Beer in the new era

i end of drinking a lot of Union Jack due to it always being marked down to $8.99 at the Whole foods by me. At that price you really can't do any better.

xp
I love Torpedo, it's my #1 reasonably-priced IPA. And I don't think I'm alone in this thread in liking it.

― nickn, Friday, December 20, 2013 2:56 PM (9 minutes ago)

This too! i had a few cases of it for my wedding beer

xp do people here prefer it to celebration? there's such a huge gap in quality between those two imo, celebration is my #1 reasonably priced ipa by a long shot

plenty of that top 10 are nicely priced (ballast point just started distributing far more heavily) AND very very good. there's a huge west coast bias though so maybe torpedo and lagunitas ipa are the only non-seasonals with national distribution, that type of exposure has to help

celebration is way better than torpedo imo

^^^ totally agree, but it had been a long time since I'd had a Torpedo until recently, and it was surprisingly good!

And yes, big ups to Liberty Ale. That's an excellent beer.

I noticed a bottle of Bourbon County Stout at the checkout counter of the beer store today, so I bought it out of curiosity. It was $6.99 for a 12-oz bottle. Not sure if that's typical. Will sample and report back.

like 2 bucks over retail, i've heard of worse

Seen a lot worse. I like playing the game of going to beermenus.com and see how huge of a range bars/stores around town are charging for regular and the variants.

I can't rank beer very well, but here are a few of my favorite IPA's I've had, regardless of double/single/etc.

FSW Union Jack & Double Jack
FFF Permanent Funeral
PW Ninja vs. Unicorn
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid & Sucks
Founders Harvest
Rev Anti-Hero
Half Acre Beer Hates Astronauts
Bells Hopslam

A lot of local stuff, probably because it's the easiest to drink the freshest.

i end of drinking a lot of Union Jack due to it always being marked down to $8.99 at the Whole foods by me. At that price you really can't do any better.

this is good stuff. i tried the wookey jack for the first time recently and it was another example of a stellar black ipa, the rye balanced things really well. i guess people seem to be figuring out the right hop profile or proportions or something but it seems like black ipas and cdas are really improving

i have no idea how widespread it is yet but hop valley alphadelic ipa is often pretty cheap and was recentl;y made available in cans and has some really nice subtle hop flavor

For fresh hop beers, Celebration is well-above average which is a distinction not a lot of the main line of Sierra Nevadas can make.
Torpedo is above-average, I think that it's not nearly as bad as some are suggesting. There's far lesser beers being talked about ITT.

Also Celebration is a 3 month seasonal vs. Torpedo which is year-round.

i end of drinking a lot of Union Jack due to it always being marked down to $8.99 at the Whole foods by me. At that price you really can't do any better

Wow, where do you live? Not trying to be snippy but that's a pretty high-markup for a marked-down beer. I mean there are Whole Foods that sell Pliny for $4.49 so yes you can actually do much much better and at half the price!

$8.99 for a six-pack, at least around these parts

Ah okay, I thought that was bomber price. We don't get union jack or wooley jack 6-ers only bombers (but we do get DBA 6-ers).

The only Firestone beer that blew me away was the aged PNC imperial stout, I tend to intentionally overlook a lot of their beer to be honest. I should probably break that habit.

Which one is PNC?

I looked on their site but couldn't find any info, this is the BA profile:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2210/95028

Oh cool, never heard of that one!

yeah i was gonna say 8.99 is a sick price for a sixer of union jack.

http://beerobsessed.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/port-brewing-fresh-hop-ipa.jpg

reasonably priced + pretty delicious

New beers in the past week:

Petrus aged pale ale, pretty fantastic
Some Mikkeler collaborative double IPA, can't remember or figure out the name, it was great tho
Victory golden monkey tripel
Central Waters brewhouse coffee stout ($4 bomber!)
Clown Shoes muffin top Belgian IPA tripel
Southern tier 2xmas (ugh, no idea why I accepted this)
Summit grand pilsener

I have a Petrus aged red in my fridge, never had it before.

petrus aged pale is prob my fave sour beer.. so good.
2xmas was pretty gross

it's not like i wasn't warned tho. i should have not taken the dare to drink glogg-spiced beer.

Had that Petrus aged red tonight. Not what I expected (though if I had read the label, a couple of discrete cherries on the front and "...with the intrigue of tart cherry" on the back, maybe I would have guessed). It reminded me of a cherry Coke/Dr Pepper, but not in a bad way. More sweet than sour, but thankfully not too sweet. I may buy this again. 8.5% abv, in a 750 ml bottle.

