Weekend Beer Report

[Davey]

I know you're all sitting on the edge of your Lazyboy waiting for this late-breaking news, but the Weekend Beer Critic is drinking some of that good 'ol American http://www.budweiser.com/_images/agecheck_logo.gif this weekend. So brand me a traitor to the cause of good beer appreciation, but it ain't half (quarter?) bad! And at $3.50 per 6-pack it ain't hard on the purse strings either :)

But it also isn't to be confused with a good beer and I'm gonna venture out and maybe grab a couple Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ales this weekend as long as no one objects. Any objections? I thought not. Hot stuff, even when iced. Got some Richmond Fontaine playing right now - you owe yourself this one. Very nice. Just ask my good buddy, Swish Baby. Or just ask me for my latest comp which has a coupla RF songs on it.

So spill your guts of music and beer. What are you playing and drinking?

[BillB]

Not playing any chunes at the moment but a Nut Brown Ale would be fine indeed.

I'm waiting for the second half of the Miami-FSU game to begin and enjoying my third Victory Festbier.

Victory Festbier (http://www.victorybeer.com/fest.htm)

I was in a Beamish sort of mood but the local distributor was out. It's nice to know I can always count on the local brewery down the street for good beer. They recently brewed a batch of Hop Wallop that lasted about a week and was very tasty. The Moonglow Weizenbock is in season and quite good as is the cask-conditioned Workhorse Porter they have on tap. Thank goodness they're within walking distance!

Man I hate both of these teams, Miami more so than FSU, but I love college football!

Bill

[tentoze]

The RF has been on my unfulfilled wish list for a few weeks now. Big B's has let me down on 2 consecutive Saturdays. I really hate ordering shyte over the Net, but I'm beginning to think it's the only answer to 7 high-priority recent releases. As I am a very common person, I'm drinking Adolph Coor's original, as usual. I do have a few Tire Bites in fridge if I start feeling semi-snooty. Haven't cranked any music yet until I decide whether or not to put the TT back in the normal system to listen to a few dollar lp's I picked up today:

Lee Michaels, 5th
Schumann's Symphony #3, Goerg Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic on London FFrr label
Renaissance, Novella
Leon Russell, Life and Love
Hair, on RCA doggie black label
David Bromberg, Bandit In A Bathing Suit

What to do, what to do.

[tentoze]

I hope they BOTH lose, and then flee Ivan's wrath.

GO GATORS!!!!

[DarrenH]

Drinking my favorite beer tonight....

Bacardi

Hehehe

Go Michigan. Gonna beat up some Fighting Irish this Saturday.

Again.

[DarrenH]

I'm waiting for the second half of the Miami-FSU game to begin and enjoying my third Victory Festbier.

Man I hate both of these teams, Miami more so than FSU, but I love college football!

Bill

Likewise, but I hate FSU more. So I'm glad that Miami won tonight. Chris Rix looked like sh!te but so did Miami's offense. In fact, both teams offenses were so bad that it made thier respective defenses look all the better.

In the long run, I hope both teams fail miserably. :cool:

Another great college football season has begun.

Darren

[BillB]

I couldn't believe what an ugly game that was last night. Neither of those teams deserve a Top 10 ranking, and USC's overrated to boot.

I hope you guy roll big-time over Notre Dame today. You have a very good team, best in the Big Ten, and I'm just glad we don't have you on the schedule this year!

Bill

[nobody]

Conversation at a bar in the shadow of the AB brewery in St. Louis a long time ago...

Me: What kinda beer ya got?
Bartender: We got everything?
Me: Cool...give me a Guinness.
Bartender: No....what I mean is we have every Anheuser-Busch product in this bar. (said with perhaps a hint of disgust)

Yeah I've drank my share of Bud around here.

My favs are still a nice Guinness or Paulaner Haffeweizen, but nothing wrong with knocking back a few Buds.

[Dave_G]

Michelob.

Bacardi.

These are a few of my favorite things.

