Beer in the new era

Ha well this was not the thread that was intended for.

Hello from Brussels! We are drinking here: http://www.moederlambic.com/bars/fr/bars/

46 beers on tap. Basically no bottles. Quite the most unusual Belgian beer bar, beer-wise. Cantillion Rose de Gambrinus on CASK? Don't mind if I do.

Been drinking lately:

SN Torpedo- kind of my standby, 12 packs are super cheap at Chi-Lake Liquors here in MPLS (10.99!) and just beyond that it's just a really well-done beer that I'm usually always in the mood for.
Founder's Porter- one of the best porters around imo
Chainbreaker White IPA- just wanted to try it, more 'white' than IPA but very nice.
NB Shift- bought this one super cheap- it's fairly boring. continues my indifference to New Belgium

Been brewing:

Witbier- original recipe, just a nice sipper. it's fun to make repeatedly and adjust such-and-such and kind of refine it. bottling this today.
Jamil's Evil Twin- kit from Northern Brewer conditioning right now, dry hopped it with some extra Amarillo hops I had sitting around. Super excited for this one- it's kind of a hopped up amber. Smells amazing.
Bourbon Barrel Porter- kit from NB, recipe looks like a nice strong porter but then you add oak cubes that you have soaked in bourbon into the 2ndary (!). Brewing this one up tomorrow.
Tripel- conditioned this for 3 months, bottled 2 weeks ago, tried one last night, but a bit green yet. Gonna give it a few more weeks. Came out slightly darker than a typical trippel but the yeast taste is spot-on. I think the yeast I used is actually identical to that used by Westmalle.

I'm really in deep to this homebrewing business ever since I moved out of my expensive apartment into a far cheaper house with a big old basement... it's a great hobby though, no regrets.

twin cities holding down the ilx homebrew contingent i guess!

brewing a 90 shilling today, bottling a tallgrass velvet rooster clone and uh something else? i actually cant remember what the other beer in the secondary is. will update when i am in front of it.

had one new to me the other day from new zealand brewed by yeastie boys. a pale called digital ale. was 7% and def. one of the tastiest pale ales i've ever had. must've had some serious resin in whatever hops they used.

Myrcenary double ipa is tasting perfect.

Drinking my first Surly Wet of the year as I type.

I had a few Surlys myself this weekend - Furious, Cynic, and whatever the quasi Oktoberfest is called... Munich? All solid.

I'm liking the Peak Fall Summit Ale, although ratebeer types seem to disagree with me.

WET HOP SEASON! WET HOP SEASON!

got six packs of the two brothers heavy handed and the deschutes hop trip, two brothers is pretty damn good, but is eclipsed by the fact that the deschutes hop trip is O_O level amazing, one of the most sinewy resiny wet hops i have ever tasted. i have to track down what hop they are using for brewing purposes.

Waiting for Founders Harvest Ale...

had my first deschutes beer ever on saturday. pale ale. it was good!

until this year they've only had the hop trip in bombers, so the six pack for $10 is a welcome surprise. as they say on the bottle, "vine to kettle in less than 4 hours" and oh man, i believe them.

oh man. so this local bar realized that they could expand into the space next door and sell singles under the auspices of them already being a bar. unfortunately bc complex PA alcohol laws they can only sell (12) at a time so i go in, buy 12 and then my wife goes and buys 12 more and we're thrilled, bc that means no more buying cases of beer and hoping that it's actually good. got burned on the cases buying that watermelon swill shit which is so disgusting i can't even give it away. but anyway we went today and they have a HUGE selection and i bought a bunch of different stuff. it's in my trunk atm, but when i get home tonight i will list all the cool beers i bought. lots of different stuff.

i wish rate beer had an iphone app bc when i'm there i don't want to start messing around w/ their website but i don't know off-hand what is highly rated. oh well!

I'd prefer a beer advocate one, but according the the forums I don't think there will be one anytime soon. Would be great of you could just take a picture of the label and it would pull up the reviews.

i though beer advocate had one

thought*

i've drank 12 breakfast stouts in the last couple of weeks btw

when ratebeer agrees with me I feel vindicated, but when they don't it can ruin a beer for me, cuz they'll be like "UGH, MOUTHFEEL OF WET CARDBOARD, ROCKSALT AFTERTASTE" and then the next time I'm drinking it I can only think of wet cardboard.

beer advocate does not have an app, they like just hired a professional web developer for the first time ever

despite the worst fucking blue laws this side of utah i gotta say i love beer and i am so excited about my new beer store + my new beers to drink

Have any Twin Citians ever gone to the midweek beer geek at Nomad? I was going to try to make my first one tomorrow (McNeil's Warlord Imperial IPA) but the beer, and the brewery in general (Brattleboro, VT) got pretty crappy reviews on ratebeer.

i havent, but im glad you reminded me that it exists. idk anything abt that beer, but i have had something from brattleboro? lemme try to figure out if its a different beer and if it was crap.

mordy, that sucks, if ilx had sticky posts i would add one to this thread that says "DO NOT DRINK THE 21ST AMENDMENT HELL OR HIGH WATERMELON" assuming thats the beer that was awful

yes, that's the one. TERRIBLE.

dnw ANY watermelon beer iirc

ha the mcneils stuff is the one that my local beer store geeks warned me off of. the labels should have been enough to do it, tbh.

yeah the tragic thing is that i like most of the other 21st amendment stuff, but i have no idea why that thing is still on the market, its incredibly awful and put me off trying their stuff again for years.

