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Your Favorite Beer Thread!

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  • ZraenianZraenian Member Posts: 26
    @elminster, they are a variety of beer.

    the difference between a pilsner and a beer = the alcohol.

    Lager = varies from 3,5% to 5%
    Pils = varies from 4,5% to 5,2%
    Beer = 6%+

    These are all varieties of beer, they are however devided.
  • RadhamanthysRadhamanthys Member Posts: 106
    Beer is the general name for the drink. It has subcategories, the major are Ale and Lager. Most beer types fall into these 2 types.
    It is very strange to say that Pils is not a beer...
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    edited October 2012
    @Zraenian - no, lager refers to the type of beer, how it is fermented and stored, not how much alcohol it contains. There are "super-lagers" with 8+% alcohol (Tennent's for example). Lager is made with bottom-fermenting yeast, whereas other beers are typically made with top-fermenting yeasts. Also, lager can be differentiated by its colour and texture. It is usually lighter, though there are red and dark lagers. Also, lager is a fairly recent beer style, dating to medieval times, whereas ale and other beer styles date at least to Sumerian and Egyptian times, and probably prehistory judging from archaeological evidence. Lager comes from the German word for storage ("lagered" or fermented at cooler temperatures) and is a central European invention which somehow has become the most popular beer style in North America, Australia and indeed much of the rest of the world. Personally, I prefer cask ales, but they are hard to find outside Britain.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_style

    Edit: oh, and pilsner is just a specific type of pale lager, not a separate beer category apart from lager.
    elminsterAndreaColombo
  • TJ_HookerTJ_Hooker Member Posts: 2,438
    @elminster
    Do you mean that people actually refer to different beers as lagers or ales or whatever? Or do you just mean that is how they are labelled? I just ask because I live in Manitoba, and everyone I know just refers to all types of beer as just "beer" regardless of the what variety it is. Could just be that my friends and I are particularly ignorant of these distinctions.

    My favourite beer is Alexander Keith's IPA. I also enjoy Kokanee, and if I'm feeling broke I have no problem drinking Lucky, despite its reputation as being cheap garbage.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited October 2012
    @TJ_Hooker I would say most of my friends refer to different types of beer as what they are labelled as generally, unless they don't know. But now that I more clearly think about it most people in Toronto probably could not differentiate enough between the different types of beer to be able to call it anything other than beer. I probably have very informed friends.

    Nothing wrong with drinking cheap garbage haha...there was a local brewery I went to while studying in Waterloo that you could buy cheap, locally brewed beer from (the lion brewery). It was not the finest producer of beer out there, but if you just wanted something cold after a long day of classes or before a party it did the trick (no ales just pilsners and lagers).
    TJ_Hooker
  • HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,643
    edited October 2012
    Beer is gross. I know, I know -- I'm not a man. Whatever. I don't have a beer for refreshment, mainly because they taste like Mammoth piss. If its an acquired taste, I surely haven't acquired it yet.
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    salieri said:

    Um... Shouldn't this be in Off-Topic? @tanthalas

    For the record, I've been hitting the Hoegaarden quite often these days.

    Beer is rarely if ever off topic.
    Silycyberhawk
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    I would add Jennings' Sneck Lifter and Black Sheep Ale to the list. Two classic English bitters with great flavours.
    Sily
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,524
    edited October 2012
    I'm with the OP on Belgian beers: They are the best!

    Chimay Grand Reserve (blue label) is hands-down my absolute favorite. There's no limit to how much I can drink of it before I realize it was a bad idea to begin with.

    Other Belgian beers that came close to challenging the Chimay for me are, in no particular order: —
    • Gouden Carolus Tripel
    • Dominus Tripel
    • Tripel Karmeliet
    I also like Delirium Tremens very much, though I find the Tripel Karmeliet has that little something I can't name to it that makes it better.

    Other notable Belgian beers that you should try if you haven't: —
    • Kwak
    • Bière des Ours
    • Red-labeled Chimay
    Moomintroll
  • cyberhawkcyberhawk Member Posts: 350
    Mattysek said:

    Home brewery Magistr in Brno in Czech Republic. I guess most of you folks wont be able to taste it :( try Pilsner Urquell its great beer :) Czech beer is best beer ^_^

    Right, Pilsner Urquell is a good czech beer, I drink it myself. But what's even better for me is Budweiser. Second to only Heineken probably, maybe they're even.

