Beer in the new era

(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.

Dan, you and R should come over and drink sometime. Don't think I could top that lineup by myself but I could get close!

I'd love to!

Was informed the beer to the left of the parabolas is a half acre product.

Also drinking a Sucks btw

Half Acre Quakerbridge

Surly seVIIn maybe?

did a little tasting last night:

http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q782/braudimusprime/B6DF443B-FBB4-4D6A-9B0E-A7BE9C5DF036_zps5trbiwmx.jpg

big ups to mordy and dan for your contributions!

praise bee had a lot of nice subtleties, i think the honey was very interesting and added a lot to the finish. not as hoppy as i anticipated but i think that was good since the malts and honey really showed through. pairs fantastically with stilton!

proprietors - i had this low-level fear that it really would be a boozy mounds bar, some kind of big sweet dessert bomb. luckily it was not even close to that, i think using the rye barrels helped dial back the sweetness and the coconut was incredible, really well integrated and drifted so nicely into the aroma and finish of the beer.

That looks like fun, glad to hear Proprietors isn't just dessert beer. I'm planning on bringing my one remaining bottle to a party in a week or so and it's good to know it's not as sweet as people make it out to be.

On that note, I was nosing around the Binny's new arrivals list and found this abomination:

http://www.binnys.com/beer/Rogue_Voodoo_Doughnut_Shop_Pretzel_Raspberry_Chocolate_Ale_67040.html

CAD, did you like the Bo & Luke? I had it on draft a few years ago before they smoked it and bottles it. It was one of the best beers I bet had. I probably like the smoked version less so, but it's still good.

I pretty much hated Sweet Repute.

I think overall I enjoyed backyard rye better than proprieters.

http://alchemistbeer.com/blog/#2831

In a couple weeks, we will be releasing the first batch of Focal Banger, an American IPA first brewed at the pub back in the day. Focal Banger will be brewed with Mosaic and Citra, and we are working on fine tuning the malt bill.

#bangerz

bo & luke - we had this pretty late and i'm not a smoked beer guy, but i wasn't impressed. my pal walter put it well: "the smoke chased the pappy out."

sweet repute - second time i had it. it's ok, it's just like a normal ale with some maple syrup tossed in a barrel. it's prob a step up in terms of recent founders backstage offerings, but that's not saying much.

some other notes--

spencer trappist - very nicely done, all the banana and clove you'd expect, very clean and drinkable. too bad the retail pricing is astronomically high.

marshal zhukov - serious competitor for best non-barrel imp. stout.

duck duck gooze - i got this through dumb luck and really had been trying to ignore the hype and insanity. it was wonderful though. very well-balanced for what it is.

Pre-smoked it was amazing. Not sure why they ever decided to smoke it.

tnite's epic beer tasting (i think the proprietors was the best thing there tbh! so delicious)

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1658207_10203234664375209_370360611_o.jpg

nice lineup!

wow!

i don't remember disliking the figaro, but i don't remember it standing out too much either. cascade has a tonnn of stuff available in bottle shops around here right now, including the mindblowing bourbonic plague. if anyone is interested in a trade for such things let me know (bourbonic plague is p limited iirc)

which hair of the dog is that?

besides maybe that bruery selection, the only other one i've tried is the fifty fifty eclipse (i forget which version). how did that compare to the bourbon county?

does yr ilxmail work?

the hair of the dog was probably the worst of the bunch - it was Michael. really overpowering booze taste. the bcbs proprietors was by far the best beer of the night - way superior to the four roses eclipse.

I am going to this (mostly because they have amazing cheap records for sale very year to benefit the station)

http://klcc.org/klcc-microbrew-festival-feb-7-8-2014

if u scroll down you will see a good list of the local breweries

L and I went out to Agrarian's tasting room this weekend, had some damn good beer (dry hopped pale for me, hoppy dark CDA type thing for her). also pork belly and white truffle pizza which was really good. They are 5 miles north of Coburg.

never had the michael, but that's unfortunate (esp at 6% abv, it's weird that the alcohol taste was so overpowering). usually i stick to the adam / adam of the wood and fred / fred of the wood, also the blue dot is surprisingly good for a sweeter imperial ipa. i have tried another flanders red from them, on tap and with much higer alcohol content than the michael, and remember it being delicious

have fond memories of eclipse as well, but i'd imagine that those vary quite a bit from batch to batch

cheap records + beer sounds like a good idea. sounds like a gotta check out agrarian too

and yes - my webmail works!

