Beer, meet brain.

April 19, 2004 2:34 PM

Beer, like people, comes in all shapes and sizes. Now 2,246 beers from around the world to view, comment on, and admire. From the beautiful Negra Modelo to the insane 17% Samuel Adams Triple Bock. For a more American-centric beer review page, check out Beer Advocate. Full of beer snobbery that extols microbrews while pissing on all macros. Not that it's a bad thing, we all support our favorite microbrew, don't we?
posted by geoff. (27 comments total)

Only in the case of Negra Modelo have people approached me to ask what beer I was drinking, and then ordered one for themselves, solely because of the way the bottle looked. It is indeed a beautifully packaged beer.
posted by coelecanth at 2:56 PM on April 19, 2004

On the other end of the spectrum: 40ozmaltliquor.com.
Runs more to my wallet's tastes, if not my own.
posted by headless at 2:57 PM on April 19, 2004

negro modelo is also pretty tasty. i'm going to try and make the clone brews recipe this weekend.

anyone know why my spanish speaking waiters are inclined to call it modelo negro?
posted by lescour at 3:00 PM on April 19, 2004

coelecanth, that is pretty much the sole reason I first bought it. I saw an ad for it (go to desktop -> the top two ads) and thought that I'd be cool by association. I think it's a suprisingly smooth beer that can be both chugged and enjoyed savoringly.
posted by geoff. at 3:02 PM on April 19, 2004

Lescour - because the brewery is called Cerveceria Modelo (literally, "model brewery") and the beer itself is called Negro ("black"). Modelo also makes Corona, amongst other beers. It would be the same thing as saying Bud Light instead of Light Bud.
posted by headless at 3:14 PM on April 19, 2004

I drank it because it made me feel cool and contrarian at college happy hours in places like El Torito's, where everyone had something pissy-looking with a lime stuck in the top. Now, of course, I drink it to meet the surface-obsessed :-) Actually, I think it's a fine beer. Thanks for the links.
posted by coelecanth at 3:25 PM on April 19, 2004

modelo negro is some good stuff, agreed. of course my favorite black stuff would have to be guinness. unpretentious black stuff that's not too bad: yuengling porter.

beeradvocate amuses me: it always seems as if the members are all caught up in some kind of huge poetry contest.
posted by dorian at 3:38 PM on April 19, 2004

Mixed reviews of one of my favourites...you can tell the people who appreciate a full-flavoured beer from those used to, as one commenter puts it, "sprite with piss in it."
posted by Jimbob at 5:05 PM on April 19, 2004

Jimbob: definitely fun to watch friends who've never had a belgian style beer try one: confused at first, but then usually appreciative. aside from all the canadian ones, we in northeast us are lucky enough to have this.

heh: "Any of you oz heads want to try a real beer come to England,home of
your reletives that wernt criminals,England is the best at everything
and you know it, what a bunch of wankers(yes, esepically you sheldon)"
posted by dorian at 5:19 PM on April 19, 2004

Negra Modelo is a favorite of mine too. (My father always ordered it when we had Mexican food, so I tried it when I got older.) Some interesting info--until recently it was the only classic, dark Vienna-style lager commercially brewed. There may be some newcomers. Sadly it looks like this style is no longer brewed in Austria.
posted by lobakgo at 6:59 PM on April 19, 2004

Terrible, is very very much not so. Lately I've been thinking of moving into a bottle. (while we're on the subject of good Belgian beer)
posted by eyeballkid at 7:04 PM on April 19, 2004

Nelson Afterdark. It's god.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:19 PM on April 19, 2004

When in Germany, Paulaner Hefeweizen -- the Dunkles variety. Augustiner would be a close second, also in the dunkles hefe.

Guinness when anywhere else.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:57 PM on April 19, 2004

ooh thanks for reminding me, _disobedient -- I've not been to the local cafe for a long long time (mostly 'cos we end up going to $1 guinness night at another place...)
posted by dorian at 8:51 PM on April 19, 2004

this site just makes me want to go to czech, if for no other reason than to get bombed at the Pilsner Urqell brewery.
posted by badzen at 10:22 PM on April 19, 2004

dorian: Actually Brewery Ommegang does have at least some distribution outside of the NE. I can get it at Whole Foods (among others) here in the Pacific Northwest. Coincidentally, their brewmaster is going to be in town on Wednesday and I will surely be there.
posted by turbodog at 11:05 PM on April 19, 2004

Jimbob, I just moved to Australia and was pleased to discover that good Aussie beer does exist, in the form of Coopers products.

As for this collection, they have an oddly arbitrary selection of NZ beers, and are missing the obvious high points.
posted by nomis at 11:49 PM on April 19, 2004

what, no Pabst?
posted by NationalKato at 8:49 AM on April 20, 2004

Anything Unibroue makes me happy (well, it makes the missus happy, and that makes me happy). The cherry and apple beers they make are awesome.

Of course, I just spent a weekend working at Beer Summit and the thought of anything malted, hopped, and alcoholic makes me ill.

And don't knock PBR too harshly. I've been trying to homebrew clone it for months now and outside of peeing in the carboy, I have no idea how to match its character.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:16 AM on April 20, 2004

by all means, robocop, i wasn't knocking the Blue Ribbon winner...urine jokes aside, for $2.50 per 16 oz. can it's damned appealing.
posted by NationalKato at 9:54 AM on April 20, 2004

You're paying 2.50? A tallboy should be two bucks, tops.

In other news, Sleeman's making an offer to buy Unibroue.

Je me souvien!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:58 AM on April 20, 2004

Mmmm....Beer.
posted by caddis at 12:12 PM on April 20, 2004

What the?
1$ Guiness night? Dorian I'm moving in next to you......
posted by lumpenprole at 1:16 PM on April 20, 2004

ok technically $1 guinness night is not a 100% accurate description, it's just easier to explain it that way -- same place that my lazy, drunken ass dragged everyone to for the jersey meetup last year.

sigh, I was s'posed to meet some friends there this coming thursday night, but got invited to some kind of gallery opening or something.
posted by dorian at 4:08 PM on April 20, 2004

(but feel free to cross the river, we're usually there every other week...)
posted by dorian at 4:09 PM on April 20, 2004

woohoo, reprieve! the plan is to stop in to see this but then duck out early, so there will be much imbibing after all.

which is just as well, that studio space is small and gets crowded & sweaty pretty darn quickly.
posted by dorian at 4:16 PM on April 20, 2004

On the first link, first bottle on the left, 'Barbar'. Wonderful stuff, I've had it in both London and Belgium. Honeybeer. Had some British honeybeer, it was not the same.
posted by Goofyy at 2:12 PM on April 22, 2004