Beer in the new era

had some surprisingly great beer in south carolina. westbrook brewery.

Failed attempt to get some Bourbon County Stout Coffee today. It's getting ridiculous how hard it is to get some releases in this town.

Kinda digging Ruthless Rye IPA, but I'm surprised Sierra decided they needed another IPA. Also, I miss Glissade.

Ooh Ruthless Rye is the shit. IMO it's different enough from their Pale Ale and Torpedo to justify its existence.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ct-met-rare-craft-beer-20120129,0,2474298.story

I was not standing in line.

Tempted to try this:

http://i.imgur.com/ZNdy3.jpg

Brewed in the famous 'Dublin' suburb of Tallinn, presumably.

Konigshoven Quad is a bad mamajamma.

And Green Flash's Hop Head Red is not terrible, either.

Had a Van Honsebrouck Kasteel Cuvee du Chateau. 11% ABV but drank really easy (8 oz worth, anyway). Good, not too sweet. A "strong dark ale" style, sez the web.

homebrewed furious clone is the business. we have gone hogwild here and have a belgian that we just bottled and a pale ale in the fermenting bucket. once you buy the right $$$$ supplies this is actually a pretty awesome money saving hobby!

Kostritzer Amber (allegedly out of one of less than 300 kegs available in the USA): Good! Better than most ambers (not really a fan of the style) and a nice surprise at $5 a pint.

Haandbryggeriet Double IPA: Whoa. Expensive. Drunk. Good. Starting to become a big fan of this brewery.

^you have my attention. i wonder if i can get that anywhere up here?

although southern tier's double ipa is both awesome and not expensive.

possibly? I got the Haandbryggeriet at Binny's in Chicago. iirc it was $9 for a big (22oz?) bottle.

Sadly haven't been drinking a lot recently. Snagged a bottle of Firestone walker sucaba, barrel aged barley wine, but I think I'm going to stash it away for awhile

Dan, have you been to West Lakeview Liquors? They have a decent selection of Haandbryggeriet, iirc.

Pliny the Younger today! Woo!

Had some barrel aged Anchor yesterday, very good. I don't think it's available in stores, though.

freezing my ass off in portsmouth nh for kate the great day

Got tix to a 4 year vertical of founders Kentucky breakfast stout. Overpaid, but prob the only chance I'll get to try it.

Pliny the Younger yesterday! Whew...

Had an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout on draft the other day. Interesting - very spicy & bitter for a stout.

I see people have discussed above. 9%! I'm surprised they poured it in a pint glass.

Looks like there are a lot of pissed off people at the Founders KBS release today, not getting full allotments or not getting any at all if you got there after 3 am. It's the beer world we live in now.

that beer is good but absolutely not worth those kind of headaches

in my local scene Oakshire is just killing it, better than Ninkasi at this point imo. had an absolutely delicious French Farmhouse ale last night and I am gonna go back to the pub as soon as it opens today (4 pm).

New beer store in my neighborhood looks great. Paralyzed by choice, I just wound up getting a westmalle, but somebody tell me what I should get from their taps:

http://www.beerstreetnyc.com/Today-s-Draft-List

cigar city stuff is awesome ime

My local beer store is spoiling me with sour beer choices, they now have the monks and the cuvée des jacobins (plus 5 or 6 others), which by the way is the best sour beer in the world.

Had this (cuvée des jacobins) a couple weeks ago, and it is great. I don't usually like sour beer, but this one really made it work. Drink with fish and chips (no malt vinegar needed).

Also had a Lost Abbey beer called Ad-Lib, which was aged in bourbon barrels. Very pronounced bourbon flavor, with a hint of coffee. My favorite beer of recent memory.

