Best Beer Ever??

AnonymousPrime

If I ever discover the best beer in the world I bet it will be from a micro brewery in some small corner of the world....for 2 reasons:
1. In order to get consistently good mass produced beer certain sacrifices must be made.
2. It is sociologically/psychologically proven that taste can never be an isolated sense and is subject to an emotional response also. Hence a brewery being a great find during some unusual adventure will influence my taste buds. Another influence might be pride in an irish product, but each may be lost on others. I have a few contenders already but I don't remember their names off hand.

squeakyduck

I have a few:

I like desperados the tequila beer, to some people it's like Marmite, you either love it or hate it.

San Miguel, just nice!

Fosters I have to be in the mood for it!

Estrella Damm and Estrella Dam Lemon the former available over here in Ireland it's nice enough. The latter I've only been able to get in Barcalona! So good!

Heroditas

Some of the beers made by the Stone Brewing Company in Escondido near San Diego are absolutely magnificent.
Also, many beers from Portland, Oregon would be near the top of my list.

mloc

On a Belgian White buzz at the moment, had an Ommegang Witte (http://www.ommegang.com/index.php?mcat=1&scat=5) when I was in NY recently and it was very nice.

Best ever, though, is a difficult one. I think it changes according to my mood. I like Big Daddy IPA brewed by Speakeasy. But I wouldn't always be in the mood for it.

A good weissbier in the summer. An IPA in Autumn. Something rich and dark like a ruby ale in the winter, or even a stout.

Bearhunter

Westvleteren 8. It's also the most ridiculously expensive beer I've ever tasted, but I wasn't paying, which made it all the nicer.

Epic Barrel-Aged IPA is among my favourites as well.

MajorMax

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Enjoyed many a bottle of Lasko while on holiday there, not my best ever but certainly good. There's a light-coloured version (pilsner?) whic is common, green label with a zlatarog on it, and a darker one (Lasko Club IIRC). Both are light years better than Union.

Yeah it's the Zlatarog one that I had

stoneill

Moose Drool.

Rockery Woman

Warka Strong:D

Saruman

Bearhunter wrote: »

Westvleteren 8. It's also the most ridiculously expensive beer I've ever tasted, but I wasn't paying, which made it all the nicer.

Epic Barrel-Aged IPA is among my favourites as well.

Very nice beer, the baby to the renowned Westvleteren 12 which many consider the de-facto best beer in the world. I don't think I agree with that but it is a fantastic beer and certainly one of the best and most complex drinks I have ever had.

BeerNut

Des wrote: »

Monteith's Black is my favourite beer in the world, and I've asked them three times, but they don't export to Ireland.

Six for €10 in Redmond's of Ranelagh at the moment. I'm sure it's elsewhere too.

Bearhunter

Saruman wrote: »

Very nice beer, the baby to the renowned Westvleteren 12 which many consider the de-facto best beer in the world. I don't think I agree with that but it is a fantastic beer and certainly one of the best and most complex drinks I have ever had.

Can't agree about the 12 being best beer either. The alcohol is out of whack and knocks the whole beer out of balance. What I love about the 8 is that you have no idea of the strength from the taste. And that yummy brioche nose...

buck65

The Shepherds Neame beers in Lidl are amazing and great value too. That Amber Ale is very good as is Bishop's finger.
Best Beer in the world for me is either Porterhouse Chiller or Franciscan Brewery Cork's Blarney Blond. Quite similar both but excellent.
Love Czech beers too as I lived there for a while. There was a dark Krosuvice that was heavenly.

Edit: Also Galway Hooker is lovely too! And can't beat a pint of Porterhouse Porter or Wrasslers. If only Guinness tasted this good.

Saruman

buck65 wrote: »

The Shepherds Neame beers in Lidl are amazing and great value too. That Amber Ale is very good as is Bishop's finger.
Best Beer in the world for me is either Porterhouse Chiller or Franciscan Brewery Cork's Blarney Blond. Quite similar both but excellent.
Love Czech beers too as I lived there for a while. There was a dark Krosuvice that was heavenly.

Edit: Also Galway Hooker is lovely too! And can't beat a pint of Porterhouse Porter or Wrasslers. If only Guinness tasted this good.

By all accounts it used to. As soon as they started serving/carbonating it with the co2/nitrogen mix it would have instantly gone down hill and perhaps before then too.

Most of the great beers of the past are just shadows of what they once were. Bass is a prime example of a beer that went from the most popular and by all accounts one of the best tasting beers the world has ever seen, to a beer no one drinks and a brewery/name that is essentially being laid to rest.

Mass production = more profit but a complete downward spiral in terms of quality.

