SweetWillyRollbar posted:

Aw shux. If you're going to drink Japanese macro I recommend Sapporo or Yebisu.

Twenty Four posted:

I don't understand the concept of "having two beers" unless I was just that tired and threw in the towel, or "I drank a bunch of liquor then had two beers". I like to drink. *shrugs*

Goons Are Great posted:

Ask me about German beer because at the office we are down from seven to four barrels of beer which is weird because drinking at the work place is not allowed and yet somehow it happens and everyone including the boss celebrates it, isn't that weird.

What I'm saying is I don't think I know anyone who isn't a beer alcoholic here.

Twenty Four posted:

Okay, is Bitburger any good? One of my friends from Germany years ago was completely awestruck that you couldn't just go down to the store and pick it up anywhere like you can there. Is it like the equivalent of Budweiser or Bud Light in the USA? Like the go-to nothing special but everyone drinks it sort of thing?

Also how big are the "barrels" at your work? I know some friends that work at tech companies in the states where they have a beer fridge, but its more like "haha isn't this cool that we do this" and they maybe drink one or maybe two after work but more then that would be frowned upon.

Drinking culture, especially between different regions, is interesting but strange!

SweetWillyRollbar posted:

I think Bitburger is like German Bud sorta.

I know that TECHNICALLY a barrel of beer is 31 gallons.

Goons Are Great posted:

I'm German myself so I don't know any US beer, which however I heard is a good thing

Anyways a regular consumption barrel you can buy in every supermarket and most small sized general goods shops (we have many of those everywhere) is 10 liters, the regular big ones are 25 liters and the big ones usually meant for bars and professional use is 50 liters of beer, whatever that is in gallons. Some breweries also make 20 liters as medium option.
We have 25 Liter barrels at work, also bottles of course for ease. In Germany there's a big Feierabend Kultur (quitting time, after work's done) in which even those who don't really drink alcohol (like me) drink a beer or two, do that's how this happens. You can hardly escape beer culture here unless you're avoiding any kind of alcohol ever. It's everywhere, literally, and every store ever has it, like, I once got beer in Ikea.

Bitburger is good, but it's a love or hate relationship. It's not as intense as others of similar kind (we call this kind of beer Pils), which either you like as a good option, or Haze because it's not strong enough. It's regular Eifel stuff, because regional beers are a huge thing here.

Goons Are Great posted:

I'm German myself so I don't know any US beer, which however I heard is a good thing

Anyways a regular consumption barrel you can buy in every supermarket and most small sized general goods shops (we have many of those everywhere) is 10 liters, the regular big ones are 25 liters and the big ones usually meant for bars and professional use is 50 liters of beer, whatever that is in gallons. Some breweries also make 20 liters as medium option.
We have 25 Liter barrels at work, also bottles of course for ease. In Germany there's a big Feierabend Kultur (quitting time, after work's done) in which even those who don't really drink alcohol (like me) drink a beer or two, do that's how this happens. You can hardly escape beer culture here unless you're avoiding any kind of alcohol ever. It's everywhere, literally, and every store ever has it, like, I once got beer in Ikea.

Bitburger is good, but it's a love or hate relationship. It's not as intense as others of similar kind (we call this kind of beer Pils), which either you like as a good option, or Haze because it's not strong enough. It's regular Eifel stuff, because regional beers are a huge thing here.

nut posted:

SweetWillyRollbar posted:

I mean barrels are a weird old measurement system. So a barrel of beer, wine, whiskey, and oil are all different by a few gallons.

Edit: I tend to like Belgian beers to be honest. I know German brewers are the most technically proficient. But the regional thing is super interesting. Like Bamberg is just like nothing but rauchbier.

Twenty Four posted:

The Pils Haze and Eifel designation has me interested though. There may be an equivalent here but none of those terms are used. Educate me if you would be so kind?

Dell_Zincht posted:

I only drink CAMRA approved beer

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

For fancy beer like European beers better usually. So much of the american craft stuff now is so overdone and I think it tastes terrible. Super bitter hoppy IPAs that make me want to gag, coffee toffee mocha motor oil stouts that taste like anything but porter, they just have no subtlety.

Newcastle, Bass, and smithwicks are all very nice, and I like wheat beers and just plain good German beer that tastes like beer. I used to get some stuff that I think is the literal Budweiser of Europe that is sold in the US as Czechvar and it is nice and buttery and delicious. There was also a Belgian that i liked alot-blue label with a Belgian flag on it but I can't remember the name and I haven't seen it anywhere since college.

For not fancy beer, Miller High Life.

SweetWillyRollbar posted:

For the blue label beer do you mean Chimay?

I like American craft beer but I do think that a lot of it has gotten way too extreme and gimmicky. Same with the new places in Scandinavia and whatnot.

Goons Are Great posted:

Yes we basically measure everything in liters, barrels are more a method of how to move the beer, even back when I worked at a bar we never used barrel as a term to measure an amount, except like "We need a new barrel, this one is empty".


Well the Haze was just a terrible typo from my phone which I didn't see, I wanted to say hate, as in, love or hate relationship.
The Eifel is a big mountain range in western Germany that spans over to Belgium, I used that term here because Bitburger comes out of the city of Bitburg which is in the Eifel. Many, many, many beers in Germany carry the name of the location they are from, because as I said, regional beer is an enormous thing. Like, I live in western Germany in Cologne, we drink Kölsch (which is just the local dialect for "Cologne-ish" )here, for which you would get literally murdered by a mob in Düsseldorf and laughed at in Bavaria. In Hamburg and surroundings you drink Astra, Munich it's usually various kinds of Weizen or Weißbier, in Berlin you mix it up a bit because that's Berlin style.

Pils is a kind of beer, which is relatively modern (like, 19th century onwards) and originally comes out of Pilsen, originally a German city in Böhmen, which is now in the Czech Republic. It's a certain way to brew the beer, mainly because it's "untergärig" which in contrast to "obergärig" is a different species of yeast used during the brewing process. They are called unter (under) and ober (above) because the yeast either falls down on the bottom of the big pot its made it, or it swims above on the not-yet beer. To achieve the former, you have to cool the stuff down dramatically (8-10°C) which only was possible with modern machines, which is why the obergäriges beer is usually a lot older and more traditional.
Pils was one of the first beers that used this modern thing and because it's cheaper and especially stays good a lot longer than usual, it widely spread in Germany and by the 20th century, Pils beer was the most popular and important kind of beer ever.
The older, traditional kinds of beer, like Kölsch here at my place, only stayed around as regional speciality because it tastes a lot different than Pils. Bavaria also stayed traditional because, well, you can imagine why.

Bitburger, Astra, Flensburger, Bamberger, I dunno almost 90% of all German beer today is Pils, which is why there are many many different kinds and they all taste somewhat different, but rely on the same technique. The non-Pils beers are rarer, less important for the economy (which is a HUGE deal, like, no kidding the state earns billions off it) but also extremely different from location to location.

Prost!

Twenty Four posted:

Thank you for your knowledge, I really appreciate it!

Heather Papps posted:

i want to get v hammered but also i am kidna emotionally raw these past few days so instead imma smoke weed and listen to cheesy love songs

poverty goat posted:

I'm drinking Leffe because not only can you buy belgian abbey ale in food lion now, it's a little cheaper than most of their american craft brews