NG.com Beer Thread/Beer Discussion

[OrochiEddie]

Been enjoying some good Wisconsin locals at the moment. New Glarus for the most part to be precise. I'll do a more detailed write up later

 

[LoneSage]

I could have swore that I typed up a reply to you LoneStage.

Basically, beer in cans goes bad for much the same reason that beer in bottles does.

Truthfully, it never goes 'bad', but it will get old, stale, and generally not taste good.

Cans don't have to worry about UV rays which cause lightstruck or skunky flavors. UV reacts with certain hop chemicals and actually changes them into the exact chemical compound in skunk spray. Cans aren't penetrable by light so this isn't an issue.

Oxygen is the biggest destroyer of beer. Any pickup and any point in process following primary fermentation will begin to deteriorate and oxidize the malt and hops in beer. Oxidized malt usually present as papery or cardboard flavors, some oxidized flavors in bigger beer (think over 10% ABV) can be somewhat pleasant such as sherry or port, oxidized hops are harder to describe, but generally are cheesy. We measure our beer at packaging to picking up about 20ppb O2, ideally we should be in the single digits.

I personally can tell a difference between beer on the day of packaging and week old beer that has already begun to oxidize, this is harder to do if you can't pull beer from the line to sample and most consumers don't see beer on the shelf until it is at least 2 weeks old already.

We have a pull date for our product of 3 months, like I said, after that it isn't going to kill anyone, but it won't taste good. Certain beers do better at surviving oxidized flavors like I said, our Dunkel (German dark lager) is more shelf stable than our IPA.

Hope that this mostly answers your question, basically look for beer dated under a month when possible, buy local beer, and know that beer is a product best drank fresh.

thanks brodeo

I guess there was a reason it was on clearance

 

[Domino-chan]

I have a few more to report on:

Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale - From Lazy Magnolia Brewery, Kiln, MS. This one's pretty damn dangerous. It's a lovely ale that made me go, "hey this is pretty tasty" and two minutes later, it was GONE. Has a very light pecan flavour.

Barn Burner Farmhouse-style Ale - From Karbach Brewery, Houston, TX. It's like a hefe mated with an ale. The aftertaste sort of turned me off, but it's still not bad.

Koko Brown Ale - From Kona Brewing, Kailua-Kona, HI. STOP READING THIS AND BUY A SIX PACK RIGHT NOW... as long as you like coconut. Because holy shit you can smell the toasted coconut right off the bat. It's delicious, but only if you dig coconut.

 

[Ancient Flounder]

Partook in some 2012 Goose Island Bourbon County stout recently. Definitely not for the weak-hearted. It's a palate-destroyer.

 

[LoneSage]

i've been drinking 2 or 3 beers (bottles) a day for the past few weeks

biggest side effect is the fattening. holy jesus it's easy to get a gut from drinking beer.

that is all

 

[lithy]

liquid bread

 

[Adderall]

I'm heading out to DC.. hopefully going to hit up some good beer places: churchkey, grandville moore's...

 

[lithy]

I'm heading out to DC.. hopefully going to hit up some good beer places: churchkey, grandville moore's...

Chuchkey is great.

Pizza Paradiso at Dupont Circle is also awesome, can't speak for the Georgetown location but I'm assuming it is a safe bet too.

There is a Whole Foods on P Street that and Connecticut Ave Wine & Liquor has the best options for take home beer, look for canned stuff from new guys like DC Brau.

District Chophouse, Captiol City, and Gordon Biersch are all ok but for the most part skippable.

 

[MCF 76]

Been hooked on Samuel Adams hop tour lately. Whitewater ipa, Latitude 48 ipa and Nobel pils.

 

[Domino-chan]

We had a "weird" beer tasting at school a few weeks ago. I tried my first lambic (Cuvee Rene), which was interesting, but I liked it. Then came the IPA...

Maharaja by Avery Brewing - IPAs never fail to kick me in the proverbial nuts, and yeah, this one kicked me HARD. Then it kicked me while I was down. If you like IPAs, check it out. If not, avoid.

Yeti Imperial Stout by Great Divide Brewing - When the instructor poured the samples, it literally looked like motor oil. The other students gasped, and my eyes went wide. It's a strong stout, but delicious.

 

[MilkManX]

NIce. I love stouts. I got 2 bottles of STONE's recent Espresso Russian Imperial Stout (11% ABV!) and it is ridiculously good.

 

[dspoonrt]

Yep. Big stouts, IPAs, and Belgian sours are all the rage in the beer community (everyone wants more and more flavor/alcohol), so that beer tasting covers all of the chic beer bases nicely. Once you get a taste for big, imperial, full-flavored beer, it's hard to go back.

