How much is your beer?

In Ontario, Canada, you can only buy liquor and beer at one of the government controlled outlets. On sale you can get a 28-pack of some generic swill like Bud 12-oz bottles for $37 CAD (one CAD is basically the same as one USD). That's about 11 cents per ounce. A decent microbrewery beer or import (like Guiness in a can) is about 2.50 or even 3 bucks for a 500 ml can, or about 17 cents an ounce. Something specialty like Innis & Gunn even goes for $3.00 for a single 12 oz bottle, or about 25 cents an ounce.

The most expensive beer I've ever bought was Mikeller's 1000 IBU at $14 per single 12 oz. bottle. Just under $1.17 per oz.

Was it worth it? Probably not quite, but it was close.

Where's that Westvleteren report?

i brew my own. but really it would be cheaper just to go buy a six pack of coors light.

Westvleteren is finally in. I picked it up last Wendesday but promptly left for vacation and didn't bring it along. Will report in as soon as I've tried it, likely this coming weekend.

For Japan,

Suntory Premium Malts 500ml ea. six pack = $21.72

Kirin (Tanrei) 500ml ea. six pack = $13.80 at the current exchange rate

Beer-like beverage (rice and hops from South Korea) 500ml ea. six pack = $10.47

European  and US Microbrew Beers in Japan,

Warsteiner 1ea. $5.08

Chimay (Blue) 1ea. $5.37

Czech Budwiser 1ea. $4.19

Liberty Stout 1ea. $4.19

Beer is expensive so most people here drink shochu, 5L@25% $28.10

So, a little overdue, but I finally got around to cracking into the first bottle of this.  I decided I wanted to have a point of reference, so I did a side by side tasting next to another Belgian Quad that I quite like - Rochefort Trappistes 10.  I drank both beers simultaneously and each was poured into a beer goblet just a touch below room temperature (as you would a bottle of red wine).

The Rochefort is a dark, rich beer with some up front fruit and a bit of spiciness (think Christmas cake spices), in particular I get prunes and raisins alongside the spiciness.

The Westvleteren, by contrast, while also quite dark and rich, is much less in your face with the flavours up front.  It does, however finish really nicely.  It's pretty complex and is much earthier (hinting at barnyard, even) with a bit of chocolate malt going on -- it's a much subtler flavour profile though.  A far smoother beer than the Rochefort.

Both hide their very high alcohol content well, and I really enjoyed both, but I have to say that I think I still like the Rochefort best.

If you can, get your hands on either or both, by the way.  I do strongly recommend the much more available and reasonably priced Rochefort 10.

 Sounds like a beer that should go on the bucket list!       

I don't know that drinking a whole bucket would be a good idea.

You prefer rochefort 10? Hmm.. I prefer the 6 over the 10. But sounds like westvleteren is overrated. I would eventually like to give it a try however.

I'll be giving another bottle a go this evening. There's some nuance there that I'd like to revisit. Generally I found the Westvleteren much more subdued than the Rochefort, but there's still quite a bit of complexity there. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it immensely.

I had the chance to get a couple of imports from local Liquor stores the other day. The Holsten Brewery of Hamburg was representd by two brews: Festbock and also Premiun, both of which are good ( at $2.45 per 500 ml can ).

I also got hold of a rather unique item, a Bottle Conditioned Vintage Ale ( and at $7.30 per 500 ml bottle a bit steep for me ). This brew is from the UK and is produced by Fuller Smith & Turner of London. This is a nice Ale with 8.5% alcohol and if not for the price would be on my list of favourites ( I got the 2009 vintage ).  

You're going to force me to rethink my vision of Albertans now! I thought it was all John Deere hats and Labatts 50 out there :-)

Metastable: They do sell quite a variety of Beers out here and a few of the  people wear Massey-Ferguson hats  lol ( I used to have a Versatile hat at one time ).  

cab: LOL all those noveau riche oil workers and their fancy imported beers :-) You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him take off his tractor hat!

But that selection sounds cool... right now I'm exploring the selection at my local store: Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale in celebration of Thanksgiving (it's so-so, but the bottle is really big which compensates for a lot), while my usual fall-back is Innis & Gunn. Not for everyone bit I like it a lot.

Well I never did work in the oil-patch but I did spend a lot of years on a major Railway ( and I have also done some farmwork ).

I haven't seen any Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale out here but the folks at Innis & Gunn do make some good stuff.

Well it seems that all of the Beer drinkers here have switched over to Coffee ( Irish Coffee ) or perhaps even to Wine. I got the chance to sample another interesting import today called Stella Artois. The recipe for this brew dates back to 1366 AD and creates a very good Beer ( from Belgium ).

Stella is quite popular in the U.S.

Cheap beer in 0,5 litre cans, 50 eurocent