Beer in the new era

wow

I probably would have been tempted if it was 40 or under. 56 is much more than even bars are marking up.

block 15 bottles a bunch of stuff right? i haven't tried the sticky hands yet but they've yet to let me down

$56 is outrageous. we could really make a killing with a cross-country beer smuggling operation, i can't imagine how much someone would pay for that proprietors in another state

i've been anticipating sucks this year since it was first mentioned itt but apparently sepa was like last area to get-- today was the day! and when it rains…

http://i44.tinypic.com/2wnbtdx.jpg

mmmm Hop Henge

would also try Nugget Nectar

you guys weren't lying about the sucks this year, really impressive. i need to stockpile as much as i can while it's still $10 for a sixer

iirc it ages poorly so drink fresh@!

I had two Sucks last night and started to wish I had bought two 6-packs at BevMo instead of one.

yeah i doubt that even the biggest stockpile would last any later than march at my household

BTW, is that Stone Enjoy By 2-14-14 any good? Almost bought one yesterday.

all of the enjoy bys are fantastic

yeah if it's anything like last year's it will be great

has anyone tried that 'class of 88' collaboration thing?

btw i am super jealous of chicago's sour/funk fest

I'm drinking the two Jacks Abbey beers that CAD sent back-to-back. Currently on the schwartzbier, double IPL next. Been a while since I've had a black lager, tastes thinner than I remember for the style but still heavy on the roast and malt.

Also fucking lol at that Proprietor's.

Psychgawsple I am gonna be out in pdx in March, St. Patricks day weekend actually, would love some suggestions for beers to try and ways to avoid green beer drinkers.

there are so many beers here! is there any style you're looking for in particular? or maybe it's easier to ask what you don't like

portland breweries that are consistently great:
cascade (killer sours)
occidental (solid german-style brewer)
the commons (mostly farmhouses)
hair of the dog (mostly barleywine)
gigantic (less of a specialty brewery, pretty well-rounded variety)
ecliptic (brand new, nothing mindblowing but very solid)
upright (farmhouses)

if you want a nice day trip:
de garde (sours and farmhouses. in tillamook, towards the coast)
pfriem (really really good belgians. in hood river, up the gorge)
double mountain (well-rounded with great seasonals. also in hood river)
logsdon (my #1 in the area. super solid farmhouse-style brewer. hood river valey, tasting room is closed for the winter and i'm not sure when they're coming back but you can find this at any bottle shop or classy taproom)
solera (also farmhouse. also hood river valley. also closed for the winter)

you might see these, order them (stuff from eugene, bend, corvallis, etc.):
crux
block 15
agrarian
ale apothecary
boneyard (you will DEFINITELY see this. the best ipa in the state imo)

i am probably forgetting a ton of stuff, i'm sure sleeve can help complete this list

oh, and don't forget dean's scene!

Been a while since I've had a black lager, tastes thinner than I remember for the style but still heavy on the roast and malt.

yeah this beer was more good than great but i was impressed at how chocolatey it was given the light body.

i'm drinking my first sucks of the season. good as always but i think victory hop ranch has momentarily ruined me for other readily-available double ipas.

We get victory stuff, but I don't think I've seen hop ranch around here.

Well beermenus says it's in a few places. I'll have to keep an eye out.

Jacks India Pale Lager is much more my speed than the schwartzbier. Reminds me of a sorta similat Goose Island product.

just got hop ranch here, brought one home to try tonight.
drank more sucks this week.
been sick so drinking less beer :(

more Oregon... pg's list is way more obscure/specific than mine and I will check those places out, thank you.

dude how could you forget 10 Barrel? Even better than Boneyard imo, my favorite NW IPA. they are from Bend and seem to have decent distribution, sixes and 22's.

Oakshire from Eugene - we were just at their tasting room tonight, Watershed IPA is good but not great, their O'Dark 30 CDA cascadian dark ale or black ipa or whatever you wanna call it is great.

