Beer!

"Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world." - Jack Nicholson

Everyone have opinion about beer right? Some love it, some dont. Some drink it everyday, some never, some only weekends, some to get shitfaced, some to forget about their shitty life, some with food or after work and us Finns especially after a sauna!  
My choice of alcohol have pretty much always been beer. As Im getting older I dont always cant/want to get just drunk (but of course do that many times still. But not that many...dont ask my girlfriends opinion on this...  ) and with beer culture and smaller breweries growing in Finland (and all over the world) its also very fun to get some new experiences/tastes, maybe mix beer with food like many do with wine. Even drink a beer after running (most of the times non-alcoholic), because what ive read its much better recoverydrink than those sportdrinks or whatever. If you can stay with that only one or two beers. The stereotype Finnish male cant do that. He gets 12 of those and then gets his frozen vodkabottle from the snow, goes back to the 120celsius sauna, gets an axe and fights everything that moves especially his family. Hopefully that stereotype that is going away someday so they dont ban the fucking thing (again)! And Finland isn't even Top10 alcohol drinkers in Europe, but somehow we have a reputation. Maybe we are just the worst alcohol drinkers on Earth   . Or best. It depends how you look it. But lets try to forget politics etc. and stick to point (whatever that point is?)

Its a shame that Finnish beers hadnt make it to the world almost at all so, maybe its pretty pointless to me name my favorites from them. But theres still couple beers somewhere. Maybe the 'easiest' and best to find (at least in America, maybe Europe also) Finnish beer you can find is a beer called "Koff Porter" (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/sinebrychoff-koff-porter/7231/). If you like Porters or little bit more darker and stronger beers. Go for it!
And then if you want just something basic like your Budweiser/Heineken/Becks/Stella/whatever pretty tasteless pale lager (but good get drunk with or after sauna, workout etc.) go for "Lapin Kulta"(http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/lapin-kulta-iii/4700/). I saw some bottles in Berlin in some specialbeershop, but you dont miss that much if you stay with Becks or Berliner Pils. But that "Koff Porter" is a different thing.

Handfull of my favorite beers on the top of my head:
BrewDog Cocoa Psycho (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brewdog-cocoa-psycho/194513/)
Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mikkeller-beer-geek-breakfast/53853/)
Plevnan Siperia Imperial Stout (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/plevnan-siperia-imperial-stout/53188/)(I lied, of course I had to throw some Finnish beer   )
Pilsner Urquell (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/pilsner-urquell/717/)
Pauwel Kwak (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/pauwel-kwak/3658/)
BrewDog Punk IPA: (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brewdog-punk-ipa-56/135361/

And my newest favorite and possibly best American beer that ive tasted:
Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA: (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/widmer-brothers-pitch-black-ipa/109069/). If you like for example Brewdogs Liberte Ale, try this.

I dont know if my opening sounds very "beergeekish", but whatever. Discuss what you like. Beer is beer.

My buddy found some Koff Porter last year and brought it in to work, pretty good stuff.

Good to see you like the Brew Dogs dude, they make awesome beer.

My top 5 (not in order, too hard to play favorites...)

Innes & Gunn (pretty much anything they do is amazing, Scottish barrel aged ales)
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Double IPA (American, bad-ass)
Feral Hop-Hog (it's made in my home city, not sure how easy it is to find overseas but it won best Australian beer three years running)
Wired Hopwired (New Zealand IPA)
Epic Hop Zombie (New Zealand IPA)

And anything by Rogue is great, we just got a bunch of their GYO beers in at work...

(so glad there's another Beer Snob here...)

Brewdog is awesome. Theyve come more and more available here. This summer here opens even a BrewDog Pub in Helsinki. I was once in London(Camden) and it was cool.
Cant remember right now if I have drink anymore than Fosters (  ) from Australia or New Zealand. I have a feeling that something, but just cant remember. Rogue sounds very familiar. Should check them out.

(me too glad)



EDIT: everybody likes Sierra Nevada ive only tasted the IPA from them and wasnt that impressed. they are pretty rare here also

Yeah foster's isn't our best work sadly. Although no-one actually drinks it here, it's all exported, which is kinda weird. New Zealand probably makes better beer than we do, but there are a few cool things coming out of Australia now

Yeah thats what I've heard. Fosters is not awful beer, but pretty way down on the list or something. But then again I'll drink Fosters any day of the week over Polish beers like Zyviec or Tysk ...

