The Craft Beer Thread....

shep wrote:

Yellow Ledbelly wrote:

We tried Rogue's Dad's Little Helper Black IPA last night and thought it was awesome. Actually of the many Rogue selections we've had it may well be my favorite...it's on the short list for sure. We also bottled up our latest home brew so looking forward to that in a couple of weeks

Nice! I actually bought myself a home brewing kit from Northern Brewer last week as a birthday gift to myself.... Can't wait to give it a try. I've been reading the "How to Brew" text by John Palmer. It's pretty informative - my plan is to follow his Cincinnati Pale Ale receipe for my first batch, and move on from there... My parents are visiting from Canada this weekend so I won't get to do it until June the 30th, but I'm super excited.

We'll my buddy and I aren't very experienced but we've done several batches using the mr. beer kit is wife got him last year. This one was actually the first one we've done that including adding additional ingredients. The plan is to order a more sophisticated kit from Northern Brewer in the near future and begin expanding our abilities. All-grain may come one day but we'll be doing extract for a while given the added equipment costs. It's really fun though....we're also planning on brewing our next batch (an IPA) tonight or by the weekend. It's a fun (and tasty) hobby for sure

oh yeah it's definitely expensive getting started. I'm also interested in the NB pro series recipes....I'm really wanting to do the Surly Furious when we do order the stuff. They just began offering Tallgrass recipes too and I enjoy all their beers...wouldn't mind having a load of that stuff

On a side note, Mizzip and Alabama are the only states that still don't allow homebrewing but both have organizations working hard to get it right (Raise Your Pints in Mizzip and Free The Hops in Bama). Anyways, a recent article in the jackson newspaper focused on homebrewing and the battle to legalize it. State dept of revenue representative pretty much said they are unconcerned with it and basically gave the go ahead to have at it. Well...actually she said they have too few agents and far more pressing concerns than to have the time or desire to focus on it....sounds like a green light to me

Given to... wrote:

Have any of you had the chance to try an Epic brews?

Their Smoked and Oaked is so complex! Its like sipping whiskey and a stout, but not really a stout at all. It just has sooo much going on. Incredible.

I honestly am not smart enough to craft a review like the ones I read on beer advocate... I just sit there and give my taste buds, olfactory nerves and neurons the chance to dance together and report back to me later... funny thing is that they often times don't report back until the memory bank has closed for the night!

Will be having Russian Rivers Consecration tonight!

I have not had any Epic brews but hopefully one day. I am however much like you in that I'm not one to really go overboard with reviewing a beer. Taking it so seriously and scrutinizing every aspect of the beer (like whether or not it specifically fits a style) kind of takes of the fun out of it. I try to take each beer for what it is and give fair consideration even when it's not one of my preferred styles.

I mentioned before that I would like to home brew some Surly Furious....I've seen a lot of hype but it sounds exactly like something i would be crazy about...is it truly as good as "they" say?

Jnich2424 wrote:

When I was home for a couple days I got to try the Stone Russian Imperial Stout 2010 release. Oh so good. The store had two bottles of it left so I bought both and have the other one awaiting my return

MMM one of my faves!

Did a lot of traveling for work in Michigan this past month and Bell's Oberon was on tap everywhere...I took full advantage!

dcfaithful wrote:

imalive wrote:

Is this good? I've really been wanting to go down to the Uinta brewery to pick some up.

very good....if you like a hoppy beer. 7.5%

People with homebrewing experience... I have considered doing it long enough and am going to try my hand at it in hopes of gaining a new hobby. A local supply store here called The Beer Nut sells a basic starter kit which includes the following. Can anyone here with experience vouch that this is a good starter? :geek:

The Basic Home Brewing System

The basic system contains the following items:

* A 6.5 gallon Fermenter with lid.
* A 5 gallon Priming/Bottling bucket with bottling spigot.
* An Airlock.
* A Syphon & Bottling setup.
* A Hydrometer and Tube.
* A Bottle Brush.
* A Twin Lever Bottle Capper.
* A Strip Thermometer.
* An 8 oz. Package of Sanitizer.
* Curved Racking Tube
* A Home Brewing Handbook.
* A Home Brewing Instructional DVD

Buy this item, get a a copy of "Complete Joy of Homebrewing", Papazian.

Given to... wrote:

dcfaithful wrote:

imalive wrote:

Is this good? I've really been wanting to go down to the Uinta brewery to pick some up.

I've decided I have no fucking rabbit it my genetic make-up. They can have all the 'hoppy" beer they want!

youngster wrote:

FenwayFaithful wrote:

I'm gonna be wrecked. No way I make it through them all.

Not wrecked, mildly inebriated. Dude, I've seen you put down 8-10 beers no prob. The 120 is the only threat here. The 90 min is 9% ABV, the 75 is 7.5, and the 60 is 6%. It's not as bad as it sounds. You'll be fine. You can have some crackers if you want.

I'll have like a thousand oyster crackers.

adam42381 wrote:

Beer haul from our 2 week road trip:

Nice!!! I'd love to hear how that Cigar City Cucumber Saison tastes. I love the brewery but never seen that before.

adam42381 wrote:

I'm probably going to be trading the Cucumber Saison, but I hear it's interesting. The growler is Cigar City Brandy Barrel Hunahpu's Imperial Stout. They happened to have it on tap today when I visited so I had a snifter and bought a growler to go. It was great.

Where??? I'm up in Tampa all the time for work and I've never seen it on tap around here.