I don't get Dark Horse in DC so I'm pretty open to trying them all, and other Midwest beers. I'm going to Revolution in the next 2 days so I'm pretty excited about that. I had Shorts' Local Lager and it was awful. That's my only experience with Shorts.
Local Lager was made for a dude who would come to the brewery asking for something like a macro and Joe Shorts finally brewed him one. It isn't that good of a lager. As for dark horse, I also forgot about Smells Like A Safety Meeting. That's a killer seasonal double/imperial IPA they have out right now. So I'd recommend trying Plead The 5th, Smells Like ... (which used to be called Smells Like Weed) and Double Crooked Tree. And regular Crooked Tree for reference on the Double which is made from simply doubling all ingredients except water.
Haven't had Plead the 5th or Crooked but I picked up a 6 of Smells Like for my place I'm staying at. Enjoyed that. The Bourbon barrel Scotty Karate I enjoyed, too. Was a tad light for a scotch ale but still tasted good.
Map Room's one of the better beer bars in the city. I miss living in that part of town. How was Icelandic Pants of the Dead?
Can anyone tell me any good stouts--not Guinness. This girl I saw a few months back introduced me to stouts and I liked but didn't remember the names. I remember drinking a milk stout and it was like drinking a milkshake. Then I had some other stouts and they were all equally good in their own way. Any recommendations?
Left Hand Milk Stout may be the one you were referencing. Others: Begyle Neighborly Stout AleWerks Droste Effect Allagash Black Great Divide Yeti Founders KBS Bells Expedition
AleSmith Speedway is probably my favorite. Where are you located? That'll help with some regional recs.
I hate doing that and it seems to happen too often among my group of friends, haha. My buddy had party with a keg of Fresh Squeezed and we were opening bottles that night too for fun. It was around midnight and everyone was pretty drunk and my buddy opened one last bottle which was a Triple IPA from Shorts that was their Batch 5000 beer and incredible and he took one sip, threw up in the sink and went to bed. I don't remember drinking it, either. Luckily, one of our friends found another bottle at a mom and pop store like eight weeks later and we all got to try it sober. Edit: also, if you haven't seen either of the Somm movies on Netflix, I highly recommend them; they're great. The second one is more about Wine in general while the first follows a group of guys going for their Master Sommelier certification and it's incredibly intense. The second one I think could apply to beer in a large amount of ways, such as: -The talk about wines using oak barrels to cover up flaws "Just throw a vanilla bomb from a barrel on it and send it out!" was a quote from some people interviewed. -The traditions of Europe mirror the history of Europe -America is unchained from tradition. Prohibition killed anything we were doing up until that point and wiped the slate clean. It's allowed us more freedom to innovate which we do in both wine and beer, while Europe (and south america in wine) are more by-the-book. Just super fascinating stuff that I very much recommend.
Anyone into wine at all? I want to get into it more and the second Somm movie on Netflix reaffirmed that I'd like to dip my toes into wine (plus, I should be doing it for work, anyways). An acquaintance of mine invited me to a blind wine tasting they will be holding every monday at the wine bar/restaurant he works at and I'm excited to go.
I can never get into it. Whereas with beer I can find something I like in a well-made example of any style, with wine no matter how much I try or how "good" it supposedly is I only like dry, full-bodied reds.
Was home last weekend and both my dad and stepdad sent me home with a ton of beer because neither of them would drink it and they only stocked it for me anyway, score!
Make sense. I reach for only dry reds, as well. Hoping these blind tastings are going to help me out and expand my knowledge and tastes to other styles. I feel like I'm tasting (beer, at least) better than I maybe ever have. Picking up things that I wouldn't have picked up six months ago, a year ago, two years, etc.
My dad is a huge wine drinker. Always been exposed to it, have begun to enjoy it more within the past year
getting into wines more and more because my partner really enjoys them. she loved the sweets so that's what I started with, but getting more into dry wines now. really love merlots. ports are also delicious but dangerous.
mods - looks like there's enough interest to spin off a wine thread from these last few posts. @Jason Tate ?
i don't drink wine, so i'm not starting one. figured it would be wise to take the first few posts from here about wine and form a new thread from it, so the replies to wine stuff don't end up in two different threads.