Name your favourite beer

[jozz]

Mine are:

Affligem Double (brown)

and

La Chouffe

:ch

 

[Deleted member 48]

Happy to add some of my favorite beers.

Karmeliet
Omer
Westmalle tripel
Witkap
Brugse Zot
Chouffe
Leffe
Westvleteren XII
Chimay bleu
Chimay rouge
Duvel

And so many more, this is only a shortlist
shortlist.

 

[geoff45789]

I feel under-qualified to comment on many of the topics on this forum. Not so this one!

Ringwood Fortyniner

 

[Tom]

Probably Corona or Spotted Cow at home. Here there is a boutique craft brewery on every corner so "the local IPA" generally gets my bid.

 

[Waldo]

I'm more of a tequila kinda guy, but when it comes to beer; Newcastle & Carta Blanca (Mex).

 

[Anyanka]

I play for a Morris side; we spend the summer dancing outside pubs and sampling the local beers, so I have exposure to more variety than I can recall. Also, I think it is unkind to have favourites. I've not met many real ales that I did not like; they are all my children.

However, Doombar and Old Speckled Hen come to mind as particularly well-behaved ones.

 

[Corinto]

Oude Gueuze Mort Subite

 

[maugein96]

Duvel
Leffe blonde
Chimay (any label)
Ch'ti
Jenlain
Tomislav (Croatian)
Hajduk (Croatian, brewed in Italy)
Bishop's Finger
Fursty Ferrets
Baltika 7
Alfa(Greek)
Lagunitas
Mahou
Peroni Doppio
Alhambra Reserva 1925
DAB pils

Love trying anything from Belgium, but it's hard to get here in Scotland, and our beer prices are way more expensive than in England. We have a minimum pricing law for alcohol, so there are no cheap deals available (unless we drive over the border into England). Most Scottish beer is far too sweet for my taste, and they keep lowering the alcohol content and/or tampering with the brewing process with some of the better English beers. The Old Speckled Hen referred to by Anyanka was once my absolute favourite of all beers, but they poured gallons of water into it to reduce the alcohol content from 5.2% to 5%, and IMHO spoiled the whole process.

When I lived in Somerset I got a tast for cider, so beer is usually now my second choice. Problem is cider goes down far too easily compared to beer.

 

[debra]

There are two types of beer: the ones with relatively low alcohol to keep you hydrated enough while not making you too drunk to continue playing the accordion, and the ones with high alcohol that you can only drink when your audience is drinking enough as well so they do not notice the deterioration of your playing ability.
1) My favorite beer for drinking while continuing to be able to play reasonably well is "De Koninck" (the Antwerp Pale Ale, and being from Antwerp originally it's no surprise I like that beer, even though it is no longer brewed in Antwerp).
2) My favorite beer type when not performing is a double trappist, essentially any of them as long as not too sour. I actually like "La Trappe" which is one of the dutch trappist beerd. But I also like other abbey beers (not brewed in the abbey and therefore forbidden to be named trappist) like Grimbergen (double) or Leffe (bruin).

General advice: one beer is good to calm your nerves so your performance gets better. For concert play this is a good idea. You need about one beer every two hours to keep going at this level.
Not such great ideas: when the audience keeps up with the drinking you can go to one beer every hour and your play can still be quite good and you will be calm but once you go over the one beer an hour rate the audience needs to get more drunk too.

 

[hais1273]

Without a shadow of a doubt

Adnams Best Bitter ( The nearer to Southwold you can drink it, the better it is)

Timothy Taylor Landlord ( draught not bottled)

Harvey's Old Ale also hit's the spot in the winter.

I don't drink much these days, a miserable encounter with a horrible combination of 'flu, asthma and pneumonia a few years ago, changed my taste buds. Anything over 5% is pretty much unpallatable.

 

[jozz]

My favorite beer for drinking while continuing to be able to play reasonably well is De Koninck

did you perform extensive research on this? :mrgreen:

 

[Geronimo]

My favorite beer for drinking while continuing to be able to play reasonably well is De Koninck

did you perform extensive research on this? :mrgreen:

A Belgian in diaspora? Probably a lot of involuntary research while trying to find what hed be willing to even call beer. Belgium is the only country I know of with traditional beers with a higher alcohol content than wine. And I mean wine, not lemonade and/or vinegar. Youd expect the beer to taste like window cleaner given its alcohol content but the alcohol is thorougly masked by an overpowering taste of slurry.

