The AFF Beer Thread

[Swordsman88]

Originally Posted by michaels1v8

Im not minding the XXXX summer gold brew that they've just released.

I cant stand XXXX but this is actually a pretty decent beer

Definately worth a try for anybody after a nice easy going beer at a decent price

can't agree on the 'summer gold' brew mate. it may be better than XXXX (not that hard to be) but its still pretty average IMO. 'goes down easy' is not a requirement of a 'good' beer in my view (or not high on the list) .

Little Creatures Pale Ale....now uranium has the right idea!

[XR6_661]

Becoming a beginner beer snob.

Won’t drink anything lesser than a James Squire Golden Ale.

And with slabs for $52 at first choice. Why not!

[uranium_death]

People think being a beer snob is a bad thing...but I think it's a great thing.
I was at my tennis club on Saturday and my mates were there, so I grabbed a Carlton Draught. Now, I bag this beer all the time and say it's crap, and after having another one, my thoughts were fully justified. Terrible, chemical-laden flavour. No depth.

For some, it may be easy to down, but there is no complexity whatsoever with almost all large-batch beers. Inferior products kill any chance of the beer being decent.

Another misconception of beer is that foreign beer is good. Bollocks.

Carlsberg...'probably the best beer in the world'. Sure, if you shop at Safeway/Woolworths Liquor. If you go to a specialist beer store (Purvis Cellars for instance), you would not go near it.

Belgian ales are simply magnificent on a winters day. Slowly sipped and savoured. As they warm up, the flavour of the beer changes so what you start with is not what you finish with.

Beer is to be experienced. You can't do that when you're sculling them.

[TZENU]

Had one of these recently and was very nice... Tasted Fruity with some maltiness afterwards... (Not very good describing beers)

[GreenMachine]

I've been drinking Steinlager Pure (NZ) lately... very nice drop (the beerologists will probably disagree).

[Peuty]

Have you tried Steinlager Classic ? It goes alright too.

[ZA-289]

Nuff said.

Actually, I do quite like it. Got to be stubbies tho, unless were camping etc..

[GreenMachine]

West End! Yum! Best enjoyed warm, in a bus shelter.

[TheSneakiness]

Quite enjoy Matilda Bay's Fat Yak at the moment. About the only beer I can drink lots of and not feel crook in the guts.

There's a club right near my work that has it on tap... Mmmmmm

[GreenMachine]

Yeah, had a few Fat Yaks last Friday night... very enjoyable and becoming more common on tap.

Bought a carton of Carlsberg to drink at home last night, on special for $40something. Goes alright.

Edit: reading up, apparently Carlsberg is a Foreign Beer Faux Pas... Oh well..

[Poetic Justice]

Thought I'd share my list of beloved beers here.

It depends on what you want, like drinking wine some beers are better when you're eating and are simply not 'session' beers. (for instance; drinking 20 of them in a night).

I tend to have three different grades that I rate beers in them and it generally comes down to the occasion. Some beers can be for a special occasion, some for a boring-mid-week-Tuesay night after work beer when you get home, one for the Saturday night drinkathon and the other for a Sunday arvo when you want to have some enjoyment in what you're doing.

The lower grade beers I drink include:

Boags Draught
Pure Blonde
Carlton Draught
Miller Draught (esp when I go to TGI Fridays for some reason)

Mid range:
Corona
Kirin
Crown Lager

Top range:
LC Bright Ale
Fat Yak
Asahi Super Dry (Better if its the real stuff from Japan opposed to Thailand)

The "I'm driving Beer": Peroni Leggera

Also tried out a new ale last night called Sierra Nevada from the states. Rated it highly!

[Swordsman88]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

People think being a beer snob is a bad thing...but I think it's a great thing.
I was at my tennis club on Saturday and my mates were there, so I grabbed a Carlton Draught. Now, I bag this beer all the time and say it's crap, and after having another one, my thoughts were fully justified. Terrible, chemical-laden flavour. No depth.

For some, it may be easy to down, but there is no complexity whatsoever with almost all large-batch beers. Inferior products kill any chance of the beer being decent.

Another misconception of beer is that foreign beer is good. Bollocks.

Carlsberg...'probably the best beer in the world'. Sure, if you shop at Safeway/Woolworths Liquor. If you go to a specialist beer store (Purvis Cellars for instance), you would not go near it.

Belgian ales are simply magnificent on a winters day. Slowly sipped and savoured. As they warm up, the flavour of the beer changes so what you start with is not what you finish with.

Beer is to be experienced. You can't do that when you're sculling them.

