The Craft Beer Thread

I'm sorry but my first beer was a Stroh's back in 1968.... I regularly consume Rolling Rock....

sorry Beer Baron, but the beer I've gravitated to lately is KarBach Rodeo Clown IPA.....check 

it if you care to....late

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Afaik that's a pretty mainstream beer so not craft.

Is 10 Barrel Pub Beer still craft?

The beer market has come a long, long way in the last 30 years. We're spoiled for choice. 

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

I'm sorry but my first beer was a Stroh's back in 1968.... I regularly consume Rolling Rock....

When Annheuser Busch purchased Rolling Rock, they struggled to get their equipment to screw the beer up enough to make Rolling Rock.

True story.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Really?

I can't say I'm a Rolling Rock fan but it's been the recent incarnation. Skunky would be how I'd describe it. My father, who believes Milwaukees Best is the best beer, loves it though.

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

Yup. Really.

Dimethly Sulfide (DMS) is considered a significant off flavor in beer, and is a significan component of the flavor profile of Rolling Rock. It's generally described as "cooked corn", "cooked celery", or "cooked vegetables". It comes from not getting a complete boil on the wort (pre-beer) for all of the sulfurous compounds to evaporate.

People have gotten used to this flavor and expect it. So it *has* to be brewed with what would widely be recognized as a flaw.

Budweiser has good equipment that this is no problem at all. To brew Rolling Rock, they had to engineer a way to make their equipment screw up and not boil everything cleanly like they always do.

Similarly, a number of major European premium import lagers (notably Heineken and Stella) intentionally spoil their beer for the U.S. market. Because when they first imported it to the U.S. back in the 70's, it was spoiling on the journey, and people came to think that's what it was *supposed* to taste like.

In reply to Beer Baron :

That makes sense, Heineken is skunky too. That's a flavor I don't like

I brewed my own hefeweizen from Northcoast Brewing which turned out really good, but normally I support Lavery Brewing they actually can ship and Dulachan is my favorite beer overall. I have had to cut down on beer drinking because of gastritis (GERD) I am down to 2-3 beer a month, so I have to make it count.

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Afaik that's a pretty mainstream beer so not craft.

 

 

Lol, I was being facetious. It is cheap swill. I enjoy it because it tastes like a Cubs game.

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

I've never seen it in my area so I had to actually look it up lol

I don't think it counts as craft, but some really good beers come out of AB. Good friend of mine works for AB/InBev, and always has cans of random test stuff that is really, really good. It is in a generic can though - not quite the white can with black letters stating "Beer", but pretty close. I've struggled to find almost any of it on the shelf though, not that I'm looking that hard.

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Like this?

Its not that, but it looks very close to that. 

What is going on in that picture?

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Your guess is as good as mine, it's weird.

The beer isn't bad though

Beer Baron said:

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

I'm sorry but my first beer was a Stroh's back in 1968.... I regularly consume Rolling Rock....

When Annheuser Busch purchased Rolling Rock, they struggled to get their equipment to screw the beer up enough to make Rolling Rock.

True story.

Might just be the "pure spring water" from the Loyalhanna Creek...  

Outside my own beers. My favorites/go-to's are:

Tripel Karmeliet

Pretty much anything by Ayinger. Jahrhunerdt is one of the best beers ever, but tought to find. I've got Celebrator in the fridge now.

Boulevard Tank 7

A rotation of La Fin du Monde and Delerium Tremens.

Beer Baron said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

Yup. Really.

Dimethly Sulfide (DMS) is considered a significant off flavor in beer, and is a significan component of the flavor profile of Rolling Rock. It's generally described as "cooked corn", "cooked celery", or "cooked vegetables". It comes from not getting a complete boil on the wort (pre-beer) for all of the sulfurous compounds to evaporate.

People have gotten used to this flavor and expect it. So it *has* to be brewed with what would widely be recognized as a flaw.

Budweiser has good equipment that this is no problem at all. To brew Rolling Rock, they had to engineer a way to make their equipment screw up and not boil everything cleanly like they always do.

