/beer/

just got to get some Midwest IPA

A lot of the Saisons I've had lately are doing everything a bit hot to extract more complex sugars from the malt, get more acids from the hops, and encourage esters from the yeasts... there's a limit before you start grabbing tannins from the malt, wrecking or overextracting the alpha/beta acids from the hops, and pushing your yeast beyond its limit. It's supposed to be a cold-season brewed ale that can be lagered to last the summer, but with enough spice/fruit "ale" character to avoid being a Kolsch.

this is interesting, thanks. i'm a homebrewer and wanted to eventually brew a saison. how can i avoid making these mistakes?

Keep your mash below 160F, don't boil your hops for more than 60 mins (you really don't need to... diminishing returns, aside from bitterness). All yeast gets a bit weird at/above 20C/70F, sometimes you and eke out some interesting flavours like pear and pineapple, but usually you wind up with harsh apple, clove, banana, or even acetone flavours that sometimes even time cannot erase.

If you do wind up fermenting a bit hot, your beer will need more time sealed in the bottle to let the yeast finish the multitasking it started.

With a Saison, a higher alcohol percentage isn't a terrible thing... and so some banana/pear ester isn't going to hurt. They actually play nicely with hot alcohol flavours. A bit of wheat in your grain bill will help kind of liaise and buffer further.

Basically proper attention paid to sanitation, temperature, time, and experimentation/expression.

Auscunt here, I quite like like Budweiser, to me it tastes fruity and sweet, especially compared to Australian lager. I've heard that yanks don't actually like it though?

Its popular amongst poor white rural people in America. Becomes more popular when you get to the older demographics

Very much appreciated user, I'll keep this in mind. Though I must admit I do like some banana notes in my saisons.

To add to this, for a "proper" Saison, you want to keep your body light, so minimal complex sugars - light malt, and a mash temp around 150-155, even a bit lower won't hurt, but too low and your beer won't have any character or body at all.

Fermentation temp should start on the high side, but not super hot unless you have Saison-specific yeast that will handle it. Belgian yeast is preferable as it encourages pleasant esters without getting into pharmaceutical/solvent territory through heat. Wyeast and White Labs are probably your best bet.

Priming should be closer to the 3atm end of carbonation than 2atm (there are apps for that. Brewer's Friend is pretty accurate). You're looking for an effervescent beer.

And ideally, you want to be as local and seasonal as possible - whether it's local to you, or Wallonia/Belgium. It's a rustic beer. If you can ferment it next to a hearth in spring or fall, and cellar it in a beer barrel, all the better, but because of its roots, it's a varied style.

>modern times
>pizza port

I'm actually in middle of nowhere NorCal, so picking up some of the better San Diego beers is hit or miss.

Pizza Port is everywhere, and is frequently on tap. They aren't bad, but Port brewing is a real gold mine to find; I can find plenty of bottles, but they're underrated where I am, so all the bottles are expired.

Modern Times is around sometimes, but I really wanted to pick up a couple Orderville bombers, but they were bottled over a year ago at the place I went to.

I try to keep the AleSmith IPA on hand, but whenever I find it, it's always the last six pack/bottle.

Haven't tried it yet, but I've been a fan of most other MT I've tried. Love a good coffee stout, and highly recommend the AleSmith Speedway line.

Alright lad nice haul, I'm not a lager man but cloudwaters are some of the tastiest I've had. Been getting smashed with a can of Northern monks tropical death party, man what a beer pina colada in a beer with lashings of sorachi ace, before moving on to jewdog's hop fiction at the weekend purely based on £6 for four can. Also had a bottle of kernel Ella/eukanot

WAshington lad here, drink some of that space dust for me, 5 shots in and a Elysian Superfuzz (Elysian has never done me wrong)

Fedora/10

Old stock needs to be aged, seriously, I had some 2013 and 2015 last year, fell in love, bought some 2016, it was ass. Too harsh and no depth, let it cellar for a year at least.

Space Dust is a solid IPA.

That Smith Forge is pretty good too.

The rye is very good, the rest I don't recognize.

Nice to see some Space Dust outside of WA, the brewery scene in my area has gotten big lately.

If you like IPA/DIPA's keep an eye out for Melvin Brewing's 2x4 DIPA, Hypernova (forget the brewery) Triple IPA, Victory Brewing out of PA makes a hoppy-Quad Ale as they call it that is closer to an IPA but equally delicious and their Dirt Wolf IPA is also great, Knee Deep Brewing out of CA makes a fan-fucking-tastic triple IPA called Simtra.
Anything from The Bruery is worth buying as well, especially their 8 maids a milking milk stout when it's around, they're CA-based, one of my favorite breweries, I grab anything I can from them from my local beer store when they get some stuff in, they make a killer sour.

