Beer in the new era

x-p to myself

http://smuttynose.com/_Media/homunculus.jpg

Had a bunch from Ale Asylum last night, which are new to the market. Really liked the Bedlam.

Ale Asylum is a brewpub in Madison, WI, right? If so I was taken there by my in-laws last year. The beer seemed fine, if unremarkable.

Bumped into a bottle of Sucaba the other day.

I hope the bottle is ok. You should drink it.

It's always nice when you find something on the shelf you're not looking for (in the active hunting sense). Find it a bit funny that DDBA sits around for a while (out here) but Sucaba still goes fast.

i bumped the homebrewing thread if anyone is interested - i'd love to chat about homebrewing over there...

I bought a bottle of Sucuba the other day - I like beer and all but I've learned I'm not that obsessive about it and don't really care about collecting or anything - but elsewhere on the internet dan m quoted a friend who said "when you see Firestone in a box, you buy it" which stuck with me for some reason. I think there were at least four others available at the time, pondering going back to grab at least another one.

If I wanted to hold on to this for a while, what's the proper procedure? Keep it in the fridge or is that too cold? How long does one age something like this?

cellar it - no fridge. put it in a closet ~70 degrees would be perfect.

i've got a firestone parabola + an anniversary ale aging

fridge is fine if you have space, but it will change more slowly in there. you just don't want it to get extremely warm or to fluctuate in temp a lot. if you have a cellar or basement in your house you can probably just throw it down there and not worry. make sure it isn't in direct sunlight.

you don't need to age it at all, but it will mellow out a bit after a year or so and will be drinkable for at least 5 years. i haven't had a beer (at least not a non-lambic/gueuze beer) that actually improved after at 3 years plus.

I save beer not really to experience any sort of change, but really just to enjoy a beer I like at a later date. But still, drinking beer fresh is almost always preferable to me.

I don't really have a good storage area either. I keep it in a closet and it's dark, but the temp can vary. Everything I've tasted that I had through the summer seems to have held up well though.

We just moved, and our new house has this bonus semi-insulated closet in the basement. In the winter (well, at least this winter) it chills white wine down to pretty much perfect serving temperature. It has been hypothesized that in the summer, it will be perfect red temperature. In any case, it's a pretty great place to keep beer. Whiskey, not so much, but it gives me an excuse to let a glass sit a bit while it warms up.

I just picked up two bottles of New Holland Night Tripper on my lunch break. Why not?

I drank one of my cellared-for-18-months 2012 DDBAs a month or two ago and I couldn't really say if it was better than a fresh one. I also have some 2013s, so I was thinking I should have cracked open one of those to see if it mattered, but then I wasn't sure if they alter the formula from year to year, which might make the comparison meaningless.

i had some Night Tripper last night, also more Epic Big Bad Baptist and Alesmith Speedway Stout (my folks were in town and i asked them to pick up some birthday bombers).

Enjoy, this is my local Whole Foods' tap list for the week:
https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1/1891109_647065002027900_787464401_n.jpg

Half of those would kick within a couple of hours here. Probably faster.

Beer guy at the store today was impressed that not only does Trader Joe's carry Revolution's barrel aged barleywine, but that it just hangs around on the shelf. He thinks it's pretty strong, and remembers the day not long ago when his store would just be allotted one bottle.

Straight jacket, love it. I really like most of rev's barrel stuff.

nice list al

Yeah, that beats my WF list. Though they did have Parabola, and I'm pretty sure it lasted at least 2 days.

since when does whole foods have...taps?

Lots of them do. Several in Chicago do. One has three bars in it!

The larger Pasadena one has about 8 taps, I believe. A 5 minute walk from my work, I should eat/drink there more often.

what does a growler of something like bourbon county/world wide stout even cost??
looks like a great list.

First day of Oskar blues in my local beer store, bought everything but the ten-fidy. It is all stupid stupid good so far. Ranked of what I have had inn order from most awesome to slightly less awesome in order - g'knight, rales pale, mommas yellow pils, old chub. Probably won't get to the deviant dale tonight.

went to a bar tonight that had bourbon county stout & barleywine on draft. wanted to try em, but had to drive, so i had to limit myself to just trying the goose island illinois double IPA; it was fine but nothing exceptional. this bar for some reason had tons of goose island stuff -- lots of the weird belgian/wild ales. i wish i was more into that stuff.

gi has been doing a lot of random tap takeover type things since a-b bought them. great events imo.

this was julian's in providence, if you feel like driving an hour to check it out. they have great food too imo.

should be acquiring a sixer of hop slam later. never tried it, stoked that bell's is in NY now.

yep! was visiting a friend in rockland county NY the other day and the Target had 6 packs hopslam for $16.00 i bought a case.

that's a great price! most places in the city here it's like $20+

That stuff is such a cash cow. My MI beer insider friend complains about it a lot... "It's not that good! They are knowingly gouging you!" etc. He has a bit of a point.

man, that seems like a lot to me

now I wanna go to a local bottle shop and check the pricing

It's not my favorite DIPA, but I do enjoy one sixer of it every year.

Trader Joe's here has Hopslam for $16

I had one sixer and it was fine, but I'd rather have more of a chance to try the Oracle vs more Hopslam. Could only ever find one bottle of that shit.

That stuff is such a cash cow. My MI beer insider friend complains about it a lot... "It's not that good! They are knowingly gouging you!" etc. He has a bit of a point.

― dan m, Wednesday, February 12, 2014 2:11 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man, that seems like a lot to me

― sleeve, Wednesday, February 12, 2014 2:12 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, it does seem like a lot! anyone else feeling priced out of the craft beer movement? there are so many more good beers available now than, say, even 5 years ago but the prices have skyrocketed along with the quality. i feel like i never had to spend more than $9 a six-pack but now it's almost impossible to spend less than $12. all the best stuff is more like $14 a six-pack or $12 a four-pack. most bombers are expensive, too, more like moderately priced wine now. i feel like i have my repertoire of 4 or 5 breweries that still only charge <$10 a six, and branching out and trying new stuff just gets really pricey

My friend brought this up just yesterday after picking up a bottle of Sucaba. $20 a bottle of beer? I guess. I mean, it keeps, and some of that stuff has moved so beyond mere "beer." But those bottles add up fast.

Having had one sixpack of Hopslam this year, when presented with the option for more recently I went for yet another six of Sucks. Man I love that stuff.

yeah loving Sucks this year

sucks is great, will always drink a sucks.
this latest batch of Enjoy By didn't wow me but i'm gonna give it another chance, before the time runs out..

Man, I was really surprised to see shelves full of Sucks at my local Jewel of all places. Haven't gotten any of this year's Hopslam yet.

what I usually buy for normal home 6-pack usage:

10 Barrel IPA ($10 for 6)
Lagunitas ($9 or so)
Full Sail (usually when it's on sale for $7.50)
Ninkasi IPA ($10)

once Anderson Valley and Rogue hit $11 they became a lot less common in our fridge

never had a 10 barrell or a ninkasi :( or an anderson valley for that matter.

beer is way overpriced in NY i guess. even at delis most 6packs will cost you $12 or so, unless it's bud/miller type stuff. even brooklyn beers are usually around $10/six.

Typically the cheapest craft sixers I see around Chicago are Great Lakes stuff. Even Revolution has jumped the $10 barrier which is just insane, especially for their regular lineup.

ian I am gonna email you when I get home so I can send you a sampler, for reals