Beer

[jmthehermit]

Back in the late 60's, Genesee Cream Ale was all the rage with our group. It tasted great but it also had an added benefit, it still came it steel cans. Being enterprising young men we cut a 55 gallon drum in half, spaced them out a fair distance and created our own version of bean bags/horse shoes. Tossing an empty can into the barrel got you one point. Surprisingly we always had a readily available supply of tossing pieces. We christened the game CANS! It's always a source of fond memories whenever a bunch of the old gang get together. Currently my choice is a bottle of Yuengling Lager produced in Pottsville, Pa in what is recognized as Americas oldest Brewery. cheers, as he grasps the handle of a frosty mug, Jeff

 

[skywords]

I live in a cow town full of cowboys and hillbillys, some times I think I am one of em. Our Saturday night out consists of a dinner and drinks at the Circle S Saloon. Yee Haw. The beer that is avialable is limited, I go for the Guiness in the can. If you ask for a pint they look at you funny.
I wonder what Australia beers are good? Besides the Fosters? Any suggestions from our brothers across the pond? Any good dark beers?

Inquiring minds want to know

 

[weaselkeeper]

I have to thank our English brethern for my beer conversion. Not knowing any better, I drank coors/bud/cheap bad beer, until my two fond years in England, much of which are somewhat blurry. I saw a new light.... I'm a hard care Bitter fan now and am in continual search for anything that remotely tastes like Hook Norton Bitter. Even if it means brewing my own. Also, fresh Guiness is nector of Gods.

 

[Wombat]

mmmmm Beer

Rick

As strange as it may seem Fosters is not a particularly popular beer in Australia (at least in Sydney). My Local has 11 beers on tap and Fosters ins't amongst them.

My brew of choice at present is VB (Victoria Bitter not British). Some years ago I was drinking Tooheys Hunter Old (a Dark Beer) but this disappeared in one of the corporate restructures. Other dark beers in OZ are avilable from Coopers and Cascade. I have not tried these and hence cannot make recommendations, but the Coopers and Cascade products are ususlly good. Coopers also make home brew kits.

Here is a site for Australian Beers. It is not complete and relies on user input to fill in the details (that has't happenned yet, but you can see the magnitude of the problem).

Enjoy!!

http://www.beerguide.com.au/

 

[lemansvk]

Hi Rick,

Seeing as I am somewhat responsible for this thread I though I should respond. I worked for a couple of years with some American contractors and they thought most of out beers were great. One of them took home a stash of 'Coopers' home brew kits (cans of concentrate that you add water to). Coopers, from South Australia has for a long time been one of my favourite brews - it is made in the natural home brew style with sugar added before bottling to give the sparkle and you get a yeast residue in the bottom of the bottle. It's become fashionable to mix this in, but us old timers pour off the beer and leave the dregs. Coopers make a wide range of beers including a stout and vintage stout as 'dark' beers. Their "sparkling ale" is also great.

Smaller brewerys are gaining some favour, deservedly. The James Squire range from the maltshovel brewery is a good example. http://www.jamessquire.com.au/frames.asp?page=brews.asp

Little Creatures pale ale is good, http://www.littlecreatures.com.au/

One of my favourite dark beers is Burragorang Bock brewed at a small convict built hotel (King George IV Inn) at Picton, south of Sydney http://www.australianbeers.com/pubs/george/george.htm

This is making me thirsty, Cheers, Vic

I live in a cow town full of cowboys and hillbillys, some times I think I am one of em. Our Saturday night out consists of a dinner and drinks at the Circle S Saloon. Yee Haw. The beer that is avialable is limited, I go for the Guiness in the can. If you ask for a pint they look at you funny.
I wonder what Australia beers are good? Besides the Fosters? Any suggestions from our brothers across the pond? Any good dark beers?

Inquiring minds want to know

 

[Nickodell]

Guinness in any form - bottle, can or keg - is the nectar of the gods indeed. However, a true Irishman will call you a barbarian for misusing his national drink.

If you visit the Emerald Isle and ask for a pint of Guinness, you may be as surprised as I was the first time. You'll notice that after the liquid is pumped from the tap the entire glass appears to be full of a kind of tan-colored frostee. The bar lady in the first pub we visited after landing in Shannon smiled with that "you're obviously an ignorant tourist" smile you see all over the world, but pleasantly said "just wait for three or four minutes and watch what happens."

Sure enough, the frostee began to resemble the real thing, starting at the bottom and gradually moving up the glass. When there was about 1" of froth on the top, she gave me the OK. Oh my!

"Real" Guinness is not pasturized, like the stuff in containers found away from Ireland. It's delivered in huge road tankers and intended to be drunk within a week, or two at the most. Pasteurization is believed by Irishmen to destroy part of the unique taste and aroma.

 

[skywords]

Thanks Vic
I am looking at those web sites and getting thirsty myself.

Nick
I had the pleasure of sampling a large amount of the nectar myself in Ireland about 20 years ago. The week or two shelf life did not seem to be a big problem. What a great bunch of people the Irish. They all seemed to like us yanks and wanted to give you the shirt of their backs. I was amazed at their stamina in the pubs and get up and work the next day at O dark thirty. I stayed with some people that owned many potato fields and I picked potatoes for half a day just to see what it was like. Ooch my back hurt. I rented a French Rally and flew about the countryside for an hour, boy you can get lost there it all looks the same (beautiful green with rock walls). I guess the same can be said for Arizona except brown dirt and cactus.

