Beer Review Feedback
- Thread starter bubbaschili
- Start date
ross said:
How much time does it take? I had my first brush with quality beer in 1997, I think? I very quickly turned away from the mass quantities of equine urine of my wild and misspent youth and haven't looked back since.
I read an article a couple of years ago that said women, in general, preferred sweeter beers, and that was the reason behind a lot of the poorly made fruit beers of the 90's, and also the reason behind the recent production of some of the chocolate beers. Now,I believe that fruit in beer* is just wrong, but I do like very malty beers. And say, I have an innie, not an outie, so for a data point of one, there is some truth to that.
*beer, not lambics
Ya, how long will that take? As it stands right now, it's been quite a long time and I still hate IPA's.ross said:
why do you hate them? a simple explanation would be that you dont drink them. i didnt have to force myself into liking IPAs, it just seemed natural. however, my best friend, who could not stand anything bitter would make faces for 6 months to a year before he started getting them, now he is ordering them at the bars. i basically made him try everything i drank, most of which was an IPA or an IIPA. there is no set amount of time, i suppose if you drink them very little it will take years and years, but if you force yourself to drink them (as i did with scotch) you will eventually get it. lambic is much more of an acquired taste than is IPA or IIPA.
for whatever reason, ipas and i hit it off right away. though i'm having trouble thinking of which was the first one i tried...could've been red hook ipa.
there are definitely some i don't enjoy..but give me a decently hoppy ipa, and i should be fine. when i first started drinking beers, i had no clue what an ipa was..i only knew about the major brewers..and stouts (primarily guinness) were what i didn't care for. now i LOVE stouts..probably my favorite style.
i remember when i was having guinness for the first time..i thought it was thick, tasted like dirt etc. then randomly i had some irish car bombs..and before i knew it, i felt like having a guinness. bought some, and the rest is history.
edit.. oh yea, any word on making the beer review thread a sticky?
there are definitely some i don't enjoy..but give me a decently hoppy ipa, and i should be fine. when i first started drinking beers, i had no clue what an ipa was..i only knew about the major brewers..and stouts (primarily guinness) were what i didn't care for. now i LOVE stouts..probably my favorite style.
i remember when i was having guinness for the first time..i thought it was thick, tasted like dirt etc. then randomly i had some irish car bombs..and before i knew it, i felt like having a guinness. bought some, and the rest is history.
edit.. oh yea, any word on making the beer review thread a sticky?
I've never really liked IPA, and now that I've done a bunch of drugs that are extremely bitter tasting....now I can't stand anything bitter....call it a refelx.ross said:
xgrafcorex said:for whatever reason, ipas and i hit it off right away. though i'm having trouble thinking of which was the first one i tried...could've been red hook ipa.
there are definitely some i don't enjoy..but give me a decently hoppy ipa, and i should be fine. when i first started drinking beers, i had no clue what an ipa was..i only knew about the major brewers..and stouts (primarily guinness) were what i didn't care for. now i LOVE stouts..probably my favorite style.
i remember when i was having guinness for the first time..i thought it was thick, tasted like dirt etc. then randomly i had some irish car bombs..and before i knew it, i felt like having a guinness. bought some, and the rest is history.
edit.. oh yea, any word on making the beer review thread a sticky?
stouts are my favorite style for half the year. ipas and belgian strongs for the other half.
ahhhhhhhhhh immort ale from a pint glass!!! you should be forced to bong a case of that.
seriously though, if you got some left age it. the oak will fade. they changed the recipe for it in 2003 or 2004 i think. the first bottle i had of immort ale was from the previously mentioned recipe and it was killer. i like the new batch, but when the oak fades from it, it is really good. the 2005s i have are drinking pretty nice about now.
the old batch didnt have oak in it... i think they age it in oak barrels, but im not sure. its either that or they throw hunks of oak in the beer as great divide does with the OA yeti. however, to get as much oak as it has, i gotta believe its put in a barrel. i have been wrong though
seriously though, if you got some left age it. the oak will fade. they changed the recipe for it in 2003 or 2004 i think. the first bottle i had of immort ale was from the previously mentioned recipe and it was killer. i like the new batch, but when the oak fades from it, it is really good. the 2005s i have are drinking pretty nice about now.