Similarly, a number of major European premium import lagers (notably Heineken and Stella) intentionally spoil their beer for the U.S. market. Because when they first imported it to the U.S. back in the 70's, it was spoiling on the journey, and people came to think that's what it was *supposed* to taste like.

Can verify.  Heineken here in Hungary is nothing but smooth deliciousness.  Easily my favorite of the daily drivers.

Beer Baron said:

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

I'm sorry but my first beer was a Stroh's back in 1968.... I regularly consume Rolling Rock....

When Annheuser Busch purchased Rolling Rock, they struggled to get their equipment to screw the beer up enough to make Rolling Rock.

True story.

I figured it was just because they aren't pulling their water from the mine runoff streams in Latrobe that Rolling rock was brewed from originally. That said, because I know of what had gone into that water through the years on top of the mine subsidence, I'll never drink anything from Latrobe brewing or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

I'd pretty much written off Czech style Pilsner beers when I was younger (the 90s) because they were pretty bad. I'd been gifted a copy of Michael Jackson's book "New World Guide to Beer" and I really wanted to travel the world and taste the beers in their native environments. 

The Micro-Brew and Craft Beer explosions really negated that need. Sure, there are a lot of places brewing average quality beer, but being able to get an average *unspoiled* beer means that average beer tastes better than a world class beer that's spoiled.  Once I was able to drink a Pilsner they way they were supposed to taste all along, I finally understood why people liked them. I'm a big fan of Raleigh Brewing because it's easy to get their beers when they're very fresh. I shipped one of their Pilsners to AAZCD as part of the New Year Exchange and as far as I know it didn't kill him.

. That said, I prefer porters and stouts. I just love the roasted malt tastes. Raleigh Brewing's "The Toll" is excellent. It's got enough character that I can sip on one can for an hour while working in the garage and have the taste develop as it warms up a bit instead of winding up with a nasty, flat beer by the last swallow. 

On the home brewing front, I've had a batch of spiced cider bulk aging for a while now. I've got to get it into bottles next week.

My wife got me a six pack of this, it's pretty good.

Recent release:

In reply to Driven5 :

I need to try more barley wines......

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) :

What Americans haven't been exposed to yet are *modern* Pilsners. People think that beer hasn't evolved in Europe over the past 100 years, but it has.

New-school German craft Pilsners are fantastic. They've got that clean crisp, "We've been doing this 600 years," perfection. They're moderately hop-forward, using modern - usually lightly citrusy - hops. It's a level of hoppiness that few American breweries seemed to have grasped. Americans tend to use no dry hops, or pack in as much as they possibly can. Instead I dry-hop our pilsner about 1/3 as much as our IPA.

I'm sure there are a couple breweries out there in the U.S. going it right, but so far the only ones I've found is my own and Schell's Pilsner in MN.

Also had a world-changing IPA in Prague when I was in brewing school. A Czech brewmaster did a fantastic one that completely changed what I realized IPA's could be. It was hop forward like you would expect, but it still had that European balance. The bitterness was very moderate, closer to a good Pils, but the aroma hops were big and varied. It was very much about showing off hops, but it wasn't *all* about the hops, and it wasn't pushing the limits of how much hops you could throw in. It was very much about finding the perfect level and variety of hops for that style.

It was really weird being in a craft beer bar in Prague, and having the best beer on the menu be an IPA.

All that talk of lagers earlier in the thread got to me... A thank you is in order, from both of us!​​​​

Two of my favorites that were easy to get up in DFW but have been harder to get down in San Antonio....Until now..

when they were both in stock at the Central Market by my apartment!!!

Sour Pickle is a year round staple now of Martin house since it came out in 2019.

Spicy Pickle came out last year and is a seasonal only.. it's very hot.. and almost too much so.. but I like Martin House and so i'll buy the wierd stuff..

Mazdaface is also a fan of some of their more oddball stuff and he goes regularly to the brewery to get stuff.