Hopworks Urban Brewery from Portland, also Laurelwood ain't too shabby but I would check out all of the ones in the post above before those. maybe try Lompoc in Portland? Fort George in Astoria is also excellent.

jeez looking at the Portland list I only know upright and double mountain (they do the Vaporizer IPA in the pint bottles right?)

besides Claim 52 in Eugene we also have the Viking Braggot folks (mead w/malt & hops, around 6%, delicious)

oh i should check that out, i love braggot. and yes, vaporizer is pretty widely available in bottles along with the ira and the kolsch and maybe one more. i was super into the double mountain ira for a while but it seems to have declined in quality ever since they bottled it. if you ever see a higher alcohol beer from them you should probably get it. the best of their seasonals are usually limited to the brewery, sours and barrel aged stuff, etc. also they have good pizza.

combine that with pfriem and it's hard not to take every single out-of-town visitor up the gorge to hood river. pfriem was started by a former full sail brewer iirc (also in hood river) who broke off on their own and is now making some very delicious belgian stuff, great belgian ipas with all sorts of sweet hop flavor and really good strong dark wintery beers, in terms of bold and fore-fronted flavors i think they can hang with lagunitas but maybe a bit less experimental and more interested in tradition. they apparently refuse to bottle their beers but you can frequently find them on tap around portland. based on what happened to double mountain i'm glad they're choosing to just do kegs tbh

A pal of mine is having a few people over to do a beer tasting and clear out his reserves before he moves next week. Looking forward to it because this dude is pretty serious about aging certain stuff and has crazy tastes.

i need more friends like that ^

about 10 barrel - i remember really enjoying their winter seasonal so i will have to revisit the ipa. hopworks would definitely make my portland list actually, though it's more of a great local spot with cheap and delicious growler fills than an interesting place to go and spend any time. i live near their "bike bar" and apparently you can ride these power-generating bikes in exchange for beer. so that's cool i guess. lompoc also has a spot nearby, with a special place attached called sidebar where they feature all the small batches and seasonals. that stuff is great, too!

Has Hopslam always said "brewed with honey" on the label? I don't think I've even bought any the past two seasons, but splurged last night. I don't remember that, and now that I know it, it seems sweetish, albeit well-balanced, with long-lingering hops on the back end.

xp Thanks for your PDX posts btw, I figured there would be more than I could possibly do in the 2.5 days I'm going to be there but it doesn't hurt to have options (and ways to get out of the standard "lets go to Voodoo Donuts" BS that my traveling companions are likely to pull).

You don't happen to be a Timbers fan, do you?

xp again As far as I know there has been some mention of honey on the label since the first time I had it, which would have been about 2007ish.

I don't know about the label, but it has certainly always been on the sweeter side.

I was really impressed by the beer selection at West Lakeview Liquors, which I visited for the first time.

Does anyone know when any of the other special winter Central Waters brews are released? I've seen the bourbon barrel around, but that's it.

I saw some bba scotch ale the other night, but it may have been an older vintage. Annoys me that CW doesn't date the bottles.

I like WLVL, but I'm always afraid I'm going to knock shit over in there.

i'm a terrible portlander and haven't been to a timbers game... i've been wanting to check one out for years now

Here's 2013 schedule. I'm guessing the scotch ale I saw was last year's vintage.

http://centralwaters.com/beers/pdf/2013ProductionSchedule.pdf

Struck out on hop ranch but found some dirtwolf.

i actually think dirtwolf > hop ranch. hop ranch seemed a little on the thin tside o me. not a bad beer by any means, i just think i prefer the dirtwolf. there was a lil tartness/unripe apricot tang to the hop ranch which is prob good with certain foods.

welp, this was fun

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa356/fugexlac/beer_tasting_zpsc9e34d48.jpg

Mordy thanks for sending that Russian River Temptation, you made me a popular guy at this party.

I love Parabola, but it's the FSW I can NEVER seem to get.

I dunno where he got it but the guy throwing the party had 2011-2013 Parabolas.

It hits all the stores each year, but is gone within a few hours. Just one of those releases that 9 to 5'ers can have a hard time getting.

I think it gets released twice, right?

Nice line up there.

(dan m's pic)

what are those beers flanking the parabolas?

and yeah, definitely looks like a good time

The one with the wax on the neck on the right is some kind of Surly seasonal, the one on the left side is a barleywine whose name escapes me.