Beer in the new era

i was way into the Widmer Bros beers i had on tap last night -- bourbon barrel brrrbon, raspberry russian imperial stout, and kill devil (rum barrel molasses) brown. wish i could find them around here the rest of the (non-beer week) year.

Rogue is horrendous, would avoid nearly all their products tbh

otm

yeah pretty much - they all taste similarly bad to me.

I also never really drink Widmers for some reason, probably because they are so ubiquitous in the NW that it makes me suspicious

Widmer is edging in on 'crafty' territory imo- and their lineup is a bit dull. Same with Pyramid, shit's weak

oh i didn't know they were so big. i've never had their standard beers, but the limited ones i had last night packed some bunch (all around 9.5%, lots of flavor).

Naw, I know some of their more limited stuff is supposed to be pretty good! I've just had some of their average lineup and they were a bit of a snooze

i dug a couple of the pyramid ipas actually, but mainly because they are cheap as shit

friend of ours brought a six pack of Flagship IPA from North Carolina... quite good!

Ballast Point Dorado Double IPA. Tha biznass.

Had BP Sculpin the other night in DC, it was really good.

Finally trying Gulden Draak Ale makes me appreciate just how good Unibroue is at imitating belgian beers

while drinking chimay white today i was thinking about american breweries that specialize in belgian styles - ommegang and allagash came to mind immediately. lost abbey, bruery too. other big ones? most of the time i'd prefer the real thing, tho allagash does make some really nice brews.

allagash is I think I nice example of a brewery that has managed to do an american take on belgians that no longer feels like just an imitation. Unibroue feels like an imitation but it's so good it doesn't matter, especially considering the pricetag. Ommegang is somewhere in between the two, but I like their brews

i fuck w/allagash one-offs and sour/wild stuff, some of it is outstanding

allagash is great bc they aren't so aggressive and they make a really solid beer. it's pretty much whatever i order for my dad when we go out to a bar bc i know he'll dig it and it won't be too heavy

russian river, certainly? jolly pumpkin and stillwater also immediately come to mind

a brewery i completely love that never gets any play whatsoever = selin's grove brewing in selinsgrove PA (about an hour north of harrisburg), who make some of the best american lambics i've ever had

Celis is/was my favorite. Was around for a while last year but it's gone again til idk when

i don't think i've ever had any selin's grove, or even seen their stuff? and i'd think they'd get distro in philly for sure. i'll have to ask around.

yeah selin's grove is a new name to me.

i have this abiding dream that if i ever became fabuously wealthy i'd figure out how to make a gueuze for 12 bucks for a 4-pack.

I've been drinking a lot of sours.

speaking of sours i had this recently and thought it was pretty great

http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_250,c_limit,q_80,d_beer_def.gif/beer_99436.jpg

I've been drinking a lot of sours.

― Jeff, Saturday, May 11, 2013 11:44 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'd be drinking nothing but if they were easy to get

it used to not be far off my drive when i was living in DC and going back home to central NY to visit family - i'd stop by and grab a few growlers. their kriek and framboise are absolutely outstanding and worth the hike out there

guy at the beer store said bell's oarsman was a sour - not sure about that but it was pretty okay. oh! also wanted to give a shoutout to cambridge brewing company's sgt pepper which is a saison w/ peppercorns and probably the first "spicy" beer i've ever drank that i enjoyed and would definitely drink again (generally hate those jalapeno beers - i see that elysian just bottled a peppercorn saison too, i'll have to look out for that).

many xps - just had a chance to finally try peekskill simple sour and unsurprisingly it's incredible. i could drink it all summer.

hopefully it's better than this which was basically undrinkable: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/700/80421

i did enjoy their blood orange beer tnite - tho it wasn't as good as the prism blood orange beer i had a few weeks ago on tap - this one: http://prismbeer.com/portfolio/shady-blond/

well oarsman is a berliner, right? so basically an entry-level sour.

Someone brought some Revolution IPA to a party tonight and I thought it was some kid's novelty incredible hulk drink.

http://craftcans.com/cards/small_cards/antihero.jpg

http://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/the-33-best-craft-beers-in-a-can

srsly don't believe revolution has any business on this list

Pal brought me one of these:

http://beeradvocate.com/im/c_beer_image.gif

Shit. One of these:

http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_250,c_limit,q_80,d_beer_def.gif/beer_175270.jpg

I certainly wouldn't put Bottom up Wit on there. Eugene though, absolutely would.

I haven't had many of the others on the list. Fat Tire is a mediocre beer, but I haven't had it in a can.

Eugene has always struck me as being misnamed. Bell's did it right with Debs' Red Ale.

yeah i haven't had the wit but eugene and the ipa are both good and better than some of the stuff on that list (lookin' at u, cisco and abita)

as a canned craft beer dude, that list sucks

for one thing they chose the wrong 21st amendment stuff, the wrong surly, and included cisco. no indeed on the list, but that shit is hard to get so i guess i get it.

Pretty much the only time I drink beer from a can is daisy cutter.

I think I read somewhere that founders is going to can their all day ipa. Would buy lots of that.

hell, sierra nevada pale ale is in cans now and it's a whole hell of a lot better than whale's tale

sierra nevada is rlly good for how easy it is to find. i have a growler of this right now: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16352/39415 it's okay. really drinkable, kind of on the citrusy end of ipas but not very acidic somehow.

Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA is also in cans, and is probably better than a few of those. I'll admit most are untried by me.

I just tried a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, spotted it in my local Tesco. Never really tried much American beer and gotta say that is A+.

It gets better.

i like the torpedo ipa a lot more than reg sierra nevada, it's v widely distributed in the uk now.

i've started to see ska stuff around london a bit now, that's better than a lot of the us stuff that gets over here imo.

My new springtime beer is Mother Earth's Endless River kolsch

That's brewed in the city I was born in. A very unremarkable town. I've had their beers though, not bad.