Quote (AriG0Ld @ Sep 27 2013 12:30pm)
how many of you are craft beer virgins ?
such a vast area of different brews and tastes that can pair well with any food.
the west coast US i feel like it a head of the east but there are new breweries every day.
whats your favorite brewery and type of beer ?
what foods do u usually eat with these brews ?
im a big fan of IPAs, but im starting to drink and enjoy more and more stouts and porters .
dogfish is always pushing the boundry.
love stone, southern tier, there's soo much out there.
so get yourself out of the big name brews and try a craft beer. you might like it.
they are a little more expensive but you get a much better taste.
Favorite brewey: I cant pick one. there is at least half a dozen that are great. I drink a lot from Lagunitas, Deschutes, Ninkasi, and Full Sail breweries.
Favorite type of beer: is subject to change over the years but right now i'm in love with double red ales. I used to be a big IPA fan for years but i've had so much hops i think i've had enough. hops is a great flavor in beer but most IPAs just take it way too far with the hops. its all about personal taste anyways. I still enjoy stouts and porters, but its not something i'd want to drink everyday. Deschutes makes good stout and porter but i'm not a fan of their IPA. Ninkasi makes the best IPA imo. and Lagunitas makes my favorite red ale (Lucky 13).
What foods do i eat well, i'm not too picky about my beer/food match up. Darker beers like stouts can drink like a meal, they sit heavy in the stomach so i probably wouldn't drink it with a heavy meal. i like lighter beers like a pale ale with food and more stronger flavorful beers when i'm not eating.
About "craft beers", craft beer is not a term most people use here in Oregon. you're either a microbrewery or you're one of the big guys. craft beer was a term coined by the Brewers Association to describe breweries that have outgrown (in barrel production) the legal definition of microbrewery, yet are still independently owned. craft beer examples are the Boston Beer Company (makers of Samuel Adams), and Sierra Nevada Brewing. While craft beers companies aren't as large as Anheuser-Busch or Miller, they are sill large producers and distributors. Microbrewery beer doesn’t necessarily equal good beer but usually the larger the company gets, the more profit oriented they become and quality may suffer. But thats not to say a big brewer can’t make good beer (and i firmly believe this)
There is so many microbreweries in Oregon, that the somewhat larger craft beer companies tend to just get grouped as just non-microbrew, along with all the other major beer producers. There isn't really a "craft beer" middle ground to be said. Maybe Oregon is just living in the past. Sorry if I'm splitting hairs, craft beer is just a relativity new term here. Sometimes it bothers me how much people try to separate thing into groups.