Kaubel: If you're eating Mexican, drink Mexican. Negra Modelo is very good stuff.

You do realize that it's not $1 draft, right?

Most of the Mexican places here have it though, so I'll definitely give it a shot.

not a large fan of negra modelo, more of a blue moon type of guy. Although it can only be draft. sucks horribly in bottle for whatever reason. Oh and Magic Hat.

As far as mexican goes, I prefer Dos Equis.

Here's beeradvocate's take, they also like Negro Modelo:
http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/272/

If any of you are ever in the Minneapolis area, on Washington Ave. there is a "Hill Tavern" that has a homemade "Grand Cru" beer. It's 10 percent alcohol, and has a real fruity kick to it. The crazy thing about it is the after-taste: it kinda cascades from roasted oats to orange to cinnamon and back again. It's one of those beers that you can feel stimulating different parts of your tongue, heh. I'm hoping some of you know what I'm speaking about.

Anyone having problems finding Murphy's on tap? Seems like it's just up and dissapeared in my neck of the woods*. I have to look hard to find it in cans.

*SW Ohiah.

Didn't realize Grand Cru was a local-only thing? I thought it was just another of the northern breweries I couldn't find down here, but I guess maybe I did only ever get it in MN. From your description I'm pretty certain this was the one recommended to me when we cruised through there. Cinnamon tang to it with an extremely complex (yet cool) aftertaste. I usually dislike fruity beer, but the couple I had were more like a heavy wine than a beer and not bad at all.

Also weighing in to say we tried Blue Moon's White Belgian today as our "Game-day let's see if this sucks" 6-pack. It's actually not bad at all, but I seriously wouldn't touch it without an orange wedge and a glass. (Much like I wouldn't drink a Corona without real lime.) I also wouldn't drink it as anything more than a starter beer before something heavier or better quality. Not bad at all, though.

New Belgian's seasonal fall brew, however, is either crappy or I got a bad batch. "Saison", I believe. At any rate, it was majorly yeasty and generally not good by any of our opinions. I usually like New Belgian brews (1554 woo), but I won't be buying any more seasonal fare from them until their winter line rolls out, methinks.

If you've got a local Flying Saucer or you're in the northeast, you might want to try Rogue's Dead Guy Ale for the hell of it if you can find some. It's average on its own, but a pretty great brew with food or post-meal. Our Saucer down here keeps 80-100 beer on tap and another 100+ bottled, so I'm still working my way through a lot of good brews when we get chance to drop in there. Great place. They've got tons of good imports and lots of awesome homebrews. You can get a giant bottle of Chimay for under $15, which isn't bad at all. You just have to make sure the waitresses don't fall on you because they'd probably break some bones.

(Slug does not tip fatass waitresses, even if the beer is exceptional. Call me rude, but I'm trying to eat here and ugh.)

You may be right...however, they definitely seemed to consider it to be their own, just from the text explaining it's origins and it's awards (silver medal in some beer competition I guess). It's definitely a distinct brand of beer, like you say it's kinda hard to categorize.

I may be weird, but to me, aftertaste is the deciding factor in how much of my paycheck I'll throw away on a specific beer. Complexity is good, I suppose.

Just had a Broad Axe Stout here @ Granite City restaurant. Wasn't bad at all, almost tasted like Bacon at points. heh.

A beer I recently had at an eccentric little restaurant near my school is Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale, which was a good beer in and of itself but the fact that it's served in a chalice/pimp goblet a la Lil Jon makes it all the better. Definitely worth a taste test.

Amen Slug. Amen.

So, I had my first Trappist Ale over the weekend. I was at BJ's. a brewery/restaurant that's popular on the west coast. I was asking the waiter about their selection, and he mentioned, in addition to their own beers, they have an extensive Belgian selection.

I got the list and immediately went after the only Trappist Ale on there (because of the recommendations on this thread). I gotta say, that bottle of Orval was one of the best beers I've ever had. It was light and airy, with a really great dry, hoppy finish. Worth every penny.

I heard someone mention magic hat night of the living dead variety pack, my question is when does it come out? obviously it is sometime around halloween, but i need a date dammit! Been wanting to try it forever now.

