Dark Beer vs. Light

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

So, what is it? I turned 21 a month ago, and I've been drinking like a FIEND! Blue Moon is a personal favorite (seeing as how I get 2 free beers every 4 hours; <3 Coors tour), although PBR makes me extremely happy. I fucking hate dark beer though. It's so filling and tastes like monkey ball juice.

So what the dealyo?

-Bob

[Jim Sardonic]

Light beer is excellent. I'm a big fan of Blue Moon, as you are, as well as Hacker Pschorr. A good dark beer is good on occassion, but usually only as an Irish Car Bomb. PBR, of course, is genius... and I also can't get enough of the 'ole Rolling Rock.

[Komatteru]

Dude, that beer is shit.

[Joblin Velder]

Stella and Moretti are where it's at.

[Luiggi]

Go to a good liquor store and get some good Belgian/Dutch/German beers. I guarantee you'll never go back. Some personal favorites: La Trappe Quadrupel (Dutch), Schneider Weisse (German), Aventinus (German), any Chimay (Belgian) and Leffe Radieuse (Belgian), this last one being my personal favorite amongst European beers.

For American beers my personal favorite is the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, that comes out right around Thanksgiving, and is on sale for a few months after that. That's some good shit! Some other good ones: any Dogfish Head (especially their 90/120-minute IPAs and their Chicory Stout), any Brooklyn Brewery (especially their Double Chocolate Stout) and any Victory (especially their Storm King Stout, Hop Devil IPA and their Prima Pils).

Can you tell I'm a beer nut, ?

Luiggi

[Matt]

And pretty much the entire New Belgium line.

[God_Campbell]

Well I myself prefer Molson Canadian, by far the best beer i have tasted.
it is a light beer that has that little bit of kick to it that i enjoy so much.

[jpmeyer]

You're only allowed to drink PBR if you are an upper middle-class kid who is slumming it on mommy and daddy's dime.

[Bardo]

You're only allowed to drink PBR if you are an upper middle-class kid who is slumming it on mommy and daddy's dime.

Of course, JP is 100% correct. It's a fascinating marketing exercise to get the the quasi-rich kids drinking poor people beer. Rock on, I suppose.

As for me, I'll drink whatever's handy. I stopped being a booze-snob somewhere in my mid-20s.

[vartemis]

you havent lived until you've shotgunned Guinness from the new cans.  While I was down in Florida they had a wine festival (just what i need, a real reason to drink), and the irish pavilion had real Guinness that felt like you needed a spoon to eat it. it was sweet.

j

Edit:  I was at a wedding at the beginning of the month and they had this massive ukrainian beer.  It was at least 150% the size of a normal bottle and was in a green bottle.  It had a mason jar opening system for the top.  you could drink, then relock it back up and stumble around until you needed to sit, then reopen it and drink some more.

[Methuselahn]

Often, I like to chase down 7&7s (Seagrams bourbon Whiskey + 7up) with Coronas.

I'm in the anti booze-snob camp with Bardo.  It's hard to have a real appreciation for beer at the tender age of 32 anyway.

[arj]

I'm from Denmark so I can very much recommend some special European beers. Regular beer just plain sucks IMHO compared to the special beers that you can find. That is even true here in Europe. On top of my head my favorites are St. Bernardus Prioir 8 (Belgium), Jackobson Brown Ale (Danish), Guinness and Murphy's Irish Stout.

And yeah we've been drinking beers since we were kids so our taste should be very refined, no stupid "no drinking before the age of 21" law </sarcasm>

I would also recommend people to visit: www.ratebeer.com for a good place for ratings of beers.

[Eddie]

As a Belgian, I'll try to comment on foreign beers only, cause we all know Belgian beers are the best anyway. The best non-belgian beer I ever had was in Portugal: Super Bock. Other nice beers are Kulsh from Germany and Grolsch from the Dutch.

Anyway, you haven't lived if you never tried Westvleteren Tripel from Belgium. It's not for sale in shops or pups. You have to drive to the abbey and buy some from the Benedict order. And thanks to being elected "the best beer in the word", all of their stoch is sold. They won't produce more, cause they only want to support the abbey with it.

Other great Belgian beers:
Westmalle Tripel
Delerium Tremens
Gulden Draak
Kwak
Duvel

[PacmanXSA]

Bah... No one has mentioned Moosehead: The KING of Canadian Beer!  What more could you ask for?

