You may be wondering about the motivation behind creating r/beergeek.

Simply put, r/beer has outgrown its beer geek roots and is now a much broader community. I think that's great, as it provides an opportunity for more people to be exposed to craft beer. But as a side-effect, informative discussion about beer has been largely pushed to the side in favor of beer news, beer porn, fluff, and even things that have nothing to do with beer. I'm not criticizing anything; it's simply the direction the community is taking.

The goal of r/beergeek is to provide a separate forum that focuses more on discussion of beer itself rather than the aforementioned types of posts. The sorts of discussion topics that belong here: specific beers, brands, styles, tastings, cellaring, reviews, etc.

At r/beergeek, we encourage posts that stimulate discussion, and we ask that the posts themselves also offer something of substance. For instance, don't simply title your post "What do you think of beer X?" while leaving the submission content empty; instead, include details on your opinion and/or details on why you're asking the question.

Pictures are great and they're encouraged, but they don't make a submission. That's why r/beergeek is a self post only reddit. If you're looking for easy karma, you'll need to go elsewhere.

r/beergeek is naturally going to be a smaller community than r/beer. The focus should be on the quality of the content rather than the quantity.

That sums it up pretty well, I think. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Welcome to r/beergeek!

I see a lot of pictures over at r/beer of guys who get together and demolish hundreds of dollars worth of beer in one night. I can't see the thought process behind that. If I'm drinking to get drunk I'll start with 1-2 beers that I deem high quality, then drop the bar substantially. I can't justify spending $15 or more on a bottle of beer that I won't even really be appreciating. Once I get going, I'm happy with the local brewery's APA or coffee stout that are each under $10 for a six pack, but are still passable beers. Am I the only person who does this?

I love collecting bombers, and it has come to my attention recently that some of these delicious beverages will AGE. I understand that in order to allow beers to properly age, I need to place them in a cool, dark area. How is this possible though, without a proper cellar? I live in a town house, and am wondering if just placing them in a closet in my basement would be possible. Any tips?

Here

This is the screencap and this is the original thread on BA in case it's not deleted.

Here's the text if you want to read it right here:

Well, Mr. Manoftyr... this is your thread so here goes... My brewery was born in the early 1990's, when craft brewing was challenged by a condition of 'over-supply'. A person, or even a business, is always a product if their time, and I have always charged the most I thought I could for our beers, while at the same time making beers that were as different and interesting as I could. Different, I mean, from the beers that were the norm in 1995; FullSail Amber, RedHook ESB, Pyramid Hefe, Pete's Wicked Ale, Gordon Biersch... And in doing so, we broke the mold for what was commonly considered a Bottled Craft Beer. A lot of what is common now came out of that period. Most of the breweries that you might think of as 'hep' were not really happening during that period...

Even when my brewery lost money I was making beers that I was interested in regardless of the ingredient costs. Ingredients and skill have less to do with pricing than you might believe. In any case, I had to be cognizant of the weather of our day, and that included lots of $4.99 six-packs from those same brewers I mentioned above. At the time 22oz special brews were all but unheard of... Very different than the scene now.

But Lagunitas kept making special 22oz brews... Strong ones... And we charged what we could for them in that hard environment. Later, other brewers re-entered the 22oz realm with special brews and they charged a lot for them because they were very small and most of their costs were things like rent and labor and insurance and such. That's what its like when your small. When you grow up bigger, your biggest costs become malt and bottles and more recently, hops. BUT! Even now, there is no reason that I know of, that, unless a beer is aged in the brewery for some extended period of time, any craft beer should cost any more than any of ours. I'll tell you first hand, that my little brewery makes a very nice living selling our beers for the nicer prices that you've mentioned above. I pay my guys at the top of the range for brewing and packaging, our benefits are very nearly the best that are available anywhere, and I have a bunch of vintage guitars and drive a very nice car as does my wife (she schedules the brewery) and she even has a couple of cool horses... If you are paying a similar-sized brewery (100M barrels) more for their beer than you pay for ours, then you are financing their shiny new pubs, or their TV careers, or their European ambitions, or maybe just extra-large salaries.

Lagunitas (and somebody mentioned Deschutes) are practical brewers making and selling the best beers we know how to make for prices that we feel are fair, and not trying to challenge your ideas of quality by challenging your wallets any more than necessary. It may well be worth spending more for a sour beer that spent six months or more sitting patiently in a barrel, but beyond that you are just paying more for the 'badge' of paying more. I am more than a little tired of the prices that I see being charged for the same thing we do and then finding good folks later thinking that my beer must be inferior because it did not cost as much as some others... If it cost more and your taste buds really notice the difference, go for it... But otherwise, trust your buds! ...and that's all I have to say about that..! LOL...

