Beer in the new era

sucks never has supply issues in my area

bought goose island "matilda" today on the salesperson's recommendation.

grabbed some Nugget Nectar just now. It's always good for a 6 pack a year, usually goes pretty fast around here.

i had sucks the other night, a friend brought some over. tbh it was good but i didn't think it was anything that special (like most lagunitas imo). i kind of hate the gimmicky backstory/packaging

oh man i totally disagree, i'd actually never had a full bottle before this year (had a taste at a bottle share long ago) and i was sort of on the same boat wrt the gimmick, but i absolutely love it.

anyone had that Evil Twin Ying & Yang? i think you're supposed to mix them black & tan style? i'm trying to pick some up as v-day beer. :)

xp, ha, i guess i'm kind of jaded in my beer drinking right now. there are so many full-flavored complex double IPAs out there now so when another comes around i'm just kind of like, yea, pretty good, nothing to go crazy about. even the much-sought after vermont double IPA heady topper whi i hear about all the time in new england - yes, it's a really good beer, like lots of thers out there! the beer-hunting, collecting, buy-three-cases-at-a-time beer advocate nerds i think are kind of overestimating all these beers a little imo.

otm

not calling you a dorky beer advocate nerd, though, jon! sorry if that came across

with something like sucks, which is available at nearly any supermarket or beer store around these parts (and a large chunk of the country), i think the hyperbole is more about the quality to price-point ratio than anything else

^^^

yeah, sucks is a great deal.
today i went to a weird grocery store a 15-minute walk from my house and got these--
4-pack bourbon county barleywine (lol how are these still there???)
firestone double jack
pretty things meadowlark.

i know meadowlark is a year round and maybe not that exciting to some ppl but i love it and there aren't a lot of places that carry it here on the reg.

had a "barleywine" night with friends a week ago. beer was amazing. will never do it again.

xp to jordan -- i had the IPA, whichever one that is -- yin? i forget. i thought it was really nice. very drinkable for the ABV, didn't punch me inna head with the hops. a bit pricey though, for regular drinking.

lol. i'm not the hugest barleywine guy, a lot of the time they're just too boozy for me, but i wanted to try the bourbon co and there it was... splitting the four pack with my boss.

haha, no offense taken! i've been way too busy lately to have time to track anything down or hit up stores that aren't near my daily routine - so i loved having something as reasonably priced as Sucks available super close to me. i'm not claiming its the best beer ever, or even in my top ten, but as for something i picked up in a sixer from the grocery store half a mile away, its a fantastic buy.

northeast, midatlantic, florida and tx folks: you have probably slept on previously nondescript vermont craft brewery otter creek. sleep no more--their last three special releases have been tremendous. the one out now is called citra mantra, a lager that used all citra hops. you may also still be able to grab kind rye'd ipa.

otm. had double dose recently and it was fantastic.

good to know! had a couple otter creek beers maybe 4 or 5 five years ago and was totally unimpressed (stovepipe porter, i think), assumed they were another generic new england brewery a la shipyard or fishermans brew or something. i'll give the new ones a try

man, ballast point sculpin is a mighty fine brew.

yeah i'm gonna try to grab singles of their unconvincing-looking year-round offerings (copper ale, black ipa) because these new ones have been so good.

i dunno if i've ever had an otter creek beer, but it's good to keep in mind -- it's tough for me to find stuff i am excited about when i go visit my family in RI. my usual go-to is Shed Pale Ale, also from vermont iirc. i used to be into the wachusett ipa but last time i was up it didn't work for me... seemed too malty/sweet.

shed ipa is pretty good! like their brown ale too

yeah sculpin is way way up there for me as well. Also caved and had the Oskar Blues Ten Fidy and although $15 for a 4 pack of 12 oz cans is kinda O_O holy crap, it is a pretty killer stout. xposts

wachusett's larry is their double ipa, it's around in cans now and pretty good imo. don't really know about their other stuff.

sculpin fans--how much is a sixer in your area?

This years sucaba is awesome.

sculpin fans--how much is a sixer in your area?

^$13.99

pricey

also speaking of VT beers if you guys ever find yourselves in brattleboro, you should visit mcneill's brewery. i feel like i already posted about this place but i was blown away by their beers. they had a bunch of cask offerings that were all really good, including some kind of barrel-aged imperial stout, could've been a black ipa though. i don't remember b/c my brother ordered that beer. the cask regular ipa was pretty insane, too. i had a maibock and an old ale, both super sweet and sour at the same time. really good.

oh yea and the porter could've been all-time for me, was just perfect

my gold standard for an over-the-top imperial IPA is O'So Lupulin Maximus, it's very different from all the other crazy hoppy double/imperial IPAs i've had. very dank.

also a friend of mine just made an imperial pilsner for the Great D@ne in Madison, very unique and tasty.

I saw Sculpin for $14 in Chicago earlier this week, a buck less than Hopslam.

Ballast Point Big Eye in cans and/or bombers have been making the rounds lately too. I almost tried their amber, Calico, the other day before talking myself out of it.

sculpin here is around $16-18 depending on store
hopslam is more like $20 :\

nyc suscccckks.

move to the midwest, it's a beer wonderland here

i would move out of NY but i don't think my wife ever will.

I should look at the prices of what I'm buying more. Well I do look and if it isn't insane then I buy it and them forget what I paid.

move to the midwest, it's a beer wonderland here

― festival culture (Jordan), Friday, February 14, 2014 4:23 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, you guys do have it pretty nice

SoCal has Sculpin for $15, with fairly regular sales at $14. The can 6-packs I only see at Whole Foods, and they never discount them.

I think someone mentioned Hopslam at their Trader Joe's recently. Checked my local yesterday and they carry it.

My Bevmo is doing a happy hour thing M-Th, 4-7 pm where they discount beer, wine, and liquor. I got Anchor Steam for $6.49 and they had Lagunitas IPA for $5.99 but I missed that one (6-packs). It's not on their web site so you have to go in beforehand to get the weekly list of offerings.

Should be they *don't* carry Hopslam.

I should have said that my area of the woods is Atl, GA, which is where i am getting the 13.99 Sculpin

Also noticed today that Miller is getting into the pseudo-craft line. They had an amber ale (I think) with 6.9% abv at $12 per 12-pack. I keep thinking it'd be nice if a major came out with something that was good, if not great or even very good, at a mass-market price.

I guess I'll stick with TJs Jumping Cow and Fat Toad for that.

this is why the lord created sierra nevada pale ale

My first craft beer!! Carl introduced it to me in Atlanta way back in the year 2000.

i still drink it all the time, such a well thought out beer

really? i've never liked it all that much, pre craft beer me or post craft beer me.

yep. it's not the hoppiest pale ale at all, but the hop profile is so memorable and well-defined. a little pine, a little citrus, nice malt backbone. love it.