What are you Drinking?

[derspiess]

Any correlation with attendance/performance visible in that chart?

If there is, it's awfully fuzzy.  For example, the Marlins draw pitifully small crowds and the Angels are near the top in attendance.  Doesn't seem to correlate to cost of living differences, either, which often influences other things like ticket and food prices.

[Capetan Mihali]

Only thing I'd venture to spot, with my limited knowledge of baseball, is that the cheap beer is concentrated in the crummy and/or low-turnout teams  But not vice-versa.

[Ed Anger]

The Marlins stink

[Valmy]

Crap the beer at Longhorns baseball games is as expensive as the Marlins.

[DontSayBanana]

Melted ice at the bottom of a fountain Wild Cherry Pepsi from Taco Bell.

I am: classy.

[PDH]

Crap the beer at Longhorns baseball games is as expensive as the Marlins.

But the 100 degree temperature water from the fountains is free!

[derspiess]

Got my IPA bottled Saturday-- I ended up with a little under two cases-worth due to sampling, samples taken for hydrometer readings, and a small amount that my auto-siphon would not reach and got left behind.  Which is all well & good, because the beer that actually made it in the bottle is nice & clear.  Samples tasted like a somewhat yeasty flat IPA, so hopefully the bottle conditioning does its thing and I have drinkable beer in a week & a half. 

Went ahead & brewed a brown ale.  Did the same as I did with the IPA & did not rehydrate the yeast-- just sprinkled it on dry.  Probably going to let this sit an extra week in the primary fermenter and even longer in the secondary.  In past experience a little extra time tends to impart some nuttiness.

[celedhring]

Found a store in Barcelona that carries a few yank IPA beers, including Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which was one of my favorites while I lived in the US. I'll go and buy a few tomorrow. In my experience, low-demand imported beers tend to come out a bit stale since they sit a lot of time in the store until they are sold, but I miss a good IPA.

[derspiess]

Found a store in Barcelona that carries a few yank IPA beers, including Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which was one of my favorites while I lived in the US. I'll go and buy a few tomorrow. In my experience, low-demand imported beers tend to come out a bit stale since they sit a lot of time in the store until they are sold, but I miss a good IPA.

I've always liked Torpedo.  IPAs are a sort of paradox when it comes to shelf life.  On one hand, the extra hops should help preserve the beer for a longer time, yet on the other hand you do lose some of the fresh hoppy flavor after a certain point-- while still drinkable it's not going to taste as the brewer intended.

My all-time favorite beer is Orval*, and we Orval fanatics get frustrated because it seems impossible for us to get our hands on a bottle that is less than 4-6 months old.  It stays drinkable for two years but it tastes better as close to the bottling date as you can get.  I've had it in Belgium about 3 weeks after it was bottled and I can attest to the difference.

*their Pale Ale of course-- their Patersbier is unobtanium in the US.

[garbon]

Prosecco, Aperol and St. Germain. Spring, it's happening!

[derspiess]

Keeping my alcohol consumption minimized due to the fact that I'm taking penicillin (from what I've gathered, alcohol can reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics although it's not directly harmful otherwise). 

But I've sneaked tastes of my IPA here & there.  On Friday with just 6 days in the bottle the carbonation was light and I got very little hop aroma but the hop bitterness was there.  On Sunday & again yesterday it was a different story-- nice, frothy head & hoppy Simcoe aroma.  Not as smooth on the back end with more alcohol taste than a 5.2% beer should have, but I'm hoping that mellows out a bit with age.  Bottle conditioning usually takes 2 weeks or more but as always I was impatient.

Brown ale should hopefully be ready to go into the secondary in a few days.  Might brew something Sunday if my brother in law is up for it.  Probably a single-hop (Galaxy) Pale Ale.

[Sophie Scholl]

So, I'm off to Cleveland tomorrow/later today and Thursday to indulge in some baseball and beer smuggling.  I've been sent with a list of beers to nab for friends if I can find them.  Big on the list are 3 Floyds Brewery, as they don't distribute to NY and have a great reputation.  I only wish I could somehow locate some Dark Lord.  If only you were closer, Speissy, I'd arrange a meetup and steal some of your new homebrew.

[Gups]

We've finally got a decent pub in my bit of London. I went in on Sunday and Monday and walked past it yeterday.

They have three different beers (i.e. non-generic lagers) on tap which they apear to change every day. They also have maybe 15 varieties of bottled beers.

So far, had:

- a couple of pints of a very nice Mad Goose English Pale Ale. Lots of flavour,  some bite but not overly hoppy like many pale ales these days;
-  a couple of bottles of the wonderful London Fields Black Path Porter, a favourite of mine for drinking at home, nice to see it in a pub.
- a pint of Trooper, the Iron Maiden branded beer. It was OK, a quite old-fashioned English bitter - balanced or bland depending on how charitable you want to be
- a pint of Adnams Ghost Ship. A decent enough IPA

[derspiess]

So, I'm off to Cleveland tomorrow/later today and Thursday to indulge in some baseball and beer smuggling.  I've been sent with a list of beers to nab for friends if I can find them.  Big on the list are 3 Floyds Brewery, as they don't distribute to NY and have a great reputation.

Ohio is a pretty good state to buy beer.  We get a lot of the stuff from the Rockies and West Coast that don't make it to the East, and pretty much every major East Coast and Midwest brewery. 

I'm guessing Great Lakes distributes in your neck of the woods-- they make some amazing beers and are probably the best brewery in Ohio.  Their brewpub is decent, but if you're hitting any of those I would definitely suggest Market Garden, Brew Kettle, or Fat Head's.

As for Three Floyds, last I checked they did not list Ohio as one of the states they distributed to, but they definitely do some limited distribution in Cincy.  Whenever any quantity of any of their beers shows up at any store, Facebook and Twitter blows up.  Keep in mind most of their more popular beers are hop bombs, though even if you hate hops you have to appreciate the Citra goodness that is Zombie Dust.  Their Robert the Bruce is pretty much the only Scotch Ale I like, as it manages not to overdo the sweetness.  Pride & Joy is a good session-type ale that is not particularly hoppy.  Gumballhead is a moderately (to me) hopped wheat.  Jinx Proof is decent and one of their few lagers.  And Man-O-Awe is a surprisingly unhoppy pale ale.

I only wish I could somehow locate some Dark Lord.

I've found it to be unobtanium, unless you go to Dark Lord Day or someone who went *really* likes you.  Or if you're willing to spend way more than what a bottle of beer is worth.  I'd like to try it, but it's one of those beers that IMO couldn't possibly live up to the hype.  And don't get me started on Dark Lord Day itself.

But yeah, you would be a hero back home if you were able to score some.

If only you were closer, Speissy, I'd arrange a meetup and steal some of your new homebrew.

  I'd be more enthusiastic about loading you up with some local beers that never make it out of Ohio or even Cincy.  Not a whole lot of local beers are distributed in the Cleveland area, but if you can find Madtree Happy Amber (comes in orange-colored cans) or their Gnarly Brown (comes in yellow-ish cans) or Mt. Carmel Amber, I think you'll like them.  Christian Moerlein is one Cincy brewery that definitely does distribute in Cleveland.  I like them & all, but they can be hit or miss.

[derspiess]

Thinking of brewing a raspberry wheat for the summer.  If I do, I may name it after our own Raz.