The last time I visited Sydney, I thoroughly enjoyed both Tooheys New and Victoria Bitter. Currently I reside in Ottawa, Canada and I haven't had the chance to enjoy either of those two beers lately since the only beer I've seen imported from Australia in the LCBO was Fosters. The mere thought of Fosters is making me cringe. I get the feeling they are keeping the good beers for themselves, and get a good kick over making the rest of the world drink the swill that is left over.

I know it's not very Canadian of me, but the two beers I enjoy here are Guinness and Corona. Corona is refreshing in the summer, and Guinness sticks to your ribs in the winter.

Interesting, I wouldn't use either of those to put out a fire in a rubbish bin.

For broadly-available-in-every-bar beers in Sydney, I would recommend James Squire (their Amber Ale is the most common, you often see the Golden Ale also) or Coopers (Coopers Pale is on tap in most places).

It's funny you mention Coopers, I quite liked that as well. I'll have to admit I probably don't have the most refined palate when it comes to beer, and for the most part I'll drink whatever goes down easy (for some reason I like women with similar qualities), but I will try just about anything since I'm not too much of a beer snob.

I really miss living down there, hopefully someday my work will take me there again.

Sierra Nevada's Hefeweizen isn't the best I've had, but it's certainly decent. If it's as widely available as their pale ale, it would be a welcome discovery.

I had a bottle of Great Divide's "Oak Aged Yeti" Imperial Stout yesterday. It seems like a beer that would really benefit from aging. It had a tasty base, but the alcohol was raging hot and just kind of overwhelming. At 9.5% it's strong, but I've had bigger RIS's that were more balanced. Might be worth getting a couple bottles to cellar for 6-12 months as an experiment, since it does seem to have a lot of potential.

This is exactly true. I bought 3 bombers of this a year or two ago. Had one when bought and had much the same impressions. At 6 months and a year the difference was palpable. Much mellower on the alcohol, although aging for 12 months did little more than the 6 at curbing that. It develops a much nicer bourbon-esque undertone that complements the warmth.

I think I liked the amber ale, but I didn't care for the dark star stout.

The Amber is good, definately. I'm honestly not a beer drinker most of the time (give me my patron and I'm good to go) but Starr Hill brews still impress me. Recently, I've been enjoying the Festie on my days off.

I picked up Harpoon's 12 pack winter mix. The Dark Chocolate stout is pretty good. It's thinner than something like Young's or Brooklyn, but the flavor is quite nice. The chocolate notes reminded me of some of the high%-cocoa chocolates that you get from Newman's and such.

Hm... I always have found Oak Aged YETI to be a pinnacle of stout deliciousness.

Speaking of pinnacles of stout deliciousness, Brooklyn's 09-10 Black Chocolate Stout is out. It is in 4 packs this year instead of 6 like previous, but it is delicious as always. Easily one of my favorite stouts.

Saw that the other day. Speaking of stuff out, Dogfish Head have just rereleased Pangaea, which is a really nice ginger beer with a piney taste. Also I see Rogue's Smoke is on shelves again. Happy about that, it is one of the better smoke ales because it isn't just smoke.

Also grabbed a Beer Here Mørke Pumpernickel Porter, hoping it turns out to be a good beer.

Unibroue have come up a couple times in this thread, Their La Fin Du Mond was mentioned back in 2006, and remains one of my personal favourites. The beer I would try if you want something like a Hoegaarden but tastier, is the Blancs des Chambly, but if I were you, I would find a place where you can buy the range, and work your way through them.

I can't remember if someone had mentioned it before or no but my area just got Sierra Nevada's 2009 harvest wet hopped ale. It was kind of like their pale ale just with the hops not quite so overpowering. Overall it was still pretty tasty, and at $5 for the 24oz bottle it's definitely cheaper than I'm used to seeing for the beers we talk about here.

I finally got out to the dogfish Alehouse in Falls Church, VA. I'm always excited to get some of their beer on tap. I tried Midas Touch for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised. It's smooth from start to finish and fairly sweet and crisp. I tried the black and tan with 90min and chicory Stout and that was very enjoyable (notably the stout since I'm no stranger to the 90min ale). The Shelter IPA wasn't nearly as hoppy as most dogfish IPAs, but it was still a nice IPA that might have been a little too drinkable. the Pangaea was complex, but it didn't pack as much of a wallop as when I'd tried it at a beer fest.

