Beer in the new era

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)

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-xlarge/19e26dfsn6lq0jpg.jpg

Yeah, I definitely see the high priced bottles in restaurants sometimes. Like $70 for a bottle of Cantillion, $50 for a BCBS variant. Even $40-45 for some stuff like the Founders Backstage series. I'm probably not going to pay $40-45 for a Doom or Boltcutter.

Churchkey is bad about this. I mean just look at the last three pages of their bottle list. http://churchkeydc.com/documents/BBCKONLINEBOTTLELIST1-2-14.pdf

i was thinking of churchkey especially, as well as torst (i recall seeing some cantillon bottles on their menu, admittedly a couple years old, for $100+)

pizzeria paradiso in dc does this too, though their markups are much more reasonable iirc

i think we paid $75 for mamouche at torst. that's a $35 bottle at retail so given typical bar markup + brooklyn i thought it was a totally ok price.

anyway i'd much rather pay $70 for a bottle of something that's likely to be excellent/almost impossible to get in a store than pay $45 for garbage like founders backstage.

Yeah, me too. I'll pretty much but a Cantillon bottle anytime.

yup (i think i paid in the neighborhood of $60 for a fou'foune at torst and thought the same thing - a 2x markup is pretty standard)

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140131/NEWS07/140139966

Cool. For some reason last year there was a real glut of the original stuff. This year, less of a glut, and the even more limited stuff was as limited as ever. I can't imagine they'd seriously up production of stuff like the coffee or backyard or whatever, though obviously it would be great if they did.

Last year and this year seem about the same in regards to availability of regular. But then again I mostly shop in north side city shops, which are picked through rather quickly.

i read a rumor that they lost a batch of coffee to infection and tend to believe it

Yeah, that seems to happen. Central Waters had some issues last year, too.

Last year there were literally piles and piles of BCBS stacked up at the South Loop Binny's. I did not see that this year. I've also seen more people than usual breaking up the four-packs and selling them my bottle.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/munster/major-expansion-brewing-at-three-floyds/article_44cfb252-7227-5287-acde-fb2315c46c09.html

They keep saying that, but since the last expansion the stuff has been weirdly scarce for long stretches.

They were going to open a place in Chicago too but that never happened.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t31/1412362_10152153266146738_863572903_o.jpg

After hibernating for six months in bourbon barrels, we’re excited to report that we will release Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator at the brewery on Thu. 2/6 at 11am. The barrel-aging process has transformed Troegenator into a lush Double Bock with undertones of vanilla, oak, and toasted coconut amid a warm blanket of tangy bourbon notes. BBA Troegenator is packaged in 750mL cork and cage bottles and available only at the brewery through the General Store for take-out as well as our Tasting Room for on-premise consumption. The price per bottle is $17.99 and there is a two (2) bottle limit per person.

Normal Troegenator alone is like one of the best double bocks i've ever had so this sounds amazing. I'm going to try to head out there Thursday morning to snag some bottles.

sierra nevada ovila is seriously one of the shittiest beers i have ever had, thank god i didnt get suckered into buying a 4 pack

ugh yeah, the plum stuff? i had a bottle last year.

and i am far from a sierra nevada hater but christ man, yuuuuuuccckk

the plums werent even the issue, the base beer was just awful, and the plums sure didnt help. idk wtf they were thinking honestly.

i don't get why they still make a beer that doesn't play to their strengths at all

tried Three Sheeps Ewephoria (ginger chocolate stout) last night, really liked it. super gingery.

also Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine is amazing.

barrel-aged troegenator sounds delicious

totally predictable yet totally devastating news - http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31196-northeast_portland_speakeasy_deans_scene_closed.html

NOOOoooo