The Bar - Beer, Wine & Spirits.

[Virus__]

So, we have a thread for car discussion, LGBT, music, what random stuff we bought, music we're listing to etc here in Off Topic.

 

So I figured why not one for alcohol & those who appreciate a nice beer, whether that is craft, mainstream or you make your own (like myself) or maybe you prefer bourbon or whisk(e)y or a nice refreshing white wine or warming red, or if you're into home-brewing/distilling/wine making feel free to discuss all that here.

 

So i'll get it started, I work with alcohol on a daily basis as it is part of my job, as a hobby I brew beer & am active with a craft beer group on Facebook, I don't drink excessively (any more), I mostly enjoy IPA's (India Pale Ale) & rum. I love the fact where I live (Gold Coast, Australia) we have some pretty good craft beer, in fact two of our local beers just took out #1 & #2 in the Hottest 100 Australian craft beers over the weekend, which is cool.

 

Currently i'm drinking a Czech Pilsner, I popped into one the local liquor stores today saw it and thought "I haven't had a Pils in a while" so decided to give that a go, along with some Ballast Point Grunion Pale Ale & a 6 pack of Brooklyn Lager cause it was on a special & dad wanted something & it comes recommended from mates who use it in a marinade at their bar for their slow cooked lamb shoulder.

 

I know a lot of the audience here are probably under the legal drinking age of their country/territory of residence, but not all of us are, I am also aware some people are not a fan of alcohol & that's cool, but some of us are.

 

So let's get to it & discuss what we like & whatever!

 

Also here's a shot of the Pils I was drinking whilst typing this up, now i've moved on to the Ballast Point.

 

[Volbet]

The last beer I had was a local brew from Nørrebro Bryghus. 

They recently created a series called The Good, the Bad and the Evil, which is three distinct beers.

I had the Evil variety, and holy shit, it's like being hit with a 2x4. It pretty much falls between an ale and a porter, with 10% vol. and a very hoppy flavour with added notes of liquorice.

 

Honestly, the lighter beers like Pilsner Urquell (and lagers in general) never really did a lot for me. 

They're nice enough to drink cold on a warm day, but drinking them for pleasure just seemes like such a waste.

[Virus__]

11 minutes ago, Volbet said:

The last beer I had was a local brew from Nørrebro Bryghus. 

They recently created a series called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which is three distinct beers.

I had the Evil variety, and holy shit, it's like being hit with a 2x4. It pretty much falls between an ale and a porter, with 10% vol. and a very hoppy flavour with added notes of liquorice.

 

Honestly, the lighter beers like Pilsner Urquell (and lagers in general) never really did a lot for me. 

They're nice enough to drink cold on a warm day, but drinking them for pleasure just seemes like such a waste.

Man 10% that's a heavy hitter, then again I did see someone showing off a beer a while back that was nearing 20% ABV, which is just insane. But you also have stuff like Snake Venom Beer which is 67.5% ABV, which is a higher ABV than the strongest spirit I have had which was Booker's Bourbon at 62.95% ABV, which was whoa.. I remember I was at my mates when giving it a go and was wondering why we were all nursing this for as long as we were, then he told me it's ABV, nice bourbon however.

 

Yeah not a bit pils fan tbh. But, it's middle of summer here & it's still 25°C at 9pm so yeah.. But saying that, it was pretty interesting, very reminiscent of a hoppy lager with a very bitter finish, which is nice. Because most pils I find to be boring, bland & flavourless. Something that shouldn't be found in them I am told.

 

I personally prefer beer with character, substance, flavour & a great aroma. It's why I keep coming back to Ballast Point, they have just nailed everything I have tried so far. But then my personal all time favourite is Balter XPA, which is just up the road from me.

[Volbet]

18 minutes ago, Virus__ said:

Man 10% that's a heavy hitter, then again I did see someone showing off a beer a while back that was nearing 20% ABV, which is just insane. But you also have stuff like Snake Venom Beer which is 67.5% ABV, which is a higher ABV than the strongest spirit I have had which was Booker's Bourbon at 62.95% ABV, which was whoa.. I remember I was at my mates when giving it a go and was wondering why we were all nursing this for as long as we were, then he told me it's ABV, nice bourbon however.

 

Yeah not a bit pils fan tbh. But, it's middle of summer here & it's still 25°C at 9pm so yeah.. But saying that, it was pretty interesting, very reminiscent of a hoppy lager with a very bitter finish, which is nice. Because most pils I find to be boring, bland & flavourless. Something that shouldn't be found in them I am told.

 

I personally prefer beer with character, substance, flavour & a great aroma. It's why I keep coming back to Ballast Point, they have just nailed everything I have tried so far. But then my personal all time favourite is Balter XPA, which is just up the road from me.