Have to agree with pretty much everything in this post. I used to drink carlton draught quite a bit back when i was less of a 'beer snob' so to speak. I found if it was cold (and all crap beers have to be very cold to hide the skunky back notes) it was a cut above VB/XXXX that most guys were drinking. I recently tried to drink some when it was on a free bar tab at a wedding and it was not a good experience, especially as the beer warmed up.... The mass produced beers are very 'flat', they have three things in common.
1. No real flavour, if you drink a bit and hold it in your mouth you get no real flavour at all. The flavour does not change with temp or if its in a glass versus a bottle etc.

2. Generic....because they use the same malt and alot of sugar syrup to lower cots, (and often the same POR hop) for most aussie made beers (and many imports too) you get no difference across a range of brands....unless you a drinking a tooheys old (which i can tolerate..) then they all have the same malt profile.

3. Skunky flavour especially when anything warmer than ice cold. This is because of high speed over gravity brewing with no holding time for maturation and using very tolerant yeasts. The current aim is to make high alcohol low flavour beers and if you have a yeast strain designed for that no wonder the beers taste 'commercial' as i call them.

That is not to say you can't enjoy some reasonable priced 'non snobby' beers these days. Fat Yack and James Squire are both reasonable priced these days and often ohn tap (though both have been affected by being bought out by the multinationals and aren't as good as the once were IMO....). Coopers is ok and bottle conditioned for a change and is avaialbe almost everywhere nowdays. You can also still drink the cheap commerical stuff if its ice cold and you are really thirsty....just dont' pay good money for it for the love of god only drink it if your old man gave it to you for free or something.....

Also agree with the 'imported is not always good' mantra. Beware this trap! They popular ones are very average and the pricier ones oftne not worth the money. Its the rarer unknown types burried up the back fo the liquor store that are probably worth it!

I have lots of beers i drink depending on mood but i'd go with:

Boags premium (and the light if you are driving)
Coopers (pale ale or the otherrs too)
Steinlager (classic is the best and a great cheap lager)
James Squires all of em
Matilda Bay brewing (fat yack and maybe some of the others)
LC
White Rabbit
Good german wheat beers
Barons Brewing (not bad for the price but go for the australian flavoured ones)
Bluetongue (not a bad pilsener as well as the lager)
Some german lagers (be careful alot of them are made locally andaren't worth teh price)

Plus heap more i've probably forgotten. Of course this is only when out and about really at home i drink pretty much exclusively my own home brewed beer. Currently i have a home made ginger beer, a czech dark lager, an english bitter, german dortrmunder lager and a soon to be added American Pale Ale with cascade and amarillo hops...yum yum!.

My advice is to learn about beer by trying them. Its lot of fun and you can call it 'RESEARCH'!!

[michaels1v8]

Originally Posted by Swordsman88

can't agree on the 'summer gold' brew mate. it may be better than XXXX (not that hard to be) but its still pretty average IMO. 'goes down easy' is not a requirement of a 'good' beer in my view (or not high on the list) .

Little Creatures Pale Ale....now uranium has the right idea!

Fair enough bloke. Everyone seems to have their different tastes.

I personally think any beer on tap is delicious (except guiness) and will usually choose the cheapest. . .

Mainstream Bottles I prefer something light in flavour and XXXX summer seems to be that. If not I usually drink Corona or Carlton Dry/draught.

Can't justify the costs of some of the premium brews and anything over $50 a carton I'd prefer a nice scotch instead.

Not sure how everyone feels about home brews though. . Most seem to either love it or hate it.

I love it Have brewed a few coopers and they aren't too bad

From Ubrewit I'm pretty fond of the mexican crown, irish lager or Colorado lager. . .

Home brew just has a whole new level of flavour IMO.

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by michaels1v8

Can't justify the costs of some of the premium brews and anything over $50 a carton I'd prefer a nice scotch instead.
.

Is this where we start a thread about nice scotch ;-)

[The Yeti]

just sat down to an ice cold VB, some one gave me a 6pack for doing them a favor it was cold in my firdge and you know what

Its the best beer I have had all day

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by SCUD

Mid range:
Corona
Kirin
Crown Lager

One thing this thread teaches is that everybody's tastes are different, as will every thread that allows for an opinion.

IN my book, Corona and Crown are both massively, massively inferior products...Corona especially.

Japanese beers in my experience aren't bad, but not great. They're middle-of-the-roaders.

[Poetic Justice]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

One thing this thread teaches is that everybody's tastes are different, as will every thread that allows for an opinion.

IN my book, Corona and Crown are both massively, massively inferior products...Corona especially.

Japanese beers in my experience aren't bad, but not great. They're middle-of-the-roaders.

I do believe Crown is overrated.

Corona however is a great beer - but I don't think it's a great beer along the lines of some who seem to have to drink it everywhere they go.

