What is Digg?166 Comments
- Error601, on 01/11/2008, -1/+33A bit lacking on the technical aspects.
You don't have "malt and grain" because malt is grain. It's primarily barley that's been germinated and kiln dried. The time and temperature in the kiln is where the color come from. Stouts commonly have unmalted barley that's steeped in the hot water like tea. One common confusion is chocolate malt which has nothing to do with chocolate but is barley kilned at a high temperature. Chocolate stouts on the other hand sometimes do have chocolate in them.
Hops are flowers that are added in small amounts for bitterness and aroma. The hops added early and boiled for a long time create bitterness while those adding right at the end add the aroma.
Sweetness comes completely from complex sugars as all the simple sugars are metabolized by the yeast and turned into alcohol. The sugars come from breaking down the grain in hot and boiling water. Corn and rice can be used to increase the simple sugars without adding more proteins and other thickeners. That gives you more alcohol in a lighter and crisper beer.
Then of course there's ales verse lagers. The ales are room temperature fermented and tend to have a fruity taste. Lagers are cold fermented and generally do not have any fruity characteristic.
So...if you want to be an expert beer reviewer, learn what the ingredients do, how a particular beer is made, and then base your judgment on how well it compares to similar beers. - ezran, on 01/11/2008, -0/+23I am sorry for you...
- JigsawX, on 01/11/2008, -4/+23A good beer is a free beer!!:)
- pharekyz, on 01/11/2008, -0/+11Can I pour you a big tall glass of FAIL?
- cathpah, on 01/11/2008, -0/+10not taking anything away from her...she's certainly done something right to earn that gig, but in my opinion the biggest breweries usually put out the most average beer (miller, bud, heineken, corona, etc.)
microbrews are the way to go! the money may be in the big breweries....but the art of beermaking is found in the smaller breweries. oh....and i'm also a longtime homebrewer with my own homebuilt kegerator. homebrewing can be good, but in my experience, it's not substitute for a great microbrew (or maybe my homebrewing skills just aren't up to par yet) - derek20cali, on 01/11/2008, -1/+10Worst post ever.
P.S. post links to daughter pics. - j34nn07, on 01/11/2008, -4/+12What makes a good beer ? The girls with who you share it.
- WonderBoy55, on 01/11/2008, -0/+8Alcohol
- sfrench, on 01/11/2008, -0/+7The quick answer is .... if you like it, it doesn't matter what it tastes like.
The long answer. From style to style many characteristics of beer can be either favored, or considered a fault. For example, a heavily hopped pilsner would be considered a fault, whereas the same amount of hops in a India Pale Ale would be perfect.
If your interested in a style-by-style breakdown of beer. The BJCP style guidelines are the perfect place to start ( http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/ ) - absurdist, on 01/11/2008, -2/+9Sweet syphilitic Christ. As if wine snobs aren't annoying enough, now we have to put up with beer snobs as well?
As with so many other things, set and setting is all. That Spaten Optimator or Koningshoeven Quadrupel Trappist Ale you sip and enjoy in a relaxed setting isn't going to cut it the way a good pilsner will on a hot summer's day when you want to be refreshed. Hell, even PBR has its time and place. But I can pretty much guarantee that if you start talking about a beer's "fruitiness" in most tavens in the world, those around you may likely comment on your fruitiness as well... - fkr3, on 01/11/2008, -0/+6Driving always helps journeys. Especially alcohol-related ones.
- Gizza, on 01/11/2008, -0/+6Ah, you poor clueless American.
- skyshock1, on 01/11/2008, -0/+6Dude, seriously go try some more beers. For that same style of mass-marketed Belgian unfiltered ale, I recommend Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat. Then go try some trappist style ales like Ommegang, Chimay, and Koningshoeven.
- inactive, on 01/11/2008, -0/+6I have been going to a restaurant right down the street from me called YardHouse, I think it is a chain, and they server a six pack which is a sampling of 6 different beers they are promoting that night. They have over 130 different beers on tap so it always changes and is nice to get a different view to change up the suds every once in a while.
- PRlME, on 01/11/2008, -0/+6Samuel Adams winter loger
- chesbomb, on 01/11/2008, -2/+7mmmmmmm.........duffffffffffffff
- olik, on 01/11/2008, -2/+7I [heart] beeradvocate.com
- yomama6969, on 01/11/2008, -0/+5no
- chonuts, on 01/11/2008, -0/+4Please do some research before you go and post outlandish things. I brew at home once a week, each batch resulting in about 40-50 12oz bottles. I spend more money on the actual bottles than I do for all of the ingredients I need. Not to mention the money I spent on equipment itself: 10-gallon stainless steel brew pot, the two 5-gallon primary fermenting buckets, and two 5-gallon glass carboys for secondary fermentation, all of which cost me well over $100.
The pre-assembled kits (good for beginners) only cost around $30-50 depending on what style you choose, they have all the ingredients you need (except yeast which is usually refrigerated separately, but costs less than $10) and will give you about 40-50 12oz bottles. The only thing that could be considered "expensive" nowadays would be the hops because there's an international hop shortage going on. The price has been climbing and now brew stores are only allowing customers to purchase a limited quantity per visit to keep the supply/demand in some sort of a balance. My local store only allows me to purcahse 4oz of hops per visit. - knaps, on 01/11/2008, -0/+4Anything following the German purity laws is fine by me.
