The Official Beer Appreciation Thread

[spndnchz]

Sam Adams Octoberfest was already out when I was in Chicago two weeks ago. That's actually a pretty good one. I'm very disappointed in New Belgium's Fall release...a friggin pumpkin beer. The last two fall releases were Hoptober and Red Hoptober, two absolutely fantastic beers, so why the shift to do the gimmicky pumpkin beer like everyone else? Very un-New Belgium like and very disappointing.

 

I was at Consumers yesterday. They have about 20 Octoberfest or Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin belongs in a pie IMO, not in a beer.

[Claude_Verret]

I was at Consumers yesterday. They have about 20 Octoberfest or Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin belongs in a pie IMO, not in a beer.

 

And the thing of it is, most of the pumpkin beers don't actually contain any pumpkin whatsoever, just pumpkin pie spice.

[LGR4GM]

First off pumpkin beer is delicious!

 

Second as summer ends I happened to be out with the girl and she wanted me to order this http://21st-amendment.com/beers/hell-or-high-watermelon/

 

I did and I have to say for a light summer beer it was refreshing and the watermelon was not overpowering. May try some more of their beers if I can locate them on the east coast.

[spndnchz]

:sick:

[Claude_Verret]

First off pumpkin beer is delicious!

 

Second as summer ends I happened to be out with the girl and she wanted me to order this http://21st-amendmen...igh-watermelon/

 

I did and I have to say for a light summer beer it was refreshing and the watermelon was not overpowering. May try some more of their beers if I can locate them on the east coast.

 

My wife loved this beer when we were out west a few years ago, so being a good husband I cloned it for her. I just brewed an American wheat and put some watermelon in the secondary. It turned out great if these types of beers are your thing, but the problem is they really aren't my thing and my wife isn't exactly a huge beer drinker. So this damn beer sat taking up one of my precious taps for months. I finally gave up with a few gallons still left and I pitched it.

[josie]

First off pumpkin beer is delicious!

 

Second as summer ends I happened to be out with the girl and she wanted me to order this http://21st-amendmen...igh-watermelon/

 

I did and I have to say for a light summer beer it was refreshing and the watermelon was not overpowering. May try some more of their beers if I can locate them on the east coast.

21st Amendment makes great stuff. I couldn't find any in Rochester, but for Christmas last year I had a friend farther west send me a couple packs of their FDR themed beer because d4rk is obsessed with the wheeled wonder. Really good stuff. Something in it would give me migraines though. No idea.

 

Have to admit, the idea of a fruity beer, especially watermelon, turns me off cold.

[MattPie]

21st Amendment makes great stuff. I couldn't find any in Rochester, but for Christmas last year I had a friend farther west send me a couple packs of their FDR themed beer because d4rk is obsessed with the wheeled wonder. Really good stuff. Something in it would give me migraines though. No idea.

 

It's many places around here. Wegmans regularly stocks a couple types, and I've found the Watermelon on tap a few places. Had a couple on Saturday.

[josie]

It's many places around here. Wegmans regularly stocks a couple types, and I've found the Watermelon on tap a few places. Had a couple on Saturday.

Good to know! That wasn't the case last year. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough (holidays, no time, stuff out of stock). Sounds good. I think I'll always be partial to anything Breckenridge myself, but d4rk loved that Fireside Chat brew.

[LTS]

21st Amendment makes great stuff. I couldn't find any in Rochester, but for Christmas last year I had a friend farther west send me a couple packs of their FDR themed beer because d4rk is obsessed with the wheeled wonder. Really good stuff. Something in it would give me migraines though. No idea.

 

Have to admit, the idea of a fruity beer, especially watermelon, turns me off cold.

 

Yea.. not a Watermelon fan either. Monk's Blood on the other hand.. now that's fantastic beer.

[Claude_Verret]

21st Amendment's Brew Free or Die IPA is a highly rated beer, but I've had hit or miss luck with it. A couple cans I've had were undrinkable.

[darksabre]

 

 

It's many places around here. Wegmans regularly stocks a couple types, and I've found the Watermelon on tap a few places. Had a couple on Saturday.

 

I have yet to find 21st Amendment in Rochester, including beers of the world. But maybe there's hope!