Stop drinking wussy 2.1% light beer and opt for drunkness fact X3!

Pac

[Luiggi]

Eddie: what do you think of Tripel Karmeliet? I had it when I was in Brussels last year and absolutely loved it, and have since been able to find it a few times here in New York.

vartemis: wanna know what's better than shotgunning Guiness from a can? Irish carbombs. Not only do you pound a Guiness, but you get to pound a shot of Jameson's and Bailey's with it. Talk about a drink you can eat with a spoon!

Now call me sacrilegious, but Guiness isn't my favorite stout anymore, not by a longshot. There are so many tastier, darker and richer stouts, like Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, Brooklyn Brewery's Double Chocolate Stout, Victory Storm King Imperial Stout, etc.

Luiggi

[Eddie]

Eddie: what do you think of Tripel Karmeliet? I had it when I was in Brussels last year and absolutely loved it, and have since been able to find it a few times here in New York
Luiggi

To be honest, I can't remember if I ever had one. But I'll be damned if I don't try it out this weekend. I'll probably like it, cause there isn't one tripel I tried that I didn't like.

[BigMac]

Leffe triple is the beer for me.

If no beer, i stay with scotch.

[Lunar]

Well Young's Double Chocolate Stout (England) is easily the best stout ive had in the normal stout range...but Old Rasputin Stout from North Coast Brewing (California) is pretty good too as a Russian Imperial...

Best Pale Ale HAS to go to Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschutes (Oregon) by a long long shot although Red Tail Ale from Mendocino Brewing Co. (California) isnt too bad either...

Best Dark Lager still has to be Heinekin Special Dark which has always just done nicely for me over the years.

Heh, Arrogant Bastard is pretty good, but none of you are worthy to even bother drinking it you panseys...

For winter brews (the best come out to play during christmas) there is a whole string of good ones...while Sierra Nevada Celebration ale is a local favorite (since im only about an hour from the brewery) there are some other standouts that I like...Anchor Steam "Our Very Special Ale" (California) is a different recipe each year, but every year they are simply amazing.  Bison Brewing Co's Gingerbread Stout (California) is pretty nice as well...but generally the one I look forward to the most each year is Samual Smith's Winter Ale (England) which is just fricking baddassss...except when the local place that sells it (shame on you bevmo) restocks lasts years leftovers on you and you dont notice it until you get home...

Of course if you are talking about winter ales then the one you need to at least try once is Sierra Nevada Big Foot Ale which is their late winter brew (meaning from christmas to february, as opposed to celebration which is Nov-Christmas) IF you like big brews (meaning it WILL grow hair on your chest) then this one is a must try...im not super big on Barley Wines but this one is pretty sweet...heh...

[Bardo]

Of course if you are talking about winter ales then the one you need to at least try once is Sierra Nevada Big Foot Ale which is their late winter brew (meaning from christmas to february, as opposed to celebration which is Nov-Christmas) IF you like big brews (meaning it WILL grow hair on your chest) then this one is a must try

Big Foot Ale is a huge pain in the ass to find, and the alcohol content is so high it's a hybrid wine/beer, but damn, is it awesome!

The Samuel Smith stuff is decent is well, and is easy enough to find. And if you get it out of the tap (not off the shelf), Pete's Wicked Winter Brew is fine as well (but it has no sass out of a bottle).

In the summer months, I like most things from Mexico and South America. Luckily, there was an odd influx of Nicaraguan and El Salvadoran beer in Portland a couple of months ago.

[Jacob Orlove]

Five other people don't drink? Now I'm curious how many of those five are young enough to simply not have started drinking yet, and how many are actually choosing not to.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Damn, I feel mad inexperienced! Seriously guys, I don't consider carbombs beer. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it tastes like a chocolate milkshake and therefore doesn't count as beer. I just know I've never had ONE good experience w/ dark beer. Maybe it's the fact that I'm in college, just turned 21, and live 2 blocks away from Coors Lab. About the only import I drink is corona/heineken, and even then, it doesn't taste NEARLY as refreshing as a Coors Light on a hot summer day.

Also guys, shotgunning Guiness is retarded. I personally hate the stuff, but you're suppose to enjoy it. The only "acceptable" beers for shotgunning are: Key Light, PBR, Old style(god that shit is NASTY), and Milwaukee's Best.