Krusty_Clown

Saruman wrote: »

By all accounts it used to. As soon as they started serving/carbonating it with the co2/nitrogen mix it would have instantly gone down hill and perhaps before then too.

Most of the great beers of the past are just shadows of what they once were. Bass is a prime example of a beer that went from the most popular and by all accounts one of the best tasting beers the world has ever seen, to a beer no one drinks and a brewery/name that is essentially being laid to rest.

Mass production = more profit but a complete downward spiral in terms of quality.

I was surprised to see Bass going down a treat in California, where it was treated with no uncertain amount of reverence. I didn't try it myself (for the same reason I can't bring myself to drink Harp) but I should have, just to see if it bears any passing resemblance to the muck I remember from my yesteryear.

BeerNut

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I was surprised to see Bass going down a treat in California, where it was treated with no uncertain amount of reverence.

The US is weird that way. Marketing by the importers has worked a treat to convince the fussiest of beer drinkers that some bland industrial beers -- the sort of thing they'd never touch if they were brewed in the US -- are excellent, mostly because they come from Old World breweries founded in the 18th century.

Beware when re-evalutating Bass that there are at least three different drinks using the name. What we get here is the one brewed by C&C in Glasgow; there's also an English keg version brewed at Salmesbury, which is probably what they were drinking in the US; the cask version of Bass is contracted out to Marston's. There's a version sold in Belgium as well but I'm not sure if that's brewed by John Martin in Belgium or imported from Salmesbury, and if the latter whether or not it's a different recipe again.

Edited to add:
And to further complicate things, the guy in charge of the craft brewery at MolsonCoors (who now own all of Bass except the name) says that his Worthington E bitter is basically the old Bass Pale Ale recipe and probably the closest thing on the market to Bass in its heyday.

buck65

Bass isn't the worst, a bit like Smithwicks but more body. A nice summer evening drink. Better than most of the ****e in bars on tap if you can get it.

Heroditas

buck65 wrote: »

The Shepherds Neame beers in Lidl are amazing and great value too. That Amber Ale is very good as is Bishop's finger.
Best Beer in the world for me is either Porterhouse Chiller or Franciscan Brewery Cork's Blarney Blond. Quite similar both but excellent.
Love Czech beers too as I lived there for a while. There was a dark Krosuvice that was heavenly.

Edit: Also Galway Hooker is lovely too! And can't beat a pint of Porterhouse Porter or Wrasslers. If only Guinness tasted this good.

<makes mental note to go to Lidl tomorrow to stock up>

Wrasslers is my favourite stout on tap in Ireland.
Superb.

Monty Burnz

ApeXaviour wrote: »

IMHO the best beer in the world is Duvel. 8,5% Golden Ale with a slightly sweet almost tastes texture, tastes like it's 5%

Duvel is good, but the Trappist beers are the best in my opinion. Chimay Trippel, Westmalle Trippel - superb beers. Best drunk at around 12-14 degrees because they actually have a taste - not like your typical Budweiser or Miller which they sell to you freezing cold because it desensitises the tongue

Beery Eyed

This is nearly impossible to answer given the range and variation that makes beer so great. However, if I was only going to be able to pick one beer, then Duvel would certainly have to be up there. It really is just fantastic every time I go back to it. Great flavours & the alcohol is beautifully balanced despite being so high.

People may prefer others that are a different style, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone that has tried Duvel say a bad word about it.

Martyn1989

I tried a couple of bottles by the Purple Moose Brewery in Porthmadog, North Wales, when I was there a couple of months ago, they where all amazing!!!!

hoorsmelt

Abbaye Tripel Karmeliet, belgian beer, 8.4%, fantastic beer for a session or just a quiet drink. It's a blonde beer, similar enough to Leffe in terms of texture but the taste is alot better. Over a year since I had some

Saruman

hoorsmelt wrote: »

Abbaye Tripel Karmeliet, belgian beer, 8.4%, fantastic beer for a session or just a quiet drink. It's a blonde beer, similar enough to Leffe in terms of texture but the taste is alot better. Over a year since I had some

8.4% Session beer :eek: That would be some session

Porterhouse TSB is a proper session beer at 3.7% and being Cask it does not fill you up with co2 either so you can down loads of them and still feel grand in the morning as long as you have enough water in between.

g5fd6ow0hseima

Zebra3 wrote: »

Try Švyturys. Lithuanian beer. Fantastic!!!

Had it over there during the summer when Shels were playing there and one of my local off-licences stocks it now.

I had the 'Baltas' range of that brand and it was lovely - probably the nicest wheat beer I've had. Pity its so rare to find in off licences though.