Beer in the new era

i live right near left hand so i haven't had skunky stranger, but i can see it being a bit on the bland side -- i kind of like that it's a little bit mellow.

did the vt run again this past week, posting pic of what is likely the best reg production beer in america

http://www.howigit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alch-heady.jpg

so jealous

hung out last week with an ilx lurker buddy of mine (hi 3ric!) and got talking about his beer catering plans for his wedding in september - a few cases of heady, a kate the great vertical, and a keg of HF vera mae? works for me!

^^would rsvp

This is what I had at my wedding last year, all in bottles/cans:

Half Acre Daisy Cutter
Bell's Oberon
Two Brothers Domaine Du Page
Corona

I was kind of proud that I was able to assemble a decent variety of styles (for different tastes) within our small budget. Also, the Midwestern beers all have some personal geographic significance: Half Acre is the brewery closest to where we currently live, Bell's is the brewery closest to where I went to college, and Two Brothers is the brewery closest to where I grew up.

Of course, the Daisy Cutter was basically gone before dinner, IIRC.

i had a two brothers beer last night! someone brought it back from a chicago trip, had never heard of the brewery before.

I can't remember what we had on tap at our reception.

yes heady-topper is really that good

the beer for my wedding was 80% canned beer, a fact that i am very proud of

Surly Furious
Surly Bender
Surly Bitter Brewer
Summit EPA
and Black Label

the only thing we didnt run out of was summit actually, the only bottled option.

two brothers stuff is pretty badass, they make my favorite session ale in the world i think. Long Haul i think?

Wasn't familiar with Heady Topper. 120 IBU, holy hell...

rodenbach grand cru

wth is this

A sourish red ale, similar to cuvee. I like it a lot.

I can't remember what we had on tap at our reception.

Well, your reception was at a bar.

i don't know anything about this stuff, but i just read that above 100 ibu you can't distinguish more bitterness.

also sweet action is a cream ale? really? i thought that was just something genesee came up with to sound fancy. maybe i should try more cream ales (are there others?) cause i really like sweet action.

I'd like to try Sweet Action again, but I'm not going to pay for it.

not sure about this rodenbach

I've never met a cream ale that I've liked.

Here's what Sixpoint says about Sweet Action, btw:

Take, for instance, Sweet Action. What is it? Is it a cream ale? Well not really, because it is brewed with elements of a Hefe-Weizen. So it is a Hefe-Weizen then, right? Well, no... because it has a hop profile similar to a Pale Ale. All right, well what is it then? It is Sweet Action. That's what it is.

this odell 5 barrel pale ale is much more my speed

i really like sixpoint, they have a pretty fun really casual brewery tour, which is basically just one guy talking and showing you around his garage.

I also had a Two Brothers I really liked recently having never previously heard of the brewery -- it was a rye

Probably the Cane & Ebel. Jaymc likes that a lot.

I do! There was a time -- maybe about four years ago -- when I'd routinely tell people that it was My Favorite Beer. Then, after a while, I began to gravitate toward beer that wasn't as overtly sweet (one of the key ingredients of Cane & Ebel is Thai palm sugar). But I actually just bought a six-pack recently and reflected on how nicely balanced it is.

Oh, and I also just had their Pillar of Salt, a limited-edition "white rye" that was brewed as a light, dry antithesis of Cane & Ebel. Recommended.

I kind of like rye beer to be sweet because it balances out certain other strong flavors for me

I've recently hit 500 unique beers on my untappd, so I thought I'd see what style I drink the most of from that data. Since December 2010, my top 15:

American IPA - 63
American Imperial / Double IPA - 49
American Imperial / Double Stout - 42
American Pale Ale - 34
Rye Beer - 15
Russian Imperial Stout - 14
Witbier - 12
American Amber / Red Ale - 10
Belgian Strong Pale Ale - 9
American Barleywine - 9
American Porter - 9
American Strong Ale - 9
Saison / Farmhouse Ale - 8
Sour Ale - 8
Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy - 8

Congrats, Jeff. How was the Hyperion?

#IPADay

Is it? I don't think I'm drinking tonight. I'll consider the Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster I had last night to be my contribution to the cause.

http://ipaday.org/announcing-ipa-day/

I had a Sixpoint Resin last night, it was tasty but I think the can design was better than the beer overall.

Which is not to say it was a bad beer, but it was $.

Bengali Tiger > Resin, IMO.

every time i visit the US, including in the past week, i return home only to be further disappointed by how rare it is to find IPA in Montreal bars :/ or anywhere for that matter

Weyerbacher Blanche - not bad! A refreshing Belgian-style white ale - perfect for summer.

went to the churchkey bluejacket release thing last night (bluejacket is their gypsy brewery - collabs with cigar city, bruery, etc). considering how po-faced churchkey can be, the beers - a porter that tasted exactly like a reese's peanut butter cup and a quad with strong caramel apple flavors - were surprisingly wacky and over the top. the rose de gambrinus on draft more than made up for it though.

place on the UWS supposedly has cans of HT

Will be back in DC in 3 weeks. May just move into the Churchkey.

Wait, when exactly? Are you going to just follow me and Kr around wherever we vacation?

by the way can i just say goddamn, heady topper is an amazing beer??

you can say it as many times as you want

Whole Foods is doing a 20% off thing for IPA day today, which puts their high prices below many discount stores' prices. Got some Sierra Nevada Torpedo (16 oz cans) for $6.39/4-pack.

Which is not to say it was a bad beer, but it was $.

― DX Dx DX (dan m), Thursday, 2 August 2012 14:43 (7 hours ago) Permalink

I think the can design is kind of deceptive actually, because they look small next to the normal sixpoint cans, but they're 12 oz (standard is 16), so you're still getting a 4-pack of normal sized beers that, I might add, are 9.1% ABV. So it's really not badly priced at $10-12 a fourpack as far as I'm concerned.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/217779_10150990003713616_1130669433_n.jpg

Had an epic night of boozing on Saturday while watching the men's 10K finals. Dark Lord (2011 and 2012), Firestone Walker Parabola(2011), Firestone Walker Sucaba, Three Floyds Boogoop, Founders Frangelic Brown. Should drink like that more often.

I had some of that Parabola 2011 (and the 2012 & Sucuba) a couple weeks ago, great stuff. Bought two bottles of their Double DBA, which I don't remember the details of but it's also barrel aged.

I googled the details.

http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/products/double-dba

Yeah I wanted some of that, but those releases sell out so quickly here. I've never had a bad Firestone walker beer, all so good.

Ha, just picked up 2 DDBA's. Surprised to find them.