What is your Favorite hard to find beer?

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:22 pm

When the warm weather hits, I tend to drink a bit more beer than I do in the cold A$$ New England winter months. That being the case I usually have a difficult time finding some of my favorite import beers, which led me to wonder what my fellow chiffer's favorite hard to find beers are?

Currently my Fave's hard to find beers are mostly Dark beers:

Kostrizer

Isenbeck

Xingu (Currently cooling in the freezer while I polish off the last cold Dos Equis)

Harpoon Munich style Dark (Which shouldn't be hard to find where I live!)

I also like Tiger Lager, but that has recently become widely available.

So, how about you? What are your had to find faves?

Loren

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:12 pm

Stone Ruination IPA. So called because once you've tasted it, your taste for any other IPA is ruined. Hard to find and expensive when you do, but so, so worth it.

Even harder to find is Stone Arrogant basmati. Awesome stuff.

Edit: hell and blood, Dale, are we in Romper Room or something? The name of the beer isn't "Arrogant Basmati," it's "Arrogant (word meaning 'child of unwed parents' that this forum idiotically renders as 'Basmati.')" Sheesh.

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:31 pm

Ro3b wrote:
Edit: hell and blood, Dale, are we in Romper Room or something? The name of the beer isn't "Arrogant Basmati," it's "Arrogant (word meaning 'child of unwed parents' that this forum idiotically renders as 'Basmati.')" Sheesh.

Geeze, when I first saw your post I was thinking it was was some sort of Rice beer. Like Great Divide Brewing Co.'s Samurai Ale or something. Glad you clarified. I'll have to look of for some Arrogant Child Of Unwanted Parents around town and see if I can find it to try out.

Loren

pipersgrip · Post by **pipersgrip** » Sat May 31, 2008 8:18 pm

Kilkenny Irish Red Ale Draught aka Red Guinness.

I would kill for some of that now.

Roderick [Rod] Sprague IV · Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:21 am

I was conceived in the Northwest when Olympia, affectionately known as Oly, was the dominant beer and still tasted good. I was exposed to it prenatally as well as having it a part of my racial memory. The local artesian well water in Tumwater Washington was an integral ingredient in making it taste good, so their motto was "It's the water." Then it went to hell to keep up with the dumbing down of culture in general. Fortunately, beer companies realized people who still had good taste represented a significant market, so Olympia reinvented good tasting Oly and called it Medallion, my favorite beer of all time. Unfortunately, the company stayed a small local brewery, made some serious business errors and went under. (One of the more humorous ones was coming up with a light beer called Olympia Gold and including the phrase "All our water is personally passed by the inspector." in its advertising campaign for that light beer.) Oly is still made as a side line by one of the big brewers and still says "It's the water." on the can, even though they do not even use the water that made it a good beer so long ago. The only way I will be able to taste Medallion again would be to take up home brewing and rebuild the flavor by memory, which is in the realm of possibility. I'm surprised no one has mentioned their favorite beer is something they make themselves.

jlunt · Post by **jlunt** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:07 am

Thomas Hardy's Ale. I haven't had it for 15 years and don't know if it's still being made. I know they stopped production in '99 but hear that they've started up again. I can still vividly remember the thick, smooth, creamy brew.

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:44 am

Ro3b wrote:Stone Ruination IPA. So called because once you've tasted it, your taste for any other IPA is ruined. Hard to find and expensive when you do, but so, so worth it.

Even harder to find is Stone Arrogant basmati. Awesome stuff.

Not hard to find here.

Last year after a gig, my band and I went looking for a late night meal and we ended up stumbling into the Stone Brewery. Appropriately, the building looks like a dark Satanic mill at night, sitting incongruously in the middle of a typical business park. But the interior is posh and modern and impressively non-micro for a microbrewery. Lots of big vats and tubes visible through the Bistro windows. Pretty neat.

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:14 am

jlunt wrote:Thomas Hardy's Ale. I haven't had it for 15 years and don't know if it's still being made. I know they stopped production in '99 but hear that they've started up again. I can still vividly remember the thick, smooth, creamy brew.

Cruise on down to Florida. We've got it. I haven't had it yet cause it's expensive. But I love Old English Ales.

Down here we have a hard time getting Dogfish Head's limited and specialty beers. Their current releases I keep asking our beer rep for are Palo Santo Marron, Immort Ale, and Chataeu Jiahu.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:26 am

I am still mourning Rolling Rock beer being sold and no longer bottled in Latrobe, PA.

jlunt · Post by **jlunt** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:39 am

Flogging Jason wrote:Cruise on down to Florida. We've got it. I haven't had it yet cause it's expensive. But I love Old English Ales.

Great! As it happens my parents live in Florida and my birthday's coming up. I think I know what I'm asking for.

It is expensive, and it's definitely a sipping beer (or more accurately Barley Wine). Its high alcohol content - something like 15% - pretty much precludes a "six-pack on game day" attitude.

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:50 am

Loren asked about favorite beers.

Don't you folks know the difference between a beer and an ale?

Next I suppose someone will volunteer chianti.

Loren, I drink what ever my husband is bottling.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:59 am

[quote="hyldemoer"]Loren asked about favorite beers.

Don't you folks know the difference between a beer and an ale?

[quote]

They're ALL beers (fermented,non-distilled grain beverages). The difference is between a lager and an ale.

Back in the day, I woulda said that my favorite was the one that I hadjust brewed, but then this pesky whistle making took up all of my spare time...

chas · Post by **chas** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:07 am

I live in a county where the county is the sole distributor of alcoholic beverages, so a lot of beers are hard to find. I have to cross into Virginia to find Belhaven, for example.

I don't even know their status, but there are a couple of English ales I haven't had in ages, Old Bedford and Vaux Double Maxim.

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:34 am

chas wrote:I live in a county where the county is the sole distributor of alcoholic beverages, so a lot of beers are hard to find. I have to cross into Virginia to find Belhaven, for example.

I don't even know their status, but there are a couple of English ales I haven't had in ages, Old Bedford and Vaux Double Maxim.

You gotta move, bud. That is living under tyranny.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:00 pm

hyldemoer wrote:
Loren, I drink what ever my husband is bottling.

Yes, me too