    Good German beers are Wernesgrüner (Wernesgruener), Radeberger, Becks, Brinkhoffs Nr. 1. Overall I get the impression that German beers are overrated, there are so many beers here that are relatively bad and all are worse in comparison to Budweiser and Heineken. Maybe it's because no one bothers importing bad stuff from Holland / Czech in the first place and only cheap beers available are native German ones.
  • cyberhawkcyberhawk Member Posts: 350

    Beer is gross. I know, I know -- I'm not a man. Whatever. I don't have a beer for refreshment, mainly because they taste like Mammoth piss. If its an acquired taste, I surely haven't acquired it yet.

    Damn, I envy the stoneage. Getting beer was as easy as finding a Mammoth and waiting for it to piss. I'd fit right into that time for sure.
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    @AndreaColombo

    I have tried the Chimay and Kwak ( Actually I still have a 750ml bottle of Kwak + Glass )

    I saw last week in a store the Tripel Karmeliet so I will give it a go at the first opportunity, the others are more hard to find.
    Arveragus said:

    I would add Jennings' Sneck Lifter and Black Sheep Ale to the list. Two classic English bitters with great flavours.

    I wish I could find more English beers, Yesterday I wanted to order Fuller's Golden Pride but it was out of stock :-/

  • lordkimlordkim Member Posts: 1,063
    edited October 2012
    That calls for a carlsberg !!.. Not...

    I were once in US, and tasted a beer called: Mac & Jack’s : African Amber

    Link : http://www.macandjacks.com/beers.php

    Perhabs the best beer i ever tasted. But you cant buy it anywhere but in the us. ( i think). If anyone knows, if it can , please tell)

    We got a danish beer called; Ale Nr. 16. also love it ;)

    I allready love this topic :P
    mch202ArveragusSily
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    @lordkim
    I completely agree. This is a thoroughly worthwhile topic. I have learnt the names of a number of other beers which I will have to explore at some stage in the near future. From personal experience Greene King's Abbot Ale and also Ruddles County both merit sampling :)
    lordkim
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited October 2012
    Wow, before I read this thread, I had no idea that you could be a connosieur of beer, or a "beer-snob", just as with wines. LOL. Fascinating.

    I guess I should have figured that this was becoming a cultural phenomenon by the rise of "alehouses" or "brewery-restaurants" as businesses. Even the relatively small, "backwards", red-state town where I live has just had at least two of these open up in the downtown area.
  • TJ_HookerTJ_Hooker Member Posts: 2,438
    Yeah I was surprised how many people were going on about all these fancy sounding European beers and was almost starting to find it a bit pretentious, thinking that everyone was trying to act cultured by talking about all the import beer they drink. Then I remembered that most people on this forum are actually from Europe.
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    @TJ_Hooker
    You're quite right. For some of us it's not a case of having to drink imported beer - although we do that as well. I can visit a number of pubs in the area in which I live and some (but by no means all) have a great range of decent beers with a variety of curious and interesting names. Take for example 'Sneck Lifter' which is a bitter beer brewed in the North West of England. In northern dialect 'sneck' means door latch and a 'sneck lifter' was a man's last sixpence which enabled him to lift the latch off a pub door and buy himself a pint. Which is all very interesting but far from as important as the flavour of the product. And before I wax even more lyrical and descend into pseud's corner I will leave it at that!
    TJ_HookerSily
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    @elminster

    Lager is Lager... Beer is Beer.

    Not helpful... From what I can garner... In Britian anyway, the industrial revolution literally poisoned all the water. Boiling it to kill germs and such just didn't get rid of the iron bits and brick/coal dust. Soooo, beer (as in ales and such) was seen as a healthier alternative. Little Beers or low alcholic beers was drunk by the masses, even children. The fermentation process did indeed clean the water and remove the crud.

    Lager was expensive stuff and was drank by the toffs and snobs... The hoity toity as it were... Darn nobles.

    As water became clean again, the fashion of drinking little beer (and yes even giving children beer) was replaced with drinking clean purified water... The victory of the victorian sewage and water works and the piping of clean water to every home literally killed off the beer industry, which was much bigger in the past than today. Although they piped that clean water using lead pipes... (Our house is old and we still have a lead pipe from the mains) Anyway replacing lead pipes with safer metals is not being discussed here...

    Where was I... Yes. Lager. Lager production became more industrialised and huge vats meant that lager could be produced quickly and easily... More easily than Beer apparently... Need a verification on this... But the end result was Lager became much cheaper than Beer.

    Beer went into mass decline as a drink in many countries as everyone now had access to the drink of the upper classes... Everyone could drink, like a toff, snob, noble! Plebs everywhere rejoiced!

    Proceed to today. Lager is now seen as the drink of the underclasses. Those that drink to excess and not bother to taste the alchol before it ends in their gut before ending up on the floor again (in Britian anyway).

