The Lions' Pride

Total beer snob here too. My favorites are Belgians...dubbels and quads. Best beer I ever had was Westvleteren 12. Of the ones you can actually get here in the U.S., St. Bernardus ABT 12 is my favorite. Love Corsendonk Pater as well. I try new beers every week. There are so many good ones. Not an IPA guy, myself. I get a taste for a stout every once in a while.

Almost every beer from Unibroue (Canada) is fantastic, and I am a big fan of Ommegang (NY). Lots of great local beers here in the Philly area too (Victory, Weyerbacher, Stoudt's).

Nice, I'm not a big Belgian fan... but my wife loves them so I end up trying a bunch of them. Have you tried Gulden Draak? I did like this one a lot but I believe it's a Belgian Strong Ale and I also didn't mind the Smuttynose Homunculus but again I think that Belgian Ale style. I agree, Victory Brewing IPA's ...my wife was raving about the Golden Monkey as well.

Same... Hard to say my favorites because it changes depending on season and what mood I'm in... more and more I find myself reaching for the old stand-by things I love now and quality seasonals.

Some of the best things I've had include:
- The Alchemist Heady Topper Double IPA
- Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
- Terrapin Wake-n-Bake / Founders Breakfast Stout (LOVE coffee stouts)
- Great Divide Barrel Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Stand By Great Beers that I always like to have around:
- Bell's Two Hearted
- Founders Reds Rye
- Sierra Nevada Celebration (when available)

Favorite Brewers:
- Founders - Making some of the best beers across the board of any producer in the country--especially for something so widely available
- Hill Farmstead (VT) - Had a bunch of their stuff on a trip to Vermont last fall and it all was great

We are on the same page then...with Founders, Yeti, and Wake n bake. All go to beers if on draft. If you love Coffee stouts though you need to find Big Bad Baptist.... or give New Holland's Dragon's Milk a try.

Munchner Kindl Weissbier (wheat)
Krombacher (pilsner)

For domestic wheat beer, Winter wheat from Rochester Mills Brewing Company in Rochester MI.

Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout by Bluegrass Brewing Co.

Here's the description from their site.

This complex stout has aromas of bourbon, oak and dark roasted malts. Full-bodied, silky stout aged in Bourbon Barrels for 60 to 90 days. The aging process produces a smoky richness from the deep char of the barrels. Roasted barley flavors of chocolate and coffee develop as the stout continues along. Finishing hints of vanilla and bourbon finds it way down the back of the pallet.

Just to make you jealous, the Brick Store Pub (Decatur, GA) is having an event this Saturday morning. Here's the draft list:

Terrapin Wake & Bake 2009
Terrapin wake & Bake 2010
Terrapin Wake & Bake 2011
Terrapin Wake & Bake 2012
Founders KBS 2010
Founders KBS 2011
Founders KBS 2012
Founders CBS 2010
Founders CBS 2011
Great Divide Espresso Yeti 2009
Great Divide Espresso Yeti 2010
Great Divide Espresso Yeti 2011
Great Divide Espresso Yeti 2012
Sweetwater Mean Joe Bean 2011
Sweetwater BSP Quad Randallized with Coffee Beans 2010
Southern tier Mokah 2010
Southern tier Javah 2011
Bell's Java Stout 2010

Have yet to try any of the Epic beers... Where are you in North Carolina... I'm in Greensboro. Beer is getting better down here, but still way behind parts of the West, Midwest, and Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

The Alchemist is awesome... I stop there every time I am up that way in Vermont. Do you know if they are still in business. I feel like someone told me that they had to close for some reason.

From everything that I remember... when some of the American beer websites and publications (Ratebeer.com and Beeradvocate.com, etc.) began to hype the Westvleteren beers the Monks found out that there were places selling their ales here in the states and were not comfortable with all the exposure so they basically tightened everything up and made it very hard to get their beer anywhere but the Abbey (brewery) itself. This is the opposite approach that some of the other true Trappist breweries have taken where they have attempted to cash in on their popularity and actually weakened the product through mass distrubution.... errrr.... Chimay, cough. Sort of refreshing in this day and age, but also frustrating if you want to try their stuff.

They shut the brewpub down due to the flooding and are focused on their cannery, which is right around the corner. You can buy Heady Topper in cans right at the cannery and at a number of places around Vermont. They opened a new pub in the old Alchemist location and they are the only place to have HT on tap.

Probably the best IPA I have had. Haven't tried the Younger yet. As I mentioned earlier, I am not an IPA guy, so this isn't that high up on my list, but the quality of it was clear.

Russian River makes a whole bunch of odd beers....Wild Ales, I think they call them, that were aged in wine barrels. Strange stuff. Had the Supplication and didn't like that at all. They make one called Damnation which is more of a Belgian style that I like a lot.