I'm admittedly a simpleton. I make no bones about my lack of sophistication where spirits are concerned, so riddle me this about brewskis....

Does having a cool name and/or label make exotic beer taste better? Every time there's a thread about beers, everyone does their one-upsmanship by naming a completely obscure micro-brew as the "You gotta have THIS" beer, but I wonder if it's the taste or the mystique.

What if the best micro-brew out there, I mean the tastiest stuff you have ever put your lips to, was called something like "Load-Catcher", or "Dog Shit Stout", would you still claim it as your favorite brew?? What if the best beer ever, came in a bottle shaped like a butt-plug? Still like it? Still slam down a cold one from a big pink butt-stopper?

Just curious. I don't fully understand the super-variety-beer craze.

I go to the little local bar that has an uber-collection of the new craze beers and I see such cool names. "Nasty Skank Ale" or "Racing Stripe", or "Old Ball Licker", you get the idea. People seem to really like it when a bottle is shaped like a rocket, or has a picture of a Victorian lady riding a donkey with her knickers exposed.

They have a sample club....you know, buy a glass for $35 and every week they fill it with a different blend. I watch guys sampling the stuff. It's serious business. They take a good whiff, take in the aroma, they sip slowly and with a purposeful look. They nod, make comments like "It's like Barterhouse Portly Portojohn PaleAle, only with a chocolate taste", then they let the glass sit for a half an hour before walking away from it to play pool. Somehow I don't think they're really into these neato beers as much as they think they are. When I drink, I've been known to lick the mostly empty glass for remnants....of other people's glass I should add. People I don't even know. It's gotten me thrown out of bars.

I did the "taste test" thing once. I tried about 75 different neato beers, and sampled them with but one simple criteria....does this taste good, or like ass with a hint of walnut? Truth is, most obscure beers are obscure cause they deserve to be. I found a few I like, but most completely blew and dang if I can remember the names of half of them. Too many words, labels that all look like a college flunky drew them up on his Imac. Too many guys standing around in cordouroy pants fondling their goofy $5 beer bottles. I had to bail out of the gourmet booze scene and head for a sane drinking hole, where there are 5 brands of beer and they're all predictably bad....and the women are lusty and kind of scary. Home.

On the way home from work last night, I stopped by the carryout and bought some Rolling Rock. Tasted ok, cost $4 for 76 bottles. I'm pretty happy, and it got me half-buzzed enough that I found an episode of "The Real World" watchable....so it must work.

I need culture I guess. I don't even have a $1200 watch yet. I'm still wandering around life waiting for some class to come up and bite me in the wallet. I guess if I drink enough "Buster Hymen's Liquor Good Ale" I'll start figuring out kewl from krap. I have a long, frothy way to go.

If it was excellent, and it was named "Dog Shit Stout" I would still love it.  An arete beer is still and arete beer, regardless of name.

Bandersnatch's Milk Stout (microbrew restraunt in Tempe, AZ) is galdern excellent.  Every time I'm in the Pheonix area to visit my brother I try to hit Bandersnatch to get a few stouts in.  Sadly, my bro likes poofter drinks.  Luckily his wife actually likes beer so I can drink with her while he drinks fuckin' gay specialty martinis.



This 'beer snob' is drinking a 40 of Budweiser tonight.  

Whats the question again?

Quoted: Whats the question again?

Dunno....can't remember.

I must be drunk, I'm rambling.

bourbon...I just can't get bourbon.  Sure, I'm still young so maybe my palette will grow to enjoy it, but for the moment it's battery acid.

My wines of choice at the moment are Stewart Cellars Merlot (think it was a 2002) and Beringer Knight's Valley 2000 (Caberneti Soving-however you spell it).    I can't afford to buy either with any frequency though so it's 40s of swill for me most of the time.

And yet, I'll still drink Pabst and enjoy it.  Go figure.  /shrug

Dog Shit Stout...I like that name.

Quoted: Hey... life is short... and it's about the experiences and memories you make.

That's true. That's alot of the reason I don't hang out in the bus station bathroom anymore. Sure, you learn things, but it's just the same old people day after day. I guess I need some culture.

Someday, someday, I'll own a horse and know what the fuck a chaffing dish is for. I'm just getting started on this journey called life.

Hey, do I smell peanuts? Crap, gotta go....Dr. Phil is on.

I started drinking premium beers in college, when I decided i would rather enjoy 6 beers and be sane than pound 12 and puke.

