I have seen that in bombers, now I will have to buy it.
And yea, Lagunitas makes some really good beers.
Stone’s Imperial Russian Stout in their limited release line (blue lettering, can’t recall the exact wording) is also very good, as is there stout made with Mexican chocolate. The Lagunitas Imperial Stouts are also, I agree, quite tasty. My favorite Imperial Stouts in general though are from Evil Twin, which has a whole bunch of truly excellent stouts, most of them flavored in some way, and all of them tasty.
even more jesus drool emoji
Preach it, Brother! Can I get an Amen? Hell, I’m Jewish, and I’d follow this Jesus anywhere.
So after having gone 32 years without beer, I finally decided to give it a whirl, and I figured my completely ignorant, unbiased experience might amuse some of you aficionados. So here are my thoughts on what I’ve had thus far, in chronological order.
Coors Light - Fruity, carbonated, slightly yeasty water. Not really pleasant, and I did not finish it. This was my first beer, and it was not even remotely what I assumed beer would taste like (which I figured would be more malty and grainy).
Bud Light - This was basically like a less flavorful version of Coors Light.
Shiner Bock - I liked the flavor of this more, but it’s probably not something I’d buy again.
Blue Moon - Quite a bit different from the first three I tried, and I thought this was the best one up to that point.
Dark Horse’s Crooked Tree IPA - This was disgusting. I finished it, but I didn’t really like anything about it. Worst of all was the really bitter aftertaste. Obviously it’s nothing like the aforementioned from a flavor perspective, and it totally came out of left field for me. I chalked this up to “acquired taste”, and moved on.
Newcastle Brown Ale - I enjoyed this more than any of the above and decided that maybe darker was better for me. So I moved on to…
Guinness Draught Stout - This is more or less what I assumed beer would taste like, and I enjoy it quite a bit. It has a very pleasant amount of bitter flavor, and also has some tasty maltiness to it.
Great Lakes Brewery’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter - This is my favorite beer so far and I look forward to trying more that are similar to this. There was nothing I disliked about it. The smell, look, feel, taste, and aftertaste were all wonderful.
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy - Unless it’s real, fresh lemonade, I usually do not like lemon flavored anything, because it just reminds me of lemon scented cleaner, and the same rings true here. I could see this being refreshing on a hot day if you didn’t have the same aversion though.
Founder’s All Day IPA - After not enjoying the Crooked Tree IPA, I was eager to try another one to see if I just didn’t like this type of beer, but I have to say I enjoyed this. It has a nice flavor profile, and it does have some bitterness to it, but it’s a pleasant amount. I’ll continue to try more IPAs to see which is my favorite, and maybe go back to the Crooked Tree to see if I can develop a new appreciation for it.
As a big dark beer fan, I have to say you clearly have impeccable taste.
Hear hear, @Penny_Dreadful. Since you mentioned the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (I like it as well, Great Lakes is generally good), I’d recommend trying some stuff from Arcadia Ales. Their Nut Brown Ale is fantastic.
But brown ales, porters, reds, schwarzbiers/ Black lagers. All good stuff.
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll see what I can find around here.
Hey, I’m very glad to hear some of the craft beers fit for you. Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is a fantastic beer. If you can find one, try an oatmeal porter or stout as well. I’m partial to Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout, but some people don’t enjoy the water used in it, which gives it an almost mineral and earthy taste. Oatmeal stouts though are usually a lighter alcohol dark beer, with more body.
You might also want to try a Belgian beer, as their yeasts can be so different that it’s unlike any beer you’ve probably tasted.
What you seemed to zero in on were malt tastes, and there are a ton of ales with really good malt flavors. Founder’s All Day was your exception, but even though a light ale, it’s almost a perfect summer beer, with just enough hop taste, not too overly bitter, and light enough to drink while at the pool/lake/ocean.
Medium malt styles go from things like english mild to amber and brown ales to porters and dunkelbocks.
Heavier malt beers go from lighter stouts to imperial stouts, dopplebock, quadrupels, and scotch ales.
Some off styles mix malts of a special type or add-ins that do the same, like smoked beers, beers with rye/wheat/vienna malts or darker and darker roasts of malts that can taste like chocolate or coffee, all on their own.
Glad to have you on board!
A good idea for a sampler of Belgian styles is the New Belgium sampler pack. It has a Belgian Dubel, Tripel, sour, black lager, a tangerine IPA, and their Fat Tire. And they are all pretty fantastic.
That said I really recommend trying to find a German schwarzbier. My personal favorite is Kostritzer, but the entire style is malt forward, and very smooth with almost no hoppy bitterness. I think you might like it @Penny_Dreadful
The New Belgium 1554 is a pretty good simile, though imports generally are a little better imo
Trying to beer up with the missus tonight at Trophy Tap + Table. I finally had a Wee Heavy as @CraigM had repeatedly suggested to me, the Sidewalk to Nowhere. It’s… Okay. It’s still noticeably bitter, but not as bad as many stouts I’ve had.
Speaking of which, the gf had the Little Giants cardamom stout, which… Oh god. It was so… TINGLY. I even LIKE cardamom, but nooooo!
Tell me about these tater tots with gravy and an egg. Breakfast tots?
I’ve had one beer with cardamom that was good, most of the others just go waaaaay overboard. And for the life of me I can’t remember that beer. It was a take on a chai stout.
Wee Heavy can be a good beer, they are boozy and usually a touch of malty sweet as well. I’m surprised the bitterness hit you hard. I don’t remember if you mentioned but have you had Duck Rabbit Milk Stout, or Left Hand Milk Stout? Others along that line would be Terrapin Moo Hoo and any of it’s one-off line using the same base, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Hardywood Gingerbread Stout, and Westbrook Udderly Milk Stout.
Milk Stouts don’t usually highlight bitterness. Instead they have a late addition to the boil kettle of lactose powder or syrup. Lactose is slightly sweet, like 1/2 or less of sugar, but it also adds body to a beer.
The Duck Rabbit Milk Stout is another drinkable beer for me, but I don’t know that I could go so far as to say that I enjoy it. Didn’t care for Youngs DCS when I had it. Chocolatey notes in beer often veer to near to coffee esque flavors or feature an almost burnt taste from the darkly roasted malts. Beer is hard for me!
And yeah, it was actually tater tot poutine with cheese curds, beer gravy, and the egg. Really, really damn good, tbh.
Oh dear. That doesn’t bode well for our next homebrew recipe.
You should be fine. Just remember the beer add-in mantra. A little (usually) goes a long way. You get fading of flavors during fermentation, but only just a little, so a strategy is to cool down some of the wort during the boil to taste for your add-in flavors, if they are of the type added in late boil stage.
The hard additions are additives put in during secondary fermentation. Too much at that point and you’re going to have an overly flavored beer.
My wife hates most IPA’s. For some reason with beer she skipped the “introductory” stuff and fully enjoys the heavy stouts and porters.
The All Day Founders is a lighter, lower alcohol version of an IPA. Several brewers make those. They can be decent, and the reduced alcohol content is often a good thing.
Why ruin beer with coconut? :)
Although in a stout that might, might be good.
There are some good coconut stouts around. Not sure if this experiment will work. We missed the Original Gravity by 15. The iodine test was clear, though. The recipe had a lot of malt, I suspect our setup is not efficient enough for a full batch with so much grain.
It’s a very common and pretty tasty combo. Also popular are coconut porters.
@Jorn_Weines was it hard to sparge that? It looks … chunky.