What are you Drinking?

[Admiral Yi]

What are the characterstics of a bitter?

[Gups]

Another style that trips people up is Gose.  "OMG it's sour and salty!"

Definitely.  If it isn't hopped beyond recognition, it isn't a legitimate beer for a lot of people.  I cannot wait for the IPA fad to die away.  It's already on the downward trend, which is nice to see.  There are so many great styles of beer out there, that everyone going apeshit over IPA's and overhopping everything is incredibly annoying and silly in my opinion.

Couldn't agree more. Some of these IPAs are so over-hopped, you might as well suck on a lemon. The worst thing is that I like traditonal style IPAs but am avoiding trying out ones I don't know because of the current high risk of getting a mouthful of hops and bugger all else.

[Gups]

What are the characterstics of a bitter?

It's just another name for pale ale.

[Capetan Mihali]

What are the characterstics of a bitter?

It's just another name for pale ale.

If you see the term on a US beer, it usually means they're going more self-consciously for an English-style version of pale ale.

[derspiess]

Couldn't agree more. Some of these IPAs are so over-hopped, you might as well suck on a lemon. The worst thing is that I like traditonal style IPAs but am avoiding trying out ones I don't know because of the current high risk of getting a mouthful of hops and bugger all else.

It's a fair point.  Today's "American Pale Ales" are hoppier than the hoppiest IPAs we had in the 90s.  And a lot of people who recently discovered craft beer go straight for the hoppiest beers and disregard some of the excellent non-hoppy beers out there.  That gets annoying for me when talking to those types about a good stout or amber I recently had.

I do love hops.  I'm a big fan of modern IPAs, West Coast IPAs, Double/Imperial IPAs, etc.  And frankly hoppy beers are where most of the innovation is taking place.  You can get some incredibly complex flavors from different hop blends or even from a completely single hop beer. 

But I don't want a hoppy beer all the time.  I love stouts, ambers, German/Czech pilsners, doppelbocks, Lambic, Saison, Sours, etc.  Unfortunately, about half my friends who drink craft beer drink solely IPAs.  If it ain't got hops, they don't want it.

[derspiess]

I really liked the Gose beers I've had (once to try it from a brewpub in Burlington, and once in Boston when I was given it by mistake, instead of the pilsner I'd ordered -- quite a surprise, as you can imagine.)

The first time I tried a Gose I didn't even know what it was until a few weeks later.  The brewery sometimes labels it as a "pale wheat ale".  And it was restrained in its sourness and saltiness.  Second one I had was from Westbrook in South Carolina, and it packs a whallop of sourness.  Once the vinegary sour shock wears off, it's pleasant.  I've only been able to track down three German Goses thus far, and they've been nicely balanced on the sourness and saltiness.  Freigeist Geisterzug Gose was about perfect for me.

Gose may be the perfect summer beer for me.  Fairly low alcohol, light body, and thirst-quenching sourness.

[derspiess]

Had a Petite Saison beer the other day that was horrible.  I like the concept, but I have yet to have one that was preferable to drinking water.  My local brewery is launching a Citra Saison today and I also hope to get a sneak preview of their Double IPA.

[The Minsky Moment]

I don't have any of the good stuff cellared and ready to drink at the moment. At least another few years before the Leoville-Poyferre 2008 comes round.

I picked up a few of those as well a couple years back.
Also have some backstock on the Bartons from the days they were still pricing ridiculously low.
I don't really drink much Bdx anymore for the same reason as you.

[Syt]

Has anyone here tried Raging Bitch IPA?

[derspiess]

Has anyone here tried Raging Bitch IPA?

Yep, it's made by Flying Dog, which was originally in Denver but now doing most of their production in Frederick, MD.  It's a Belgian-style IPA, which means it's going to have a yeasty/estery taste in addition to the IPA hoppiness.  It's not as heavily hopped as most American IPAs are these days.  Very nice beer overall & packs a punch-- I think the ABV is over 8%.  A rough European equivalent taste-wise is La Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Trippel.

[Syt]

Might be checking it out then. I've noticed that the corner shop for organic food has a pretty good selection of brews, at least judging from what they put out on the curb.

[derspiess]

A couple weeks ago I dug out an old Bavarian doppelbock I forgot I had in my cellar & I swear it must be 3+ years old.  It was Weißenoher Bonator and it came in a 500ml swing-top recloseable bottle.  It was damned tasty. 

[Syt]

swing-top recloseable bottle

Some brands use them over here. Back home in Holstein, the most famous one was Flensburger who advertised with the "plop". Their "Magnificent Seven":



Dithmarscher, a smaller brewery from my area, also uses those bottles. In low German they called it Beugelbuddelbeer (Bügelflaschenbier).

[derspiess]

They're highly sought after by homebrewers, as you can imagine.  The most common here are from Grolsch, and unfortunately they are green bottles which means the beer gets skunky if exposed to too much light.

[MadImmortalMan]

Today, Brevog brewery, from the booth at the Ljubljana farmers market.

Kramah--Hoppy, US West Coast style. I could have told you it was done by North Coast or Stone and gotten away with it. Right in line with those guys and that's a complement.

The 3rd Pill(Tak)--Another IPA, lots of citrus. Mrs. MIM chose this one.

http://www.bevog.at/index_sl.html

I did not try the porter.

The new American style, particularly the west coast IPAs seem to be taking over the world. Something Coors could never do.