the old batch didnt have oak in it... i think they age it in oak barrels, but im not sure. its either that or they throw hunks of oak in the beer as great divide does with the OA yeti. however, to get as much oak as it has, i gotta believe its put in a barrel. i have been wrong though
down here in south florida we don't believe in winter. if i limited my stout or porter consumption to the short amount of time it cools off down here...i'd be an unhappy camper.
hahah i guess you suggest a snifter for the immort? i looked at your favorite website (BA
) and they have it listed as an american strong ale and say either pint, snifter, or mug. i don't see any glass recommendations on ratebeer..but i do see it says immort ale is a barleywine ale. probably the reason i didn't care for it too much. i think i'd like it a lot more if the oak flavor mellowed out though. it wasn't crazy strong..seemed to kinda fade in and out at times after each sip.. but there are definitely plenty of other beers i'd rather drink. i just bought the one bottle. moving soon too..so i'm not sure if i'll be adding any more beer to the aging group.
i might've asked you before..but how are you cellaring your beers? i don't have a cellar..or basement or anything, so i'm just keeping mine in the dark..some in my not very deep closet covered by a shirt or something..some under my bed, and a couple others just buried in the corner under a hoodie to block light. i'm kinda questioning these conditions since at least for part of a week our ac broke down so it wasn't very cool in here..
if i limited my stout or porter consumption to the short amount of time it cools off down here...i'd be an unhappy camper. hahah i guess you suggest a snifter for the immort? i looked at your favorite website (BA
) and they have it listed as an american strong ale and say either pint, snifter, or mug. i don't see any glass recommendations on ratebeer..but i do see it says immort ale is a barleywine ale. probably the reason i didn't care for it too much. i think i'd like it a lot more if the oak flavor mellowed out though. it wasn't crazy strong..seemed to kinda fade in and out at times after each sip.. but there are definitely plenty of other beers i'd rather drink. i just bought the one bottle. moving soon too..so i'm not sure if i'll be adding any more beer to the aging group.i might've asked you before..but how are you cellaring your beers? i don't have a cellar..or basement or anything, so i'm just keeping mine in the dark..some in my not very deep closet covered by a shirt or something..some under my bed, and a couple others just buried in the corner under a hoodie to block light. i'm kinda questioning these conditions since at least for part of a week our ac broke down so it wasn't very cool in here..
ross said:
Ha! Do yah think!
It's not really all that complex, personal tastes vary, and I just don't like over-hopped beers. I didn't like World Wide Stout, and I think you did. The alcohol smothered all the other flavors for me. I don't like those congealed salads that my mother's friends are always trying to force on me, either.
Say, maybe I could start shipping those congealed salads up to you and you could keep eating some until you developed a taste for them!
Ok, you're going to have to explain to me why I would want to force myself to drink something I find unpleasant. Do I win a prize? I drink beer because I enjoy it, not to prove a point or impress anyone else.
I don't, btw, drink scotch, either. I don't like it, and I don't see the point in trying to force something nasty on myself until I develop a tolerance for it. Of course, I'm a woman, and I don't have a penis, so I don't have to prove how large and throbbing it is to anyone.
But not for me. Now, mind you, I won't drink just any lambic, and I don't drink them very often; but a well made lambic is a nice change of pace. And I know lambics aren't for everybody. There used to be some guy near Orlando who made the best peach lambic. It was what convinced me that a lambic could be good.
xgrafcorex said:down here in south florida we don't believe in winter.
There is a lot of appeal to having a thick, dark beer on a cold, cold night, but I'm with you, I like stouts and porters too much to only drink them in January and February.
I use the dark closet method. Not that's I'm cellaring a lot, but I barely have a crawl space under this house, and you really can't get much in those specialized wine refrigerators. So, in the back of the closet in the spare bedroom they go. I usually try and keep them in a cardboard 12 pack box. I've only been doing this for a couple of years, so I don't have much of a cellar at this point.
