On beers

I have a co-worker and friend who is a very good beer maker, and a little bit of a beer nut. I love beer in the summer, but I'm more of a wine and scotch kind of guy. But I'm up for whatever....

Some weeks ago, we were talking about what we think are good beers. The one thing we agreed was: mass produced American beers are just not that good. I find them too one-dimensional. I am very sure a lot of people would disagree, but I have this thing about flavor, and "general purpose" American beers have none that I could find.

In terms of style, I tend to like:

• Belgian ales
• German Marzen (Oktoberfest)
• Double Bock
• English Ales
• Stout

My faves are Chimay, Hooegarten, Affligem, Duvel, and the occasional Lambic for Belgians. Related to those are the traditional items from Unibroue in Quebec. It is as close to an American brewed Belgian style ale as I have been able to find.

Paulaner and Spaten are my favorite German marzen. I have tried Sam Adams and Harpoon Oktoberfest, but I don't think they cut it.

Bocks are kind of a new thing for me. I find myself constantly going for Celebrator as my benchmark bock. Paulaner Salvator is also very good, but still not a Celebrator. I liked the Aventinus wheat doppelbock a lot, but with the current grain shortages couples with the ever-so-weakened dollar make it an expensive proposition at 4 dollars a bottle.
On a related note: while checking out opinions of bock, I stumbled into a review of an American double bock that was rated high by the pundits. It was the Thomas Hooker Liberator Double Bock. This took me a while to find, and I bought three. This beer (at 9 bucks a whack) made the Aventinus look like a bargain. While the beer is very well crafted, it is still not as good as the German ones, in my opinion. I found another Thomas hooker beer (American pale ale) while looking for this one. More on it later. My friend's benchmark is the celebrator also. He has not tried the Aventinus, and I hope he does. I gave him one the Thomas Hooker bocks to try, and I have not told him about my thoughts on it because I don't want to bias his mind.

On the British ale category, I love the Samuel Smith line, followed by Boddington's, Old Speckled hen and Fuller's. I prefer these on tap, but Sammi smith on tap in the US is close to impossible This is one category where the American handcrafted beers seem to do well. The Sam Adams isn't bad. the Anchor steam is pretty good, although is has that overly hoppy finish that makes it taste more like an IPA than a traditional Pale Ale. I like IPAs, but I don't like their taste when I'm expecting something else.
As I mentioned earlier, I found a Thomas Hooker American pale ale which looking for the bock. Not cheap either at 9 or 10 dollars a 6-pack, and I didn't think it was that great. It had the same bite at the end I associate with the micro-brews I don't like. Compared to the Samuel Smith Old Brewery Pale Ale, it's not that good. It reminds me of an expensive version of Sam Adams

This is another category where I find the originals doing better than the copiers. Even with the inflated prices (about $12 for four), they are still cheaper than anything you buy at the bar. The way I see it, I'd rather drink less good beer than more mediocre beer. :)

I'm not a stout expert, but I like some of the smaller kids on the block. I like Guiness on tap-especially while visiting the UK-but I like Murphy's more. Beamish is also nice, but a little harder to find. On the non-standard types, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal stout and Young's double chocolate stout in the can are great examples of each category. Besides micro brews, I haven't had a good American example. I hear the Brooklyn brewery dry stout is supposed to be pretty good.

My "mindless summer lager" beer is the lesser known Mexican lager called Sol. I can't stand Corona, but this stuff is drinkable, and very good on a hot summer day by the pool. I know that compared to the other stuff I mentioned, this stuff is still technically "crap", but to me, it still beats Bud and the other mass producers of mindless lager. Hey! Nobody's perfect! :)

I do wind up with some general purpose lager when I host parties and the like. Some people just like them. I wind up using them for Bratwurst cooking. The hops give the brats a great flavor. To me, that's the best use for mass-produced american lager.

That's what I like on beer these days. My taste changes from time to time, but overall, these are the styles I stick with. If you have a recommendation, drop a comment.

In fact, I think I will have my last Affligem while catching up on the last Formula 1 race!

Later,