Beer in the new era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jj2R69qRxU

i had lunch at the harvest moon brewpub today (rutgers area) - beers were okay, nothing particularly memorable. it's always nice drinking ime though drinking at these tiny brewpubs. they had the big tanks in the front right when you walk in and the food was pretty okay. the porter i tried was better than the ipa (which was barely an ipa) - it had been brewed w/ coffee from a local roaster; another thing that never really blows away my tastebuds but that always makes me feel happy about drinking.

I've been there a lot of times, and have played shows there, although I haven't been there in many years. I never thought the beers were amazing even back then when I had tried so few craft beers. I remember I used to always order Flying Fish beers there though, which I thought were pretty good.

Not a bad place as far as atmosphere. I have fuzzy memories of it.

trying the Ommegang Rare Vos -- not one of my favorite of their offerings. The flavors in it (orange peel and coriander) are done subtly enough that they're not obnoxious, but I think they'd work better with a little higher alcohol.

Drinking all the Surley cans. Welcome back.

My wife wants to know where you got it

heading back home to upstate ny for vacation/thanksgiving tomorrow, and it suddenly dawned on me that they get bell's there now. stoked.

They had a bunch of surly in cans at the Lakeview binnys yesterday. Bought some furious.

see if u can score any of the 4 stouts bell's has out atm - cherry, expedition stout, special double cream, and java. xp

bell's only started distributing to syracuse a month or two ago, so i have no idea what's out there. i'd be happy just to drink two-hearted all week, honestly; it's one of the things i miss most about living in dc.

if i can grab a case of expedition, i may as well throw it in the cellar, aka my parents' actual cellar - i've got plenty of other stuff i could never fit in a nyc apartment stored down there for the long term

Matilda lambicus is fucking garbage bye unless you want beer that tastes like froot loops.

On the positive note, local beer store just went all in on the "soon to be out of season" indeed sweet yamma jamma, so I will be buying a couple of cases tomorrow for tiny dollars. My pumpkin root veggie pick of the season bar none.

Dan, I got mine at Printer's Row Wineshop. They are starting to appear everywhere.

Matilda lambicus isn't very good.

They had furious, bender, overrated, and cynic. Was hoping for some coffee bender.

CynicAle that is.

was just watching Do The Right Thing last night and was surprised to spot Brooklyn Lager at the corner store. I didn't even know the brewery was that old, although apparently it was only founded two years before the film. Was also surprised to see a "micro" in a Bed-Stuy convenience store in 1989.

jeff have you had the coffee bender? by far my least favorite of the stock surly beers

New Goose Island Bourbon County Stouts out Friday. 1) It's nice that the original BCBS will be better distributed around the country. 2) It's nice that the Coffee Stout will be sold in 4-packs as well as bombers. 3) It's gross that someone decided coconut would be a good one-off flavor to try out.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/25/brace-yourselves-here-come-goose-islands-2013-bourbon-county-variants

I had coffee bender a couple of days ago. I liked it! Made me think I was drinking iced coffee.

my appointed task on friday is to scour the city for BCBS.

based on some tasting this weekend, if anyone's hanging on to any '06 or '07 bourbon county bottles, they're pretty much dead. if you have any '08 i'd drink it real soon.

that coconut bcbs looks delicious. i'm sure i'll never get to try it tho lol.

Everything I've had before 2009 recently has been meh.

it's almost like goose island knew what they were talking about when they gave it a five-year window

thanks for the heads-up! i've got a couple '08s lying around that i wouldn't have opened otherwise

TBH, I can't think of many beers that would be better over 5 years old. Most beer is the most awesome when fresh.

in unrelated news, i'm going to lancaster/hershey/harrisburg/gettsburg area for a beercation in early december. some places i'm hoping to stop at:
Victory Brewing (on the way from Philly)
Troegs Brewing (in Hershey)
Battlefield Brew Works (Gettysburg)
Al's of Hampden (Enola) -- Pizzabar!

there are so many breweries + brewpubs in the area. i could even shlep up to yuengling (probably will not).

any recommendations from the ilbeer crew?

i tasted a lot of milk chocolate in the '08 we sampled. very different beer but not without merit.

is selinsgrove too far north? i'd go there for sure - it's completely out of the way but well worth it imo

otherwise, i've only been to the old troegs location in harrisburg, but i really enjoyed it - they have a great tasting room and usually a couple crazy one-offs on tap

i've also heard good things about tired hands in ardmore if you haven't been

i'm in tired hands like twice a week these days O_O i own cad a growler from there - one of the best breweries i've ever been to for sure

