Sorry no pretty image. I’m at work right now. Last night I yummied two imperial porters from Poland: Grand and Zywiec imperial porters. Deep, lovely and languishing flavors. These brews with some cannibal sandwiches worked for me. But the malt used in the porters was the real highlight.
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Hi ya, Greg. Welcome to the beer thread.
I drink Polish craft beers, too. Some are very good, indeed.
Are non-alcoholic beers a grow trend in Europe? Here in the US they are a grow market shares and some of them (IPA, PA) actually don’t taste bad.
Non-alcoholic beers are becoming very popular in Europe. Case in point: specialist beers including IPAs are coming out with zero alcohol beers. For me, lots of them still taste like a semi sweet lemonade, but I was pleasantly surprised by Affligem 0.0. I still prefer normal beer but at least I’d get a beer taste here.
Latest I’ve seen is 0.0 gin, for a non-alcoholic gin tonic. Haven’t tried it yet though.
A big trend and has been for some years now. I think all the industrial breweries have at least 1 non-alcoholic style in their ranges. Many craft breweries also have a go. I have tried many and most are from pretty decent to good.
I trust you will make time to check out some beer bars in Vancouver.
Not sure if we will have enough time as we will be traveling around quite a lot, e.g. Vancouver Island, up the mountains etc.
Hopefully you’ll be able to find some craft beers along the way. Last time I went back (2009 I think), lots of beers and easily available.
I also went to the island. Used to go bodyboarding there in the summer as a teenager.
Your first meal looks good. Enjoy your trip and safe travels.
PS: yeah, leave the big cities behind and head to the mountains.
It’s interesting that, only a few years ago, most Polish brews in stores were of the lawnmower variety: Zywiec’s regular light beer (which also used dehydrated corn to reinforce the malt and light flavor) , Okocim, Perla, all lighter beers. So, I had never tried the imperial porters they made. Grand is an amazing IP (no A).
Head to the mountains!!!
NA gin? Jeeziss. Just can’t picture that. In the US, it’s still IPA( term used very loosely here) and sours that seem popular. I love lambics, but just can’t attach to the sours made here. Most US micros taste ho-hum to me because so many source their malts from the same source.
I love the Scot Belhaven brewery. Lovely brews.
Apparently it isn’t half bad.
I don’t doubt it. Tangy might be the perfect gin for this. Less forward than the Londan, hit you in the face, dry gins.
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Have you tried Rare Barrel sours?
Wow. Good to see a Fairfield beer giving Anheuser-Busch a run for their money!
Tree House Julius, overlooking the 1st fairway at The Country Club (Brookline, MA) during the Tuesday practice round for the US Open. Nice touch by the USGA to feature local craft brews.
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Never tried the brew, but that’s a fine lookin’ samich.
Have not. I’m to the point where I’m trying less and less new, as I more-often-than-not, am disappointed.
I find myself in a situation with beer that I mimic with my musical tastes. I find myself disappointed in the newer stuff, so I go back further and further to enjoy the greats of the past. Alt ales, classic porters, dark lagers, etc. Same with tunes. I’m going into older and older jazz, folk, blues, into classical, starting with Prokofiev and working my way backwards. I think I’m officially a fuddy duddy.
This is no knock on your tastes; but, if I want “sour” I’ll love a lambic, framboise, thank you. Never disappoints.
It would thrill me to no end to have a brewery in the US, using US grown malt, come up with a simple lager that could match even Heineken, or one of the middle of the road Euro lagers. All these funky new styles, when we’ve can’t even mimic the classics on our best day. DAB, with all our supposed know how, we couldn’t make anything that resembles the huge DAB brewery’s offerings. Stouts made in the US fair better than lagers, to be sure. But there is not a one that can come close to Guinness, or Taddy. Not a one. You can’t fake Guinness, original beer mother, there.
We’re way behind many brewing countries in terms of our malt. Now, I’m very proud of our malting tradition in Wisconsin. We produce a lot of malt, and it’s decent stuff. Just doesn’t seat us anywhere near the top. Make it sour, or sweet, if the malt is inferior, so is the beer. Same goes for water. That’s why I think we should switch it all to high fructose corn syrup. (this was a joke, I’m not serious, promise)
I’m not just comparing us to Europe. Singha (Thai), Kirin (Japan), Tusker (Kenya), hell, even S. America. generic ass Pilsner(yes, Ecuador calls its fave beer “Pilsner”.) I haven’t really tasted anything in the US any better. Be nice if we could master the simple before thinking we have any mastery.
I still miss the old Pilsner ads. “Pilsner, porque cerveza es salud!” “…because beer is health!” Hell yeah.
You should drink what you enjoy but I think you should give Rare Barrel a try. All they make are sours.
Obviously every taste preferences are different but I couldn’t disagree more with your US beer “assessment” - it would be very disappointing if US breweries would only produce beers on the level Guinness, Heineken oder Singha etc which I tend to call “safe” beers for those who don’t really like to drink beers. These are mass-produced beers without any character/soulless and just there to meet the smallest denominator - even back home in Germany Heineken is often characterized as the quality of “horse piss”. I have pretty much the opposite view that the US craft beer scene has made tremendous progress over the last 10-15 years and is years ahead of many other countries - every time I am back in Europe and drink some beer (established and new ones) I see how stagnant the breweries are there. It is slowly starting to get better but it will take 5-10 years until they will perhaps catch up.
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There are so many choices when it comes to beer in the US it would be astonishing if we didn’t have anyone producing quality beers.
I have been on a pilsner kick lately and have found a lot of enjoyable ones from the many breweries in the Bay Area. I was at Almanac brewery last week and enjoyed their Peaceful Pils and their True Kolsch.
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If I see it, I’ll try it. I’m not closed off, just exhausted trying all of these well advertised, ho-hum brews. The fancier the can/bottle, the weaker the beer, often. These IPAs, are just like eating a flower. I’ve made IPAs. Yes, they were hoppier to make the trip to India; but not bitter blasts.
Be nice if we could first master the simple beers, instead of feigning mastery with all these bizarro creations that turn out tepid, or horrendous. Whatever sells, though. Buy the pretty bottle to add to the collection, then ooo and ahhh about minutia. I want the whole beer to be good, not elements of it.
What micro lager made in the US would you put up against a world killer like Heineken (which isn’t the top of the heap in my world, just a great success)?
I’ll buy a Rare Barrel if I see it, though. Probably take me 10 minutes of sifting to find among the rest of the pretty bottles. In the meantime, treat yourself to Grand Imperial Porter. Taste what good malt tastes like.
I’ll agree to disagree with you, Honkman. My point is we can’t come near replicating those safe beers, so I feel these breweries are slightly pretentious. I like some of them. Love to support New Glarus by me. Even liked Pete’s wicked back in the day. There are good US micro breweries, but they are among a sea of mediocrity all dressed up to look cool. Central Sands by me is respectable, among several others. Mediocre malt=mediocre beer. Just my take. The breweries here are successful financially; but that comes before the quality. Agree to disagree.
