There are a lot of bourbon barrel beers or scotch ales that you might like

I will have to stick with my traditional Texas beer. Shiner Bock. Not to light, not to dark. Gotta love it.

Beer FTW

I manage a bar, and as of late I have been selling a lot of Schlafly's Dry Hopped APA. It is incredibly flavorful, slightly on the bitter side.
Schlafly; the St. Louis beer that no one seems to care about.

I'm a St. Louis native and I've basically had all of their beers. There are very few Schlafly beers I personally care for, but (since it's getting to be that time of year again), their pumpkin ale tastes remarkably like pumpkin pie. It's possibly the best pumpkin ale I've had.

Yes, that Pumpkin Ale is amazing. Have you had any of the O'Fallon beers? It's a small brewery outside of St. Louis. The beer is average though they do have a peach wheat (Wheach), which is interesting to say the least.

O'Fallon, MO or IL?

I like Sam's octoberfest. It's no Paulaner, but it's good in its own way.

I managed to finally get my stock of Fall beers done this past weekend, all set. Got some of the usual ones (Harpoon Oktoberfest, Brooklyn Oktoberfest, Post Road Pumpkin, Weyerbacher Pumpkin and Southern Tier Pumpkin) along with a couple more to try. Grabbed Southern Tier's Harvest and a new Imperial Oktoberfest I never have heard of. I'll post my comments on that one when I get around to trying it.

So all good, and if I find more stuff as the season progresses, I can try them out too. I would love to get some of Gritty McDuffs Halloween Ale, tried it last year and it was an excellent break from the heavy hitters I usually drink. I hope we get it down here in NJ again, it comes from Maine.

No idea if it's the same one, but Avery recently put out an imperial Oktoberfest (I think it's called The Kaiser). I realize the trend is "Imperial Everything!" right now, but this is one style where it really didn't work for me. Oktoberfests are supposed to be malty and smooth, something you can drink all day. Not burning with 9+% alcohol. Maybe it would have been better if I cellared it til next fall so it could mellow out, but it didn't seem worth the effort.

I scored a case of Shipyard Pumpkinhead this weekend, which I was pretty excited about. I won't rehash the pumpkin beer debate since it's happened like 4 times in this thread already, but Shipyard is a good one

Heh I remember talking with you last year about the Shipyard.

Yeah, had Kaiser last year, not sure if the 09 one is out yet. Previous years didn't have the ABV so high, but last year it was really bumped up for 2008. Noticed it right off the bat, kinda disappointed me. I like Imperials, but they have to be balanced well. A sucker punch of alcohol to the gut off the bat is too much.

Meanwhile I have a buddy who had some major beer issues last year, he's in the Navy as was stuck at Millington, and was suffering from major Marzen depravation down there. Managed to get him some and he loved it, and Marzen is his favorite style.

The new one I found is from a brewery I have not heard of before. Had a skull and crossbone on the label, but since I am at work, I don't have the name right by me, it's in storage in my basement at home. I am hoping this one turns out better. I may try it out Thursday.

Back to pumpkin beers, last year I managed to try Cape Ann Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout, a rather unique hybrid. The six pack I tried last year, was a bit interesting, but also rather thin tasting. It needed just a little more to be a nice alternatives to the standard pumpkins out there. I am going to try it again this year, in case they refined the batch a little

Speaking of pumpkin style beers, Southern Tier makes one I particularly enjoy.

Southern Tier pumking Ale

As far as ones I've had it doesn't overpower on the spices and is really quite smooth. Only issue is that it might not be easy to find as it's a smaller craft brewery in NY.

Currently enjoying the Oktoberfest Tour here in Michigan atm. And I must say, Franziskaner is one of my new favorite beers. If you haven't tried it you must its very good and has a great taste.

Got around to trying that Imperial Okrtoberfest last night. Served as a great cap to finally getting Firefighter down.

Okay this one is made by Heavy Seas and is named Prosit!. Defiantly is an Imperial, flavor was pretty strong on it, but the alcohol was balanced much better then Avery's Kaiser from last year. Very marzen in character still, but not a good session beer by a long shot, the 9% ABV will really sucker punch you if you are not careful. Was great wind down beer for the night, glad I saved it for such an occasion.

Picked up the Arrogant Bastard 13th Anniversary last night as a bit of a splurge. Thoroughly enjoyed it, although I made the mistake of not reading the alcohol content beforehand. 9.5% in a 22oz bottle is more than enough for a midweek raiding beer. It's almost IPA-like in its hop character, but I'm not too familiar with this style of beer so that could be the style.

I'd highly recommend Lagunitas brews, I was fortunate to have a keg of their IPA donated to my local rugby team and fell in love.

Lagunitas Brewing Company

I've had mixed results with O'Fallon. Their smoked porter was poorly executed, I thought, and I haven't mustered the courage to try the weach (I've had categorically bad experiences with fruit-flavored wheats). Their AIPA I liked a lot, though.

I'll second the Lagunitas IPA as quite good, though.

Do you have any suggestions for a good beer with passion fruit?

The waiter at Capital a few months ago pushed that crap on my wife. It was horrible.

If the taste is even in the same ballpark as Wailua, I'd probably start tasting some sour ales instead. The only ones I've tried came from Lost Abbey, and they weren't bad. I'd need more to form a good opinion, though.

Most American strongs have a serious hop presence and most Stone brews take that to the next level. If you'd like the ultimate experience, find a couple Double Bastards. Age one for 6 months, clear your schedule that night.

Got a week till GABF, anyone gonna be heading into Denver for it? ;D

Beautiful aisle upon aisle of beer goodness (godness?) here I come.

Managed to get hold of some Rochefort 8 last weekend. It poured a nice thick, smooth head and leaving some nice lacing. A nice strong aroma smelt a bit like Cadburys Fruit and Nut chocolate (bit odd but that's the closest thing I can think of) but with more fruit to it. Goes down smooth, lots of flavours I can't even begin to describe, only tasted a bit of the 9% alcohol at the end but it wasn't nearly as strong as I'd have expected 9% to be. Felt more carbonated than I expected, maybe I poured it too gently, maybe I'm just used to drinking stuff with low / no carbonation.

The place I went to also stocks some US beers, will try and find some Stone and/or Sam Adams beers as well as other stuff mentioned here which I think I've been missing out on. Hoping to get some Sam Adams Oktoberfest but pretty open to trying most things anyway. I remember someone mentioning the Dogfish Head IPA as being very good as well. Any good breweries that should be looked out for or specific brews that might not be so great?