Canadians near the boarder Need a favor

[xy9ine]

Yeah sorry xy9ine.

their micro brew beer trumps our chocolate anyway you look at it.

alas, yes. the bars in question aren't even that great to begin with (in comparison w/ 'real' artisinal chocolate). not a great comparison. now i'm thirsty for an imperial chocolate stout...

[k2slopesurfer]

You can get aero in the US. I've bought it locally in MN.

The thing I miss most is McVities chocolate digestive biscuits. You can buy them on line, but end up expensive. I have to wait for my Christmas food parcel from my mother.

I live in North Carolina and my local Harris Teeter has both the Aero chocolate bars, and Bob's choclate digestive biscuits... just let me know if you still need/want em.

[snowboardworm]

mmmmmmmmhhhhhhhh............ chocolate stout...........

[kieran]

.. but now i'm a firm believer that the us is on the cutting edge of craft brewing. such a huge diversity of really great domestic brew to be had these days...

i can agree with that. when i was in NC, the pisgah brewery in black mountain was putting out some wonderful stuff. they had a belgian-style triple at around 9.5%abv, as i recall. pisgah solstice.

it was dry and refreshing and dangerously easy to drink.

[BobD]

i can agree with that. when i was in NC, the pisgah brewery in black mountain was putting out some wonderful stuff. they had a belgian-style triple at around 9.5%abv, as i recall. pisgah solstice.

it was dry and refreshing and dangerously easy to drink.

It's interesting that unlike the "real ale" revolution of the 70s in the UK, which centered mainly on draft beers, the micro brew boom in the US is mainly bottle based. It's still early days yet, because you still have trouble getting a decent draft beer at main stream bars, and restaurants, although there are plenty of places to find the good stuff on tap.

[BlueB]

Have you had Smarties or Coffee Crisp? Yummy. Or Canadian Kit Kat? It's similar to the US version but much less sweet.

Ha! You've got same taste as me, in chocholates, at least...

We've bought a box of 120 minies, containing Smarties, KitKats, Aeros and Coffe Crisp, for trick-or-treaters. I'm steadilly destroying the later 3. Poor trickies will have only Smarties left :D

US is not big on Nestle products!? I could never live in such a country...

How about Milka?

Toblerone?

[kieran]

It's interesting that unlike the "real ale" revolution of the 70s in the UK, which centered mainly on draft beers, the micro brew boom in the US is mainly bottle based. It's still early days yet, because you still have trouble getting a decent draft beer at main stream bars, and restaurants, although there are plenty of places to find the good stuff on tap.

the real ale revolution has had a bit of a resurgence, recently. the sandal-wearing, bearded CAMRA numpties are still annoying as hell, but there are a lot more independents putting out seriously fine cask products. i may not agree with their philosophy, but it worked.

the grand majority of edinburgh pubs carry at least two real ales at any one time. my favourite has up to 12.

harviestoun are my nearest .. i've seen schiehallion and bitter&twisted in american supermarkets.

[BobD]

Which reminds me. Even though it's easy to get good beer now, no one seems to understand that gassing up a good beer will ruin it. I've seen very few hand pumps used so far. The worst though, is that many places will serve good beer in frosted glasses. You can taste the water from the ice in the beer (of course with Bud and Miller, no one notices).

[kieran]

Which reminds me. Even though it's easy to get good beer now, no one seems to understand that gassing up a good beer will ruin it. I've seen very few hand pumps used so far. The worst though, is that many places will serve good beer in frosted glasses. You can taste the water from the ice in the beer (of course with Bud and Miller, no one notices).

imagine if someone were to introduce the concept of cask-conditioning and secondary fermentation to these microbrewing masters. natural carbonation, and nerdy beer goodness. oh for the days of oak-barreled stout.

sorry bobby, we 'jacked your thread. at least for a wholesome subject. ;)

[BlueB]

When you can turn every topic into beer discussion... Even chocholates.

[snowboardworm]

Oddly enough no one has mentioned IPA's yet. The canadian version on tap is bland and has no real hoppy character. eg. Alexander Keiths IPA. I cant really taste the difference between the various drafts on tap. canadian, bud, coors etc.

I was in Moab last summer and first tried Cuttthroat and an IPA put out by the state brewer. I didnt like them at first but then i started trying others. Within a space of a week i was hooked on IPA's.