Over the weekend, I enjoyed some:

Hoppin' Frog Gangster Frog IPA
Stone 12.12.12 Vertical Epic
Stone Mixtape Vol. 5: Winking Lizard Blend - mix of Cali-Belgique, LeVariation, and barrel-aged Pale Ale
North Coast Le Merle
Southern Tier Hop Sun
Bell's Oberon
Harpoon Summer 12-pack - Midsummer Fling was the only new one, but it was surprisingly good for a flowery beer

More beer drinking than I've done in a while, but there were several ones I hadn't tried before. Lots of good stuff.

 

[aria]

At the rate of proliferation, I'm genuinely concerned we're heading towards a point where there might be saturation and even decline. Not a collapse, mind you, but I keep reading various business journals announcing a new brewery opened by various investors who want to get into the fun growth market. For the brewers who are getting into this because it's sounds a like the ideal job, that's great and I think they'll be fine--but the investors who are looking to have exit strategies for the funding (e.g. being acquired)... there's got to be a ceiling as how big the market can go and the value those breweries will have outside of local markets. Some business analysts have been writing on when that time will come--unsurprisingly it's divided over how soon.

 

[dspoonrt]

Agreed. Bad breweries - hop ons to the craft/micro beer boom - are popping up everywhere. My wife and I (avid homebrewers) have wanted to open up a brewpub or small brewery for the last three or four years, but at the rate breweries have been opening in every large and small town, I'm afraid the market will be far too saturated by the time we get the loans/funding figured out.

 

[lithy]

Agreed. Bad breweries - hop ons to the craft/micro beer boom - are popping up everywhere. My wife and I (avid homebrewers) have wanted to open up a brewpub or small brewery for the last three or four years, but at the rate breweries have been opening in every large and small town, I'm afraid the market will be far too saturated by the time we get the loans/funding figured out.

In all honestly, I would say if you want to do it, continue to work on it, but if you develop a solid business plan, you might just want to wait until the bubble pops or at least deflates like Bobak says. Right now, there is such a big lead time on new equipment and a premium on used equipment (when it is even available) that lots of startups are having to invest a lot more initial capital in the brewhouse and tank capacity than the ones that got in on the early end of the current boom (say 2009?). When the constant upswing levels out or falls, and then in the typical 5 year failure for a business, there will be a total glut of equipment on the market. Saving a potential startup up to 100k or more depending on sizing.

I think that there is still plenty of growth potential in the market, but in my opinion it has to be from local focused breweries. Right now, there are lots of breweries opening and shipping beer far and wide from day one without developing any local support. Very few of these if any will become the next Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, etc.

Just like the late 90s when venture capital got into the brewpub game, it won't take long until they realize that while there is money to be made, this isn't like biotech. For the cost of setup, the margins are low with a long time frame ROI. You can make a living, not make a million, but there will always be beer.

 

[norton9478]

I JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY...

I was thinking about how long it has been since i last had Guinness and Sweetmilk.
Them my brain moved on to Milk Stouts, Oyster stouts and Rocky Mountain Stouts.

Then it hit me.....
Similac Stout. My next 5 gallon batch. Gonna be hella expensive unless I can find someone with left over wic vouchers.

 

[dspoonrt]

I JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY...

I was thinking about how long it has been since i last had Guinness and Sweetmilk.
Them my brain moved on to Milk Stouts, Oyster stouts and Rocky Mountain Stouts.

Then it hit me.....
Similac Stout. My next 5 gallon batch. Gonna be hella expensive unless I can find someone with left over wic vouchers.

Haha. Similac Stout - strong enough for a man but made for an infant.

 

[2D_mastur]

Drinking Moosehead tonight, insult me.

 

[Fuzzytaco]

Drinking Moosehead tonight, insult me.

Drink some real beer, pussy.

 

[2D_mastur]

Drink some real beer, pussy.

CYBER BULLYING!

 

[Fuzzytaco]

Just supplementing my real life bullying.

 

[Domino-chan]

Founders Dirty Bastard is amazing.

That is all.

 

[THE1337ROB]

8 year long thread. Nice

Old Rasputin Imperial Stout-North Coast
Devil's Backbone Belgian Trippel-Real Ale
Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout-Independence
Old Chub Scottish Ale-Oskar Blues
Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismark-Brew Dog, on special occasions only

Beer snob.

I'd probably own an arcade worth of candy's and have a complete Neo-Geo collection if I didn't have such a pricey drinking habit.

Being a drunk is bad enough...but being a drunk with good taste...that's rough on the wallet.

 

[THE1337ROB]

i've been drinking 2 or 3 beers (bottles) a day for the past few weeks

biggest side effect is the fattening. holy jesus it's easy to get a gut from drinking beer.

that is all

LOL. I've been drinking 2-4 beers a night for well over a decade. I workout just so I can enjoy my brew

 

[MCF 76]

Went to Taco Mac in Atlanta 2 weeks ago and tried some Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Man I really like the taste of it a lot, finally found a liquor store here in Memphis that sells it. : )