It might be worth mentioning here that some of the breweries whose beer you might pay the most for are also leading an effort to get the Federal Excise Tax on craft beers reduced and one can be sure that that reduction will not be reflected in the pricing...

It might sound self-serving to say this at this point, but I am actually on your side here! Now my buzz is wearing off and before I decide that I should not post this, I am going to press the 'post' button.. Cheers all!

Tried the Yards Brawler as a suggestion from a friend who doesnt know a lot about beer and loved it. Then i tried their Philly Pale Ale, ESA(extra special ale) and ther IPA. I think they might be the most well rounded beers from a brewery ive ever had...all 10s in my book. Just wanted to know what everyone else thought. Cheers!

I noticed someone asking in comments about a beer release schedule, and I thought I would inform the /r/beergeek community that over in /r/beer on the sidebar is the link to a Beer Release Calendar that myself and a few other guys from BeerAdvocate manage. You can submit new information and it is always growing. I hope this helps some fellow beergeeks.

I heard about this on the AleHeads podcast the other week and just found out it's coming to town tomorrow. For those who may not be aware, Sam Adams is putting out a 12-pack of Latitude 48 that contains 2 original recipe L48 and then a one pair of single hopped versions for each of the five hop varieties used. I know L48 isn't the best IPA on the market but single hop brews aren't that easy to come by, especially in a pack where they'll be so easily comparable to beers of otherwise the same recipe.

Has anyone out there tried them yet? I'd really like to know if it's actually just a waste of money.

I opened a bottle of Port Brewing's Santa's Little Helper last night after a day hitting the powder hard on the mountain and settled in for some smokey tastiness, only to have my beer enjoyment slammed to a halt against a brick wall.

I poured half the bomber into a snifter and settled in to watch Brew Masters (I still don't think I could take down a glass of chicha, but I digress). About halfway through the show I poured the other half of the bottle and sauntered back to the living room. This was when I saw it - The Thing In My Glass. It hadn't been there a minute ago, had to have come from the bottle, and can only be described as...goo. It had the appearance of a copious beer loogie, brown and bubbly with the texture of thick frog eggs, and I was able to pull it out of the glass with my fingers in one solid gloopy mess. Suffice to say, the rest of that bottle was a drain pour. Anyone have any ideas what the hell was in my beer?

EDIT: At the urging of fellow beer geeks I contacted Port and exchanged a few emails with Sage. The best guess that they were able to come up with was that it was likely a large, viscous yeast blob: "I floated your description past our lab tech who said that it could be a viscous yeast blob. For big beers like Santa they use a special yeast that thrives in 10%+ alcohol. Not only does it eat residual sugar, but it's been known to eat other yeasts. Never heard of a blog quite that big however."

I was quite impressed by the quick responses, and the free t-shirt they're sending me as well. But that thing was still gross and I wish I had been able to take a picture.

Survey about Beer

The excessive bitterness kills me. It's just an assault on the tongue. I think it might just be a palate thing, because I'm in college and nobody I know likes them. I know one guy that likes medium hopped beers, but that is about the full extent of it.

Did you just acquire the taste over time? Also, are there any good brews to slowly get this taste. I'm actually about to try arrogant bastard next time I go out now that I'm done with my recent run through of every belgian beer I could find in Texas.

Edit: Just a note about how much I hate our laws. Since in TX, if a beer is over 5% it must say "ale" on the label, and if under it must say "beer" we don't get a ton of beer. Including everything Bell makes, and some Stone brews. Just a couple of examples. There are tons of others. Thank god people love beer trades.

http://ow.ly/3lcHe

I am talking about Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12. I thought that BA crowd doesn't like non-American beers too much and European beers have to be really good to get their attention but this one had me bewildered. I am not saying that I have an exceptional palate but I got the feeling that only a BMC drinking person could find flavor in this one!

Link to my review.

PS: I could post this on BA, whose ratings I disagree with but those on BA would know how threads get deleted, that is one of the reasons I like r/beer and r/beergeek.

I have heard of Michael Jackson's guides, but two questions: (1) which of his many is the "must buy" and (2) is it outdated by now? Are there other authors that you would recommend?

I'm basically looking for a guide for the best commercial examples of every style of beer. An added perk would be a section outlining beer flavors and how to judge beers.

I'll try my best to make the inaugural post fit the idea of this sub then.

I wanna talk about pumpkin beers. Specifically Summit's Unchained #5: Imperial Pumpkin Porter.

I had this last week at a Reddit Meetup, as did several other redditors and the general consensus was that we didn't care much for it.

I wanted to know what other people thought of it, and specifically what they look for in a pumpkin beer, because I think that's where the issue is with this style.

I think that the category contains so much wiggle room that it's hard to know what to expect when you order one. I actually found the Summit to be a pretty good Imperial Porter, potentially one I'd actually order again. But it's got Pumpkin in the name, which suggests that it'll be pumpkin(y), but it's very slight. I found the Cinnamon to be more easily found than any actual pumpkin.