The Moab brewing company puts out a limited edition IPA that is Otherwordly. I think it was about 9.5 ABV. It was freekin awesome. Unfortunately I only bought 2 bottles. They also put out a very tasty IPA in which i found out about Growlers. A Growler a night keeps the dr away. or was that an apple?

In Coos Bay OR, i stopped in at a downtown pub and they had approximately 20 taps all lined up in the wall. I had the bar tender set me up with a pint of what he thought would tickle my fancy. I also told him no coors, miller, PBR or anything "normal". after about 6-7 pints he hits me with the big beer. Its an IPA thats at 13.5 % . I savored it very slowly. he asks me how it was. I tell him its probably THE best beer ive had and he asks me if i want another. I say not a chance and I asked him for the lightest beer he had going as that pint just about floored me. i traveled through 8 states and every where i stopped they had decent little pubs and bars with great beer on tap.

So much for the saying that american beer is like drinking.......... Icant say it as it is SO wrong now. Maybe someday Canada will catch up eh?

[bobdea]

imagine if someone were to introduce the concept of cask-conditioning and secondary fermentation to these microbrewing masters. natural carbonation, and nerdy beer goodness. oh for the days of oak-barreled stout.

sorry bobby, we 'jacked your thread. at least for a wholesome subject. ;)

that's the new fad now, lots of oak matured beers popping up in the US market too bad 99% of them blow, it seems most american microbrewers are ****ing clueless when it comes to anything involving oak or bretanomyces(sp?)

stone brewing made one of the worst oaked beers I've ever had, talk about over priced too. there's some good domestic oak and soured beers though just hard to find and usually more expensive than their european counterparts that tend to be better.

[Jack M]

I can't stand oaked beer of any kind, and I've had the supposedly good Belgian stuff too. Blecch. Tastes spoiled to me.

I am also sooo all set with this fad of all the American micro's trying to out-hop each other with these crazy top-fuel quintuple IPA's. I am back to basics with PA's and ESB's now. I think the gold standard ESB is Fuller's, from England. Although when I do want to get my hop on, it's gotta be Stone IPA, which isn't too over the top. And then there is Schneider-Weisse Hopfenweisse - awesome.

For fancy beer, right now I'm absolutely stuck on Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van de Keizer Blauw. Scrumptious.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1534/6947

[kieran]

I can't stand oaked beer of any kind, and I've had the supposedly good Belgian stuff too. Blecch. Tastes spoiled to me.

thats when they've let the dekkera go overboard. when there's just a hint of it, it's quite pleasant.

I think the gold standard ESB is Fuller's, from England.

i suspect then, you'd be partial to Shepherd Neame's 'Bishops Finger'.

with winter coming along, i'm switching over slowly to the darker brews. mcewans champion, orkney skullsplitter. mmmmm.

[skategoat]

Oddly enough no one has mentioned IPA's yet. The canadian version on tap is bland and has no real hoppy character. eg. Alexander Keiths IPA. I cant really taste the difference between the various drafts on tap. canadian, bud, coors etc.

I was in Moab last summer and first tried Cuttthroat and an IPA put out by the state brewer. I didnt like them at first but then i started trying others. Within a space of a week i was hooked on IPA's.

The Moab brewing company puts out a limited edition IPA that is Otherwordly. I think it was about 9.5 ABV. It was freekin awesome. Unfortunately I only bought 2 bottles. They also put out a very tasty IPA in which i found out about Growlers. A Growler a night keeps the dr away. or was that an apple?

In Coos Bay OR, i stopped in at a downtown pub and they had approximately 20 taps all lined up in the wall. I had the bar tender set me up with a pint of what he thought would tickle my fancy. I also told him no coors, miller, PBR or anything "normal". after about 6-7 pints he hits me with the big beer. Its an IPA thats at 13.5 % . I savored it very slowly. he asks me how it was. I tell him its probably THE best beer ive had and he asks me if i want another. I say not a chance and I asked him for the lightest beer he had going as that pint just about floored me. i traveled through 8 states and every where i stopped they had decent little pubs and bars with great beer on tap.

So much for the saying that american beer is like drinking.......... Icant say it as it is SO wrong now. Maybe someday Canada will catch up eh?

My friend, do not diss Canadian IPAs until you've tried Black Oak's Ten Bitter Years. Black Oak is a micro-brewery in Toronto. Ten Bitter Years is a limited edition double IPA and one of the finest beers I've ever tasted. 8% but it doesn't taste heavy. A pine/citrus nose. Even my lager-sipping wife likes it.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/black-oak-10-bitter-years/113477/

Tough to get outside of Ontario, I would think.

