FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE(ilsox7 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:58 PM) I haven't been to Clark Street Alehouse yet, but it's close enough to me that I will be going there soon (within the next 2 weeks). I've heard good things about it. Another thing I like about Map Room and Hopleaf (from what I hear) is they usually have St. Bernardus Abt. 12 on tap. Very, very nice. Though there is some debate as to whether it's better coming aged from a bottle. I don't think there is any dispute. Give me the bottle. I have a couple stashed away and I think they are calling me from my home 50 miles away.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:55 PM) Beer heads..... You say that as if it were a bad thing

QUOTE(ilsox7 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:46 PM) The Map Room is indeed terrific. Been there numerous times in the last 2 months since I moved back to Chicago. Hopleaf is also sposed to be great, but I haven't been up there yet. It's been a couple years since a Hop Leaf visit, but yes, I like the place. Map Room is great. Clark Street Alehouse was always my favorite because it was stumbling distance from a great resteraunt my friend used to own called Mangos (closed), and a couple good Tapas joints. Also two doors down from the Clark St. Blue Chicago.

Juggs, you asked about the Berghoff beers... Get ready, this is a twisted tale of contract brewing. In the 1980s when Huber Brewing Company got the contract to do Berghoff's beers, they basically brewed their Augsburger products and put the Berghoff label on them. For the time, these were really good beers, but of course they were adjunct beers that used corn as part of the grist rather than going all malt. That of course made them lesser imitations of the German beers they were trying to emulate, because you're never going to get the body, flavor and mouthfeel of a Reinheitsgabot beer in an adjunct brew. Well, Huber sold the Augsburger label to Stroh (which then sold to Pabst), but they kept making the Berghoff products with teh same recipes. Now here is the recent part that someone else might be able to help me with. Pabst still owns the Auggie brand but they stopped making the product several years ago. In 2003, the Point brewery licensed the name from Pabst and started brewing Auggie products again. This time around, though, they went back to an all malt formulation more in line with the Germal lagers they were inspired by. I have yet to try any of the new generation Augsburger offerings, so I cannot evaluate the beers themselves (anyone?). Huber is still making the Berghoff beers. As far as I know, they are still brewing the adjunct products using the 80s recipes. Again, can any other beer sleuths confirm or deny? Thanks.

ilsox7, it's good to see another Belgian enthusiast. I too adore gueze, and I can't get it to save my life on this side of the state. Not even Lindeman's, which is odd because we get all their other lambics and all of the rest of the Merchant do Vin line. Do you do your gueze straigt, or do you add table sugar and make a nice faro out of it? I do both. With the Rochefort, I think it comes down to whether you like the flavor profile that the Rochefort yeast produces. Since I encounter it very infrequently it's always a nice change of pace for me. I've brewed Abbey style ales with the Rochefort yeast and they have come out really well. Orval is great, and so different from any of the other Trappst beers. Agreed that Westmalle is somewhat lesser than the others, which is lucky for me because I can't get it.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:18 PM) I agree. I love a good Heinie, but that and Rolling Rock I get more skunky bottles of for some reason or another. It's the green bottles. Completely true. They don'y block UV rays and the UV causes a beer to be "light struck". The skunky taste is a bunch of chemical reactions as a result of being light struck, most notable the production of dimethyl sulfate (DMS), which is the Green Giant Niblets corn gone bad taste in a severely light struk bottle of Rolling Rock.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:01 PM) I actually find the Arrogant to be superior to Double. Jim...lay off my Mom. Devil made me do it. Kid or KevHead, did you ever encounter a beer called Alimony Ale when it was still in production? It was a landmark beer from American micro pioneer Buffalo Bill Owens, who's brewery was as instrumental in the micro revolution as New Albion or Sierra Nevada or Anchor. It was way ahead of its time in that it was a massively high alpha hophead beer long before the days of the double IPA. At the time, only Bigfoot gave it a run for it's money in the bitterness category. The label had a great old Thomas Nast cartoon on it, and the beer's tagline was "bitterest beer in America," which explained why they called it Alimony Ale.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 12:01 PM) I actually find the Arrogant to be superior to Double. Jim...lay off my Mom. Devil made me do it. Kid or KevHead, did you ever encounter a beer called Alimony Ale when it was still in production? It was a landmark beer from American micro pioneer Buffalo Bill Owens, who's brewery was as instrumental in the micro revolution as New Albion or Sierra Nevada or Anchor. It was way ahead of its time in that it was a massively high alpha hophead beer long before the days of the double IPA. At the time, only Bigfoot gave it a run for it's money in the bitterness category. The label had a great old Thomas Nast cartoon on it, and the beer's tagline was "bitterest beer in America," which explained why they called it Alimony Ale.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 11:28 AM) O.K. chuckles, go to the site: http://www.stonebrew.com/ Tell me what the very FIRST page says!!! OK, ok, it's a gargoyle (so's yer muther). A gargoyle OF SATAN!! It's true, it's me. Puny mortal.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 11:18 AM) I'd love to try it and all, but where the hell would I find it around Michigan City? Zeke's in Dowajiac Michigan usually has it if you're up for the drive. Other than that, you just have to pick some up next time your in Chicago.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 10:53 AM) It's not Satan you goof, it's a gargoyle. They use it on all of their stuff. Dude, I am sooo the Devil and you don't know what the f*** you're talking about. Oh yeah, your mother sews socks that smell.