GO DAWGS GO DAWGS GO DAWGS GO DAWGS

No music on right now, but Jay Jay the Jet Plane dvd is. Today is my little buddies 4th birthday party.

US Open tennis, college football, pro football, birthday party, what else more could one ask for? Some Americans in the US OPen finals. But it ain't gonna happen.

Dave

[Swish]

I'll be having some Blue Moon Belgian White. I don't know about this stuff, but it ain't bad with a slice of orange in the summertime. Kinda like Dos Equis with lime, but a bit lighter in flavor.

Bud Davey? I never liked that rice beer. For a cheap American beer I'll stick with Miller Lite, which I think has pretty decent taste and the low carbs that I should be sticking to but don't as much as I used to.

Swish

NP: Snow Patrol - Final Straw

[Davey]

I'll be having some Blue Moon Belgian White.
Yeah, that's not bad stuff for Coors. I haven't had any for a long time, though. I think it used to be a little bit different, at least it used to taste a little better to me in the old days. Maybe that was before Coors took over? Anyway, even those "rice beers" can taste good when nice and fresh and well cared for. I'd generally kind of agree with you that Miller is better than the others in its "premium" version, but I'm not a lite drinker so haven't compared those.

I've only heard a couple songs from that Snow Patrol. What's your opinion of the whole album? I know a few people around here seem to really like it, I think? I heard some of the new Mark Lanegan album last night and it sounded pretty good, although kind of quiet. Might have to pick that one up soon. Guy's got one of the best voices in rock, IMO.

[Slosh]

Beer = good ole Sammy A. Boston Lager
Music = Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life, Mercury Rev - All Is Dream, and Grandaddy - Concrete Dunes. . . . .the holy trilogy of slow, mellow, ambient, ummm. . .. .twee?

I'll move on to more rawkin' tunes later but the beer will remain the same :)

[tentoze]

I got the Lanegan ceedee last week- it is very good, and not as quiet as you might believe.........

[Swish]

Yeah, that's not bad stuff for Coors. I haven't had any for a long time, though. I think it used to be a little bit different, at least it used to taste a little better to me in the old days. Maybe that was before Coors took over? Anyway, even those "rice beers" can taste good when nice and fresh and well cared for. I'd generally kind of agree with you that Miller is better than the others in its "premium" version, but I'm not a lite drinker so haven't compared those.

I've only heard a couple songs from that Snow Patrol. What's your opinion of the whole album? I know a few people around here seem to really like it, I think? I heard some of the new Mark Lanegan album last night and it sounded pretty good, although kind of quiet. Might have to pick that one up soon. Guy's got one of the best voices in rock, IMO.

although a few of the songs seem somewhat redundant in my opinion. Good stuff though, and one I need to spin a few more times before I give it my final verdict.

As for Mark Lanegan, I haven't heard his new one yet, but I'll bet BBB (best bud Bob) has it.He's a big fan and prolly has eveything he's, including his Screaming Trees stuff.

As for Coors ruining Blue Moon, I dunno. Scmaybe, schmaybe not. I don't think any compnay would intentionally change anything about a beer they buy out. I mean, you're buying it because they have a loyal (read: profitable) following, so why mess with it? Sam Adams, one of my faves (and Slosh's), sub-contracts their brewing to other breweries to keep up with capacity and to save on the shipping costs, including one in Allentown, PA, and I never noticed any difference in the taste.

Swish

[Chip_B]

I hope they BOTH lose, and then flee Ivan's wrath.

GO GATORS!!!!
Amen, Brother 'Toze! <font color=orange><font size=8><i><b>Go <font color=blue>Gators<font color=black>!!!</b></i><font size=2>

[Chip_B]

So spill your guts of music and beer. What are you playing and drinking?
Sadly, I recently consumed the last of the Kostritzer Oktoberfest I got for a pittance at a tent sale in front of the MacDill AFB Exchange...outstanding beer!

Anyway, I tried something completely new (for me, anyway), a Scotish Porter called Road Dog that's brewed out in Colorado. I bought it because I figured that any beer that proudly proclaims, <i>Good Beer, No Sh*t</i> on the carton was certainly worth a try. Fortunately, it lives up to its claim. Reminds me of Abita Turbo Dog (a mighty tasty beer outta Bayou Country).