*i gotta check...

ok just tried ilxmailing you so let me know if you get it

Obligatory Hopslam acquired. Store that had it also had Surly Darkness for $30+ a bottle.

I paid 23 for my bottle of darkness. Have seen it up to $40 lolololol.

there's so much hyperbole with imperial stouts, i have no way to contextualize things.. they seem to all range from good to great to excellent to ZOMG THE BEST to NO THIS IS THE BEST etc.

i realize this is impossible to quantify but it seems like across the board people are just really super into bourbon county. is it p much the pliny of imperial stouts or is there some other holier grail out there? i am a big proponent myself, but i've only tried the standard version bcbs and i think there are plenty of similarly excellent beers out there that don't have the same massive following. how would people itt compare bcbs to stuff like darkness or parabola?

Gigantic imperial stout at the same store was $9.99, didn't buy bc Hopslam is so stupidly priced.

Bcbs is much sweeter than the Darkness or Parabola ime.

all I can say abt the current crop of imp stouts is that I really like some of them and Boneyard's Suge Night in particular stands out to me

this thread makes me realize that I hardly ever buy fancy/limited stuff in bottles, there are just so many things on tap to try

I mean...

BEER NAME STYLE ABV 32oz FILL 64oz Fill
1 Finnriver Black Current Cider Cider 6.5% $8 $16
2 Cascade Bipolar Imperial IPA 7.6% $7 $14
3 The Commons Urban Noir Dark Farmhouse 4.9% $6 $12
4 Black Butte XXV Imperial Porter 11.3% $20 $40
5 Cigar City/De Proef Tropical Tripel Tripel 9.5% na na
6 Tilquin Gueuze Lambic 4.8% na na
7 Oakshire Very Ill Tempered Gnome Strong Ale 9.5% $10 $20
8 Barley Brown’s Forklift (Yes!) Imperial IPA 9% $7 $14
9 Crux Freakcake Oud Bruin (Sour) 10.5% na na
10 Block 15 Prophecies Belgian Dark Strong 9.2% $16 $32
11 Hop Valley Citrus Mistress IPA 6.4% $5 $10
12 Lagunitas Pils Pils Style Lager 6% $5 $10
13 Breakside Framboise Sour 5.5% na na
14 Moylans Hopsickle (Triple Hoppy!) Imperial IPA 9.2% $9 $18
15 Natian CuDA CDA 7.4% $6 $12
16 Breakside Wanderlust IPA 6.6% $6 $12
17 Laurelwood Portland Roast Espresso Stout Stout 6.3% $5 $10
18 Breakside Safe Word Triple IPA 11% na na

Darkness isn't barrel aged, so that's the big difference.

BCBS is a bourbon bomb, which is why it appeals to me more than rest. Something like KBS is more balanced, but I just don't need subtly most of the time.

CW bbs is good, but is thin and doesn't have the mouthfeel of BCBS. Lacks the viscosity. Parabola is a close second for me.

yeah bcbs has a lot of cache from being the first of its kind, and the way they've been able to scale up the production, availability, and add the variants while maintaining the quality is basically unbelievable.

Been drinking a lot of porters lately. Sierra Nevada Porter is always good. Nice hop flavor but balanced by sweetness and it doesn't try to dial everything up to 11. I tried the Avery New World Porter tonight, which was good too. A bit stronger than the Sierra Nevada, but still nicely balanced and not overpoweringly bitter. The Founders Porter is okay, but a bit too bitter to be my first choice.

Scary/intriguing:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-27/millercoors-seeks-spirits-fans-with-bourbon-like-lager.html

Yeah, will definately try it.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0211/4926/files/P-MegaBrew0115_ZOOM.jpg?5186

details (warning hueg):
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0211/4926/files/P-MegaBrew0115_ZOOM.jpg?5186

Went back into overpriced liquor store today and $56 proprietors still in the cooler. Maybe I should just offer him like $30 for it.

i really hope they do expanded release of proprietors next year - such a fantastic beer

You wanna see overpriced: http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/clt/4283953816.html

According to those prices I gave away ~$250 of the shit on Xmas presents alone.

that map is beautiful and amazingly detailed.

ugh, those ppl are scum xp

I still have a cherry rye. I'm going to sell it for one million dollars.

Sierra Nevada ruthless rye ipa is really great.

otm

that map is great! so many places i either did not know about or had mentally dismissed... and yet there are definitely things missing too

and as crazy as that craigslist post is, i have a feeling that restaurants will start to mark up rare bottles of beer like they do with wine and those types of prices will become more and more common

definitely - i can think of a couple beer bars that have bottles cellared longterm (and priced accordingly)