Which of these beers?

[FlanMaster]

I looked for a beer thread that addresses these questions but nothing came up on the filters I used in tapatalk, so here are my questions.

What's your favorite craft beer?

Which brewery has the best malt beer?

What's your favorite lambic?

What's your favorite "American brewed" belgian style?

Have you tried beer with raw eggs and sugar? (if yes, do you like it?)

I am a mead man myself.

I personally only tasted 2 beers that I really liked. The first was from tap in a small German pub that reminded me of a malted short bread cookie, and the second was "chimay bleu".

Though, since my oldest son is getting into craft beer, I have been researching and I think I would like to try the following :

Brewery ommegang Three philosophers
Sam Adams black lager
Sam Adams Cream stout
Tommyknocker maple nut brown
Sam Smith nut brown
Sam Smith raspberry
Sam Smith Oatmeal stout
Southern tier choklat

I'd like to have a few other options as well. Very few places around here will have any of the listed choices for me to try.

We have a local brewery, but it is new and owned by a small computer technology businessman who interviewed me in an effort to glean my customers from me so I am a bit prejudice against trying their brews

I am looking into the equipment for home brewing and planning to try the wild yeast approach first, but I can probably assume safely that it will be a while before I can succeed in my own brewery commercially

OK, who's next?

And my apologies if this is a rehash thread

 

[cmark2014]

favorite craft beer is Duck Rabbit Oatmeal Stout. brewed right here in north Carolina.

 

[Terp61]

I had some Upslope, a nice craft beer made in Boulder, CO. I'm not a big hops fan. This was a nice malty brown ale, and one of the better beers I've had in a long time.

 

[Head Rigger]

Put some Youngs Double Chocolate Stout on your list of must tries.

 

[Edcculus]

Welcome to B&B!

As far as brewing goes, I don't recommend trying to start with brewing wild/sour beers. There is a nuance to working with all of the other "bugs" on top of regular yeast.

If you want an easy read on what it takes to brew, pick up the book "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian.

 

[jedimojeaux]

My favorite craft brew varies frequently, and I'm one of those guys who chooses a favorite per style, instead of overall, but right now my fav is Brasserie Dupont's Foret Saison or Stone's RuinTen. Also, as a homebrewer for 6 years, I agree with above. Fermenting with wild yeast is very unpredictable and much more difficult than starting with packaged dry or liquid yeast. I'd recommend holding off on that for a couple years, until you've gotten the hang of the brewing process.

 

[Eeyore]

What's your favorite craft beer?

Difficult question, so many to choose from.

I think that "Zatte" from the 't IJ brewery (Amsterdam) and Bonckhorster IJsselbock (Bronckhorst) are good candidates!

Which brewery has the best malt beer?

Another difficult choice, since there are not many really good ones. With some hesitation, I go for Warsteiner

What's your favorite lambic?

No doubt! Mort Subite!

What's your favorite "American brewed" belgian style?

Ehmmm ... living 1 hour driving from Belgium, I go for the real deal

Have you tried beer with raw eggs and sugar? (if yes, do you like it?)

Yuck no!

 

[Musikmann]

Put some Youngs Double Chocolate Stout on your list of must tries.

Ditto to this. Also try Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout.

 

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

What's your favorite craft beer?

Difficult question, so many to choose from.

I think that "Zatte" from the 't IJ brewery (Amsterdam) and Bonckhorster IJsselbock (Bronckhorst) are good candidates!

Which brewery has the best malt beer?

Another difficult choice, since there are not many really good ones. With some hesitation, I go for Warsteiner

What's your favorite lambic?

No doubt! Mort Subite!

What's your favorite "American brewed" belgian style?

Ehmmm ... living 1 hour driving from Belgium, I go for the real deal

Have you tried beer with raw eggs and sugar? (if yes, do you like it?)

Yuck no!

You live one hour from Belgium and Mort Subite (!) is your favorite lambic!?! interesting.

 

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

What's your favorite craft beer?
Too many to list, honestly.

Which brewery has the best malt beer?
I don't understand this question. What do you mean by "malt beer"? As in, "not rice beer."?

What's your favorite lambic?
Cantillon
honorable mentions: Drie Fonteinen; Tilquin; De Cam

What's your favorite "American brewed" belgian style?
Saison

Have you tried beer with raw eggs and sugar? (if yes, do you like it?)
No. Sounds gross.

 

[Eeyore]

You live one hour from Belgium and Mort Subite (!) is your favorite lambic!?! interesting.

A family member from the Belgian side had ties with the brewery. So we had some tours when I was still in university ;-)

And besides, yes, I think that Mort Subite brews an excellent Lambic. But just curious ... what would you recommend me to taste?

 

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

ahhhh, I hadn't realized the sentimental value that is part of your adoration of Mort Subite.

what I would recommend:

Tier 1:
Cantillon

Tier 2:
Drie Fonteinen
De Cam
Tilquin

Tier 3:
Girardin
Hanssens

Tier 4:
Boon
Beersel

Tier 5:
Timmermans

Tier 6:
Lindeman's (only the "Cuvee Rene")

 

[Eeyore]

Thank you! I only had the Lindemans and the Drie Fonteinen from your list yet!

Hanssens sounds interesting, just like Tilquin. But some of these breweries (like Tilquin) only started brewing geuezes quite recently (within the last 10 years) which also is a reason that I never tasted them.

The reality is that there are more Belgian beers than I'm ever going to be able to drink (I don't drink that much alcohol ). Lambics are mainly my wife's taste (she is a wine drinker too). I gravitate towards the darker and sweeter beers.

A funny thing is that I read posts on a Flemish beer forum about where to find some of those beers ... it's likely that at least some breweries target the export markets more than the home markets.

 

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

I was skeptical of Tilquin when I first tasted it (because of their being new), but they make *very* high-quality gueuze. At this time, I believe Tilquin is only blending lambics produced by others, rather than making their own. AFAIK, Tilquin is the only lambic blender that gets access to Cantillon lambic for their blend.

And you're correct about the markets some of these breweries are targeting; I was specifically told (at the breweries) that the recent surge in demand from the United States has been a welcomed boon for many of these breweries.