Getting Interested In (better) Beer

[argon]

Had a couple of Urquells over the weekend and was recounting how i came to get interested in beer.
When i was at uni i never really drank that much, except for the large blow outs here and there... never one to have a quiet beer... just didn't like the standard VB or XXXX... usually got into Toohey's Old or Guinness.

Anyway... used to do a lot of training and had a subscription to Men's Health Magazine (not gay). There was an article in there about world's best beers or something similar. They rated Urquell as the top. Granted not written by a beer geek talking about Trappist Westvleteren 12 or anything... but a decent read about some decent beers readily available at the local bottlo. So from this i decided to try out a few from the list... and that's where I started to go pear-shaped.

So it's your fault Men's Health... you were supposed to keep from getting fat and keep me healthy!!!
You bastards let me down!!! <_<

 

[drew9242]

LCPA started me on my beer adventure. Then started brewing kits and progressed to all grain. And now go out of my way to try all sorts of beer.

I helped somone out for an half hour once. And they asked me what beer i drink, so i said normaly i buy an asortment of beer and try them all out. Got too hard for them to phathom that so the bought me a carton of carlton dry. Has been sitting there for 6 months now. should try to get rid of it one day.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

LCPA started me on my beer adventure. Then started brewing kits and progressed to all grain. And now go out of my way to try all sorts of beer.

I helped somone out for an half hour once. And they asked me what beer i drink, so i said normaly i buy an asortment of beer and try them all out. Got too hard for them to phathom that so the bought me a carton of carlton dry. Has been sitting there for 6 months now. should try to get rid of it one day.

Have found myself in that situation, so I just say "go to Dan's and choose x beer" (depending on what their budget is and what I think they owe me, x beer will vary). I don't get much variety, but it does mean I don't end up with Lion Nathan/Foster Group beer sitting under my house for two years. I learned that lesson the hard way - don't be indecisive, just say "I like x beer".

Or don't help them. :lol:

Goomba

 

[drew9242]

Well they actually didn't ask me, they asked me wife. So she didn't really know what beer i buy because it is allways different. Ohh well she did try.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Well they actually didn't ask me, they asked me wife. So she didn't really know what beer i buy because it is allways different. Ohh well she did try.

I'm sorry to hear that. My wife has had that situation happen too, though at least it was Hollandia that came out of it. It's passable.

She just says "get some german beer from Dan Murphy's, it must say 'made in Germany'" - that about covers her and I've not yet had an issue. Sometimes the beer isn't excellent beer (no one has bought me a carton of Weihenstephaner yet), but at least it isn't XXXX or Carlton or VB.

All we gotta do is get someone to fund our next brews instead. Still working on that one.

Goomba

 

[earle]

I used to dring Powers Gold. Because it always around the cheapest for a 30 pack.I think you can still get it in Qld, not sure about southern states. I installed an air conditioner for a friend for a carton of beer and she got me JSAA. That was the start of it for me.

On beer selection I know a sailor that always buys tooheys gold "because when you have run out of cooling on your boat and have to drink warm beer it tastes the best". :huh: Least worst??

Firend got me a gift card for Dan's for my birthday. Didn't have it to drink on my B'day but at least I'll get beer that I want.

 

[bignath]

Hmmmmm. What got me interested in better beer?

These forums!

I used to drink Coopers Pale as my "weapon of choice". Then discovered Little Creatures and James Squire etc..

Nowadays, i go to Dan's as an "excursion" where i try to pick a few different beers i've never had just to see if i can recognise ingredients or how they made it etc...One's i've enjoyed recently, Sam Adams, Urquell, Leffe, Old Speckled Hen etc...

I still like the old Coopers green label, but to be honest, once the all grain beers and the process used to create them gets all sorted out, i like most of us that AG, would prefer our own beer than store bought. I grabbed a box CPA two months ago for the sole intention of using it for the yeast. I still haven't drank it yet because i can't go past my own AG beers.
24 bottles, 2 for each yeast starter means that i get 12 starters without re-using them for $38. What's the cost of 12 packets of yeast????

I have to cater for a 40th birthday on the weekend. The beer is all done, kegged and carbed ready to go. It's killing me that i can't go drink it...

 

[Hatchy]

I have to cater for a 40th birthday on the weekend. The beer is all done, kegged and carbed ready to go. It's killing me that i can't go drink it...

I had the same problem this time last week. I brewed the beer for our wedding & had it sitting in the keg fridge waiting for the big day. I'm glad I left it, we demolished 4 cornies in about 4 hours.

 

[ekul]

When i was 17 i used to ask the bottlo guy "whats x beer like?". I used to do it partly because talking would make me appear less anxious at buying beer underage and partly because i figured that noone underage would engage the bottlo guy unneccessarily, so i'd appear of age. Didn't get my ID checked until my 20s, so it worked. In doing so i tried alot of different beers.

