Beer in the new era

yeah, she's rad! i did a waterbury run with her once. i really like the stuff she's been writing lately, and i totally can't believe the patience she has in dealing with some of the absolute biggest creeps ever (cf the dude in the comment section: "We have to empower women to like/brew craft beer? Can't we just drink what we want to?")

drinking southern tier warlock right now and good god. i don't think i've ever been disappointed by a southern tier product, honestly, they might be my favorite brewery.

Sierra Nevada 4-way ipa sampler is a must buy, FYI.

xp sourthern tier 2xmas beer was god awful, one of the worst beers I can remember having

some others:

sam adams honey porter
bell's batch 5000
leinie's summer shandy
camo

Totally agreed, the 2 worst beers I had last year that I had hopes for were Alaskan hop-o-thermia and the 2xmas

I didn't hate Southern Tier's Creme Brulee, but it really was a lot like drinking candy.

oh man, camo!

the worst beer i can remember drinking offhand was bootlegger's mint chocolate porter, picked up as a joke during an LA trip. cool colt was before my time, but i feel like i got the gist of it

What oyster stout is best? I'm in the beer store right now.

I like the ... Flying Dog? Is that a beer?

i'm a fan of the upright oyster stout

Flying dog's is the "pearl necklace"

classy

does that qualify as one of the insulting double entendres from the craft beer issues article?

how many of these are still around anyway? all i can think of off the top of my head is "bombshell blonde" but i know i have seen far worse blonde-related stupid beer names

now I'm trying to think of the worst beer I've ever had

gotta be that Rogue bacon maple lager, shudder

the worst be i've ever had was probably a taster of some sam adams one-off at a liquor store. it was like a sour dark beer, completely vile.
ghost face killah was bad.
mother funker was pretty bad.
i know people are into it but edmund fitzgerald was pretty bad imo
bad locals from startups/nanobreweries too numerous to list

oh yeah, I had a taster of that rogue/voodoo donut shit once, that was horrible

Wound up going with Marstons. It's fine, not as oystery as i expected which i guess is a good thing. Went well with the mushrooms stuffed with crab i had with dinner, which was the idea.

Agree that craft breweries need to cool it with the double entendres. I was gonna buy the flying dog tonight but just couldnt

Worst, supposed to be good beer is maybe DFH Indian Brown Ale for me. Couldn't take it. Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat Ale was bad too. OH. And Magic Hat #9 is vile. I know people where that is all they drink. Bud would be better.

Agree x 1,000,000 on magic hat #9.

Southern Tier Pumpking smelled exactly like vomit to me, I could not get past the aroma. I bought two bottles, too, based on raves -- ended up taking one to a holiday party so I could just leave it there.

Pearl Necklace at least is an Oyster Stout. You know, oysters and pearls and stuff. Does that count as a double entendre?

God, everything from these beer names to labels piss me off. The labels all look like something scribbled in the Trapper Keeper of some middle school Metallica fan, the names ... useless. Surly is the worst, name-wise. So useless.

Haha ok surly has their moments but clearly flying dog is the worst at this

Also wrt oyster stouts, the 21st amendment marooned on hog island is stellar

Porterhouse oyster stout is great.

based on memory the worst beers i've ever had have been the mcmenamins ruby ale (raspberry grossness), bridgeport hop czar (flirting with the grey area between double ipas and malt liquor) and this thing i had tonight from otherwise excellent brewery block 15, love potion #9 (more raspberry grossness, tasted like taking a rip from a hookah)

also had pliny the younger tonight! it was... good! i'm pretty glad i tried it, but it is far from my favorite of its style. it's impressively smooth and balanced, but it didn't really have that bold kick that you get from the more assertive double/triple ipas that can really set them apart if they have the right hop palette. i can see the extreme level of craft that goes into that type of drink, the almost complete lack of a nose is mind boggling considering how many hops went into that thing, and maybe i'm crazy but i kind of missed that awesome intense smell. i can see why something like that would impress a lot of people though, it really is pretty refined

21st Amendment (now that you mention it) watermelon beer was the worst for me (Magic Hat #9 a close second). When you buy a maple donut, mint chocolate, etc, type beer you know what you're getting into, so you only have yourself to blame.

Yeah 21st amendment hell or high watermelon made me avoid them for years, but that is super unrepresentative of the rest of their beers. But it is stunningly awful.

There was discussion of Ballast Point Calico a ways back. I tried it last weekend and i echo the rave reviews. An excellent pale ale. Not sure that BP can do any wrong.

multiple xposts southern tier is generally pretty excellent, though i tend to stick to styles i know i'm going to like (christmas ales generally not being a style i like, with a couple exceptions). 2xone (brewed with one type of malt, one type of hop, etc) is in my fridge right now and is pretty great. their old man winter ale is fucking awesome, probably one of the best winter ale/strong ale types i've had in a long time.

worst beer i had in recent memory was a milk stout at some newish brewpub in brattleboro, VT, (not mcneill's, that place is amazing), it was flat and dull and fucking terrible.

milk stouts in general are not my thing

i'd rather have an oatmeal or imperial stout

I'm not a huge milk stout fan but recently had 4 Hands Brewing Chocolate Milk Stout. It was fantastic. Really roasty/chocolatey, but not overly sweet.

Lancaster Brewing put out a double chocolate stout recently that I thought was delicious.

Wisconsin, you're getting Solomon Oath http://www.brewbound.com/news/2014/solemn-oath-brewery-to-expand-distribution-to-wisconsin

oh WAIT i forgot all about drinking dark horse uber boober (a cream ale made using baby formula instead of lactose, served via breast pump) at some beeradvocate fest a couple years ago. jesus christ.

^ terrible name, terrible concept, terrible way to serve a beer... really covering all the bases there

o_O

pro tip btw: do NOT gis "uber boober" at work

Served via breast pump seems like it would be impossible to forget!

hahahaha

that sounds terrible

I should clarify that I did NOT buy a bottle of bacon maple lager, but I did have the misfortune of tasting it at a pub flight night like the example above, wtf was I thinking

^ lol. multiple times people (usually visitors who don't know any better) have shown up to dinner parties with one of those things and everyone tries to be polite, "oh, cool... thanks", someone inevitably opens the thing and pours one glass, and the rest of the bottle sits untouched for the rest of the night

KBS tickets on sale in 5 minutes. I've got a beer mule in grand rapids that will get me the allotment, assuming I can get a ticket. Which will probably sell out in less than a minute.

When does it go on sale here, again?

10 AM

Oh, you mean the bottles actually here? It varies. Stores get them at different days/times.

March 18th at Founders though.

Got my ticket. Nice that I won't have to hunt one down this year.