that's my favorite brew of Terrapin's, but they quit distributing it to Nashville. Dicks...

I went to a tapping party for the previously mentioned Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpking ale and also consumed a Boulevard Nommo Dubbel and a flight of various Belgian variations.
I would caution everyone to avoid drinking the Sprecher Kriek Lambic. It smelled like rancid butter and tasted of weak cherry wine.

I stay away from all lambics.

A good lambic can be a magical thing, when it's balanced all around (fruity/not, sweet/sour). But there's not much worse than a bad one.

Who makes a good one?

Not a particular fan of tart beers but I'd like to try a "best of the style" offering.

I'm guessing some Euro brewery that's been making them for 800 years or something.

I seem to recall there being a pretty good one that we used to drink back in the Riverbend Days but I'll be damned if I can remember which one.

Cantillon has a crap ton on the Beer Advocate list for the Lamic-Fruit style. I'm not a big fan of sour beers either, but I never turn down the chance to try them either. Cantillon Vignerrone and Rose de Gambrinius are the best ones that I have consumed, but they aren't the highest rated beers from Cantillon.

I've been digging the Dale's Pale Ale and heard such good things about Ten Fidy, that I asked my local place to get their hands on some when available. Got the email this morning...ran over...asked for a case to split w a friend, and $78?!

Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback. Is $13 for a 4-pack right? I couldn't pull the trigger for the whole case, seeing as I've never tried it before. But me and my buddy will each have a 6 for the time being. 1st one will be cracked with the first pitch of Phillies game tonight.

It's what they charge. I can't say it's "right."

Ok, cool...thanks, Cap'n. Just wanted to be sure the pricing was right in their system. There's another 4.5 cases in the store which haven't hit the floor yet...I can always go back if it's THAT good.

It's good but (in my opinion) not THAT good. A sixpack is probably about right.

Also to be fair, it shouldn't be compared to other 6 pack beers... it belongs with the $9-$12 22oz bottles. In that light it's not so pricey I guess.

Being a high ABV Imperial Stout, that Ten Fidy should keep pretty well, right? That store I go in sometimes that is well stocked (but because of their clientele doesn't necessarily sell the good beer they stock) has two four packs that were canned in December of 2010.

Edit: According to this fellow it seems like it might be pretty good.

That seems pretty high for a 6 pack. I was kind of excited when I moved into the new place that there's a decent liquor store right around the corner but everything in there is $1 or $2 more than I can find it elsewhere. I hate that.

Ten Fidy comes in 12oz 4-packs. They age remarkably well. Just had a 2008 can last month and it was darn tasty. Also, it being canned and all, no worries about skunking.

Also, drink a sixer of that and forget work tomorrow.

Let's go get those two four packs and forget about work for the rest of the week.

I'm going to a tapping party for Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Stout on Friday. I've had a small taste of the beer beforehand, but not enough to give an accurate review.

The above is correct - high alc % and cans means it has a good long shelf life.

On the home brewing front, it looks like I will need to buy a lot of shit. Going all grain means I definitely have to have a propane burner, which I don't really want otherwise, along with all the other goodies. Need to start scouring Craigslist for people who got kits, tried it once, and bailed out. Also reading better info on the grain process has explained a lot of my earlier mistakes. Temperature matters a hell of a lot more than I used to know.

Re: propane burner--look on the bright side, you won't have to go all the way back to Wisconsin to deep fry a turkey now. Also, low country boils.

Yeah there are side benefits. I need a gigantic fucking steel pot too.

Last Friday in Asheville, my buddy and I went to this great beer bar called The Thirsty Monk and started chatting with a Cardinals fan and his girlfriend at the bar who had just gotten off the Appalachian Trail. He started talking about the time he shotgunned an Oskar Blues Gub'na and since they didn't have any of that the 4 of us split a Ten Fidy. Just a 1/4 was just about enough for me. I couldn't imagine drinking more than 1 or 2 at most over a few hours, but it was indeed good.

Founders Brewing Co. CEO addresses concerns over Canadian Breakfast Stout availability, cost

People are fucking insane, right?

My local place had the regular Breakfast Stout, but alas, no CBS.

Good luck with that. I've thought about home brewing. After sitting for days worth of hours at several microbreweries in Madison with their glass panes visualizing the "behind the scenes" beer making process, I understood there are people that go to "school"/apprenticeship for years with focused learning simply to make a palatable product. While I've had decent homebrew ales, after totaling costs for an extremely volatile product, I've rationalized purchasing my beer from people who know better. But I can understand the intellectual curiosity of the process; although I understood my curiosity would end up as a future yard sale item. With the selection of top notch breweries around here, I have no reason to attempt mediocrity.

Too bad nobody told you this before you went to medical school.

Nice. I was in Asheville Thursday and we went to the Thirsty Monk South but it didn't open until 4pm so we just went to French Broad Brewery and I had one of their flights. Also, picked up some stuff from Asheville Brewing, Olde Hickory Brewing, and a growler of Pisgah Brewing's Pale Ale.

Love that town. Went to dinner at this place called Curate that was incredible.