I went to two of these as a poor college student a coupla years ago, and they were totally worth it. $30-$40 to get drunk on some mighty fine beer, plus you might find a couple new favorites worth hunting down at Martinettis or Mall Discount Liquor.

I'm now out in San Diego (one of the better decisions in my life - Boston is far too cold), and was wondering if anyone that's been out here for a while had any advice on "can't-miss" breweries to visit? I've been to Karl Strauss, Firehouse and Ballast Point's home brewing/mini-brewery (Ballast Point has a couple of amazing porters for you dark beer lovers). Haven't made it up to Stone yet, but that's definitely planned.

One last note, I grew up in Chico, CA so I always have a soft-spot for Sierra Nevada brew (their pale ale is pretty much how I define the category), and I'd like to recommend their new Anniversary beer to anyone who likes a strongly hopped beer. It's good stuff.

If you want to look at imports in addition to US beers and you can find it, Spaten makes a tasty Oktoberfest. I've not had it at all in the past couple of years, but I have fond memories of it as one of my favorites nonetheless.

After a long while of lurking and a few days of posting, I find it hard to contain the excitement of finding a thread about beer. Ahh...beer!

Admittedly, I did not read 43 pages of beer loving, beer toting suggestions, but those that I did, all sound fantastic.

As a self-proclaimed beer connoisseur, may I suggest that the next time any of you visit the fine country of Canada, you simply must try any beer by a brewery Unibroue. They are from Quebec and have created of my all time favourite beers: Blanche de Chambly, which is a white ale, bit more bite then Hoegaarden, but nonetheless, just as fine a drink.

In addition to great beer selection, Unibroue also has a very interesting choice of names for their beers.

Maudite (Cursed)
La Fin du Monde (End of the world)
Trois Pistoles (There guns)
Don de Dieu (Gift of God)

While high in alcohol content and can sneak up on you as they come in rather large bottles, I am yet to try a beer from this brewery that I do not like. All Belgian ale style and while I truly enjoy traveling and tasting beers elsewhere, it's good to have a great beer at home.

Enchanté!

Edit: Don de Dieu means Gift of God. French is indeed not Latin, and I, indeed should make a better effort in distinguishing the two

I've had the Maudite, it's frankly fantastic if my memory serves.

Much thanks to Deris (the Reaver?) for the Spaten Optimator recommendation.

My local Costco currently has the 24-pack cases of this in stock. While it doesn't make for good sampling, it's a good way to stock up if you like this sort of beer. I'm a fan myself.

I know it was mentioned in a few posts many pages ago, but I just thought I'd re-iterate how great Stone Brewery down here in San Diego is.

They just had their BeerFest / Anniversary party last weekend, which is always a good time (although Dogfish Head didn't come out despite making it out the last few years).

They make an anniversary ale every year, which is something I always look forward to (along with their Vertical Epics they make annually). Down here in So Cal, you can pick it up from Whole Foods and BevMo.


I saw a few posts up, someone mentioned Unibroue. They're also one of my favorites. Trois Pistoles being my favorite. Although I do have to mention that my girlfriend who absolutely hates beer is always happy when I mull a bottle of Quelque Chose on a cold winter night

Unibroue is well documented in this thread if you go back far enough. The Ephemere threw me for a loop, but it was still good. I've quite enjoyed all the other, more traditional offerings of theirs that I tried.

The Sam Adams Octoberfest was very good. I also really enjoyed the "ugh" look on my wife's face when she tried it. It's not a womanly beer.

Yeah, my wife loves it as well. Humbuba, your wife just has crappy taste buds.

Beers have gender? Who knew?

I live in the middle of Illinois (i.e., not Chicago), but I've been discovering a pretty impressive draught beer selection at some of the bars around here. Last night I tried a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale, which was smooth and almost coffee-like, but pretty intense hazelnut. You'd have to definitely like hazelnut to enjoy it. I also tried Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor, which definitely lived up the name "belgian strong ale". Lots of flavor that was really well-balanced, not too strong on that banana-like flavor like some of the others. Great beer. I was also happy to find more than one bar with Dogfish Head 90-min IPA on tap-- one of my favorites.

Of course, at home in the fridge I'm enjoying the recommended Sam Adams Octoberfest. Mmm tasty.

I tried St. Arnold's Ocktoberfest last night. It was slightly more hoppy than the Sam Adams and really good.

There's some availability in other parts of Texas (found more success in College Station than I have so far in the DFW area, but I haven't searched too hard around here), but I haven't heard of it being sold much outside of Texas.