brian's beer page

Beer is pretty amazing stuff, when you think about it; the term "liquid bread" is pretty literal, and there are so many styles to choose from (Brewers Publications' Classic Beer Style Series is up to seventeen volumes and isn't even close to finished). Even the broad categories of ale (warm-fermented, fruity) and lager (cold-fermented, smooth) overlap enough that the dividing line is anything but clear.

These are a few of my favorite brews

These are my favorite commercial beers, in no particular order. If you run into me in a crowded bar on Saturday night, if I'm drinking beer nine times out of ten it'll be one of these.

• Guinness is, hands down, my favorite commercial beer; the black beer with its fine, nitrogen-charged tan head is a common sight in bars in the Boston area because there is such a strong Boston Irish presence. Guinness famously "doesn't travel well"; the reason for this is that the American bottled version is quite a bit stronger than the Irish form and tends to taste almost caramelly. I vastly prefer the draft version, which has a low (about 3.5% abv) alcohol content compared to most American beer and is therefore an excellent beer to drink when you're drinking a lot (the British would call it a "session beer").
• Samuel Adams is the beer that made Boston a respectable beer town, and it is easily the greatest high-profile American beer (though there's better micros, of course). Sam Adams Boston Lager, the flagship beer that you can get even in Germany, is, despite its rather dark color, considered one of the best Bohemian Pilsners available, putting it in the company of Pilsner Urquell (the original) and Czechvar (the recently arrived original Budweiser Budvar, under a different name for trademark reasons).
• Anchor Steam Beer -- One of the few truly American beer styles, California Common beer (Steam Beer is an Anchor trademark) is a medium-dark lager fermented at high temperatures like an ale. This relic of the California Gold Rush was saved from oblivion in the late sixties by its current owner Fritz Maytag (no washing machines to repair, I suppose :-) ) and became a forerunner of the later microbrew movement. It's a unique beer, dark and slightly sweet with a lagery smoothness and a noticeable hop punch. If you can find it, it will probably cost you (it's something of a special occasions beer in our family) but it will be very worth it.
• Rolling Rock -- Yes, Rolling Rock. I mentioned that there are only a few truly American beers; Steam is one of them, and Rolling Rock is one of the few truly good representations of the other: American Pilsener, the notorious Bud/Miller/Coors horsewash that most of this country associates with the term "beer". Most of these beers are made with rice, which has a very neutral flavor (sake gets most of its flavor from the koji, if you can believe that); Rolling Rock is one of the beers that uses a significant amount of corn, which gives the beer a rounder, more distinctive flavor. If I'm having something that calls for an American beer, Rolling Rock is my first choice (though Heineken will do in a pinch); it's a bit thin but it tastes like beer, something the usual stuff doesn't quite seem to do once you've tried the good stuff.
• John Harvard's Brew House Old Willy IPA -- John Harvard's is a brewpub chain that started in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA; this is that location's house IPA. The IPA category is always a reliable one for brewpubs in general (the more hops the better; it's sort of like making chili), and this beer, served cask-conditioned at cellar temperature instead of ice-cold out of the serving tanks, is in my opinion the single greatest beer I have ever tasted.