Best beer ever?
So what is it?
I offer up Hop Devil, by the Victory Brewing Co. in Pennsylvania. Very tangy from the hops (duuhhhh), but enough malt body so that it's almost thick. I took a tour of their brewery/restaurant a couple of years ago. Tremendous food to go with their beer, that's why it was packed, I'm sure.
As for the worst beer....it would be cheap and easy to say Budweiser....so I won't. Actually, because Bud doesn't exactly try too hard, it ends up being harmless. The worst beer I've ever had may have been Hop Monster, brewed by Paper City in Holyoke MA. It tasted like paper pulp must. And the thing was, the first sip you're like, "wow..." and then you realize, "oh God! What the hell am I drinking?" And of course, I kept trying to fool myself later in the week, starting another bottle....getting fewer and fewer sips in before realizing I was in taste bud hell. Was it paper? Was it motor oil? Who knows....
I suppose it's easy, too, to offer up beer brewed with lemon ginger, or cayenne pepper in it. But those are an attempt to mingle flavors. More easy to forgive the attempt. Hop Monster really had no excuse for sucking so bad.
5 comments:
my dad once got a Sam Adams Holiday something-or-other that he said was so vile, he would only consider using it in place of LiquidPlumr to unclog the bathroom sink. =P
he really likes the "Old Slugger" and "Nine Man Ale" from the Cooperstown Brewing Company.
Best beer ever:
We (my then-boyfriend and I) were in Brussels, and went to this beer-cellar that had been recommended to us. We sat down on these wooden benches, and a guy comes up in a bowtie and butcher's apron (overtop other clothes, of course) and asks whatever the French equivalent is of, "So what'll it be?" We ordered the lambic doux sort of at random. A ewer (yes, an actual big earthenware ewer) of beer arrived, together with two glasses. Despite the name, it was only just a tad bit sweet (tasted faintly of honey) but very strong, very smooth, and it tasted like it was made with, like, the best hops anywhere.
Worst beer ever:
At the Cincinnati Oktoberfest with my brother. I was in line to get a glass of some sort of a weissbeer--I forget which brand (Paulaner, maybe?). This EXTREMELY drunk guy comes up behind me and says to me:
"Don't do it! DON'T DO IT!"
"Why not?"
"I've gotta whisper it so the ladies don't hear."
So he leans over into my ear, without my asking him to, and he spits out (loud enough for the ladies to hear anyway) "It tastes like a yeast infection!"
I have no idea what a yeast infection tastes like, and this really wasn't a bad weissbeer at all. But the experience was completely ruined for me. And now, whenever I drink any weissbeer, it still conjures memories of drunk Ohioans making inappropriate sotto voce remarks in my ear.
A place called Flatlanders in Lincolnshire (north of Chicago) has a beer called the Lincolnshire Lager which is delicious. I also had a Drake's Expedition Ale when I was out in CA once. It was awesome.
Have you been to the Boston Beer Works? They have a pumpkin ale and a blueberry ale that are great. There are actual blueberries in it that float around because of the carbonation!
I have had that blueberry beer. But the best beer I had at BBW was the watermelon ale. It looks stupid, coming served with a slice of watermelon in it. But son of a gun, the beer tasted like watermelon even without the slice in it. It was scary good, like, "I can't believe I'm drinking this, and it's 10 times better than I could have expected." Like I had 3 of them in an hour (on top of the other beers of the day) and then had to stumble over to Fenway for the second inning (they were already losing 6-0...to Tampa Bay, no less...ugh)
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