http://www.ratebeer.com/ratebeerbest...erall_beer.csv

Out of the top 20 or so I've had most of them. And, most of them while raiding in WoW.

Oh, shit, is that why we are so bad?! :O

Read this thread a bunch of times and tried out some pumpkin ale last night. Blue moon's pumpkin ale to be more accurate.

Gotta say i loved the stuff. Now im no ewpert on pumkin ales but I have tried blue moon before so i was kind of guessing it would have a slight pumpkin taste if anything. I was plesently suprised it had almost no pumpkin taste at all.

My critique of Blue moons pumpkin ale would go something like this:

Quite possibly the coldest taste beer i have ever had.if that makes sense :P
Got a little spice after taste but is very subtle and doesnt detract away from the taste of the ale itself.
It was good i finished the whole 6 pack which is something i didnt expect.but it did leave a nice little hangover in the morning

Awesome thread, been ghosting it for months.

In my first post I'd like to give you an example of a VERY good "Chistmas-beer" with shit loads of flavor and a nice finish. Even though the bottle screams Budget, it's kinda expensive and hard to come by!

http://www.systembolaget.se/SokDryck...0&SokStrangar=

Can recommend it with all my mouth to all Belgians and Swedes, the rest of you will have trouble finding it.

(To the rest of you, check out Samuel Adams Winter Lager - a Boston beer with a lot of exciting layers of taste. It's very nice as well, but not really as perfect as the Belgian one, in my humble opinion.

http://www.systembolaget.se/SokDryck...0&SokStrangar=

I know some people didn't like this one in this thread - don't listen to them. It is very nice!)

That's all for now, Merry Christmas to all you beeroholics out there!

Apparently Springfield (MO) was recently added to the Leinenkugel distribution chain, so I had the pleasure of drinking Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat twice over the weekend. It's excellent going down, if a bit citrusy, but I'm undecided on the aftertaste. I had a pint with a blue cheese slathered burger and it was... interesting to have the combination of blue cheese and citrus. Not sure if I'd recommend that one, to be honest. I had another pint the next night at a Brazilian restaurant that brought around literally 15 different types of meat and the Sunset Wheat tasted much better without the blue cheese.

Seigneuriale (or something like that), a new brew by my favorite place, Unibroue: Crap. Sorry Uni, you guys screwed the pooch on this one. Nearly flavorless, lacking in any redeeming value besides 9% abv. I would not recommend this.

Red Nectar by Nectar Ales: This is a decent, perhaps even very good red ale. Heavy on aroma hops without overwhelming bitterness, smooth, goes down easily. Went well with crab cakes.

Samiclaus Bier ($4 per 12 ounce bottle sold as a 4-pack :socar: ): Did not like at all, and introduced the majority of the bottle to my sink. This saddened me greatly because it's really rare, brewed every year on my birthday, and everyone seems to think it's amazing. The other three bottle are now in my Beer Aging Cabinet and will not be touched for at least 3 years. Legend has it age makes this stuff amazing, so I have my fingers crossed.

Quelque Chose: Served warm as God and Unibroue intended. This was incredible stuff, very strongly cherry-tasting, tart but different from a lambic. I would highly recommend it.

Corsendonk Christmas Ale: Good stuff, though not as strongly spicy as I like my holiday beers to be. Definitely worth drinking.

This concludes my early holiday new-beer experience.

Speaking of seasonal beers, I tried New Belgium's 2° Below Winter Ale. Orange on the tip of the tongue, malty on the back. Biscuit-like aftertaste. Spicy, bitter hops throughout. Once it starts to warm and you get to the bottom of the glass, you can smell and taste pine. I shit you not.

Not entirely my style but still pretty good.

It may be one of two things: either their distributor doesn't service NYC (ironically, one of my favorite beers, Bell's, is having a fight with one of their distributors, so they'll be pulling their beer out of the Chicago market b/c they refuse to deal with this distributor) or the NYC liquor control commission may not have approved it for sale within the state (different states have different levels of strictness on this; I know that Illinois is nearly anything goes, while in Michigan alcoholic beverages require specific approval from the state LCC to be made available for sale.)

