I’m often complaining about the crap beer I buy around here. Since we were just in the states and I got some of the beer I like, I’ll even the score:
Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s India Pale Ale
Best IPA ever; probably my favorite beer. I don’t know, maybe if I drank it all the time I’d get bored. It’s hard to describe, though. Crisp. Light-bodied. Quite a bit of alcohol (7%) but doesn’t feel heavy. Very, very hoppy, of course.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Sierra Nevada Stout
Also heavy on the hops, but definitely a stout-character beer. My description will be a little disjointed, as I’m drinking one now. I think part of the flavor may come from malt bitterness, but I’m not very good at judging that. Anyway, a nice heavy beer, deeply carbonated as a stout should be. Black in color. If you’re not a fan of bitter beers, you might prefer Sierra Nevada’s Porter.
I didn’t realize this was Red Hook’s standard ESB format; I thought they’d had ESB for a while and recently introduced ESB Amber. But the web site doesn’t reflect that. Perhaps they just haven’t updated their web site in a while.
I usually don’t prefer red beers, but after drinking a lot of Rickard’s Red (a Molson product) because it’s what my father-in-law likes and hey, free beer, I found the Red Hook ESB to be quite pleasant and drinkable.
Also, I like most of the beer I brew. (The last batch sucked in the small bottles, but I think that was a stuck fermentation and a hasty bottling.) The current batch is about ready to bottle, and it’s the Arrogant Bastard from Replicator. I’ve made it twice before and it gets better each time.