Food & Drink The Hangar Beer Thread

[Doss]

Yeah, the Invalid isn't a bad drop.

Sierra Nevada- some of their stuff is very nice but others are a bit samesy for me. A bit too, for want of a better way to put it, 'typical American north west IPA'.

 

[eth-dog]

I had a Budweiser the other day. Surprisingly I didn't mind it too much.

 

[Doss]

You like watery beers with almost no discernible taste?

Budweiser is a poor take off of the Czech beer Budvar, as an aside.

 

[eth-dog]

You like watery beers with almost no discernible taste?

Budweiser is a poor take off of the Czech beer Budvar, as an aside.

I was probably too sloshed to notice...

 

[Doss]

I was probably too sloshed to notice...

Yeah, about the only time I could stomach a Budweiser would be when I'm already toasted or it's so hot that I'll slam the beer down with it not even touching the sides.

I remember a while back, the Budweiser packaging used to have 'King of Beers' on it. Really shat me because it is anything but the king of beers. Dunce of beers, more like it.

Then again, if you think Bud is bad, wait until you have a Bud Light.

 

[Pweter]

Any beer that is mass produced in America, by Americans, for Americans needs to be avoided.

I think the same about Australian beers for the record, but if confronted with a VB or a Bud, other than fleetingly thinking about not drinking at all I'd take the local product.

 

[Doss]

Brooklyn and Sierra Nevada are both big enough now to be considered mass produced, I think. They're both very solid breweries.

The axis of evil is Budweiser, Miller and Coors among yank beers.

 

[Beerfish]

Rogue make some pretty interesting beers.

 

[Doss]

The thing the American beer market really lacks much of is crisp, but good standard, lagers.

It actually comes back to what fodzilla was referring to with a brewery like Temple. Too much concentration on fruity IPAs. I reckon a lot of American microbreweries are like that. The beers are nice, mind you; but you'll struggle to find many beers even like, say, Boags Premium. Plenty of watery, crappy rubbish and plenty of nice IPAs and porters/stouts. But just not much in between.

That's where Brooklyn comes into its own. It has plenty of such drops, and they all hold their own.

 

[Beerfish]

Don't think I've seen/tried any Brooklyn stuff.. that I remember.

 

[Doss]

Don't think I've seen/tried any Brooklyn stuff.. that I remember.

It's not that easy to find here- well, other than the Lager. I remember being at an American themed bar on Smith Street in Collingwood and having a couple of their others- I think one was the East IPA, which wasn't really that IPAish at all, but was lovely nonetheless. And their pilsner too.

You'll find much more variety of their drops if you're in America- especially, naturally enough, New York City. I drank it like it was water over there- hey, it was 33 and insanely humid every day, okay.


I could not believe it when I stumbled upon their Black Chocolate Stout the other day, though. Was like striking gold.

 

[Beerfish]

I'll keep my eye peeled for them. There's a pretty impressive bottle shop in Fremantle that would probably stock their brews.

 

[Doss]

I'll keep my eye peeled for them. There's a pretty impressive bottle shop in Fremantle that would probably stock their brews.

Needless to say, whem I come to Perth I'm going to go hunting for micro-breweries.

 

[BrunoV]

Can second Doss' comments re Brooklyn.

Great quality drinking beer.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

I don't think I shared it here at the time, but as we traveled I made rough rankings of the local beers I tried:

With full credit to [name redacted to protect the innocent] for the idea, a belated hierarchy of Vietnamese beers:

Saigon Green/Lager
Huda
Ha Noi
Hue
Halida
Saigon Red/Export
Larue Export
Saigon Special
Larue
333
Festival
Bivina

Having officially departed the country, my hierarchy of Chinese beers that I could find cold and that weren't pretend German beers:

Pearl River
Tsingtao
Pearl River Draft
Beijing Draft
Yanjing Fresh
Harbin
Yanjing Draft
Tsingtao Draft
Hans 9°
Hans Dry
Yanjing
Blue Cowrie (with Blue Cowboy on the label, go figure)
Blue Lion
Harbin Gold
Li Quan ("Home in a Bottle", if you live under a bridge)
The assorted varities of Pineapple Beer available everywhere (why inflict this on yourself, China?)

