Craft Beer?

Not sure if posts about alcohol are allowed, so Mods please delete if needed.

Anyone here into RESPONSIBALLY enjoying a good Russian Imperial Stout or a juicy NE IPA?  I live in Wisconsin, so I'm fortunate enough to have tons of great breweries offerings easily available. I'm also unfortunate enough to live in a state that absolutely glorifies the drinking culture and thanks to the tavern league has some of the most soft and lenient drunk driving laws in the country. That being said, anyone else here enjoy a well crafted brew while cranking some metal?

Me! 
While Germany is quite known for it's beer (consumption) the "beer culture" was pretty much gone a couple of years ago: The market was totally dominated by huge companies and the average German drank average Pilsener beer with only minor differences in taste and quality. Only Southern Germany had still a lot of smaller breweries and kept the market more "colorful" there.
The craft beer movement in the USA sparked also a hype in Germany and now you can find a lot of new small breweries all over the country. It's still a small market but even the big names adopted the trend and are offering new products though there aren't many that convince me. And there's also a lot of craft beer that isn't good enough to pay double the price or more. Especially when it's an IPA I'm very sceptical cause I got disappointed much too often.

Fortunately there is a local brewery (Lemke) that started 20 years ago and REALLY convinced me! (There are a couple of craft beer breweries in Berlin but most of them didn't impress me at all.)
When I'm there I always follow the same plan: I start with a lighter Pale Ale, followed by a strong "Hopfenweisse" ("hop wheat bear", a crossing between an IPA and a classic German wheat beer), then a strong IPA and finally a small Imperial IPA. With each beer the increasing hop amount also increases the richness in flavor and the increasing bitter units (30, 40, 60, 75) make the beer "cut through" on a consistent level though the tongue gets number and number due to the (also increasing level of) alcohol.

I also drink really cheap beer from the supermarket and sometimes a good old Pilsner is just perfect (besides local / German brands you find a lot of Czech beer here). But once in a while I need something different with a much stronger malt or hop flavor. I remember when I drank my first smoked beer: It was like drinking liquid bacon... 

Unfortunately with three kids under three years old and a wife who is not really into metal (especially in the evening when the kids are in bed) I don't get to turn up the CD player in the evening, which is the only part of day when I drink alcohol. And because I don't drink beer too often I'm picky about the kind of beer I get to drink.

As Tobi already indicated, German beer tends to be somewhat one-dimensional. In the Netherlands (where I'm from) we always had lots of Belgian craft beers in the stores, luckily there's a local brewery who has some seasonal specials on occasion. It's funny, when I'm looking for a good beer here in Germany I pay close attention to the percentage of alcohol. The standard German beer doesn't really get that much above 5% (if at all), so anything from 6% and higher is automatically interesting. But I'm glad my family helps us to keep our Belgian beer stash from dry. And when all else fails, the supermarket next to us always has two kinds of Belgian beers in its assortment.

For real though, you inspire me. Maybe I'll plan a night for me to kick back with a beer while I listen to some metal on my headphones. We get to plan our evenings ahead so...

Great to hear the perspectives from you in Germany!  I've ALWAYS loved German beer, even the "cheap" stuff.  One of my favorite beers of all time is Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen (though everything they make is great!).  Has the "Hazy" or New England IPA craze started to hit in your areas yet?  The big hype beers in the US have been the high ABV barrel aged stouts and the hazy ipas. It seems that's all some breweries make, they'll have 10 different IPAs, but won't even make a brown ale, a wheat beer, pilsner, etc because it doesn't sell.  I do like the big stouts and hazy ipas, but I also love a little variety!  

Tobi, you mentioned rauchbier, the first time I had this style I was actually in Bamberg.  Tasted like an ashtray covered in bacon! I've since grown to enjoy that style on occasion. 

Andreas89, I can only imagine all the great Belgian beers you must have access to!  We do get quite a few around here, I love Duvel, St Bernardus, Gulden Draak, Piraat, Chimay, etc.  We don't get Westvleteren though, which I know many consider to be the best beer in the world!

Yes.    My favorites are Belgians, stouts, porters, and browns.  Though I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been on an IPA kick for some time now haha.  In general, the quality of local microbreweries was higher in California where I came from, though we've got some mighty good ones up here in north Idaho too - namely Selkirk Abbey, Mad Bomber, and Bombastic.

Most recently for my birthday, my sister got me some delicious beers from Barbarian Brewing in Boise, Idaho where they're at.  Really top-notch stuff.

