Beer in the new era

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.

That's interesting - it's a Nicholson's house (or was last time I looked) and I haven't come across one of those having anything other than a very pedestrian (though usually well-kept) selection.

Still is Nicholson's, I don't know if it's an improvement across the chain or peculiar to this one place.

Re: Lagunitas, they're pretty one- note IMO, all their hoppy beers taste the same, and their lineup skews towards the hops. That said, for the price, you usually get good stuff. Little Sumpin' Wild is pretty awesome. And you can't beat 5 bucks for a bomber of Hop Stoopid. However, I drank a good portion of a 6er of Maximus one time right before a bout of wretched food poisoning.

Hop Trip is awesome! Chasin' Freshies is another Deschutes wet hop, don't expect an IPA and you'll like it.

My Jamil's Evil Twin kit is taking forever to carbonate, moved it upstairs where it's warmer, hope the hop taste doesn't fade in the meantime. Brewed up a new batch of my Witbier, experimented with a partial mash, added 1lb of flaked oats and 1 lb pilsener malt. We'll see how this one goes.

(the point being that I can never touch Maximus again due to Pavlovian association with violent, repeated vomiting)

can't wait to try this
http://hensley.com/media/124373/Narwhal%20Header_613x350.jpg

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):

I don't drink a lot of stouts, but the Left Hand and the Founders are both quite good. I like Dogfish Raison d'Etre -- complex and strong -- but it's not much of a session beer. The Lagunitas ones are solid. (Daytime is their low-ABV IPA -- a style I predict we'll be seeing more of. Founders has one, too.) The only other one I've had is the Hefeweizen UFO -- didn't think much of it, but then I haven't really liked any of Harpoon's beers.

i didn't realize they had lagunitas in mn!

IIRC, they're fairly widespread, and are bound to be even more so, since they're currently building a brewery in Chicago to help w/distribution.

Taste test of the "White House Honey Ale", Obama's home brew:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/dining/reviews/a-white-house-beer-we-can-believe-in.html?hpw

ha its really how quickly the yay of news that the white house was brewing shifted to noooooo when i heard that they were doing a honey ale.

that nyt article is pretty gushy for what looks like a straight-up brown ale made with malt extract and honey.

well its the nyt what do you expect. i think its basically being complimentary towards homebrewing as a concept more than anything

Drank last night:

Lucid Foto, decent IPA, nothing remarkable.

Clown Shoes Brewing Eagle Claw Fist (I know, the names!) This is an odd one, billed as imperial amber ale on the menu; ratebeer calls it a strong ale. Dark reddish, with malt and whiskey notes, still extremely hoppy at 100 IBU.

Did not try New Belgium Peach Porch Lounger but wanted to, despite my aversion to fruit beer and G. Love, whom the name apparently references, because holy hell: peaches, hominy grits, molasses and lemon peel, all funked up with pale and biscuit malts in a saison for sipping. In three-part harmony enters a healthy dose of Brettanomyces to bring tropical, citrus flavors and bold, sweet nose.

had the new belgium porch lounger a few weeks back on the night of a thousand sours and it was pretty unremarkable unfortunately

New Belgium had an ancho chile ale there (Happy Gnome) too; maybe they're getting a little overambitious.

tried this one for the first time this weekend, was kind of amazing
http://www.boulevard.com/BoulevardBeers/the-sixth-glass/

I like the Peach Porch Lounger, but it def sounds more amazing than it actually is.

Has anyone had the Ska cocoa mole stout? Almost bought a sixer the other day but wasn't sure.

Drank last night:

Lucid Foto, decent IPA, nothing remarkable.

Clown Shoes Brewing Eagle Claw Fist (I know, the names!) This is an odd one, billed as imperial amber ale on the menu; ratebeer calls it a strong ale. Dark reddish, with malt and whiskey notes, still extremely hoppy at 100 IBU.

Did not try New Belgium Peach Porch Lounger but wanted to, despite my aversion to fruit beer and G. Love, whom the name apparently references, because holy hell: peaches, hominy grits, molasses and lemon peel, all funked up with pale and biscuit malts in a saison for sipping. In three-part harmony enters a healthy dose of Brettanomyces to bring tropical, citrus flavors and bold, sweet nose.

― Sex Kitten mind control slave (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, October 17, 2012 11:16 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was this at Muddy Waters? I haven't seen Clown Shoes anywhere else on tap. Although they were listed on Muddy Water's taplist last week even though they hadn't tapped the keg yet. Also Lucid is some nasty shit. the only beer I've had with lemon was Stone's 16th anniversary and it was godawful/nasty shit.

I was at Happy Gnome last night. There was allegedly gonna be a Deschutes rep there with cask Hop Trip and Chasing Freshies. Turns out the bar knew nothing about it.

I didn't hate the Lucid, just kinda okayish. I did have some Tonka IPA the other night I thought was pretty gross.

Has anyone had the Ska cocoa mole stout?

I guess that's the official name of the New Belgium "ancho" ale I spoke of a bit ago. Last night was the first I've heard of it, but I passed.

i've been drink a lot of big stouts lately but i feel a strong belgian ale binge coming on

I haven't bought a six pack of anything in forever. Maybe some All Day IPA several months ago. Four pack is the most I go these days.

bought a 6 pack of the founders red rye pa last night to drink during the debates and it was pretty good, but i think the face punch of the hop trip has temporarily broken my tongue wrt ibus

so i live in l.a. and a recent article pegged it as a top 5 beer city, citing a couple of breweries and some gastropubs, but idk, the scene here is a little thin. golden road is the new shit but it's not very good. eagle rock brewing is ok. basically the reigning king is bruery and no one else comes close. the hot brewpubs these days are all pretty mediocre. this list didn't even mention portland or san diego or chicago or nyc, so i think it was a little off in general.

anyway! had some excellent beer from the bruery, a growler of rugbrod. great!

I'm going to this a week on Saturday:
http://www.kwvr.co.uk/events/151-featured/126-beer-a-music-festival-2012.html
Real ale! Steam trains! Real ale on steam trains!

so i live in l.a. and a recent article pegged it as a top 5 beer city, citing a couple of breweries and some gastropubs, but idk, the scene here is a little thin.

you've gotta go out to orange county imo - bruery provisions in orange is a great beer store (and often the only place to get some of their rarities), but there's a store in corona, el cerrito liquor, that i'll personally stan for as the best bottle shop i've ever been to on either coast.

regardless there's some amazing stuff in/near LA that doesn't make it very far at all - look for stuff from craftsman brewing (which doesn't bottle, but should be available at father's office and the like), alpine brewing, kern river...

I usually don't get excited about lagers, but the Craftsman 1903 is really good. And I like Golden Road, less enthusiastic about Eagle Rock brewery.

I guess that's the official name of the New Belgium "ancho" ale I spoke of a bit ago.

Oops, I must've been conflating these two:
http://greatbrewers.com/sites/default/files/images/Product%20-%20New%20Belgium%20Cocoa%20Mole.preview.jpghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UgTeOSdevuo/UD7RSHSuoFI/AAAAAAAAJjY/owx7AQNTFcY/s1600/ska-mole-stout.jpg

Was interested in the Ska one.

I like GRs hefe but everything else I've had has been a bit avg. bruery provisions is dope as fuck. Friend of mine has worked the bar there for some time now.