The Beer Thread

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

When we lived in Wasaga Beach, Creemore was one of our favourite towns to shop in. As you might understand, we frequently dropped in to the brewery for a quick sample. We intended to get up to Formosa Springs, but never made it before my wife passed away.

[packerfan386 3]

My top 5 beers:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Stand-by(s) when nothing else is around:

Would not buy EVER: Miller Lite, Hopalicious, Sconnie, any IPA

  Edited October 1, 2012 by packerfan386  

[Wiecher 192]

When just buying beer for easy drinking or a party, I get whatever is with weekly discount at the supermarket. (this can be high quality like Palm or Warsteiner, but also horse-pee like Heineken)

But in a pub (one for sitting and talking, not drinking and dancing) I try to get a local brew or special Belgian and German beers, and a Guinness sometimes.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Because of the distant echoes of Prohibition, you still cannot get beer in the grocery store in Ontario. Since you have to make a trip to the Beer Store (a.k.a. Brewer's Retail), one generally chooses not on price but on quality. Some day, the L.C.B.O. will go out of business and save taxpayers much. Until then, hard lines on Garfield Weston and Oshawa Wholesale (the two grocery cartels in Ontario).

[Mother of Invention 23]

Has anyone here tried Hudephol? They are a really great Ohio based brewery that makes killer German Style Lager.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I thought all the killer Germans had been taken out by Mossad.

[Haljackey 17,325]

Brewing another batch tomorrow. This time the brew will be based on my favorite beer:

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ If you are not getting your water from the spring outside Collingwood on the way to Creemore, I'd be a little careful with that name. Sounds like a very tasty brew.

[SimCoug 5,973]

I brewed my first batch of beer last week. It is an APA (American Pale Ale) and freshly bottled a few days ago. I'll report how it tastes in a few weeks. Since it was the first time solo, I decided to go with a kit. I was happy to find this thread recently... SC4 and beer go perfectly together.

[Haljackey 17,325]

SC4+beer=good time.

I brew my beer from a professional brewery... There's a brewmaster and everything to help me to make sure I don't mess up the batch. Nothing like a keg's worth (50L) of bad beer....

[LexusInfernus 908]

The best beer in the world I dare say is Belgian. I am of course talking about Rochefort, one of the few remaining trappiste beers (brewed by monks)

[SimCoug 5,973]

@haljacky: I'm jealous, that sounds like a great way to learn the art of beer making. Is this a program that the brewery offers? I'm currently drinking a Dales Pale Ale from Oscar Blues Brewery (out of colorado I think), one of my favorites.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

My parents' neighbor brews his own beer. One night after I graduated college and moved back home, we drank way too much of it and I had a monster hangover the following day. One must be cautious about how much one imbibes.

I have discovered some beers make me a bit sick, however. Since I live in Japan, I'm constantly surrounded by the very excellent (but expensive) Japanese beers. Kirin Lager makes my sinuses go crazy for a week, but my favorite, Sapporo Kuroi Raberu (Black Label) is all good. The happoushu they sell (less than 67% malt, according to Wikipedia), it's not especially good, and I don't like drinking it despite its price advantage. It's difficult to comment about microbrews here, it seems most of the market is pretty corporatized, and I usually only see the big national brands advertised, and then a restaurant serving draft beer may only have one brand on tap, so you just order a draft beer instead of requesting a list of what's on tap and choosing from those. It was a little strange to get used to, but things are just different here.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The one and only time my father ever made his own beer (with my uncle Bud) it was a cloudy but drinkable brew. They called it Kickapoo Joy Juice after the then running gag in the comic strip Li'l Abner. This was either in the late 1940s or early '50s.

I was a little kid then, about 10 years old, but was already familiar with beer. Dad always gave me a taste. At the time the two families were sharing a house. We moved soon after that and Dad never brewed again.

[Ionic-Elm 13]

Guessing it's kinda inappropriate me posting here, since I'm under 21, but I know that Indiana has like one big brewer (Sun King I think it's called). It's out of Indianapolis, is all I know.

Anyways, I don't plan to drink too much once I'm of legal age. From what I've gathered from tasting non-alcoholic beer, it's kinda got a weird taste. Is beer similar?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, beer is an acquired taste and a lot depends on what the ingredients are. In the west we mostly use a barley malt flavoured with hops (bitter) and perhaps enhanced by other ingredients. Some of the beer you can get in the US especially have rice as the base instead of barley.