While picking up brew supplies, I grabbed a pack of the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale and a bomber of the Rock Art Vermonster. The Punkin Ale was decent spiced brown ale. There was little to no pumpkin flavor, but the spices were well balanced. Still, I wouldn't want more than one bottle at a time, it was almost a bit too sweet.

The Vermonster is an American Barleywine made by a local VT brewery - their new claim to fame is that Hansen Beverage (makers of Monster Energy) tried to force Rock Art to stop selling Vermonster due to "Trademark violations". This ended up with national coverage, and the folks on the homebrew forum I read were really fired up. Rock Art "won" in that the two companies signed a contract, Rock Art can keep the Vermonster name for beer and they've received massive coverage and "free" advertising. That said, the beer was pretty good. It's almost like an IIPA, but still has the malt characteristics of a barleywine. It's very drinkable for a 10% beer. The beverage center here has the bombers for $5.50, I may need to pick up a few more!

Grabbed a bottle of the Harvest this Saturday. It was decent last year, so I figured I would see how this year's batch turned out. Grabbed some other stuff too, mainly went to see what Fall stragglers I could find and if any of the Holiday stuff started to pop up. Nothing major yet, Mad Elf has just started popping up and that is the only one I noticed.

I did grab some more beers from The Bruery to try. I have had their black wit before, which was decent except for being extremely volatile. I am hoping these ones are a bit more stable. Also found Bear Republic's special Brown Ale that they just put out. Not a big Brown Ale fan, but since it is from Bear Republic, I will give it the benefit of the doubt. It is not like I dislike the style, as there are a couple for really good ones out there.

Also managed to put in what is likely my last order for the year from Liquid Solutions before it gets to cold. This will be the last Ninkasi I can get for awhile. Also managed to snag Stone's black IPA, which was good the last time I had it when it was a limited beer.

Oaken that map actually does make a lot of sense. California being the number one is not shocking at all. . Wisconsin being so high was a little of a surprise, did not know so many good beers came from there. We do not get any beers from there here in NJ either. Pennsylvania being up there is what I always suspected, most of the really good beers I get come from there.

Seems most folks think Guiness is the end all be all of stouts, but I've found so many better stouts out there. Probably my favorite is Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, such a great flavor. I also need to get some Sierra Nevada Wet Hop, last year's was extremely tasty, so hoping this year is no different. I also just recently had a coffee porter from Kona Brewing which was pretty tasty.

Not around here. The DFH Chicory stout is great. Smithwick's is widely available at bars that serve Guinness, and I prefer it as well. I do like Guinness well enough, but it's not even in my top 5 stouts of that style.

I'll have to check out that Coffee Porter, but I'm still bitter about the last time I made the mistake of trying something from Kona Brewing Co.

OLD RASPUTIN OLD RASPUTIN OLD RASPUTIN

I consider myself an apostle of the finest RIS I have ever drank. I loves it so much.

North Coast Brewery makes wonderful beers. I have never had a bad one from them. If you are ever in Ft Bragg they have a nice pub where you can sample some wonderful beers that don't always make distribution. Brother Thelonius Abby Ale is great, and on a hot day their Scrimshaw Pilsner is very nice.

Old roommate and I came up with a car bomb style drink using Old Rasputin. 1/2 pint of Old Rasputin and 1 shot of Knob Creek 100-proof bourbon, drop the shot in and slam the beer. The fire of the Knob Creek is wonderfully matched by the smokiness of the Old Rasputin, hence we called it a 'Forest Fire'.

I actually bought a 4 pack of this Friday afternoon on my way home, before I read this. I do concur with you, some damn good stout.

Sounds interesting, but I hate the idea of chugging something as tasty as Old Rasputin, just seems like a waste not to drink it slow and savor it.

Well normally I wouldn't but at that time I was getting cases of it at wholesale and after a while, well, you get creative. If you are in the mood for a barleywine style ale, they make a yearly Old Stock Ale. Usually its a little too much when it first comes out, but I've got bottles going back to 2005 in the pantry and a little age really smooths out the rough spots.