It's fun to taste the different flavors. A lot of it is just getting away from flavorless crap made out of rice. I generally drink ambers because the are flavorful and not too bitter. I think Full Sale is consistently good. Alaskan Amber, Red Hook ESB, Mack & Jacks Afrikan Amber are the others I drink consistently. Pilsner Urquell is my favorite pils. Guiness for a Stout.

I still like a Corona, Coors, or Bud on a hot day though.

How about a Dead Guy from Rogue Brewery?

I have tried alot of the super beers of the minute and crazy imported spirits.  I drink bud light now.  No hangover and beershits.  Pick your poison.

To answer your question though, any self-respecting beer enthusiast would pour it in a glass anyway.

Quoted: To answer your question though, any self-respecting beer enthusiast would pour it in a glass anyway.

Fancy! Just like the ghey fellers do!

swingset, Sounds like ya need to go out & do the micro-challenge again. This time either, you write down the 1's ya like or your friends write on ya. I started out thinking the same you did once. A brief stink overseas(Med Float) started the whole search for the 'bestest' beer thing.

Besides, what better excuse to drink than a search for your new beverage of choice. You can always go to the link & try to find label of something you like.........
beer.trash.net/index.php

Quoted: To answer your question though, any self-respecting beer enthusiast would pour it in a glass anyway.

When it comes in a bottle, it's already in a glass. Cans are another story, and they suck for the most part, other than for places like the beach so someone doesn't step on the broken glass.

Ya gotta try some of the canadian stuff.  LaMaudite rocks!

I used to be a Miller light drinker.  Just wanted a cheap and easy drunk.  I thought all beer was pretty much the same.  It didn't matter to me at all what kind of beer I drank.  

Over the years I discovered that I like food with strong flavors, spicy and bold.  I like my beer that way, strong, full of flavor.  I prefer dark beers, lagers, and heavy brews.  (by the way, I think Guiness is way over rated)  I have enjoyed lagers that you couldn't see daylight through.

I can't stand that weak pisswater (Miller Lite) that I used to drink.  Give me a Molson Canadian
, a Goose Island oatmeal stout, even a corona with a crappy wedge of lime in it.  Give me someting that bites back.

Right now I am drinking a Sam Adams Boston Lager, not really a lager, but it has that bite.

Take a big hearty bite out of life and let the juices run down your chin, drink beer with character, love a woman who has attitude.  

Life is too short for sissy beer.

Quoted: I watch guys sampling the stuff. It's serious business. They take a good whiff, take in the aroma, they sip slowly and with a purposeful look. They nod, make comments like "It's like Barterhouse Portly Portojohn PaleAle, only with a chocolate taste",

While I don't let a glass sit for a half-hour before it gets emptied, I do love sampling new brews & I do enjoy tasting something other than the usual Miller Lite/Bud Lite/generic horsepiss. It irritates the hell out of me to go to a rural store & they have 4-5 different types of beer in 10 coolers, all brands by Budweiser or Miller.

I personally approach beer like wine snobs approach their wines. I appreciate the good taste & I normally offset this with the price of that particular beer. Arrogant Bastard is a damn fine beer/ale but it costs out the ass so I don't buy it much. Cost Cutter is cheap as hell but tastes like shit so I never buy theirs.

Some dumbasses may indeed fall for the marketing bullshit that a certain brand of beer will make them irristable to women or allow them to develop a flat stomach if they drink a case of lite beer. I'm not one of those dumbasses.

What, no "BeerLooter" photo?

I read up to the new "Dog Shit Stout" beer, where do I get some again?

There are people out there who think mass produced, adjunct laden (rice) swillwater like Bud, Miller, et al are good beers...I just don't happen to be one of them.  

When I drank 100+ beers a week, I drank Busch.  Those days are long gone (thankfully), and I drink for a completely different reason now: taste.  A case of beer will last me several months now...and since I virtually never drink more than 2 beers at once any more, I like to enjoy them.  

Not all micro brew beers are good, and some of them suck.  By and large, though, you can find some really tasty stuff out there if you're willing to explore and have fun with it.  

My preference is for medium hopped amber and dark beers.  Newcastle, Bellehaven, Murphy's Amber, etc.  I've tried a lot of beers I like, even though I don't buy them all the time.  I also drink a lot of stout from the big 3, Beamish, Murphy's, and Guinness.  I guess I'll have to look for the Dog Shit Stout you mentioned

To each his own, and you can't explain to someone who likes Bud that it's shitty beer...kinda like trying to explain green to someone who's colorblind.  Bottom line is, if you like it, go ahead and drink it...but rest assured us beer snobs will chide you for it.  