Their Jasmine IPA is fucking trash, and Superfuzz was a gigantic let down to me. Savant IPA, Beatbox IPA, whatever the fuck the one with the lazer-eyed tiger on it and Space Dust are all solid as fuck though. That split shot stout was pretty good too, and of course the classic mens room.

Never liked the Old Stocks i have had other than that solid haul!

Cheers!

Every single beer you bought is complete and unequivocal dog shit. I have never seen such a terrible collection of beers in a single picture. I am confident you are nothing short of another mindless Redditor that bought into the 'le craft beer' meme and made your picks based solely on how abstract the beer label looked (cant be too mainstream, right?)

Jesus fucking christ. As I am typing this, I looked at the picture again and still can't believe someone spent money on that

>Modern Times
Mah nigga. I live right down the street from their Flavordome.

well, you're trying at least. It's clear from this that you are new to craft beer, most of these beers are "shelf turds." they aren't popular enough to sell out quickly, because they aren't "sexy" styles, or anything worth writing home about. I'll go through each beer individually...

Rye of Rye on Rye - decent barrel aged strong ale, "whiskey barrel aged" is a red flag, if it said bourbon, rye, scotch, or something more specific that's usually an indicator that its smaller batch and more attention was paid to it. that beer sits on shelves forever because its overpriced and unremarkable.

buzzerkeley - calicraft is actually brewed by hermitage in san jose (and maybe sometimes devil's canyon). the beer is champagne light, flavorless, and one of my least favorites if the bottle is older than 3 months.

space dust - elysian is owned by AB inbev (budweisser), and you've been duped into buying this macro swill. this beer is almost always past its best buy date, i'd check packaging dates on it.

black house - solid stout, probably the best beer of the lot. modern times makes some good stuff.

old stock - mediocre strong ale. sits on shelves because its unbalanced (think arrogant bastard), and overpriced

alesmith IPA - delicious IPA if you can get it fresh. most liquor stores store warm and the beer goes bad before customers can open their first bottle. weak aroma and cardboard-like flavor is your best indicator but always check packaging dates on hoppy beers

shark bite red - decent red from back when that was a relevent style. again, if this is fresh it will be decent, if you like cloyingly sweet beers.

taper IPA - I have yet to have a GF beer that is decent. haven't tried this one yet, so can't really comment.

tldr: you bought memebeer shelf turds

Recently I tried pilsner and paulaner
and fuuuck they are good, is there any beer like pilsner that Veeky Forums would recommend me?

I used to have that same stereo up until something like 2003.

well it is a very old stereo

>rye on rye on rye and old stock
>sit on shelves forever

Both of those can be cellared, and both say 2017 right on the label, so neither has been sitting on the shelf forever, and even if they had it wouldn't be an issue unless they were in shitty conditions.

This is also the first year the rye on rye on rye is released in bottles, so you're full of shit to say that "it sits on shelves forever".

You're also retarded if you can't figure out what kind of whiskey barrels it's aged in.

Space Dust is one of my all time favorites, but for whatever reason, my wife can smell it emanating from my pores after I've had a couple and she hates it. I drink other hoppy 8%+ IPAs and she never says anything but every damn time I drink Space Dust she can tell.

That "rye on rye on rye" one looks interesting. There was an Innis & Gunn ryed ale that I really liked and I imagine it's something similar. Would also love to try that stout.

You can keep the IPAs. Never understood the appeal.

If you like Pilsner Urquell, try Budwar.

>space dust - elysian is owned by AB inbev (budweisser), and you've been duped into buying this macro swill. this beer is almost always past its best buy date, i'd check packaging dates on it.

>not buying a beer because it's owned by AB inBev

You're all doing it wrong.
>protip; drink it out of champagne bowl for maximum flavor.

Just bought a 6 pack of this for the first time, what am I in for?

Are the memes real?

Do you guys have a reccomendation info pic or something?

I've been wanting to try some sour beers recently, I mostly drink liquor and want something different.

Any good recs?

Not Pilsner but if you like Paulaner you need to try the fuck out of Weihenstephaner.

For me, it's the 90 Minute. The best microbrew IPA.

...

