What beer are we drinking this week, too?

Seaneh

Grayditch wrote: »

I think Amber Ella tastes nicer from the bottle, rather than poured into a glass. Weird.

You realise this means you prefer it when you can't taste it properly?

Herb Powell

Dolden Sud IPA and Weihenstephaner, two fine Bavarian beers

Grayditch

Seaneh wrote: »

You realise this means you prefer it when you can't taste it properly?

Whatever. I could taste loads of things going on. Never normally happens on the very rare occasion I try beer from bottles. The only other one I can think of is Belfast Blonde.

GY A1

today i have Mostly been drinking Carling

Seaneh

Grayditch wrote: »

Whatever. I could taste loads of things going on. Never normally happens on the very rare occasion I try beer from bottles. The only other one I can think of is Belfast Blonde.

Flavour is (according to leading scienticians in the field of foodieology) 85% smell.

You can only "taste" 5 things. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami.
Everything else is made up from smelly, texture, mouthfeel, etc.

When you drink from a bottle, you don't smell the beer are you drink it, hence you cannot experience the flavours fully.

dregin

Hit up Aldi for O'Shea's Stout for the first time at the weekend. Ridiculously good value

RasTa

Ordered 12 of these again for the weekend



They go down too quick, also €1.50 a bottle as they are out of date

cormacjones

Seaneh wrote: »

Flavour is (according to leading scienticians in the field of foodieology) 85% smell.

You can only "taste" 5 things. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami.
Everything else is made up from smelly, texture, mouthfeel, etc.

When you drink from a bottle, you don't smell the beer are you drink it, hence you cannot experience the flavours fully.

Fascinating...

I also prefer some beers straight from a bottle.

MonstaMash

Seaneh wrote: »

Flavour is (according to leading scienticians in the field of foodieology) 85% smell.

You can only "taste" 5 things. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami.
Everything else is made up from smelly, texture, mouthfeel, etc.

When you drink from a bottle, you don't smell the beer are you drink it, hence you cannot experience the flavours fully.

Had to look that one up...a new word to my vocabulary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

drumswan

I have a bag of MSG in the gaff, says its 'The essence of Umami" on it. Tempted to add some to my next homebrew stout :P

Seaneh

drumswan wrote: »

I have a bag of MSG in the gaff, says its 'The essence of Umami" on it. Tempted to add some to my next homebrew stout :P

Sam Adams did a Triple Bock before that had added MSG and apparently had a bit of a soy sauce bang off it, doesn't sound very appealing though...

drumswan

I like a salty edge in some beer styles myself. I was joking about the MSG, now Im going to look into it

Seaneh

drumswan wrote: »

I like a salty edge in some beer styles myself. I was joking about the MSG, now Im going to look into it

The BPBP Gose had a bit of a celery salt/coriander kick at the end if you're into that sort of lark, nice beer too.

drumswan

Yeah tried that one, very nice. I was more thinking of a smoked porter or the like.

Seaneh

drumswan wrote: »

Yeah tried that one, very nice. I was more thinking of a smoked porter or the like.

Drinkstore have Alaskan Smoked Porter in bottles, but it's a bit spendy. I really liked it, and I generally wouldn't be a fan of smoked beers.

cunnifferous

Anyone tried the Kinsale Session Ale? Only 3.5% but still heavily hopped like an IPA (according to the marketing blurb) Hope it's good. All these 6,7,8,9% beers, while delicious, aren't very conducive to getting much done the next day!

Seaneh

cunnifferous wrote: »

Anyone tried the Kinsale Session Ale? Only 3.5% but still heavily hopped like an IPA (according to the marketing blurb) Hope it's good. All these 6,7,8,9% beers, while delicious, aren't very conducive to getting much done the next day!

Not yet, hoping to find it in Dublin soon though. I really like the Kinsale beers.

Aglomerado

Brú Nitro Stout. Disappointing, in spite of having employed the recommended pouring technique. Could be lovely if they sorted that out.

Seaneh

Aglomerado wrote: »

Brú Nitro Stout. Disappointing, in spite of having employed the recommended pouring technique. Could be lovely if they sorted that out.

I still haven't have a full bottle of this, I really need to pick one up before they ditch the nitro-bottling (if rumors are to be believed).

