I bought a family reunion pack tonight as a self-reward for packing to move all day. It has a Ruby Red included (great summer beer). And a Strawberry Blonde, which is also delicious.
The Ruby Red is great - but so is the Travelers grapefruit (which isn’t a craft beer, anymore at least). The Travelers you get less of a beer taste but a very fresh grapefruit taste, kind of like grapefruit juice with beer added. The Ruby Red is more of a beer with grapefruit added to it.
A lot of fellow homebrewers I see!
@scatterbrains, If you want more malt, check out some traditional German styles. It’s too late for marzens and most Oktoberfests (I was seeing them around here as early as August!), but a nice bock, dunkel, or even a Vienna lager will provide a good malty backbone. If you still want hoppy goodness, look for some of the more robust west-coast double IPAs (DIPA). Lagunitas Sucks is a really nice one that is widely distributed and should be fairly fresh right now. Unlike the trendy east coast variety (hazy and delicately aromatic), west coast (or Midwest) varieties tend to have a fair amount of residual sweetness.
If I can’t have a good cider, I stick with the reds and some of the whole-wheat beers (not the actual wheat beers, but the ones that taste sorta that way – as opposed to the wet-air white bread beers and the stouts that makey me think of pumpernickel). There’s a brewery in the next town that has people lining up in the rain for their way over-hopped (imo) floral idunnowhat but go figure.
Are any of you familiar with the GrainFather? It’s the brewing system is use. I always have to reorient my self when bouncing between forums because they also shorten it to “the GF” 
When I was in the 8th grade, I made a wicked hard cider in the Winter in (Tacoma, Washington). I was a very popular kid (science geek) that time of year. 
- Rich
Hahaha, your beer fridge with the taps is nearly identical to mine.
I just picked up a 7 cu ft freezer from Costco to replace it. This only holds 3 kegs. The new one will hold 6 but I’ll only have 4 on tap. Possibly one carbonated water.
because it’s a little related:
Also anyone else like the Left hand milk stout? I enjoyed the nitro version a lot this past year.
I’m a cider drinker and don’t much drink beer. In fact last night at a work event I got a beer first (didn’t know there was a cider available) and I just couldn’t drink it. I set it aside and got a cider.
Locally I like Finn River and Eaglemount (both on the west side of Puget Sound). My go-to for daily drinking is Angry Orchard.
Same here. The old fridge has found a higher purpose with 4 taps in the door!
I know the GF. Nice system. My own is similar, just bigger. This is the Nano Home 20 gallon system from Colorado Brewing Systems.
Soda water was actually the primary motivation behind hacking together ours. We drank way too much of it to continue buying; now it’s all but free, minus refilling the CO2 tank a couple times a year.
I drink cider more often than beer, but I do drink beer at times. My favorite is Petrus Aged Pale. But I do tend to like Belgian beers in general.
I haven’t done it yet so I have to ask what level do you carbonate the water to? I assume it’s considerably higher than what I do on my beer.
I usually have a cider on tap also. I’ve got a simple recipe that uses costo apple juice. It’s pretty good.
I believe sodas should be something like 3.5 - 4 volumes. A typical ale is 2.2 - 2.5 volumes.
Any recommendations for some good ciders? I quit drinking them a while back because the ones I had available to drink were way too sweet. Tasted like store bought apple juice with alcohol added.
Citizen Cider makes some great non-sweet ciders; they’re from Vermont but distribute at least as far as Chicago. We’re fortunate to get a wide variety of things here though, so I’m not sure how widely it’s actually available. If you have access to a good craft beer store they can help you; you may also be able to find some great Spanish ciders. I find those to be pleasantly tart with lots of complex flavors.
Around here it’s Woodchuck for the most part. Many of them are sweet, but a few aren’t (802, granny smith). Another vote for Citizen also.
I don’t drink any commercial ciders, with exception to stuff from Social Cider werks in Minneapolis and one called Loon Juice from a local winery. There were several nice ciders I had in Ireland last year. It seemed every pub had at least one cider on tap.
