Funny things you've overheard about beer

I live in Ireland. No one gets upset about dark beer.

 

finally found a beer my sister likes. she's normally a wine drinker and says she just doesn't like beer.

it became my mission in life to find one she does like

last weekend, I got her to try a local brewery's IPA (Lost Rhino Faceplant), my Grodziskie and my 2-year-old first barleywine. She liked all 3.

didn't even have to break out my ace-in-the-hole, a Lost Rhino/Wort Hogs collaboration 2-year-old port barrel-aged Golden Strong

 

I can't imagine what kinda mileage those Czechs get

 

My dad won't drink any ale, regardless of the color. Coors Original is as dark as he'll go. He admits that it's his problem, and is absolutely willing to try anything I brew once I'm willing to share.

 

I've met a few that are so stuck in whatever beer they like they'll never try anything else. I had one couple that came over reject the bmc I had available for them because they only liked their brand of bmc. It's like swearing one gas station has better gas when you are buying the cheapest you can find anyway. These bmc folks have the most sensitive palette when it comes to beer.

 

Weird. I order stouts and porters whenever they're on the menu at somewhere I go. I think the most I've ever got was just "Not really a fan."

 

I've seen that occasionally and I don't think it has to do with the price. My wife has a friend who won't drink any whiskey except Johnnie Walker. This guy will shell out the big bucks to drink Johnnie Walker: Blue Label, but he refuses to drink any other whiskey.

So, to be honest, I have to wonder how he came to the conclusion that Johnnie Walker is his drink when he NEVER drinks anything else. I like Johnnie Walker too, but I just don't get the mindset behind refusing to drink anything but one specific drink. Same goes for beer, wine, or whatever.

 

Sounds like one of my wife's uncles. He'd refuse anything that wasn't his brand of single malt scotch. Even wore white shiny shoes. Not sure if I still have them after he passed. Idk why they gave'em to me?

 

I have zero brand loyalty to anything except socks and underwear.

 

You're in TEXAS for pete's sake .... SOCKS and UNDERWEAR ??????

 

Not to be rude, but Wurttemberg is a region (former kingdom, now part of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg). I believe you mentioned northern Bavaria earlier, so you might be thinking of Wurzburg. Unless you meant Upper Bavaria (Oberbayern), which is actually the southern part including Munich (and there aren't any big towns that start with a W, but tons of little ones).

 

My future father in law is a Natty Light/Bud Lite fan and doesn't apologize for it (not that he should, he knows what he likes and doesn't care what I like). He tried Shiner Black a few years ago and still gets shivers when he talks about it to this day. I gave him some of my homebrewed helles and he seemed to like it quite a bit. Because I know what he likes, I'm not going to try to get him to drink an IPA or a porter, but my goal is still to make a good pale beer that he will like better than his standards (though that will mean I'd have to always have some on hand).

 

One of the aspects of those people who won't try/like anything other than the one brand they "like": for many of them, their beer is just an alcohol delivery system. They want/need the alcohol for whatever reason, and have no interest in the taste/experience, they just want the alcohol, and usually the less expensive the better. My uncle kept a kegerator with 15.5 gallon sankes, full of Bud for years, drank 3-4 every single night. He moved to AZ and was proud to have moved on to Tecate. No kegerator now, my aunt won't have it, but still easily accessible in mass quantities. Is he an alcoholic? Not for me to say...

 

That is a very good point.

And it reminds me of one of the "funny things" I've heard about beer that I mentioned earlier in this thread. I mentioned that when I was in high school, my best friend told me that "no one drinks beer for the flavor," obviously inferring that people drink beer to get drunk and not because they like the flavor. As I mentioned earlier, that friend ended up becoming a huge craft beer fan after he became legally able to drink and nowadays goes to brewpubs and specialized beer stores all the time. But I think that a ton of people who have that mentality never actually grow out of it and simply just pick the cheap beer that has the least offensive flavor to them simply so they can deliver alcohol to their system cheaply and without much bother with flavor.

