Beer in the new era

Xp I'm going to be in the cities this weekend, where can I find it?

Any pro-tips on Hill Farmstead visits/general Vermontry?

I can probably hold a 4 pack at my local, but I'll only trade that for a beer nerd hangout xp

Any pro-tips on Hill Farmstead visits/general Vermontry?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, October 7, 2015 1:19 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

where will you be based/what days will you be there?

xp Might be possible. I think I've mentioned this itt or on one of the MN threads, but my BiL & his fam live in s mpls between that place called Busters and Northbound Brewpub. Either of those hold any appeal? We have plans for Saturday night but Sunday is pretty open.

xp:

Dates are TBD, have never done a proper New England autumn though so probably pretty soon, 3-5 days?

Thoughts are: Burlington > Montpelier > HF > Ebenezer's > Portland,ME

If you like cider, Citizen in Burlington is totally worth a visit.

Prohibition Pig in Waterbury is also very good, with a great bottle shop across the street.

hopefully the leaves have started to turn up there. it's still almost all green down in mass. here's general beer stuff in all those places.

burlington: winooski beverage warehouse has great resources for plannning to get local stuff: http://beveragewarehousevt.com/home/beer-hit-list/

you can also check out fiddlehead brewing in shelburne which some people like. downtown burlington has tons of bars/restaurants, farmhouse tap & grill had an excellent beer selection when i was there.

montpelier has three penny taproom which i love, and hunger mountain coop which i think gets heady topper and sip of sunshine both on thursdays. but there's not much else there, you could go to waterbury instead for a bigger selection of bars and restaurants. either place leaves you with about the same drive over to HF.

hf apparently just opened their new retail space today and got rid of growler limits, so i have no idea what it's going to be like. my understanding is they no longer have a giant line and it's more like placing an order and waiting for it. hopefully they're doing a bit better with the customer service. parker pie in west glover (~15 mins away, in the direction you're going in) is probably the best place in vermont to eat pizza and drink cantillon.

never been to ebenzer's but i've heard it's a little weird. the drive from that part of vt to that part of maine will also be a little weird. if you happen to need a break between lovell and portland stop at standard gastropub in bridgton, which is kind of a personal favorite since we're in bridgton a couple times a year.

if you're in portland on saturday bissell bros, foundation, and allagash will all be open and are on the same street. the allagash tour and tasting room is great. downtown has novare res, which is a must-go, and various other places. if you're tired of beer grab a cocktail at portland hunt & alpine club.

Any beer / beer bar recommendations for New Orleans, or am I doomed to wander the streets drinking a giant Hurricane?

wow... ask for pro-tips and get them! thanks CAD.

np, have fun! vermont is the best.

xp New Orleans/LA beer sucks ime, but the Avenue Pub is A+

Also yes, get a giant hurricane just for lolz

+ for Portland, ME, I highly recommend the Oxbow tasting room! Great beer and an amazing space.

Vapricot - Cigar city + Terrapin colab is a tasty offcenter DIPA

I found Surly Wet, kind of disappointing IMHO.

Agreed, this years wet is bunk.

Oh also, did you get my email?

Yes, will respond

So I guess SABMiller and AB-InBev are planning to merge? Seems like a bad scene to me, but I guess the DOJ is going to force them to sell a bunch of their US properties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/14/business/dealbook/anheuser-busch-inbev-sabmiller-beer-merger.html

So much shitty beer ...

https://twitter.com/joshbnoel/status/654707755744296961

I didn't even enter the Rare Day lottery. Didn't want to feel obligated to spend $40 on a ticket to the event and $180 on three bottles of beer. Out of my beer budget.

Rare will get distro'd from what I've heard. What's crazy is that Prop won't.

yea $60 for a bottle of beer is ........ not for me

i would maybe, like for a very very special event, spend $60 on a bottle of whiskey, which for as much as i drink whiskey would probably last me at least a year

Prop has always been billed as being a Chicagoland exclusive as a way for GI to show their immense gratitude to the city and the loyal GI beer drinkers of Chicago. Their words, not mine.

there are these cascade brewing sour ales in bombers selling for like $30 a piece and even those i have never bought the most i've spent on single beer is prob $25 and it was for one of these allagash wild ale things (interlude maybe? something from that series)

Prop has always been billed as being a Chicagoland exclusive as a way for GI to show their immense gratitude to the city and the loyal GI beer drinkers of Chicago. Their words, not mine.

― Jeff, Thursday, October 15, 2015 11:04 AM (12 minutes ago)

ah yes those intensely loyal GI beer traders...

cascade beers are delicious but way overpriced

I looked yesterday at Almanac's Farmhouse Citrus sour, which I love, and if it were 500 ml (which I was thinking) I would have shelled out the $11, but the bottles are 375 ml, and I just couldn't bring myself to go for it.

