Ok so I love beer and I especially like trying new and different beers and drinking what I believe to be quality beer. Here are some beers I've tried lately and my opinions on them.

Dark Isle: Pale Ale
Made in Hobart, Tasmania - micro brewery. Frankly this beer was boring - it had very little flavour and not much body. Ok aroma but pretty average. It's like lift music - nobody is going to hate this beer - but nobody is going to list it in their top 5 beers either. Most uninteresting beer I've ever tasted.

Dark Isle: Triple Malt
Obviously also made in Hobart. Completely different to the Pale Ale - strong body - intriguing flavour - very fruity. Full bodied and colourful aroma. - Probably hard to find but worth the effort!


James Boags: Honey Porter
Made in Launceston, Tasmania. My first impression was that the beer had a horrible taste. Very sweet aroma - presumably from the honey. Thick body and quite a strange mix of bitterness and sweetness. Actually grew on me quite a bit - very interesting flavour - not like any beer I've tried before (although this was also my first porter). Usually not a fan of beer with honey in it but this was an exception. Better then average and worth trying once for the experience :P

Cascade: First Harvest Ale
Every year Cascade make a fresh ale out of the first days harvest of hops - and then promote it like it's a great beer and everybody should try it before it runs out. There is a very obvious reason why brewers don't usually make beer as fresh as the Harvest Ale. It was very dissapointing - very simple flavour and aroma - not much complexity about the beer at all.

Ok so I've got the ball rolling - put your beer reviews here! - prefably not beers that people would drink all the time but I guess it can't hurt.

Boag's XXX Ale

Available only in Tasmania and only to people aged over 18.

When the James Boag established the Esk Brewery in 1881 in fabulous Launceston, Tasmania, Boag never would have imagined that some one hundred and twenty years later his brewery would not only be creating some of the best beers in the world, but that their original product, now named Boag's XXX Ale, would still be satisfying the thirst Tasmanian beer lovers.

Boag's XXX Ale is a traditional full strength pale ale, brewed to the same recipe since it's creation over a century ago. It has a beautifully moderate, fruity aroma. If you take the time to pour it into a glass you will discover its deep golden colour and excellent clarity, reminiscent of a Cradle Mountain stream. When poured correctly it should have a light head.

However where Boag's Ale really stands out is with its fantastic flavour, an ingredient that is obviously imperative in a good beer. It has a light to medium body and is softly carbonated. It has a clean crisp character, excellent mouthfeel and great hops bitterness. It tastes great at a barbie, or even while sitting back after a hard days work to watch the cricket.

If I could pick a fault in Boag's XXX Ale, I'd say that the red label is a little too Toohey's New, in appearance and occasionally gives me horrible flashbacks of interstate Touch Footy trips. It's Tasmanian exclusiveness gives great bagging rights, but does limit the opportunities of others to discover this beer and unfortunately dramatically increases the chances of me being forced to drink piss the next time I cross The Straight.

While, I'm a huge Boag's Draught fan, this is without question Boag's best beer. And certainly one that since discovered will definitely receive the dedicated space in the fridge that it so definitely deserves.

I think I'll have another one.

Five Stars.

What would you recommend for someone who dislikes beer :P

Coopers Original Pale Ale

The South Aussie Stalwart. Its like the girl you keep coming back to after expanding your horizons searching for someone more exotic.

Whilst not the most complex Ale of the Coppers Family (the others being Coopers Sparkling Ale, Coopers Dark Ale, Coopers Mild Ale) it features a fruity character, robust flavour, and always goes down smooth.

Taken from Coopers.com.au;

'Naturally fermented in the "Burton-on-Trent" style, a secondary fermentation creates the trademark sediment that gives 'Pale' its fine cloudy appearance. This cloudy residue can be stirred through the beer by tipping or rolling the bottle before drinking.'

I must note, its also highly adaptive. I've had this beer at the Cricket, at a Barbie, during dinner, or just on a night on the town. It never gets boring, and never fails to satisfy.

Best on tap or straight from the bottle.

****1/2


edit: Tags

I don't 'love' beer, but when I drink it, I drink Boags Premium



Now I've had it, I can't drink anything less

hmm. My best advice would be to not read topics for beer lovers - because you may get bored. If you can't help yourself - well it really depends on what you do like (and what you don't like about beer).

