Beer in the new era

and my mom treated me a six of great lakes christmas ale. a little too sweet but it's kind of a tradition to have it this time of year when i go home to cleveland so i enjoyed it.

back in new england i've really been enjoying baxter brewing co. from maine. hayride autumn ale is awesome, full flavored, murky rye ale with lots of oak taste. it's such a good beer, i don't know why they would limit its marketing potential by calling it an autumn ale. baxter's stowaway ipa is really good too.

morning haul

http://i42.tinypic.com/hvz720.jpg

nice work

Not bad! Did it take effort, or were they relatively easy to come by? You're in Philly, right?

yeah I'm in Philly and it was very easy. My local bottle shop got them in and we r buddies so I just dropped by at opening

It seems impossible to really get anything by knowing shop owners here. I buy a ton of beer. But so do all the other beer nerds in this huge city that also know the shop owners. Maybe I'm just not sociable.

I also don't have one shop, I usually go to 5 or 6 different places, depending on where I am in the city. Maybe if I had one shop where I got everything it would be different.

Managed to get two four packs of Bourbon County Stout and one of the Barleywine. Hoping to get a hold of some of the coffee, but that doesn't appear to have hit the area. Yet, anyway.

i go to this particular shop 2-3 times a week and i'm friendly w/ a bunch of the employees. also it's outside the city in the suburbs so it doesn't have the same traffic as a philly bottle shop.

being cool with the owner definitely scored us some extra BCBS coffees.

what are ppl saying about aging these? i know coffee is supposed to be drunk right away, and the regular can be aged - how about the other variants?

The regular and barleywine both say on the pack they can be aged up to 5 years. Don't know what the ideal drinking time would be tho.

It seems impossible to really get anything by knowing shop owners here. I buy a ton of beer. But so do all the other beer nerds in this huge city that also know the shop owners. Maybe I'm just not sociable.

Yeah, I don't know how this actually works around here either. I know that it seems to work well for a friend of mine, but he is super secretive about which shop. All I know is, he is regulary posting pictures on Instagram of his haul before it's supposedly available (i.e. he had pictures of BCBS up on Thanksgiving morning) - which is a whole other thing I don't want to get into now, but it pisses me off how much of this stuff goes on and how little of available stock actually ends up being on sale when its supposed to. Anyway, digression done. This friend of mine makes really good money and I wouldn't be shocked if he regularly drops a couple hundred bucks a week at the shop he uses. I have a kid, so that's not in the cards for me, so I'll just have to rely on what I can scrounge up when I have time and money.

But super nice haul Mordy! I'm jealous that you found some coffee.

Maybe I'm just not sociable.

this is def most of my problem, but all the shops i hit regularly are in the city and ppl who work there aren't gonna be able to bro down with every beer nerd who'd be looking for a favor.

also some places (eg tired hands) are immune to being charmed, no matter how sparkling your personality

I wouldn't be shocked if he regularly drops a couple hundred bucks a week

wow, how much beer can he possibly drink per week?

maybe don't answer that.

Eh, he's actually not the big of a drinker, def more of the hoarder type. He really likes to show off his collection and post pictures of the industrial style beer fridge he installed in his basedment. But, in his defense, he's also super giving and freely shares his great scores, so it's hard to hold too much of a grudge.

have any of you guys seen any of the new terrapin stuff? like White Chocolate Moo-Hoo, or the Cinnamon Roll'd WnB Coffee Oatmeal ImperialStout? nb about 99% of my interest in the WnB bottles is bc 420 4eva

Yeah, if you're spending a couple of hundred a week, you're either hoarding or trading a lot.

but all the shops i hit regularly are in the city and ppl who work there aren't gonna be able to bro down with every beer nerd who'd be looking for a favor.

Yep. You have basically four types of shops here: 1) Binny's, who usually get the biggest stock, but everyone goes too so you get the lines of people hundreds deep. 2) The specialty wine/beer shops where all the nerds try and bro down with. 3) Your corner liquor stores that gouge prices or do some annoying stuff like making you buy a bottle of something else if you also want to get a special release. 4) Grocery stores, mostly Whole Foods and Jewel. Availability varies with them, sometimes they get a lot, sometimes not, nearly impossible to bro down with anyone there, they never communicate when they get stuff.

those modern times cans have the most appealing design - do they taste as good as they look?

Here's how it generally appears to work, btw, for any limited release product (beer and bourbon and whatnot) out in the 'burbs, or at least inner burbs. (I'm focusing on Binny's, because they get the most product, and also out of the city, because the city is where you get 300 crazy people lining up at opening.) I know for a fact the managers of my local Binny's tell their staff that when the stuff comes in, whatever it is, it is absolutely not to be put out on the shelf. It goes straight to either the safe or otherwise stowed away until the manager comes in later that day or the next day. The manager then figures out how much there is, and next may or may not hold tight until regular customers or polite people who have expressed interest stop by to see what's up; they generally get first shot. But after that the stuff they have more of is pretty much up for grabs, though still often stowed away. One of my local stops had both 10 and 12-year Van Winkle and regular BCBS behind the counter; all one had to do was ask.

