Any Craft Beer fans??

[Dargo]

Around where I live (Poland), for decades the only practically available sort of beer was industrially mass-produced pale lager. Not always bad (especially the more widespread brands), it wasn't super great either, and just kinda boring.

Literally in recent couple of years, we seem to be having enormous development of smaller-scale breweries. And they have much higher variety. I haven't still sampled all they have to offer. I can name my favorites more in the terms of types of beer, than producers.

I totally love 'Märzenbier'. Reddish colored, both malty and hoppy, relatively bitter - tastes delicious to me.

I also love wheat beer. An opposite to the one mentioned above, not really bitter, yellow and cloudy, with specific 'fruity' aroma.

Interestingly, for some reason (no such tradition?), ale is hard to come by. I've tried only one of the local production, termed 'wild ale' - is it even a style? - and it was great.

I'm fine with porters too. Though I don't get them very often.

Another kind are dark lagers. Some being practically black. This is not the same as porters, the taste is still like pale lager, with some influence from the darker malts.

I also like beers that are 'natural' - non-pasteurized, unfiltered and cloudy. Then even a pale lager gets much more interesting.

About lambics though, there are none around to be found easily. It is something I've only read about.

[grassfed]

[Skylar_Husky]

A friend of mine and I used to brew our own beer. It is a good hobby and quite a bit of satisfaction comes in when you taste something you made and it is good. It can go quite badly and taste really rotten if it goes off though.
This friend and I have had a lot of things happen in about the last four years or so, so he and I both have stopped brewing. I no longer have the room for it and all the paraphernalia in my house. It has to be stored which makes cleaning before use mandatory.
This friend has had a job offer he could not pass up come up for him in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and to celebrate and have a last harrumph before he leaves on Oct 9th, we went to National Pirate's Day event at a local microbrewery trying to get going and get on its feet.
I find I like most anything for beer. I am most fond of Belgian Abbey Ales, Dubbels and Trippels, but this Microbrewery was doing something I have not had before, putting Lactose in the beer. The yeast do not digest the Lactose carbohydrate and so it remains after the alcohol fermentation step, but as a finishing, they put lactobacillis bacteria in the beer to sour it. It was just nasty. I nearly spat them straight out.

[grassfed]

I find I like most anything for beer. I am most fond of Belgian Abbey Ales, Dubbels and Trippels, but this Microbrewery was doing something I have not had before, putting Lactose in the beer. The yeast do not digest the Lactose carbohydrate and so it remains after the alcohol fermentation step, but as a finishing, they put lactobacillis bacteria in the beer to sour it. It was just nasty. I nearly spat them straight out.

See now I love a good sour, gimme all the lactobacillus/pediococcus!! But the thing I dont get, is the lactose! I've never seen any brewery add lactose to a sour, thats just weird to me

Please give some more a try, 'sour' beer really isn't necessarily a style, its more of a descriptor. Theres many styles which can have an inherent sourness to it, some just a little and some a lot. A lot of sour/wild ales and saisons have more of a wine or champagne like quality to them, pretty much the best beer to get wine drinkers into beer. And thats the funny thing, I hate wine with a passion but I LOVE beers aged in wine barrels or with wine-like qualities to them

[Skylar_Husky]

I have heard of recipes calling for a dash of lactose added to them strictly for the fact that it doesn't overly sweeten, but will mildly sweeten whilst being simultaneously resistant to the yeast fermention step in the process.

And a little sour is alright. Sometimes it does give the beer some character.

These beers at the Microbrewery open-house were way over-the-top sour. It tasted like the beer in my 1/2 Liter mug was mixed with a cup (240 mL) of white distilled vinegar. It truly was disgusting.

[grassfed]

awww it had a big vinegar character?? I hate overly acetic beers! a little touch of vinegar is good in cases like lambic but I dont like it over powering. I like lactic sourness over acetic, Brett beers even get some sour to them after a year or two of bottle-conditioning. Russian River's Sanctification is a good example, its a 100% Brett fermented blonde and it gets so good after a year in the bottle. I've had one that was 6 years old and it was just divine.

Are you familiar with Jester King? They make some fantastic saisons and sours! If you ever do trades I'm always looking for someone with good Texas offerings, I got access to pretty much whatever west coast brews you could think of

[Skylar_Husky]

awww it had a big vinegar character?? I hate overly acetic beers! a little touch of vinegar is good in cases like lambic but I dont like it over powering. I like lactic sourness over acetic, Brett beers even get some sour to them after a year or two of bottle-conditioning. Russian River's Sanctification is a good example, its a 100% Brett fermented blonde and it gets so good after a year in the bottle. I've had one that was 6 years old and it was just divine.

Are you familiar with Jester King? They make some fantastic saisons and sours! If you ever do trades I'm always looking for someone with good Texas offerings, I got access to pretty much whatever west coast brews you could think of

Hmm. I'll let you know. Thank you for the information.
Lambics are really good. I have had a few from Spec's Liquor Warehouse in downtown Houston. It is like the best liquor store in the whole city and they probably carry the beers you are talking about there. In addition to beer, liquor and wine they import fine cheeses, snacks and foods from all over as well. They import snacks, cold cuts and other fine things I have only had when I was in Germany, and they are the only place in Houston where I can find Moxie. Otherwise I have to buy it in Maine.

[Shanwang]

Are you familiar with Jester King? They make some fantastic saisons and sours! If you ever do trades I'm always looking for someone with good Texas offerings, I got access to pretty much whatever west coast brews you could think of

I am. Jester King's a few miles south of where I live. I've been meaning to take the tour there but for whatever reason I haven't been able to make it there. My gf and I went to fermentation fest a couple months back and a butcher shop was talking about how they were working with Jester King, using their yeast to ferment some summer sausage but couldn't release it per USDA regulations, pH wasn't 'safely' cooking the meat, etc.

Anyways. If there's something out of Austin, I could probably find it.

I'm not sure about their sours and saisons but I've generally had good experiences with Karbach Brewery out of Houston.

FYI