If you were an ancient Egyptian working on the pyramids, part of your pay would be in the local beer, probably made from millet. You had to drink beer because the water was contaminated. Beer was made because people didn't get sick from drinking it. You see, you have to boil the water when you are making beer, and this pretty much gets rid of all the water-borne pathogens.

If the world goes to pot in a hand basket someday soon, stay away from the water if you can and drink beer if at all possible. The wine-making process doesn't boil the liquids but they get pretty hot in fermentation. I expect unpasteurized wine is probably safer than the local water.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Ancient Egyptian beer was also unfiltered Sweet and very think. So you got a lot of calories from it too, it was one of their staple foods.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It was sweet because nothing was added to make it bitter (hops, for example). People building the pyramids needed a lot of calories. Best archeological evidence is that whole towns were created when a pyramid was under construction. It was part of an Egyptian citizens duty to the Pharaoh to work on this pyramid. Workers got the same pay as any other labour force.

[Duke87 1,070]

If you were an ancient Egyptian working on the pyramids, part of your pay would be in the local beer, probably made from millet. You had to drink beer because the water was contaminated. Beer was made because people didn't get sick from drinking it. You see, you have to boil the water when you are making beer, and this pretty much gets rid of all the water-borne pathogens.

That, and alcohol is highly effective at killing bacteria. There's a reason surgical tools are disinfected with it.

Also helps prevent food poisoning when consumed.

[SimCoug 5,973]

Yep, alcohol is great at killing unwanted microbes. Also, I don't think boiling water is necessary to make beer (although it is probably a standard procedure now days) - in ancient times most beer was made without that step. Beer was cheap and easy to make, and most people in the western world drank it, including children. Ancient Eastern civilizations were more careful about hygiene, and never really used beer to ward off water borne disease. I think that is also why many Asian decedents get a red blush while drinking alcohol. The history of beer is pretty fascinating.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, alky doesn't do a damned thing to the Hep. B virus for one. It doesn't kill a lot of things, but it does get most bacteria. I always believed that medical gear was sterilized using live steam (an autoclave for example). Alcohol is strictly topical.

[hym 358]

Well, alky doesn't do a damned thing to the Hep. B virus for one. It doesn't kill a lot of things, but it does get most bacteria. I always believed that medical gear was sterilized using live steam (an autoclave for example). Alcohol is strictly topical.

The decontamination methods employed depend on the instrument(s) in question, and what that you're trying to kill. Here is a document about it.

[LexusInfernus 908]

http://www.brewdog.com/product/tactical-nuclear-penguin

I kinda wanna try this one. The name is freaking awesome, and Im curious to how beer with 32% alcohol tastes. To bad its so expensive.

And if I had to much money I would get one of these:

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/341

They are sold out now though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

http://www.brewdog.c...nuclear-penguin

I kinda wanna try this one. The name is freaking awesome, and Im curious to how beer with 32% alcohol tastes. To bad its so expensive.

The method of freezing and casting off the ice is a technique also used by the Norse peoples to make "winter" wine. Concentrated it like a brandy until it would not form ice any more. When distilling was discovered, the practice was abandoned.

[Zezug 6]

Based on my experience with freezing temps and beers, it ends up tasting terrible. Then again, Labatt isn't starting from too high of a mark anyway. tt

And I don't understand Non-alcoholic beer, seems like a waste to me, but it seems to have a market anyway

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Frankly, I wouldn't do that to beer. Wine or mead might work, but there is really the wrong flavour profile in most beers for this to work and produce something palatable. The idea is to concentrate the alcohol while not losing taste. I don't think concentrated hops is a flavour that suits me.

[SimCoug 5,973]

Ice beers never appealed to me. If the aim was to drink something with a high alcohol content then I'll stick with hard liquor (which rarely happens). I drink beer because I enjoy the taste.

By the way Nonny, your avatar reminds me of one of my favorite brown ales... not sure if it is available in Canada though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Moose Drool is not available in Canada, but this is the oldest independent brewer around. Most popular on the east coast.

[Haljackey 17,325]

Moosehead is my favorite 'mainstream' beer.

Finished brewing my 'Creemora' beer on Saturday. Good stuff.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ If you like Moosehead, you would absolutely be blown away by Alexander Keith's IPA if you like ale at all.