I stop by for a beer and some conversation.

Andy's Corner Bar (www.anyscornerbar.com)

Hope you go and I hope you enjoy it half as much as I do (or more!)

[Susan in FL]

Any ideas about why they have gone downhill? Please pardon me if that has been discussed before and I missed it.

Interestingly, after the mentions about the decline in quality of the Shipyard beers, Friday night's Happy Hour brought us to a bar in New Smyrna Beach that had four Shipyards on draft. Russ got the seasonal/winter ale and I got the stout. They were both quite good. There was also an orange blossum beer that the owner explained to us was brewed in Florida, for Shipyard! What is up with that? I wonder if some others are being contract brewed and this has something to do with the poorer quality. They said it was brewed by Indian River Brewing Co. in Melbourne. I can't remember what the fourth Shipyard on tap was.

At home we haven't been drinking much new lately. Russ is going to Delaware soon, so hopefully he'll bring home something new to try, or something we haven't had recently.

[eje]

The Shipyard Brewing I'm familiar with is in Portland, Maine.

(Old Thumper, Pumpkinhead...)

I think you are talking about somewhere else!

[M.X.Hassett]

ghostrider, I see you're from Jersey like myself, so I thought I'd let you know about a northern NJ bar with those cask draft pumps. Andy's Corner Bar.

Andy's Corner Bar (www.anyscornerbar.com)

Hope you go and I hope you enjoy it half as much as I do (or more!)

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Andy's is great they probably also have an additional 20 bottled choices as well, they will aslo sell you a growler of anything on tap or cask. If you go there often you can join there beer club, you make a list of the different beers you have had there over the course of the year and as you reach different levels you get a hat, t-shirt, glass, etc. The 100 beer reward is dinner with the owners I think.

Back to the topic I am drinking a Hoegaarden right now.

Edited December 12, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[TongoRad]

....... It didn't always used to be like that, the beer was much better 10 years ago. Same thing with Middle Ages. Sadly both breweries are now on my 'to avoid' list now.

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I'm kind of glad to hear that about the Shipyard brews, because I was starting to doubt my own palate for beer tasting. It was about 10 years ago that I drank them more often and loved most of them. I have had the Fuggles more recently than 10 years ago, and didn't find it that distasteful, but I do trust the opinion of you all who regularly post on our Beer Forum.

Any ideas about why they have gone downhill? Please pardon me if that has been discussed before and I missed it.

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I was thinking along the same lines, Susan. Those beers aren't locally available to me anymore so I haven't had first-hand experience in a while, but I did notice a lot of trash talk during those years. Recently a friend told me about a place in NY that has a great selection of beer so I started seeing Middle Ages, Shipyard, etc. again and just had to find out for myself. I tried a number of their different offerings at a number of different times and there really does seem to be an across the board problem there (the only exception being with the Old Thumper, which I enjoyed.)

In the beers that I sampled the expected Ringwood diacetyl (butter-like) characteristic had gone from being the interesting gracenote that I recall to being a real anvil to the head, and an unpleasant one at that. Why? I can only guess, but two prime possibilities are: 1)rushing the beer out of the fermenter and not giving the yeast the proper amount of time to do a diacetyl clean-up and 2) a poor diacetyl-reducing yeast strain has become dominant through reuse.

At this point I'm willing to consider that I got repeatedly unlucky, but the odds of getting a good batch don't strike me as being particularly good right now, and there are so many other great ways to spend my beer budget.

FWIW- the 2005/2006 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout kicks ass this year, as does the 2005 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (as others have mentioned). I like to get both of those beers as fresh as possible, so that's where my focus has been lately.

[K8memphis]

Except for a few Woodchucks (are those beer??) Anyway, this is probably the second whole bottle of beer I've ever had. It's Lindemans Lambic belgian peach ale--don't hate me because my first one was the raspberry ale last week.

[James Kessler]

I was able to try some Westvleteren 8 over the weekend. At least that's what I was told it was. I was at a bar in Manhattan and didn't see it on their bottle list. However, I had heard that they had it so I asked. They told me that they would go check. Came back and said they had two bottles left. Brought 'em up and I tried. Bottle had no label on it whatsoever. I didn't get a look at the cap. Tasted unbelievable though. Trademark bananna notes that are part of the style's flavor profile. Also cloves and nutmeg. Very smooth. Spicy and warm yeasty flavor with plenty of sweetness and fruit. I will never know if I was really drinking Westvleteren or not, but whatever I had was great!!! For those of you who don't know about this particular beer, it is brewed by Trappist Monks in Belgium. It is not legally exported into the USA. The only way it gets here is by being smuggled. Hence the no-label on the bottle.

[mtigges]

So, I've taken a break from my homebrew, and tried some offerings that the season allows me to. Our choices here for interesting imports is usually quite limited.

Innis & Guinne (did I spell it right?), a very clean pale ale which has been aged in wood. I don't believe it said what kind of wood. An interesting flavour from the wood, not tannic, a bit smoky, but it's o/w a bit of a bland beer so it was enjoyable but not outstanding.

Rochefort 8, a very nice, smooth beer. Outstanding head. Plum and currant sweetness with just a touch of roast. Hid it's 8% very well.

Bellhaven Wee Heavy. I liked it. A lot. Generally I go for more bitterness, but the complection of the maltiness is great.

I've tried some local beers too if anyone else is in the greater vancouver area ... the limited release GI Octoberfest sucks. I was very surprised. Normally the limited release beers from GI are outstanding, but this one ... WAY too sweet. It's almost like he forgot the bittering hops. And I can say the same for Mayne Fireside. Haven't enjoyed them at all. At least the latter came in a nice swing top bottle.

[Ken]

Tried a very tasty interesting beer from Rogue this week. "Johns Locker Stock" has a bright wheat beer flavor with a little toast and it tastes amazingly of Matsutake mushrooms.