Surprisingly ran into a Bourbon County Stout 2010 yesterday. Probably one of my favorite beers ever.

there's a store in dc that still somehow has a ton of 2011 bcbs/bramble/coffee on the shelves (or did a week ago) - some dude told me about it in passing and i didn't believe him, but sure enough

had an impromptu saison tasting yesterday with easter dinner (d'erpe mere, hill farmstead flora, cigar city guava grove, fantome hiver) which was really fun - guava grove, which is an awesome spin on the style (secondary fermentation with guava puree, but the fruit is actually really subtle), should be available in nyc wherever their beers are sold

So apparently Sixpoint Brewery is entering my local market (chicago) in the next week or so. This seems exciting, but is it? Is sixpoint beer really good and which ones should I try?

sixpoint is ok. their beers all tend to have a really similar flavor profile but that might change since they have a new brewmaster. everyone seems to like sweet action but it's a cream ale so how much can you really like it. resin (double ipa) is v. good.

i am now a filthy beer person who has completed the vermont hill farmstead/heady topper/lawsons run and my god having a case of ht in the fridge is worth it

awesome! what hill farmstead stuff did you get?

i don't make it up to new england much anymore, and i really miss making that run. a friend from boston who recently moved to NY (and also doesn't go up as much) now buys HF beer by the keg - i haven't gotten to that point yet, but i've certainly considered it.

fyi (you may have already done this), it's always worth it to stop at the black back pub in waterbury after alchemist - their draft list is totally incredible, leaning heavily toward HF/lawson's rarities

we stopped at three penny taproom in montpelier which was pretty cool; one lawsons and two hf offering on tap for cheap.

at hf i was able to sample anna (vermont honey saison), what is enlightenment? (2nd anniversary pale ale), society and solitude 3 (imperial ipa), and society and solitude 2 (imperial black ipa). i left with growlers of enlightenment, s&s 3, and everett (porter). they make really interesting beers for sure. best word i keep coming back to for them is "elegant."

a guy was there filling some growlers at the same time as us and he had reserved a keg of edward to bring to north carolina for his daughter's college graduation party. the place is a cult, i swear.

Never really visited this thread before, but my fridge is now well stocked after Dark Lord Day. In addition to the titular brew, I won the chance to buy one of the $50 special versions and picked up the Cognac Barrel-Aged Dark Lord. Also brought home some Arctic Panzer Wolf, Baller's Stout, Rye'd Da Lightning, and traded for some Imperial Stout Trooper. Great day all around.

My friends brought me some New Glarus Spotted Cow! Will try it this week.

http://popchartlab.com/products/breweries-of-the-united-states

Finally tried Sixpoint Resin, which I guess is their take on an IPA, or an extra IPA (9.1% ABV). Pretty good. As with all IPAs, I never feel like drinking more than one in a sitting.

sixpoint is ok. their beers all tend to have a really similar flavor profile but that might change since they have a new brewmaster. everyone seems to like sweet action but it's a cream ale so how much can you really like it. resin (double ipa) is v. good.

― call all destroyer, Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:12 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is kind of true in re flavor profile - it's almost like all their styles have some secret sixpoint flavoring added. I still think they're a great brewery, and I don't really get the diss on cream ales (Genny!), and anyway it's about as much like other cream ales as the Crisp (another favorite of mine) is a like other lagers.

my fave of the sixpoints is the bengali tiger--much more drinkable than the resin, which is just over the line for me from delicious to cloying.

otoh, it's called resin, comes in a green can, and smells kinda like doobage. so.

A+ imo.

The only Sixpoints I've had (they just arrived in Chicago recently) are the Sweet Action and the Righteous, and I greatly preferred the latter.

I've tried a bunch. Only one I didn't like was sweet action. Not a fan of the style.

Had Firestone Walker Parabola and Velvet Merkin again last night. I love those beers.

wow velvet merkin, now that's a name for a beer.

yeah genny is great but the point of cream ales is that they're kind of boring by design

Well in my ongoing quest to try as many Sixpoints as possible, I just got the Apollo, which is I guess a summer wheat beer. I enjoyed my first one -- thought it had sort of an apricot flavor without much sweetness. But then my wife told me it tasted like olives, and now I can't get that out of my head and can no longer drink it.