Tunes: FP's 'Heavy Hangers' comp and the Tony Vega Band's 'Dear Sweet Goodness'

[Dusty Chalk]

Teetotaling, myself, as usual...does Gatorade&trade; count?
...drinking some of that good 'ol American http://www.budweiser.com/_images/agecheck_logo.gif...(shudders)
And at $3.50 per 6-pack it ain't hard on the purse strings either.As my father was fond of saying -- "You already paid for that crap, why suffer twice by having to taste it as well?" (although usually said in the context of fancy food in a restaurant, or watching a bad movie in a theater, but...you get the idea).

[Davey]

I got the Lanegan ceedee last week- it is very good, and not as quiet as you might believe.........
Hey, that's great news! That'll probably be the next thing I buy. Really has an all star cast helping him out on some of the songs too. Guess that's why it's billed as the Mark Lanegan <i>Band</i> on this one. Glad it's not as quiet as I thought. I did really like <i>Field Songs</i> but it was pretty laidback. And they even have the new one for under $10 at alldirect.com. Hmmm, if I could only think of some other stuff to order.......:)

[MindGoneHaywire]

I'm not down with Bud-bashing & haven't been for years. It's 5% alcohol & tastes a heck of a lot better than it did before they quietly went to a more potent recipe some years back to bolster their product's chances at holding off the microbrew revolution. I always admired how they packaged their products--there was a size of Bud for any occasion. 7 oz., 12, 16, 22, 24, 32, 40. Nowadays it's more common to see other brands with different sizes, but not all that long ago it was only Bud that made just the right size container for, say, a train ride. 45 minutes? A pint will do. An hour or more? 22 or 24. 90 minutes or more, 32 or 40, depending. But I hated the beer & would end up with two or three clunky bottles of something better instead of one handy can. Then they upgraded the beer itself & I never looked back. Is it a Belgian Abbey ale? Of course not. But it's certainly drinkable. And while I generally feel that beer is something that you just don't put in a can, their beer stands up as well to being canned as any I've tasted.

I can't drink it much anymore, due to being alcohol intolerant I can really only handle light beer. Every once in awhile I'll treat myself to a real hefeweizen, such as the aforementioned Paulaner or something in that vein (in other words, not some crappy American product that says hefeweizen on it but tastes nothing like it). I haven't had a Grande Reserve in years & probably never will again, those days are over. I pay enough of a price on the rare occasions when I drink something as strong as a Bud, or a wheat beer. But that Chimay Grande Reserve is the single best beer I've ever tasted in my life, bar none.

[Dusty Chalk]

Did they really upgrade the taste, or did you just lower your standards?

And, "alcohol intolerant" -- is that like "lactose intolerant", do you fart 'n' stuff? I mean, because everyone gets the beer farts. Or is that just your fancy way of saying you can't handle the stuff anymore? 'Cause I can't either. Two beers, and whoever's hanging out with me can have their way with me. (Of course, if it's the right person, I don't even need two beers.)

[MindGoneHaywire]

It means I really can't drink anymore since I got sick. Before that I drank beer pretty much every day, average 2 to 3 a day, I guess. When I got sick I went through a period where I might've had less than a case over the course of nearly 3 years. At one point I didn't have a beer for a year. So I'm glad I got to the point where I could at least drink a light beer. Actually, although I don't like Michelob at all, and detest the carb-counting craze, I'm finding that Ultra isn't a bad product. It'll taste like seltzer to anyone who's a serious beer drinker, but it's good for people like me who just can't handle the alcohol. Better than Rolling Rock Green Light.

Prior to getting sick I would've said Coors Light so far as the mass-produced American Pilseners, and I do have some of that these days, but I've settled into drinking Bud Light primarily. Scary how lousy it used to taste & now it almost tastes like beer to me.

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, yeah, if all you drink is light beer, Bud is going to taste fine, not like the watered-down schlock it is.