I became convinced of it's effectiveness by accident. I had a twelve pack of a mediocre porter I brought back from New York. After trying one or two, and being pissed at the poor quality, I shoved them in the spare bedroom closet to get them out of the way for some company. Then I forgot about them for about two years. When I was cleaning out the closet I rediscovered them, and gave them another try as I hate to pour out beer. Yum! Aging had turned it from a syrupy mess to roasty complex goodness.
Pam said:
wow there is so much to respond to!
i like congealed salad, that stuff is great! so is world wide stout, but not if you are drinking it the year it is released. after more than a year in the bottle it developes an amazing sweetness that is not full of alcohol as is the fresh bottles.
i forced myself to like scotch because that way i wouldnt have to share it with all the bums who came over to drink at my college apartment. seems everyone will drink vodka or jack daniels, but no one will touch scotch. if you dont drink scotch, thats awesome, because that means there is more on the shelf for me. i did not do it to prove the size of my penis, (HAHA) i just started to kind of enjoy it after drinking about half a fifth of it. the reason you should start to make yourself drink IPAs is because you will find that they are great summer beers - unlike your stouts and porters, which just make me sweat in the summer. i think of ipas as pinot noir and stouts as cabernet. if you want do drink cab in the summer, then so be it, but i sweat like a pig if i do that. however a nicely chilled glass of pinot is quite good outside in the summer time. same with the beers. if you dont want to learn to like IPAs, then thats your call, but the growing tradition of the stouts and porter styles is becoming more and more hoppy, so if you dont learn to like hops, you may just be stuck with budweiser.
do you like REAL lambics, or that sweet fruit water with the lindemans stickers on it? real lambic is made by brewers like cantillion, drie fonteinen, oud beersel, etc. lindemans lambics (except cuvee rene) are all artifically sweetened, thus making them not real lambic. i also do not even know if they are spontaneously fermented (yet another thing that makes lambic what it is). if you like the cantillion lambics, then that is awesome! if you like the lindemans kriek, perhaps you should go pick up a bottle of cantillion guezue and see how you like that. (one of my favorite lambics).
i have found that lambics are awesome beers for women, because most women do not care for the taste of beer (see every girl i know except about 2), BUT if i pour out a lambic or a new glarus belgian red, they love it. has to do with it not actually tasting like beer, i assume.
xgrafcorex said:down here in south florida we don't believe in winter.
hahah i guess you suggest a snifter for the immort? i looked at your favorite website (BA) and they have it listed as an american strong ale and say either pint, snifter, or mug. i don't see any glass recommendations on ratebeer..but i do see it says immort ale is a barleywine ale. probably the reason i didn't care for it too much. i think i'd like it a lot more if the oak flavor mellowed out though. it wasn't crazy strong..seemed to kinda fade in and out at times after each sip.. but there are definitely plenty of other beers i'd rather drink. i just bought the one bottle. moving soon too..so i'm not sure if i'll be adding any more beer to the aging group.
i might've asked you before..but how are you cellaring your beers? i don't have a cellar..or basement or anything, so i'm just keeping mine in the dark..some in my not very deep closet covered by a shirt or something..some under my bed, and a couple others just buried in the corner under a hoodie to block light. i'm kinda questioning these conditions since at least for part of a week our ac broke down so it wasn't very cool in here..
spare bedroom. i have a shelf and a closet, and then for rare beers i have a cooler that maintains 48-52 degrees. i used to have some pictures up, but i think i took them down. ill get some pictures in the next few days. my supply is dwindling down though, i havent bought any beer in the longest time!
ross said:wow there is so much to respond to!
I can be rather loquacious.
Ahhh...I...I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as though a million voices all cried out "ewwwwww".
Well, if someone has some aged it, I'll give it another try, but I'm not rushing out to buy any. I'd rather spend my money on some Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout. And I'd love to get my hands on some more Alaskan Smoked Porter to age. World Wide Stout is a novelty beer, brewed to bring attention to the brewery, and I've already expressed my opinion of that fad.
