What beer are we drinking this week, too?

Firehen

Just had a Mikkeller Xmas Porter. Yum!

Herb Powell

Klosterbräu Neuzelle Schwarzer Abt.

Another shyte, old-cola flavoured abomination masquerading as a "Schwarzbier". Two sips and twas down the drain.

Avoid at all costs.

jsa112

Birrifico del ducato ipa, quite nice, good yeasty taste to it

matrim

Galway Bay releasing a limited edition 10% imperial stout in their Dublin pubs tomorrow. Only 900 bottles being released and are €7.50 a 500ml bottle (7 with beoir vouchers). Might head to the brew dock for one after work tomorrow.

Ipso

Grayditch wrote: »

After drinking a lot of IPA's and distinguishing between a few different hops, the Nelson Sauvin and Centennial hops are my favourite.

What's the story with Amarillo hops, are they a recent "creation"? I had Deschutes Chasin' Freshies which made a big deal of having them but wasn 't overly impressed.
Does anyone know what are in Racer 5? It's like teams of glorius hops playing basketball in your mouth, there's something very distinctive about it.

Ruben Remus

Ipso wrote: »

It's like teams of glorius hops playing basketball in your mouth

Great description...

jsa112

According to their site

"This hoppy American IPA is a full bodied beer brewed with American pale and crystal malts, and heavily hopped with Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Centennial"

I like centennial and cascade myself. They get used in brewdogs hardcore afaik. I think I had a brewdog ipa is dead/single hop columbus which wasn't good at all.

irish_goat

Ipso wrote: »

What's the story with Amarillo hops, are they a recent "creation"? I had Deschutes Chasin' Freshies which made a big deal of having them but wasn 't overly impressed.
Does anyone know what are in Racer 5? It's like teams of glorius hops playing basketball in your mouth, there's something very distinctive about it.

Loads of the big American IPAs use hops that are a new breed. The US Department of Agriculture has a breeding program in the north west USA where they're breeding loads of new varieties and constantly testing them in brews and keeping the ones that fare well. On top of that the private hop farms have their own breeding programs so if they happen to end up with a particularly good hop they can patent it and the price and rarity value can then create a bit of hype so if a brewery can get their hands on it they'll make a big deal of it. Course that doesn't mean they'll make good beer with them. Metalman Pale Ale was originally going to have Amarillo in it but they switched to Summit hops when they had trouble with guaranteeing supply.

Racer 5 has Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Centennial. Always a good mix.

cunnifferous

jsa112 wrote: »

According to their site

"This hoppy American IPA is a full bodied beer brewed with American pale and crystal malts, and heavily hopped with Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Centennial"

I like centennial and cascade myself. They get used in brewdogs hardcore afaik. I think I had a brewdog ipa is dead/single hop columbus which wasn't good at all.

Had a founders pale ale recently which, according to the bottle anyway, is almost exclusively cascade hopped. While it enjoyed it, it wouldn't be my favourite ipa. I found all of the hop flavour is on the grapefruit/bitter end of the spectrum compared to other ipas which i find can have hints of melon/passionfruit (tropical fruit).

BeerNut

Ipso wrote: »

What's the story with Amarillo hops, are they a recent "creation"?

First produced in 2000. They're quite highly prized because they're a proprietary breed and only one company produces them.

The_M

I'm in Maine and just had a Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA. Very nice. 7.25ABV, nice hoppiness balanced with some sweetness by the addition of maple syrup. Very drinkable!

jsa112

I found all of the hop flavour is on the grapefruit/bitter end of the spectrum compared to other ipas which i find can have hints of melon/passionfruit (tropical fruit).

Am sure somebody with more technical information will pipe in, but seems like cascade/centennial/colombus are used with 7-9% DIPAs, giving that strong harsh flavour. The grape fruit flavours around 5% range coming from Chinook, Simcoe, Ahtanum, Nelson Sauvin hops.

I really enjoyed racer 5 as it seemed to be in between an ipa and a dipa. Grapefruit flavours but strong too.

Ipso

I read on Beer Advocate that there are hops from New Zealand that are starting to get popular.

BeerNut

Ipso wrote: »

there are hops from New Zealand that are starting to get popular.

