The Beer Nerd - what are you drinking / brewing thread

Hell ya brother! Super stoked for you!

 

11 below Lame Duck at Houston airport. Decent pale

 

Is it 5 o’clock yet? I’m already over work for the day and ready for a beer

 

It's 5 o'clock somewhere...

 

Hell yeah! Taking me back to my HS days haha!

Haha seriously! I counted up the words on one of the stouts... 12 freaking words in the name!

 

I think I decided I need to try a good IPA. I've been a self-proclaimed hater of IPA's, but feel like maybe I should give them another shot. Goose island is big around here but I've never had one of their beers and enjoyed it. Normally a fan of weiss beers which I think are similar, but less bitter. Any suggestions for some that are commonly available? Figure since I see them every where they must be good. Or I just have a poor taste in beer.

 

Depends on what’s available in your area. Easiest thing to do is hit up a few local respectable breweries in your area if there are any and get a flight.

If not, I’d say good starters are Stone, Ballast Point, Dogfish Head, Bell’s, or something along those lines. They all have pretty good range in their offerings.

 

Hadn't really thought to try that. Might be something to do over the weekend. We've got one smaller local brewery that was pretty underwhelming, but I'm sure I could find some better ones north of here. I'm a stones throw from Milwaukee so I guess I don't have an excuse to not try some different breweries.

 

IPA is a style that has so many wild offshoots, saying you "don't like IPAs" is a tough statement these days. You have to learn what you're looking for out of them, fruity, light and clean, piney, malty, weird, etc. Session IPAs, IPAs, doubles, triples, hazy, northwest, malty, central, foreign, etc

 

Easy thing to do is downloaded Untappd and then go to search nearby venues. You can see what other people think (with a grain of salt) before deciding.

I normally just go anyways tho

 

Let’s be real. Hazy IPAs aren’t even real IPAs.

 

Then you get into styles within those subsets.

I had a hazy lager a few weeks ago. Seriously wtf. It wasn’t bad, but wtf.

 

I guess my problem is I stopped trying them after having a few shitty ones. Grouped them all together as being bad. There's a few local stores that let you build your own 6 pack. I might try that too. Figure if I don't like it, no harm done. I'll still have had a beer.

 

You realize that it only just recently became an “official beer style” right? And a lot of breweries that brew a “hazy ipa” is just an unfiltered ipa that’s garbage. Or they just throw in a bunch of oats to give it that hazy look and more silky mouthfeel... hazy IPAs are not real IPAs.

 

Have you been to Tree House to stock up yet tho

 

Sadly no...

Gotta plan something. A couple of my friends want to go, so we have to try and plan it.

 

That’s just like, your opinion, man.

I get they’re not big out west, and that you’re not a fan, m but there’s no way you could go to Other Half, Tree House, Tired Hands, Dancing Gnome, The Answer, etc. and say they’re all garbage. That’s just silly.

I’ve had just as many stouts, porters, or west coast IPAs that are as disappointing as hazy IPAs. I will say that everything you sent (short of Pliney, you were right about it) was good and I’d buy again, so I def curb what I get now based on some of your (and others) posts.

It being recognized as ‘official’ carries as much weight as that stamp grocery stores use for unregulated organic food. If it tastes good, it tastes good

 

My cousin sent a pic of the line a few months ago. It’s intense, especially for how big that place is. He only brought home like $40 worth of stuff too