Beer in the new era

what's incorrect on the label?

a) Double IPA is a style invented <20 years ago outside of San Diego.

b) IPAs are the fastest beers to spoil. IPAs need to be kept refrigerated to maintain flavor and alcohol content. If they are not kept refrigerated and drank soon after production, two things happen: 1) the hoppy flavor begins to mellow followed by a corresponding decrease of the IBU; 2) The alcohol content begins to decrease*.

(*Some may think this is a gimmick but there is a reason why certain hard to find IPAs are kept intentionally low on supply: it is a supply-side device to ensure top quality flavor and freshness.)

c) I admittedly don't know much about the history of the East Indian export beer trade from England to India, but I would wager that the taste, brewing practice and recipes of a modern IPA bears very little in common with the traditional IPA export from Georgian era England. I can imagine that the journey from England to Bombay was about 6 months minimum through mostly tropical climes. A common beer in that era would be around 4%ABV and IPA was known to be lighter and more refreshing, probably half the ABV of that at best and most likely served with ice cubes in it.

d) And then naming a "traditional British-style double IPA" after a Ramones song just to capitalize on a hop-pun that's surely been used several times already is kinda goofy.

i understand your point about freshness but i don't understand how the alcohol content could change in a beer post-fermentation

IPAs are not the fastest beer to spoil. They may lose some of their hop flavors, but they will not actually spoil. Hops actually have a preservative effect on beer, which is one of the reasons their use took off 500 years ago or whenever.

You guys with all your facts and/or opinions.

seriously though! i've never heard of a beer decreasing in alcohol content over time. if there is any change at all i'd suspect it would an increase (say, in a bottle-conditioned beer that continues fermenting)

i'm not a brewer though. i've homebrewed a couple times but i'm no expert at all

Evaporation if not sealed properly?

A common beer in that era would be around 4%ABV and IPA was known to be lighter and more refreshing, probably half the ABV of that at best and most likely served with ice cubes in it.

nope

i mean actually almost everything you're saying is wrong but this is the part where you're clearly just making things up

i mean was that a joke post? ice cubes in india in the 18th/19th century?

At least in the 19th century, yes:

"The international ice trade continued through the second half of the 19th century... Exports from New England to India peaked in 1856, when 146,000 tons (132 million kg) were shipped... Spurred on by the introduction of artificial ice plants around the world by the British Royal Navy, the International Ice Company was founded in Madras in 1874 and the Bengal Ice Company in 1878. Operating together as the Calcutta Ice Association, they rapidly drove natural ice out of the market.[80]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade

ah alright, well anyway the rest of it is still wrong, ipas were 6-6.5% abv which was average or even below average for the time.

beer lawyering lol

Remember guys: beer transport wasn't in bottles, cans or aluminum kegs, it was wooden kegs and caskets.

Porters were 4% in England at the time. IPA was known as a weaker, lighter beer in England (and still is!)

Would you believe me if I told you that tons of ice was shipped from Boston to Colonial India with only a 40% loss rate?

Come at me bros!

xxps

I'm going to turn this dorky thread into a beer brawl.

Traveling to Portland tomorrow, got Gigantic, Occidental, Boneyard, and Cascade on my "try" list. Also I learned that an acquaintance out there is launching his own cidery on Sunday, called "Plastic Paddy" which will sell their product in 2L plastic bottles. Might have to go try that, too.

lol, that sounds great. good cider usually comes in a 750 ml bottle or smaller and people always drink it so fast

all those breweries are worthy of your list! also, breakside has been killing it lately - if you see anything sour or barrel-aged or even just high abv from them, get it.

also - i recently tried stormbreaker, the new brewery where amnesia used to be located on mississippi, and good god is it boring

http://apps.startribune.com/news/20140313-beer-me-minnesota/

every state needs one of these

Oh well, looks like I missed my shot at Parabola. In the city, at least.

So does anyone have a recommendation of what beer to try or try to find in St. Louis, or where to look?

