[mapeifan]

A few favorites, in no particular order-

Rochefort 10
Old Speckled Hen (from a hand pump)
Duchesse du Bourgogne
Narragansett Lager
Gaffel Kölsch
Fullers London Pride
A properly pulled Guinness in Dublin

[option]

I like beer!!!

Modelo Especial
Blue Moon
Dos Equis
Leffe
MGD Light
Pacifico

I never saw the light with the Mexican and American style beers like MGD/ Dos Equis /etc. Here they are described colloquially as - "sex in a canoe". Red Stripe is another I can't see the charm of. They sell enough, so I assume the fault lies in me.

Leffe, on the other hand - yum. I have a soft spot for the Radieuse.

Penguin - I did like the Big Rock stuff when I was over there - the traditional ale was a beauty. The Granville Island brews are very very nice; the Kits Maple Cream Ale is one I remember fondly. I think there was a good brewery out of Nelson BC - do you know it?

Fan Down Under - what's wrong with Little Creatures - I assume you mean their pale ale? I quite like it.

I have this in the fridge, so I'll mention it here:

http://www.grand-ridge.com.au/flash.asp

Grand Ridge Gippsland Gold. Fairly leaps down your throat.

Cheers all.

This post has been edited by option: 02 October 2008 - 03:50 AM

[Patrick B. Penguin]

Penguin - I did like the Big Rock stuff when I was over there - the traditional ale was a beauty. The Granville Island brews are very very nice; the Kits Maple Cream Ale is one I remember fondly. I think there was a good brewery out of Nelson BC - do you know it?

Yeah - the Nelson Brewing Company. Haven't tried any of their products though (sad especially considering we were in Nelson this past summer!).

Of course, you could also go 2 hours east to Creston, BC, home of the Columbia Brewing Company makers of Kokanee (blech) and the infamous sasquatch!!!

[Jimmy]

A few favorites, in no particular order-

Rochefort 10
Old Speckled Hen (from a hand pump)
Duchesse du Bourgogne
Narragansett Lager
Gaffel Kölsch
Fullers London Pride
A properly pulled Guinness in Dublin

I'll vote for Frueh Kölsch instead, though I liked Gaffel as well
I'll also put in a word for Theakston's Bitter.

. . .
Fan Down Under - what's wrong with Little Creatures - I assume you mean their pale ale? I quite like it.
. . .

I suspect Fan Down Under is from SA (there must be some reason he picked Southwark!) - for me the Little Creatures pale ale is too sweet and fruity for their climate; but perfect for Melbourne.

[Drongo]

Of course, you could also go 2 hours east to Creston, BC, home of the Columbia Brewing Company makers of Kokanee (blech) and the infamous sasquatch!!!

Hmmm, sasquatch hunters...

Good ads, terrible beer. F'n close to water, to explain Runitout's earlier analogy.

I'll vote for Frueh Kölsch instead, though I liked Gaffel as well
I'll also put in a word for Theakston's Bitter.
I suspect Fan Down Under is from SA (there must be some reason he picked Southwark!) - for me the Little Creatures pale ale is too sweet and fruity for their climate; but perfect for Melbourne.

I think you're right. You can't find Southwark elsewhere, anyway.

One or two Little Creatures and I need to change beers: too fruity after a while. On a really stinking hot day, I don't mind a bitter, bitter lager, just to wet the whistle. Any of the Australian commercial beers do the trick, with the obvious exceptions that must never be drunk (Carlton Cold, West End, Emu Bitter, Tooheys Red).

Oh, and the old rule: if it comes in a clear bottle, avoid.

[Patrick B. Penguin]

Hmmm, sasquatch hunters...

Good ads, terrible beer. F'n close to water, to explain Runitout's earlier analogy.

I'm impressed that you actually know about Kokanee and their ads, being from Down Under. You'll be sad to know that they killed off the Ranger. However, his lovely sasquatch hunter assistants are alive and well!!

[The Rake]

A good book about beer is:

Three Sheets to the Wind: One Man's Quest for the Meaning of Beer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Sheets-Wind-...4341&sr=8-1

A fun read, where the author basically goes around the world drinking beer. Whole chapter dedicated to the beers of NW USA - where he likes the Micro Breweries. Lots of funny, flippant comments relating to Anheuser and their banning of some Czech town naming a beer after said Czech town. Very informative. Very witty.

I would have loved to have written that book and done what he did

PS - yes, Koelsch rocks. Fond memories from a school football exchange trip (I was the goalie) from 1990 to Koeln. Same time as reunification, so lots of beer being drank

[VdB]

Man, I'm running out of paper to jot down all the tips here! This thread is a goldmine. Liquid gold, that is. With a nice stream of bubbles rising to the top...

Is it worrying to be thinking about Duvel at 12.30h at work?

[frenchfry]

No doubt! We typically spend our summer vacation in France, but as a huge fan of Mexican food I am almost dying by the end of two weeks in Mexi-free France.

I ate some "Mexican" a few weeks ago, I'm not ready to repeat the experience.

Big Rock traditional ale, mmmmm.

[Jimmy]

. . .
PS - yes, Koelsch rocks. Fond memories from a school football exchange trip (I was the goalie) from 1990 to Koeln. Same time as reunification, so lots of beer being drank

You've lived my dream!

Maybe this settles the location for our next WP end of season trip. As long as it's VdB's shout - that Koelsch can induce significant wallet pain at leaving time . . .

. . .
Is it worrying to be thinking about Duvel at 12.30h at work?

Nah - you can just claim it as a hangover from you're time in Prague - beer and lunch seemed to go together there quite well as far as I could see . . . though it's been a decade or so since I was there.