As an added bonus, a small hierarchy of North Korean beers:

Taedonggang No. 2
Taedonggang No. 1
Mystery draught beer
Ryongsong
Yanggakdo
Pyonghak
Rakwon Yellow
Rakwon Wheat

On the occasion of our departure from Mongolia, a hierarchy of beer. Waiting the better part of a month for Russian visas = plenty of time to drink and learn Cyrillic.

89 (also the cheapest beer in the land at a dollar a litre or so, go figure)
Khar Khorum / ХАР ХОРУМ (passable Newcastle Brown knockoff)
MB Black Consul
Gem Draft Dark
Fusion
Golden Gobi / АЛТАН ГОВЬ
Chinggis Unfiltered
Gem Draft
Jalam Khar / ЖАЛАМ ХАР
Khurkhree / ХУРХРЭЭ
Sengur / CЭНГУР
Borgio / БОРГИО
Soyoolj / CОЁОЛЖ
Chinggis Khan / ЧИНГИC ХААН (tempting fate in this country to name a rubbish beer after CK)
Niislel / НИЙCЛЭЛ

So, ah, Russian beer, hey?

So we leave Russia tomorrow. What did I learn about Russian beer in our week and a bit here, you ask? Read on, friends.

BҌHA (pronounced Vienna) Svetloe (pale) - I can't find anything about this on the internet, but it's a dirt-cheap and very drinkable Saint Petersburg-brewed amber.
Sibirska Korona
Vasileostrovskoe Dark
Nevskoe Pale
Vasileostrovskoe White

-- daylight --

Baltika - three kinds, all rubbish.
Nevskoe - rubbish.
Zhigulevskoe - rubbish, in an amusing can.

I nearly forgot about Estonia!

Saku Dark, Saku Light and Alexander Pint are good, especially given the latter comes in an (imperially) pint-sized can.

A. Le Coq Premium and Rock are not good. Karl Freidrich and Saaremaa Tuulik are less bad, but not worth chasing down. Vinu Tol catches the eye but not the tastebuds.

Well Sweden, you may be quite something to look at and filled with lovely people, but $35 for a jug of beer is out of control, particularly when your beer is dishwater. That's before I even get to the mid-strength that is all you can buy outside grandpa hours. To the bottom of the hierarchy! On the basis of Danish beer alone, you should maybe revisit that Kalmar Union idea.

The French have two breweries. One, they stole from ze Germans, the other pretends to be English. The red Kronenbourg is better than the blue 1664 Export, and the Pelforth Brune is tidy, but the Blonde not so much.

Didn't even attempt Germany though, couldn't do it justice in our brief stay.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

It's also surprisingly difficult to find good beer here in England. There's a wide range of inoffensive but unmemorable lagers (locally-brewed Red Stripe or Carlsberg are our staples), including probably as many Polish as local options (most are dull, I found a good one called Wojak, but only in a little shop up in Rugby so far), and the bitters are usually pretty decent but not as available as you'd expect. The ale industry has been completely overrun by the craft beer fruit obsession though, with most being undrinkable. I'm also yet to find a legitimately good stout in shops, so Guinness is the stand-in for the moment.

There are at least a few genuinely good beers available cheaply: Newcastle Brown, Budvar, etc. They're also into honey beer over here, which is very light in flavour, and slightly sweet, but without being weak or overly fruity or floral. Hadn't seen it before and it was very pleasant in summer.

 

[Beerfish]

The ale industry has been completely overrun by the craft beer fruit obsession though, with most being undrinkable. I'm also yet to find a legitimately good stout in shops, so Guinness is the stand-in for the moment.

That's a bit depressing.

 

[Doss]

Can second Doss' comments re Brooklyn.

Great quality drinking beer.

Ever managed to get your hands on the Black Chocolate Stout?

WORTH.IT.

It's also surprisingly difficult to find good beer here in England. There's a wide range of inoffensive but unmemorable lagers (locally-brewed Red Stripe or Carlsberg are our staples), including probably as many Polish as local options (most are dull, I found a good one called Wojak, but only in a little shop up in Rugby so far), and the bitters are usually pretty decent but not as available as you'd expect. The ale industry has been completely overrun by the craft beer fruit obsession though, with most being undrinkable. I'm also yet to find a legitimately good stout in shops, so Guinness is the stand-in for the moment.