Apparently my college friends had more heft and sway than yours, because they wouldn't have been dissuaded from anything alcoholic by something as silly and trivial as taste. At least, as best as I can recall they wouldn't have been. Having consumed more than my share of alcohol in those days, my memories are a bit on the fuzzy side.
Yes, but you like congealed salads, so we already have established that your taste is questionable.
Um...*I* should stop enjoying stouts and porters in the summer because they make *you* sweat? Pray tell, unless you're sitting on my furniture, why should I care about the hyperactivity of your sudoriferous glands?
*haughty sniff*
As long as you use deodorant, that is.
I'm afraid you're guilty of the fallacy of the excluded middle. The choices are not either stout/porter or IPA, there are plenty of fine ales, witbiers, and even pilsners that make delightful summer sipping. There's some Grant's Summer Ale in my 'fridge as I type.
You're trundling into another either/or fallacy after bumping into a hasty generalization. I drink beer because I enjoy it. I don't enjoy extremely hoppy beers. I still don't see the value in forcing myself to drink something I find unpleasant until I become inured to the unpleasantness. It's not like it's going to lower my cholesterol or make obscenely rich 84 year-old men with heart conditions fall madly in love with me.
And there really are plenty of other choices than "Get used to IPA's or drink Budwieser" , but you already knew that.
Ok, definite weenie wagging here. I said I like the occasional well made lambic, not fruit juice. I don't drink them often enough to rattle off the names, I just browse the beer store when the mood strikes me.
So, have you been trying to make them drink IPA's for their own good?
it reminds me of when my parents used to tell me to eat mushrooms/seafood/etc. and eventually i'd like it. 
i didn't follow their advice and still don't care for any of that stuff..though shrimp is alright.
with liquor..i started off just drinking it mixed pretty much all the time..now i usually only mix it with a couple ice cubes. other than shots of course.. it took some time for me to get used to it..but i still prefer a good beer over liquor any day of the week! i just wish beer was healthier for me in regards to the slight beer gut i'm trying to lose.
edit...there are some beers that i try every now and then from styles i don't care for. particularly barleywine style ales. i had heard lots of good things about old ruffian, so i gave it a go despite my lack of interest in the style. didn't care for it really. i don't go around trying all the beers of that style like i do other styles though. for the most part i stick with my favorites..stouts, porters, and ipas. i try other ales and some lagers here and there..but just here and there kind of.
as for sweating with porters and stouts...the weather here can get pretty nasty..especially during the summer. it's either humid as hell out there..or raining all day. so i do pretty much all of my drinking inside with the A/C. only sometimes when it's nice out, dark out, or i'm grilling do i drink outside. once our "winter" rolls around..it's usually pretty decent outside..but i still am more of an indoors drinker.
i didn't follow their advice and still don't care for any of that stuff..though shrimp is alright. with liquor..i started off just drinking it mixed pretty much all the time..now i usually only mix it with a couple ice cubes. other than shots of course.. it took some time for me to get used to it..but i still prefer a good beer over liquor any day of the week! i just wish beer was healthier for me in regards to the slight beer gut i'm trying to lose.
edit...there are some beers that i try every now and then from styles i don't care for. particularly barleywine style ales. i had heard lots of good things about old ruffian, so i gave it a go despite my lack of interest in the style. didn't care for it really. i don't go around trying all the beers of that style like i do other styles though. for the most part i stick with my favorites..stouts, porters, and ipas. i try other ales and some lagers here and there..but just here and there kind of.
as for sweating with porters and stouts...the weather here can get pretty nasty..especially during the summer. it's either humid as hell out there..or raining all day. so i do pretty much all of my drinking inside with the A/C.
only sometimes when it's nice out, dark out, or i'm grilling do i drink outside. once our "winter" rolls around..it's usually pretty decent outside..but i still am more of an indoors drinker.Just the opposite for me...I keep trying to get my mom to try mushrooms................................xgrafcorex said:
haha. i was thinking about that when i wrote it...i couldn't imagine my parents on mushrooms!! particularly my dad.
particularly my dad.