Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

Just returned from a trip to the US, and I had a suitcase full of these to bring back to Deutschland.



Spent an entire day driving through New England buying beer. It was nice, included a nice stop for lunch at Prohibition Pig in Waterbury, VT. I've been slowly (okay, not so slowly) whittling my way through my stash, not much more than this remains.

All amazing - I had never had Tree House or Trillium before. Worthy of the hype, in my opinion.

 

As a New Englander I'm very curious to hear your thoughts (and rankings) of each from a German perspective.

I've had Sip of Sunshine, Heady Topper, and multiple hoppy beers from Trillium (not sure if I've had Vicinity though) since they're a quick bus ride from me.

I have yet to try any beers from Treehouse, but I may make the drive out there soon. They're about 75 miles west of Boston.

 

I'm actually an American, so probably not the view point you are looking for. I've shared Heady before with a local brewer here, and his response was "Wow!". I'll be sharing some Treehouse, Sip of Sunshine, and Heady with him again likely later this week.

For me, it's hard to beat Sip of Sunshine, by a large margin. To the point that I'd rather not drink Heady immediately after Sip of Sunshine, because it really makes it taste not nearly as good. All good beers though!

 

I'm a big fan of the "cloudy IPA" thing...at least from a taste/smell point of view. They convey a citrus character and softened bitterness that's more in-line with my personal tastes than the bitter bombs from California and New Mexico.
They aren't much to look at, though.

 

I really enjoy Heady, when I come across it. As for SoS, I wasn't overly impressed, to be honest... It was good, but not "blow me away" good. Anyhow, back to our original programming...

;-)

Prosit!

 

Think I deleted the pic, sadly, but I got to try a bottle of Russian River's STS Pils. Kinda cool to see one of the world's most famous brewers of hoppy ales pay heed to lagers. (And, FWIW, STS has won silver and gold @ GABF over the last two years respectively). It's unfiltered, though, and I actually saw a couple of floaters in the beer, which just didn't jive with my soft spot for brilliantly clear pilsners (especially after just having a Weihenstephaner a few days previous, which was clear as crystal). Still, pretty nice whiff of pils malt on opening, along with some floral + spicy notes. Palate had pretty legit bitterness, similar hop notes to the nose. Taste was generally "on" for a pils, if maybe lacking a little more malt character and maybe (as a result?) coming off just a touch hollow. Still, cool experience to try their take on a pils (especially as I'm a huge fan of their hoppy ales and sours).

 

I had the opportunity to drink a Stone Pilsner at the National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego this past June. The Stone Pilsner was a high quality Pilsner.

Cheers!

 

So the local grocery had SN on a "small" sale and I noticed that they had Summerfest and Oktoberfest languishing on their shelves and decided that, since I'd not re-stocked in a while, was worth a couple 12 packs in the stores. Both are still tasting pretty good and are beers I'd love to have available year-round. Maybe I ought to buy up what I see and stock the garage until Spring!

 

Another attempt to jump-start the forum...

Been seeing Summit Pilsner more often in my area, so I decided to grab some for a Friday afternoon.

I reviewed this a while back and thought it closer to a German than Czech Pils, but I have to admit that I'm finding it sort of in-between the 2 styles.

Some nice grainy malts without being too harsh. Good spicy and floral hops in the nose with the spiciness carrying over to the flavor. The body seemed a little thing on my first can (yes, Summit is canning now), but I see this beer follows Urquell's lead with a sub-five ABV -- 4.5, to be precise. Extra added bonus in my book. The body is thin, but the flavor is big. Need to update my review soon.

 

Uh, that would be thin...

Funny how your fingers automatically fill in letters...

 

Drinking the last of my SN Oktoberfest -- in my newly acquired SN/Brauhaus Riegele Okto, half liter, dimpled Krug!

I see the start of a new collection blooming!

To those of you who don't think a beer can taste better in the right vessel, you're wrong.

 

I took a few, but I have to subscribe to a new image upload site -- my last one is playing games. Stay tuned.

 

Let's try this...

Pretty, huh?

 

Only better if that glass was a Maß....

I like that Ofest also... well made...

Prosit!!

 

Eh -- kinda' nice having a handy half liter. Not one for taking down a full Maß in a sitting these days.

 

http://coolmaterial.com/feature/german-beer-style-guide/

 

Um. Yah.

Sshhhh... good think they didn't say anything about Bock (of any sort), we wanna keep them to ourselves!

 

I finally found some SN Fall variety packs a couple weeks ago and picked one up. Having the last of the Vienna Lagers: bottled 7/15/15. Might be thinning in character some, but it still matches my review from last year.

While I think there are some better to-style Ami takes on Vienna, I sure can't complain that SN is brewing one of their own and making it their own. I mentioned in my review that I've tasted other beers that are using the Mandarina hop, but it seems (to my palate) that SN has found a great balance for it with some sweetish malts. Then again, SN has been mastering hop usage for decades!