I did some research though and it does have pumpkins in the mash, but it was not intended to be an upfront pumpkin beer full of spices and such. And on that note, it really met it's intention, just not my initial expectation.

My first Pumpkin Beer was Southern Tiers Pumpking and I really liked it. I felt that it had a great pumpkin flavor and sort of gave me an impression of how I want pumpkin beers to taste. This year I had someone ship me a bottle of DFH Punkin' Ale and was sort of in a similar position as I am with the Summit. I liked it overall, but it was so heavy in spices and vanilla, that the pumpkin was sort of lost on me.

So Beer Geeks, Pumpkin Beers; Do you like pumpkins, spices or something else all together?

We have already done two so far, the newest episode is on Beer'd Brewing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnAlsRC1g40

From The Tap provides in depth looks into the production of craft beers from the selection of the grains and hops all the way to when it's poured From The Tap.

From The Tap is a webseries & website all about Nano, Micro, Small & Corporate Breweries in New England & hopefully some day beyond. The From The Tap web series goes to breweries and gives a spotlight to a local company. In Depth looks into the making of local beer from the Grain & Hops until it is coming From The Tap. FromTheTap.net will be your guide to New England breweing!

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/fromthetapfilms Website (still under consturction): http://fromthetap.net/

I just started getting into craft beer, and it seems like there's a whole world of limited releases that are impossible for me to try. How do people start getting these? I recently got some Goose Island 2011 Bourbon County Stout from a local liquor store and the owner told me that it is quite sought after, and I can see why. I'm itching to try some of the other rarities of the beer world but I'm not sure how.

First let me apologize if this is slightly off topic from the beergeek reddit. But I enjoy this one more than the general beer reddit.

I'm a lover of beer first and foremost. The craft beer community is so much more welcoming and open than the music community I use to be involved in. And my love for the craft has taken me in the direction of blogging and now podcasting about craft beer.

Not long ago a co-worker that is really active on reddit told me I should post my articles and episodes on reddit. I just didn't know if it was frowned upon. I see people bashing certain bloggers on here from time to time and I didn't want to piss folks off if linking your own blog is not kosher.

So I come to you redditers of the beergeek reddit to inform me. Do you not like when bloggers link their posts? And if so what is it that bothers you? Content of the posts? The submitter doesn't get involved enough on reddit?

I ask because I would really like to promote my podcast especially here. And if it is going to anger people I will not do so because I enjoy being involved in this reddit and don't want people thinking I am just whoring my sites out there.

So please let me know.

Details and other stuff here.

I'll add that while it was fun to appreciate the differences, it's not always a good idea to have all of them together because of the way they numb the palate. If you read all the way to the end, I have written that it got impossible to detect any bitterness from Bell's Two Hearted!

I am having a beer tasting with a few friends in a couple of days. We have never really formally met with the intention to sit down, present a beer, critique said beer, and talk about the beer. I was hoping some of you guys had some good advice for us... I know we'll have a good time, but should I include some food, and if so, what is the best kind? Should you worry about pairing cheese, etc? Is there a really good type of plastic glass people use, etc? Any neat ideas for us to try?

For anyone who doesn't know who Mikkeller is, you should check out the website at http://www.mikkeller.dk/. I've tried one of their IPAs (I forget which one, sorry) and thought it was excellent. However, I'm living in Germany and it's the first IPA that I have had in awhile. Has anyone else tried any Mikkeller brews? What do you think?

I make YouTube beer videos and recently some kind soul sent me my first Trillium beer. https://youtu.be/ZhL2phtWqkg

I live in a city in northern England well-known for its thriving real ale scene. I have 5 pubs and a brewery within 10mins walk from where I live. Happy times!

As well as all the delights of the traditional English beer scene, I've noticed lately that American craft beers are becoming A Thing over here. Your Sierra Nevadas, your Goose Islands, your Flying Dogs, that sort of thing. Not that I mind, of course - I've been trying some really delicious American beers and, if this is a trend, long may it continue.

I'm just curious to know - to what extent is the reverse true in the US? Do British beers get a look-in amongst all the variety in the craft beer scene across the pond? What is the general perception of British ales in the States? Is there someone somewhere in the US of A guzzling down a Thornbridge Jaipur or a Badger Fursty Ferret with the same gusto that I'm enjoying the can of Sly Fox Pikeland Pils I currently have in my hand?

Discuss :-)

I'm in the chicagoland area and was wondering if anyone needs a ride to darkness day. I'm leaving friday around noon.

This subreddit seems a little slow recently, but I figured I'd still prefer to ask this here as opposed to /r/beer

If you're on untappd (it's like 4sq for beer) add me (jimfnj), I want to see what you're drinking!

http://untappd.com