Kozel is also good

Drink wine, it's basically a bottomless pit of new things

My beer phase ended in my early 30s when I started having feelings like "isn't there anything else?"

I'd try that red ale, everything else looks gay.

space dust ipa is bretty good. picked up some pelican double ipa today

How is arrogant bastard anyway?

Friend keeps suggesting I get some.

chouffe is shit

>6 pack of Arrogant Bastard pounders for $10

it's great

Houblon Chouffe is delicoius.
Your taste means less than nothing to me.

Probably the best widely available old school IPA

This is really strange advice

>lambic
Inhale the vomity aroma. Feel the micro bacterial animals growing inside you.

Got a four pack of tall boys the other day. Very tasty.

I hate to use the term, but for lack of a better word, that was the entry level chocolate stout, at least in my beer drinking experience.

It's been so long since I've had it - or even seen it - that I kind of want to see how it holds up these days.

ITT.

Well it's weird that in the USA craft beer is seen as the preserve of hipster, unmake ledtists but in the uk its associated with middle aged boring old farts with questionable personal hygiene.
I don't think craft beer is a thing in Europe, they just have beer.

That shit is called Pilsener URQUELL. Pils(ener) is a beer style.
Also you seem to like czech pilsener, try Budweiser (not the US crap, the czech stuff, see: ), I coulöd name many more but i don't know what you US guys can get.
Look for Staropramen, Gambrinus or Pardal. Polish ones are good too.
Also I know you guys can get Radeberger. It's an (east) German Pils you might like.

For the Paulaner. It's a brand/brewery and you only had their dark Hefeweizen. Try the regular, light one. Or try any other bavarian Weizen you can get your hands on. There are great non Bavarian ones but I doubt you can them in the US.

Also try everything from Bavaria/Franconia you can get, especially everything Vollbier und Helles.

>$60

For three sixpacks, two cans and three bottles?!
Is this a normal price over there?
Not hating but genuinely curious.

Question for the Americans here:
How does pic related compare to American IPAs in general? Is it representative?
We can get that shit here now and I'm curious.
Same question for their Lager.

Decent. Dump Elysian, switch it out for booming rollers from modern times, switch out shark bite for KooK, black house for mega black house at least or devils teeth variants

I'm from Finland and had that one but I found the hops in it way too tired. Also that beer uses more British styled hops to begin with I believe. Try Lagunitas IPA or Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra if you can find them. They are great 'entry level' American IPAs. (I realize I too hate the word entry level).

The Elysian and AleSmith were both $10-11, the PP was around $9, the Boulevard was $12 something (for 750ml), and the singles were all around the $3 range.

There are definitely cheaper options, but those are the things I like/wanted to try.

Yeah, I only have so many Modern Times options, and Space Dust and AS IPA are two of my standbys right now. I get PP Kook pretty often, but had never tried their shark bite (I half only bought it because of the 30th anniversary edition cans).

This is interesting.

Have any of you been watching the Craftwerk series? Just popped up on my Youtube page.

youtube.com/watch?v=0ZIjgFLAWCE&list=PLnPDn1Lb79JHwWdfal51j8Yd6Z8SpHsTO

Yeah I get trying new or "fancy"stuff. I do it too. But the price still seems insane, I mean for that money I can get thrice as much of the good/craft stuff here even when I buy at the more expensive places.
Pic related are 750ml too and from the upper shelves, goes for 3,99€/bottle.

Entry level as a word is fine imho.
We can get a few IPAs here but mostly made in Germany, this is the only American option so I was curious how it compares.
Thanks man.
Btw, what should I look for for Finnish beer?

elysians GOAT.

if you ever see a 22 of their avatar jasmine, pick it up

forget the pic

Anyone here ever had a Weizen/Wheat Pale Ale?
Best of both worlds, perfect summer beer.

Pretty run of the mill. Nothing special but not bad either. The lager is solid, but I wouldn't spend more than 8$ on a 6 pack of it.

Toppling Goliath's thresher is my favorite pale wheat

> canned beer

Oh, to be a peasant

Your ignorance is showing.

>ale
disgusting, go back to 1300ad

>Germans

Cans are inherently superior, though many of the best brewers do not have canning lines yet

Finally tried KBS on tap at a local bar.

It was good, but definitely over hyped. Certainly not worth waiting in a line for hours to get it. Honestly I prefer both the regular Breakfast Stout and Alesmith Speedway Stout over it as chocolate/coffee stouts because I think they work better without the bourbon sweetness.