I liken it to salt. If one is a normal American, one has a pretty high salt content in your diet, and everything that's salt-free tastes pretty bland. But if one lives on a salt-free diet, one starts to be able to diffentiate tastes at that level, and everything with salt in it tastes just plain "salty".

Similarly, with lighter and darker beers. If all you drink is light beer, then all the darker beers (Guiness, etc.) are going to taste like (and feel as heavy as) car oil. Similarly, anyone who drinks exclusively microbrews and other "good" beers, all the light beers are going to taste like watered-down schlock.

Now, I'm not much of a beer drinker these days, neither (also for health reasons, but different ones than yours -- in my case it just conflicts with the allergy medicines I take), but on the few occasions I do drink, I'll pick up where I left off.

[MindGoneHaywire]

No. Bud changed their recipe a few years before I got sick, and as any serious beer drinker knows, sometimes you find yrself drinking something like Bud because there are no better alternatives. Or, at least that's the way it used to be. I mean, if I'm going into some deli in the middle of nowhere, do I want a pre-recipe-change Bud or a Heineken? I go with the Bud, the lesser of two evils. I despise the taste of the Heineken you get in the U.S. It's got a chemical taste, like formaldehyde or something.

When I was informed of the Bud change I'd probably only had a couple of since they changed it, if any at all; I was told by someone who works in the wine business. I also have access, here in Manhattan, to just about any beer I want at any given time, and the delis near where I lived were pretty good on selection. And there was a distributor around the corner. What I'm saying is, it might've taken me some time to notice on taste alone if I wasn't told & didn't notice the 5% on the label. But while I'm not discounting the power of suggestion, I definitely noticed a difference the next time I had one. And I liked it; it was closer to the Class 3 beer I remember from Europe. It was full-bodied & definitely a step apart from the other watery American Pilseners. It kinda reminded me of some of the good yellow beers made by a couple of the regional microbrews around here like Saranac--actually, it wasn't all that far off from their excellent Pilsener (and I'm not a Pilsener fan, and I don't like Urquell & never did). In short, I didn't lower my standards at all. I've had to since becoming sick, yes, but it was well before that that I noticed the Bud change & thought it resulted in a very drinkable beer, excellent by 'mass-produced' standards.

[kexodusc]

What's funny is how radically different "Budweiser" tastes in other countries. I just moved to Canada...5.5% and the stuff ain't half bad!!!

[MindGoneHaywire]

Back before Bud changed, their alcohol content was less than 4%, if I remember correctly. The difference between the American & the Canadian versions was a lot more significant than it is now. I remember having some Canadian Bud & being shocked that it actually tasted like beer, not water. And it was explained to me by someone in Buffalo, IIRC, that anyone who lived near enough to the border would regularly make trips to get the Canadian beer. There was just no comparison.

[tentoze]

Back before Bud changed, their alcohol content was less than 4%, if I remember correctly. The difference between the American & the Canadian versions was a lot more significant than it is now. I remember having some Canadian Bud & being shocked that it actually tasted like beer, not water. And it was explained to me by someone in Buffalo, IIRC, that anyone who lived near enough to the border would regularly make trips to get the Canadian beer. There was just no comparison.
Although it may have been different in different parts of the U.S. (and I don't think it was, really) Bud (and all other "premium" beers, for that matter) was always 4.3% in the South. The so-called "popular" beers such as Busch were available as 3.2%, but I have no idea why, other than cost.

[nobody]

3.2 or "near" beer is crap they used to sell on Sundays in some places. Some sort of strange moral compromise where instead of going dry on Sundays, you can buy beer, it just has to be weak stuff. I've also heard in some places gas stations can only sell the stuff. I know some places you can only buy "near" beer unless you go to a liquor store rather than a supermarket or some other such place. Weird stuff.

[Dusty Chalk]

Alright, I'll withdraw my critique of it until I have a chance to try it again, but don't hold your breath. Almost everywhere here that I can get Bud, I can get Killian's, which is one of the few mass-produced beers I can tolerate.