Here's hoping they stand by their word. I'm as pro-Republic as they come but the violence has made it impossible to get anywhere on the Northern Ireland issue for too long.

Look at all the love for the Belgians!!! You guys rock. And SS, if you think Blue Moon is good, go to the source of inspiration and get spme Hoegarden. Heaven (and God may or may not live there. ) DBAHO as for the technical explanation of why you like the Leffe: it's what we beer folks call real real good.

Aaargh!! I can't answer in a BEER POLL! My perspective is that beer makes it OK even if there is no God. Westvleteren is outstanding, but Chimay gets the nod for me as for my favorite Trappist offering. And I find myself drinking the White most often even if it is not as challenging to the pallate. From a brewing perspective, getting a perfect tripel - perfect balance between body, flavor, color, and strength - is a more difficult prospect than a high octane dark Belgian ale, and Brother Theodore and the monks have absolutely nailed it with the cinq cents. I'd have to say Arrogant Bastard is out of the running simply because it has SATAN on the label. Stone brews gorgeous stuff though. Somewhat related tangent: Speaking of beers with Satan as mascot, my first experience with Young's Old Nick was interesting. I was an undergrad and just getting turned on to beer beyond the megas and a friend and I each picked up a six-pack of Old Nick. We didn't know what a barleywine was or anything, but we commented at the time that a beer with the devil on the label is probably trying to warn you about something. Anyway, we each slammed a few of those en route to a Jethro Tull show (Catfish Rising tour, great show). WHAM! about 20 minutes into the show, Old Nick hit us full on. The worst part, of course, was that the only thing you could buy at the concert was megaswill that you couldn't even taste after that.

The first two Crowes albums were brilliant, I thought. The followup efforts kind of lacking, or maybe Chris was too into the ganja to give it his all. I saw them in a college basketball arena on the first leg of the Moneymaker tour a loooong time ago and they were outstanding.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 09:12 AM) Whoever said 'Big Star' was dead one. The greatest band no one's ever heard of. Brilliant songwriting. Last, I have to throw in a very personal favorite The Black Crowes. THE most rock n roll, American rock n roll band. Glad to see there's somebody else who can't go far without a little Big Star. Alex Chilton and Chris Bell were the perfect power pop duo. Good call on the Crowes.

QUOTE(mreye @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 09:04 AM) American superband, huh? Not neccessarily rock? How about Alabama? 40+ Number one singles! Just saying. Where is Led Zeppelin from? Mordor I jest. Ha ha. Actually, they are from the West Midlands in England.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 08:40 AM) I love how that NASA control room looks like a Vegas Sports Book. Is NASA TV on Digital Cable? I think I have seen it before but can't find it now. Yes. It's my channel 15 - not that it helps you any. I like turning the NASA channel on at night after everyone is in bed and I'm reading or listening to music and they're replaying all the mission highlights with the astronauts playing with floating food and water and tools and stuff. It always helps if I've been drinking a bit, too.

QUOTE(winodj @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 08:41 AM) What about Chicago? Absolutely... until Peter Cetera grew a vagina.

And some Mods who are Rockers...

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jul 28, 2005 -> 07:23 AM) If we start talkin' quality and other "artistic values" you would have to add The Ramones and Velvet Undergroud to the discussion. Gabba Gabba Hey!

QUOTE(DukeNukeEm @ Jul 27, 2005 -> 07:26 PM) AC / DC are from Aussieland? Son of a b****, man. They seemed American to me, I never even bothered to check it out. I'll give you Hendrix, but you chalk something up to Skynyrd. Free Bird is hte 2nd biggest hit of all time. The Hendrix that put Hendrix on the map, though, was a band, the Experience lineup with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. They were an order of magnitude bigger than Band of Gypsies or New Rising Sun or any of the post-Experience stuff Jimi did.

That was brutal. I had almost forgot today was a day game. Now I wish I did.

JENKS!!!

Crud.