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John George Peppers wrote:

tw wrote:i hate beer with pumpkin or blueberry flavor or any of that bullshit.

AMEN! I see that on the label and I immediately know I want nothing to do with it.

You beer purists crack me up. I'm not one to go in for the berry-flavored beers or anything, but I wouldn't just write off a beer because of an unusual ingredient or two.

I made a pumpkin ale once for Thanksgiving. It turned out pretty well. Tasted great once I figured out the right proportions of pumpkin pie spices to add.

A good pumpkin ale is a wonderful thing in the autumn, but it's really more about the spices than the vegetable itself.

Pumpkin adds practically nothing to the flavor of beer, besides lightening the body and increasing the alcohol somewhat. To give it that pumpkin pie flavor, most breweries add small quantities of ginger, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. For a fuller, pumpkin pie-like mouthfeel and some richness and to simulate a pie-crust flavor, I added a good amount of medium (about 40-60L) caramel malt and some belgian "biscuit" malt.

If I wasn't in the midst of moving and everything, I'd have a pumpkin ale already in secondary fermentation by now.

Colonel Panic wrote:Guinness? Come on. Guinness isn't strong or anything, it's only like 4.2% ABV. Even less than most American production lagers, which are about 4.5%. (Bottled Guinness however, is a bit stronger at 5.6% ABV)

Guinness isn't strong, it's just very roasty and kinda dry and has a very full mouthfeel due to roasted barley and crystal/caramel malts used in the mash.

It is very filling however (so it's really more of a sipper than a good session beer) and it'll put a gut on ya if you drink it a lot.

Most beer will, I guess, but Guinness has fewer calories than the others. It's right about where light beer is, in fact.

I love the stuff now that it's in the explode-o-cans.
Or obviously drawn properly from a tap.

-A

Guinness also sour mashes about 1-2% of their total mash, for a little tartness. That touch of spoilage is a significant part of what sets Guinness apart from most other commercial stouts.

busbus wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:Guinness isn't strong, it's just very roasty and kinda dry and has a very full mouthfeel due to roasted barley and crystal/caramel malts used in the mash.

Yeah, I wasn't being a pussy about the alcohol content, just the vile taste aspect of Guinness. It's probably the same acquired taste folks need to enjoy black licorice or unprotected dirty butt sex with a tranny crack addict in DC.

Zing!

Panic, its nice to see someone take the time to do homebrewing. I'd love to try it, but I haven't really stumbled upon a way to do it efficiently. Plus I've heard the smell can be overpowering. (Though I'm not so sure about that one.)

Sorry to post like crazy in these beer threads today. I just have beer on the brain today. Its been a long week at work and I'm anticipating ending it with a good beer or two when I finally go home.

matthew wrote:This shit, from Philly no less...

Too strong, far too boozy for an IPA. Yuck.

7% ABV is a little high, but not excessive for an IPA. I've never tried this particular beer, but maybe there's something else about the flavor that makes the alcohol stand out more.

The next step up for IPAs in terms of alcohol content would be the Imperial IPA, which tend to be in the range of 7.5% to 10% alcohol, or the barleywine/dopplebock range. Imperial IPAs tend to be much hoppier than your usual barleywines though.

Imperial IPA is another American bastardization of a classic British style. Examples are the Three Floyds' Dreadnought, the Dogfish Head 90/120-minute IPAs, Ska Decedent Imperial IPA, and Saranac Imperial IPA. If you don't like extremely hoppy, bitter and strong beers, stay away from those.

busbus wrote:It's probably the same acquired taste folks need to enjoy black licorice or unprotected dirty butt sex with a tranny crack addict in DC.

That's a great idea for the next Guinness marketing campaign:

o_d_m wrote:Panic, its nice to see someone take the time to do homebrewing. I'd love to try it, but I haven't really stumbled upon a way to do it efficiently. Plus I've heard the smell can be overpowering. (Though I'm not so sure about that one.)

Brewing beer doesn't smell bad at all. Your house will smell sweet, roasty and flowery on brew day and maybe half a day afterwards, but that's about it. The fermentation of 5 gallons of beer doesn't really cause much of an aroma at all.

Homebrewing is a lot of fun. You ought to give it a try.

Get this book: http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Joy- ... 0380763664

And stay away from the Mr. Beer and other beer brewing kits. Those suck. Just go to your local homebrew store and get the gear and ingredients you'll need. You can get started for under $100 and the beer you make with good ingredients will be much better than what you'll make with the stale hops and powdered yeast from a Mr. Beer kit.

Colonel Panic wrote: Just go to your local homebrew store and get the gear and ingredients you'll need

HA HA HA

I think you need to check my location in my profile. I don't think we have any of those anywhere near here.

I might be able to track down some equipment to make a moonshine still, but homebrewing is a different story.

Colonel Panic wrote:

John George Peppers wrote:

tw wrote:i hate beer with pumpkin or blueberry flavor or any of that bullshit.

AMEN! I see that on the label and I immediately know I want nothing to do with it.

You beer purists crack me up. I'm not one to go in for the berry-flavored beers or anything, but I wouldn't just write off a beer because of an unusual ingredient or two.

I'm not a beer purist by any means, you point out a good beer with a unusual ingredient and I"ll try it. Nine out of ten times a beer with an unusual ingredient will taste like shit. I just don't like those odds.

o_d_m wrote:I think you need to check my location in my profile. I don't think we have any of those anywhere near here.

There's a guy from your hometown on this forum: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/

Looks like he's also a professional brewer.
He has built himself a really nice automated brewing setup: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread. ... 422&page=2

You ought to join and ask him where he gets his supplies from.

o_d_m wrote:I might be able to track down some equipment to make a moonshine still, but homebrewing is a different story.

A lot of the equipment would be very much the same.

Milwaukee's Best.
Natural Ice.
Natural Light.
Guinness.

Everything else is fine by me. Years of drinking underage means you get what you can.

There used to be a supermarket by the DMV called "X-PressWay" which was a wannabe bodega. Nothing inside the fridge but cheap beer and Coca-Cola with the '80s label. Assorted candy bars, skull caps, every cigarette imaginable. Nothing else. There was a back door, with this guy Head'ron ("Hud-roan") sitting there just watching TV and waiting for a knock. You slipped him 10 bucks through the doggy door and he gave you a 12-pack of shitty warm beer. My crusty friend David realized that if you go there between 3 and 4, he'd give you the good stuff (good stuff meaning not watered-down domestic garbage). I don't know why this was a time frame, but we worked within it. Parked in church lots, summer afternoons in a beat-up Acura with a burnt clutch, drinking almost-boiling beer, listening to the Buzzcocks, Nausea, Death, and early Skrewdriver. The good old days.

Since then, I drink basically anything.