Nelson Sauvin is certainly a biggie and Motueka has a bit of a cult following. Green Bullet, Pacific Gem and Pacific Jade have been around a while.

cunnifferous

Ipso wrote: »

I read on Beer Advocate that there are hops from New Zealand that are starting to get popular.

Had a tuatara apa from New Zealand which uses exclusively NZ hops. Very impressed, quite bitter on the aftertaste but not eyewateringly so and with lots of floral and pine notes. Not sure what malt was in it but it also had quite a sweet caramel taste too. Well balanced I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Ipso

Firestone Walkers Velvet Merlin Stout, really liked it but I thought I was buying the Velvet Merkin which is supposed to be very good.

drumswan

Ipso wrote: »

Firestone Walkers Velvet Merlin Stout, really liked it but I thought I was buying the Velvet Merkin which is supposed to be very good.

You lucky git

matrim

matrim wrote: »

Galway Bay releasing a limited edition 10% imperial stout in their Dublin pubs tomorrow. Only 900 bottles being released and are €7.50 a 500ml bottle (7 with beoir vouchers). Might head to the brew dock for one after work tomorrow.

Went to try get one of these at 6. The brew dock was already sold out of the 48 odd bottles they got at 1. Expect more next week.

Having a foam and fury instead. Seems to have slightly less body that I remember from before Christmas but still lovely

Grayditch

Porterhouse Celebration Imperial Stout. Lovely stuff.

BMJD

Porterhouse - The Devil's Halfacre

wouldn't be my cup of tea tbh, tastes more like a barleywine/porter mishmash rather than black IPA

BaZmO*

BMJD wrote: »

Porterhouse - The Devil's Halfacre

wouldn't be my cup of tea tbh, tastes more like a barleywine/porter mishmash rather than black IPA

Yeah the description is quite misleading but at 13.5% it's hardly gonna be light like a Black's Black IPA

Heroditas

Folks, what's the selection on tap like in the Porterhouse these days?
Thinking of heading out for a few pints tonight but probably won't be going to the likes of Black Sheep etc (need to maximise the couple of hours but be near to the 25a/66 bus route to get the last bus home)
Cassidys seems to have a decent selection, judging by what I saw when I was there in December.
O'Neills, of course, has an impressive selection but I'm tempted to try somewhere slightly different. Is Farringtons good, as in, it has a good selection?

BaZmO*

Heroditas wrote: »

Folks, what's the selection on tap like in the Porterhouse these days?
Thinking of heading out for a few pints tonight but probably won't be going to the likes of Black Sheep etc (need to maximise the couple of hours but be near to the 25a/66 bus route to get the last bus home)
Cassidys seems to have a decent selection, judging by what I saw when I was there in December.
O'Neills, of course, has an impressive selection but I'm tempted to try somewhere slightly different. Is Farringtons good, as in, it has a good selection?

Farringtons have a great selection, and I've always quite liked the place. Bonus is that if you don't like it there you can pop around to the Porterhouse or Bull & Castle.

Heroditas

Will it have any of that diddly-eye nonsense though?

MonstaMash

BMJD wrote: »

Porterhouse - The Devil's Halfacre

wouldn't be my cup of tea tbh, tastes more like a barleywine/porter mishmash rather than black IPA

BaZmO* wrote: »

Yeah the description is quite misleading but at 13.5% it's hardly gonna be light like a Black's Black IPA

Can't get enough of the stuff...my liver hates me :eek:

Heroditas

Wrasslers is €1 a bottle in Drinkstore at the moment. They have a load of it in the bargain bin. Definitely worth grabbing a few!

drumswan

Rascals ginger porter, a bit unremarkable

Heroditas

BaZmO* wrote: »

Farringtons have a great selection, and I've always quite liked the place. Bonus is that if you don't like it there you can pop around to the Porterhouse or Bull & Castle.

Right, settled down in the place and they have a very good selection!
Pity about the guy doing cover versions on the far side of the pub but here's hoping the amp breaks...

EDIT: having a pint of Chameleon. Really starting to like this beer.

penev10

My current favourite has become La Trappe Dubbel. Like a milder St Bernardus 12 or a more flavoursome Delerium Nocturnum.

BaZmO*

To Øl Carnage. An IPA made in collaboration with Buxton Brewery. Cracking beer. I could drink buckets of this beer!