    Beer has bucked the trend and is now mostly made by Micro breweries, although some big breweries did survive to this day. Beer is now fashionable again, but more stronger than of old (the stronger beers take longer to brew so cost more)

    Soooo. The difference between lager and beer is in the brewing process.

    I did not answer your question in the slightest @Elminster so I will do more research and try again...
    wubble
  • Smiling_ImpSmiling_Imp Member Posts: 24
    I like Belgian Beer. Microbrewery beer from the New Belgium in Colorado to be more specific. Fate Tire would be one of my favorites.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited October 2012
    Anduin said:

    @elminster

    Lager is Lager... Beer is Beer.

    Not helpful... From what I can garner... In Britian anyway, the industrial revolution literally poisoned all the water. Boiling it to kill germs and such just didn't get rid of the iron bits and brick/coal dust. Soooo, beer (as in ales and such) was seen as a healthier alternative. Little Beers or low alcholic beers was drunk by the masses, even children. The fermentation process did indeed clean the water and remove the crud.

    Lager was expensive stuff and was drank by the toffs and snobs... The hoity toity as it were... Darn nobles.

    As water became clean again, the fashion of drinking little beer (and yes even giving children beer) was replaced with drinking clean purified water... The victory of the victorian sewage and water works and the piping of clean water to every home literally killed off the beer industry, which was much bigger in the past than today. Although they piped that clean water using lead pipes... (Our house is old and we still have a lead pipe from the mains) Anyway replacing lead pipes with safer metals is not being discussed here...

    Where was I... Yes. Lager. Lager production became more industrialised and huge vats meant that lager could be produced quickly and easily... More easily than Beer apparently... Need a verification on this... But the end result was Lager became much cheaper than Beer.

    Beer went into mass decline as a drink in many countries as everyone now had access to the drink of the upper classes... Everyone could drink, like a toff, snob, noble! Plebs everywhere rejoiced!

    Proceed to today. Lager is now seen as the drink of the underclasses. Those that drink to excess and not bother to taste the alchol before it ends in their gut before ending up on the floor again (in Britian anyway).

    Beer has bucked the trend and is now mostly made by Micro breweries, although some big breweries did survive to this day. Beer is now fashionable again, but more stronger than of old (the stronger beers take longer to brew so cost more)

    Soooo. The difference between lager and beer is in the brewing process.

    I did not answer your question in the slightest @Elminster so I will do more research and try again...

    I don't dispute your ideas on beer being drank when water was unclean, that was the case as well for pioneers in Canada. Variations in the brewing process does not change the fact that lagers are a type of beer however.
  • MoomintrollMoomintroll Member Posts: 1,498

    Beer is the general name for the drink. It has subcategories, the major are Ale and Lager. Most beer types fall into these 2 types.
    It is very strange to say that Pils is not a beer...

    Says it all, for me.
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited October 2012
    cyberhawk said:

    Mattysek said:

    Home brewery Magistr in Brno in Czech Republic. I guess most of you folks wont be able to taste it :( try Pilsner Urquell its great beer :) Czech beer is best beer ^_^

    Right, Pilsner Urquell is a good czech beer, I drink it myself. But what's even better for me is Budweiser. Second to only Heineken probably, maybe they're even.

    Good German beers are Wernesgrüner (Wernesgruener), Radeberger, Becks, Brinkhoffs Nr. 1. Overall I get the impression that German beers are overrated, there are so many beers here that are relatively bad and all are worse in comparison to Budweiser and Heineken. Maybe it's because no one bothers importing bad stuff from Holland / Czech in the first place and only cheap beers available are native German ones.
    I think that Budweiser, Gambranus and Kozel are much better Czech beers than Pilsner Urquell.

    La Trappe is a great dutch beer, I tried the La Trappe Isidor couple of days ago, was good!


    here is Beer heaven, taken from Bruge, Belgium - A store with 780 Belgian Beers - Recommended!!

    image



    and remember!!!

    image






    Sily
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,524
    ^ Is there anything in that picture that I wouldn't want to drink?!?

    No. No, there isn't.
    elminsterSily
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    Just returned from Prague. Thoroughly impressed by the quality and price of Czech Lager :)
  • FigrutFigrut Member Posts: 109
    @mch202 Which Maredsous are you a fan off? Delerium from a keg is quite nice. Right now I am into trying sour ales, and I keep going back to cheap Petrus aged pale ale. Never was a big trappiste (sp?) guy. @elminster There is no shortage of beer dumbs in beerdom, let them be and feel special about they dranks.
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    @elminster Found the answer!

    Lager is made from bottom up fermenting yeast and is stored for longer periods of time (lager is from the german word lagern meaning to store)

    Beer is brewed from top down fermenting yeast and is brewed for shorter periods of time.

