In reply to:

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Old Style gives more umm gasious emmissions

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HEY.... football, beer, and farts.. what could be better??

i have seen old style, so i might give it a whirl..

ringmir- i have written those down on my grocery list, and if they have one, it will try it.

thanks for the suggestions ya'll.. i will let ya know what i get tomorrow.

bigjohn

Red Stripe from Jamaica is a good beer. Not something that Tom or ringmir will get all excited about, but I think you'd like that one, bigjohn.

Hey now, red stripe is good stuff! Just because I lean towards hoppier and more full bodied brews doen't mean I can't enjoy a good crisp lager on a hot day

Yes, Andrew, but are you "all excited" about it?

Red Stripe is good lawnmower beer. Personally, I think the problem with it is the water. But I am speculating irresponsibly.

Bigjohn, I like bigwill's recommendation about Boddington's. You might also rediscover Heineken; buy it in cans, not bottles. Really. Finally, you might like some of the (now disappearing) summer beers made by various breweries. If you see any Kolsch or Cream Ales, those would be good next candidates, too.

Winter beers are released! I had a Deschutes Jubel Ale the other night. Rich, alcoholic and aggressively hopped, as always. Anybody seen Sierra Celebration yet?

What's wrong with the water, Tom? Not enough mineral content? That helps make it so light, sweet and clean.

i actually had a red stripe the other night at the bar.. i was 'paying off' a buddy of mine who won a football bet, and he is a bartender.. i told him the least he could do was buy me a beer after i delivered his winnings.. he asked what i wanted, and i said "dealer choice".. so, he gave me a red stripe. he also gave me a mexican beer that i had never had before.. it had the same similar taste of a corona.. kinda bland.. but i liked the red stripe.. it was light, and smooth.. if that is considered a lager, then i would say that is the kind of beer i prefer.. i cant stand the heavy, samuel adams type beers.

bigjohn

Mark, I was certainly too glib. I'm not sure there is anything "wrong" with Jamaican water per se, and I certainly don't have time to do an in-depth study of the typical mineral content of the water used in Red Stripe beer.

However, you know that there are any number of minerals that could be present in brewing liquor that could impact a number of the processes, from starch conversion to hop utilization. As to which ones appear (in a perhaps disproportionate amount) and how they might impact the ultimate flavor of Red Stripe in particular, I must confess that I am speculating wildly.

I suppose the bottom line is that I've never gotten as excited about that particular beer as some other people have, and I have also not been able to put my finger on "why" that is. Since I can't isolate why I don't find the hops, malt or yeast compelling, I'm blaming the water.

Jamaica has a huge bauxite industry, and I understand that, on any given island, the water supply can be inordinately saline compared to more traditional supplies of larger scale. So yeah, it could be the minerals. Get some scientist in here.

I am often reminded that some brewers are cooks, some are engineers, some are chemists, but we're all janitors. I'm a cook; I like the ingredients best. Some people like to build systems that move liquid around; they are engineers. Some people really know what's happening in the pot and fermenter.

I mean, it's a competent beer and I understand people liking it. I just don't think it's very interesting or distinctive. With cost and calories as criteria, I drink elsewhere. You know, Budweiser is "light, sweet and clean".

Certainly Red Stripe is an unremarkable beer from a connoiseur's standpoint, but it tastes like a quality 2 row lager with very, very subtle hop and yeast presence and a nice malt sweetness. Not as spicy or thin as Bud, eh?
It's not my all-time fave but I thought bigjohn might like it - and he does!
bigjohn, German hefe-weizens (and some American hefe-weizens, but NOT PYRAMID) you will likely also like. Maybe Tom knows of a nice dunkel, too? I can never remember the brand names by the time I'm done with them.

Stop trying to make me do double blind tests of beer I don't like.

I don't really see dunkel-wiezens or dunkel lagers very much. Beck's and St. Pauli both make a dunkel, don't they?

How about those Asian beers like Kirin, Tsingtao, etc.?

A nice, light real German lager like Hacker-Pschorr or Spaten?

I like the suggestion of Newcastle Brown. Also, Downtown Brown from Lost Coast Brewery in the, ahem, Humboldt Nation, is wonderful.

So, bigjohn, go drink something already!

>>How about those Asian beers like Kirin, Tsingtao, etc.?

When I was in Korea there was a pretty active brewery industry, lots of Germans came over ~20 years earlier and kicked off the industry.

I didn't like most of the beers, but one of them (OB, I think -- "Oriental Breweries") was VERY good. Only problem was that the government subsidized rice and soju (imagine sake distilled down to ~40% alcohol) but not beer ;((