Beer makes your body strong

[Narz]

it still tastes like piss

Agreed.

Crack may have some trace minerals in it too but that doesn't cancel out the damage it does, IMO.

 

[Karalysia]

I keep reading this as beer makes your baby strong.

 

[Adria]

Nothing like a good micro. Couple years back, my wife and I went out on the whale watching cruise in the North Sound out of Seattle. It made a lunch stop at Friday harbor where I had a local micro that was actually bannana flavored and it was great. Unusual, but great!

I don't think I've tried anything with a strong banana flavor, but one of my favorite wheat beers is a hefeweizen with a hint of banana and clove flavours (from Whistler Brewing).

Living in the PacNorthwest, it's easy to take microbrews for granted.

I know - the prevalence of microbrews here is fantastic, north and south (so I've heard) of the border. I haven't found a pub in this city that doesn't have local microbrews on tap. Even the (hockey) arena carries local microbrews.

If you ever make it to Victoria in September, the annual beer festival is a must-attend event. 50+ microbrewers (each bringing 2-4 beers) in one place = awesomeness.

So many people from the East Coast have told me how awesome it is here as compared to back East where the only good beer available most of the time is Yuengling.

There are some good microbrews from the east, but I've only tried a few. Mill St (Toronto), Unibroue (Quebec), and Brooklyn (NY) Breweries are all good. That said, they're not found in a lot of pubs or restaurants. My dad was posted to Ottawa a couple years ago and he very much misses having microbrews on tap everywhere.

...preservatives, additives...

Not in good microbrews.

 

[classical_hero]

Also alcohol kills brain cells.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

That was done by directly bathing neurons in ethanol. Not really the same as passing beer through the digestive system, circulatory system, and blood-brain barrier. That one's not so much true.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Also alcohol kills brain cells.

Not so much. Even in alcoholics, alcohol use doesn't actually result in the death of brain cells. It can, however, damage the ends of neurons, which are called dendrites. This results in problems conveying messages between the neurons. The cell itself isn't damaged, but the way that it communicates with others is altered. According to researchers such as Roberta J. Pentney, professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University at Buffalo, this damage is mostly reversible.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/10-brain-myths9.htm

 

[Harvin87]

this makes me stronger...

 

[azzaman333]

Beer, man's best friend.

Agreed.

Crack may have some trace minerals in it too but that doesn't cancel out the damage it does, IMO.

Except crack isn't beer, and therefore is inferior.

 

[Merkinball]

So many people from the East Coast have told me how awesome it is here as compared to back East where the only good beer available most of the time is Yuengling. - dawgphood

Ridiculous. The two best breweries in the western Hemisphere are in the East. Unibroue and Ommegang. We have Long Trail, Southern Tier, Shiner, Otter Creek, Brooklyn, Brother Thelonius, Dogfish Head, Wachusset, Victory, Goose Island, Mendicino, and many other fantastic breweries. The best part about the breweries east of the Mississippi is that they make beers that don't always taste like pure hops.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

My personal favorites are imported German beers like Weihenstephaner, Spaten, and Franziskaner, but there are some local (meaning Eastern US) goodies like Leinenkugel, DuClaw, Clipper City (brewed right here in Baltimore!). But as I've said before, I think the absolute best beers are found in brew pubs, which tend to be small joints or holes in the wall. I've never been to the West Coast to poke my head around, but I know that, at least here in the mid-Atlantic states, they are of high quality.

 

[Merkinball]

Weihenstephaner is probably the best brewery in Germany. Particularly their wheat beers. Schnieder is also a really good German brewery. Franziskaner is also very solid, but a notch or two below the best Germans. I've never been too terribly impressed with much that comes out of Spaten. Spaten Lager and Spaten Optimator are terrible.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

My absolute favorite beers are weissbiers. Spaten's is amazing, and Weihenstephaner's is probably my favorite beer of all time.

 

[Shekwan]

I love Franziskaner, lovely fruity taste. I'm sure theres better, but I couldn't be bothered seeking out good beer here. Despite Ireland's reputation, its a terrible place to get decent beer, a very bland selection in most off lisences and pubs.

As for the East Coast v West Coast US thing, I was far more impressed with the beer culture in San Francisco/Bay Area than New York, having been to both cities last year. I was pretty surprised to see normal supermarkets like Safeway selling a really big selection of independent and microbrews. It wasn't exactly difficult to find an enourmous selection of beers in New York (I mean its New York, you could probably get anything there) but the non-mainstream beer industry didn't seem as big there. I'm not familiar with beer all that much so I can't comment on which coast has better quality breweries, but like I said the whole independent beer thing seems like a bigger phenomenon out West from my experience.

 

[Merkinball]

If you like a fruity wheat beer German style, then you should check out Julius Echter's hefe. It's in an orange labeled bottle here in the states. It's the fruitiest German wheat beer I've ever had, and a great example of the style. Stay away from their purple bottle, it's labeled as a dunkel weisse, but it drinks like a terrible double bock. Even worse than Spaten Optimator.

While Ireland is certainly an over rated country when it comes to beer, there are solid beers that come out of there. Irish stouts are awful, but you cannot go wrong with a good Irish Red. Although, I will say that American breweries make better Irish Red's than most Irish breweries. Murphees Irish Red is a good beer.

There's definitely a distinction between East Coast and West coast beers. While American breweries focus intensively on hops everywhere (even the Belgian imitators), East coast breweries tend to favor fruitier hops whereas west coast breweries (Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Pyramid, Lagunitas, Greenflash etc, etc) focus on dry hops. To each their own, but I much tend to prefer the east coast US breweries over the west coast.

The past few months I've been dissecting Scotland, and I gotta be honest, Scotland is solid nation. It may even rival Germany when it comes to consistent quality. Belhaven is an amazing brewery.

 

[pau17]

Weihenstephaner's is probably my favorite beer of all time.

Weihenstephaner is probably the best brewery in Germany.

The stuff is incredible. I only had it once but wow.