There are at least a few genuinely good beers available cheaply: Newcastle Brown, Budvar, etc. They're also into honey beer over here, which is very light in flavour, and slightly sweet, but without being weak or overly fruity or floral. Hadn't seen it before and it was very pleasant in summer.

I found a honey shop in Launceston which brewed some honey beers three years ago.

One was 5% and had very little taste.
One was 6% and had a bit more taste
One was 8% and was actually quite nice. And also knocked your socks off.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

That's a bit depressing.

It is cheap though. I bought 10x440mL of passable bitter this afternoon for less than $15.

 

[Doss]

It is cheap though. I bought 10x440mL of passable bitter this afternoon for less than $15.

In cans? Like a Boddington's sort of bitter?

That's crazy cheap.

The best bargain I've ever struck in Australia was a Dan's that was clearing out the last of its stock of 'fat' 375ml Cascade Blondes- they slimmed the bottles soon after.

Anyway, they had seven six packs left, and were selling the stubbies for a dollar each. I sure did buy all 42 of them.

 

[Doss]

One of my locals has Fruh Kolsch on tap at the moment.

If you're even the slightest bit a fan of German/Czech style pilsners, try and have this beer at some stage- it is sensational.

 

[Pweter]

In cans? Like a Boddington's sort of bitter?

That's crazy cheap.

The best bargain I've ever struck in Australia was a Dan's that was clearing out the last of its stock of 'fat' 375ml Cascade Blondes- they slimmed the bottles soon after.

Anyway, they had seven six packs left, and were selling the stubbies for a dollar each. I sure did buy all 42 of them.

I'll start this by saying that we pay to recycle here in SA, so a carton is generally $2 - $3 more expensive than Vic given we pay for the 10c/bottle recycling upon purchase, regardless of whether you go to the recycling depot or not.

Last week I got an email from Fly Buys for $15 off a carton of Becks at Liquorland who were already selling it at $45 a carton. I activated it and got a carton on the way home for $30.

I then rang my sister in law that night who activated it and I borrowed her card the next day. 1 Liquorland was out of Becks cartons so off to another one near to home. They were out of Becks cartons too. Apparently I was the only person to ask if I could grab 4x6 packs from the fridge and ask that it be considered a carton. Nobody else did afterwards, I know that much, as there was only 1x6 pack left after I was done.

2 slabs of Becks, $60, about the only complaint is it's Aussie Becks and not imported Becks, but still a good drop.

 

[Pweter]

One of my locals has Fruh Kolsch on tap at the moment.

If you're even the slightest bit a fan of German/Czech style pilsners, try and have this beer at some stage- it is sensational.

What is this "local" thing you speak of?

Oh yes, now I recall, that place (series of places) I frequented before kids took my time and money.

 

[Doss]

I worked at Liquorland in 2007/08 and we had a terrific little scheme going:

Health and Safety was the godsend- you just waited until something was out of date by strategically placing them at the back of the fridge- 'stock rotation'- and then told the boss you'd destroy the out of date stock at the end of the shift, long after the boss had gone home. Of course, beer that is a week or even months out presents no risk whatsoever, but technically we couldn't sell it. Or at least, our boss was under the impression we couldn't.

Destroying the stock amounted to splitting the out of date stock with the person you closed up with and taking them home.

Being different times, it was usually a decent Belgian wheat beer or a German pilsner too, because the bogans were too busy rushing to buy VB and Draught.

Good times.

In terms of cheapness though- the only slabs (not counting pissy lights) I remember being sub $30 were Tasman Bitter and Hammer n Tongs- both pretty average beers.

 

[Pweter]

Tasman Bitter - I remember when I first saw that for cheap in the mid 90s and bought a slab. I struggled to drink it so my mates helped me. Being free beer for them and all that they didn't complain much but did say it was s**t.

We were first year uni students. I think we were possibly the first ever uni freshmen to complain about the taste of a beer.