Beer in the new era

i also want to know about tabletop baseball

dudes from Surly are gonna be at a local bar in a week or two, my one chance to drink Surly in WA. Includes:

Misanthrope
Pentagram (lol 6.66 ABV)
Darkness
Smoke
Abrasive
Coffee Bender
Furious

Drinking a 1+ year old Brooklyn Monster Ale, which is a "barleywine style" beer. Pretty smooth and mellow for a 10.1% beer. Not remarkable but enjoyable.

The Trader Joe's Vintage Ale has shown up at my TJ's. Bought one but haven't drunk yet. Still $4.99.

Ooh, thanks for reminding me -- I rarely go to TJ's anymore so I'll have to make a trip.

I did pick up some Corsendonk Christmas Ale from Costco, which is also awesome.

Ive been drinking this a lot lately, a local brew out of Decatur, GA. Very good-and potent

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23651/61833

Sucked down a Pipeworks Ninja Vs. Unicorn last night, one of the better big IPAs I've had in a while, almost reminded me of the old proudly unfiltered Bell's products.

also crazy fuckin label

http://www.beerdestroyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2pipe_works_ninja_vs_unicorn.jpg

that looks freaking awesome - i wish we got pipeworks in philly

pipeworks stuff is usually p great, as is spiteful as far as younger Chicago brewers go. just picked up a Jingle Balls by the latter yesterday, as well as my first Surly (Overrated!).

I think Pipeworks would be the only Chicago brewery I'd include in a bottle trade.

it looks like there's no way i'm going to score any of those tired hands bottles - apparently line is already forming + it opens at 4.

more like tired feet amirite

yeah, it was snowing + raining this afternoon so i thought i'd swing by around 4 to see if ppl stayed away. nope - line around the block and way more ppl than bottles available. so i went inside and filled some growlers instead (cultonsour + The Light That Spills Out of the Hole In Your Head ftw)

had the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale with dinner tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. first time i've had it. just cracked open an Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break (another first) and wow, great as a late 2nd dessert. delicious.

Walked right in to the store and bought a 4pk of BCBS today, no line, no nothing, though I did have to ask for it. They had the barleywine around too, thought about it but didn't want to drop that much more $. Gonna give the stout to my brother in law for xmas I think.

got a case of regular bcbs this morning easy but variants haven't popped up yet.

I got regular, that's it. Didn't even want to try for the variants. All the places I can get to it is long gone.

Just saw this in the cooler of my corner liquor store by my train stop............

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3834/11123459803_94aa331fd5.jpg

Fuck this guy. He's being sitting on this KBS for 8 months and just pulls it out today to try and entice people that may have missed out on BCBS?

jesus christ

KBS is good but not that good!

Regular BCBS was sitting right beside it for $26.99, which is a bit much. I didn't even ask about the varients. I'm sure he's keeping them in the back until he can charge $75 a bottle in 6 months.

Didn't even bother with the BCBS this year. I'm sure like last year the regular stuff (which I don't really like) will be easy to get for a while, but the coffee stout (which I love) would have been a hassle. My Pappy Van Winkle hunt, however successful, robbed me of much initiative to do it again for beer.

uh, guys, i bought a lot of BCBS. had the day off and it was my mission from my gf. most stores were sold out of the variants immediately, but i found a couple that still had them and ended up with three bottles of coffee stout, two barleywines, and a rye bomber. and basically a case of the regular (which was $19.99 everywhere here). haven't had any yet.

How long are you going to have to work your second job in order to pay that off?

heh i know it's a little ridiculous but it'll last us the year, and if it was available year-round i'm sure we'd end up buying that much eventually.

also my only dependent is a cat.

ha as a dude that freaked and bought over a case of cuvee when i heard about the oncoming "shortage" i respect both the player and the game.

the whole new ownership thing and this being the second year i'm drinking bcbs has made my search a lot less pressing. that said, i would love to try a proprietors' (is that what it's called? the one only released in chicago w/ coconut?) but i doubt i'll ever see a bottle.

