After a visit to our not-so-local microbrewery/pizza place, we now have:

• Old Forge Brewing Company T-Rail Pale Ale
• Voodoo Brewery 4 Seasons IPA
• Bass IPA
• Breckenridge Extra ESB
• Sam Adams Whitewater IPA
• Sam Adams Double Agent IPL

Just enjoyed a tall bottle of Quilter's Death Stout from Iron Horse Brewery. Lovely.

http://www.ironhorsebrewery.com/brews/irish-death/

A mixed bag of various Austin Beerworks selections, including:

Peacemaker Extra Pale Ale
Black Thunder German-style Schwarz
Fire Eagle American IPA

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Mohawk Black Coffee, Easter Edition
^^^

Just started a 4 pack of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale. It's good stuff.

O'So Nighttrain

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile...45260/?ba=dstc

Wasatch Evolution Amber Ale :)

In bottle form it's almost as good as it is on tap in the Sky Club at SLC. Still probably one of my favorite not-so-hoppy beers.

-J.

Just out of interest, why do members think that Americans like super hoppy beers? The are so many IPAs in the US, whereas here it is more about Goldens, Ambers, Lagers; much more subtle flavours than just a huge hit of hops.

Any thoughts?

It's mostly born out of the craft beer revival with micro-brewers going to ever more ludicrous attempts to make their beers unrecognisable and different from the mainstream but really just making them so hoppy and/or strong as to be almost undrinkable.

Regretfully, the same thing is happening in the UK where craft brewing has exploded in the last 5-10 years and with it the slavish need to copy American brewers.

This may be the reason why, despite the massive increase in the number of small brewers, craft beers are still not hugely popular although I suspect it is more likely to be costs.

For some reason these new brewers think craft is another word for rip-off.
Certainly some of the prices they charge for their experiments are more taking the piss than getting you pissed.

And thusly, I am hopped out. I've had enough. I gravitate towards ambers and especially pislners these days.

Meanwhile, while I no longer have a fridge (or house to put one in, for that matter) I have been stocking up my belly with Yeungling this week, while it's available. Another great beer I'll be drinking as soon as I can find some here in sunny Orlando is Orange Blossom Pilsner. If you see it, buy it - though I have never seen it more than 100 miles from Orlando.

Plenty of Europeans love the hop bombs. You should see what I can get in trade from Belgian and Dutch guys for Zombie Dust and some of the stuff from Stone/Green Flash, etc.

And once you've become used to the hops, going back to the milder beers can be very disappointing.

A lot of the so-called Golden/Amber/Lager here is just garbage, and many of us are trained to view it with suspicion.

I love hoppy beers. I do find that some of the milder beers are very disappointing, be it that I'm used to the hops, or just that they lack flavor in general.

Perhaps the American pallate (sp?) has just been overwhelemed and cant appreciate the subltly of a few different hop varieties combined to create unique, subtle, smooth flavours in good pilseners, goldens, ambers etc.

If anyone is interested i would suggest checking out:
Little Creatures Pale Ale
James Squire Summer Ale
Monteiths Summer
Wicked Elf Pilsener

They are some amazing Aus/NZ beers and a very good intro to delicious hot weather subtler (but delicious) flavours.

I enjoy IPAs from time to time, but the amount in the US (on a % of craft beer basis) really amazes me

A lot of it is to do with culture I suspect.
In the UK you will find a lot of session beers - all around the 3.8% ABV mark they're designed to be drunk by the pint and in some quantity,hence the name session.
It wouldn't be considered unusual to have four or five pints in each session on a regular basis.
My experience of drinking the US doesn't really reflect this - a lot of beers are much stronger ( averaging around the 4.8% mark for mainstream drafts ) and for either culturual or practical reasons are not drunk in quite the same quantity.
I may be wrong,of course :)

Eh, I don't. I do love sweet/malty/fruity & then all the way on the other side with sour stuff. But yeah, the US, especially West Coast, is all about hops. Maybe I just don't get it? The stuff I'm drinking usually though is not all that "mild" so to speak. I just can't really take the hop bitterness.