[LGR4GM]

I am not a big fan of fruity beers (even though it looks like I am with Peach and Watermelon and Blueberry beer over the summer). I really enjoy Belgian wheat, Belgian reds and Irish reds And I have a fondness for some stouts. That being said anyone looking for 1st amendment brewery stuff

http://21st-amendment.com/find-some/ this will let you search your area for their beer.

[TrueBlueGED]

I'm with Liger, I enjoy the pumpkin brews. That said, watermelon does not sound even the slightest bit appealing.

[...]

 

 

I was at Consumers yesterday. They have about 20 Octoberfest or Pumpkin beers. Pumpkin belongs in a pie IMO, not in a beer.

 

Agreed. And, frankly, the Octoberfest beers generally taste nasty, too.

[MattPie]

I'm with Liger, I enjoy the pumpkin brews. That said, watermelon does not sound even the slightest bit appealing.

 

Same here. It's a gimick, but fun for a case a year. There are some that do have pumpkin in them, but really they don't taste all that different. The watermelon beer is better than you'd think. It's using real watermelon, so it's a nice mellow addition to the wheat-beer base.

 

Agreed. And, frankly, the Octoberfest beers generally taste nasty, too.

 

As I don't like many lager (as opposed to ale) beers, I tend to agree with you.

[Claude_Verret]

Same here. It's a gimick, but fun for a case a year. There are some that do have pumpkin in them, but really they don't taste all that different. The watermelon beer is better than you'd think. It's using real watermelon, so it's a nice mellow addition to the wheat-beer base.

 

 

I've made some pumpkin beers before for fall parties and I always added at minimum some canned pumpkin to the mash so I could legitimately call it a pumpkin beer. You're right though, the pumpkin itself doesn't add much besides body and color. It's all about the spice.

 

The watermelon beer is pretty ok actually as fruit beers go, the watermelon is kind of in the background and doesn't hit you over the head like some of the other fruit beers like blueberry, raspberry and apricot that are out there.

[LGR4GM]

See those of you who have tasted the watermelon beer know of what I speak. It is mild watermelon taste and like I said not bad on a hot day. Would I go tailgating with the stuff? Not a chance in hell but it isn't bad everyone once in awhile.

 

As for pumpkin beers, I like them for October and November than I am good. Cigar City Good Gord Pumpkin Ale is my favorite. Again not something I drink regularly but I might start a cool fall night with one.

[...]

The only wheat beer I like I noted above - the un-filtered wheat beer. Fruit flavored wheat beer anything is just gross. It's like orange chocolate. YAaa.

[MattPie]

The only wheat beer I like I noted above - the un-filtered wheat beer. Fruit flavored wheat beer anything is just gross. It's like orange chocolate. YAaa.

 

Interesting analogy. I hated "orange" chocolate until I had some much mellower, natural-tasting stuff. Now I don't mind it if I can find it.

[biodork]

I love me some craft beer, but I am decidedly ambivalent about the full-blown winification of matters brew.

 

Among other reasons, there's this tidbit I read a while back:

 

Wine tasters will mention all sorts of things they can taste in a fine wine as if they were a human spectrograph with the ability to sense the molecular makeup of their beverage. Research shows, however, this perception can be hijacked, fooled, and might just be completely wrong.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/you-are-not-so-smart-why-we-cant-tell-good-wine-from-bad/247240/

 

In addition to which, I have an acknowledged (although well-managed) desire to punch people in the neck when they start with high falutin wine-tasting talk. (I'm not proud of this fact -- but there it is, just the same.)

 

:w00t:

 

I definitely understand the sentiment, and I do think there are plenty of folks who couldn't tell good wine from cheap wine, but I also think those experiments were biased in a way that he was almost guaranteed to get his expected result. If someone shows you two pictures and instructs you to find the 5 differences between them, every little detail would be scrutinized in an attempt to find those differences. But if someone just shows you those same two pictures and asks what you see, chances are most people would shrug and say the look the same.

 

Back to the cicerone thing; I'd agree that full knowledge isn't necessarily useful unless people are actually brewing and the like, but I'm all in favor of some minimal training for restaurant staff. When the restaurant where I used to tend bar converted to a brew pub, as a non beer drinker I felt ridiculous not being able to make a decent beer recommendation to customers. We only had 10 taps and I was happy to let people sample, but many people get overwhelmed by too many choices and I didn't always have time to keep pouring samples when it was busy. Eventually I learned from customers and other bartenders which beers were closest in style to some of the more traditional brews we used to carry, but having some basic training would have made that process easier. A server with even minimal training and product knowledge should be able to at least know broad categories of beer so they aren't recommending IPAs to people who dislike hops, or stouts to Blue Moon drinkers.

[That Aud Smell]

but I also think those experiments were biased in a way that he was almost guaranteed to get his expected result. If someone shows you two pictures and instructs you to find the 5 differences between them, every little detail would be scrutinized in an attempt to find those differences. But if someone just shows you those same two pictures and asks what you see, chances are most people would shrug and say the look the same.

 

i'm inclined to defer to the scientist on such matters and will agree that the studies were biased. but those aren't the only studies that have been done, whether clinical or otherwise.

 

e.g., http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/cheap-wine-vs-expensive-wine_n_2457984.html

 

and this one is more recent and far more scientific

 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis

 

a googling of terms like cheap expensive wine taste difference will yield a whole swath of material calling into question the validity of the world of refined wine-tasting.

 

I'd agree that full knowledge isn't necessarily useful ... but having some basic training would have made that process easier. A server with even minimal training and product knowledge should be able to at least know broad categories of beer so they aren't recommending IPAs to people who dislike hops, or stouts to Blue Moon drinkers.

 

i agree. like i said, the full-blown winification of beer is something i resist. what you're talking about -- basic training, as it were -- is wholly salutary, even necessary, to a place that serves even a limited variety of craft beer. i further think it's appropriate for a server to know, say, that the newly-arrived triple imperial IPA (not even sure that exists, but you get the idea) would be a poor fit for the delicate and nuanced scallop with a cream pan-sauce special. match that IPA with dishes that are going to have the flavors to stand up to that bitterness, and so on.

[biodork]

[/size]

 

i'm inclined to defer to the scientist on such matters and will agree that the studies were biased. but those aren't the only studies that have been done, whether clinical or otherwise.

 

e.g., http://www.huffingto..._n_2457984.html

 

and this one is more recent and far more scientific

 

http://www.theguardi...cience-analysis

 

a googling of terms like cheap expensive wine taste difference will yield a whole swath of material calling into question the validity of the world of refined wine-tasting.

 

[/size]

 

i agree. like i said, the full-blown winification of beer is something i resist. what you're talking about -- basic training, as it were -- is wholly salutary, even necessary, to a place that serves even a limited variety of craft beer. i further think it's appropriate for a server to know, say, that the newly-arrived triple imperial IPA (not even sure that exists, but you get the idea) would be a poor fit for the delicate and nuanced scallop with a cream pan-sauce special. match that IPA with dishes that are going to have the flavors to stand up to that bitterness, and so on.

 

Yeah, even though I think the original studies were a little biased, I don't disagree that a lot of oenology is just silly. Plenty of good inexpensive wines and bad expensive ones out there. And agreed on the server knowledge on food pairings at nicer restaurants. Unfortunately I think until the management / owners of an establishment see the value in such things, they won't pay to have their servers trained accordingly. The revolving door of waitstaff at many places is an understandable deterrent to such things, but any decent place that keeps long-term staff should be willing to invest the time in making sure they are fully knowledgeable about the products.

[LTS]

I have yet to find 21st Amendment in Rochester, including beers of the world. But maybe there's hope!

 

It's shown up at least once although I think there was some fall out because technically it's not distributed to Rochester. I believe one of the owners of a shop went downstate, grabbed some, and brought it back up to Rochester. You can sometimes find it in Ithaca at Finger Lakes beverage Center.

 

Downstate? It's there.

[Weave]

John Bryan @fancypantsbeer

Pumpkin beer is the modern day equivalent of the mullet. Everybody that brewed one will be ashamed of it in a decade.

[...]

Can I just say that while the Sabres have me thoroughly pissed off at them, this forum may keep me in the fold until I come out of the valley. Threads like this make hanging out in this forum mandatory: a consistently high quality internet experience. Thanks!