Certainly the better of the two Bahama brews I've had, with the other being Lucyan Lager.
While visiting Freeport last year, my wife and i decided to go visit the Lucyan brewery. I had found a listing somewhere that tours were at noon. We found the brewery in a rather unpleasant looking industrial-type area. We park and head inside into an empty office area. I yell out "Hello?". A few seconds later a guy walks around the corner with a plastic cup half-full of beer in one hand, and a machete in the other wanting to know what we wanted. He was a bit confused when I I told him we were there for the tour. Luckily the brewmaster (a nice Canadian guy) appeared at that moment. He gave us a tour of the two room brewhouse (complete with a brick insulated tank), before serving up some samples. By serving up some samples, I mean hooking up a tube to the bottom of one of the tanks and filling up some plastic cups for several rounds of drinks with him and his two workers. All in all, it turned out to be a good experience.
A lot of great suggestions here. One beer I love is Otter Creek (VT) Copper Ale. They have a nice Octoberfest out now as well...
The Gordog
A friend of mine from Boston U introduced me to an interesting seasonal combination a few years back. He mixed equal parts Ciderjack & a Sam Adams winter seasonal brew that was somewhat 'spicy,' (for the life of me, I don't recall what it was!) and it tasted like an alcoholic apple pie!
Definitely wasn't something you'd drink on a regular basis, but in the basement of the DC Brickskellar on a cold night, it hit the right note.
Okay, I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Fat Tire. It's fine, but IMO most brew pubs will have better offerings. And as far as beer that I can get at the local supermarket, I prefer Anderson Valley Brewing Company's Boont Amber Ale. I'm not sure how widely available this is outside of California, but if anyone gets a chance to try it, I highly recommend it (and most other offerings from Anderson Valley).
Wow, this thread is very idiosyncratic. At the risk of seeming pedestrian, I'll vote for
Fuller's ESB
Sam Smith's Nut Brown
Guinness
Smithwick's
most anything Trappist, maybe Chimay
Bass
Newcastle Brown
most anything Sam Adams
local amber ales, whatever they be
And I much prefer draught to bottles.
Agreed with the Duck Rabbit brewery. They make some rather pedestrian ales(amber, milk stout and 1 or 2 more). I think their strength lies in their seasonal ales. Their barley wine hits about 11% but is very smooth and drinkable despite the hight octane. Some barley wines are extremely bitter(see Bigfoot) when they are released but age nicely and are smoother 1-2 or even 3-5 years later. Duck Rabbit has also brewed a Baltic Porter and an Imperial Stout which are fine. Their current seasonal is a Scotch Ale and is similar to Tasgall but perhaps not quite as smooth and toffee-like compared to Sam Adams.
Oops-forgot about this brewery. An excellent selection of beers from their Amber to their Oatmeal Stout and their IPA. I think they also brew some Belgian styles-Dubbel/Double, and Trippel/Triple and they have 'Brothers' in their names. DevilAlumna or someone else mentioned Ommegang and there is a picture in this thread also. This is a brewery in Cooperstown, NY which is owned, I think, my Moortgat(sp?) who makes Duvel(the Devil-now why would any one here NOT be interested in THAT Belgian ale. Excellent representations of several Belgian styles at about 1/2 the cost.
About a year ago I figured out that if I cut gluten out of my diet I was a lot less sick--Beer with its malted barley is now off my list of edibles/consummables.
Right now, I'm left with two beers New Grist and Red Bridge which are both brewed without barley. New Grist reminds me of the Beligian beers I had when I visited, but really folk--this was a hard thread to read through.
Still, I'm glad to hear of people enjoying the goodness out there. Drink on!
Victory Brewing company, Downingtown, PA.
Dogfishhead Brewery, Lewes DE.
Kalamazoo Brewing company/Bells's ales, Kalamazoo, MI
New Glarus Brewing company, New Glarus, WI
Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR
Look up some of their offerings on their web sites and post you tastings here. There are many other fine small breweries and the number is growing. It seems that more and more are opening and staying open as the craft brewing industry is growing at about 10-12%/year. Gotta go-think it will be a Trois Pistoles night
Check out my dilemma at Blueberry Hill's draught Saturday night in U-City:
New Belgium 1554 Black Ale
New Belgium Fat Tire
New Belgium Seasonal Tap
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Schlafly Hefeweizen
Schlafly Pale Ale
Schlafly Seasonal Tap
Which one of these ... is not like the other?!?!?!!
Assuming I get some New Belgium at Schnuck's, what should I get on draught?
Cheers,
Lavabe
Here are some excellent beers from my side of the World:
San Miguel (Philippines)
Asahi Super Dry (Japan)
Singha (Thailand)
Tiger (Singapore)
Victoria Bitter (Australia)
And one of my favorite beer drinking cities is Hong Kong. Typically, you can find the beers listed above in the many fine pubs of Hong Kong (and some seedy bars as well, not that I'm admitting to ever having been in seedy Hong Kong bars).
Bob Green
We wound up not staying at B Hill, as the wait on a SatNight was over an hour. We wound up eating in the Central West End ... I had a very nice Schlafly Oktoberfest brew with my stuffed grape leaves.
As for the brew selection I brought home:
New Belgium Fat Tire
New Belgium 1554 Black Ale
Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
Schlafly American Pale Ale
Schlafly Pale Ale
Schlafly No. 15 (amber)
I passed on bringing home the Hefweizen and the Coffee Stout. I did, however, bring home their seasonal special brew ... their pumpkin ale.
I'm not usually into pumpkin ale, but I'll give it a try with Schlafly.
And the trunk stink was gone, so all brews are in good shape cooling off in the basement.
Cheers,
Lavabe