Once again, thanks to a gentle shove by the guys at BeerSchool.com, I'm picking out beer at random to drink.
This time I have two German beers and one West Coast beer.
First up we have Bitburger, "Germany's #1 Draft Beer". It's very bitter and refreshing, I couldn't taste the hops at all. The big 500ml can keeps the beer fresh in the long trip over from Germany.
Well, over the last six months I've become a big fan of hoppy beer, but this is a very good beer, despite the lack of hop taste. I much prefer this to pretty much any big mass produced American beer.
Up next is a beer from the "oldest brewery in the world", Weihenstephaner:
This is a really good beer. There is some of the bitterness of the Bitburger but there is a noticeable amount of hop flavor as well. These guys better know what they are doing, the brewery has been around since 1040.
Ok, the last beer for tonight is Sierra Nevada India Pale Ale. I first had this beer at Bouchon restaurant in Las Vegas. For some reason, it's not listed on the main Sierra Nevada beer page.
This is one of the best IPA's I've ever tried. Lots of hops, but with enough other flavors to not be too overwhelming. It's not quite as good as the Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, but that's the best IPA I've ever had.
Hey - Get out there and try some new beers!! What's the worst thing that can happen? You spend $10 on a six pack and you don't like it, what's that, 3 of those Starbucks latte things?
Also, go check out the beerschool.com podcast, the shows are a bit uneven, but the good ones are worth slogging through the ones that aren't so great.
Mmmm... beer.
If you ever head to Northern California, do yourself a favor and head to the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. I went there in February and it has the best beer sampler I have ever tried. I'm pretty sure there were 16 beers on the sampler, and I got pretty buzzed with my 1/3 of it.
The IPA was a favorite, along with a few of the darker beers on the menu.
A close second for beer samplers goes to Walking Man Brewery in Stevenson, WA. It is about 45 minutes up the Columbia River from Portland--and again--if you are in the area, you really have to go try out this brewery. My ex and I hit the sampler after an over-night backpacking trip, and we decided to get a pitcher of the 10% by volume IPA after trying out the sampler. We took our time driving back to Portland!
One of my new favorite beers is Moose Drool. It is a brown ale, so if you like those--go try and find it!
Keep on prop-betting!
-Chris
Posted by: MHG | July 26, 2007 at 02:10 AM