Unibroue makes some pretty fantastic beers. I don't know whether Finland/Australia have the craft selection like here in the US but in my opinion you can't go wrong with any trappist or Belgian inspired beers. There are so many awesome craft brewers here in the US that any beer you can imagine you can more than likely find without any problem.

Well, USA is in that sense great beercountry that they dont have any traditions with beer, like for excample Belgium or Germany, that they "have" to obey. They can do whatever they want. I havent yet find that many American beers that I would put in my top20 or something. But it was great when I traveled there last fall with my friend (Chicago and Minneapolis). Almost in every bar where we went there was at least 5 tap beers that we hadnt heard. Found many good beers, but nothing spectacular. Most of them I have forgot. Should have propably took some notes, but then again if Id had found something really good I would have remembered it. And within 2weeks you get pretty tired of beers taste after all so everything taste the same or you just want something familiar or just dont want to drink at all. Except maybe redwine. The irony is that I found my favorite US beer about 200 meters from my home from my local brit pub    (Widmer Brothers Pitch Black IPA as I said in my OP). US craftbeers are still pretty rare here, but more common than Australians.

If you can't find anything at home I'll have to post you some stuff man. I've never really cared that much for Belgian beers, I find most of them too extreme on the sweet or sour end of the scale. To be perfectly honest I'm not really drinking that much beer at the moment, I spent all summer smashing IPAs and I'm kinda over it. So I decided to put together a fancy cocktail bar in my new apartment to impress ladies. Which was kinda redundant because I met my current girlfriend like three days later and I've not had to impress her with fancy drinks yet. Also I'd seriously suggest trying a few Japanese beers. Not the crappy extra drys and lagers, stuff like Yebisu Black (I'm not sure about the spelling, but it has a chubby Buddha looking dude on the label going fishing) and especially Hitachino beers. They're in weird little undersized bottles (we call them grenade bottles here, not sure if that's an international thing...) but they're incredible. The espresso stout rocks, and their ginger beer is fantastic as well.

mwh wrote:

If you can't find anything at home I'll have to post you some stuff man.

Yeah why not.

EDIT: and after some researching there is actually more Australian craftbeers than I thought avaible at least in pubs and in my hometown also. With average/good rating by the Finnish beer rating site. Gotta try to find something some day

Hell the Feral Brewery guys who make Hop Hog come in to work sometimes, maybe I'll just make those jerks go to Finland...

Pliny the Younger. The hype really is real. The "girl scout cookies" of beer and whenever it comes I try to grab at least a glass.

My favorite brewery is Lagunitas in Petaluma. I'm kinda a hophead.

My favorite beer that I've had this year is a new release from Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, called the Jai Alai aged in white oak barrels. I've been trying to find it and cannot find it ANYWHERE.

Founder's All Day IPA from the US. Just got it in at work, tasty like an IPA, but session-able like lager. Definitely worth a try

Founders Imperial Stout is also pretty good. Maybe just a little bit too sweet

I toured Stone Brewery in SD this past week. For $3 bucks you get the tour, four samples and a four oz glass cup. pretty solid deal. Highly recommend it if you are in the area.

Damn I hate reading my own ramblings especially half a year later...so I wont read that opening post and neither should you . But still wanted to bump this thread to have some more conversation about beer. If I remember correctly mwh was probably planning to move Estonia in some time this year (?).Whether you did it or somebody else did that, you should definitely go to a bar called Pudel Bar in Tallinn. Great place, awesome craft beers. Secondly Founder's Breakfast Coffee Stout is one of my new favorites. And Nogne O makes awesome, but damn expensive beers. Helsinki's Brewdog bar still hasnt open and probably never will, because Finnish alcohol laws are coming more and more ridicilous. Ridicilous. If anybody is interested, heres an interesting article: http://www.soribrewing.com/sori/top-10-oddities-in-finnish-alcohol-laws

I don't dislike a good beer, or mmm cider... but it always makes me feel like crap when I drink it. :L

I'll stick to  Bourbon/Whiskey.