Personal preference.  If you look at many of those micro/craft brews, they are some color other than piss yellow.  When you smell them (after pouring them into a glass...would you drink good wine or liquor straight from the bottle?), you get a nice mix of scents.  And of course, tasting it.  It tastes like something more than barley soda.  My prefernces run more toward heavily hopped beers like India Pale Ales.  These may not be up your alley, they are frequently quite bitter.  But generally, there are beers for all different leanings (Light or dark?  Heavy or light body?  Sweet, bitter, some mix of the two? )  If you prefer the barley soda, that's fine.  Hell, my dad can't tell the difference between rotgut and quality booze.

I make my own beer, an IPA that is very bitter. Or so i've been told. Once you try a homebrew, all other beer,PBR,Bud, Heini's,Becks etc all taste the same. Like shit.  I've been told it's the preservatives in it that makes um all taste the same.
As far as calling it Dog Shit Ale or whatever, once the average Joe tastes my beer, they don't usually like it anyway, so I don't think it really matters what I tell them it's called.
I tell people that homebrewed beer is something you have to aquire a taste for, it's like smoking cigars, you dont' just light one up and like it.

CJ

I drink Rolling Rock exclusively.  The only reason for this is because every other beer I have tried gives me an allergic reaction.  My nose gets stuffed up so I end up mouth breathing when I go to bed.  I don't know why RR doesn't do this - I haven't gone to the effort to compare ingredients, I'm just happy it doesn't.

Quoted: If it was excellent, and it was named "Dog Shit Stout" I would still love it.  An arete beer is still and arete beer, regardless of name. Bandersnatch's Milk Stout (microbrew restraunt in Tempe, AZ) is galdern excellent.  Every time I'm in the Pheonix area to visit my brother I try to hit Bandersnatch to get a few stouts in.  Sadly, my bro likes poofter drinks.  Luckily his wife actually likes beer so I can drink with her while he drinks fuckin' gay specialty martinis. This 'beer snob' is drinking a 40 of Budweiser tonight.

The Snatch is gone.  

"Life is too brief for mean women or lite beer."

Mass produced beers are made for broad tastes. If you like it, go with it. If you don't feel like exploring all the variety out there, that's up to you.

You can tell a lot about a beer by serving it at the correct temperature and a CLEAN glass (don't wash it in Dawn, etc., any traces will destroy the head. OK to wash it in a dishwasher with Cascade, etc). Many small bubbles in the head denotes a well made beer. Large greasy bubbles don't. Part of the experience is enjoying the hop aroma. You don't have to bury your nose in it and wax poetic. Just enjoy. Ales are served at a warmer (not room) temperature because they are typically not as carbonated as a Pilsner. Serve 'em too cold and they'll come out flat.

Like firearms, the opposite sex, sushi- what's best is all up to you and YMMV.  

There are a fer "micros" I like, but most taste like ass, ass, ass. (to me)  Of course this is because my taste buds arent "sopisticated" enough.

mostly bud light at $16 a case compared to 8.99 for 6 micro beers....

Come to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, there will be alomst 1,700 different beers for you to sample. It is the largest beer fest in North America and a helluva party.

Once upon a time there was an upswelling of microbreweries. The beers they crafted were, for the most part, superb! They used the best ingredients and didn't pasturize their brews. They knew that pasturizing killed all the yeasties. Those 'healty fer ya' yeasties.

Then one day the major brewing companies, herein after refered to as "swillmakers", did some swillmaker marketing research. The swillmakers saw that the microbreweries were eating into their market share. "EEEEK, OUR MARKET SHARE, OUR MARKET SHARE, WE MUST PROTECT OUR MARKET SHARE!!!"

The Ogars stomped about their board-rooms, squealing and hissing, cursing the microbreweries for stealing their business. "Regain our prominence, we must", they snarled. "plans, we need", they spat.

As Ogars are want to do....the plotted and conspired and plotted some more. Around the clock they schemed. Monthes passed, all the while beer drinker were being exposed to tastier, healthier brews made by the microbreweries!The Ogars knew this must stop or they would continue to loose their coveted market share.

"Eureka!" hissed the Chief Executive Ogar! "Have a plan, I do!" All the pointed little Ogar ears in the room perked up. As the CEO spat out his plan, the other Ogars giggled and cooed and slathered their Ogar goo on one another. A sight not fit for normal people!