One of my wife's best friends loves beer with a passion, but she pretty much only drinks lagers. I don't think I've ever seen her drink BMC before, though. She drinks a pretty wide variety of lagers, but she really doesn't care for IPAs, stouts, amber ales, brown ales, sour beers, and on and on. Her taste in lagers is actually very very similar to my own, but she doesn't expand beyond there. Can't really fault her though. To each his (or her) own.

 

He'll try different beers, and actually the vet he gets when he's feeling fancy is Bohemia, a good Mexican lager.

I think your statement is an over generalization. Some people like trying new things, others just find what they like and like that. I mean Taco Bell still exists in Texas despite being disgusting and anyone being able to find better Tex-Mex at a lower or similar price within 2-3 miles.

Craft beer is not inherently better, better flavor is subjective. Heady Topper would land at the bottom of entered as an American light lager in competition. Most beer geeks don't like American light lagers (including myself), but that doesn't make them bad.

 

I didn't mean to sound like I was generalizing. I mean to say that it is an aspect that may apply to SOME of those who refuse to try anything different: they want alcohol, not flavor. So it's a waste of effort and beer to continue to try to get them to like different beers.

 

Not funny but on topic(?). On one side my family is all BMC or wine drinkers and never liked my beers. It's understandable since each one I had offered was pretty hop forward. Last Christmas I poured my spiced quad ale and every single one of them said they liked it. The key, I gathered, was that it was crisp/dry (the gravity was way under target and plenty of simple sugars were used) and somewhat oxidized after sitting in the cabinet for at least 4 months, had no hop flavor and limited maltiness. Maybe the orange peel and nutmeg helped, but I think the main desideratum was that it "goes down easy" and even with the Belgian yeast and dreaded "darkness" (which, for them, actually means hop flavor) it was at least able to meet that demand.

 

After all the discussion about choosing your brand because you need an alcohol delivery system I remembered seeing this. Not overheard but.... View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1422441102.756571.jpg

 

Well, at that time I was on familytree.com & someone in the distant family showed a map I can't find anymore. It showed the wall location & all that. We're from Upper Bavaria & the wall ran right through the middle of this town, a "W". Reading on ancestry.com 14-15 years later is 10 times harder with the new site software. Then folks telling a whole new set of stories from the oral history I got. Over & above village hall records, etc. So I'm getting more confused about it all, just trying to find them & who might've brewed beer? Interesting how Cogar surname comes from older Koger. Something I read in regard to it said "kog" is German for "plow blade", so Koger referred to my ancestors as farmers/plowers. Still digging for brewers or beer recipes...anything to do with the family beer supply, etc. No stories yet.

 

At a local gas station last night, they had a "special " on Sam adams rebel ipa. There were only 3 16oz cans of it, DENTED TO HELL AND BACK! Seriously looked like some kids played baseball with them or something. The special was "buy 2 for $3, or get 1 for $1.5!" I thought it was so funny, I bought all 3. Joked with the cashier about it, and the price was $3.03! I guess she thought I was being serious and was saying it was "buy 2 get 1 free ". Mmm, a free beer.

I like to think it was my dashing good looks, though.

 

Read the comments of this newspaper article. For context, Blue Monk is a craft beer bar with 30+ taps and a decidedly Belgian take (it is called Blue MONK) and constantly wins awards. Sterling Place was a beloved craft bar open whenever the owner felt like it, only took cash, and had a hot plate for cooking, so food could actually take an hour to get. It mysteriously closed last year.

Enjoy!

http://buffalo.com/2015/01/28/featured/ex-sterling-tavern-reopening-may/

 

Oh man that is stumbling distance for me! Awesome.

 

That's too bad, for the record it's a great Milk Stout, one of my wife's favourites. I'm surprised, I didn't realize Beau's was exporting to NY, I thought they were Ontario/Quebec only.

 

I think it was within the past year. Flying Monkeys also broke into MI/OH/NY at about the same time.

