Poor beer.....

Now that I call a sight for the gods!

Some of it looks OK... but it must have smelled pretty nasty there after a few hours.

Corona....a good beer....you've suddenly lost all your credibility.

Just joking.

Samuel Adams is pretty good alright. Was working in NY last year and had a hard time getting good beer. I don't know what European beers you were trying but if it's the likes of Heineken then you were probably drinking the more well known brands. I Could only get the bigger brands like Grolsch and Heineken. Really wanted a Carlsberg, who are also a big brand but for some reason aren't in the States much. The micro-breweries in the States are really doing well and producing quality stuff, which is a good thing since so many people seem to think that Bud Light is fit for human consumption. I like Canada's Moosehead too.

Definitely don't agree with American beers being the best though. Not by a long shot. There's just so many regional beers in Europe, brands that aren't known outside the country that are just amazing. I had a fantastic beer in Zaragoza in Spain this year. It was the local stuff, can't remember the name of it.

I think though that Ireland is probably the worst country for beer in Europe and even the US beats us too. We really only have a few brands and I don't drink any of them.

In Boston there's the magic hat series (ive had a few of their offerings and they're great), rogue (rogue ale is really amazing), leather lips and smuttynose IPA that I've tasted that are really good. I suppose a few of em are available through the usa.

I live in Montreal where we dont find enough local beer with a lot of hop which is what I'm leaning toward these days, but theres some decent microbreweries like Unibroue

God, Dragon Stout is incredible! It shows up every now and then in my local Asda. I was in Birmingham once and spotted it in some little convenience store, I couldn't believe my luck! There were also 2 Polish beers, both 7% and I hadn't heard of them before (nothing like as well known as Okocim). I didn't have the money to get them at the time sadly

And I'm glad to see there's some more Samuel Smith fans here! The Nut Brown Ale and the Oatmeal Stout are both absolutely incredible, so is the Imperial Stout. If any of you ever end up in Manchester, England, be sure to visit Sinclairs Oyster Bar, as it's a Samuel Smith pub. The bottled beers are quite pricey at around £2.90 but the draught beers are very cheap (around £1.35 a pint, apart from the Alpine Lager formerly known as Ayingerbrau).

who cares, it's grolsch beer anyway.

they deserved it!

If it were Heineken, I'd totally agree with you.

Well you can't beat belgian beer. Grimbergen, Judas, Duvel are favorites of mine. But to list them all would be to much work. I 'd drink about anything except Heineken or Maes. To me those aren't beers.

This thread is full of win.

As for my favorite brew, it is without a doubt Rochefort 10. I have never had a beer so complex and so delicious in my life. However, after perusing this thread, I have had to stop and write down more than a few to ask the Beer Guy at the liquor store here.

Inspired by DSmolken's posts, I just did my first warm beer, and it was a success!
I made it both sweet and spicy, and it fits the colder months perfectly.

Recipe:

Heat a beer in a small pot, keeping the temperature moderate. Too hot will make too much of the alcohol disappear, and we wouldn't want that, now would we? So, whatever you do, don't boil it! Simply add the ingredients, stir while heating, dispersing a bit of the foam. Then, when its heated through and through and the ingredients are well mixed, pour into glass/mug.

Ingredients I used:

1 Hertog Jan Karakter (0.3 L, 7% vol.)
1 Tablespoon syrup (stroop for the dutchies)
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch/twist black/mixed pepper

It's pretty easy to find Dragon Stout in Birmingham because there's such a large Carribean community. I can usually get it in Tesco. Polish beers are some of the best strong beers around but I haven't seen Okocim for a while.

Well, its getting to that time of year when I'll be ordering a case of Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout from beersofeurope.co.uk

welll there are many regional beers in the USA that are amazing and often not known outside the country. Dogfish Head, North Coast, Great Divide, Sweetwater, Red Brick, Terrapin, Lazy Magnolia, Rogue, Stone, Three Floyds, Oskar Blues, Smuttynose, Bell's, Victory, Founders, Highland, are a few of the top breweries from coast to coast IMO.

I'd put our beer up against anyone's, except maybe Belgium ... the only problem is we dont have the rich beer tradition found in Europe; beer is a new revolution in the states beginning slowly 10-20 years ago. We had some taste in beer in the olde days, but that was smashed with the combination of our gross consumerism (give us lots of stuff, cheap, mass produced and put it in a department store please) and later Prohibition (killed all our brewers except the big ones that exist today). Good beer skipped a generation or two... now it's back if you just peel back the surface and look around.

I live in one of the most backward parts of the country, where select Prohibition era laws are still totally enforced (no beer over 6% alcohol is allowed, or containers larger than 1 pint, although liquor and wine are unregulated as such, because of a big business conspiracy involving a Budweiser distributor, but thats another story) and 90% of the market share is anheuser busch (mostly bud light, but per capita we drink the most Natural Light/Ice and Busch and other rancid bottom of the barrel filth; because the taxes on alcohol are high here people buy the absolute cheapest swill to get pissed on) BUT we have at least 3 good pubs that have recently come under new managements with 50+ beers on tap (some local, some imported, all quality) and hundreds by the bottle, and things are looking up. In better parts of the country they're already in good shape.

Dutch and Belgian beer is simply the best.

Edelweiss Weissbier Hefetrüb

I've just recently tried Desperados.. tequila flavoured beer! :nam-nam:

I've never really enjoyed any beer, but my knowledge is quite limited. Is it because i'm American ? Heh. As long as it doesnt taste like piss I can drink it, so that calls out Busch, Mad Hat & Miller. And thats only of the stuff I know.

had a beer tasting last night with these imperial stouts featured... except for Samuel Smith's they're all great American beer. Hopefully some of you recognize a lot of them

The top row is Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Avery Czar, Bear Republic RIS, Smuttynose RIS, Rogue Imperial Stout, Three Floyds Dark Lord, Alesmith Speedway Stout.

The bottom row is North Coast Old Rasputin, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (18% alcohol by volume!), Great Lakes Blackout, Bell's Expedition Stout, Victory Storm King, Great Divide Yeti, and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy (good beer can even be found in a can; this one turned out to be the darkest and thickest next to Dark Lord)