Here are some different beers to try that might suit you:

Leffe: Blonde
Corona: Extra
Hoeggarden: Forbidden Fruit

Beer is a bit of an aquired taste too. Also always try to drink beer out of a glass or at least a bottle - beer from a can doesn't taste the way it was intenteded. Maybe do a little bit of research into the kinds of beers you are going to try - find out how they should be consumed - and maybe with a particular meal. Some types of beers are made to be drunk in specific ways - ie don't ever drink an ale from the tap - but from a bottle instead. You can easily notice the difference between a lagar that has been bottled and when it's on tap (better on tap). Also look at expiary dates - beer goes stall pretty easily. Even if it's not passed the use by date. Also store beer well and carefully.

But I guess it depends on why you're drinking the beer - for the taste or for getting drunk. Probably not neccessary to be too involved if you just want to get drunk. In those circumstances I tend to buy an old favourite beer - something I know tastes good. Trying lots of different beers is like training and then going out and getting drunk is game day - if you've worked hard in practice you'll dominate on the field :D

Haha. I won't say I hate it, but I don't like it either. Maybe because I've never tasted a good beer? The only one I really like is Corona and Dos Equis XX, a mexican beer I had at Montezuma's.
After reading beast's list there, I got a big craving for Dark Isle: Triple Malt and James Boags: Honey Porter's beer. Mmm, malty...

Asahi is actually quite a nice beer... But you can't go wrong with a bottle of Beck's, Heineken or Corona.

Dude! Asahi is one of my favourite beers!! Easily the best exported beer from Japan and the best mainstream Japanese beer. I'm not a fan of Beck's or Heineken - Corona can be nice sometimes - definitly something to drink with a meal!

Yeah, you could easily go through 2 of those, huh Slink? :P

I'm a simple beer man, give me a VB and I'm happy, although I do have a preference for Crownies...Stellas are good too.

In Belguim Stella is also known as "wife beater" - so it's good to see some consistancy in that you drink VB as well :D

Crownies are over rated in my opinion. Putting beer in a silly shaped bottle and putting an expensive price tag on it doesn't make it good :P

Definitely, it's certainly very poncy. However I prefer the taste to VB. I'm not exactly an authority on beers, and I haven't come close to tasting a wide variety of beers, so basically, put a VB, Stella and a Crownie in front of me and I'll grab the Crownie. Then the VB, then the Stella. :P

I'm not a beer man, spirits are my poison, as I usually can't stand more than a bottle or two before I feel a little sick. If I had to choose, I'd go Piss, Boag's Premium, then Corona with lemon/lime.

I couldn't tell if you were joking, or what, but that Boag's Honey Porter beer Beast mentioned is a good place to start. It's got little to no aftertaste and the usual strong beer taste is no longer there, either. A much sweeter and more smooth beer. If you tried one, you could easily tell the difference. There's also a beer called Bees Knees, but that might be Melbourne only(?), and Mountain Goat (that's definitely Melbourne only).

I drink beer only because all my mates do, most of it's way too strong tasting for me, but I can only drink the premium stuff. Usually after a couple of beers I move onto the lolly water (Breezers etc).

I'm pretty sure that Beez Neez is made in Fremantle, WA. You can get it in most places I think. I've never tried it personally - the name is too silly ;)

I used to hate beer, but then I started drinking it slowly everytime my friends went out, and each time it grew on me. The more you drink, the more you appreciate it.

I'm a Coopers Pale Ale man myself.

I wasn't joking hello :P

The only beer I've liked was a corona with lime.

Corona really is a strong beer. It's full bodied, flavorful, and smooth. However, it's hard to buy a beer that costs more. It's probably the highest priced lager you can buy unless you go to a specialty shop. With Corona you are buying a clear bottle that looks cool with a lime in it.

Having said all of that, I don't object to a very cold Corona if it is sweltering hot outside. Who would? Mabye you beer haters! *cough* Pauly *cough* :P It is very light and may lack character, but at least it doesn't have any skunky or objectionable off note flavors.

I found this pretty interesting. Apparently before the importer began importing Corona from Mexico, Corona was literally considered to be the bottom of the ladder crap beer in Mexico, which was given to day laborers.

Once it became trendy because of Yuppies, that's all she wrote.

As a 17 y/o who loves Rum and Bourbon, i haven't tasted many varieties of beer.
The few i've had are Crown Lager, Corona, XXXX Bitter, Cascade Premium Light and Midstrengh Somethingorother.
The Crownies were ok, the Corona's were a little better with some lemon, the XXXXs and Midstrengths i could barely stand and the Cascades were beautiful. That said, the order i had them in was XXXX, MS, Crown, Corona and Cascades.
The Cascades were quite recent, and the XXXXs were about 12 months ago, so i think there is no real judgment there, as i believe beer is an aquired taste and that's probably the reason why i liked the Cascades and not the XXXXs or MS.