Jesus, 67.5% AbV. By that point you might as well be drinking straight vodka. 

 

I'll never forget a time a friend of mine had made some 90%+ AbV moonshine. 

That evening ended up with one of us being arrested and the other ended up in the hospital. 

 

In terms of spirits I'm mostly a fan of rum and whiskey. 

I have recently been into A.H.Riise rum, which is a great value in their cheaper options and I recently got gifted a bottle of 18 years old Suntory Yamazaki whiskey, which I have yet to open. 

[mr moose]

Not bear or wine drinker, but I have been enjoying Somersby pear ciders recently. 

[Guest]

I usually drinks Speights if I want a quiet one, or on a night out it’s Jaeger Bombs and straight Vodka. Fun times.

[Virus__]

11 minutes ago, Volbet said:

Jesus, 67.5% AbV. By that point you might as well be drinking straight vodka. 

 

I'll never forget a time a friend of mine had made some 90%+ AbV moonshine. 

That evening ended up with one of us being arrested and the other ended up in the hospital. 

 

In terms of spirits I'm mostly a fan of rum and whiskey. 

I have recently been into A.H.Riise rum, which is a great value in their cheaper options and I recently got gifted a bottle of 18 years old Suntory Yamazaki whisket, which I have yet to open. 

Yeah.. Beers can't really naturally brew much higher than I think maybe 15% before some trickery has to be done, because of the yeasts. 67% you're talking about adding pure alcohol to it to get it that high imo.

 

Oh god. That's some serious shit. I've only ever tried commercial moonshine (Ol' Smoky Charred Harley Davidson 'shine) it was pretty good, but pretty refined so it didn't really give that Moonshine experience. Still nice. Sounds like one hell of a night on that stuff you had heh.

 

Love a good rum, there's a local distiller to me Husk Distillers who do agricole rum, which is pressing fresh cut sugar cane & distilling the juice. It is an amazing flavour they get, their white rum is easily the best & smoothest white rum i've had the pleasure of trying. But that's $75 a bottle, and i'm a cheapskate so I normally just go for Captain Morgan gold or black spiced, because that's decent & I find it good straight on ice.

 

I bet that Suntory would be amazing. Some mates just went to Japan recently & they visited every whisky bar they could find.. One mate found a 25 year old Yamazki single malt whisky, at 400,000 YEN, which was about $4,500 AUD. He was going to get it but they didn't take AMEX apparently.. Nice whisky I am sure, but not $4,500 nice imo.

[Virus__]

24 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Not bear or wine drinker, but I have been enjoying Somersby pear ciders recently. 

Oh yeah I love a good cider too. I don't mind the new cloudy semi-sweet cider by Somersby. But I mostly like a dry cider, they're my thing. Most people would see a dry cider as too much like a champagne/sparkling wine though.

[divito]

Not much of a drinker outside of social settings. Beer was more of an acquired taste when I was growing up than really enjoying the taste as something refreshing that I could just have after work or something. Cannot really stand wine at all. As for spirits, the only ones I'd have straight are probably tequila for shots. The rest have their place in certain recipes that there aren't many I dislike.

Occasionally if bringing beer somewhere, I'll experiment with some different tall boys to mix it up and see what else I might like. I'm more of a pale, pilsner, IPA drinker. Haven't really found a stout, porter or malt that I've enjoyed, not that I've been trying a crazy bunch of them or anything.

I remember going to a ball hockey tournament near Philadelphia, and the hotel bar had a beer called Killer Penguin on their large beer menu. Me loving penguins, I had to try it no matter what kind of beer it was. It's a barleywine ale and is 10% - man was it pretty gross. Can't really remember if I actually finished it or not.

 

[Mutoh]

For me, what I drink mostly depends on the situation. If it's a more casual setting like a party or going out to the bar or something, I'll stick to beers and maybe a scotch at the end of the night depending on how I feel. If I'm having dinner or a meal of some sort, I generally like to have a nice wine with it.

 

 

As for beers, I'm really into Helles style lagers right now, and if not then a Weißbier or a Guinness. I know Guinness is the opposite end of the spectrum compared to a Helles or Weißbier but I enjoy a pint on occasion. As for wines, it mostly depends on what I'm eating but generally I enjoy something like a Barbera or Chianti for darker meats and richer foods (or tomato based pastas) and a nice Ribolla Gialla or dry Riesling for creamy pastas and seafood.

 

If I want to get tanked quick, I'll go for a Jack and Coke though. 

[Hiitchy]

I'm really into Stella Artois / Moosehead, but I've been trying to find other beers that have that smoothness these two do. Any suggestions? 

 

Occasionally I'll have some Wray & Nephew Over proof white rum on the rocks. Either that or something flavored like Irish cream

[Canada EH]

I prefer to be hydrated tyvm

[Guest]

Some good ones I've had recently. I love stouts, but sours have had my interest recently.