It's one I miss every single year. We just don't get a lot.

Which is weird, because we seem to get a lot (or enough) of everything else.

Cuvee De Tomme by Lost Abbey on draft was pretty A+ yesterday

God fucking dammit. No Dark Lord Day for me this year. Fuck it all. It was the one bright spot keeping me going through this bleak winter. Getting tickets gets to be a bigger and bigger clusterfuck every year.

Motherfucker. I hate life.

I wish I had a hobby for which I could actually do the fucking things I want to do. I'm so tired of being shut out of concerts, events all. the. fucking. time.

Bummer

Its just frustrating. It's literally the only thing on my calendar all year that was, selfishly sure, MY thing to do. Like something I did solely because I enjoy it, not to make sure someone else happy. So that's gone. And, somehow, every single person I was going to go to it with got tickets, but not me.

Just had dogfish head 61 minute ipa. It's infused with wine and really crisp and refreshing.

Sorry you didn't get tickets j/v/c. I don't try because I have to work that same weekend every year.

Maybe try another upcoming event at Chicago Craft Beer Week? Beer Under Glass tickets go on sale April 1st. West Loop Craft Beer Fest, the Half Acre party, there will be tons of good events. Certainly not like DLD, but maybe good enough. Or you can come over and we can drink beers.

Every beer related event I've tried for in the past year has resulted in zilch, nada. It's not worth trying for anymore. Craft beer is a scene increasingly for the independently wealthy. I mean, I get why people do "exclusive" because it works very well for most breweries, but I'm tired of that being the be all end all of craft beer enjoyment.

I mean, I try not to let it get me down, but it bums me out just how much of the craft beer scene is about hyping up stuff thats virtually impossible to try. "This beer is amazing! Oh, but sorry you can't get it".

I've even tried to get into trading, but I'm finding it as maddening as Dead tape trading was before the internet. Unless you have something amazing, no one is going to trade with you, so you're stuck.

idk man you just gotta set parameters that work for you, there's lots of good stuff to try that isn't crazy hyped. you have access to great stuff in the midwest that can trade well to either coast on a locals-for-locals basis, i'd totally offer to do that with you if i didn't have three trades currently on the books.

me personally i had a really good run getting some rare stuff but it's prob over, and i don't chase stuff on the shelves anymore outside of bourbon county each winter.

i thought that was the case, but the people i contacted for trades totally scoffed at my offer of local stuff. i guess there's just too much stuff floating around. BCBS is the only "rare" thing i get and that's only because i live in Chicago. i've never gotten anything else "rare" ever - no KBS, no Parabola, no nothing. it sucks to always be shut out of stuff thats supposed to be "amazing".

there are dudes reading this thread who i know would trade locals with you, i don't trade outside of this community anymore because i like the people here and i don't really like the people elsewhere.

ive def hit a sort of frustrated point with aspects of craft beer atm, so i feel you jvc. i can never do beer events because it pretty much overlaps my store hours and music shit i gotta do, so less that, but more the graily ultra limited vibe going on. i feel like one of the reasons i am such a sierra nevada evangelist is that i think its cool that they are committed to seasonals, but in the "oh hey i get to drink celebration for 2 months and then i don't, but next year i can again" way instead of the way that surly or whoever does shit.

Craft beer is a scene increasingly for the independently wealthy. I mean, I get why people do "exclusive" because it works very well for most breweries, but I'm tired of that being the be all end all of craft beer enjoyment.

― an enormous bolus of flatulence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, March 17, 2014 3:41 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, I try not to let it get me down, but it bums me out just how much of the craft beer scene is about hyping up stuff thats virtually impossible to try. "This beer is amazing! Oh, but sorry you can't get it".