I dont think this is an acquired taste. I think you have to be born with it.

Im afraid I cannot really contribute all too much here: Im not really into the bitter stuff and, when at home, stick with the dark Bavarian wheat beer from a comparatively minor brewery that had unambiguously won a private tasting contest at a party I held with friends a number of decades ago but thats part nostalgia since not just the brand name but also the taste has changed since then.

 

[debra]

...
A Belgian in diaspora? Probably a lot of involuntary research while trying to find what hed be willing to even call beer. ...

I do adapt to whats available.
In the Netherlands it used to be easy to find De Koninck 20 years ago or so but no more. But it easy to find Palm so I will put up with that but no more than two or I get a headache. (With De Koninck I can keep going all night long...)
In the UK I will happily take a bitter and dont mind calling that beer, and in Ireland Im happy with Guinness or Murphys but will also go for an Irish red. I dont even mind calling a stout beer although the Irish dont. There are places that tell you they dont serve beer, but when you then ask they do serve Guinness...
In Germany I will settle for ein Dunkles (preferably not ein Dunkles Weissen).
I believe that all of these beers I like go well with playing the accordion. (Havent tried the oversees ones because I dont take my accordion oversees, so the bitter, stout and red are currently just speculation. I know the Guinnes we can buy in Belgium or Holland doesnt qualify for playing as it is much stronger than in Ireland.)
In Italy, well..., I havent found anything I like that I would call beer...

 

[maugein96]

Interesting, and very true comments by Paul.

It's funny how attitudes to beer vary from country to country.

Ask most people in the world what "beer" is, and they'll describe a light coloured medium strength brew of the German "lager" type.

In fact in most countries there is simply no other type of local beer readily available.

To those who know anything at all about beer, Belgium is without doubt the beer drinkers' paradise, and IMHO no other country in the world can match Belgium for beer production, especially of the stronger variety. The Dutch and northern French have their own similar styles, but these are less widely known.

Conversely, the UK has a strong tradition of brewing weak beers for working people, and some of those are very passable ales. However, the concept of having to drink 10 or more pints of it before it takes much effect is alien to everybody except we Brits. There do exist a considerable number of "strong ales", up to about 6%, or even more, but most of these take a bit of getting used to, as they usually still serve them in pint (half litre) sized glasses. They are definitely an acquired taste and tend to be consumed by a minority of beer drinkers who would rather drink slowly and appreciate the beer instead of racing to the bottom of the glass.

The Czechs invented pilsner style beer, and nobody has ever matched Pilsner Urquell, which I forgot to put on my list. That's it, nobody can match it. Pilsner Urquell is the pils from Plzen, and there is no substitute.

The Germans make various brews including weissbier (another acquired taste), and various other "pilsner" type lagers, some of which are excellent, but they all have a slightly different character to Urquell. They seem to be promoted and enjoyed in their country of origin, and at one time several of them were freely available in the UK. Sadly that seems to no longer be the case.

The beers in most other European countries are brewed in the German style, and some of them are pretty good. However, a greater number of them are pretty awful and are only appreciated if you are parched on a very hot day.

UK trend is for youngsters to forsake beers in search of illegal substances, "legal highs", and anything else that will do the same job as beer but at a cheaper price. In Scotland our beer and cider prices have hiked recently, at the instigation of our government, who have started an "alcohol war" against kids, and people who are alcohol dependent. This Scandinavian type approach to alcohol apparently works, but will take a few generations to kick in. The upshot of it is that most people totally abstain from alcohol from Sunday to Thursday nights, but on a Friday and Saturday they are completely wasted when the brakes come off.

"Sven, would you care for a beer?"

"What day is it?"

"Wednesday."

"No thanks. I'll wait until Friday and maybe have 10"

No, I'm not joking. I lived there for a while and still have family in Norway.

Norwegian beer? So-so, and too bloody dear at 7 Euros for a 330ml bottle One bottle might be shared among a group of friends, for washing down the awful taste of moonshine vodka, often made from potatoes and sugar, and illegally distilled in the rural areas. Some people flavour it with Arctic berries and other stuff to make it more palatable. However, for as long as the legally available spirits continue to resale at a rough average of 44 Euros per bottle (or Kr 414) in the state run "vinmonopolet" stores (you can't buy it anywhere else), that's the way it is. Friday night is "sputnik" time, with the average alcohol concentration of "sputnik" maybe about 50%. The kids refer to it by that name as it is compared with rocket fuel! They drink it in coffee, mixed with soft drinks, and of course washed down with the odd beer.

