favorite brews

new belgium is boy cotting us so i am boycotting them.

I would say my new favorite as of lately is New Belgium's HOPTOBER It is tremendous!

"Five hops and four malts make HOPTOBER golden ale a veritable cornocopiea of the earth. Pale and wheat malt are mashed with rye and oats to create a medium bodied ale with a creamy mouth feel. Centennial, Cascade, Sterling, Willamette and Glacier hops form a bonfire of citrus notes, fruity cheers and a bold finale."

That pretty much says it all. I happened to make it to fargo last weekend and picked up a six pack among some others at happy harry's. If anyone knows of anyplace around town that has new belgium let me know. I really wish I would have bought more than a sixer because the way its going it won't last the night. This stuff is awesome

well scince meeting you guys and learning what makes a good beer, and what to look bor in a good beer, i have a few new favs.

amber, still was hales (seattle)

brown moose drool i do now love my own, and will added Randi's oatmeal brown as top three right now.

IPA, i would say i appreciate Tylers, commercially Furios from surley (MN) (not my favorite category)

porter, like pigs ass still, but Nogne wins hands down for me right now, and bell's makes a great one too!

stout - this one has expanded like crazy, favorite imperial stout is Nogne, RIS i will go with rasputan (SP?), st. peter make a kick ass cream stout, and a vanilla & coco stout called Affridity (i will bring to the next meeting i am at) is out standing! one runner up that i refuse to leave out in Sam Smith Imperial stout (thanks tyler for sharing)

please share your favorites,esspecially in the belgians, sours, and one i left out, Souix Falls has a lot of different brews i can try and if i am going to pay premium price, i don't really want to shoot in the dark. curiouos if anyone has had a good Cascadian dark or (american style india dark ale) also goes by black IPA. Please give your favorites

i totally forgot Bell's i like there amber, and thier brown! drool tastes good, but around here they think it is made of gold (at least that is what the price suggest)

i must admit thought if it was not for newcastle i would probably still be drinking miller, coors, and other flavored water! now i have been know to drink one still if offered, but i am wishing it was a better quality beer. i just close my eyes, click my heals and repeat "there is no place like home"

and mike, if you missed something i doubt i would know, but and i look forward to learning more!

i hope the input keeps coming!

Tyler wrote:

I'm just givin' you shit. It's surprisingly still pretty good so I'm not going to complain about it. I just like to harass you on that one.

As soon as I can afford to have an extra set of all my plastics layin' around, I'm buyin' some brettanomyces and gettin' everything infected. You'll all have to deal with my weird beers when that happens. I'm just gettin' my ribbing in now because I'm sure I'll get it later.

Let me know when you do that. I would like to get involved in making some REAL Flanders Reds/Browns and all that good stuff. And yes, I'm deathly afraid of playing with bugs because I'm too poor to buy a second Sabco. : /

Also, you've inspired me to try my S&S to see if it's improved. Pretty much forgot I had it sitting in my beer cellar.

Mike Philleo wrote:

Ouch and well-played, sir. However, I did set out to make a beer that was both sweet and sour (though it's becoming more sweet than balanced now), so I did succeed on that part. Ill-fated idea? You bet it was, but now I know you can't substitute acidified malt for brett and all those wonderful bugs....of course, maybe you can and I have to tweak the recipe and give it a red or brown base beer.

I'm just givin' you shit. It's surprisingly still pretty good so I'm not going to complain about it. I just like to harass you on that one.

As soon as I can afford to have an extra set of all my plastics layin' around, I'm buyin' some brettanomyces and gettin' everything infected. You'll all have to deal with my weird beers when that happens. I'm just gettin' my ribbing in now because I'm sure I'll get it later.

Tyler wrote:

Mike Philleo wrote:

- Wack-o beers (sweet and sour, anyone?)

Hmm...did I miss anything?

Yes you did miss something...the mark...when you brewed the somehow-still-tasty Sweet&Sour.

Ouch and well-played, sir. However, I did set out to make a beer that was both sweet and sour (though it's becoming more sweet than balanced now), so I did succeed on that part. Ill-fated idea? You bet it was, but now I know you can't substitute acidified malt for brett and all those wonderful bugs....of course, maybe you can and I have to tweak the recipe and give it a red or brown base beer.

Haha! It's not as bad as it sounds.

Mike Philleo wrote:

- Wack-o beers (sweet and sour, anyone?)

Hmm...did I miss anything?

Yes you did miss something...the mark...when you brewed the somehow-still-tasty Sweet&Sour.