Still glad I got to finally get a pour of it though. Was $7.50 for 10oz which isn't bad either.

Apparently KBS isn't as good as it used to be anyway. That said I've never tried it myself so I can't say for sure.

pic related is one of my favorite go-to beers, I think it has around 50% wheat content

>Certainly not worth waiting in a line for hours to get it
Its not that hard to get. I mean you have to pay attention to what day your local liquor stores and grocery stores are getting it because its unlikely to last a day, but its not something you have to line up for

Its a really good beer, the price increase this year was pretty high though, and great barrel aged stouts are a lot more common than they were when KBS started becoming a thing

>It was good, but definitely over hyped.
Pretty much this.

KBS is good, but way over-hyped. And the quality is different every year.

There are plenty of equally good bourbon barrel aged stouts that are generally cheaper and don't involve the crazy zerg rush to get, like Weyerbacher's Sunday Morning Stout.

Arrogant bastard is one of the few non-meme mainstream pub beers out there. I'd recommend you go straight to the double bastard which is basically a delicious 11%~ stout

>Arrogant bastard is one of the few non-meme mainstream pub beers out there
What does this even mean?
Also, pretty sure double bastard isn't a stout

lil sumpin is great but have you tried lil sumpin wild? its a straight up better version

Why do people love ultra hoppy beers? Tastes like soapy club soda to me.

Elysian has a few good brews, even post-AB. Their pumpkin ale is about the only pumpkin beer I enjoy, and the immortal IPA is fine. I don't buy em any more just because I'm surrounded by breweries in Seattle, and I'd rather support local. Their beer isn't bad though, the hate is unjustified.

I didn't like them at first, but after I moved to the west coast it was just about all you could find. After a month or so of drinking them regularly I started to really enjoy them. It kind of sucks that you have to really build up a taste to them-- but once you do, I at least found them more enjoyable than the lagers / porters I was used to drinking.

Do you just not notice that lingering soapy flavor or do you actually start to like it? I'm in the same position of only liking porters and lager and the abundance of super hoppy beers is kind of putting me off of beer altogether.

Don't even notice the soapy flavor, though there are always going to be ultra hoppy beers that I don't like as much. IPAs I used to hate I find kind of sweet now, and I even like them a little warmer (not -warm-, but not ice cold either. Maybe 45 degrees?)

That said I still like what I used to drink too, but I don't like the flavors as much. Depends on the season though-- I like IPAs a lot in the summer, and only really like porters / stouts in the fall/winter (but I fuckin love em then.)

ymmv

I don't understand what you mean by soapy flavor. I understand that beer in general is an acquired taste, but all beer has hops, so it always seemed weird that people act like IPAs or whatever have some different ingredients in them than Fosters.

Most beers may contain hops but that doesn't mean some beers don't taste more or less hoppy than others. I think lagers in general are usually less hoppy than ales. That's been my experience anyway. Pretty much any IPA I've ever had has been overly hoppy whereas most lagers I've had have very little hoppiness, especially stuff like corona or Stella which have basically none.

I don't know, some might call me childish for thinking of the flavor of hops as being soapy, but have you ever gotten soap in your mouth? It's that same distinct bitterness and ability to overpower other flavors and just generally linger in your mouth. I finished drinking an ipa about thirty minutes ago, and while I mostly enjoyed it, my whole mouth still tastes a little bitter from it. It was Castaway from the Kona brewing company, by the way.

Hope you have enough left over for the next lootcrate, you neckbearded manchild

BEERS ONLY FUN WHEN ITS COLLECTIBLE HURRRR

Wrong board, mong.

>other beers
>competiting
literally wtf?

What are the top tier chocolate stout?

Fairly widely available across the East coast:
Boulevard Tank 7
Two Roads Workers Comp
Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

Idk my west coast Saisons as well.

If you want a really good Saison, then go Belgian. Pic related is one of the best I've ever had

Rye On Rye On Rye

I unironically want you to die

I think the main problem with Elysian is that they brew too many different beers and only a handful of them are good. I think the Space Dust and Dayglow are excellent, but if you go to one of their pubs, they'll have like 20 different beers on tap, most of which are mediocre or worse.

one of my fave go to ipas
really need to try this though

drinking a Narraganset rn i live about 35 mins from the brewery

also if you come across lil sumpin extra, give that a try too. it's rated higher on beeradvocate but i still prefer lil sumpin wild.

gansets and high lifes are my go to at bars, good taste user