BEER!!!

[Xplorer]

What a small world Slab!!!

I've got a "Conundrum" chilling in the fridge for Sunday And a 4 packer of Deviant Dale's just in case, LOL. Been getting mine in Superior for quite some time.

Lived in CO for 5 years and love these, along with most of the Odell brews.

I was raised in LaCrosse, WI, so was weened on the REAL Special Export from late grade school on. That and the 8 packs of Blatz Light Cream Ale's. On most Friday and Saturday nights at any movie theater in LaX, you could hear those 7 oz. bottles rolling down between the seats all night long

[delcecchi]

Real special export? Is the current stuff different? Does City Brewery (looks like former heilmans guys) make something like special ex?

Ah green hornets... my youth. And Schmidt extra special. Been so long I don't know if I would even like them anymore.

[OnAFly]

Having liked most offerings from Sierra Nevada I gave their Ruthless Rye IPA a shot. Wow, that is just good beer. They did a fine job of keeping the rye front end taste and the nice hoppy bitter finish. I'll be buying this one again I think

[picksbigwagon]

I was in Iowa last weekend at my friends for some ice fishing. My buddy and another friend are beer snobs, they both homebrew and one of them is excellent at it, in fact he has been winning amateur competitions the last couple years, anyway, the topic friday night turned to Sour Beers. I have never been a huge fan or even a partaker, but they cracked a bottle of New Glarus Serendipity.....Unbelievably good, to the point that I will be buying some in the near future.

[BartmanMN]

They are coming to my local shop in Hanover as well. Oskar Blues.

[Xplorer]

Real special export? Is the current stuff different? Does City Brewery (looks like former heilmans guys) make something like special ex?

Ah green hornets... my youth. And Schmidt extra special. Been so long I don't know if I would even like them anymore.

Heileman's sold only the naming rights to Old Style, Special Ex, Blatz etc but not the brewmaster's recipes. So the Special Export since then is not the "real" Special Ex aka "green death" of our youth. Rumor has it that LaCrosse Lager light is the Old Style recipe and LaCrosse Lager is the Special Ex recipe, but never got a confirmation.

[delcecchi]

I assumed lacrosse lager was old style, and the light was old style light.

I don't know who brews special export since strohs went bankrupt lo these many years ago after buying heilmann.

I guess I need to do a little research.

(edit)

The former G. Heilman brewing is now part of Pabst. So it is conceivable that the special export in the store is still the same recipe.

Heilman tried to get big, got in trouble, got bought by an australian guy, he got in trouble, they got bought by a private equity outfit that sold them to Strohs. Strohs went broke and got split in bankruptcy between Pabst and Miller.

Lord only knows what decisions were made about formulas.

[OnAFly]

Couple brews I've had recently:

The Big Eye is pretty good. Very much a west coast IPA. Hoppy front, hoppy middle, hoppy end. There was a kind of lingering bitterness which was a little unappealing, but it was all in all a good beer.

The Kellerweis was one of the best Hefeweizens I've had out of the US. Very well done beer. Full of yeasty, wheaty goodness

The Founders Centennial IPA was more of an east coast style IPA. A little more maltiness and a little less of the clean, fruity hops flavors. It was ok, but not great.

Next up, Deschutes Brewery's Fresh Squeezed IPA.