Good lord. I wish I lived in San Diego. Or, maybe, my wallet thanks me that I do not. And my liver, as well. Those are some potent, rare, and tasty brews, that I really regret missing the opportunity to try.

Oh man Smithwick's is good, how come no one likes or talks about Smithwicks? I drank it all weekend for the first time and now I want to drink it in place of all my daily liquid consumption. It's a nice break from that "other" dark liquid Irish love we all seem to enjoy. Note: When you start calling it "Schmidicks" you've had a few too many, apparently though the W is silent, how you get Schmidicks out of Smithicks is above me but that's what folks called it. Maybe it's because I'm in MN which is by Canada, which is what they call it there...aye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithwicks

Life is good here in San Diego. Stone, Alesmith, and the Chargers #1 in the AFC.

* and there was much rejoicing *

/ninjaedit

After going through the list, it's sad/great (depending on your disposition, I lean towards the latter) that there's few beers on that list I haven't tried.

That stuff's not too bad. I'm not a huge fan of reds for whatever reason. I very rarely buy one, myself; but I've got a mate who brings them over on occasion. Funny. He's a diehard beer snob who has spent plenty of time in both the UK and Germany with all manner of proper beer, but he still classes Killian's as his favorite red. It's decent, but I still think he's a loon.

I've spent the evening downing Warsteiner Dunkels and the verdict is that they're still pretty damn good.

Trade you one XXL voidwalker and one XXL imp for a hat and set of glasses!

I guess that clears that up! Thanks for the info. When I head home this weekend (which is Rochester, not NYC), I'll see what they have from Avery.

Avery was my baptism by fire into the beer world. I was pretty cocky about my pissy beer prowess till I had The Reverend :(

Well, I went back to BotW and picked up two varieties from Avery -- The Beast Grand Cru Ale and The Reverend. Long story short, I never made it to the bar Saturday night.

I started out with Ommegang earlier in the night (my new favorite, btw). Then I thought I would give The Beast a shot. It's rough. It had a sweet, malty, caramelly (?) taste followed by the harsh alcohol. I had the 2005 batch, so it was 14.9% ABV. The next time I try a super-high ABV variety, I will break out the wine or champagne glass and treat it as such.

So, after the Ommegang and The Beast, I tried The Reverend. It tasted like a more refined Beast. Not as sweet, not as harsh, more like a beer. Well, after downing the 22oz bottle of The Reverend, my night came to a halt.

Only downside to my trip back to BotW was the fact that they were all out of Hoegaarden White which I really wanted to try.

I've sampled The Beast before. And by sampled, I mean we were at a bar in LaGrange outside Chicago that serves nothing but many kinds of beers and my friends told me I had to try it.

The above assessment is pretty accurate. If I remember correctly, it was served in a big brandy snifter.

Anyway, over the weekend I had Blue Moon's Winter Ale and it was very, very tasty. Even our waitress and one of the girls we were with both mentioned that even though they dont like dark beers they very much enjoyed it. Not terribly bitter, and most of it is offset by sweet tastes and winter spice.

Just found a supplier of Rogue Dead Guy Ale that's near me! A fantastic brew, even if it's a bit high on the alcohol content for raiding.

I think you're taking the wrong approach here.

I like a good beer while I'm raiding but I try not too get too jacked up. It's embarrassing when my tank dies.

Acceptable alcohol content is, as I understand it, inversely proportional to the tier of the raid zone you are in.

Much to my dismay as a raid leader on several night in MC when we used to do it.

Hehe, oh molten core: you are such a shitty instance.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend me some good beers to try. And by that I mean beers in sippy cups.. or perhaps with two wheels bolted on to the sides. My experiances with beer haven't been overwhelmingly positive.. But I presume a 40 bomb of natty light isnt the best place to start. :beer:

Good American macrobrew lagers are a good starting point. Plain old Sam Adams was my gateway beer, and it's available everywhere, fairly standard, but actually a good beer.

Beyond that, upscale major brands are a good way to try new types of beer that you haven't had before. My first stout was a Guinness. My first Belgian ale was Duvel. Etc. From there, you can branch out and have a good benchmark against which to compare new things you try.