Weekly Beer Tasting / Educational threads

Along the lines of the weekly Burgundy threads in Wine Talk, we’re going to start a weekly beer style tasting. At some point we can do virtual brewery tastings, but for now, to concentrate on styles will allow the maximum participation. Not all breweries are available in all markets, but anyone can find a witbier if they try, for example.

Based on the conversation found in the Unibroue thread, the first week will features Witbier. We’ll begin this coming Sunday, May 23 and end Saturday evening, midnight. I suppose tasting notes from Saturday evening debauchery will be posted within a day or two after that hahahah!

Any ideas for following weeks will be welcome here, in this thread, to keep the topic in one place.

Love it! One I’ll be picking up this weekend is The Bruery Ochard White. I may also get the Ommegang Witte, since it is similar in style to the Allagash White we discussed.

I like this ideer! I nominate IPA, obviously.

Why bother? Pliny will take the award.

true. we could limit it to only “regular” ipa’s (no doubles, triples, or imperials)

i’d also dig a Saison tasting.

Peter/Brian/Scott,

As three of the head “brewmasters” here, can you guys offer up a basic crash course on what beers fall under what categories? Like I mentioned in the Unibroue thread, those were the ones that got me into the “real” beer genre (before that it was basically Presidente, a very refreshing Pilsner from D.R. all the time) but sometimes I have trouble pegging a certain beer in a certain class. Witbiers might not be the most difficult category, but when I get into the ambers, dubbels, trippels, etc. I get a bit mixed up.

TIA.

Me personally, I would say Wit/Witte/White/Wheat/Weisse/HefeWeizen(edited)…any of those. If it says any of those, it is fair game. Peter do you agree???

Add hefeweizen to that list, but let’s not get TOO anal about this.

How about with each week, we describe what subsets the “style” includes?

btw, I don’t think Pliny has a chance in hell of “winning” since only 1 or 2 of us have access to a bottle. I see a broad range of IPAs being found “damn tasty” during the style’s week.

This is a great idea. I don’t have much experience with witbier so it will be educational for sure.

fixed.

I lol’d!

+1

Great idea. I’m down.

I am traveling half the week but will look for a local Colorado wit on tap.

BTW, I have never tasted Pliny. I keep meaning to grab a bottle but never have. If any of my homies see a bottle around, grab me one or three.

Jason

Will Weizen Bocks fall into this group?

Personally, I wouldn’t, especially if we do a Bock one. Most of the other beers in the genre are tied together by their lighter nature, and the sweeter malt and stronger abv of a Weizenbock kind of takes it into another realm, kind of like the IPA/Double IPA question. But if you’re still thirsty after tasting the Beer of the Week, all for drinking it and compairing/contrasting. Never a bad reason to drink a good beer.

My sense was that it would be outside the spectrum, but I’ve had a couple in the cellar I’ve been looking for a reason to…heck, who needs a reason?

Looking forward to the weekly tasting/education.

We’ll have a goat beer week, don’t worry. You can open your Bock then!

Beachwood often has it on tap. I’m not a big IPA fan so I don’t notice if the local stores carry it. I’m sure someone does at times.

K&L often has it – sells out relatively quickly, but they always get more …eventually.

I have been looking for this myself recently. No luck as of yet. Anyone locally finds some, I’d like a couple as well.