Perhaps, oh, um, BEER?!???!!

[Fenir_LacDanan]

How good is beer?!

Just thought I'd kick it off, and shall we discuss the lesser American brews in contrast to the stronger European ones. Shall we discuss the virtues of Ales as opposed to stouts? And so on...

Come one come all, to the Irish beer - a - thon challenge, in which we discuss beer in a clear and constructive manner!

Shall we?

Come on....

I know its been stated before, but still, I pose the question...

How good is beer!?!?!????

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

Old Speckled Hen is best

i am not normally a fan of beer, as such, don't mind stout, good pint of Caffreys or Guinness (must be the irish in me!), but i prefer bacardi, whiskey and vermouth to beer.

[Starr Polish]

Blech.

Give me a glass of wine or a "girly drink" anytime over beer.

[Insidious Rex]

As the germans say Beir ist gut!

[Nurvingiel]

I had the best beer tonight, it was a perfectly poured pint of Kilkenny, though Guinness is still my favourite. I love creamy ales. Kilkenny is really creamy, and Guinness is like... a meal in a glass.

I also like Kokannee (Canadian lager), Granville Island Honey Brown (Canadian ale), Stella Artois (Belgian lager), Beck's (German lager), and Karhu (Finnish lager). Norrlands Guld and Bla Bra (I think) are some pretty decent Swedish beers. It's worth mentioning, that aside from Budweiser, American beer isn't bad, per se. Coors is a perfectly decent beer IMO. Molsen Canadian is only a smidgen better.

I love beer! Great thread Fenir.

EDIT: Ooh! And how could I forget Sleeman's Honey Brown!!?? Or Sleeman's Cream Ale (Or is it dark ale). Two great Canadian Ales.

And, the Wychwood Brewery Goblin ale. My favourite English ale.

[Hanza]

give me a girly smirnoff or some whiskey anyday. beer is yucky lol *ducks*

[Fenir_LacDanan]

I love Guinness, it is easily the best drop of stout around. (well technically its not a stout, but you know what I mean.) KilKenny is also tops, along with Caffrey's. Ah, the taste of home...

Aussie beer is pretty good, but there are some strange things about it.

Firstly, here in Victoria, a state in the south, the only drop to drink is VB, or Victoria Bitter, followed by Carlton Draught and Melbourne Bitter. The thing is, Victoria and Melbourne bitters are actually not bitter, they are in fact lagers. God knows why they are called bitters when they are not, but no one over here seems to care at all. In fact, they tried to sell VB in England, but they changed the name to "victoria beer". I haven't been to London in years, so I cant tell you if its still available.

Fosters Lager, the famous Aussie beer, is in fact rarely drunk in Australia. If I turned up to a session with a slab of Fosters, my aussie mates would can me to no end.
I think its a bit of a backlash to the staggering foreign success of Fosters.

There are quite excellent Beers to be found in Tasmania, the most southern state, with the Brilliant Boags Lager at the head of the pack.

And after all, drinking is ALL THE AUSTRALIANS DO.
Lets go to the beach, says I, Robbo says "sure mate, but I'll just grab a slab of beers for the journey". Lets turn on the Cricket, says I, Conna's says "righto then, beers are in the fridge"

Drinking is all they do, they bloody love it. And I'm Irish, so I do enjoy the occasional snifter of Sherry at Christmas time , myself. If your bored or lazy or looking for something to do, go over to Smithy's place and say "lets file our bi-annual income tax returns." Smithy says "righto cobber, I'll just nip down to the bottle-o for a few slabs of Vic..."

The funnest people in the world, far and away.

[gollum9630]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

I also like Kokannee (Canadian lager), Granville Island Honey Brown (Canadian ale),

I may only be 17, but i have to agrre with you here, Kokannee is a good beer and i had some Granville Ilsand Honey Brown awhile back at one of my parents parties and it was okay

Coors is a perfectly decent beer IMO. Molsen Canadian is only a smidgen better.