    NOW! CONTROVERSY!

    In europe it is said that 'All Lager is Beer, But not all Beer is Lager' As far as I can tell this is correct...

    BUT NO! We will not be bullied by those eurocrats and there silly names! We want bent bananas and keep our word for Beer for Beer and keep it seperate from our word for Lager! NOOOO! You cannot change the english language you europansies!

    Apparently this has been pushed by the french government to stop Britian from having brewing (wine?)regions? (How the hell Britian can have a wine region is beyond me! Anyone for a burton - on - trent?) Certain Ales would then be only that type of Ale if it is made and came from that area...

    As a footnote and on a similar thread on names, the english may need to rename their chocolate to chocolat'n'fat as our chocolate is not chocolate under european guidelines as we put animal fat in the mix to make it more smooth and creamy... Woe is me... Why do we send europe money...

    On another side note... Love Europe and all its lovely peoples! I HATE EURO POLICIES! (And I can't even vote someone in to do a decent job...)
    wubble
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    Figrut said:

    @mch202 Which Maredsous are you a fan off? Delerium from a keg is quite nice. Right now I am into trying sour ales, and I keep going back to cheap Petrus aged pale ale. Never was a big trappiste (sp?) guy. @elminster There is no shortage of beer dumbs in beerdom, let them be and feel special about they dranks.

    I love the Maredsous Trippel which is 10% Alc. Unfortunately I cant get Delirium from a keg, I can find only in a bottle in stores that sell only alcohol - and of course its not cheap ( ~3.6euro for a 330ml bottle.. ) so I buy it in special occasions.
    Arveragus said:

    Just returned from Prague. Thoroughly impressed by the quality and price of Czech Lager :)

    Yep.. I have been in Czech Republic 2 years ago and the beer there is definitely good & very cheap. :)

  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    Anduin said:

    @elminster Found the answer!

    Lager is made from bottom up fermenting yeast and is stored for longer periods of time (lager is from the german word lagern meaning to store)

    Beer is brewed from top down fermenting yeast and is brewed for shorter periods of time.

    NOW! CONTROVERSY!

    In europe it is said that 'All Lager is Beer, But not all Beer is Lager' As far as I can tell this is correct...

    BUT NO! We will not be bullied by those eurocrats and there silly names! We want bent bananas and keep our word for Beer for Beer and keep it seperate from our word for Lager! NOOOO! You cannot change the english language you europansies!

    Apparently this has been pushed by the french government to stop Britian from having brewing (wine?)regions? (How the hell Britian can have a wine region is beyond me! Anyone for a burton - on - trent?) Certain Ales would then be only that type of Ale if it is made and came from that area...

    As a footnote and on a similar thread on names, the english may need to rename their chocolate to chocolat'n'fat as our chocolate is not chocolate under european guidelines as we put animal fat in the mix to make it more smooth and creamy... Woe is me... Why do we send europe money...

    On another side note... Love Europe and all its lovely peoples! I HATE EURO POLICIES! (And I can't even vote someone in to do a decent job...)

    Last time I checked the map England was a part of Europe, did the Island drifted away or you Britans just love to be different from everybody else in every each aspect? ;-)

    j/k



  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    @mch202 Hope it doesn't drift to far away... I don't like the idea of being seperated from Hoegarden or the Hieneken factory in Amsterdam for to long!

    On the other hand... Thank god for the english channel... This would be a thread about WINE.

    If the english drank wine, then so would have the Yanks, Canadians and the Australians! An Aussie drinking wine! Can you imagine it! The whole Australian mind set would be XXXX for sure.

    On the other hand that was tickling my ear... That is making a big presumption that the French just drink wine... And I secretly know that they love BEER!
  • MoomintrollMoomintroll Member Posts: 1,498
    edited October 2012
    Anduin said:

    @mch202 Hope it doesn't drift to far away... I don't like the idea of being seperated from Hoegarden or the Hieneken factory in Amsterdam for to long!

    On the other hand... Thank god for the english channel... This would be a thread about WINE.

    If the english drank wine, then so would have the Yanks, Canadians and the Australians! An Aussie drinking wine! Can you imagine it! The whole Australian mind set would be XXXX for sure.

    On the other hand that was tickling my ear... That is making a big presumption that the French just drink wine... And I secretly know that they love BEER!

    English wine is terrible, from the two I have knowingly tried; One from the offie, laughably called, "distant vines." A second at a food and drink fair whilst making eye contact with the brewer, pathetic excuses and lame compliments all the while being arranged in my head, as I swilled the vinegar round my mouth.

    P.S bring on the Great British, grease filled offal tubes.
    Anduin
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