newly registered -- general Qs

[Arte]

I am newly registered on this site and am sure there are many messages re: beer and beer points. Just trying to find them. Please help.

Also: I am not a lager fan simply because the ones I've tried have no taste to me. At the international beer fest, I made up my mind to find one lager that I liked, only to pour out all that I tried (don't remember any of them). Any suggestions?

I like ales of all sorts: hoppy ones, malty ones; well, not citrus or very sour. My fav is Rogue Mogul. Anyone have recommendations for anything comparable to that?

I am in a state that requires 6% or less. A real drag, but we aren't too far from Virginia.

Goose Island -- is that Chicago beer??

[Redbird Fan]

goose island is chicago - and many people who post here have
good things to say about it -

Check out the "tasting notes" community board - lots of people post their beer tasting experiences there.

[steveh]

Don't give up on lagers Arte, there are many good ones to be tasted. Sometimes the lighter bodied and colored lagers are more subtle in their flavors, sort of as a Pinot Gris can be in white wines.

There is also Oktoberfest, Blonde Bock, Munich Dunkel, Schwartz Bier, Dark Bock, and Doppel Bocks with powerful flavor - yet more clean and subtle in complexity than some ales. I wish you could remember what lagers you tried, but if you sampled them in the middle of your taste-tour, your taste-buds may have already been beyond enjoying a more subtle encounter.

http://www.gooseisland.com
Goose Island is a Brew Pub in Chicago that turned its successful beer toward a Microbrewery, as well as a second pub. Its name comes from the name of an actual island in the Chicago River, in the once very industrial area where the original GI pub was built in 1988 and still stands (I'll date myself, but I visited the Goose the second week they were open). Goose has some great beers always available at their pubs. And while I like their bottled offerings some, I've never thought they match the pub beers - and the pubs' atmosphere is worth the visit - don't let the yuppies get to you, dazzle 'em with beer knowledge! ;)

S.

[fretlessman71]

I'm a lot like you are... I'm a HUGE ale fan. Always have been, ever since I was introduced to the style. However, after a while they got a little on the boring side, and during a very hot Colorado summer, I began to experiment. I found that lagers tended to be easier to drink when it was so very hot outside. But it took becoming bored with ales before I was really ready to give lagers a shot. I would say experiment if you feel up to it; don't force yourself to like a style just because it's there; and don't give up entirely on that style if you decide to stop tasting them for awhile. There's certainly a science to all of this, and an art form as well, but the main reason that we all drink this stuff is because WE LIKE IT. And that, I believe, ought to be your own personal measuring stick.

There are lots of people in this community that are very helpful, and they have plenty of tolerance for newbies (like you and me). Ask away!

You might try a Doppelbock... I think they fit into the lager category. Celebrator is a wonderful version of the style.

[Arte]

Doppel bock -- a lager? Now, I might have tasted that and really liked it. Thanks for all the suggestions for lagers to try. I live in the hot/humid south and am always looking for beer to quinch my thirst when I come in from tending the gardens each day. The so-called summer ales are not very appealing because they tend toward citrus or fruity.

So, yeah, I'm open to lagers, if they actually have taste!

Would someone answer my question about points? What are points in a beer? Or, please refer me to a link.

Thanks -- this is fun. I like talking to beer drinkers that KNOW beer.

[steveh]

Originally posted by Arte
So, yeah, I'm open to lagers, if they actually have taste!

Would someone answer my question about points? What are points in a beer? Or, please refer me to a link.

Yep. Bocks are lagers, and any *good* lager (don't be fooled by those touting to be "true") does have flavor. I'll be posting in the tasting notes later on Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery Riverwest Stein beer - a nice lager with great flavor.

Points? In what context would you use the term? Are you thinking of the points given to a beer in a blind judging at a competition? In that case, I'd refer you to http://www.beertown.org. The American Homebrewer's Association ought to have some info there.

S.