White Chocolate Cinnamon Roll Coffee Oatmeal...?

ffs you guys are worse than housewives at Starbucks.

Also, long term storage of bottle-capped bottles is not a good idea unless you believe that degradation of flavor/quality is part of the "aging process". Corked beers are your friends for aged beers, I guess you could dip the bottle top in hot wax if you were in a pinch.

yeah, nothing worse than coffee drinking housewives, amirite?

Nothing wrong with that at all, can I get you another salted caramel peppermint candy cane stout?

i'll try anything once that isn't made from some guy's beard yeast, or called chocolate peanut butter bacon donut stout

lol i had to search this thread to remind myself of this longstanding and bizarre strawman you have re: other folks' taste xp

Yep, that's me, the Chris Ott of the new-era beer thread.

let me know when i can expect your ranked list of each enjoy by release of 2013.

lolz all round

It's Miller time.

One of my local stops had both 10 and 12-year Van Winkle and regular BCBS behind the counter; all one had to do was ask.

Binnys in Lakeview had a sign on the door "WE DO NOT HAVE ANY PAPPY".

on friday i called one store and said "heyyyy..." and the dude said "yeah, we got it, come on down."

I had a pretty sweet Budweiser 24oz can over the weekend

re gimmicky beers:

(San Francisco, CA) – San Francisco, CA’s Cellarmaker and Ardmore, PA’s Tired Hands Brewing companies are happy to announce that they have collaborated on a taco spiced IPA called “Taco Hands.” The beer was inspired by that special aroma one’s hands take on after eating tacos – an aroma, that in spite of several solid hand-washing sessions, just doesn’t go away. “Taco Hands” incorporates lime zest, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, black pepper, coriander, sea salt, tortilla chips and shells, flaked maize, and pasilla peppers alongside Citra and Motueka hops.

This conceptual brew will be available at Cellarmaker Brewing Company’s tasting room starting on Taco Tuesday, December 3rd at 3pm. Visit www.cellarmakerbrewing.com for more details.

but it is tired hands so i'll probably try it when it gets to philly

as far as gimmicky things, my inner Deadhead talked me into buying the Dogfish Head American Beauty (granola!), though the reviews i've read since don't leave me super enthused for it.

I really liked the American Beauty, but I am not a big IPA-head.

Well, I found the other secret to finding BC varietals -- shop at a store where they don't know what they have & stock the shelves very slowly.

WTF Taco Hands. It's not beer, it's "conceptual brew." Do not want, but ty for the dn.

That Taco beer is some sub-Rogue trolling.

Managed a growler of the backyard rye and a 12oz bottle each of coffee and barleywine. They were being pretty stingy at my secret spot.

OK, another data point. After I picked up those bottles yesterday, I got home and very politely called my (second) favorite Binny's in the 'burbs (very down to earth place) and asked if they could set aside a coconut for me. The nice woman said yes, and even sympathized with how hard these are to come by! So I stop by first thing this morning to pick them up, and after joking with me a bit (confirming the information on the note then saying, nope, don't have it, as the guy put it in his coat pocket) basically treated me like a rock star, saying how hard it was to hold onto the bottle for me, how the manager chastised them for holding a bottle, how they only kept hold of it because they said it was for a "regular, very good customer," which I am - at a different Binny's. This place, I mostly check for overlooked hard to find stuff a couple of times a year (usually with some success). But they were so nice and helpful it made me happy. Then the manager, who I met there earlier in the week when I first stopped in the ask about the Goose Island, called me back to say hi, telling me that if I ever needed his help with anything, just to let him know. Then he gave me his card. So I got my coconut (which everyone seems to like) as well as another 12oz of coffee for my friend without the flexibility to zip over there, all as far as I can tell, just for being patient and polite. And given how many customers are apparently neither of those things, maybe that's all it takes.

Between bourbon and beer, it's been a good few weeks.

I bought 3 Proprietors and 2 Backyard Ryes yesterday and a 4 pack of Coffee today at my local and there's no wait, no line, no markup. I could have bought a dozen more Proprietors and Ryes today b/c they stocked the shelves since yesterday.

I feel like I'm a kid again, collecting hockey cards. The thing is I don't even especially like the stuff, most of it is gonna be xmas gifts.

dan u've got webmail.

wtg dan

if u want to send me a christmas present i would not turn it down

I feel like I need to share this honeypot with my fellow beerlxors. I'll gladly do trades if you wanna webmail me.

you got a webmail from me too