What's your favorite Beer?

[Sage954]

That's a good one. Had one a few weeks ago for the first time.

[neph93]

@Morose_Penguin:

@neph93, Tokyo is in stock at the Brewdog online shop. Would it work out cheaper to order online and pay shipping costs?? Failing that, I could send you a bottle.

That’s very kind of you. Unfortunately the Norwegian govt. uses punitive import taxes on alchohol to ensure that doing this is insanely expensive. Thanks for the offer though.

[Matty123]

@neph93 how would they know if a package contains alcohol?

[neph93]

Seul has successfully smuggled a bottle to me with some glassware, but mostly it gets busted. They scan packages and can identify liquid. If that doesn’t tally with the customs declaration they open it.

[Alex]

1 pair of jeans, and 5litres of jean soap

[neph93]

@Alex:

1 pair of jeans, and 5litres of jean soap

That would work [emoji23]

[Alex]

1 pair jeans
1 sous vide wand
10 litres soaking solution

[neph93]

Steady on…I draw the line there. I refuse to be associated with jean sous-videry in any form. Not even for the sake of cheaper beer and the pleasure of sneaking one past Norwegian customs.

[neph93]

The apricot IPA I mentioned. It will be a great summer afternoon brew. Smooth and tasty.

[neph93]

I don’t know what raw ale is, but this is glorious.

[Morose_Penguin]

@neph93, damn but these customs types can be unfair to a body sometimes…

[emceeQ]

@neph93:

I don’t know what raw ale is, but this is glorious.

Beer Nerd Alert

Raw Ale is very old type of farmhouse ale.  Basically the wort (sugary malt liquid that is fermented to make beer) is never boiled.  What this (usually) results in is a bready/grainy aspect to the malt characteristics of the beer you would otherwise be unable to get.

It's something that has a long history in Norwegian farmhouse brewing, as well as in other brewing traditions throughout Europe.

Here is a cool article on the subject. larsblog Has a lot of really cool information on farmhouse brewing in general. 
/Beer Nerd Alert

[neph93]

@emceeQ I appreciate and respect the beer nerdery. Thank you. I’ll also check out the literature.

It did indeed have the bread/dough thing going on, as well as some lovely floral notes.

[Seul]

Cool intel, Mike!..

[Seul]

Quick beer…

[emceeQ]

Always happy to be of service in the beer intel department @Seul and @neph93 !  Norwegian and Finnish farmhouse brewing has been an obsession of mine as of late…

[neph93]

@emceeQ:

Norwegian and Finnish farmhouse brewing has been an obsession of mine as of late…

My wife’s family come from Stordal outside of Ålesund where the men still brew their own körnøl every year. It fantastic stuff. Garshol writes about it in his blog.

[neph93]

Pretty straightforward but very tasty.

[emceeQ]

That's awesome @neph93…

Not beer, but was drinking cider at a local cider maker this afternoon as we've gotten ~12" (and counting) of snow since last night.

This one is a dry cider that has been dry hopped with Michigan grown cascade hops from just down the road. 

[Morose_Penguin]

The cider looks great - the weather, not so much.

Went to Brewdog Manchester today - asked if they had the live variation of Dead Pony Club on tap, because I was told they would have this week. Only to be told "Well, we do have it. It's in the back. But we only have one line it can be connected to. So it'll be the next thing on".

sigh

However I did try the new sour

Lemon Zephyr - v nice. Extremely refreshing. Asked if it was replacing the previous sour Raspberry Blitz, which was also very nice. To be told: "Well I thought it would, but then I got told they were brewing both". So that's nice.

And you may have noticed a certain stout on draft, I tried to pretend it wasn't there. That didn't last long.