That being said, it seems that locally everyone is brewing their own beer now. There's always some new home brew popping up in the bars... We also have a really good bar here in town (I'm in Iowa) that serves all Belgian beers, that's a fantastic spot.

I'm from Belgium, if you like beer culture, visit some time xD

I'm actually having trouble trying to think of a favourite, because there's just all sorts of different beers for different situations (sweet, bitter, hoppy, heavy, light,...), and there's my just fairly limited knowledge really.

Your general widely available and drafted beer here is always gonna be some sort of pils(ner). Jupiler is the most common one here, I seem to gather Stella Artois is the one that's easiest to find abroad. Which is funny because while it's definitely drinkable, almost no one here drinks it >.>

Apart from that it's specialties and local stuff I guess. In Bruges here the most well known local beers are probably Brugse Zot (Bruges' Fool), which comes in blond and brown variations, and Brugse Tripel, a strong ale. And Straffe Hendrik, which is a fairly strong tripel xD

And apart from those I mostly have experience trying to pick the least bad of cheap supermarket pilsners xD
As for alcohol laws, 16 is the legal age for beer and wine here (though some want to change it to 18), 18 for everything else. Prices are alright, really. Beer is heritage here.

Oh yeah, and one word of advice, if you're not used to heavier beers, don't try to guzzle down Duvel. I know it's something of a sport here sometimes to give certain types of tourists who tend to be only used to light commercial beers here Duvel, and they tend to make the mistake of drinking it at the same rate. Duvel's about 8,5% ABV, which isn't massive but is still quite a lot for a beer and it's also quite heavy on stomach sometimes.

I guess there's a reason it's called a Duvel xD

Hombie wrote:

I'm from Belgium, if you like beer culture, visit some time xD

I'm actually having trouble trying to think of a favourite, because there's just all sorts of different beers for different situations (sweet, bitter, hoppy, heavy, light,...), and there's my just fairly limited knowledge really.

Your general widely available and drafted beer here is always gonna be some sort of pils(ner). Jupiler is the most common one here, I seem to gather Stella Artois is the one that's easiest to find abroad. Which is funny because while it's definitely drinkable, almost no one here drinks it >.>

Apart from that it's specialties and local stuff I guess. In Bruges here the most well known local beers are probably Brugse Zot (Bruges' Fool), which comes in blond and brown variations, and Brugse Tripel, a strong ale. And Straffe Hendrik, which is a fairly strong tripel xD

And apart from those I mostly have experience trying to pick the least bad of cheap supermarket pilsners xD
As for alcohol laws, 16 is the legal age for beer and wine here (though some want to change it to 18), 18 for everything else.  Prices are alright, really. Beer is heritage here.

Your country certainly has no shortage of great beers! La Chouffe, Duvel, and Delirium Tremens are my personal favorites from Belgium!

Oh yeah, La Chouffe's definitely a recommendation, too. I have to admit I don't think I've tried Delirium yet, though.

I pretty much hated beer until about a year ago (yes, I'm a girl). Then I moved to Dublin for half a year, went to lots of pubs and basically had no other choice but to give beer one more chance. And I realized I don't hate beer at all, I just hate Pilsner.

Naturally, I tried Guinness and really liked it. I also liked the Guinness storehouse.

Other beers I like are Smithwicks, Hoegarden (though it doesn't really taste like beer to me) and basically any brand of Helles (especially Tegernseer and Wulle) and Weissbier (especially Erdinger). I think Hefeweizen has become my favourite kind of beer. But I still know basically nothing about beer, so I might not have named the "best" brands, except the Bavarian ones of course!

I definitely should make like a "beertrip" to Belgium. Ive been there once at a festival so I mostly drank Jupiler. In Antwerpen I had my first Pauwel Kvak and was pretty suprised by that glass which they serve it . Its a shame that in Finland they dlnt sell it in stores, but at least my local pub sells it . Also my friend become like a superbeergeek after his first visit to Belgium.

Reminds me, gonna try a new one that's reputedly very good tonight, my best friend got me a bottle for christmas. Reminds me why I love the little shit

(I just got him a box of his favourite snacks in return. The idea was to keep it cheap and simple and semi-meaningful I guess? :p )