 

[Geronimo]

In Germany I will settle for ein Dunkles (preferably not ein Dunkles Weissen).

Aint no such thing. There is ein dunkles Weizen (a dark wheat, wheat being short for wheat beer). Except that in the home country of wheat beer, namely Bavaria, they call it Weißbier (white beer) which becomes sort of absurd in the case of dunkles Weißbier.

Of course Germans also are quite divided over beer. There is the joke of three people in a bar, one from Cologne, one from Düsseldorf, one from Dortmund. The first orders a Kölsch, the second orders an Alt, and the third orders a coke. The others look at him startled. He says: What? If you arent going to drink beer, why should I?

In Italy, well..., I havent found anything I like that I would call beer...

I seem to remember that they had something Tyrolean that sort-of worked. But why bother? They got better choice in wine.

 

[debra]

In Germany I will settle for ein Dunkles (preferably not ein Dunkles Weissen).

Aint no such thing. There is ein dunkles Weizen (a dark wheat, wheat being short for wheat beer). Except that in the home country of wheat beer, namely Bavaria, they call it Weißbier (white beer) which becomes sort of absurd in the case of dunkles Weißbier.
...

You caught me with my poor level of German... I know its wheat beer. In dutch we call it witbier and thats really a misnomer. I prefer not to drink wheat beer because it is made with wheat. I try to avoid wheat as much as possible, because it is over-engineered and contains a very high amount of gluten. (A bit of gluten like in other grain is fine, Im not allergic, but wheat just has too much.)

 

[Geronimo]

In Germany I will settle for ein Dunkles (preferably not ein Dunkles Weissen).

Aint no such thing. There is ein dunkles Weizen (a dark wheat, wheat being short for wheat beer). Except that in the home country of wheat beer, namely Bavaria, they call it Weißbier (white beer) which becomes sort of absurd in the case of dunkles Weißbier.
...

You caught me with my poor level of German... I know its wheat beer. In dutch we call it witbier and thats really a misnomer. I prefer not to drink wheat beer because it is made with wheat. I try to avoid wheat as much as possible, because it is over-engineered and contains a very high amount of gluten. (A bit of gluten like in other grain is fine, Im not allergic, but wheat just has too much.)

In the list of contents, barley may even precede wheat (just checked on my house brand but at least there wheat comes first). At any rate, you might want to try Dinkelbier when you are somewhere where its available. Dinkel is a rather old form of wheat. Its quite often organically grown since its pretty resilient to pests and does not really react a whole lot to fertilization. Basically increasing its less than mediocre yield with modern agricultural technology is not working well enough to bother. Id assume that it has less gluten since using it for bread results in quite a different texture. But its mostly available from local breweries in areas specializing on that kind of grain.

 

[Anyanka]

Wheat beer! I'd forgotten about that. The perfect summer beer - Hefeweizen. :ch

 

[Anyanka]

When I lived in Somerset I got a tast for cider, so beer is usually now my second choice. Problem is cider goes down far too easily compared to beer.

I also find that cider goes THROUGH far too quickly.... cant even finish a pint before feeling the need to dispose of it.

 

[maugein96]

When I lived in Somerset I got a tast for cider, so beer is usually now my second choice. Problem is cider goes down far too easily compared to beer.

I also find that cider goes THROUGH far too quickly.... cant even finish a pint before feeling the need to dispose of it.

Yes, the constitution does require a certain amount of time to get accustomed to that cider rush.

There is a shop in Ledbury in Herefordshire that sells vintage cider about the same strength as table wine, and each variety has a list of suitable dishes that it will best accompany. Try the shop if youre ever in the area. Its OK, you can buy some of the cider in bottles with cork tops!

My favourite cider is Friels from Gloucestershire. At 7.4% it is best drunk slowly, and its a good idea to test your legs every 20 minutes or so, to assess your sobriety. They sell it in mini-kegs, but Ive never had the courage to buy one. I usually have one, maybe two, at the (very) end of an evening.

EDIT:- Just realised I may have interpreted your through from the wrong perspective. If that is in fact the case my comment about bottles with cork tops was inappropriate. I would agree that it does affect other human waste disposal systems in a similar manner. I used to be a plumber and had to cope with both types of waste equally, so the distinction between them was largely irrelevant to us.

I was made redundant whilst I was still an apprentice, but was actually quite glad, as the bricklayers got to lay bricks, but we never got to lay plums!