 

[Nickodell]

The Irish, and here I refer to the inhabitants of that island, of whom my father's side goes back to before Cromwell, are Jekyl and Hyde people, like the Germans. Most of the time they are, as you say, generous and hospitable to a fault. Then, occasionally, they become Mr Hyde and might blow your head off. Churchill said of the Germans: "They're either at your feet or at your throat." Much the same can be said of the Irish in Ireland. (They seem to moderate when transplanted to other countries).

Irishman Oscar Wilde called the country "A Savage Beauty."

Nick O'Dell (begorrah)

 

[sunbeammadd]

Rick

As strange as it may seem Fosters is not a particularly popular beer in Australia (at least in Sydney). My Local has 11 beers on tap and Fosters ins't amongst them.

It's not just Sydney. The only places I've ever seen Fosters for sale in Australia are establishments aimed directly at overseas tourists.

I'm a Coopers man too. On trips to South Australia, the locals seemed a bit amused by the idea of a Queenslander who likes Coopers, but I know I'm not alone.

 

[skywords]

I will look for this Coopers in some of the Liquor stores that cater to imports. I remember a X-mas I spent in St Lous with some friends. The father had a large frig downstairs that was stocked with a bottle from every microbrewery in the States at least it seemed. I tried to get him to adopt me and let me live in that downstairs rec room.

 

[Alpine 1789]

I have to thank our English brethern for my beer conversion. Not knowing any better, I drank coors/bud/cheap bad beer, until my two fond years in England, much of which are somewhat blurry. I saw a new light.... I'm a hard care Bitter fan now and am in continual search for anything that remotely tastes like Hook Norton Bitter. Even if it means brewing my own. Also, fresh Guiness is nector of Gods.

While in the UK I became quite fond of bitter shandies.* A shandy is a horrible sounding mix of beer and lemonade. It doesn't sound quite as bad when you realize that "lemonade" in the UK is more like Sprite in the US. You can order any type of shandy, but I found lager ones to be too sweet. The combination of the bitter and the lemonade was a great mix, especially on a hot day. I'd hate to imagine the reaction to someone ordering one on this side of the pond, especially in one of Rick's cow town bars!

In a slightly related story, whilst in the UK (notice how easily I slip back into the Queen's English ) we were invited to a friend's house one night for Mexican food. My friend was very proud because he even had Mexican beer! When we arrived we discovered that his Mexican beer was Rolling Rock.

*Before anyone else points this out to me, I just looked up "Shandy" on Wikipedia. Here's part of what it has to say: The term shandy drinker is British slang for an effeminate or possibly homosexual male. The origin is either from the fact that a shandy is sweeter and less alcoholic than regular beer and is therefore seen as a 'girly' or 'sissy' drink, or it is a variation on Ginger Beer ("Queer"), a form of Cockney "rhyming slang". No comment. I still say you can't beat them on a hot day, although I will also point out that at all other times I drank Guinness.

 

[skywords]

In a slightly related story, whilst in the UK (notice how easily I slip back into the Queen's English ) we were invited to a friend's house one night for Mexican food. My friend was very proud because he even had Mexican beer! When we arrived we discovered that his Mexican beer was Rolling Rock.

During my skydiving days I had the pleasure of working for Tecate down in Mexico doing demo jumps for Ball games, airshows and special events. One jump was into the Hermosillo ball stadium at night to open the World Series down there, ther is nothing like being in freefall over a big city at night. it was my job to deliver the balls to the governor to start the game. I made my turn to final to land on the pitchers mound and looked at the giant TV screen and there I was close up and bigger than life. I did a tippy toe landing on the mound thank god. The first year we were treated like Kings for we did the jumps for free and Tecata wined and dined us and we spent time with the Tecate Girls who were not hard to look at. We were given all the Tecate we could drink after the jumps of course, and you know it is a very good brew. Try it with a sqeeze of lime and it is very refreshing. It is now my favorite Mexican beer. Not only does it qwench my thirst but I am reminded of those lovely ladies. Works good for putting salsa fire out too.

 

[Bill Blue]

I have drank every kind of beer I could ever get my hands on, including the Vietnamese beers. I have run into two kinds I could not drink, Falls City that I think was skunked and Guinness. Have tried twice, could not complete the bottle each time. Before accusing me of being a typical American with a taste for drinking cold wee wee, I must tell you I am very fond of the dark beers in general, the German specimens in particular. The strange part is my wife, who enjoys her suds, feels the same way, but does finish her bottle.

Looks like the only two people in the world that do not like Guinness live in the same house.

Bill

 

[Nickodell]

Jim: when you were in England did you ever drink scrumpy?

Rick: I think the balls you were delivering, free-falling into a city at night, were on the jumper! My skydiving has strictly been on nice sunny days with a dead calm. Enough thrill for me, thanks.

I wonder if any other members have drunk black velvet? It is a mixture of (I'm not making this up) Guinness and champagne. Actually, it's quite good. I first tasted it, of all places, in Lagos, Nigeria, where the RAF used to have a refuelling post and our transport plane (a Hastings) stopped. We were only there two days while they fixed an engine oil leak, but I found Lagos, which was the capital at the time (it's somewhere else now, but don't ask me where) a pleasant city. It is a major shipping port on Lagos Lagoon. I recall an impromptu song we made up after a couple (or three) of these potent potables, the only part of which I can remember being the chorus:

Lagos Lagoon, Lagos Lagoon,
Belting black velvet on Lagos Lagoon

There is a sequel to this. Back in the UK, my new wife attended a mess dinner with me one night. After the senior officers had left the rest of us gathered round the piano, and I and three others who had been on the detachment began singing the song, at which my wife stormed out in a fury. Back in married quarters I found out why. She thought the "black velvet" we'd being singing about were the native girls.