Well, to make a long story short, the swillmakers decided to make their own brands of craft brews...with one major difference.....they were intentionally badly made. They used all the rejected ingredients they could come up with, used yeast they scraped from a dry sows uterus, and brewed up some swill even MORE contemptable than their original swill. Then they aged it in vats of hot bull urine

They bottled this 'ultra-swill" in bottles like the microbreweries were using, and thought up a bunch of catchy microbrew-like names for their crapro-brews. They took great pains to masquerade their crapro-brews as microbrews. Then with great fanfare....they unveiled them on an unsuspecting beer drinking public.

The plot had the desired effect! Beer drinkers all over the country gaged and spat and held their noses muttering"phew, this sux".

Well...the swillmakers got their way. The good beer drinkers of America shuned microbrews. "I tried a couple of them microbeers...they wasawful! Tasted like the bottom of a platypuss foot".

The rest is history. The swillmakers are still making swill.They regained their coveted market share.

But the Microbrewers are here to stay. One only needs find a good one...fresh...tasty...and healthy to drink.

My friends...should you want to try a line of exceptual craftbeers,allowme to recommend the products made by Anderson Valley Brewing Company of Booneville California. They make the best brews I have ever had the delight of drinking. Enjoy!

Oh...ifI may suggest their Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. Worth the effort to find!!!!!

AVBC

The end.

I used to drink cheap stuff like miller, bud, coors. If i'm drinking for consumption, i drink miller now. If I want to drink a beer to enjoy it its usually a couple of the following: George Killians, Moosehead, Tecate(sp?) or Dos Equis.

I like beer and Vodka, thats about it.

Oddly, lately I've taken a shine to good ol' Bud.... If Leinie Red isn't available.

I like Killian's Red.

I am qualified to answer your question on best beer being a third generation beer maker. Yes, dad made it prior to Carter changing the laws. Portland (Little Beirut) is a beer making Mecca.

Unfortunately, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the best beer you will ever drink and piss. Yes, it is from the people republic of California but, we must forgive a little.

I've had beer featuring homegrown hops, barley and all the other ingredients. It was at a cloistered monestary on top of a mountain in S. Germany. I drank 5 1xliter flagons and I did not have a hangover the next day.

Kloisterbrau Kreuzburg/Rhone

The problem here comes in doing a pure grow of good ingredients. You need a greenhouse or an indoor grow to do the finest female hops flowers, which isn't cheap. A pure barley malt extract, refrigeration equipment and I could see how the first case of beer could cost $300.

A lot of guys homebrew good beer, very few brew masterpieces.

Back in the midwest I drank Milwakee's Best.  I moved to Colorado and found microbrews.  For a few years that was about all I would drink, then they just got old.  They are all different but somehow the same to me.  I still enjoy micros occasionally but if I just want a nice cold beer (or 12) it's Keystone Light for me!  On the other hand, I love good bourbon.

Been getting into beer lately (last couple years).

Had some draft brew outta Austin, Texas called Live Oak Bark Ale.
I think its my new favorite.

BBC= Beer,Brandy,Cigar.....I like it on the weekends and after reading the above post's I sit here reminded why the Fock I work 'for the weekends' cheap Beer,decent Brandy and cheap Cigars Enjoy!.

Quoted: I make my own beer, an IPA that is very bitter. Or so i've been told. Once you try a homebrew, all other beer,PBR,Bud, Heini's,Becks etc all taste the same. Like shit.  I've been told it's the preservatives in it that makes um all taste the same. As far as calling it Dog Shit Ale or whatever, once the average Joe tastes my beer, they don't usually like it anyway, so I don't think it really matters what I tell them it's called. I tell people that homebrewed beer is something you have to aquire a taste for, it's like smoking cigars, you dont' just light one up and like it. CJ

I just like homebrew becouse i get to try so many diffrent styles and best of all tailor my beer to my tastes.

Its all about the beer

All this talk about beer puts me in the mood for some Thirsty Dog. Damn they have good beer.

Quoted: Quoted: If it was excellent, and it was named "Dog Shit Stout" I would still love it.  An arete beer is still and arete beer, regardless of name. Bandersnatch's Milk Stout (microbrew restraunt in Tempe, AZ) is galdern excellent.  Every time I'm in the Pheonix area to visit my brother I try to hit Bandersnatch to get a few stouts in.  Sadly, my bro likes poofter drinks.  Luckily his wife actually likes beer so I can drink with her while he drinks fuckin' gay specialty martinis. This 'beer snob' is drinking a 40 of Budweiser tonight.   The Snatch is gone.

What?  No!  Say it isn't so!  