[chazwicke]

Where do you live? I live in Virginia.

[Arte]

Ah, Virginia -- the state that allows those of us who live due south to buy beer that can't be bought in NC. The trick is in finding someone going to or through Va.

Can you get Goose Island in VA?

[hopjack13]

might i suggest the swapmeet section? i've had pretty good luck with getting beers from all over the country that i've wanted to try and even a few i've never heard of that were very good. it takes a little more effort wrapping and sending and what not but it's alot easier then going out of state to obtain them on you own.

[paul84043]

I have had similar experineces with Lagers. I don't dislike them, but I do like the complexity of ales, that and their ease of making...
I made a Nut Brown with a Lager Oktoberfest yeast a while back, it's super clean, almost to the point of being devoid of flavor compared to an amber ale.
I think that the Lagers are just alot less complex and tend to have a much simpler and cleaner flavor profile. If you were wandering around tasting different beers, the Lagers would undoubtedly get washed out by the ales in the process.

I find my Nut Brown Lager to be very refreshing when I'm in the mood for a beer but don't want exceptionally bitter or malty.
They do tend to taste better cold though.

Stuck with sub 6% beer....sorry, I'm stuck with sub 3.2%, so I can't feel too bad for you!

[hopjack13]

isn't there a style of beer where they actually mix two differnt beers (not b&t or h&h) i think it starts with an s , any one know what im talking about and or has tried it? i think it's a european thing.

[cyanide]

Originally posted by paul84043


Stuck with sub 6% beer....sorry, I'm stuck with sub 3.2%, so I can't feel too bad for you!

Whoa, you can buy over that at a liquor stores, can't you?

[paul84043]

You can, but it's sat around so long, it's not even worth the bottle it's in.

[BluesHarp]

Hearing these horror stories make me apprciate WI...despite the weather (June 6, and it's still in the 60's and damp):D

[b3s]

ah, but in no time it will be 80-90 with 100% humidity...but at least you won't have to breathe that...the mosquitos filter that out nicely :D

being a recent escapee, i am glad i will be missing the summer there...i had to run while cutting the grass lest the mosquitos drain enough blood from me to drop.

i, too, prefer ales...not just the ease in making them and the less time in curing; but also the esters from the top fermenting yeasts...more complex flavors, imo.

every state has its pecadillos...here in CO, by mistake, i bought some beer at the grocery store...blech...3.2 beer...at least the paint store i go to has something better to offer...even some of my old standbys (i.e. sierra nevada pale, fuller's london ale, and fresh guinness)...took a long time to get through that case of alleged beer from the grocery store.

[steveh]

Originally posted by b3s
...at least the paint store i go to has something better to offer...even some of my old standbys (i.e. sierra nevada pale, fuller's london ale, and fresh guinness)...

Wait...the *paint* store?

S.

[steveh]

Originally posted by BluesHarp
Hearing these horror stories make me apprciate WI...despite the weather (June 6, and it's still in the 60's and damp)

Harp (and B3s), it was a gorgeous day in lovely Pewaukee Saturday for the MACC bicycle ride for childhood cancer research - I breezed through the 20 miles knowing that the Delafield Brewhouse had free beer waiting at the end! Only in Wisconsin - or maybe Germany. ;)

Hopteufel Alt - pretty good for free beer, usually you just get swill. Oh yeah - no mosquitos either!

S.

[hnrblbrbrn]

Originally posted by hopjack13
isn't there a style of beer where they actually mix two differnt beers (not b&t or h&h) i think it starts with an s , any one know what im talking about and or has tried it? i think it's a european thing.

If it starts with an "s" it could be a snakebite, Guinness and cider. There's also a stormcloud, thundercloud, or something like that. Around here it's Boulevard Bully Porter and I forgot the other one, another Blvd.

[steveh]

Isn't lime and lager or lemmon and lager called a "Shandy" in the U.K.?

S.