:D I live like 500m away from the Cascade Brewery. :D

Does it smell? :P. You bastard.

Carlton Draught. One of the best beers ever. Seriously. Whoever decided to put a trivia quiz under the cap is a marketing genius. It keeps people opening them at parties or wherever.

Apart from that Bavaria is good, so is Boags Premium Light and Becks goes alright too.

Was it Carlton or XXXX who originally came out with the trivia?

I usually can't go past Victoria Bitter in terms of an all-round beer. Great taste, goes down well, and no nasty aftertaste you get from others such as Carlton Cold.

Of course for a special occasion, or if I feel like spending up, ill go for something such as Crown Larger or Cascade Premium. Both have an awesome taste that can't be beat.
Also don't mind the odd bottle of stout (sp?). Great stuff.

Oh, and I can't stand XXXX. How can people drink that crap?

Carlton Cold is the best - although last time i drank it i was throwing up for like the next 7 hours - perhaps that was because i drank half a carton much too quickly....

Carlton Cold does have a pretty weird aftertaste - i dont mind it though...

If i had unlimited monies i would drink heiniken (sp) but it cost like $50 for a carton whereas normal beer is only like $30 at most...

My dad has a massive beer collection in our outside fridge, and when I run out of my drinks, he lets me have one. I usually go with Corona, because it has a different taste to all the others in the fridge, such as Crown and Cascade. I also like Johnny's Black Label.

EDIT: Forgot Heiniken. I've only had one or two of those though, and they were in Europe when I was there for the Olympic games last year.

I hate VB. I don't understand how people drink it. Second worst beer ever in my opinion.

Yeah, i'm not a VB fan either.

My favourite beer is probably heineken. Don't mind the ol crown lager or hahn premium either. Not much of a beer junkie, so I must try some of the ones recommended.

Oh, and nothing makes me bring up faster than a shitty corona with lemon/lime. Gas aplenty!

Never tasted Heineken. What's it like?

Pretty boring in my opinion - most mass produced beers are. It's about as standard a pale lagar as you'll find. Certainly a long way from the best Dutch beer you can get!

I think it's quite nice, but as I said before, i'm hardly a connoisseur on beer. It's got an unusual almost bittery taste to it.

beer thread! huzzah! i can't believe i missed it...

firstly, let me start by saying :D

now that's out of the way, some thoughts in no particular order...

coopers i don't mind a spot of coopers here and there, i dig the dark ale more than the pale. i like a bit of extra stout too when i'm in the mood.

corona is okay once in a while. i'm much more of an ale man though...

asahi i haven't tried but am intrigued...

beez neez i really like. it's a bit sweet but the honey flavour is awesome.

carlton draught i'm a pretty big fan. because it sits outside my ale comfort zone i don't drink much of it but when i do, i enjoy it.

vb it's not too bad if you're desperate... well, really desperate.

xxxx a beer that only queenslanders can enjoy :D

the beer that i continually forget the name of but i really like they're called premiums but i can never remember who makes them... i think it's carlton... not sure. anyways, it's the smoothest beer i've ever tasted. honestly, it goes down like water. you have to be careful with it because you can drink half a carton before you know it.

everything beast mentioned in the first post i haven't tried but i'm very keen to... send me a carton of each if you could thanks mate :D

also, i've noticed over the years that after a heavy night on the sauce, i'm hung over like a mofo if i've drinking beer or spirits, but if i've just been drinking ale i'm right as rain. is there any scientific reason why i'm unaffected by ale? out of curiosity.

This is just a guess, but I'd say because you need to drink more beer to get the same effect as spirits, you need to pee more, thus some alcohol is probably leaving your system without actually having any effect on you. Hangovers seem to be pure luck for me- I've had nights where just a few drinks had me groggy all the next day, and other nights where I've gone through nearly an entire bottle of something and been right as rain in the morning. :blink:

I'd have to say Carlton Draught is my favorite beer. I love the stuff.

VB is okay mainly due to the fact it is so cheap. :P I'll drink it, it tastes okay. Better then New, I hate that stuff with a passion. :P

Out of curosity, has anyone here had Bundy Draught before? It isn't beer, it is Bundy Rum and Coke put through the same Draughting process as Beer (or so I am lead to believe). It's beautiful.