[xy9ine]

Oddly enough no one has mentioned IPA's yet. The canadian version on tap is bland and has no real hoppy character. eg. Alexander Keiths IPA. I cant really taste the difference between the various drafts on tap. canadian, bud, coors etc.

keiths 'ipa' is a sham. they might wave a handful of cones over the vat, but i think very few hops were sacrificed in its manufacture. crap. the westcoast is going off on ipas currently - lots of double & triple / imperial ipas, heaps of dry hopping, wet hopping, bushels of hops everywhere! and yes, i'm a huge fan of huge ibu's. i homebrew, and always have a burly keg hopped ipa on rotation.

one of the best (readily available) canadian ipas is from central city (surrey, bc), and comes, surprisingly, in a can:

any of the westcoasters frequent the alibi room (vancouver)? my favourite hangout; 25 taps + 3 specialty casks on constant rotation, emphasis on showcasing local brewers. it's my mecca.

[xy9ine]

I can't stand oaked beer of any kind, and I've had the supposedly good Belgian stuff too. Blecch. Tastes spoiled to me.

great divide oak aged yeti imperial stout is pretty amazing...

[xy9ine]

imagine if someone were to introduce the concept of cask-conditioning and secondary fermentation to these microbrewing masters. natural carbonation, and nerdy beer goodness. oh for the days of oak-barreled stout.

a few of our pubs serve casks (on a more limited basis) from the local breweries; i assume it's also the case stateside?

i do kegging (force carbonating) as well as bottling. can't say the c02 is detrimental, though it is characteristically different, and the 'brightnesss' is more appropriate for certain beers (i still bottle my imperial stouts).

[xy9ine]

We've bought a box of 120 minies, containing Smarties, KitKats, Aeros and Coffe Crisp, for trick-or-treaters. I'm steadilly destroying the later 3. Poor trickies will have only Smarties left :D

funny. i've got the same box - and same consumption patterns.

[Neil Gendzwill]

one of the best (readily available) canadian ipas is from central city (surrey, bc), and comes, surprisingly, in a can:

Maybe readily available where you are but I've never seen it here. We can't get most of your wines, either.

[BobD]

I think the gold standard ESB is Fuller's, from England. Although when I do want to get my hop on, it's gotta be Stone IPA, which isn't too over the top.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1534/6947

It's a reliable stand by. You might like try Theakston's Old Peculiar, which is available in the US now. It's a little richer, with out being too hoppy. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/359/926

[bobdea]

I can't stand oaked beer of any kind, and I've had the supposedly good Belgian stuff too.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1534/6947

there's some amazing german beer that are not spoiled tasting at all, they are finished in oak but don't spend much time in it.

I guess it's still pretty common to serve lager/kolsch/pils type beers from oak in germany.

boy, I need to do a run of a bottom fermenting brew now that cold weather is here, any suggestions to a recipe or at least something to try to make a rip off of?

[kieran]

boy, I need to do a run of a bottom fermenting brew now that cold weather is here, any suggestions to a recipe or at least something to try to make a rip off of?

have you tried / can you get "caledonian deuchars" over there? it's a very approachable session type IPA. otherwise, look up recipes for 80 or 90 shilling ales. ;)

[bobdea]

have you tried / can you get "caledonian deuchars" over there? it's a very approachable session type IPA. otherwise, look up recipes for 80 or 90 shilling ales. ;)

those are ales, typically warm weather fermenting, by the middle of november my garage will be holding a solid 40F close enough to lagering temps to make a nice lager, pils or bock.

the next ale type beer I'm gonna do is a smoked beast of a porter.

Jack, right on about the crazy amounts of hops in some IPAs Although some of the crazy ones are really interesting like the dogfish 120 most of them taste the same at around 60 to 70 IBUs most beers start to cover up malts unless there's something really bold in there and a lot of it.

russian river makes decent sour with cherries they also make some of the better IPAs available.

another thing that gets to me is this "Imperial" BS.

[kieran]

those are ales, typically warm weather fermenting, by the middle of november my garage will be holding a solid 40F close enough to lagering temps to make a nice lager, pils or bock.

then lots of crystal malt, a good throw of hops, that much yeast, and a few aromatic botanicals from the garden. savoury or sweet isn't as important as much as 'hm there's a taste of something .... i like it.'

the next ale type beer I'm gonna do is a smoked beast of a porter.

give it a secondary ferment in oak! any whiskey distilleries nearby?