A nice surprise tonight, the little bar in my wife's little hometown on the Minnesota prairie has an extensive offering of Boulevard bottles.

hop ranch is maybe even better than dirt wolf

My wife's uncle gave me a 4 pack of oaked Arrogant Bastard for Christmas. It's not exactly my thing but pretty good for free beer. The oak overwhelms the rest of the beer imho but then again I've only had like a single regular AB before.

habanero sculpin - novelty beer! srs habanero heat in the throat.

Not great. A waste of good sculpin.

Been working my way through a sixer of the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Not bad, but I had some Lagunitas IPA before that, and I think that one actually nailed the balance of fresh hop flavor and bitterness better (ie., more hop flavor, less bitterness).

xpost: i wouldn't say i waste, it's actually kind of good in a weird way i think. but not drinkable at all. after a few sips i was done. i am not a spice fanatic. do spice fanatics like this beer? the same people who buy all those insane hot sauces. who wants to drink a pint, much less a growler???

i really liked the spicy mango founders back series from this year, partially bc it was legit spicy. i'd like to try a spicy sculpin.

Mango magnifico was fantastic. Much better than habanero sculpin.

Been working my way through a sixer of the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Not bad, but I had some Lagunitas IPA before that, and I think that one actually nailed the balance of fresh hop flavor and bitterness better (ie., more hop flavor, less bitterness).

― o. nate, Saturday, December 28, 2013 6:57 PM (Yesterday)

Lagunitas IPA is dry-hopped (ie, not fresh hopped). Both are good beers at any rate, just two different styles.

green flash palate wrecker kind of disappointing - its not bad, but it comes across as a less well put together lagunitas sucks imo

That is an odd comparison as Palate Wrecker is one of the most bitter (149 IBU) double IPAs out there whereas Sucks is almost on the complete opposite side of the IBU spectrum (for a west coast style double IPA). I agree that both have unusual grain bills, but the tastes are like night and day to me.

My local was out of Sucks last night, so I opted for Green Flash West Coast IPA instead. As great as that beer is, I prefer Sucks. Have not yet tried Palate Wrecker.

More new beers in the past week:

Black Rocks 51K IPA*
Black Rocks Coconut Brown*
Ale Asylum Hopalicious -- solid recommendation from Jordan on this one
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard
Lift Bridge Hop Dish IPA
Dubuisson Scaldis de Noel -- very good, and I am decidedly not a fan of most Christmas ales
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire
New Holland The Poet Oatmeal Stout

*These from the brewery proclaimed "the best in the Upper Peninsula" (of Michigan, my homeland) and surprisingly good considering that most/all beers made there are mainly tourist-oriented and thus kind of lacking, though I will say the coconut aspect of the brown caught me off guard. There are not a lot of palm trees on the shores of Lake Superior. The IPA would stand up to most regional craft offerings, though it wasn't particularly distinctive.

Great Lakes brewery recently started showing up by me. everything i've had from them has been pretty great.

did anyone else try that He'Brew Jewbelation (17%, 17 malts, 17 hops)? i enjoyed it, definitely a crazy beer though.

yes, i love the jewbelation beers

I was gifted a bottle last night. Gifter figured most bottles are never consumed, bought mostly for the novelty.

Had the Hill Farmstead Edith that CAD sent a me awhile ago. It was lovely.

Gifter figured most bottles are never consumed, bought mostly for the novelty.

^i can't even process this

def can age those jewbilations

I held a Jewbilation in my hands last week, but couldn't bring myself to buy it (~$15 for a bomber?).

Drinking a Ballast Point Big Eye... The local had no Sculpin. This is rly good tho.

^i can't even process this

Sorry, I was writing in passing, on a phone. I meant the person who bought it for me figured it was often purchased for the Jew-centric novelty. He-Brew, Jew-bilation, etc. Like, ha ha, what do we get our Jewish friend? This super Jewish branded beer, of course.

Yeah that seems fair. It does seem really hokey.

Oh, I see. When I first came across it I thought it was gimmicky, but that was years ago and the name doesn't register anymore. I thought you were talking about that beer itself.

Had the Hill Farmstead Edith that CAD sent a me awhile ago. It was lovely.

― Jeff, Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:19 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh good! i think that may be my favorite of their regular saison rotation.

I've never had a bad beer by them. So solid.