Food, Drink & Dining Out Favourite Beer II

craigos

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Had this the other day and whilst it was a decent beer, where is all this naming of beers going to end. 3/4 IPA? I mean come on. Going to end up filling the gaps between a PA and XPA and IPA soon.
 

Silent Alarm

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Had this the other day and whilst it was a decent beer, where is all this naming of beers going to end. 3/4 IPA? I mean come on. Going to end up filling the gaps between a PA and XPA and IPA soon.
It's a 'Session IPA.'

All it is is an excuse to still charge a heap but have a lot less alcohol in it.

I'm kind of off IPAs but one of the great things about them is the actual taste and punch of the content. You knock down the ABV and what really is it? In my experience they're generally the most bland beers ever. You can have a awesome pale ale, stout, IPA, sour... even a milk stout, a bourbon stout, a breakfast stout, an orange sour, a watermelon sour... all these sub-categories and they can leave an impression. I don't think anyone has ever gone 'wow, jesus, I'll be grabbing this session IPA again!'
 

craigos

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Went to an African place on the weekend and had some decent Lagers. I had been to West Africa around 6 years ago and the local brews (all lagers) were surprisingly decent. Find it hard to get hold of these beers (maybe I'm looking in the wrong place) but I reckon the craft beer market has replaced a lot of these type of beers. Tusker and Castle not that hard to find but outside of that, any suggestions where to find International beers in Melbourne?

*Probably should say International excluding Europe as they're easily found.
 

Silent Alarm

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Went to an African place on the weekend and had some decent Lagers. I had been to West Africa around 6 years ago and the local brews (all lagers) were surprisingly decent. Find it hard to get hold of these beers (maybe I'm looking in the wrong place) but I reckon the craft beer market has replaced a lot of these type of beers. Tusker and Castle not that hard to find but outside of that, any suggestions where to find International beers in Melbourne?

*Probably should say International excluding Europe as they're easily found.
Craft beers are great for winter but in summer I tend to go for simple staples. Half for the taste but also becomes I'm drinking more and drinking differently – it's fine to grab a six pack for yourself but in summer, you're taking them to the beach and parties or having people over. You don't wanna be plunking down $90 on a slab of sours, no matter how appropriate they may be. Also who wants some super crafty beer when you're cooking a barbecue or eating cold salads, chicken, prawns, that sort of thing?

I generally stick to Coopers, Furphs here and there, love a Peroni red, and whatever lagers on special (Kronenburg, Singha, Budvar, Estrellas) but you get tired of it.

One of the reasons I like beer is you can always try something new. Some beers remind you of a place or time, you grab this because you had it in Spain once or you're meeting up with a certain mate and that's what you always tend to drink together. Sometimes it's just from a novel place or the label's cool.

Sometimes my local bottle-o gets random s**t in and I love that. In the past few months they've had Cintra from Portugal, Ichnusa from Sardinia for 40 bucks a slab and I haven't seen them in Australia before or since. That sort of thing is great.

Rolling Rock, Super Bock, Beerlao, Hanoi, Casablanca (had this in the UK once – Moroccan beer, *in nice). It's cheap as it is. You could flog them for 48 and still make money on it. This time of year I really feel like that sort of beer.
 

Trewth

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Question: I found a 6 pack of Belgian ales in the back of the pantry hidden under some of the gf's junk... Best before this time 2015. Are they safe to drink? Should I just turf them?

There’s only one way to find out, try one.
 

headache1

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Had this the other day and whilst it was a decent beer, where is all this naming of beers going to end. 3/4 IPA? I mean come on. Going to end up filling the gaps between a PA and XPA and IPA soon.

I just had one of these. Easily the most uninteresting beer I've ever had with IPA written on the can.
 
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Question: I found a 6 pack of Belgian ales in the back of the pantry hidden under some of the gf's junk... Best before this time 2015. Are they safe to drink? Should I just turf them?
yeah absolutely safe

May not taste great
 

craigos

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I just had one of these. Easily the most uninteresting beer I've ever had with IPA written on the can.
Yeah, even if it was called a Pale Ale it'd still feel light on flavour.

Had the new Coopers Session Ale yesterday, was alright albeit nothing that you'd be excited to see on tap. One of those beers you'd buy a carton of because it's only $50 but would almost never buy a 6 pack of.
 

Silent Alarm

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Coopers is my go to and probably favourite all-round brewery but I don't rate their latest move.

What the hell is the point of the session ale? It's basically a mid-strength and it's just hugely unremarkable. The good thing about Coopers is every beer has a distinct purpose. Why muddle your simple, staple lineup with basically an inferior version of your most iconic beer?