Ever notice how flavors that you completely dig on a given day can suddenly seem insipid or gross to you on another? I was drinking an Ommegang golden ale last night and I suddenly felt like "fuck this fruity, champagney fluff" even though I normally like that sort of thing.

xpost - ha, i wasn't sure! i talked to somebody who did a PA beer tour recently and they came back just raving about it

owe* -- it's really fantastic tho. they also make insanely good pickles

Most beer is the most awesome when fresh.

i recently experimented with aging for the first time with a 2010 deschutes abyss, and it was one of the best things i've tasted all year. i think the boozier styles lend themselves to aging, especially imperial stouts, sours too

Bottle conditioned beers age better than those that are not, no? I remember going to a beer lecture and the dude said he had been in Belgium drinking Chimay from the 80s and Chimay from the prior year side by side.

certain sours def age better than others - the surly sour from a few years was insanely good after a few years (five? i cant remember) but we aged a pentagram from last year and just tried it and it tasted basically exactly the same, or maybe a bit earthier. the unibroue stuff ages really really well, by contrast.

I'm surprised to hear that the BCBS doesn't age that well. I've heard that about the flavored variants - like the coffee - but the standard stuff? At 15% ABV I figured it'd be hardier. Then again, five years is a pretty long time!

It changes, but I don't think it necessarily makes it better. Just different. Maybe still good, maybe not.

When I tasted the F-W Parabola last year they had the 2011 and 2012 (just released), and the 2011 was better. I believe they even recommend a year or so of aging on their Double DBA boxes. I have a couple of these in my cellar, buoght during the tasting. I'm not sure if the Parabola is even available in bottles.

i think a beer that develops for five years can be considered as "aging well." anyone who puts down a beer for longer than that is sort of kidding themselves (ppl with serious gueuze collections excepted).

way upthread someone talking about whether this means the end of getting lots and lots of heady topper, as far as i understand the closing is due to local complains & they're scoutingf a place to open their own retail location. odds are that this means they'll continue to sell the same way just somewhere down the street once they open that new location. in the meantime yes it does mean you can't really make super-runs until they fix that. :(

that said i made my first vermont vacation this past month and tried it for the first time. whether or not it "lives up to the hype" is entirely based on how much you hyped it, but i went in hoping for the best ipa i'd ever had and was not disappointed. ended up buying the maximum allowable (2 days before the cannery closed to the public, no less -- 20 mins in line!) and sort-of smuggling it into canada (we declared it, told him we were over the limit, and he smiled and told us to have a nice day... vermont border guards always seem consistently awesome :D)

tried one or two others from tap while there (will need to see which ones they were, remember maybe trying a lawson's, at least one hill farm, and another one... steve's?) and wow, vermont knocks it out of the park eh?

were you there on wednesday? maybe we were in line together.

xxp yeah i've come across forums where dudes were drinking westvleteren from the '60s, and i'd be real surprised if even that stuff improved after the five year mark

i was there on wednesday the 13th yeah! around 1130am. small world :O (were you the beardy dude who i talked to in line briefly who was first talking about tabletop baseball games? that would be amazing)

hahah we were def there at the same time. i am beardy but was not talking abt tabletop baseball.

Tired Hands Brewing Company
2 hours ago
This Wednesday, November 27th, we will offer 30 loaves of our beautiful bread for sale. We will also offer our decidedly autumnal barrel fermented local plum Saison, Out of the Emptiness, for sale.

Listen...

Bread: One loaf per person. $5.00 per loaf.

Beer: Six bottles per person. $15 per 500ml bottle. This beer is the perfect autumnal digestif. Orange-hued Saison fermented in red wine barrels on local plums. As it exists, Out of the Emptiness, is a rather lightly carbonated beer. Enjoy its petilant charm now, or age for a more rousing carbonation level. 7.0% abv.

I've never even seen a Tired Hands bottle before.

drinkin:
ithaca - dark vines black IPA (prob the best, most well-balanced black IPA i've tasted. only a hint of alcohol bite.)
westbrook - one claw rye Pale ale (kicking myself that it took me so long to drink this.)
weyerbacher winter ale - not that into it -- bananas on the nose and in the aftertaste kinda kills it for me. not a bad beer, but just not for me.

Give me all your damn Heady Toppers, gah.