Attn. Nick, re: Beeer

[Dominic]

Brewdog have had the marketing sorted, that's what's enabled their metororic rise.

I've tried quite hard with IPA because that's often been the craft-type beer available, but I've basically decided that it's not my thing. It goes well with some food, but I'd sooner have something else, and as Nicks says, something else that's good can be hard to come by because the IPA craze is so strong. :grumble:

I've actually only had Leffe a couple of times, but I liked it. If I want any of the other Begian styles Naren mentions, I expect I'll have to go to a proper craft beer shop. Or Belgium. Which isn't such a bad idea.

[Naren]

It's been my dream to go to Belgium and visit Cantillon, Oud Beersel, Boon, Lindemans, Timmermans, Belle Vue, Orval, Rochefort, and on and on.

And I get what you mean, Dominic. I personally love IPAs, DIPAs, APAs, pale ales, and all varieties, but I think that if you don't care for it that much, you might as well just spend your money on beer styles you like more. Even if they weren't super expensive.

[bulletbass man]

Definitely. The most I've ever spent on a single bottle of beer was $40, but I've seen single bottles of beer going for more than $150. One brewery that I've always wanted to try but never have is Cascade, because most of their beers are between $40 and $60 a bottle. (For comparison, the most I've ever spent on a single bottle of wine is $100 and the most I've spent on a single bottle of whiskey is $250. Normally I never spend anywhere remotely near that much).

Most of the craft beers I drink are about $3 or $4 a bottle for something more normal (as in IPAs, stouts, pale ales, blonde ales, etc.), $10-15 a bottle for something that takes a long time (a lot of sours are like that), and up to about $20 a bottle for something extremely unique (usually using very expensive ingredients and aged for a while).

Craft beer is definitely a very expensive hobby.

So like what Dominic said about the "local stuff being super cheap," here in the states you can buy a 24 pack of a macrobrewery's lager for about $10 to $13, while craft beers will range from $1 a bottle to, well, like I said above, over $100 a bottle. They're not really even in the same category. But I will say that all German lagers here in the states are imported, so their prices are usually at the lower range of craft beer prices. Pricier than any domestic macrobrewery lagers, but cheaper than most craft beers.

I worked at Cascade in their kitchen for sometime. Their distribution is widening so bottles are becoming available at their price for more states. Generally they are between 18-25 dollars while vintage bottles run more (mostly available at the brewery or 2nd hand).

Highly recommend the Sang Rouge especially if you're going to cellar it for a few years (highly recommended). They are incredibly inconsistent when it comes to getting the same flavors, but it's very rare they produce a sour beer that isn't very high quality.

[Nick]

Funny this thread has just been bumped as I recently took delivery of a mixed selection of founders barrel aged beers including 'doom' barrel aged ipa 'dankwood' also ipa and the fuuuucking delicious kbs. KBS is an unbelievable beer and for those unfamiliar is a stout aged in bourbon barrels and brewed with coffee.

Also included a couple of all day ipas and some rubeus raspberry ales which are pretty similar to a rasb lambic.

In other news I'm headed to Dublin next weekend and doing my 3rd guiness storehouse tour and will be drinking allllll of the stout. Especially the antwerp export which is pretty much guiness' take on a trappist ale. Porterhouse oyster stout will also be firmly on the menu.

Recently smashed one of these as well. Highly recommended if you like Russian imperial stout so black and treacly that you think your actually consuming the venom symbiotic.

[Nick]

Had a few good ones last night:



This is almost as good as kbs. Really tasty if you like coffee. If you don't, steer clear.

Also shared this rather expensive bottle with my wife as she loves sours. I like them well enough bit wouldn't choose them over a stout or ipa etc. This one was quite similar to the mikkellar sours with a sour blueberry tang. It was quite refreshing to begin with but after half the bottle of had enough.