Beer in the new era

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.

ok, so now i can buy singles OR buy cases (bc this new place opened up that sells singles). but if i buy singles i can only buy 12 singles at a time. they're not allowed to sell me aka 13 bottles. which isn't the worst thing in the world, but means that if i'm bringing beer to a party i need to buy cases not singles

PA (well Philly in specific) is my second favorite place in America, but your liquor laws are fucking crazy.

i miss buying beer in the supermarket

how far out do they distribute lagunitas? similar to deschutes or sierra nevada, they're affordable, delicious and ubiquitous on the west coast. lil' sumpin/lil' sumpin sumpin and brown shugga are amazing

Got it here in mn, and oh man, the lucky 13 and hop stoopid are both world class imo

Also $4 for a bomber

xps rodenbach is a damn good sour beer - albeit in that very sweet, very belgian style.

my favorite sours tend to be the ones built out of darker beers... i had the upright oscar peterson over the weekend and it pulled this off incredibly well (one of the most drinkable sours i've ever tasted). similarly, cascade's bourbonic plague is pretty much my absolute favorite beer ever, maybe one of the sweetest cascade makes (which is still pretty sour tbh)

i didn't realize they had lagunitas in mn! i've actually never had the lucky 13, i'll have to give it a shot

...the cuvée de jacobins, which is the best sour in the world

True, but crazy expensive - $22 for four 12-oz bottles at the one place I've seen it. Whole Foods, but still. I only saw it there once, guess it didn't sell.

Alright I missed the 12 beers not necessarily of the same variety thing - I thought you bought like a gross of beers there or something. Having no choice but buy 12 singles at a time would sort of be awesome.

Hop Stoopid and Lil Sumpin are both really great and all over WA but both have such dumb names that I feel sort of ashamed when I buy them.

I like sours a lot. Had an amazing sourish Berliner Style Weisse, Brettanomyces Lambicus Special Edition. So light and refreshing and only 3%. Not crazy sour, but just sour enough to compliment the style.

Sours are the new thing, right? Looked at one way, it's a route the avant-gardists have found out of insane hopping but retaining the snese of the extreme?

At the De Molen beer festival the other week, all but one of the Mikkeller beers on offer were sours, and they were much in evidence elsewhere.

i feel like it's sort of a good and bad thing that Lagunitas is pretty much the default crafty beer all over the west coast.

Suddenly noticed my strong predilection for hoppy ales (maybe due to changing lunchtime pubs from a fullers pub with the bog standard fullers selections to one with ten different cask beers available every day). Harviestoun Wild Hop IPA going down a treat.

Where's the ten-cask place nr yr work, Tom?

Doggett's. Always wrote it off as a very large (ie not cosy) and uninspiring joint but the ale selection (and they seem to be well kept) has definitely improved its prospects.