$60 for bourbon isn't bad, and keep in mind, unlike beer it lasts a long, long time! At least in theory.

http://gearpatrol.com/2015/10/15/best-russian-imperial-stouts-buying-guide

Had about half of these, and this reminded me that I need to get some more Expedition for aging. The one I posted about upthread that had sat around for like a year was seriously fantastic.

Got the Petrus Sour Pack recently and am starting with this great Aged Pale.
3x Aged Pale
1x Oud Bruin
1x Aged Red
1x 50/50 (Aged Pale & Aged Red, limited edition only available in the Sour Pack)

love that aged pale, curious to hear how the 50/50 is. think the aged red is backsweetened a little too much, but mixing it with the pale sounds great.

I was in the same store yesterday and that sour box had sold out almost immediately. They have singles available of the other 3. Talking to the guy who is the beer buyer there, I think he spends most of his paycheck on his own stock.

there's an artisanal cider thread, but since I come at this as a beer guy: really recommend basque cider if you're into sour beers. still, hazy, low ABV, bright apple flavors and a ton of notes similar to a great gueuze: hay, grass, pleasant mustiness, a bit of tang but not puckering. i really don't like most ciders (even craft ones); too sweet and not a fan of malic sour, but it's my understanding that basque cider goes through a malo-lactic conversion so you get a lacto kick instead of the norm for cider.

there's not much on the internet about this stuff (at least in English), but the liquor store around the corner from me has like 30 bottles of Txopinondo Sagarnoa which is delicious, and like $11/750ml. compared to $25/750ml and rushing to grab a bottle before the shipment moves, I'm feeling spoiled.

I love ciders, especially those that have the dankest barnyard essence. But I can never remember which ones they are, since I rarely drink them.

I like a good cider maybe once every three years, but usually when I see so many hogging the shelves or taking up space at the bar I'm all gtfo where's the beer.

xp didn't even realize barnyard was a thing in the cider world, this really pleases me.

anyone ever manage to try Aaron Burr cider? was driving upstate last week and popped into a store they list as selling their stuff, guy chuckled at my expectation that it was just sitting on the shelf. didn't realize the cider scene was so buzzing.

<3 ciders, mostly drink Vandermill, Seattle, & Citizen. Zeffer from NZ is really good too but a bit too much $ to buy regularly.

very interested in ciders, and your description of basque ciders is very intriguing to me franklin. I think the reason I haven't bought more is that the commercial ones are terrible and the craft ones are pricey and I don't know enough to venture in to th cider world.I should prob just read a couple reviews of the craft ones at my local store, or maybe talk to the staff or something

my favorite beers this year have all been cloudy musty sours with strong lacto or brett flavors so I imagine i would really dig ciders with similar profiles

Most Basque ciders (and some Breton/Brittany ones) are spontaneously fermented with wild yeast which is a technique shared with belgian lambics and geuzes. Also some natural wines but those are so over the top trendy I feel weird talking about them.

Some American cideries are starting to pitch wild yeast/spontaneously ferment with varying degrees of success, many centered around the Gravenstein orchards of Sonoma County, CA.

would love to hear about natural spontaneously fermented wines too tbh, I am so clueless about wine in general that any trendiness factor would be lost on me anyways

don't want to cloud the beer thread up with this too much, but def into idea of spontaneously fermented wines/brittany ciders.

actually "naturally fermenting" some cider right now. bought five gallons of unpasteurized cider from an orchard in PA, dumped it in a fermenting bucket and let the naturally-occuring yeast/bacteria do their thing (added some oak i have for homebrewing and dregs of basque cider because why not). made my living room reek of rotten eggs for two weeks, but a month later this is getting nice. word is they let it sit for 6 months in the basque tradition, so i'll give it until the spring to comment on it much. but cheap/easy as hell, $30 and little effort to get two cases of (hopefully) tasty stuff.

and fwiw my understanding of the difference b/w belgian lambics and "natural fermentation": belgian lambics "catch" the right bugs; you make your wort and let it sit exposed in a manner that the yeast/bacteria in the air will do work and make it tasty (the yeast/bacteria of the Zenne valley appear uniquely suited to do the job -- the yeast/bacteria of the DC area, per my few homebrew fuckups, do not). "natural fermentation" in cider (and presumably wine) is about the yeast/bacteria on the fruit/press doing work on their own. that can also end up pretty gross, depending on the fruit/press, but there's a distinction between the two processes afaict.

Just loaded the whole thread and did a grep and no mention of cicerones? http://cicerone.org/

Seriously I would love to become a sommelier of beers. Except it probably requires learning to appreciate shit like peanut butter stouts, so fuck it.

What do folks think about Habenero Sculpin? I've seen some takes that were like, whoa, my mouth is on fire, I can't drink this! But I have also seen people say certain barrel stouts were as strong as bourbon, which of course is crazy talk.

I don't like it. It's hot enough to seem like a gimmick rather than a serious beer variation.

i'm not a fan tbh, i'm okay w/ some chili peppers in beer if it's done right but really i just don't like any of the ballast point ipas