More proof of tasteless American beers

[Solly]

What the hell is Belgian Ale?

[chequita guevara]

I've never had a decent Canadian beer.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
I hate to break it to the Anglo-Canadians that Quebecois make the finest beers in Canada. Unibroue, in my opinion, makes the finest beer in Canada. Anyone who has had La Fin du Monde or Trois Pistoles would agree...

Fin du la Monde is a very good ale but it tends to have an over poweringly strong alcohol taste. 11% ABV packs alot of punch in a beer though.

[Solly]

"11% ABV packs alot of punch in a beer though."

Yeah

9% knocks my head off..only four tins of that do the trick

[Dinner]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
So why doesn't a large american brewery start brewing something with a bit more taste. It doesn't have to be a world-class beer; just a little bit more flavourful than water...

Have you never heard of Samual Adams, Pete's Wicked Ale, or Sierra Nevada? They are all fairly large breweries which sell nation wide and offer very good tasting beer.

Me thinks you simply have no idea what you are talking about.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
"11% ABV packs alot of punch in a beer though."

Yeah

9% knocks my head off..only four tins of that do the trick

I've had a few Scottish style Barley wines which have an even higher ABV.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
IIRC, Belgium is the country with the highest number of different beers.

On a per capita bases maybe. If you believe Steve Jackson though (he's the British author/Journalist who specializes in the beer industry and who is widely seen as an expert) the US has four times as many breweries as the next closest country, Germany.

[Mr. Harley]

Coor's Belgian Ale is nice. It is a very pale beer, with a pleasing tangy taste. It a macro-distributed micro-brew. I avoided beer into my mid-thirties, I though all beer either tasted like American mass market beers or Guiness, which uses way too much roasted barley for my taste. The brewing club I joined totally changed my world view. (I had to quit when my schedule changed, no drinking within 12 hours). I discovered I like dark beers that get their opacity due to the amount of barley used versus roasting of the same, and that I am quite persnickety about the hops that are used.

I'm not fond of Sam Adam's, their choice in hops is a relatively common mix whose flavor I don't paticularly like. However, the Imperial Russian Stout mentioned earlier is excellent, as is Goose Island (Chicago micro-rewery) Oatmeal Stout, which is excellent and typically prices around $1/bottle. A New York microbrewery, Saranac, make a decent Black & Tan - mixed Stout and ale of some sort. We had an awesome microbrewery locally that went out of business, they made an awesome Dopple Bock that was around 10% alchohol, which they served with excellent cajun food. Damn, I miss that stuff.

[Solly]

What the hell is a Belgian Ale???

[Timexwatch]

It's hard to pin down exactly what a Belgian Ale is in words, I'd have to tell you some beers for you to approximate it.

Here's a good site that lists all the kinds of beers by type for you perusal.

As for the Quebecois stuff, I've downed a few of the high ABV stuff and then got hit hard by the alcohol. I've never really felt that they tasted too much like alcohol.

Another beer that I like intensely is Sam Smith's, especially the Oatmeal Stout, but it's a luxury for $3.00 a bottle (~1.5 pints) with tax. It's a nice, thick and tastes like oatmeal, chocolate and a few other spices. One of the best stouts I've ever had

[Dinner]

I couldn't agree more about the use of chocolate toasted barley. It tends to give a burnt flavor to the beer which I don't like while adding more barley gets the desired effect without the burnt taste. The problem is it costs more so most commercial breweries will just burn the stuff and call it a day.

[Mr. Harley]

Oerdin, I picked up some beer making kits, haven't gotten around to using them. Iis there any way to ship that over to you, maybe putting them in different containers. Obviously for off duty use (and I'm deadly serious) but hell, the Brits ruled the waves with a grog ration. You'll also have to safely improvise the brewing vessels. BTW, why do they call it Chocolate Toasted. I avoided the term for simplicity, but is it due to the color it changes to? Why not call it roasted and be done with it?

[monolith94]

I work in a supermarket in New Hampshire. We get alot of Canadian vacationers.

They tend to buy the American beers most of the time.

It's worth noting that they do tend to buy healthier food.

Also, it's amazing the sheer volume of beer that passes through our doors. I never realized... This is indeed a job that has educated me.

Must resist temptation to say "have a nice heart attack" instead of "have a nice day" as person walks out with the sixteen pints of ice cream.

[Dinner]

That's a nice thought but they open up boxes to check for contraban. The CG has issued a general order against the consumption of alcohol and possessing the ingredients to make alcohol.

[chequita guevara]

I did?