BaZmO*

drumswan wrote: »

I like a salty edge in some beer styles myself. I was joking about the MSG, now Im going to look into it

Apparently Parmesan Cheese has the highest amount of naturally occurring MSG in any food.

Seaneh wrote: »

Drinkstore have Alaskan Smoked Porter in bottles, but it's a bit spendy. I really liked it, and I generally wouldn't be a fan of smoked beers.

I bought this (on your recommendation actually) and didn't like it at all. Definitely not worth the money imo.

snowblind

Agreed, I thought the Alaskan Smoked Porter would have been passable as a normal priced porter in a smaller bottle. But as a premium priced bomber, sheesh....

Grayditch

Alaska Smoked Porter is definitely not worth the money, for me. It was nice alright.

BaZmO*

snowblind wrote: »

Agreed, I thought the Alaskan Smoked Porter would have been passable as a normal priced porter in a smaller bottle. But as a premium priced bomber, sheesh....

It's not even a high ABV which can sometimes justify the high cost.

drumswan

Alaskan Smoked Porter is a gorgeous beer, the price it happens to be in Ireland is irrelevant

snowblind

BaZmO* wrote: »

It's not even a high ABV which can sometimes justify the high cost.

Yep. And I'd expect a premium porter be full flavoured.

Like I wouldn't care about a gueuze being premium priced, they'll be mostly in the 5%-6% range anyways and good ones are special enough.

But like...there's an Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout similarly priced in the offies now. Sub-7% BA stout. Let me guess what it tastes like. A stout with quite a thin body and overpowering caramelly whiskey flavour? I'd be gladly proven wrong but I've been burned too many times. 200 Fathoms and Celebration have been the only successful Irish ones to me, for example.

I know a smoked porter ain't the same, but it still was quite thin bodied and didn't exactly shower me with complexity of flavour.

snowblind

drumswan wrote: »

Alaskan Smoked Porter is a gorgeous beer, the price it happens to be in Ireland is irrelevant

From a subjective point of view, price is very much relevant.

For example, I personally can afford something in that price range only a few times a year. I will never buy again a beer in that range that I do not find exceptional.

If it was 3€ for a 0.355 bottle, the story would be different. "Quite nice" could do.

And I would suspect this is the case for most people, making the price relevant in their assessment of it.

drumswan

snowblind wrote: »

From a subjective point of view, price is very much relevant.

For example, I personally can afford something in that price range only a few times a year. I will never buy again a beer in that range that I do not find exceptional.

If it was 3€ for a 0.355 bottle, the story would be different.

And I would suspect this is the case for most people, making the price relevant in their assessment of it.

Not this again. Whether you can afford it is not relevant to the beers flavour. People are actually including a 'niceness per cent' metric when rating beers here, it winds me up no end

Grayditch

Price doesn't come into my review, or opinion of it, anyway. It comes into whether I buy it again. But I always wanna spend my money on something else when it's in the same store as a new beer I haven't tried or... just a nicer one!

snowblind

drumswan wrote: »

Not this again. Whether you can afford it is not relevant to the beers flavour. People are actually including a 'niceness per cent' metric when rating beers here, it winds me up no end

Every assessment of a beer is subjective, and paying money is part of the process of getting the beer into my mouth. If a brewery in California manages to put out an amazing IPA that costs 15$ for a 12 pack, and there are bombers of a beer of similar quality for 8$ in the next fridge, I applaud the former one. It is relevant to my experience. They have done a better job.

Let's say that if the beer I had was the best tasting beer, but due to chemical reasons it was solid. I'd find it very difficult to ingest. Would this be relevant? Or if it was served in a very impractical container....

I agree that reviewing a beer and giving it a poor mark but not explaining that it was due to value is bad form. But once you lay out your reasons, ANY reasons are good enough, as it is a persons subjective opinion. Pretending that the flavour can be tasted without external factors contributing to it at all is much worse IMO

BaZmO*

drumswan wrote: »

Alaskan Smoked Porter is a gorgeous beer, the price it happens to be in Ireland is irrelevant

Maybe in a world where we all blind tasted our beers and had Bill Gates like bank accounts price wouldn't matter.