You Will Drink Good BEER ... And It Will Be Delicious!

[oasisfan35]

This is really cool. If you have a French press, you can use it to add flavors into your beer. You just pour your beer over the ingredients, let it infuse for 3 minutes and then press down the plunger.
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/05/r ... -nibs.html

Here are their suggestions:
[*]Green Flash West Coast IPA with Mangos and Hops

Isn't the brewer supposed to take care of this portion?

[stompbox]

This is really cool. If you have a French press, you can use it to add flavors into your beer. You just pour your beer over the ingredients, let it infuse for 3 minutes and then press down the plunger.
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/05/r ... -nibs.html

Here are their suggestions:
[*]Green Flash West Coast IPA with Mangos and Hops

Isn't the brewer supposed to take care of this portion?

Fresh hopping beer is a great experiment. Hops fade over time so the fresher you can get a dry hop, the better. Places do this all the time in casks or running it through a Randall.

Here is a home test that was done: http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dr ... t.html?m=1

[oasisfan35]

This is really cool. If you have a French press, you can use it to add flavors into your beer. You just pour your beer over the ingredients, let it infuse for 3 minutes and then press down the plunger.
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/05/r ... -nibs.html

Here are their suggestions:
[*]Green Flash West Coast IPA with Mangos and Hops

Isn't the brewer supposed to take care of this portion?

Fresh hopping beer is a great experiment. Hops fade over time so the fresher you can get a dry hop, the better. Places do this all the time in casks or running it through a Randall.

Here is a home test that was done: http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dr ... t.html?m=1

I was being facetious but that's certainly an interesting experiment. Dunno if I could bring myself to drinking BL but interesting nonetheless.

[B]

22 Brewery collaboration:

[vegman]

I drank more than a few Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefe's this weekend. I was never a huge fan of this beer but it has either improved or my tastes have changed because they were delicious! Nice to be drinking the summer brews again.

[B]

Likin'




Not Likin'

[RussellManiac12]

I drank more than a few Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefe's this weekend. I was never a huge fan of this beer but it has either improved or my tastes have changed because they were delicious! Nice to be drinking the summer brews again.

One of my favorite beers but it's so inconsistent out of the bottle. Sometimes I get it and it's the best beer ever (the bavarian style hef is probably my favorite beer style), other times and i get it and it's just average.

[oasisfan35]

Peak Organic has never been a particularly good brewery.

Running through my Mystery Box delivery, all from TX. Some nice brews, nothing amazing but solid selections. Amazingly I've enjoyed the hefe the most, which is definitely not my go-to style at all.

[B]

Peak Organic has never been a particularly good brewery.

Where are they at?

[oasisfan35]

Peak Organic has never been a particularly good brewery.

Where are they at?

Portland Maine, though I believe Shipyard does most of their brewing and their distribution is pretty far for a small brewer so they probably have to use a bigger name for that type of exposure..

[BDB]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/beer-cans ... 07911.html

..Beer Cans Make a Comeback
Canned beer is so retro cool, the big brands want in

By Charles Passy | MarketWatch – 8 hours ago



Defying the age-old edict that says beer in bottles is the more flavorful way to go, beer makers large and small are increasingly turning to the canning method — to the point that canned beer has acquired something of a retro-chic status. Craft breweries — from Oskar Blues to Sierra Nevada — have been touting the humble aluminum container, going back several years in some instances. But major brands have also jumped on the bandwagon of late. Just this past month, Anheuser-Busch (BUD) has unveiled a style-conscious 11.3-ounce “bowtie” can — it tapers inward at the middle — for its popular Budweiser brand (the traditional 12-ounce Budweiser can will also continue to be offered). MillerCoors has a commemorative series of Miller High Life cans coming out this summer that pay homage to Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

And perhaps most significant, Samuel Adams (SAM) has introduced what it bills as the “Sam can,” a container that’s designed with such features as a larger opening and an extended lip — all of which are intended to bring out the beer’s full flavor. The move is creating buzz in the industry not only because of the time and investment involved — the Sam can took two years and $1 million-plus in research and development to create — but also because brewery founder Jim Koch had previously balked at the idea of going the canned route, despite pressure from the craft brewery’s many fans. (Sam Adams beers will also continue to be available in bottles.)

“For 20 years, people have asked me, ‘When can I get Sam Adams in a can?” Koch says.

Now, the addition of Sam Adams to the canning table has the potential to make a hot trend even hotter. Granted, cans have always edged out bottles in the broader market — largely because they’re a more portable, convenient packaging for beer distributors and consumers alike. But in recent years, their popularity has grown, according to figures provided by the Beer Institute, a trade group. As of 2012, cans constituted 53.2% of the beer market while bottles had a 36.5% share — a fairly significant gap. By contrast, in 2006, the two packagings were much closer in popularity — cans accounted for 48.3% of the market and bottles 41.9%. (Draft beer largely accounts for the rest of brew sales.)

