Regional Beers and Local Favorites

[KFCandKoolAid]

Torrey Pines IPA

[nath]

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I bought Dead Guy Ale at Target or something, not that obscure.

I have to go to a local alcohol store to get the other Rogue stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah Dead Guy is the the most popular one. Its actually the only Rogue beer available in stores in 6 packs. Everything else is 22oz bottles.

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Yeah, Rogue makes some excellent stouts.

I have drank far too much good beer to remember it all, but I love Abita, and Purple Haze was a staple of mine for a long time. When I lived in Syracuse, I really liked the stuff Harpoon did, and Wachusett made a blueberry ale I really liked.

Austin's Independence and Live Oak both cook up some good stuff, and of course if we're talking megaregionals there's Shiner (I don't know how widely available it is).

Pyramid Apricot is a staple of mine now. Yeah, I like fruit beers when I want something easy.

[RunDownHouse]

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The US has this amazing growing section of regional microbrews, much like what is available in places like Germany, Belgium, and Czech Rep.

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Except the only similarity may be in number and size. The European breweries all tend to brew the same few styles and rarely experiment. The bigger US "micros" (meaning those big enough to have the capacity to actually experiment and package for distribution) brew a hugely wide range of styles, from Czech Pils/German lagers, to APAs and IPAs, to Brown ales, to Porters, to Stouts. The small, local breweries in Germany will brew a helles, a weizen, a pils, maybe a bock, and maybe a doppelbock for Lent. Basically all fairly similar lagers. You couldn't get them to brew something like a Porter if you put a gun to their heads.

Hopefully that's improving with the partnership of Brooklyn and Schneider (of Schneider Weiss), who are teaming up to brew two "hopfweizens), one brewed in the US with German hops and one in Germany with US hops.

wrt Yuengling, its a pretty standard (substandard?) beer. Absolutely nothing special, and I wouldn't choose it over almost every other brewery in this thread.

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Another "super regional" Is Red Hook nationwide? It's as far east as WI and as far south as TX.

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We can get a bunch of their regular brews and their seasonal here in Nashville in both bottles and on tap around town.

Middle TN is getting a bunch of new beers in, including Yuengling, Brooklyn, and Avery. I don't usually go much for lagers, but Brooklyn's is really good. I'll probably keep some on hand for people who come over and ask for a Bud and see what they think.

[tshort]

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We have a local brewery here that is a city favorite. Very very good beer. Good enough to ship to family in Cali for Christmas.

Boulevard is the Brewery, and the Boulevard Wheat is my personal favorite.

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Another vote for Boulevard Wheat as my favorite.

I'm going on the Boulevard brewery tour tomorrow. I will post more if the tour is anything special. If you are in the Kansas City area you should definitely try Boulevard wheat and the rest of their beers.

Lawrence, KS - Free State BreweryThis is a local micro-brew / restaurant on Mass. St in Lawrence. They have a variety of beers depending on the season a restaurant menu that offers some more creative dishes than your standard sports bar / american restart.

I usually get a Wheat State Golden and an Oatmeal Stout, but mix it up depending upon their seasonal brews. I would definitely recommend eating and having a few beers here, but it does get really busy Thurs/Fri/Sat evenings.

www.freestatebrewing.com

[vozzie]

When I look out of my window I see the headoffices of Inbev. They brew Stella Artois right accross the street, so I kind of like the local beer.

[Toro]

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They reopened the Narragansett brewery a few years back. Last time I was in Mass. I couldnt find it though. I really liked it. I dont know if it tastes like piss but i guess anything is possible.

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Well it's possible they changed the recipe but it sucked back then. It was real cheap too as I remember.

[KilgoreTrout]

I went to an ale tasting a couple of weeks ago. Some good local suds and a couple of duds.

[zooot]

Is New Holland bigger than I think? I haven't really seen it outside the Illinois/Wisconsin/Michigan area.

Anyway, Madhatter IPA is excellent, and The Poet: Oatmeal Stout is another winner.

Linky

[Ballzack]

St. Arnold's Brewing Company.

Houston, Tx

Several great brews. The Divine Reserve is a nice treat sometimes. It's different batches with it's own receipe and you never know what your going to get. It's hit and miss sometimes but I've had more good than bad.

St. Arnold's

[Hollywade]

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Speaking of "super regionals," Lienenkugel's anyone?

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I was surprised not to see this mentioned by OP since he was visiting Wisconsin at the time. I'm a big fan of Leinenkugel's. It is fairly popular here in Michigan.

I recommend Creamy Dark (draft not bottled, and preferrably in an icy mug - delicious). Berry Weiss is also very good. Sunset Wheat is good and tastes a lot like Fruity Pebbles. It may sound gross for a beer to taste like that, but it is actually quite good.