what are you drinking tonight?

Damn right

I'm drinking the same old shit I always drink. 211 Steel Reserve in the black can, and maybe some Mich Amberbach later if the 2 24oz black cans aren't enough, which I doubt they will be.

 

leffe blonde

picked up a 6 pack of it tonight, almost done with my 1st

 

That's what I had last night.

 

Im drinkin wine. Red very good and I have 2 bottles. I am getting drunk tonight!!

 

I'm drinking Moosehead tonight.

 

Grolsch is on offer at the moment

 

right now I am drinking strawberry vodka from the UK with frozen strawberries

 

mmmmm I wanna try strawberry vodka from the UK

 

Tanqueray and tonic with a wedge of lime.

 

I am drinking Bacardi.... nothing special.

 

Im drinking Hacker Pshorr

 

whiskey. straight no ice.

crown royal.

 

hey dbw, that is a beautiful piccy. is it your baby?

 

which one? Hacker-Pschorr makes a lot of beer styles. the only one i've tried is their hefeweizen, though..Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse Natürtrub i guess is the full name, according to beeradvocate, but the bottles i had were simply labeled "weisse"

i'd be pretty keen on trying their other offerings, though, because i personally feel that hacker-pschorr makes one of the best hefes out there. the only one i've tried which i really prefer is paulaner's hefeweizen...there are plenty of other good ones, but i like these two the most of what i've tried. i'm anxious to try schneider weisse weizenhell soon, which i've seen around but just not bothered to get yet. its made by the same brewery that makes the aventinus weizenbock...also a weizen-eisbock by the same name, which i'm also anxious to try. the weizenbock is one of my top favorite beers, though.


tonight....who knows. maybe i'll stop by somewhere and pick up something cheap (pretty damn broke right now) or maybe my roommates will be generous with their guinness extra stout...

in a couple of weeks beer money wont be an issue, though, since i'm cooling some wort as we speak, and am getting ready to pitch the yeast. for my birthday i got almost everything i need for my own homebrewing set up (so i dont have to use my father's equipment)

this is my first batch of beer i'm making entirely solo. i had a gift certificate to a homebrew shop, so i wanted to get everything i could there and not get ingredients online, so i had to alter the recipe a bit...this beer will be a bit darker than intended, and there are only two kinds of hops in it instead of three (called for saaz, tettnanger, and perle, but i just used a larger amount of saaz and skipped the perle)

the recipe is for a kölsch, but it called for some "extra light" malt extract, which the store didnt have, and for a specific brand - also which the store didnt have. so i just used some dried light malt extract. over half of the malt was supposed to be wheat malt, and i stuck with using a very substantial portion of wheat malt extract as the recipe called for. i did manage to get a proper kölsch yeast, so everything else should be fine. i did use a touch more barley malt than called for, making a total of 6lbs of malt extract rather than the 5.7lbs. the recipe also was for malt extract syrup, and i used dried malt extract. i expect the brew to have pretty close to the intended hop bitterness, flavor and aroma, but anticipate a somewhat darker beer (more along the color of a pale ale than a kölsch) and a maltier, and likely more alcoholic, brew.

i know i'm not going to end up with a traditional kölsch beer, but i improvised with what i had to work with, this is really pretty experimental to begin with since the only other times i've made beer i just helped my father who knows more about it than i and directed it mostly, and hey - whether or not its a traditional beer i end up with, i'm pretty confident that it will be a very fine drink. god willing, it wont pick up any bacterial infections or anything like that to ruin my labors.

 

I am drinking Saranac Imperial IPA, which is a very, very nice beer. I just wrote a review for it up on BA:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/34409/?ba=TagoMago

 

sounds good....have you ever had avery's maharaja imperial IPA, rat? probably my all time favorite IPA, and the only high gravity IPA i've had yet that i really, really like. tons and tons of hop flavor and aroma, very citrus and floral.

i have been appreciating well hopped beers more and more lately, but i still prefer to not drink aggressively bitter beers. i do like a decent amount of bitterness, especially with certain beers, but prefer my hoppy beers to be made primarily with a large amount of finishing hops rather than a ton of boiling/bittering hops.

while not a double IPA but a very hoppy strong belgian-style golden ale, i also really loved drinking goose island reserve's demolition ale.

i definitely recommend both beers very, very highly. if you haven't tried them, i suggest you do so immediately!

 

today, so far i've had 3 offerings from Cambridge Brewing Co:

YouEnjoyMyStout - a Russian Imperial Stout, at 10.5% abv

Chilly Willy - my father ordered this. its a beer infused with chili peppers. very interesting beer

Honey Ginger Ale - very pleasant, refreshing. the honey toned down the ginger

i also bought a 64oz growler of Regatta Golden from CBC

and now i'm drinking Old Scratch by Flying Dog

 

old scratch...is that the one they call a "golden ale"? if so i remember it being good and refreshing, but relatively uneventful. which is perfectly fine by me! when i first really got into beer i wanted only to drink the biggest, richest, maltiest high gravity brews i could find....i've lately learned to also enjoy some really hoppy beers lately....but very recently, mostly with the return of very warm weather i've learned to absolutely adore some well made but very subtle beers. i've become a sucker for a good pils, i like bitters and milds, kölsch, hell i can even get down on some of the better american light lagers, canadian light lagers, and even just last night i had a bottle of heineken and for the first time really, thoroughly enjoyed every drop of it (of course unlike most heineken i've had in the past, this was miraculously unskunked)....so long as its a well made beer, theres nothing wrong with a simple, subtle, and unaggressive beer...

nothing earthshattering, just something i've grown to appreciate lately that i never used to care much for....i guess the snob in me is dying and the enthusiast is taking over. i just plain like beer!

 

no, thats the Tire Bite Golden Ale

the old scratch is different - it was good and refreshing, nothing great, but not poorly made either. a nice beer to just relax with, something different that i can't usually have and just nice to try something from another brewery.

my friends view me as a snob, though i dont' see it that way. i just like trying different beer - i do love very hoppy beer - but i'm also learning to enjoy others just as much. but yea, my friends view me as a beer snob just cuz i dont' drink Miller or Bud lite with them...its a damn struggle just to get them to drink a beer Magic Hat or Long Trail or Otter Creek, which are in Vt (where i go to school), nevermind any other craft brews...they say i'm a snob, i say i'm a beer enthusiast in his toddler stage haha

 

i know Rat saw that i went to the American Beer Fest in Boston Saturday night, i volunteered for it.

these are the beers i tasted:
Allagash: Curieux
Boulder Beer: Cold Hop British-Style Ale
Ommegang: Three Philosophers
Cambridge Brewing Co.: Arquebus
Dogfish Head: 120 Min IPA
Jolly Pumpkin: Oro de Calabaza
Otter Creek: Cuckoo Bock
Rock Bottom: Maximus
Smuttynose: Big A IPA
Southern Tier Brewing Co: Big Red
The Livery: Cousin Jax Imperial Pale Ale
Watch City Brewing Co: King's Kolsch Lager

and these are the beers i got to bring home:
2 Victory: Sapphire (12 oz)
3 Flying Dog: In-Heat Wheat Ale (12 oz)
2 Flying Dog: Old Scratch Amber Lager (12 oz)
3 Flying Dog: Snake Dog IPA (12 oz)
2 Ommegang: Abbey Ale (750 ml)
3 The Lost Abbey: 10 Commandments (750 ml)
1 The lost Abbey: Devotion (750 ml)
2 Jolly Pumpkin: Ordo de Calabaza (750 ml)
2 Jolly Pumpkin: Luciernaga (750 ml)
1 Jolly Pumpkin: Bam Biere (750 ml)