- ordig, on 01/11/2008, -0/+4can i marry your daughter?
- Nooze2k, on 01/11/2008, -0/+4Indeed. Yes, European beers tend to be very good for the most part, but limiting yourself to only certain "rules" pertaining to beer just labels one as a "beer snob". I think the term "beer snob" is thrown around a little too loosely though. I've been labeled it before by my friends, but as a rebuttal I say that I'll drink/try any beer at least once regardless of how it is made (unlike them who tend to drink only certain brands because they are "cheap"). That's not being a beer snob, that's being a beer connoisseur.
- FeartheKnighted, on 01/11/2008, -1/+5The official beer of UCF!
- lpse2000, on 01/11/2008, -0/+4I'm a fan of stouts, dark beers and pale ales myself. Guinness is my favorite of stouts. But Karl Strauss Russian Imperial Stout is an excellent stout beer too. Stone, a local brewery, makes a nice IPA. Oh and I can't forget a cold crisp Budweiser when it's a real hot day.
- VileTimes, on 01/11/2008, -0/+3Only after you drink Guinness regularly will you understand how, most of the time, widely available commercial beers offer you a sugar rush to augment the alcohol college students swear by.
You want to truly taste beer? Drink only Guinness for a month and try to find a substitute afterwards.
I'm betting you never will. - langzaiguy, on 01/11/2008, -0/+3Don't confuse the major domestic brews with the American micro brews. Big difference.
- neio, on 01/11/2008, -1/+4As long as it's ice cold and you've been working in the garden it's the best beer.
- skyshock1, on 01/11/2008, -0/+3Corn and Rice?!? Silly brewer.... corn and rice have no place in "beer". ;)
I know the American lager types (bud/miller/coors/etc...) use those in their formulas, but according to the German Purity Laws of 1516 (beer can only be made of water, barley, hops. wheat malt and/or cane sugar), that disqualifies those brews from being called "beer". - neio, on 01/11/2008, -0/+3It's supposed to be "Come on !!! American beer is like making love in a canoe ... ***** near water."
- LifeIsARhythm, on 01/11/2008, -1/+4or keystone
- mugsoh, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2I'm drinking a Stone IPA as I type this. It's my favorite IPA. Stouts are up there on my list as well. Cheers.
- sfrench, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2There is a list of 2 'beers' I don't drink. 1) Steel Reserve 2) Camo
- chesscat, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2I don't know what makes a good beer but I do know WHO makes a great beer: The Trappist monks of Belgium. For my money, the Chimay Blue is one of the best ales in the world.
- skyshock1, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2Damn, forgot this is Digg....
- kindpastor, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2They Say that Westvleteren 12 is the best beer in the world but I'm not a drinker so I wouldn't know:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119628388037006909 ... - Gezackt, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2not if that free beer is a steel reserve.
- fearlessfx, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2that's so awesome.
- mugsoh, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2To some extent you are right. But, within any style of ale or lager there are good examples and bad examples. Some tend to over analyze, but some sort of guide is nice.
- FeartheKnighted, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2that ***** will get you drunk
- FeartheKnighted, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2Good call
- DasCrackbaby, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2F
- sfrench, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2Do you know how it was pressurized? If by some odd reason it was put under pressure with nitrogen, it would have a creamier head than if you just used plain ol' CO2 or a hand pump.
- sfrench, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2Correction: "a heavily hopped pilsner would be considered a fault"
Not always. This comparison is true for light lagers, but the pilsner style does allow for high hops. - the_snitch, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2dugg for the tui ad. OK beer, great ads.
- macromorgan, on 01/11/2008, -1/+3I didn't think it was possible to Goodwin an article about beer but there... you just did it. Good job.
- SuperCujo, on 01/11/2008, -1/+3Consider that the US uses corn in absolutely everything. Corn syrup is added in place of sugar in most instances in American food products, so it is not too surprising they put corn in beer too.
- crazydonat30, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2OPTIMATOR!!!! its a beer. its good. try it. from germany, since 1392. lol.
- signal15, on 01/11/2008, -1/+3The best beers I've had are Surly Furious (only available in Minneapolis and maybe a couple places in chicago), Bell's Two Hearted, Bell's Expedition Stout, Iron Springs Casey Jones IPA, Death and Taxes, several Rogue ales, Maharaja IPA, Surly Darkness (going for several hundred a bottle on ebay right now, I have one in the fridge that I got at the brewery), and a ton of other stuff that I'm forgetting right now.
I can't choke down Miller/Bud/Coors anymore. I could do it in college, but now it just tastes like really bad water. Ratebeer.com has some good ratings on their site if you're looking for good beer. The ratings are heavily biased towards stouts and other dark beers, but it's usually a good bet that the brewery cranking out good stout also turns out other great beers. - torchednoodle, on 01/11/2008, -0/+2Then stick with your Coors Light and I'll drink my Stone Ruination and we'll both be happy.
- FeartheKnighted, on 01/11/2008, -1/+3Sorry chief, I rejected UF to go to the best aerospace engineering department in Florida. UCF.
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