[Force.Sensitive.Squirrel]

We have a lot of craft breweries here in Van too, it's easy to drink local and still have a wide variety. Steel and Oak is the one in my neighborhood, and I love them. Big fan of a bit of scotch too, but I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable about it.

[Virus__]

13 minutes ago, Force.Sensitive.Squirrel said:

We have a lot of craft breweries here in Van too, it's easy to drink local and still have a wide variety. Steel and Oak is the one in my neighborhood, and I love them. Big fan of a bit of scotch too, but I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable about it.

It's great isn't it? Off the top of my head there's at least 10 breweries local to me that all do exceptional beers, especially their seasonal releases. Speaking of Canadian beers, I have a friend in St. John's, NL she is going to be sending me some of their local beers, since i've sent her a few of ours. I'm excited to try some of her favourites.

 

Scotch is hard. I mean there's the safe bets like Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie or Glen Moray just thinking of the ones I sell at work. Then there's the blended's everyone seems to like, like Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker, Ballentine's & Dimple. But imo you like what you like, personally I am not a fan of most blended scotch's I think they just taste rough no matter the age, but every single malt I have had, I have rather enjoyed, some more than others.

[Virus__]

1 hour ago, Legendarypoet said:

 

Some good ones I've had recently. I love stouts, but sours have had my interest recently.

Oh nice, Goose Island I bet that was good. Especially being barrel aged.

[dizmo]

You're a bar tender?! You definitely have the look if you are.

I like lighter beers mostly. Coors Banquet is pretty awesome. 3 Monts, a few of the Granville Island beers, Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc are all pretty good as well. Not a huge fan of hard liqour, but there are always delicious shots. Long island iced teas FTW. Caesars.

I also love this:

 

Boston Pizza Twisted Rocket. Raspberry vodka, Blue Curacao liqueur, sweet and sour mix and grenadine syrup. Delicious.

I'm also a complete sucker for anything made with crushed ice.

...my server usually chuckles, or most recently, nicknamed me Debbie for the rest of the lunch.

 

17 hours ago, mr moose said:

Not bear or wine drinker, but I have been enjoying Somersby pear ciders recently. 

I don't like drinking bears either, they've got a real scratchiness to them going down. Plus the hair balls are a little overwhelming.

 

Haha, I'm not a fan of straight ciders (too sweet, gives me a headache) but I love snakebites (half lager (IIRC) half cider).

10 hours ago, Hiitchy said:

I'm really into Stella Artois / Moosehead, but I've been trying to find other beers that have that smoothness these two do. Any suggestions? 

 

Occasionally I'll have some Wray & Nephew Over proof white rum on the rocks. Either that or something flavored like Irish cream

You find Stella smooth? I find it has a bit of a bite to it. I found 3 Monts quite nice, if you can find it.

 

 

@Legendarypoet Those are some beautiful pictures man.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, dizmo said:

 

@Legendarypoet Those are some beautiful pictures man.

Thanks. The photos rationalize the drinking, lol.

[mr moose]

22 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I don't like drinking bears either, they've got a real scratchiness to them going down. Plus the hair balls are a little overwhelming.

 

 

Fuckin' weak.  Bears are piss easy to drink, if you're in the mood for something strong though,  you should try a crocodile or hippo.  they are leathery as fuck.

 

 

 

[Wauthar]

14 hours ago, Canada EH said:

I prefer to be hydrated tyvm

Why not both?

 

Beer wise, I really love Belgian speciality beers. La Trappe (or any trappist), Choufe, Leffe, Gulden Draak are all great. Not too much at a time though, these hit hard

[Canada EH]

beer is beer mate, alcohol does not hydrate, it dehydrates.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Wauthar said:

-

 

[Wauthar]

8 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

beer is beer mate, alcohol does not hydrate, it dehydrates.

Well yeah, I know. That's why it's important to drink enough water afterwards or you'll have a bad morning after

Take care of yourself and the such.

[Canada EH]

Just now, Wauthar said:

Well yeah, I know. That's why it's important to drink enough water afterwards or you'll have a bad morning after

Take care of yourself and the such.

Pffffffffft yeah right, cant remember when I drank booze and had non alcoholic bevy.

[Bhav]

Unfortunately alcohol doesn't go too well with my brain issues, medications for those brain issues, and having money left for PC upgrades.

 

 

[Hiitchy]

9 hours ago, dizmo said:

You find Stella smooth? I find it has a bit of a bite to it. I found 3 Monts quite nice, if you can find it.

Yeah, I really enjoy Stella, but the again I've grown up on Moosehead so I quite like it. However, I can't seem to find 3 Monts here, might either be sold out, or just unavailable.