Beer

[CBStew]

Also available in the usual fruit flavors, including the psychotic "peach lambic."

Holy grail. Where did you find this?

Mmm-mm.  Barnyard funk.  That's what I am looking for in a beer.

"On-tap at Rattle 'n Hum, New York, NY

A: The beer is clear but very dark red in color and has a slight amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a thin off white head.
S: There are light aromas of barnyard funk in the nose.
T: The taste has a bit of funk but this isn't very strong and also has some flavors of lactic acid along with some hints of sweetness. There is a little sourness towards the finish.
M: It feels light-bodied on the palate and has a light to moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This has to be one of the easiest beers in the style and would make for a good entry-level beer into geuzes.

Serving type: on-tap

Reviewed on: 05-25-2012 22:48:10id:"

[Wheezer]

Also available in the usual fruit flavors, including the psychotic "peach lambic."

Holy grail. Where did you find this?

It's just a picture, Slak. I was sharing amusement over "Sudden Death." Exactly why, I don't recall.

[Wheezer]

Mmm-mm.  Barnyard funk.  That's what I am looking for in a beer.

You know what's even worse than beer reviews? Pipe tobacco reviews. Those people are absolute dandies.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Bumped per our discussion yesterday:

This thread is perilously close to being moved to the dead pool.

Anyone ever had a Westvleteren 12?

I haven't.

So, on the 4th of July, I found myself in a conversation with some beer douche at a party I was at. (Incidentally, we'd started talking after trying some fruity barrel-aged eurobeer someone else had brought and I was remarking on how cider-y it tasted. He assured me that it was just beer and that the cider flavor was thanks to the aging. Regardless, it was fruity and IAN would probably love it.)

Gathering that he was the kind of douche to trade beers online and drink them only in beer-douche-approved glassware, I asked him about Westvleteren. Because that seems like the kind of thing to ask That Guy.

After correcting my pronunciation (seriously, douche... I'm drunk and pronounced the 'W' like an American... it's the 4th of July, let it go) he said something in passing that intrigued me: that the all-but-impossible-to-obtain Westvleteren 12 is identical to the commercially-available non-Trappist St. Bernardus 12.

Turns out this is not quite 100% true, but it's in the ballpark.

But I'll let the internet tell the rest...

http://52brews.com/blog/st-bernardus-abt-12.html

[In] 1946 the monks at [Westvleteren] decided to devote less time to brewing, producing a small amount a beer at their abbey (close to Watou) and contracting Saint Bernardus to [brew] the Saint Sixtus line of "Trappist" under contract from 1946 until 1992...

After Westvleteren ended the deal, Saint Bernardus continued with its own brands, extending the range and boosting production to 10,000 hectoliters (8,500 barrels) a year.

Today it brews beers with no monastic influence...but still uses recipes the brewery claims haven't changed since 1946. Because the head brewer from Westvleteren helped set up the Saint Bernardus brewery, it seems likely he brought along the original Westvleteren yeast with the recipes. We can only guess how Saint Bernardus yeast today might have changed in sixty years. We know, of course, that Westevleteren now uses yeast acquired fresh from Westmalle each time the monks brew.

http://www.classiccitybrew.com/west.html

In the 1940's the abbey gave permission for its monastic name to be used by a small brewery nearby. The beers from this secular brewery were known simply as St. Sixtus and the brewery itself as St. Bernardus. In recent years this agreement has ended, but the St. Bernardus brewery is still cranking out beers that are similar to those of Westvleteren, but not nearly identical. The St. Sixtus abbey and St. Bernardus brewery use different strains of yeast, and as a result their beers have differing flavor profiles.

http://www.hamburgercalculus.com/blog/?p=322

The representative from the brewery (not the brewer, unfortunately) cleared up a few things about St. Bernardus' history. It was started in 1946 by a cheesemaker who was working with the St. Sixtus monks to commercialize their beer. At that point, the monk brewmasters shared their recipes and help develop the manufacturing of beer at this site. The monastery and St. Bernardus brewery are about 20km away from each other, so their water supplies are slightly different. So, even in 1946 with the same starting recipes, there were still very subtle differences based on the water supply.

So: historically linked and very similar, but not quite identical.

But also: more readily available, more affordable, and apparently pretty good by its own merits.

[Wheezer]

The hectoliter is the worst unit ever.

[PenPho]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

[Internet Apex]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

All are worth checking out. None will knock your hat in the creek.

[Wheezer]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

All are worth checking out. None will knock your hat in the creek.

Why would I want my hat to be in the creek?

[CT III]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

All are worth checking out. None will knock your hat in the creek.

Why would I want my hat to be in the creek?

It's an Indiana thing, Wheez.

[Internet Apex]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

All are worth checking out. None will knock your hat in the creek.

Why would I want my hat to be in the creek?

TDubbs?

[flannj]

I'm going to be in Indiana for a number of days next week-any beers I need to try while there?

Three Floyd's?
Mikkellar? (sp?)
Founders'

Not sure availability, just want to make sure I don't miss anything that I can't get in the West.

All are worth checking out. None will knock your hat in the creek.

Why would I want my hat to be in the creek?

How else ya gonna water yer horse?

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I guess the middle class hippie vote is secure...

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/08/14/revealed-the-president-brews-his-own-beer-and-brings-it-with-him-on-the-road/

If you want to ride President Barack Obama's motorcoach, be advised: it's BYOB.

In perhaps the most startling revelation so far in Obama's three-day bus tour across Iowa, it was revealed this morning that the White House brews its own beer, and that the presidential bus is stocked with bottles of that beer.

The revelation came incidentally, when a man at the Knoxville coffee shop where Obama stopped today somehow got the president onto the subject of beer, and Obama noted that a sample of the White House's home brew was just outside.

...

The beer comes in two varieties, light and dark, Carney said. He has personally sampled the lighter brew, and declared it "refreshing."

"It is superb," he said. "It is quite good."

Does the president himself drink the beer? Indeed he does, Carney said.

[Wheezer]

I guess the middle class hippie vote is secure...

[...]

The beer comes in two varieties, light and dark, Carney said.

Ah, but it also hearkens to a place that used to be on 47th, the name of which I cannot recall. It came in two varieties, light and dark, and it was sold by the gallon jug.

[Oleg]

I guess the middle class hippie vote is secure...

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/08/14/revealed-the-president-brews-his-own-beer-and-brings-it-with-him-on-the-road/

If you want to ride President Barack Obama's motorcoach, be advised: it's BYOB.

In perhaps the most startling revelation so far in Obama's three-day bus tour across Iowa, it was revealed this morning that the White House brews its own beer, and that the presidential bus is stocked with bottles of that beer.

The revelation came incidentally, when a man at the Knoxville coffee shop where Obama stopped today somehow got the president onto the subject of beer, and Obama noted that a sample of the White House's home brew was just outside.

...

The beer comes in two varieties, light and dark, Carney said. He has personally sampled the lighter brew, and declared it "refreshing."

"It is superb," he said. "It is quite good."

Does the president himself drink the beer? Indeed he does, Carney said.

No apricot?

(Did I get that right?)

[PenPho]

Oskar Blues Deviant Dales.

Hell, yes.