 

[felten]

I was into drinking guinness at one point, that was what I viewed as a top class beer at the time, and was disappointed with the quality of a lot of the cans from our local bottle-o; some of them were really metallic and not worth their expensive price tag. So I thought to myself, I can definitely make a beer better than this. Also my granddad, dad and eldest brother all brewed at some point in their lives, so I guess it's in my blood.

 

[whitegoose]

I worked in a bottle shop for about 2 years when I was between school and uni and was put in charge of stocking what was at the time a pretty damn big wall of imported beers... I started to take a different beer home every night... I remember being blown away by samuel adams boston lager, and schofferhofer. Also started brewing around this tiime but had no idea what I was doing and soon stopped.

After I finished working there I kinda just drifted. My drink of choice was coopers at home and becks at the pub for years. I'd go to little creatures and have a few but not be overly excited by the beer. I remember loving duvel.

I think the tipping point for me was trying Fat Yak. No particular reason, I guess at the time it was hoppy as all hell and it really fascinated me, and before I knew it I was completely under beer's spell. Definitely working at that bottleshop paved the way, but it was a pint Fat Yak at the Brass Monkey in Northbridge that broke the camels back.

 

[proudscum]

LCPA started me on my beer adventure. Then started brewing kits and progressed to all grain. And now go out of my way to try all sorts of beer.

I helped somone out for an half hour once. And they asked me what beer i drink, so i said normaly i buy an asortment of beer and try them all out. Got too hard for them to phathom that so the bought me a carton of carlton dry. Has been sitting there for 6 months now. should try to get rid of it one day.

As the weather is getting warmer you could use it to clean the bbq .Thats wot i do with left over VB etc.

 

[thelastspud]

I was living inn scotland and i usually drunk whatever lager but someone bought me a pint of Tennets Ember (their 80 shilling ale) by mistake. Was a great mistake.
Thats when I really started getting interested in different beers

 

[BitterBulldog]

I remember trying LCPA on tap about 10 years ago in a pub in Balmain. They were promoting it, so i gave it try.
I remember thinking how aweful it was.... now it's one of my faves!

Even before that i remember trying a bottle of Samual Adams Boston Lager.... HATED IT! now think it's awesome.

great, look where it's taken me... now i find myself buying $160 Cubes of Imperial Stout :angry:

 

[manticle]

Never liked vb etc as a teenager (preferred cheap spirits, cheap liquers and cheap wine). My first job beyond delivering newspapers was in kitchens as a dish pig so on the rare occasion when I finished early enough to actually be offered a drink, I'd always try something new. Restaurant I worked in sold duvel and delerium tremens so I was interested in some good beers early.

Knew nothing about most of the processes though until I'd fermented a few kits and got curious about how to brew from scratch.

 

[O'Henry]

Never drank much beer, just at the Uni Bar. Got the idea one day to drink as many different beverages from Dan's as possible. The first time we did it, we spent $350 on single bottles of beer and cider. Took the 4 of us a solid evening and we still didnt get through them all. Did it a second time about 6 months later and had to stop due to flavour overload. Did a tour of JS in Sydney and thought the brewery was freaking awesome. Was the day they launched 2010 Commemorative Ale.

It was around the same time that I went to the Lord Nelson for the first time, and I thought I'd check out that SpecTAPular thing. Rouge's Hazelnut Brown on tap blew my mind. It was all down hill from there.

 

[Lecterfan]

I was actually converted to beer by homebrew. Although I bit my "virtual" tongue on another thread recently, I grew up with, and am probably able to be classified as a, "bogan"(s). But from 16-18 I could drink any beer known to mankind because it was ingested so quickly that it barely touched my tongue. Then I realised how awful the standard megaswills were (mostly by tasting them on the way back up). So I turned to bourbon. Even there I had trouble as I needed more expensive brands to scratch my itch....was never a woodstock fan, even in my early 20s. I convinced myself I was erudite and mysterious to the ladies by having my bourbon with dry ginger haha.

6 years ago I moved to WA briefly and my Uncle sat me down on the first night (I was camping in their backyard) and he poured me an ale...just a coopers K+K type thing...but to me it was awesome. And then I discovered dark beers and I was hooked. All of a sudden "beer" no longer represented unbearably acidic, acrid gastric juice and was a whole world of malty goodness. My megaswill of choice was Tooheys Old and a variety of stouts, whcih I must say made the transition to homebrewing a bit easier than it is for people trying to make a Stella or something on their first go.

After 5 years of KK, partials and extract, I finally went AG just recently and am chuffed with the results and the journey so far. :icon_cheers: