Beer in the new era

Grand Rapids has a bunch of others, they should prob be on a list. Some list.

Speaking of I'm probably going to sign up for the Grand Rapids marathon specially to go to breweries afterwards.

i have never had a founders beer i didn't like.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17271/54379

porter talk reminded me of one of the worst beers i've ever had - bootlegger's mint chocolate porter, picked up in LA last year. kinda tasted like drinking a porter and smoking a menthol at the same time

hey friends,
never drink anything called a "lavender ipa"
take it from me,
ij

oh my goodness

at least u lived to tell the tale

AVOID Boatswain brand beers at Trader Joe's. Admittedly I shouldn't have expected much from a $2 22oz beer that's 8-9% ABV, but yuck.

― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2)

Had one once (can't remember the type), I wouldn't say "yuck" but no desire to re-buy.

And I had that Avery Mephistopheles Stout (16.2% abv) that a bought a couple weeks ago. Very good on the first sips, alcohol not overwhelming, but later tastes had a very slight funkiness in the aftertaste. I was eating chili with it, and maybe that was the cause. Would like to try it again, but at almost $9 for 12 oz, it may not happen soon.

had my first founders imperial stout last night. simply outstanding imo.

i spent too much on beer today - got the firestone 16 anniversary ale, avec les bons voeux brasserie dupont (came w/ a nice glass!), and a dogfish head world wide stout.

i'm feeling a little guilty for splurging

oooh I had that dupont last summer, very very nice

lol I went to a craft beer store in ATL with my sister-in-law and she and her partner spent $180 on various beers.

It can happen.

I think they walked out with... lemme see here, 9 6-packs and 17 big bottles? We got two huge boxes to carry them out in.

Of course two of those sixes were my Duck-Rabbits, which I then brought home

i wasn't a partic fan of the boatswain beer from trader joe's but we LOVE the Mission St. Pale Ale around these parts -- my wife considers it her #1 favorie beer. and it is quite good.

southern tier 2xIPA best southern tier i've had to date and way tastier than the christmas ale imo.

^so good, especially for the price

The 20 most influential beers in the world

or "of all time," whatevs.

uh what has utopias "influenced"

decent list other than that

People making weird-ass, super strong beers and charging a lot for them seems to be a thing now. I have never heard of the Utopias, and don't know when SA started making them, but there does seem to be a small cult of hard-to-get, super-specialized, one-off beers around now. Mikeller and the like. Hardly a big trend, but worth mentioning in this context maybe.

hm could be, i don't know of anything priced in the utopias range (which to me is maybe the most-unique thing abt utopias) but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I looked at Mikeller at one point when they were doing a tasting at a local Whole Foods (ended up not going) and some of what they do is team with other brewers for one-off, very limited quantity beers, which are sometimes auctioned off for charities. They can end up going for quite a bit. A very small part of the beer market, but maybe worth noting since scarcity is a factor in beer production.

Every mikeller I have had has been garbage.

Got hook

Err got hooked up with some troegs scratch beer #83 called impending descent. Best stuff i've ever had from them.

I still haven't tried any Mikeller, even the three that seem to be always available at Bevmo. Not saying they, or Sam Adams, are leading the beer world in a good direction, but I can see the author's point of view in saying it's an influence.

uh what has utopias "influenced"

― an eagle named "small government" (call all destroyer), Saturday, 12 January 2013 04:16 (3 hours ago) Permalink

the beers from other breweries that have reused utopias barrels to age their own beers in

I don't want to seem rude or anything but that link that nickn posted is way more in-tune with my tastes than the majority of the stuff that gets posted on this thread, I don't really like sugary or flavored beers or breakfast stouts or things like that.

Every mikeller I have had has been garbage.

I felt like this until recently. IME their more experimental stuff is far better than their fairly shitty watery IPAs and pale ales.

I've had some pretty good Mikkeller beers. Problem is that dude needs an editor to determine what to release.

SA has been making Utopias for awhile, last year was the 10th anniversary edition. I had some at a beer fest one time. It wasn't very much to judge, but it was very strong and tasted closer to brandy rather than beer. A bit out of my price range, but I wouldn't turn down the chance to try again.

On the Mikkeller wikipedia page it says they have brewed over 600 different beers. I wonder if they have even tried them all? Or just put it in a bottle and shipped it out.

I'm fairly sure they'll have tried them all - I mean I reckon I've tried more than 20 and I'm hardly a super-frequent drinker of Mikkeller beers.

We were talking about them this week on the London Pubs thread, and I said that drinking their beer was a bit of a lottery, but I keep buying tickets for that lottery because when it's good it's realy really very good indeed.

(And I don't know why I even bothered hoping that that "most influential beers of all time" article might be something other than "some influential beers in the USA right now", but I did, and I was disappointed. But one day I'll learn either to expect listicles which I find frustratingly mixed, or I'll learn not to click at all.)

I was glad to see Pilsner Urquell on there. One of my standbys. Another good pilsner I had recently was Konig. Crisp, floral, dry but not too bitter. I bought some Dogfish Head Raison D'etre today. Took a gamble but it sounded like the sort of thing I was in the mood for.

got some lagunitas sucks for the evening--so good.

It's very good.

Stone Brewing's Double Bastard = A+

i just had that one last week - super hoppy!

Double bastard is the shit

Maybe Raison D'etre wasn't exactly what I was in the mood for. It's a bit sweet and heavy for my taste. Belgian style ales, especially the darker ones, have a sugary note a lot of the time, but this was very rich. It might go well with dessert.

New summit unchained with sour mash is sort of ok? I need to try it again

Thanks to recommendations in this thread I picked up Lagunitas Sucks this weekend without researching. I was expecting a style along the lines of Brown Shugga, which it's definitely not, but man was it delicious.

This place just opened, it's about an 8-10 minute walk from my house. I haven't been yet but that will probably change very soon.

http://craftbeertemple.com/videoblog/

It is actually a store, not just a guy in a room making youtube beer reviews.

Gotta check that out soon! There's also a newish beer/wine place on Lincoln called Bottles & Cans and they have a really good selection of single bottles for a mix-six pack.

In other news I bought this at Trader Joes last night and, though it is kind of ridiculous, I love it so: http://fourfirkins.cloudprofile.com/photos/medium/32547.PNG

I got one of those for Christmas, and it has become my go-to pint glass.

I've wants to go to beer temple since they opened but not too convenient to me. The beer nerds are hyped up about it because he keeps al the beer at the right temp, has the glass filtered right to protect it, everything dated properly, etc.

I passed by on Saturday night and it looked kind of slow in there. Almost stopped but I was running late. Let me know if you want to hit it up sometime, perhaps with a side trip to Small Bar or somewhere in the area.