Fantastic idea! I do have that power. I swapped out "Humor" for "Specialties" and I added a "Brew Process" category. These two will both show up under all posted messages.

So if everyone could go check out their profile and update that information, that would be great.

Thanks again for the great idea!

I may have to go more into detail but here's my faves as I know them. Been gravitating from the hops to the malts/yeast since I've started my journey into the world of beer:

- Red Ales

- Anything Belgian (except Tripels and some pales)

- Sour beers

-Smoked beers

- Stout/Porter

- Malty beers: Browns, Scotches, Alt biers...Schwarzbiers

- Wack-o beers (sweet and sour, anyone?)

Hmm...did I miss anything?

My favorite style of beer is brown ales. That said, there aren't a whole lot of browns available around here that I really like (there are a few, but not a whole boat-load). I think that brown ales are the forgotten children of the brewing community. There are some really fantastic browns but there just aren't as many commercially available examples as there are of other styles. How many IPAs does Sierra Nevada release (which, by the way, are honestly superb)? About 5-6 a year? How many browns do they have? Zero (unless you get them from the small batch stuff they have on tap in small quantities at the brewery).

I find that the Goose Island Nut Brown and Christmas Ale are pretty good. The Bell's Best Brown is one of my favorite beers ever. Surly's Bender is a really unique but well done brown ale. I don't remember the Ellie's brown, but it's a calibration beer for the BJCP Brown Ale Category. The Boulder Flashback Anniversary Brown was really good when it was fresh (it's a seasonal). It relies on the hop character (which fades over time) so it's not as good as it was when it was initially released. We'll see if they release it again this year. Moose Drool is the most popular of the brown ales in this area and it's honestly superb. It's got great flavor, great balance, and is brewed fantastically well. A fresh Moose Drool or Best Brown is an absolute gift.

I'm also leaning more and more toward Belgian styles. I'm finding that the yeast character typically associated with those styles really interesting and can be used in a really artful manner. Unfortunately, the only Belgian-style beer I've brewed didn't turn out as good as I would have liked (though it's not bad).

I'll go in spurts as far as my love for hops goes. Sometimes I'll crave highly-hopped beers and other times I have no desire for them. Sierra Nevada's pales and IPAs are always good as is Summit's EPA, IPA, and Horizon Red. Goose Island's Honker's Ale is an excellently balanced bitter that satiates me when I'm hop-needy but want more than just hops. The Boulder Hazed & Infused is super hoppy for a pale ale and their Mojo IPA is fairly good. When I'm looking for hops, though, I buy more Bell's Two-Hearted and Big Sky IPA than anything else.

ambers are my favorite over all, but i can almost never turn down a good brown or porter either. can't say i have had a scotish ale. i do like pale ale, and some ipa's but i have to work up to the real hoppy stuff. so amber, browns and porters.

hey not sure who to ask but on our profiles if there was a comments section you could write your specialties, and us newbies would have a good idea on who to go to for specifics on thier favorite types.

A long time ago we tried to do our own version of the "Wheach", it was okay.

I tend to lean towards; Porters, Stouts, Browns, and Scotch Ales.

There's a lot of good Porters and Stouts out there commercially. That's probably why there are so many on my list. The club did make a fantastic Motor Oil Stout, which I think is great!

On the other hand, we've got homebrew recipes of Belgian Browns and Scotch Ales that I just can't find any good commercial contenders for.

So for me it really depends on which style your looking at.

i was begining to think no one was going to share, or maybe thier own brew is just too good, and i would have to try it!

by the way have you been able to or tried to replicate any of them? any success?

That's a tough one... I know I'm forgetting some but I think these are definitely in my top ten (no particular order):

• Chimay Grande Réserve
  
• O'Fallon Wheach
  
• Samuel Smith's, The Famous Taddy Porter
  
• Sierra Nevada Stout
  
• Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Gonzo Imperial Porter

... seems I'm in a bit of a rut. Oh well, it's a tasty rut.

i know this is a home brew site. but i am still finding my favorites so as to decide where i want to go in my brewing. curious if anyone wants to tell thier favorite brews in different catagories, and even better if they have been successfull in creating thier own simily to thier favorite bought brew, but tweaked to to thier own tastes? damn, i hope that makes sense

alright i like ambers,

favorite is by Hale's in seattle big amber (hope it is still similar to the amber from about 7 years ago when it was just hale's amber)

really like esb from red hook and fat tire as well though!

brown

really like goose island nut brown

also like third stone from Lazlow's in Lincoln NE.


ipa (not well versed)

summit

porter

pigs ass porter, from harvest moon.

i am interested in those who have a more refined taste, i admit mine is rather limited.