And don't get me started on them doing pale ale in a can now. Fffffark.
 

headache1

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Cans > Bottles these days. UV light and beer do not mix and they are much less prone to oxidization than bottles. They're more efficient to transport than bottles as well, being lighter and taking up less room when stacked on top of each other. For me, if I'm at home I'm pouring my beer into a glass anyway, the can just gives the beer a better chance of getting to me in the state it's supposed to be consumed.

I actually really like the Session Ale when I've had it in cans, but have had some average experiences with it on tap. Though that is likely due to the state of the respective pubs beer lines. Has been a good seller for them too, particularly in cans I'm told. Sparkling Ale will be making it's way to shelves in cans as well quite soon.
 

headache1

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Yeah, even if it was called a Pale Ale it'd still feel light on flavour.

Had the new Coopers Session Ale yesterday, was alright albeit nothing that you'd be excited to see on tap. One of those beers you'd buy a carton of because it's only $50 but would almost never buy a 6 pack of.

Yep. It wasn't a bad flavour, there was just very little of anything to taste.
 

craigos

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Coopers is my go to and probably favourite all-round brewery but I don't rate their latest move.

What the hell is the point of the session ale? It's basically a mid-strength and it's just hugely unremarkable. The good thing about Coopers is every beer has a distinct purpose. Why muddle your simple, staple lineup with basically an inferior version of your most iconic beer?

And don't get me started on them doing pale ale in a can now. Fffffark.

It's near the same strength as their Pale Ale, (4.2 vs 4.5) and I imagine they're trying to grab a bit more of the craft beer segment. Session Ales are pretty much flavour of the month so they've chosen that. Weird to say but I've never really thought of Coopers as craft beer, going back ten years you use to be able to get it on tap in most pubs but I feel those taps have been taken over by beers like mountain goat, stone and wood, kosciusko (cant be arsed spelling it) or Little Creatures.

Milang_Panthers , Prancing Pony probably one of my favourite breweries. If you ever get the chance hit up their brewery in the Adelaide hills. Cool spot and they have heaps of one off brews to try.
 

Silent Alarm

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It's near the same strength as their Pale Ale, (4.2 vs 4.5) and I imagine they're trying to grab a bit more of the craft beer segment. Session Ales are pretty much flavour of the month so they've chosen that. Weird to say but I've never really thought of Coopers as craft beer, going back ten years you use to be able to get it on tap in most pubs but I feel those taps have been taken over by beers like mountain goat, stone and wood, kosciusko (cant be arsed spelling it) or Little Creatures.

Milang_Panthers , Prancing Pony probably one of my favourite breweries. If you ever get the chance hit up their brewery in the Adelaide hills. Cool spot and they have heaps of one off brews to try.
Coopers are complete mainstream but they're the best common beer around. In every bottle-o, on most taps, it's just a good go-to.
 
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Loving Prancing Pony beers atm. Hard to get here in Perth though.
Where abouts do you live mate? Could give you about 10 shops which have at least 3/4 of their lines

International beer shop and Copper and Oak are always go to. Met the husband/wife who own/brew it. Awesome people
 
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Where abouts do you live mate? Could give you about 10 shops which have at least 3/4 of their lines

International beer shop and Copper and Oak are always go to. Met the husband/wife who own/brew it. Awesome people
Live in harrisdale (near Cockburn) none of the local liquor stores have ever had it, can get it occasionally at the liquor shed in jandakot but they never have much stock.
 
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It's near the same strength as their Pale Ale, (4.2 vs 4.5) and I imagine they're trying to grab a bit more of the craft beer segment. Session Ales are pretty much flavour of the month so they've chosen that. Weird to say but I've never really thought of Coopers as craft beer, going back ten years you use to be able to get it on tap in most pubs but I feel those taps have been taken over by beers like mountain goat, stone and wood, kosciusko (cant be arsed spelling it) or Little Creatures.

Milang_Panthers , Prancing Pony probably one of my favourite breweries. If you ever get the chance hit up their brewery in the Adelaide hills. Cool spot and they have heaps of one off brews to try.
Yeah I actually discovered it because I dropped into the brewery (I'm from the adelaide hills originally and my dad lives not far from the brewery). Definitely a good spot for a beer.
 

craigos

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Made up some homebrew of an English Bitter and it's damn good. A beer style I don't see of much anymore but one which I've always had a leaning towards when I want a basic beer. Am a fan of these when I find them but for $58 a slab, it's taking the piss a bit.

116845-5.png
 

Silent Alarm

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Made up some homebrew of an English Bitter and it's damn good. A beer style I don't see of much anymore but one which I've always had a leaning towards when I want a basic beer. Am a fan of these when I find them but for $58 a slab, it's taking the piss a bit.

116845-5.png
Where the hell are you finding that? I've never seen it.
 
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