 

You're lucky, Flying Monkeys makes one of my go-to IPAs. Their Smashbomb Atomic IPA is fantastic, in my opinion. They actually got into a tiff with the provincial liquor board over the name (because it contained the words "Smash" and "Bomb," both of which are no-no's in liquor labeling in Canada), but somehow managed to win out and got to keep the name.

Now when are you going to start exporting some of your better beers up here to the Great White North? Why are you hoarding all the Bell's Two Hearted and Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA? Share!

 

Me? I'm already in Ontario, and well acquainted with the Smashbomb. They actually put out the recipe in the 2014 calendar I got from Canadian Homebrew Supplies in Brampton.

On a side note, the LCBO will be stocking Stone brews in the not-too-distant future.

 

Ah, my bad, I just glanced at your user profile and thought I saw "Georgetown, Ohio" for some reason.

And ... ? Are you going to share? I'm guessing it's a ton of Citra/Simcoe/Centennial?

I heard that too, but I heard that (at least initially) it will just be their IPA, none of their other brews. Which is too bad, I loved their Ruination the few times I've had the opportunity to try it.

 

Read the article and had to chuckle. The Brinkworth family owned Brunner's tavern on Main Street near Eggert Road back when I was in high school and college. I think the head guy was Richie Brinkworth who is prob the dad or an uncle of Kevin who is quoted in the article.

 

I'll post it when I get home.

No Simcoe... if I recall correctly it's Millennium @ 60, Centennial & Columbus @ 20 and 10, Cascade & Citra @ flameout and dryhop.

 

I had to laugh when I read the comment about going to Charleston, South Carolina
and having the Palmetto pale ale. My family went out to dinner one night while visiting down there and my brother ordered some of that. My brother took a swig and got a mouthful of nastiness. It was a clump of trub? Brother took a napkin and filtered out the crap and ended up getting a bunch of beers on the house for that. Ewwww.

Brunner's area was part of my stomping grounds through high school yet I've only been in there once since I was over 21. Maybe 5 minutes away from my house now too haha

 

Why that state chose to name things after roaches never ceases to amaze me.

(For the record I am aware that it's also a tree.)

 

Co-worker who was quite fond of Bitburger Pilsner when he was in Germany: "I don't like ales. They're too bitter."

 

"I moved to TN about 6 months ago (from NJ) to immediately find out that it was technically illegal to brew beer that is over 5% ABV. By law, the definition of beer in TN is a beverage less than 5% ABV. Anything over that range would be considered "making liquor"."

This was from a thread on HBT! It also went on to say that they just moved the limit to 8%... wtf! Does nobody make wine there? I must say TN sucks.... mommy and daddy government needs to get a life.

 

Yeah, in my trips to SC, I've encountered some great Carolinas and Georgia beers, but the ones he mentioned absolutely did not come first to mind. Westbrook came first to mind.

 

My Wife emailed me this yesterday.



Interview with 101 year-old Hattie Mae MacDonald of Feague, Kentucky:



Reporter: Can you give us some health tips for reaching the age of 101?

Hattie: For better digestion I drink beer. In the case of appetite loss I drink white wine. For low blood pressure I drink Red Wine. In the case of high blood pressure I drink scotch. And when I have a cold I drink Schnapps.

Reporter: When do you drink water?

Hattie: I've never been that sick

 

I guess alcohol works for her? Almost sounds like that old cheech & chong bit...

 

Who's checkin'? Make whatever you want. Yes that is stupid though. Along those lines, I was wondering why all the lime-a-rita line of stuff was 6% in Nashville instead of the usual 8%. Don't judge. The lime and apple are both delicious.

 

To be fair, the roaches were named after the tree. As a born and raised South Carolinian, I don't have a problem saying that a lot of stuff there is messed up, but leave the roaches out of it. They help keep the yankees out.

 

Nothing to Judge, but we do have to revoke your Man Card!!!

 

we ran into this little guy last time we were in Myrtle Beach.

The BigHair's first encounter with one; she was not thrilled