Bars and retailers are also seeing the surge. Whole Foods says its sales of canned beer increased by 30% in the past year. “I think beer in a can is overcoming its stigma of being somehow inferior,” says Doug Bell, the chain’s national wine and beer buyer.

Certain advantages of cans are obvious, including their aforementioned convenience — meaning they’re lightweight, quick to chill and easy to recycle. (It also helps that they can’t shatter and leave a trail of shards.)

But cans have suffered from the notion that they impart a metallic taste to beer. Still, as Sam Adams’s Koch points out, advances in can manufacturing — specifically, in the microthin liners that separate the liquid from the metallic casing — have pretty much eliminated that issue. In turn, that gave the company a comfort level when it came to its pursuit of crafting a better beer can. Koch is so pleased with the innovations in the Sam can that he’s offered to make the packaging available to other craft brewers at no cost — admittedly, it’s something of a self-promotional gesture, but Koch insists it’s to spread the idea that canned beer can be good beer.

But some might say that Sam Adams, which is owned by Boston Beer Co., is a little late to the game. By most measures, Oskar Blues Brewery, a Colorado-based beermaker that’s best known for its Dale’s Pale Ale brand, was the first to seize on the canning idea in the craft marketplace about a decade ago. The company says it was initially skeptical when it received a cold call from a canning company. But it changed its mind when it saw that improved canning materials and technology meant no issues with metallic taste. If anything, the company came to understand that canning actually offers taste advantages. That’s because even the darkest bottle lets in more light than a can — and light can be a key contributing factor in a chemical process that results in a beer developing a “skunky” flavor.

Beer cans also have a certain nostalgic appeal — that retro-chic factor, in other words. That sound of a beer can being opened, saysOskar Blues spokesman Chad Melis, is one we “associate with good times and that sense of community.”

It’s the same idea that those in the beer industry say has propelled canned Pabst Blue Ribbon to its current place in the pantheon of hipster icons. And it’s also contributed to a canned-beer-gone-mod culture that encompasses everything from websites (check out CraftCans.com) to festivals. Witness CanFest, an annual showcase in Reno, Nev., that touts the “greatness of canned beer.” The fifth edition is set for this August, and the event can’t come soon enough for Andrew Heilman,a Reno-based marketing professional who’s attended every previous CanFest and says he enjoys canned beer over bottles for plenty of reasons — taste included.

“I’d hardly consider myself a beer connoisseur, but quality certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue,” he says.

[oasisfan35]

New England Brewing Co. cans for 95% of their offerings and I've never had a hint of metallic essence in a can pour. In fact, I'm more apt to taste a metallic tinge after popping a cap from a bottle and indulging immediately than crackin' a can and having at it. With the arguments about light no longer being an issue and easier recycle-ability I'm all for it, though I never felt the stigma of the dastardly can.

I'll add, the 5% that NEBCo doesn't can are limited offerings, often 500/750 ml, with a new artsy label and wax over the cap.

And further, after packing up my latest beer-go-round, is anyone else interested in a trade or multi-person venture?

[vegman]

I drank more than a few Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefe's this weekend. I was never a huge fan of this beer but it has either improved or my tastes have changed because they were delicious! Nice to be drinking the summer brews again.

One of my favorite beers but it's so inconsistent out of the bottle. Sometimes I get it and it's the best beer ever (the bavarian style hef is probably my favorite beer style), other times and i get it and it's just average.

Do you do the swirl with the bottom third of the bottle?

[E.H. Ruddock]

Cans are really taking off here. You can't have glass on the beach, and people still like to take good beer to the beach. Two popular local breweries, New South and Westbrook, only offer cans. I now see blue moon, leinenkugel, sam adams, shock top, woodchuck to name a few in cans.

[vegman]

Me and a few buds did a can vs. bottle taste test with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale last summer and all four of us thought the can actually tasted fresher. Of course we were drunk but hey.

[RussellManiac12]

I drank more than a few Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefe's this weekend. I was never a huge fan of this beer but it has either improved or my tastes have changed because they were delicious! Nice to be drinking the summer brews again.

One of my favorite beers but it's so inconsistent out of the bottle. Sometimes I get it and it's the best beer ever (the bavarian style hef is probably my favorite beer style), other times and i get it and it's just average.

Do you do the swirl with the bottom third of the bottle?

If I pour it into a glass, yes.

Sometimes I drink it from the bottle, and will swirl it occasionally.

[RussellManiac12]

Me and a few buds did a can vs. bottle taste test with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale last summer and all four of us thought the can actually tasted fresher. Of course we were drunk but hey.

I had the Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA can and thought it was much better than out of the bottle.

[dkfan9]

21st amendment is all cans as far as ive seen. ive never noticed any taste issues. (though, for cheap beers the bottle is almost always better) but yuengling out of the can is a big step down from the bottle (PBR too).

[Orpheus]

I am a huge supporter of canned beer, it always tastes so fresh.

[Soma.]

It tastes nowhere near as good. But it chills way faster and makes recycling a breeze.