Coors isnt strong enough IMO

EDIT: Ooh! And how could I forget Sleeman's Honey Brown!!?? Or Sleeman's Cream Ale (Or is it dark ale). Two great Canadian Ales.

Sleemans is an okay beer

[Aragorn]

Mix vodka and scotch. The trick is to drink it really fast. Its good, I promise.

[Nurvingiel]

Unless Aragorn drinks some really bizarre beers...

You can make barfy shots with a beer like a depth charge or whatever it's called. A shot of butterscotch schnapps dropped into a beer then you chug the whole thing. Then you usually puke. Never done it though. Don't let anyone buy you a depth charge, or a cement mixer...

Originally Posted by gollum9630

I may only be 17, but i have to agrre with you here, Kokannee is a good beer and i had some Granville Ilsand Honey Brown awhile back at one of my parents parties and it was okay

And Granville Island also brew this brilliant unfiltered wheat beer. It's sooo good. It's an ale, more specifically. It's called... Ugly Ale. It rules.

Originally Posted by gollum9630

Coors isnt strong enough IMO

I said it was drinkable! Water is drinkable too...

Originally Posted by gollum9630

Sleemans is an okay beer

I love Sleeman's. My first beers were Sleeman's.

[BeardofPants]

When I was in Munich (and Vienna) recently, I drank so much beer that I'm surprised I didn't die of alcohol poisoning. Vienna was awesome cos it had a lot of the Munchen beers on tap, and well, there ARE those awesome beer gardens in Munich proper... So much good beer, so little time, was my excuse (what, it tastes better when it's on tap!).

[Snowdog]

I want to go to Vienna, Budapest, and especially Prague! One day...

I have to say that what I miss being in the southern hemisphere is the winter seasonals, like Jubulale, and 2 Below, and Ebenezer...

[Snowdog]

VBuilt me a six-pack by picking out bottles of Aussie craft brews:

• Mountain Goat Hightail Ale
• Wizard Smith's Ale
• Grand Ridge Moonshine Scotch Ale
• Grand Ridge Moonlight Nut Brown Ale
• Outback Pale Ale
• James Squire IPA

I'll review them on Beer Guide to Australia as I drink them!

[Insidious Rex]

So it looks like I may be scoring a couple bottles of the ellusive Westvleteren 12, by far the most coveted still brewed beer in the world. A gentleman from the UK has a half case and desperately wants some Dogfish goodies which are easy for me to get. Just worried about losing such diamonds during shipping... Snowdog Have you had any experience shipping stuff to/from Australia? Do you use a courier service and spend a bundle or do you risk it in the post? Anyone from the UK do anything like this before?

And speaking of hard to get beer, have you seen the prices for this years Utopias lately on ebay? A single bottle is going for well over $200 now. Whats a beer fan supposed to do...

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

Snowdog Have you had any experience shipping stuff to/from Australia? Do you use a courier service and spend a bundle or do you risk it in the post?

Because of the plethora of confusing state alcohol laws in the USA, Australian Post refuses to ship any alcohol to the US. From what I can tell from their post regulations, I could ship a beer anywhere else in the world. Yep, the United States is mentioned specificly in their post regs. That said, I haven't checked into this, but word has it that DHL will ship one liter of beer between the U.S & Australia as Australian customs allows that much as a gift. I have yet to verify this, but I was told it wasn't cheap. I found its best to carry it from the states to Australia as you're allowed 2250 ml. Posting beer around Australia is not a problem as its allowed as long as its packed right. I'll find out how it goes when I bring back some beer to the states.

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

And speaking of hard to get beer, have you seen the prices for this years Utopias lately on ebay? A single bottle is going for well over $200 now. Whats a beer fan supposed to do...

You would think they were trying to turn beer into wine....

[The last sane person]

A good Pilsner does me fine.... Urquell would be my time honored tradition.

That and i've become fond of Sam Adams...