Meth: I'm personally not a fan of Whiskey, but Seagram's dry gin is the SHIT! IF I make the trekk to Chicago, prepare to get crunked!

-Bob

[Revvik]

Five other people don't drink? Now I'm curious how many of those five are young enough to simply not have started drinking yet, and how many are actually choosing not to.

I was one of those five.
I should add "I don't drink beer...."  Or blood.  I prefer mixed drinks.  If I'm going to drink, I want there to be skill involved in preparing the drink.  It's a safeguard - I can get too drunk to make the next one.

[Necrologia]

I turned 21 over the summer, and have yet to have anything alcoholic to drink. College is plenty hard with just exams and group work to worry about. No need to add hangovers and the like to that.

I've been told by plenty of people that I can avoid that if I just take it slow, and figure out my tolerance. Why exactly would I want to do that though? The payoff is that now I can get drunk without throwing up? Um, yay? Alcohol tastes bad for a reason folks, it's freakin poison. That bad taste is your body's way of saying "Stop! You're killing me!"

I don't care if other people drink. A few social beers or the like is perfectly fine. Want to get yourself plastered and make a jackass of yourself? Go ahead, just don't throw up on my carpet is all I ask. It's possible I'm just jaded by the sheer number of people I've seen on campus getting totally wasted and regretting it the next day, but I just have no desire to drink whatsoever. Maybe once I'm rich and famous I can work on being a wine snob to up my overall snobbery factor, but that's unfortunately not in the immediate future. Until then, I'm perfectly happy drinking just good old fashioned water. And orange juice with breakfast of course, I'm not a savage. 

[Bram]

All those who spoke about good beer and are not Belgian, need to shut the fuck up

Seriously, I don't tend to give Belgians credit for much, but their beer is the best money can buy. Yes, that includes you, you crazy Irish folk

[Luiggi]

Big Foot Ale is a huge pain in the ass to find, and the alcohol content is so high it's a hybrid wine/beer, but damn, is it awesome!

They're generally called "barley wines", because for some reason in the US you can't call something "beer" once it's passed a certain level of alcohol content (which is also why we use the term "malt liquor", when in fact they're just strong beers). Other good ones are Anchor Steam's Old Foghorn and the Brooklyn Brewery's Monster, and depending on where you live they might be easier to find than Bigfoot (and honestly, as far as barley wines go, I don't know that Bigfoot is that much better than other ones).

The strongest beer I've ever had was a German brew called "Stil Nacht", that was a whopping 14%! It wasn't the tastiest beer I've ever had, but it was still pretty damn good!

Luiggi

[nataz]

and even then, it doesn't taste NEARLY as refreshing as a Coors Light on a hot summer day.
-Bob

Thats because Coors is only a heartbeat away from water. Seriously, its like drinking beer with AK's, I mean training wheels.

Also guys, shotgunning Guinness is retarded. I personally hate the stuff, but you're suppose to enjoy it. The only "acceptable" beers for shotgunning are: Key Light, PBR, Old style(god that shit is NASTY), and Milwaukee's Best.

A car bomb isn't a beer, its a mixed drink, and you forgot natty light. ewww

Right now I generally drink Sam Adams Octoberfest when I'm feeling regional, Shipyard Export when I'm at home, and BudLight when I'm slumming.

[Komatteru]

I prefer mixed drinks.

I also perfer mixed drinks. It's like combo in the form of alcohol.

Oh, and Absinthe, cause it fucks with your head.

[Matt]

I second the Belgian thing. I would try more of them (Chimay) but they're very expensive.

Coors & Co. are horrible. They're not even worth drinking. The absolute worst beer I ever had though was Icehouse, which tastes like aluminum. :<

Negro Modelo is a good, dark Mexican beer. Have it with a lime and an enchilada!

I used to drink a lot more, but right now I drink extremely rarely. Maybe 1-2 drinks a month.

[Jim Sardonic]

Oh, and Absinthe, cause it fucks with your head.

Might I ask where you got your absinthe from? I know that the only absinthe that truly fucks with your head is the type with wormwood -- but as I understand it's illegal to sell in the US. Obviously, it can be purchased off the 'net -- but I've also heard of problems as it comes into the country.

[Godder]

I'm 25 and I don't drink because I'm a Socialist... and because it makes me very sick.