What happened?  Just standard companies going out of business or did they move?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: If it was excellent, and it was named "Dog Shit Stout" I would still love it.  An arete beer is still and arete beer, regardless of name. Bandersnatch's Milk Stout (microbrew restraunt in Tempe, AZ) is galdern excellent.  Every time I'm in the Pheonix area to visit my brother I try to hit Bandersnatch to get a few stouts in.  Sadly, my bro likes poofter drinks.  Luckily his wife actually likes beer so I can drink with her while he drinks fuckin' gay specialty martinis. This 'beer snob' is drinking a 40 of Budweiser tonight.   The Snatch is gone.   What?  No!  Say it isn't so!   What happened?  Just standard companies going out of business or did they move?

I think they got bought out...

The good news is, Four Peaks has an oatmeal stout that is fanfuckingtastic!

Oh yeah, the Eighth Street Ale, Kilt Lifter, Hop Knot, and IPA aren't bad either.

Just a note, the Hop Knot makes the IPA taste like miller lite hopwise....gooooooood stuff!

beer???

did someone mention beer???

After I was stationed in Europe and hit Octoberfest in Munich, I became a beer snob.

Honestly the mainline beers all taste the same to me. Bud, Bush, Miller, OM, etc, all taste the same. Watered down and they actually seem to be designed to barely taste like beer.

After sampling some finer beer, it besomes hard to compare. A good Belgian Trappiste is quite a beer and there is no way you can mass produce quality like that.

I can drink swill, I mean cheap generic beer, ie Bud, Bush, Lite ets but I fond myself drinking them to fast. They are not filling at all and the flavor is like Fruit Stripe or GAtorgum, it just tatses like beer for about half a second, then its gone. Whats the point? When I am in the mood for a beer, I want a beer that fills me, and tastes like beer all the way through.

I love it when folks who drink mainline beers give the guys who drink NA beer crap. To me why bother with either one, they taste the same anyway. Beer soda.


I drink a good quality beer for the same reason people seek out the best steaks.

Well that and I drink only a few beers a month.

I like microbrews, but I also love Rolling Rock. Old "33" does it for me everytime.

By the way, great lookin lab in your avatar. Here is mine at about 15 weeks old. He is currently around 18 weeks.

Keeps me some piss-warm Chongo...!

My Ozarks micro brewery will sell 'Float Trip beer' - "so cheap you don't care when it tips over in the canoe".  The good stuff is saved for the 'after shower' hour when everyone is tending their sunburns.

There are good mainstream beers and some are absolutely undrinkable - and I like lots of different beers and styles.  How the hell Anheuser is so popular is beyond me, about the only thing it has going for it is clarity.  The Lacrosse Gold I tried in August was just barely drinkable, but I've had worst.

Quoted: I like good beer, sophisticated wine, prime cuts of beef and high count sheets.  Call me a snob if you like but I prefer the term sensualist.... I know what I like and I enjoy the experience enough that it's worth the extra cost.   I hosted a premium beer tasting at my home last Friday.  Twenty microbrews and imports to try.  Everyone found some new favorites.  I was making sweet, sweet love to Bellhaven Scottish Ale and Grant's Perfect Porter all weekend.   Last month it was a wine tasting.  Next month it's a bourbon tasting.  Great opportunities to gather friends and get outside one's comfort zone as far as the known favorite beverages. But I won't suffer through something I don't like.  I always offer pitchers to empty glasses into if the selection is not well received.   Hey... life is short... and it's about the experiences and memories you make.

If you do a bourbon tasting, let me know - I have some excellent suggestions that are not pricey, either.

Benchmark
Ancient Age
Basil Haydens
Birthday Bourbon (damn good stuff)
Buffalo Trace
Elijah Craig
Blantons
WL Weller Special Reserve
Makers Mark
Knob Creek
Eagle Rare (one of my favorites)


And for a REAL treat, get some Sazerac 18 year old RYE whiskey - wow!

www.greatbourbon.com/antiquecollection.html

Quoted: bourbon...I just can't get bourbon.  Sure, I'm still young so maybe my palette will grow to enjoy it, but for the moment it's battery acid. My wines of choice at the moment are Stewart Cellars Merlot (think it was a 2002) and Beringer Knight's Valley 2000 (Caberneti Soving-however you spell it).    I can't afford to buy either with any frequency though so it's 40s of swill for me most of the time. And yet, I'll still drink Pabst and enjoy it.  Go figure.  /shrug

Try 2 fingers of good (GOOD) bourbon or whiskey (like Gentleman Jack) and put 2-3 ice cubes in the glass.  Let the ice melt almost all the way, then sip.  It really releases the sweetness of the bourbon/whiskey and greatly enhances the flavor.

Old Speckled Hen is a new favorite, as is Fullers Porter and ESB - wow.