Beer

[PKMKII]

Last weekend we took a trip to Westchester, and made a stop at the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. The haul:


(for those from elsewhere: yes, this is what the mythical non-crap American beer looks like). On the left is a wheat ale with a lemon-lime flavor from the spices its brewed with. Middle is a Saison, a Belgian farmer's ale. And on the right, relevant to the cider discussion, is a tripel ale aged in apple brandy barrels. Will report on the tastes when I try them.

[Roland Deschain]

I tried two new beers this afternoon:-

Brooklyn Beer - Quite nice this one. I "accidentally" found it on tap in Islington (The Bull if you're interested). I've never seen it before, but the friend I was with recommended it and I felt it would be rude to refuse him. This one's a lager, tasting a lot like European beers.

Doom Bar - This is a Cornish bitter, found in Islington again (The Vineyard). It has a medium darkness and isn't cloudy like some bitters. It is a farily smooth drink with a nice aftertaste. The name is also cool, although only if you don't think of it as being named after a sand bar.

[PKMKII]

Brooklyn Beer - Quite nice this one. I "accidentally" found it on tap in Islington (The Bull if you're interested). I've never seen it before, but the friend I was with recommended it and I felt it would be rude to refuse him. This one's a lager, tasting a lot like European beers.

You mean this?

[Roland Deschain]

That's the one. I found the brewery online, and saw that they make four or five different beers, including pale ale and a stout, I think. Much better than what we usually see of US beers over here (eg - Budweiser, etc). It's like a microbrewery done good. I would love to see more of that type of beer over here, as I imagine there's a whole reservoir of untapped potential, if you'll excuse the pun.

[DavidH]

Bulmers is a bit crap but they make Woodpecker which is cheap and quite nice. Westons are awesome though, I've had several fun nights after drinking Old Rosie

It's well worth doing a trip round Westons at Much Marcle. They have these enormous wooden barrel-style brewing vats, about 50ft high.

[PKMKII]

That's the one. I found the brewery online, and saw that they make four or five different beers, including pale ale and a stout, I think. Much better than what we usually see of US beers over here (eg - Budweiser, etc). It's like a microbrewery done good. I would love to see more of that type of beer over here, as I imagine there's a whole reservoir of untapped potential, if you'll excuse the pun.

Yeah, they're one of the more popular microbreweries, and by far the biggest in the NYC metro area. Their beer garden is up in Williamsburg. They also make two really nice, high-end brews, the Local One, a strong Belgian pale ale:


And the Local Two, a Belgian strong dark ale:


Glad to see they've got a presence outside of the states.

[PKMKII]

Continuing with the Brooklyn Brewery theme, I had this at a bar tonight:


The Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse. It's a Weissenbock collaboration between the Brooklyn Brewery and the Schneider Weisse Brewery. They actually make two varieties of it, one with the Schneider label (which I had) that highlights the german hops, and one with the Brooklyn label that highlights the American hops. It was stronger than a hefeweissen, more hoppy with fruity and tangy notes. Recommended.

[daftbeaker]

Guinness and port is very nice. Tetley's bitter and port, not so much

[PKMKII]

Tried the Golden Delicious tonight. Wow. Imagine the start of a hoppy ale, with fruity notes, but then it finishes like wine, not that bitter hop finish.

[PKMKII]

Beer Consumption by State.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised and ashamed that the tri-state region ranks so low for beer consumption. We're in Mormon territory, FFS!

[Roland Deschain]

I am ashamed of your state, PK. Maybe you could help to redress the balance a little?



You may know of this one, but Desperados Beer is a Tequila-flavoured beer from France, but now owned by Heineken. It's very nice and very drinkable, but at 5.9%, can get you drunk pretty quickly. I recommend it for the great, fresh taste of tequila and obvious after-effects. I can't see it widely available in the US yet, but i'm sure it will be soon. I wouldn't want you girls and guys to miss out on it.

Here's a link I found online for you (It's for Canada, but maybe they ship to the US).

[daftbeaker]

I am ashamed of your state, PK. Maybe you could help to redress the balance a little?

I'm willing to bet that the UK would rank pretty highly using those criteria

Also, 30 tinnies of Carlsberg for £15. Bargain

[daftbeaker]

Guinness draught from cans can be very nice and can be horrible. If you want it to taste like actual draught Guinness then open the can quickly and leave it to stand for ten seconds or so. It uses a nitrogen containing widget to generate the head and if you open the can gradually the release of pressure over time means the nitrogen leaks out slowly. Opening it in one quick motion means the nitrogen actually disperses through the beer. Leaving it to stand gets rid of the initial turbulence.

Then pour it into a clean glass at about a 45' angle, making sure the beer hits the glass and doesn't drop into the accumulating pint. If it runs down the glass you get a nice settled pint, if you drop it in the beer then you get a load of bubbles and it tastes rather sour.

Yes, I probably put a bit too much thought into this. It was a rather fun experiment though

[PKMKII]

Had the Saison. A solid example of the variety, but nothing extra-special. Certainly not as good as the Golden Delicious.

[Roy Hunter]

I found another alcohol-free beer! A white one! Bavaria does a lager-type beer in 330ml bottles, I was in the supermarket on Thursday and I picked up the wrong bottles and got 275ml bottles of Bavaria Wit, a wheat / white / whatever beer instead.

It is lovely, if you like that sort of thing. You certainly wouldn't sit and drink half a dozen of them, but then you're not getting a buzz from them, so why would you? As a nice little bottle of beer to drink for the taste, however, it is lovely, very smooth and well balanced, it has a good texture / mouth feel, and doesn't leave you with the bitter aftertaste you quite often find from wheat beers.