Best belgian beer

[Tuberski]

But you can't choose more than one, it's not a multiple choice poll.

ACK!

[N35t0r]

Choose them in your heart

[dannubis]

But you can't choose more than one, it's not a multiple choice poll.

ACK!

Just don't ever say this in a pub...

[Sava]

Beer elitism is hilarious. Don't get me wrong, I like beer. The only analogy I could make about this is if there was some sort of gourmet fast food culture. Beer is the fast food of alcohol.

Sure, crafting it is an art and a science. There is definitely bad beer... anything dark, for that matter. Guiness in particular is just gross. Bocks are ****ing disgusting. But the difference between "good" beer and the commercially available, mass produced American stuff isn't that significant enough to warrant all the love beer elitists give.

[Dinner]

What I like about Westvleteren (other than that the beer is so god damned good) is that they've retained the tradition going back to the middle ages of having actual monks brewing their beer using ingredients grown on the monastery's estate. Chemay and all the others have contracted out production to brewing companies and have gone mass market while Westvleteren only produces what the monks make with their own hands. The stuff is kind of legendary in the beer community as it is so hard to get (most of their beer they sell on the steps of the monastery itself) but I know a bottle shop which does a, not entirely legal, informal bottle exchange program with other specialty beer stores around the world. He'll mail some of the hard to get outside of California beers to one of those shops and the other shop will mail back specialty stuff which is hard to get in California. He then keeps his stash of special products in the back which he offers, at a hefty mark up, for regulars.

Alternatively you could buy it online from the monastery but their website says US Customs has been holding up shipments and sometimes even seizing them for failure to pay the tiny beer tax. I'd be willing to bet the Customs people just want the beer for themselves.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The only analogy I could make about this is if there was some sort of gourmet fast food culture.

There is gourmet fast food culture. What do you think all the fancy burger stuff is about?

Besides, good beer is far better than average beer and usually doesn't cost all that much more. Haven't had a Bud, Miller, or Coors in years and I ain't missing them.

[Dinner]

http://121212xii.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/hello-world/

Actually it appears there are two shops in the city which carry it.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/entertainment/the-scene/Westvleteren-12-belgian-beer-san-diego-183428001.html

It was such big news one of the local news stations even ran an article on it when they started importing it last December.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/westvleteren-xii-world-best-beer_n_2292576.html

Apparently it is a one time thing though and when they're gone they're gone forever.

http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs/Food-and-Drink/Summer-Fall-2011/Beer-of-the-Week-Trappist-Westvleteren-12/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/monks-who-make-worlds-best-beer-pray-for-quiet-life-502172.html

Oh, and the NYT named Westvleteren the "Best Beer in the World" for 2012. It's pretty much as top shelf as a beer gets.

[Dinner]

There is gourmet fast food culture. What do you think all the fancy burger stuff is about?

Besides, good beer is far better than average beer and usually doesn't cost all that much more. Haven't had a Bud, Miller, or Coors in years and I ain't missing them.

I'd thank that post if I could.

[MOBIUS]

Beer elitism is hilarious. Don't get me wrong, I like beer. The only analogy I could make about this is if there was some sort of gourmet fast food culture. Beer is the fast food of alcohol.

Sure, crafting it is an art and a science. There is definitely bad beer... anything dark, for that matter. Guiness in particular is just gross. Bocks are ****ing disgusting. But the difference between "good" beer and the commercially available, mass produced American stuff isn't that significant enough to warrant all the love beer elitists give.

Sava, the self-appointed redneck of beers!

[Sava]

There is gourmet fast food culture. What do you think all the fancy burger stuff is about?

I know this. And it is equally as silly.

Besides, good beer is far better than average beer and usually doesn't cost all that much more. Haven't had a Bud, Miller, or Coors in years and I ain't missing them.

I've not had any of those three in years either. But I'm not about to pretend that what I like is on a pedestal so far above those.

[Sava]

Sava, the self-appointed redneck of beers!

One would think the rednecks are the ones aggrandizing a very low-brow beverage. But whatever. At least try to make your insults sensible.

[Dinner]

But it is. Try a great beer and you'll never want to drink an average beer ever again much less mass market swill like Bud.

[Sava]

But it is. Try a great beer and you'll never want to drink an average beer ever again much less mass market swill like Bud.

Given a blind taste test, I doubt most people (including you, me and everyone in this thread) could distinguish between what you consider "great" beer and the kind of stuff commercially available that beer elitist would say is average... except for the Buds and Millers... which I would agree are crappy.

There is a science to human taste. That's why junk food does so well. People that claim to have these developed palates are fooling themselves.

[Dinner]

Oh, you're wrong. You are so wrong. Just try a Chemay vs say one of the fake craft beers made by the big three breweries (Killian's Irish Red comes to mind). If you can't tell the difference then you have no taste buds. It's like night and day and they're completely different products. Hell, even take a mass market but great beer like Russian River's Pliny the Elder and compare it to other beers of the same Double IPA style and you can instantly taste the difference.

[Dinner]

You mentioned that you don't like Guinness, which I don't blame you as it has had its recipe changed numerous times to remove all character from the beer, but go ahead and compare it to other stouts like an AleSmith Speedway Stout. You will instantly taste the difference and not in any subtle way. One is bland and nonoffensive while the other is full of character.