It makes sense. The price of gear for that has come down and the number of DIY guides on making keezers and kegerators has gone up. So has the number of craigslist posts for kegerators people sell.
When you can get a serviceable beer by force carbing for 30 minutes versus 2-3 weeks sometimes for bottling, it is really worth it.
I bought some sankey taps for mine but I have yet to buy a commercial keg. I’ve considered it though.
Prairie Birthday Bomb tonight. Like a chocolate covered doughnut. With a tiny bit of chili just to keep you off balance. Absolutely wonderful.
I can’t take a beer that has a label like that seriously.
Don’t judge a beer by it’s label ;-)
Fair enough. But I can’t take a beer that is described as a chocolate covered doughnut seriously, either.
Why does beer have to be serious?
Jeez you guys are miserable. I have a great beer that I am excited about and post on here and you’re all “oh look at that the label, it’s so juvenile and stupid, the label should be a picture of a mountain or perhaps a fish at a push, something that represents my rugged manliness. And it should have a sensible font, not look like the cover of a book my kids are reading in school. It should only be enticing to people that know beer should be respected. Beer is a drink for serious grumpy men, it shouldn’t have fun flavours, and make you laugh when you drink it, it should just get you drunk and make you sad, that’s proper beer.”
I like your honest and straight forward 6% IPAs with sensible olde time labels just as much as you two, but on a Friday night, it’s time for something big and stupid and complex and entertaining. Just like me.
Uh. Okay.
Tonight I’m gonna use 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of this to start a bread dough…
…and then I’m gonna drink the rest. So there you go. Not so serious. Cost about fifty-cents.
I’m also going to drink one of the Milk Stout Nitro beers @Chappers sent along while I do my write up to prep for this week’s movie podcast. So there’s that too. That label just has a picture of a left hand on it.
-xtien
Finally got around to trying the Founders’ Lizard of Koz, a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout with blueberry, chocolate, and vanilla. It was…weird. I mean, I liked it; on BeerAdvocate the reviews are generally good (87) but the people who hate it really HATE it, and I know why. It has a truly odd taste in some ways, with the blueberry coming through super strong, so tart as to be almost sour. But the other flavors round it out, and it grows on you. Would not buy it again (even at Costco the sucker was fifteen bucks or so) and because it only comes in a big bottle, I’d recommend sharing it with about three people because it is so intense if you do want to try it.
Luckily I still have an Evil Twin Even More Jesus laying around in the fridge next to some local stouts. Sadly, while New England produces some killer IPAs, the local stouts are much more variable, and not in general as good as the ones from the Midwest or West Coast.
I didn’t really hate the beer I was just being goofy about the label. But I will say that chocolate covered donuts are not my favorite so the flavor description makes it a beer that I probably wouldn’t rush out to get.
MY girlfriend and I dined at the local beer bar mecca, with an insane number of beers on tap. Some highlights were two Belgian quad’s, one was Avery Brewing’s Tangerine Quad, a divine BIG tasting beer, with just a bit of fruit notes, aged in a bourbon barrel. So flipping good.
The other was Wicked Weed’s Oh My Quad, which was low on the typical Belgian clove/banana tastes, but big on the boozy and maltly sweet complexity. It was the winner of about 6 beers we tasted. Unfortunately, we kicked the keg of it, so were not able to bring any home in a growler. :(
Also, for @moss_icon, I’d try that beer in a heartbeat. Something different is always fun. The first donut beer I had though was not fun. I think it was a Rogue beer, thought I don’t remember the name of it.
I was smiling when I typed my snarky comment, but then I guess enjoying snarky humor does make me a miserable human being, so you got me there.
Had some very interesting beers at the Superbowl event last night, including a peanut butter milk stout and a grapefruit IPA, both from Tennessee’s Tailgate brewery. They also had Big Wave, which is one of my favourite golden ales.
Cool moment yesterday.
As I walked down to my front door, our cool next-door neighbor Jerry emerged from his garage and called out a greeting. “What’s up, Jerry?”
“I’m just working on a batch of beer.”
I’ve known Jerry for years. My kid looks after his vast collection of plants whenever he and his wife go out of town. We trade baked goods at the holidays, and I can rely upon them to decorate for Halloween and be there for trick-or-treaters, as I always am. I love these people. But I never had any idea Jerry was into home brewing.
“What? You’re a beer guy? Why didn’t I know that?”
