Just checked my calendar and was wondering how everyone's octoberfest went?

In my city (in Australia) theres a small beer festival, nothing like some of the European ones i'm betting!

Stellar Artois, in a very cold pint, pretty please

Have to say I agree with you there. I've tried, and quite enjoyed, literally thousands of beers. In an ice-cold pint class >>> everything else. Though, that might be the Australian in me.

Wrong.

[e] What Luc said.

There are good beers all over the world. The trick is knowing where to find them (or obtain them locally).

I Live right near the micro-brewery where this is made.
It's one of my favorite haunts because of the fantastic range of beers they have available.
If you can find it, I'd suggest the 90 minute IPA, its pretty heady stuff!

Apparently you missed the discussion on the previous page (whilst replying to a quote from August, impressive).

Anyway, was in Costco last week down on Moreno way in San Diego, and they had cases of Arrogant Bastard for sale. In 22s of course. Very, very tasty - although not the best thing for my wallet. I guess as the label says, they're not too expensive, I'm just too cheap. First time I had seen that too, usually Costco has much more user-friendly beers.

One last thing, from my trip to Washington. If you're in the area, check out Malt and Vine in Redmond. It's by far the best beer store I've ever been to. An amazing selection of beers, and you can buy a pint of a local brew to walk around the store while you peruse. Definitely a winner, and I just wish there was a place like that near me.

I did, sorry about that.

In another note, if you like dark beer I'm really fond of the Plum Porter from Bozeman Brewing Company

Bozeman Brewing Company ~ Bozone Beer

And really, it's not very hard to find them anymore. There are several excellent nationally-distributed, mass market US beers, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada varieties being most frequently mentioned and praised in this thread. For a lot of the other American beers listed here, micro-brew is almost a misnomer at this point. It's a rarity that I can't find one that's recommended here, and I don't live in a particularly populous area. My grocery stores have Fat Tire and Summit next to the MGD and Bud.

Incidentally, there's a brewery/restaurant opening up a block from my apartment. If they have wireless internet, I may go live there instead.

I meant that it could be hard to find some of the specific beers mentioned in this thread.

I agree with your point that it's not hard to find something local nowadays.

I would echo several posters in the thread in my support for pretty much everything that Victory (from West Chester, PA) brews, but I have a particular love for Victory Hop Devil.

This is a rarer find, since the place that brews it is very small (and in my experience often out of stock), and you can only buy it at the inn, but I would highly recommend Jasper Murdock's Stackpole Porter, made by the Brewery at the Norwich Inn in Norwich, VT. If for any reason you find yourself at Dartmouth, in Hanover, NH, the Inn is right across the river, and they sell bottles for take-out at the check-in desk.

I find myself drawn to bars/pubs/brewery-restaurants that are next door to or across the street from a Starbucks. I can usually get on their wireless with my AT&T account from the bar.

Dogfish Head IPA is fantastic.

If you live in Western New York, some Wegmans locations actually have excellent microbrew selections.