This post has been edited by Jimmy: 02 October 2008 - 10:37 AM

[VdB]

Nah - you can just claim it as a hangover from you're time in Prague - beer and lunch seemed to go together there quite well as far as I could see . . . though it's been a decade or so since I was there.

They sure do. It's funny to see how cultures differ on that. I was working in a fairly international company, and most of my direct colleagues were Dutch. From time to time we would go to a local pub for lunch. On one such occasion my direct superior joined us. I ordered a beer (the 50 cl kind they serve in the CR) with my lunch and he was kinda...shocked.

He was a good guy so he wasn't being pedantic about it, but he was making these half-joking remarks that made it quite clear to me that such a thing was 'not done' in Holland. (of course, I just told him that we're not in Holland ) Any sort of alcohol during working hours, I mean. Seriously though, one beer? That's hardly going to affect my work performance.

Btw, it's perfectly ok to have a beer at lunch over here too. But Duvel is a bit excessive.

[Burkni]

@mapeifan:
Agree on the Gaffel - I once enjoyed a frosty keg of it with a few mates on a starry, freezing night in an outdoors hot tub!

However: I have had Old Speckled Hen both from the bottle and off tap, and however little I may know of ales, it was just about completely flat of the tap - is it meant to be that way?

[Yoeki]

They sure do. It's funny to see how cultures differ on that. I was working in a fairly international company, and most of my direct colleagues were Dutch. From time to time we would go to a local pub for lunch. On one such occasion my direct superior joined us. I ordered a beer (the 50 cl kind they serve in the CR) with my lunch and he was kinda...shocked.

He was a good guy so he wasn't being pedantic about it, but he was making these half-joking remarks that made it quite clear to me that such a thing was 'not done' in Holland. (of course, I just told him that we're not in Holland ) Any sort of alcohol during working hours, I mean. Seriously though, one beer? That's hardly going to affect my work performance.

Btw, it's perfectly ok to have a beer at lunch over here too. But Duvel is a bit excessive.

i can assure you, that its a "done thing" in Holland too, at least in Amsterdam and especially if the sun makes an appearance. Maar gewoon bier niet iets bijzonder.

A Palm is fine. Palm and Man bijt Hond are the best things Belguim has ever produced. That and some bloody war stories.

Brouwerij 't IJ beers are about the best from around here. If you ever get to Amsterdam, you really gotta visit it VDB.

[option]

I'm impressed that you actually know about Kokanee and their ads, being from Down Under. You'll be sad to know that they killed off the Ranger. However, his lovely sasquatch hunter assistants are alive and well!!

I'm not sure how Drongo knows about the Kokanee ads - he seems to be an encyclopaedic freak (er, in a good way, Drongo!) but I know about them having lived in BC for a year.

"Dare to dream, Arnold... dare to dream" became a catch phrase for about two years ...

But yes, Kokanee tastes like sex in a canoe as well. Given the ads, that's somehow apt.

This post has been edited by option: 02 October 2008 - 01:15 PM

[OAR]

Most everything from Texas is horse pee.

Most but not all and I am sure you have never tried this http://www.saintarnold.com/

Fan Down Under are you drinking that MDG in your part of the world? If so then you need to know but may already know that the MDG in other parts of the world is better than here in the USA. Same goes for those Budwiper people.

Beer good......mmmme likes

Spatan makes good beer NFD.

This post has been edited by OAR: 02 October 2008 - 02:35 PM

[Andrew]

I live in Seattle and can heartily testify to the amazing variety of great beers here--it's impossible to keep track. My neighborhood ale house changes its selections every week. Everything Bridgeport makes, especially it's IPA, is delicious as are Rogue River's Shakespeare Stout and Double Dead Guy (you should visit their brewery if you can get a chance: they have a great sampling selection, where you get six small glasses of your choice out of all their beers. Then you get back on your bike and ride the coastal highway, which is narrow and full of logging trucks. Good times...). There really are more micro-brews out here than anyone who isn't a professional can keep track of (and I'm only a cat IV beer drinker). Pike's Place (their skirt-lifter is popular), Dogfish Head, Stone Brewery's Arrogant Bastard Ale... I try to avoid overly-sweet beers, so all the ones I've mentioned are one the dry/hoppy side of the spectrum.

The only problem w/NW micro-brews is that there's a competition to see who can out-hop each other, so you get a lot of beers that are brutally bitter. Actually, Brutal Bitter is the name of one of the local ales.

Forums are funny things: ordinarily I don't think about beer at 8 in the morning.

[The Rake]

I'm not sure how Drongo knows about the Kokanee ads - he seems to be an encyclopaedic freak (er, in a good way, Drongo!) but I know about them having lived in BC for a year.

"Dare to dream, Arnold... dare to dream" became a catch phrase for about two years ...

But yes, Kokanee tastes like sex in a canoe as well. Given the ads, that's somehow apt.

Never tried it, but I am assuming sex in a canoe is good right?

[OAR]

Never tried it, but I am assuming sex in a canoe is good right?

I have heard sex in a canoe is good but also heard it is easy to flip over.

[sweatpea]

Never tried it, but I am assuming sex in a canoe is good right?

It's a Canadian right of passage. If you get what I mean. It's sort of like a list of attributes you would like your mate to have...ie top ten list....canoes=skinnydipping=sexy shennigans in a canoe....and you thought us Canuckers were stodgy lovers....it's quite a feat of athletics!

[Burkni]

I live in Seattle and can heartily testify to the amazing variety of great beers here<snip>

Agree there, I was fortunate enought to visit Seattle a couple of years ago and the beer truly is excellent.