Draft is C02. Nitro is around a 70/30 blend of Nitrogen and C02, which gives it almost no carbonated bite, but smooths out the beer fantastically. There's also other things like different taps with small holes that the beer gets pushed through on route to the glass which helps break down the liquid a bit. Stouts, Porters are great on Nitro's. Pale Ales and IPA I think are terrible on nitro taps. Destihl, if you can get them, make some really good sours. Check out the international section as well. Vicaris Tripel gueuze is great; Duchesse de Bourgogne is supposed to be phenomenal but I haven't made my way to trying it yet. It's on the list, though. Orval is another great place to go to as well. Almost any beer with Brett in it was directly or indirectly inspired by Orval. Briney Melon is great.
My local favs: Intuition Pale ale is pretty good. First Magnitude 72 Pale ale is pretty good. Cigar City Jai Alai IPA is great. Bold City Killer Whale Cream Ale is pretty good. Cask & Larder on Fairbanks is a fun place with homebrews Orlando Brewing Company downtown is fun. Theres cool bars off of bumby and colonial like Sports Town, or Wallys.
If you have any time, drive west. No offense to Orlando, but Tampa/St. Pete is really where it's at in Central Florida (probably all of Florida, but I am biased).
I tried a stone ipa on nitro the other night and I gotta say I thought it was excelent. Im not really a fan of stone's normal ipa either.
drinkin some Ommegang Gnomegang (upstate NY represent), I mostly love the name but the flavor and high abv help too
Nitro is nice with sweeter, full bodied beer that benefits from the creaminess that nitro creates. IPAs are supposed to be bitter, have a little bite and be medium and lower bodied. Nitro tends to ruin most of those qualities.
yay!!! I'll think of some more in the sour world that are readily available at stores, glad you liked it though
Both of those are variations on the one you did try, so if you like those friuts/flavors, then you'll most likely like them as well
Celebration beer tonight. Special shout out to this thread, definitely one of my favorites so far — been making notes every day about things I wanna check out.
I've never been the biggest fan of beer (just a taste thing), but two that I've been drinking lots of recently are Lost Coast's Tangerine Wheat Ale and Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar. I'm not sure what people think of them who really like beer, but I think they're pretty fantastic.
Had a little vertical of Abyss tonight. In order: 2015 Abyss, 2014 Abyss, 2011 Abyss and then a 2015 rye whiskey Abyss. Fantastic. The differences in each were so great to decipher. Then we had two beers I think are worthy of 5-stars. We cracked a Black Hole imperial stout from Mikkeller. Smelled like a double IPA, it was crazy. The late-hop additions made the nose phenomenal and unlike any stout I've ever had. Thinner than the Abyss but great mouthfeel, the hops come through on the end with a slightly fruity and peaty/smoky finish. Complex, too-easy-to-drink for the ABV and great all around. Loved it. Finished the night out with a Batch 5000 from Short's Brewing. I said recently on AP that I think Short's is way overrated but Batch 5000 is a killer triple IPA. 15%, boozy but in a sweet way with big orange and pineapple on the nose and a somewhat dry finish which is remarkable given the ABV. Few IPA's of any kind out there that can be that good in a double-digit ABV range. Great night.
Recently had The Trooper by Robinson's Brewery. I really liked it. I don't know too much about nice beer though. I like piss water grocery store beer. Heineken is my casual night in beer. Will lurk here to see what people like though and pick up what I see in the store. Cheers!
Being that you live in Portland you should take a day trip out to Logsdon. Not only is the drive beautiful but the farmhouse brewery is equally stunning. Just a great time to pull some bottles out of their cave drink them while enjoying the scenery. Definitely a highlight of my time out there.
Had a pretty solid (albeit largely-sleepless) weekend in Charleston, SC. Made it to 4 different breweries and had some great food as well. Here's a list of everything I either had or picked up a bottle of to bring home: -COAST Brewing HopArt IPA -Palmetto Brewing Huger Street IPA -Palmetto Brewing Espresso Porter -Westbrook Gose -Westbrook Belgian IPA -Westbrook Mosaic/Kohatu/Galaxy IPA -Westbrook Poppin' Pils -Westbrook Tiny Tornado DIPA -Westbrook Lemon Coconut Weisse Weisse Baby -Evil Twin Nomader Weisse -Evil Twin Brett Yeast & Helles -Evil Twin Even More Jesus -Evil Twin Sour Bikini -Holy City Trebek's Stache Imperial Red Ale -Holy City Bowen's Island Oyster Stout -Edmund's Oast A Little Blue Wild Ale -Edmund's Oast Australasia Sparkling Ale -Edmund's Oast Against The Grain - Even More Shneebus Golden Ale -Stone IPA -PBR/Bud (yeah... I went to a house party with my AirBNB host) and then on my way home I stopped in Charlotte for a keg tapping of KBS.
Went to Toppling Goliath this past weekend (it's right by my hometown) and had their new stout, Driftless Stout, it's light but decent- I prefer Rover Truck still, but it was the first day they had it on tap so that was neat. Had a King Sue and X-Hops as well.