Kirin is a great beer though. Went to a pub on Saturday night that had it on tap (which I haven't seen up until this) and must say it was even better on tap.

Went to a Thai restaurant on Saturday night too and was drinking Chang's - didn't mind this either. Also reminds me of a Chinese restaurant I went too a while back where I was drinking Tsing-Tao(sp?) which was also a great beer!

[TZENU]

Originally Posted by XR6_661

Is this where we start a thread about nice scotch ;-)

Don't get me started on Single malt goodness!!!! (Love the Islay Malts!!)

[Swordsman88]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

One thing this thread teaches is that everybody's tastes are different, as will every thread that allows for an opinion.

IN my book, Corona and Crown are both massively, massively inferior products...Corona especially.

Japanese beers in my experience aren't bad, but not great. They're middle-of-the-roaders.

Yes everyone does have different taste preferrence. It also depends on the situation. I went to the cricket on sunday (not a good day to go....aus only got one wicket but you get that) and the only beer you can consume is XXXX gold at a pretty steep price. BUT, it was still a good time and i didn't find it too offensive for whatever reason...maybe because it was ice cold and it didn't last long. Could hardly taste it frankly compared to the hoppier beers i've been on recently.

Have just got a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale to try...is supposed to be very good so will give it a go. Got a a few others on my trip to a boutique kind of liquor store....flying dog stuff too. Cool name, hope their beers are good they weren't cheap!

EDIT: while i don't actively dislike japanese beers i find many asian beers lacking in flavour. Be it their aversion to hops or maybe its the use of rice in the malt profile i just dont' go crazy for them. Hardly well priced IMO as well....

[trippytaka]

Interestingly my palet seems to have come full circle now. When I was a kid I liked black beers. Then in my 20s I started getting into largers. Now I am addicted to witbier (white Beer) - Hogaarden is now my absolute favourite. I don't know why... might have to do with the orange peel or coriander they use in brewing. Who knows, all I know is that my waistline is expanding rapidly because of it

*Edited due to a vast nukber of spelling mistakes. Man my fingers don't work today.

[Halfmo Rocks]

i'm on the heavy paying off some debt budget right now...so it's the VB 30 packs, got them the last few weeks on special - 2 for $80. that helps me drink in a budget

i have my bottle collection of all the ones i try going...not all i've tried, my collection had to be restarted a few months ago to some...shennanigans occured...breaking my collection of around 150 bottles

my current crop stands at 38 i believe



above the pantry is full...i need to put up a shelf

[TheSneakiness]

Had a Heineken from the tap the other day, tasted like I was drinking dunny cleaner...

[Halfmo Rocks]

i've found heineken very hit & miss...off tap or from a bottle/can. maybe it's done over harder than most by temperature changes or something

[XR6_661]

Been drinking XXXX summers as a wet my throat beer…not too bad and cheap for a slab of full strengths. <$40 usually.

Keeps my fridge full.

[Paxton]

As it gets cooler, I'm back with a good friend of mine, but now in new clothes...

[Road Games]

As my missus goes to Brisbane for 4 days of the week i reckon i should put a pic up of what i consume while she is gone ?

Pizza boxes included....

Oh yeah Little Creatures ROCKS !!

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

Quite enjoy Matilda Bay's Fat Yak at the moment. About the only beer I can drink lots of and not feel crook in the guts.

There's a club right near my work that has it on tap... Mmmmmm

Went through countless case of the Fat Yak thanks to my step son until he introduced me to Little Creatures from W.A ...

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by GreenMachine

I've been drinking Steinlager Pure (NZ) lately... very nice drop (the beerologists will probably disagree).

I had Steinlager when I was in New Zealand on the tap, was pretty nice

I've been having Innis and Gunn recently, damn thats an awesome beer, its taste, is well, hard to describe.

Its just awesome:

http://danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_...-gunn-original

Originally Posted by XR6_661

Been drinking XXXX summers as a wet my throat beer…not too bad and cheap for a slab of full strengths. <$40 usually.

Keeps my fridge full.

I saw that in my local IGA a while ago and I thought, Wow, I've never seen this XXXX stuff before, lets see how it goes. Its pretty refreshing, but its like Corona, not too good on the taste buds.

[MAGPIE]

I like Steinlager Pure also, although it ain't cheap and is so popular it isn't often discounted .

[Swordsman88]

Originally Posted by Paxton

As it gets cooler, I'm back with a good friend of mine, but now in new clothes...

Is this replacing the current JS pilsener andrew? A nice beer but not as good as it used to be IMO. Apparently there have been some changes to how/where its brewed or so i heard. Either way not a huge pilsener drinker anyway....