Jump to content

Beer Drinking as a Hobby


Draco-REX

Recommended Posts

I'm 34 and I don't drink. I've tried alcoholic drinks, but never really found anything that made me want to drink. Peer pressure never bothered me, if my friends tried to make me drink, I just grabbed a cup of whatever was on tap and just walked around with it. There are other reasons why I don't drink as well. First, there's alcoholism on both sides of my family. And Second, I have no willpower when it comes to stuff I like.

 

However, there have been numerous studies linking moderate alcohol consumption with good health. And recently, there have been studies that have shown Beer to be better for you than previously thought. (High in anti-oxidants, vitamins/minerals, and the alcohol of course.) I've always found Beer in it's many many types/flavors/brews/etc to be rather interesting, so I figured I could start drinking beer.

 

Ground Rules:

 

1: Only one beer per day. One beer will do nothing to me (6'4", 245lbs) and a hard limit will help keep this from becoming a habit.

 

2: No big factory beers (Bud, Michelob, Coors, etc.) If I'm going to be having only one beer per day, it better be something with a little more "heart" in it. And besides, I've sampled the big names before and found them boring.

 

So far I've been working on the Sam Adams beers (had to, I'm an ex-Masshole). I've tried:

 

Honey Porter (which I'll have to try again at some point, since it was my first), Cherry Wheat, Boston Lager, Oktoberfest, Dunkelwisen, Irish Red, and Brown Ale. So far, my favorites are Oktoberfest and Dunkelwisen, with Irish Red and Cherry Wheat close behind. Next on my Sammy-A kill-list is Blackberry Witbier, and Black Lager.

 

But I've got a couple recommendations from some friends to try first.

 

First is Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale. Apparently only available in the North East (just got back from a trip to MA), it's a Brown Ale and I'm trying it now. It's very interesting. It has a good smell and a brownish, only slightly cloudy color. The taste is surprising. First thing you taste is smoke. It tastes like it came off a grill. I bet this beer would be great for a cookout. Not as bitter as I'm told most Brown Ales are. Overall, a very smooth beer. I like it, but I think it should be paired with food. What I find interesting is that this beer makes the Sam Adams beers seem "safe".

 

Tomorrow is Sam Smith's Organically Produced Lager. This is HIGHLY recommended by another friend of mine. So I'm looking forward to trying it.

 

I started this thread to get other suggestions for interesting beers to try. So any ideas would be appreciated. I hope to turn this hobby drinking beer into eventually brewing it. I've always wanted to try brewing, but knew I didn't have the palate to do it right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stay away from the Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier. Sam Adams is my favorite beer and I could barely down it. Try Old Speckled Hen, absolutely great beer and one of my current favorites.

 

Check out Tuesday night pint night at Claddagh up at Polaris, its 2.50 for ANY of their beers on tap. Also on Tuesday nights the Pub at Polaris has 3.75 for I think 22oz drafts. The Pub has a prett huge selection (including Old Speckled Hen ;)), and the Winking Lizard does too. I love trying new beers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dont feel bad, I dont drink either. I just went to a wedding whereas my new brother in law drinks beer like crazy. And not just beer he travels in search of different beers and his entire family are all big beer drinkers. It was a very weird wedding. I was told he has 300 different beers at the house.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you like that smokey flavor check out the stone brewery smoked porter. giant eagle usually has it in the beer closet and I've only been able to find it in a big bottle(like a pint and some change?). It's definitely one of my favorites.

 

The dundee craft pack would be a good one for you to pick up too, it's a 12er containing 2each of 6 different beers, and none of them are bad.

 

edit: Yuengling is ok in it's usual form (lager) but my favorite is their black and tan. I think yuengling gets alot of attention because it's kinda hard to get in ohio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yuengling, Hoegaarden.

 

Not only do you like Michigan, but shitty beer too. Who knew someone could have such bad taste all around. :p

 

Hoegaarden is ok. It was only special to me when you 'had' to travel to Canada to get it.

 

Go to Andersons, go to the beer section and go to the end caps. They have tons of specialty stuff in singles. Although probably about half of it is bigger than 12oz's, just so you know with your 1 beer limit.

 

Just had the Stone Ruination, I think they have it in singles. They call it Ruination for a reason (IBU or international bitter units is off the charts).

 

Check out the stuff from Chimay, it's made by Monks which should be enough.

 

Konigenshaven Triple is probably one of my favorite beers and if you like those complex, subtle and unusual flavors you will really like this one. Add to that the Double and Quad versions are very good beers too.

 

Dog Fish Head 60 Minute IPA and if you like strong IPA's especially the 90 Minute IPA's are excellent.

 

The Framboise from Lindemans are very interesting for a beer/not beer. They are beer with fruit infused (I think during the process of making it). These are NOT anything like your typical fruit beers, I would classify them more as a desert beer (pretty sugary).

 

Only doing 1 beer at a time will get hard because you can do some stuff in singles or samplers, but most comes in 6 packs. If I get six packs of anything that strikes me as special I will try to save one back for you if I don't blow through all of them.

 

Go to some of the places that have xxx beers in bottle/on draft is probably a good way to go too if you are in the area, want to go out to dinner. The Pub and Winking Lizards comes to mind.

 

I'm doing the beer tour and live right by the Winking Lizards on Bethel, though I'm almost done. Shoot me a PM if you feel like going there and having a beer. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Central Ohio has severl GREAT Breweries.....

 

Start shopping them ;)

 

KillJoy

 

PS - Great Lakes is THE BEST LARGE MICRO BREW in the state. :D

 

fixed

 

I also have this beer hobby, I would have to say that making your own beer > * , other than that try all the crazy stuff aat the store and everytime you visit a neighboring city locate the microbrew and get a growler.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did a tour-de-Octoberfest beers over the weekend. Sampled 9 including my ever favorite Sam Adams, which surprisingly wasn't my favorite this year.

 

Brooklyn Brewery Octoberfest was my fav this year.....mind you I wasn't very scientific and pouring them into tastes...I just drank all 9 and decided which was the best as I went. ;)

 

I also really liked Flying Dog's Octoberfest and Great Lakes Octoberfest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brewing is a lot of fun especially if you can get a few friends over and make a night out of it. Also once you have it bottled giving it out to people if fun and people really appreciate gifts that you made with your own hands.

 

My suggestions is to try as many different 'styles' of beer and find a few that you like, then try different breweries offering of those styles. here is a quick list of types you could run down http://www.beerhunter.com/beerstyles.html

For me it was more of finding the ones I don't like so I can avoid them in the future (example, I'm not a fan of Hefeweizen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm doing the beer tour and live right by the Winking Lizards on Bethel, though I'm almost done. Shoot me a PM if you feel like going there and having a beer. :)

 

My girlfriend's dad and I are going to do that next year. We missed signing up this year by a week. Sounds like a terrific idea to try all those beers for dirt cheap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not only do you like Michigan, but shitty beer too. Who knew someone could have such bad taste all around. :p

 

lol You say I drink shitty beer, when probably 60% of people on this forum only drink Bud/Miller Light?

 

I really like any type of Wheat beer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...