Neither will I.

Had a Sixpoint Bengali Tiger in a Wetherspoons recently (do you have a US version of these? Big chain pubs that sell beer that's nearly out of date at slashes prices + serve cheap, okish food, normally regarded as a bit grubby/grotty in general). BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

xpost For what it's worth, even local releases are apparently staggered, at least to some extent. So locals and near-Chicagoans - don't give up hope. Rather, check in with your favorite beer place and ask if there's more on the way.

Bengali Tiger is good but I like other Sixpoint offerings better (although, as noted above, I don't love IPAs). I'm still sort of tickled by the idea of people quaffing beers brewed within a few miles of me in UK pubs.

i'm not a big pumpkin beer fan (pumking pretty much the only pumpkin brew i fuck w/) but alewerks pumpkin ale is really nice

I was out in the boonies with family for most of Friday, but lucked into a 4-pack of Barleywine and a bottle of the Backyard Rye at a shop in Lincolnwood. The standard BCBS is everywhere this year, picked up two 4-packs of that at the liquor store out in the middle of nowhere near my dad's house.

I'm not a big fan of coconut in general, so I'm not too disappointed to miss out on the Proprietor's. I loved last year's Coffee though, so I'm wishing I could have found some of that. Though a friend commented on Instagram that he heard a rumor that a big batch of Coffee was "infected" and "had to be dumped" by Goose Island. Anyone else heard anything about that?

Def. debates about degree of "infection" every year, says a google search. Certainly that would explain why coffee, which is usually not tooooo hard to find, was a no-show lots of places. My local Binnys, the gen manager was complaining to me about the lack of coffee. He had to show up early for the early birds to sell them the Goose Island, and they were all bummed that the good stuff was not in the shipment. I have a few friends who, like me, don't really care for the standard BCBS, but go gaga over the coffee.

Ha, I was able to get one single bottle of BCBCS. I had to choose between it and barleywine. I really want to try the barleywine, but I was drawn to fresh bourbon county coffee, which is one of the best things ever.

OMFG I could drink this forever. Until I pass out with bourbon county rings around my mouth.

my one friend around here who got coffee so far said they killed it this year.

i can enjoy some bourbon county, but can't imagine wanting to drink it year round, or even more than one or two bottles a year.
to each his own.

stouts i have been enjoying:
maine brewing co. 'mean old tom' (v nice stout aged over vanilla beans. yum. vanilla taste is very subtle and pleasant.)
darkhorse brewing co. 'one oatmeal stout'
sierra nevada narwhal.

i want to try evil twin's 'christmas eve in a new york city hotel room' (shitty name) but it's too expensive.

you're not missing anything imo

I kind of dig that name, much better than another pun about hops

I am drinking a BC barleywine, wondering what kind of bourbon barrels they use.

Heaven Hill, I believe.

If that's the case I hope this is Evan Williams Single Barrel barleywine.

Bengali Tiger is def one of my favorite everyday IPAs.

I prob could've picked up some BCBS on Friday, but I'm still not sure I care enough about it...

All this talk of barrel aging made me stop by Bevmo on the way home. Picked up a Boulevard Brewing Co (Kansas City, MO) and Sierra Nevada collab called Terra Incognita. It's an ale that's barrel aged for three months. Haven't opened it yet. Anyone have experience with Boulevard? They had a few other types from them.

I now got at least a bottle of BCBS 09, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Ready to do a vertical tasting.

Vertical tasting? Uh, I believe it's called a "beeramid."

boulevard is pretty hit or miss for me. the terra incognita didnt hit me in the rigth spot, but it certainly wasnt a bad beer - i think they overstated the sour aspect, its def more of the funky banyard vibe wrt wild ales

went home to the midwest for thanksgiving and my brother treated me to some wonderful beers:

bell's expedition stout
epic big bad baptist stout imperial stout
north coast barrel-aged old rasputin -- always one of my favorite stouts, the barrel-aged version was fucking incredible
columbus ipa