I’m EXTREMELY into gose/sours, have been for a year or two.  My favorites are Victory Brewing’s “Sour Monkey”, Founder’s “Green Zebra”, and DuClaw’s “Unicorn Farts”.  I haven’t had any sour from DuClaw that’s been less than stellar...

exo wrote:I’m EXTREMELY into gose/sours, have been for a year or two.  My favorites are Victory Brewing’s “Sour Monkey”, Founder’s “Green Zebra”, and DuClaw’s “Unicorn Farts”.  I haven’t had any sour from DuClaw that’s been less than stellar...

If you likes sours, I'd recommend some Drekker fruited sours if you get distro from them in your area.   Oh, and Dragon Fandango by Toppling Goliath brewing is absolutely amazing!  I also enjoy Sour Monkey, we unfortunately don't get DuClaw distro up here, but I've picked up some of their Sweet Baby Jesus when I've been traveling. I'll have to look for Unicorn Farts next time!

Kerrick wrote:Yes.    My favorites are Belgians, stouts, porters, and browns.  Though I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been on an IPA kick for some time now haha.  In general, the quality of local microbreweries was higher in California where I came from, though we've got some mighty good ones up here in north Idaho too - namely Selkirk Abbey, Mad Bomber, and Bombastic.

Most recently for my birthday, my sister got me some delicious beers from Barbarian Brewing in Boise, Idaho where they're at.  Really top-notch stuff.

I don't know that I've had anything from a brewery in Idaho, we get a lot of Utah and some Wyoming breweries distroed here, but I don't recall ever seeing anything from Idaho.  Shame, I'd love to try some!

outofstep wrote:

exo wrote:I’m EXTREMELY into gose/sours, have been for a year or two.  My favorites are Victory Brewing’s “Sour Monkey”, Founder’s “Green Zebra”, and DuClaw’s “Unicorn Farts”.  I haven’t had any sour from DuClaw that’s been less than stellar...

If you likes sours, I'd recommend some Drekker fruited sours if you get distro from them in your area.   Oh, and Dragon Fandango by Toppling Goliath brewing is absolutely amazing!  I also enjoy Sour Monkey, we unfortunately don't get DuClaw distro up here, but I've picked up some of their Sweet Baby Jesus when I've been traveling. I'll have to look for Unicorn Farts next time!

Another one that should be widely available is Dogfish Head’s “Sea Quench” ale....

outofstep wrote:

Kerrick wrote:Yes.    My favorites are Belgians, stouts, porters, and browns.  Though I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been on an IPA kick for some time now haha.  In general, the quality of local microbreweries was higher in California where I came from, though we've got some mighty good ones up here in north Idaho too - namely Selkirk Abbey, Mad Bomber, and Bombastic.

Most recently for my birthday, my sister got me some delicious beers from Barbarian Brewing in Boise, Idaho where they're at.  Really top-notch stuff.

I don't know that I've had anything from a brewery in Idaho, we get a lot of Utah and some Wyoming breweries distroed here, but I don't recall ever seeing anything from Idaho.  Shame, I'd love to try some!

Come visit and I'll take you out to the good spots here! 

In my opinion, the commonly found (at least around here) Idaho beers really aren't anything to write home about.  No-Li and Payette are the ones you'll see the most options for in grocery stores but I haven't had any of their beers that I particularly loved.  (They're not awful either, but I certainly wouldn't go out of your way to find them.)  Since we're so close to Washington, we get quite a few options available from there which I think are in general better.

That being said, if you see anything from Selkirk Abbey or Bombastic, buy some!  They're especially good.  And so far, I'm very impressed with Barbarian too, though I've only had one of theirs.

Kerrick wrote:

outofstep wrote:

Kerrick wrote:Yes.    My favorites are Belgians, stouts, porters, and browns.  Though I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been on an IPA kick for some time now haha.  In general, the quality of local microbreweries was higher in California where I came from, though we've got some mighty good ones up here in north Idaho too - namely Selkirk Abbey, Mad Bomber, and Bombastic.

Most recently for my birthday, my sister got me some delicious beers from Barbarian Brewing in Boise, Idaho where they're at.  Really top-notch stuff.

I don't know that I've had anything from a brewery in Idaho, we get a lot of Utah and some Wyoming breweries distroed here, but I don't recall ever seeing anything from Idaho.  Shame, I'd love to try some!

Come visit and I'll take you out to the good spots here! 

