I think it's safe to say that we are more enthusiastic about our beer than our audio enjoyment. Or maybe our audio enthusiasm is directly proportional to our beer intake!

I think I'll have one more

I've got another awesome beer to recommend - Pauwel Kwak. It's a Belgian specialty amber ale, and it is absolutely delicious! Light and dense head, golden/light caramel color with what seems to be very light yeast - it floats throughout the bottle without any stirring necessary. It's very smooth, with a fairly sweet and malty flavor and finish that is just awesome. Very, very satisfying!

Highly recommended!

(Peter, I'm saving a bottle of Unibroue Terrible for when you get back)

Haven't heard of that one, Adam. I did grab a bottle of something called Salvation (?) from a N. American craft brewery. Supposed to be a Tripel style, I think. Its laying up in the frig to settle.

Ringmir, it sounds like you know what you're doing. Are you using any wheat at all to help with head retention? I know you're extract brewing, but it isn't hard to do small mashes (1 or 2 lbs) on the stove. And with all the fermentables in the extract, the success of your mash is not critical.

After searching my brain cells a little further, I remember that the best stout I ever made was a simple McMellick's Irish Stout extract/carapils combo. I don't think I added any hops or malt. It was a slam dunk, but boy was it good. Clean and fresh and smooth, no tannic harshness, not overly roasted - just big malt body and creamy cafe au lait finish.

I've only just started to look at this thread - if anyone here lives in NYC, there's a fabulous place to get beer: Bierkraft on 5th Ave in Brooklyn. They do weekly tastings and have an amazing selection of literally hundreds of beers.

And it's only two blocks from my apartment! Yup!

Will,

I use some grain with the extract. That one I used, in addition to the extract (a small percentage of which was wheat):
.75 lb. Crystal 120
.5 lb. Carafa II
.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
.25 lb. Special B
.25 lb. Carafoam

I do a very mini-mash on my stove in a smaller, thick-walled stockpot. It hold it's temp pretty well, only loses 2 degrees or so. I will eventually get a setup with a cooler and all, I'm just a bit space constrained at the moment, apartment living being what it is.

I don't recall that specialty malt "carafoam" is that a new trademarked malt?

If I wasn't so busy being Daddy I would have bought this mash tun with built-in sparging system on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4346152959&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Had me all pumped up to start brewing again. Tom gave it the thumbs up and everything. Oh well, maybe in a couple more years.

I had never used it before myself, it's likened to Carapils, supposed to increase mouthfeel without altering the flavor profile. I thought it might go nicely with the lactose, since I wanted a smooth mouthfeel. Hard to say if it helped since there were a lot of wildcards in thsi brew. But, I was happy with the result, so I'll likely try it again in something ligher and see if I notice the effects.

Edit: That does look like a nice mash tun / sparging system, but I think I'm going to make my own when I go that route. I've got an acetylene torch and a sawzall, among other tools. And I love the engineering side of brewing just as much as the rest of it. Making the equipment is half the fun, making the beer if half the fun, and drinking it is the other half the fun.

Well guys I had the Jenlain Biere de Noel and I must say that I was impressed. It was my first to the style of biere de garde. I was expecting it to be similar to a barleywine or eisbock, but I was wrong. It wasn't that heavy, but quite an enjoyable brew. I remember reading some guy's review saying that the orange was overbearing. I strongly disagree with that review. Everything in this brew screamed balance. A nice touch of malt, enough orange to know it's there, and a bit of hops to finish it off. Not much in terms of a head, but the aroma made up for that. While I won't say that it's the most complex beer I've had, it definitely gets points for its drinkability. The worst thing about this brew is that I have to wait an entire year to get it again.

Holy cow, will this thread EVER die!

This has to be about the largest, unrelated thread on this board.

Oh, and don't kill me for using the word "unrelated." There are many others here, but this is just the largest. I wonder if it is the largest of even speaker related threads.


Side note: Now I can say that I was a part of the "Great Beer Thread" too, even though I don't touch the stuff.

actually Nick, i seem to recall the Politics thread had this one beat by a fair margin. It's died though, so every post here inches this thread closer and closer....

back on topic to the off topic, does anyone happen to have any good ideas/tips where I might find some lesser known brands of beer in Saskatchewan/Manitoba???? I've pretty much tapped out the imports @ the Sask Liquor stores and wondered if anyone had any good suggestions where I might look for others.