I wonder if the Hell or High Watermelon I had wasn't so bad b/c it was on tap? The way you talk about it makes it sound like Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat.

i like the sunset wheat lol

My band played a bar once where Sunset Wheat was the only non-macro they had. I couldn't drink two, it was like lemon soda.

ugh, can't stand hell or high watermelon. i was so baffled when that won PEOPLE'S CHOICE at the first beer festival i ever attended. made me realize that i need to go to better beer festivals.

went to the deschutes public house in bend over the weekend. they seem to be another example of a brewery that's a bit overrated by those outside the region, but i was definitely impressed by some of their more seasonal stuff (jubelale on nitro is fantastic, and the fresh hop 'london gold' and ira were also pretty good).

unfortunately missed out on visiting boneyard, which people should try if they get the chance. i'm surprised that this one hasn't as of yet made it out of the northwest, but it seems to be pretty popular out here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23066/60750. really unique hop profile

jjjusten have you been to http://www.northboundbrewpub.com/ yet? my lady's brother lives 2 blocks away and we stopped in the other night while visiting. pretty good beer from what I had (IPA and an amber iirc).

(sorry this should probably be in the twin cities thread but I don't know where the current one is)

Deschutes is supposed to be avail in the Chicago market in 2013. I don't think I've had any.

Ah, put all beer geekery in this thread imo, TC and otherwise. We can sort out what's local and what's elsewhere.

I lived in Seattle when Deschutes first opened, so there's definitely a mystique to me (the lovely drive down to Bend, getting a keg of Bachelor Bitter for my going away party, excitement that they're finally in MN) and probably overrating tbh. I need to get that Hop Trip tho.

drankin lately --

bear republic big bear stout -- A+ this bear was wonderful
goose island bourbon co. stout -- okay this was good but i don't think i'll be buying it again. too intense for ordinary drinking.
trader joe's mission street brown ale - good! cheap as heck! low abv so you can drink it all and not feel awful!
six point brownstone - this tastes sweeter and more cakey than i remember it. prob will not go out of my way to drink again

AND THIS THING --
http://easterndistrictny.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/pair1.jpg
which was amazing but not partic cheap, but i would buy again in a heartbeat. i might even go back to the store to get it even tho it's the wrong direction home. just to make sure they do not run out

right now i'm drinking a nice fresh ithaca flower power; love this beer.

Too intense for ordinary drinking??? If I could buy enough I'd be ok drinking BCS as the only beer for the rest of my life.

man, i split a bottle with my roommate and that was ENUFF for me. i would wind up blacked out all the time drinking that stuff.

o also i tried pretty things meadowlark IPA that was lovely.

ok - so here's what i got today. any thoughts on any of these? (the last 6 my wife picked out and are the fruitier/sweeter stuff):

Left Hand Milk Stout
Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre
Troegs Dreamweaver Wheat Beer
Troegs Dead Reckoning
Rodenbach
Hefeweizen UFO
Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout
Boulder Beer Sweaty Betty
Victory Festbier
Lagunitas Daytime
Lagunitas Little Sumpin’

Twisted Pine Raspberry Wheat
Shipyard Brewing Pumpkinhead
Blue Point Blueberry Ale
California Cider Company Ace Hard Pumpkin Cider
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Samuel Smith Organic Cider

the Lagunitas was highly recommended by the guy at the new beer place, so i'm pretty excited to try them out

My thoughts are "are you willing to adopt me and let me live in your house?"

Rodenbach, founders, and both lagunitas are among my favorite beers

oh sweeeet now i'm really excited. no more bullshit watermelon beer for me!

If you like the rodenbach, which is a sour, see if they have the cuvée de jacobins, which is the best sour in the world

i got a surprise 4-pack of bfast stout today, fuckin' love that beer

surprised I haven't seen more Troegs talk itt, friends in philly & points east hype it up a lot

Troegs Nugget Nectar is great and goes quick around here.

i had the dead reckoning one tnite during the debate and i really liked it

i had actually heard not great things about the troegs but it was really flavorful, very chocolate malty

Deschutes is alright, I guess? I actually thought about buying one of their IPAs the other day as it's been ages, and I remember it being super bitter with not much else going on. Mirror Pond is a pretty good pale ale and is pretty ubiquitous at bars around here. Some of their one-offs have been alright, and I should really have another Hop Trip at some point.

Also I've only driven across Pennsylvania but hearing about the liquor laws there sounds like the most insane and maddening thing ever. Not being able to buy singles means I basically would never drink another beer as long as I lived, there's no way I could commit to 12 of anything in one shot.