I also highly recommend rogue dead guy ale, little expensive here in NY but it is well worth it.

Other than the obvious "Are you legal?" issue, what are the pros and cons of starting a Beer E-Buddy Exchange Program (B.E.E.P.)?

First Post on a great subject.

For my money it doesnt get any better than Seirra Nevada Celebration Ale. Its a seasonal brew that has a ton of alcohol in it. This is available around Thanksgiving thru Christmas.

Samual Smiths Old World Pale Ale is tip top. Samual Smiths Winter Welcome is another seasonal that you shoudl give a try.

Blue Herron from The Mendicino Brewing Company is good.

All the Full Sail Ales are good.

Bass Ale, Seirra Nevada pale and Redhook IPA are everyday consumables.

Well one easy pro would be I would get to try some of these awesome brews mentioned in this thread, that I would otherwise never have the chance to.

A con would be... I guess you could send someone a six pack or case and never get anything in return. Though, with an E-bay like rating system the freeloaders would tend to get ostricized from the community over time.

Man, I'm really wanting to start this.

I told Gilliam last night that I'd send him various Shiner beers since he's never had anything but their bock. How do we prove age though? I know Gil is legal because I've met him in person, but I've no idea regarding the rest of you bastards. Last thing I want is to have the county sheriff knocking on my door, serving me a warrant for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Paging Gurgthock to the beer forum.

Undesirable it may be, that's the answer we were looking for.

Some states don't allow you to mail liquor from out of state legally.

IIRC, you cannot mail liquor to a Florida state address from out of state (Florida likes to collect the liquor taxes), or it might work the other way around.

Like Kaubel said, it is tough to know if someone is 21, especially from a forum. You can't just ask for ID electronically (at least not yet or can't do it as easy as "show me your ID"), so I don't know if B.E.E.P can work out (unless you know the guy, but then is he an E-buddy or just a plain buddy then?).

Yeah, it's more a taxation thing rather than a moral one from what I gather. Most states that regulate beer/whatever imports aren't major producers themselves and stand to gain more by collecting tithes on local sellers.

IDs are overrated anyway. I managed to get drunk proper at the official Blizzcon "beergarden" (hah) despite being under 21. Good times. :toot:

http://www.realbeer.com/library/beer...ak20011108.php - Shipping beer is a real bitch.

Texas and Nevada are both "Limited" states, which means all kinds of funky rules apply to "direct shipment," which is what you would be engaging in were you to mail me beer. From what I can tell doing some quick google research, laws are constantly in flux and we'd probably owe our state governments some tax or something.

So, no, unless a lawyer wants to come in and give us up to the minute advice on the labrynthine workings of each state's liquor laws, I don't think we'll get any kind of exchange going on. :(

I know my guild has one in house (hi Kaema!), but I thought you guys did, too. In fact, I thought he had his own NPC in the WoW expansion...

Hadn't felt the need to register until now, seeing as how most information I might provide is said by others already.

Also, I haven't read this entire thread as yet, but still feel the need to spread a little love around.



A little history:

“In the United States, which banned alcohol for 13 years after World War I, brewing beer at home was not made federally legal until 1978, according to the American Homebrewers Association.

Some 1.5 million Americans brew their own beer, the association says. But the ultimate legality of home brewing remains up to individual states.â€



Due to the relatively young history of microbrewing in the United States, the scope and quality of regional beers are only just now becoming well known. Whereas before anyone asking for a beer might have had 2 choices (bud or coors?), looking over any local pub now might show 20 beers (or even more!) on tap, most of which were brewed within the state.

However, beer usually has a poor shelf life that combined with difficulty in storing properly will vastly degrade quality in very short time. This creates problems in appreciating international beers or even those from across the country.



Finally, just wanted to point out places to check out if you find yourself in the Pacific Northwest sometime (Washington, Oregon, and northern California).

http://www.rogue.com/
http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/default.aspx
http://www.pelicanbrewery.com/
http://www.bridgeportbrew.com/
http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/
http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/hawks-brewing/
http://oregonbeer.org/links.html Not comprehensive, just too many new breweries popping up.

http://www.lagunitas.com/
http://www.avbc.com/main.html
http://www.mendobrew.com/
http://www.bearrepublic.com/