Your biggest epiphany in craft beer

My epiphany recently was that if I die, who the hell is going to drink all of this beer I have?!

 

My epiphany occurred, not when trying something avant garde, but something very traditional. It was in Salzburg, Austria at the Augustiner Braustubl. I had been "into craft beer" for some years, always searching for the next "big thing"-- the hoppiest DIPA or the biggest baddest imperial stout... When I learned that Augustiner "only served one beer" and that it was "just" a Marzen, I admit I was disappointed. However, one visit there changed everything. That "one beer" was served in a liter mug that you rinsed in a water fountain before handing it over to be filled directly from the barrel. A great beer for sure--served at the perfect temperature, it was the freshest-tasting beer I've ever had. But what really made it a sublime experience was seeing how this "one beer" brought hundreds of people together. What I saw that evening was Old World beer culture in practice. Beer should be consumed locally (at the source, if possible) along with great food and in the company of friends and family. That "one beer" taught me to truly respect beer and it's traditions. This is not just a European sentiment--we can cultivate this at home in America too. Some time later when I visited New Glarus Brewing and saw their slogan "Drink Indigenous"-- I said to myself, "yep these guys really know what beer is all about"

 

DFH Worldwide Stout and 120 minute disagree with this statement. (But in general, I agree.)

 

Surly Furious for me. I had it on tap at Maynards Restaurant some years ago and I was like whaaaaaaaaaaa.......?

 

berliner weisse's opened my eyes to the fact that something with a ridiculously low abv could be ridiculously tasty

 

When I popped the cap on my first Ruination and realized that after twenty-five years, I'd finally found something that came close to the glorious smell of the good herb.

 

I had an epiphany tonite that I love beers with big ol' chunks of sediment in them. Just had st. Bern prior 8. Awesome. Getting into the imported greats cuz my state ran out of domestics for me to try. But long long time ago I lived elsewhere and has fantastic revelations like stone makes good IPAs and buying mixer Sixers is a waste of time cuz they don't put out them goodies. And that Founders brewery is amazing. I just miss Michigan beer...

 

PtE
PtY
Alpine's Bad Boy
The Abyss
BCBS Rare
Supplication
BOIS
Celebration Ale

 

Same with Racer 5

 

1. Beer is good.

2. Hops are good.

3. I don't need every rare beer just because everyone else wants it.

 

First time I tried 2 hearted I just wasn't use to that degree of hoppyness and I thought it tasted like perfume. Then I tried Stone IPA and I thought it was balanced just enough to get me into trying more IPAs. I don't have many problems with over hopped beers anymore, expect the occasional triple IPA but those are rare anyways.

 

Haha, I just had a first batch Parabola, and a couple aged BCBS, that informed me that this above sentence needs to be revised to, "Many beers do not benefit from aging, some actually get worse, but the few that do get better are so stupendously delicious it makes the time and effort spent in obtaining them, and not drinking them along the way, fully worthwhile."

'Course, that's all opinion

 

This reminds me of many of my wine "collecting" friends that end up with 10 year old chardonnay and sauvignon blanc that's turning brown. As related to another post in the forum, beer is really becoming like wine. I agree with you that beer is meant to be drunk NOW. Well, except for JW Lees, you know, and others.

 

it didn't take me long to realize that whales are whales b/c they are rare, not b/c they are exceptional tasting. though some are both