Beer in the new era

That's how IPAs came to be iirc, they aged while in transit between bottle-swapping nerds in the steamship era.

I'd be willing to do another trade too. Need to recover from this one first though.

Shipping wasn't a big of a pain as I thought it would be. I think I over compensated in my packaging, when I could have just done one box and bubble wrap instead of buying wine shipping boxes. I think it cost me around $24 to ship two 5 pound boxes.

Don't know how many of you outside of the Midwest get Central Waters brews but their Peruvian Morning is an excellent barrel aged coffee stout. Maybe my second favorite after BCBCS.

My local just texted me to tell me they tapped a KEG of Stone's "Enjoy By..." (4/1/13 edition)... color me thirsty.

I think I noted upthread that the previous batch was one of my top beers of 2012.

(Apologies that the above post did not include the words: pumpkin, chocolate, coffee, breakfast, barrel, voodoo doughnuts, etc.)

All the enjoy bys have been great.

This Hoponius Union is fantastic. If I was doing a blind taste test I'd never guess it was a lager.

glad you liked it. of the handful of nanobreweries that have opened up in mass in the past 2 years i think jack's abby will have the most staying power. they're releasing a barrel-aged porter lager in a couple weeks that really kicked ass according to people who got it last year.

my traditional birthday beer tasting frenzy party is going on tonight, so i should have some stuff to report afterwards if i survive.

i always forget what beers I take for granted here that others can't find elsewhere.

We really get a lot of distribution here. And there is someone new almost every month.

we are pretty lucky too, there are just some holdouts (dogfish head im looking at you) that are pretty frustrating

my main complaint w/r/t beer in my city is the lack of really interesting taps--felt like i lucked out tonight because i was hanging out at a place with a keg of sour in the rye from the bruery, and i prob overindulged because it was such a good find.

Holy crap I ended up with a mother load of crazy beer thx to my party last night

Also oh my god why have I never tried the mikkeller beer geek breakfast until now, it's astoundingly good

Some people find bombers irksome:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/dining/craft-beers-trend-toward-larger-bottles-causes-a-stir.html

Price per ounce aside, I like bombers. And I drink them by myself all the time. I hardly ever want a six pack of anything. Four packs are ok.

I kind of hate 22s. I'll gamble on most anything in a 12oz bottle for five bucks but the same thing in a 22 always seems to cost over twice as much for less beer. And I want to drink a whole 22 by myself maybe twice a year.

Price per ounce aside, I like bombers. And I drink them by myself all the time. I hardly ever want a six pack of anything. Four packs are ok.

Cosign this. I actually most often drink a bomber by myself, it's actually about the perfect amount for me.

Have any of you guys tried any of the Trader Joe's stuff? My wife brought home one of their vintage ale things last night. Despite the decent reviews on RateBeer, I'm skeptical.

If you like Fin Du Monde, it is from the same brewery (Unibroue) in Montreal, and a little more session-y than FdM. There's some discussion of it upthread iirc.

Oh yeah, okay, I ctrl-F'd those threads. Fin du Monde is fine, maybe I'll give it a go this week.

It's closer to Trois Pistoles than Fin du Monde, at least in terms of style. And I'm not sure I'd call it "session-y" at 9%. That said, a good-quality Belgian dark ale is a great deal for $4.99, IMO.

Don't know how many of you outside of the Midwest get Central Waters brews but their Peruvian Morning is an excellent barrel aged coffee stout

it's so good

Have any of you guys tried any of the Trader Joe's stuff? My wife brought home one of their vintage ale things last night. Despite the decent reviews on RateBeer, I'm skeptical.

― i kant believe it's not buffon (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, March 4, 2013 4:26 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As you'll see in this and the TJ's thread, I'm a stan of the beer. I can pretty easily put away a whole bottle if I have nothing to do the next morning.

TJ's beer is pretty bland imo, the 'double IPA' barely tastes like a decent regular IPA.

agreed, but the trader joe's anniversary ale or whatever it's called (the unibroue one) is a vastly different proposition from the rest of their stuff - i don't know who contract-brews their other beers but it sure ain't unibroue

yeah, the other beers are a totally differnt thing, I'm talking about the vintage ale

Are you referring to the Botswain label wrt the double IPA, Jordan? I didn't think that was their label, and I don't recall a DIPA of the ones that are labeled TJs. I don't care for the Botswains I've tried, even at $2/bomber.

I thought the Boatswain was borderline awful.

It tasted like hipster malt liquor.

so evidently i am one of 50 people who just "won" this: http://www.hillfarmstead.com/collected-works/

sick!

i'd really like to try some hill farmstead. outside traveling up to VT tho i don't know how i'll get any

i think hf occasionally makes it to philly on draft?

so i've heard but i haven't seen any since i started srsly drinking

Are you referring to the Botswain label wrt the double IPA, Jordan?

yeah, that was it.

http://frenchoaktv.com/2010/10/the-breweries-behind-traders-joes-private-label-beer/

Boatswain appears to be contract-brewed by Minhas (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/435), which is sort of notoriously low-rated on BeerAdvocate. This lineup may be outdated (it predates the A-B Goose Island takeover, for one thing), but it's interesting info nonetheless.

jeff box update--double daisy cutter is great stuff, i like the hop profile a lot (like, that is how you use simcoe) and it's combined with a really nice mouthfeel.

oh wow, had no idea goose island made stockyard and black toad, will definitely have to try.

The Gordon Biersch and Firestone-Walker beers I've had there are all very decent for the money, if nothing special.

i dig the black toad.
my wife's fave beer is the mission st. pale ale, so we drink a lot of that tbh.

i always forget what beers I take for granted here that others can't find elsewhere.

This. I mean, the fact that I can roll down to the grocery store literally 1/4 mile from my house and pick up sixers of Revolution stuff is pretty awesome. Symptom of critical mass of craft beer or w/e, I'm perfectly fine with having convenient access to some great fucking beer.

jeff box update--double daisy cutter is great stuff, i like the hop profile a lot (like, that is how you use simcoe) and it's combined with a really nice mouthfeel.

Glad you liked it. If I had unlimited money to send beer, I would have sent a four pack of regular Daisy Cutter too. Great every day beer and the beer I've drank the most of over the last 2 years.

Of yours, I've drank the Zoe (shared with jaymc) and Our Finest Regards. Zoe was another beer that ended up being hoppier than I expected. Very good. OFR was great, I love barleywines so much. I don't get to drink a lot of english style barleywines, good stuff.

Heading up to Wisconsin, may stock up on some New Glarus and/or Central Waters. Any suggestions? Peruvian Stout?

You can still get most of the CW stuff in the city, peruvian morning included.

My 4-pack of Surly Furious arrives tomorrow afternoon.

Sam Adams Double Agent IPA surprisingly good. I like the flavor of the hops they use.

Re: new glarus, I haven't gotten this but oh damn

http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/beers/OurBeers/Beer/serendipity

Now that I have found that fuck it, I'm taking a trip to wisconsin

Chicagoans! I'll be visiting your manor in the next couple of weeks, hooray. Can you give me any tips for good quality stores in which to find a really good selection of craft beer? We're staying in Bucktown this time, which is a change from our usual Andersonville / Logan Square haunts, so places in that zone especially welcome, as are stores with a decent selection of bourbon.

I (and more importantly my ex-Chicagoan lovely wife) know a selection of bars around that end, but any advice on ace new places much appreciated also.