I have a drinking problem...can't figure out what to drink...

[Dusty Chalk]

So this is pretty much an open invitation for suggestions, as well as a vehicle to talk about my recent drinking binge. I tend to like porters and stouts, and surprisingly (because I don't drink coffee) java porters. I should also mention that I would prefer one of those larger corked bottles, so I can pour off a smaller portion for myself. Usually takes me over a week to finish one of them.

I've been drinking a lot lately. Not a lot as in a lot, but as in a lot for me. I'll mention some recent favorites and some recent "meh":

Bashah -- this one didn't really hit me upside the head as anything special, but for some reason, I kept coming back to it (maybe it was the pricetag -- $6/bottle?!?!? I can't imagine any beer being that good...). It's not one of those that really hits as you with your first swig as "wow, that's good!" -- it's more subtle than that. Sure, there are other beers that are better in certain areas, but this one succeeds by not being particularly offensive in any one area. My ex-brewer friend Dave said that it was too hoppy for him, so apparently, somewhere along the line, I have developed a taste for hops. I suspect that with this beer, it's not its hoppiness that I like, but the refinement in the choice of hops that I like.

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout -- just a really good stout.

London Meantime Porter -- meh.

More later.

[Hopstretch]

Welcome back.

Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout. Victory Storm King. Founders Kentucky Breakfast. Youngs Double Chocolate.

[cetoole]

Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout is good stuff, also really dig the weyerbacher heresy. Welcome back.

[Dusty Chalk]

Will try the Heresy (dig the packaging on that one, think I even bought a single to try, will raise the priority on that one).

Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout is a favorite already, good call on those...er...good calls on that.

I actually liked the Youngs Oatmeal that Jin let me try more than the double chocolate -- haven't ruled out the double chocolate, only tried it once, and there's a lot of variance with mood and other things recently olifactorily ingested that influence how much you like something, but it just wasn't as good as the one swig of the Young's Oatmeal that I remember. I'm definitely in the market for that, though I think I'm going to have to order that online -- no-one carries it.

But now that I think about it, there isn't an oatmeal stout that I've tried that I don't like -- I definitely have a tendency to enjoy the oatmeal stouts more than the imperial stouts. And I have no idea what that means to an Imperial Oatmeal stout.

[mrarroyo]

Oh yes baby! Oatmeal stout is where it is at.

[grawk]

heresey is one of my all time favorite beers.

[Dusty Chalk]

Great Lakes Blackout Stout has been added to the list. (I'll also have to check through all my "to try" singles to see if I haven't already bought one. Sounds familiar.)

What are the feelings on the new Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ales? I got the first one -- it was good, but not outstanding. Worth it just for the corked bottle, though, so I bought a couple more. Better than most everything else I had -- most of the corked bottle varieties that I've found have been Belgian whites, which I'm not as fond of. I am definitely tending towards the "rich" side of the palette spectrum.

[grawk]

mikkeller beer geek brunch (breakfast if you can't find brunch, both are hard to find tho)

almost anything labelled "imperial" stout or porter

dogfish head world wide stout

grawk imperial stout and imperial porters, but those are currently out of production

weyerbacher old heathen and heresey

young's double chocolate stout

samuel smiths oatmeal stout

some semi-local brewer makes a milk stout that's great, but I forget the brewery

[jinp6301]

I had a real good oatmeal stout a while back from what I remember as Captain Lawrence brewery but I'm not seeing it on the website

[grawk]

oatmeal stouts are almost always seasonal beers

[shellylh]

Welcome back Dusty! I will second the Victory Storm King.

[Dusty Chalk]

dogfish head world wide stout

grawk imperial stout and imperial porters, but those are currently out of production

some semi-local brewer makes a milk stout that's great, but I forget the brewery

Dogfish Head -- I missed that the "World Wide" was a stout, will get one.

Grawk -- don't...just...don't bother mentioning stuff I can't get like Life & Limb, m'kay?

semi-local -- Ah, typical useful alcoholic response -- "I don't remember what this stuff was, but it was real good." Srsly -- let me know when you remember, please. There were a couple of milk stouts that looked tempting, don't remember if I got any, though. I want to say Duck Rabbit?

[grawk]

My memory is terrible, that's not because of my drinking . I'm thinking it was river horse. But really, try any.

[grawk]

Luckily stouts are easy to do well and great fresh, so local stouts are often a good call.

[Beefy]

I absolutely love McAuslan Oatmeal Stout. A couple of pubs in Halifax have it on tap, but it is just as good from a bottle

[Dusty Chalk]

Victory Storm King has been acquired.

some semi-local brewer makes a milk stout that's great, but I forget the brewery

Lancaster?

oatmeal stouts are almost always seasonal beers

I did not know this. What season? I'm still not having any trouble finding them.

[grawk]

My memory is terrible, that's not because of my drinking . I'm thinking it was river horse. But really, try any.

This was right. River Horse Oatmeal Milk Stout

[luvdunhill]

Left Hand makes a decent milk stout... here's a "review"

Fermentedly Challenged: Left Hand Milk Stout review

[Dusty Chalk]

Damnit, I was just in Wegman's, and they had Left Hand.

Speaking of "reviews" -- anyone have any favorite blogs or websites? Beer Advocate seems to pop up in my searches for information often, and Total Wine tends to quote them when they do well there.

[grawk]

ratebeer.com

[Dusty Chalk]

And on an unrelated note, I think I saw Stephen's beer at Total Wine the other day:

[morphsci]

^^^ That is a good ale.

[Duggeh]

It nearly fell foul of the bullshit spewing regulators for inciting binge drinking and other related bullshit crimes which cause the decay of society by alcohol and aren't just crap for bullshit nationalist polics to pick on to look busy. So be glad it's still around.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeezh.

[Dusty Chalk]

I think I've acquired River Horse, but I have so many of the Total Wine Mix'n'Match 6-packs, I'd have to go through them all to be sure. I think I need to start keeping track of everything I get. Anyone know of any software to do so? I know there exists for wine, but I don't know if it translates to beer.

Question about storage -- when I went to the beer tasting, I actually ended up spending a lot of time talking to the Dominion guy. He mentioned (among other things) that you probably shouldn't store lower ABV beers for too long. Later in the conversation, I mentioned my problem with Millenium Ale (too strong for me), and he said that that one, for example, would be a good one to just put on a shelf and store for a while. For reference, it's 10.8%.

Anyone else have a take on this? I probably have a bunch of beers in the 5-6-7% range, should I be drinking those first? What's the magic number? I.E. at what point would it probably be okay for an "extended cellaring"? Anyone have an opinion on this?

Also, on a related note, what's the take on refrigerated beer? I was taught -- and admittedly, this was long ago -- that once you refrigerate a beer, you should keep it refrigerated. Is this true? I found some Dominion Baltic Porter, but it was refrigerated, and I'm afraid my housemate will get pissed if I fill up the fridge with too much more beer. Would it be alright to put it in the cellar (we do have one)?