In my opinion, the commonly found (at least around here) Idaho beers really aren't anything to write home about.  No-Li and Payette are the ones you'll see the most options for in grocery stores but I haven't had any of their beers that I particularly loved.  (They're not awful either, but I certainly wouldn't go out of your way to find them.)  Since we're so close to Washington, we get quite a few options available from there which I think are in general better.

That being said, if you see anything from Selkirk Abbey or Bombastic, buy some!  They're especially good.  And so far, I'm very impressed with Barbarian too, though I've only had one of theirs.

If I ever find myself near northern Idaho I'll take you up on that offer!  I'll be on the lookout for Selkirk Abbey, the name sounds familiar, I wonder if they get distribution in Illinois?  I'll check next time I get down that way

exo wrote:

outofstep wrote:

exo wrote:I’m EXTREMELY into gose/sours, have been for a year or two.  My favorites are Victory Brewing’s “Sour Monkey”, Founder’s “Green Zebra”, and DuClaw’s “Unicorn Farts”.  I haven’t had any sour from DuClaw that’s been less than stellar...

If you likes sours, I'd recommend some Drekker fruited sours if you get distro from them in your area.   Oh, and Dragon Fandango by Toppling Goliath brewing is absolutely amazing!  I also enjoy Sour Monkey, we unfortunately don't get DuClaw distro up here, but I've picked up some of their Sweet Baby Jesus when I've been traveling. I'll have to look for Unicorn Farts next time!

Another one that should be widely available is Dogfish Head’s “Sea Quench” ale....

Yes, that's a good one too!  Great "lawnmower" beer for a hot day!  I tried probably the most bizarre gose I've ever had a few weeks ago, Xmas Pickle by urban artifact.  It tasted exactly how you'd expect a pickle named beer to taste! HAHA

outofstep wrote:If I ever find myself near northern Idaho I'll take you up on that offer!  I'll be on the lookout for Selkirk Abbey, the name sounds familiar, I wonder if they get distribution in Illinois?  I'll check next time I get down that way

Cool!  They specialize in Belgian-style ales and everything I've had of theirs is fantastic.  Their flagship beer is a Belgian IPA which is really tasty, though of course their quad is where it's at.  

outofstep wrote:

exo wrote:

outofstep wrote:

exo wrote:I’m EXTREMELY into gose/sours, have been for a year or two.  My favorites are Victory Brewing’s “Sour Monkey”, Founder’s “Green Zebra”, and DuClaw’s “Unicorn Farts”.  I haven’t had any sour from DuClaw that’s been less than stellar...

If you likes sours, I'd recommend some Drekker fruited sours if you get distro from them in your area.   Oh, and Dragon Fandango by Toppling Goliath brewing is absolutely amazing!  I also enjoy Sour Monkey, we unfortunately don't get DuClaw distro up here, but I've picked up some of their Sweet Baby Jesus when I've been traveling. I'll have to look for Unicorn Farts next time!

Another one that should be widely available is Dogfish Head’s “Sea Quench” ale....

Yes, that's a good one too!  Great "lawnmower" beer for a hot day!  I tried probably the most bizarre gose I've ever had a few weeks ago, Xmas Pickle by urban artifact.  It tasted exactly how you'd expect a pickle named beer to taste! HAHA

Haven’t had UA’d Christmas variant, but their regular Dill Pickle goes GREAT with cheeseburgers on the grill

Most of the craft beer available in my area of the woods is Pale Ale which I am not a fan of. Love my stouts so pretty much stick to Guinness if on tap.

Headshrinker wrote:Most of the craft beer available in my area of the woods is Pale Ale which I am not a fan of. Love my stouts so pretty much stick to Guinness if on tap.

Guinness is a classic!  A properly poured pint is thing of beauty!

exo wrote:

Haven’t had UA’d Christmas variant, but their regular Dill Pickle goes GREAT with cheeseburgers on the grill

I'm going to try that!  I know we get the regular dill pickle around here, I'll have to pick some up next time I'm shopping

Hey, at least it isn't Kraft Beer.  I guess you could get a six pack of Macaroni & Beer.




Yeah, I know.........that joke was lame.  I will see myself out.

I guess I am pretty bland..I like my good 'ol fashion Coors Light

The few times I drink anything different it is Molson or assorted German beers at Okotoberfest time ( or if I am in Epcot in WDW).

I did try some locally brewed Gummi Bear Beer when I was in Chicago a couple of years ago. It was actually pretty good.