Turns out he hasn’t done it for a long time and his wife recently insisted that he get himself a hobby. So he took out his brewing equipment, cleaned and sterilized it, and set about working on a new batch of beer. A stout of some kind. His son-in-law is really into brewing, and gives him all sorts of tips, and has even been working on a documentary about craft brewing! He’s got a ton of footage of Southern California (specifically San Diego area) breweries and is working on trying to shape it into a movie. Sadly he lives in Georgia now, so I can’t see any of the footage or talk to the dude.
We talked beer for a bit and Jerry assured me that in a couple weeks once the recent batch is bottle conditioned he would bring some for me to try. I asked him what he normally likes, and he expressed interest in stouts mainly. The one he’s making now is flavored with maple, I think. Anyway, I asked him what he thought of nitro beers and he didn’t know what that was. So I said, “Gimme a sec,” and ran into the house. We still have some of the beers @Chappers sent to us, so I grabbed one and ran back out and handed it over the fence. Jerry was so happy!
Anyway, it’s cool to have a beer buddy in the neighborhood now. Feels good to share things like that.
-xtien
I am jealous. My neighbors all drink coors. I think my head would explode if one pulled out a stout, let alone brewed it themselves.
Beer is so much about sharing and being social. The whole concept of a pub seems built on the idea. It’s what I love about it. You don’t grab your 100 dollar bottle of scotch to share to a group you barely know. But sharing beer seems easy in comparison.
I wish I had more beer drinking neighbors. Instead I’ve been know to take a rare bottle down to the bar and share it with the bartender and a few folks sitting nearby.
Very well put, Skipper.
You remind me of somebody I met last year. We had to go to a wedding–uh…that is to say, we were honored to be invited to a wedding–and at the bar I met a dude who makes his living building pubs. In people’s homes. He used to be in show business and was also a carpenter, then he started a business recreating pubs inside the homes of rich folks. I immediately became curious and asked him questions, and he held forth on how pubs were “public houses” and on and on. Then he got out his phone and started showing me pictures of the work he had done, including the pub he’d built in his own house. Apparently he has folks over to his house for live music in his home-built pub. The wedding featured an Irish musician and part of these gatherings in his home pub is lots of live Irish music, which sounded totally cool.
Anyway, I just love the idea of a pub. We don’t have much of that around here. The closest bar is a scary place called The Rattler (I’m not kidding) that always has motorcycles parked all around it–not a bad thing–and usually has a police car and a dude sitting down on the curb with his hands restrained behind his back–a bad thing–when we drive home on any given Friday night.
There is a cool place called The Proper that’s not too far away. We’ve been there once. It’s not really a pub but it makes some good drinks.
-xtien
So I went to a local CAMRA beer festival on Friday and got to try my first milk stout after missing out on the Nitro last year at Manchester. This was called Millionaire, and was a salted caramel and chocolate milk stout by Wild Beer Co. in Somerset. Suffice to say it was like drinking a dessert and was far too heavy for me! Great at first but hardwork over time. I was assured it was a very good milk stout so maybe they’re just not for me. Absolutely worth a try though and hopefully one day I’ll get another chance to sample the Nitro.
We seem to have the Americanized version of pubs with a few holdout pubs, though they are few and far between. I had a business trip to Dublin last year and I’m reminded just how different they are in comparison.
Here, everything is about selection, tap counts, TVs and flashy things everywhere. When talking to the bartender sometimes you have to yell over the volume of incessant ESPN talking heads or some obscure 20-year-old basketball game playback. The glasses you drink out of MUST vary based on the beer you drink, and are seemingly sized smaller every time you go to the establishment.
There, pubs are about sitting down and chilling with an actual pint of beer. It’s not about the number of tap handles, it’s about consistency and usually quality on tap. The pubs are filled with nooks and crannies and darker seating areas, with perhaps a TV or two at a lower volume, you know, so you can actually drink beer and sit and chat to someone next to you.
@geggis that beer sounds very dessert like to me, too. I’m not sure I’d want more than one.
I think I mentioned it in a post up above but in my area neighborhood “pubs” have become a real thing in the last 5 years. Probably within 5 miles of my house are 6-7. Several feature their own beers. True, they may not qualify as a British type pub but they are far from the standard American bar of the 1970s.
Part of this is a result in a code change which allows beer to be served now without food being sold by the same establishment. But wineries and even distillers are popping up all over here as well.
Schools like UCSB, UCDavis, Fresno State, Cal Poly and San Diego State all feature wine and beer programs now. Some even have commercial wineries and breweries.
Ironically, “wet led” pubs are dying out in the UK in favour of those offering food, which have much higher margins as they doesn’t have to compete so much with the supermarkets.