― an enormous bolus of flatulence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, March 17, 2014 3:43 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, this is OTM. i've spoken here before about feeling priced out of the craft beer movement sometimes, so i just quietly enjoy my $8-$11 six-packs of perfectly high quality craft beer without fretting too much about some bullshit that would cost me $30 bottle. here and there my either richer or more devoted craft beer friends will share stuff they get, and that's awesome and generous of them, but i don't try to keep up anymore

yeah, i get that there are always going to be "grails" out there and that's fine. i just feel like those get way too much attention. one of the things i like about this thread here is that people are always talking up stuff that's underrated or flying under the radar. but man, it just seems like every brewery wants to only focus of either a limited event or limited beer, hoping they'll be the next Three Floyds. (and believe me, i'm well aware of the irony here after bitching about not being able to go to Dark Lord Day. but that wasn't so much about the beer itself to me, as it was the awesome metal bands they always have and just having an excuse to hang out with cool people all day and drink great beer).

there are dudes reading this thread who i know would trade locals with you, i don't trade outside of this community anymore because i like the people here and i don't really like the people elsewhere.

This. I've liked trading within this thread, would never try one with someone from the BA/RB communities.

i have never, and hopefully will never, "engage" with either of those communities beyond just scanning the boards every six months.

yeah i should point out that i'm sympathetic too, i'm always super cranky about this shit. craft beer ppl get it from both ends imo--on one side there's every mediocre asshole who found enough cash to start a "craft brewery" and pawn product off on uninformed consumers, and on the other end there's the legitimately world-class stuff which is impossible to get because unfortunately enough ppl who know their shit are in on it.

xpost A lot of the beers you mention - KBS and Dark Lord in particular - are hard for everyone, and made harder by hoops like tickets, camping out, lines and stuff. But I want to say stuff like the KBS is the exception. Next tier down (up?) like the Firestone Walker, or Hopslam or whatever, BCBS, is doable if you're flexible, but you're right, people tend to grab everything that's more elusive. Options include:

1) Getting yourself known at your favorite beer place, big or small
2) Making lots of phone calls and being prepared to go out of your way for a bottle. Or just being prepared when the bottles drop (like I wasn't re: Parabola this past weekend).
3) Being content with how much great stuff we get in quantity that others crave (like Lagunitas Sucks).
4) Joining and contributing to and stalking some beer forums. I occasionally browse a couple, and excited people are always posting pictures of stuff I see sitting on the shelf all the time. But on the plus side, you learn when shipments get in or bottles arrive in various markets.

I will say this: if there's anything specific any of you are looking for, I'm happy to keep an eye out and even grab for you, if I find any.

Speaking of starting a brewery, this is a good article about why I would never ever do that: http://t.co/l3vQGhIJHn

I will say this: if there's anything specific any of you are looking for, I'm happy to keep an eye out and even grab for you, if I find any.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, March 17, 2014 4:32 PM (27 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also yeah this--if there's anything in national distro or new england that you're dying to try get at me and i'll do what i can

Another nice surprise I learned about and mentioned upthread is that big stores like Binny's typically cellar a few of their hard to find brews, and sneak them out at the end of the year to loyal customers or even to people who politely ask.

1) I try #1 constantly at the stores by my, but I get the feeling that they just don't want to try to befriend everyone and their always pretty gruff.
2) Having a 2 year-old makes it a lot harder to just hop in the car for a day and drive all over the place to not end up finding anything anyway. I've been burned way, way, way too many times calling a place and being told they have it and would hold it for me, then driving an hour only to hear, "oops no we don't". I won't go through that again.
3) Eh, I also got shut out of Hopslam this year. And Firestone Walker. I get nothing good.
4) If I come across a online beer comunity worth joining, sure, but ime they're just full of gloating assholes stroking each other over their rarfied trades.

Ugh, fuck Binny's. I've never had anything but terrible experience with them. See my #2 above.

Not having a car limits what I can get as far as rare releases go. I follow all the local beer shops on twitter and they post when they get stuff in, but I'm at the mercy of the CTA for getting there. So unless I'm close already, I miss it. It would take me an hour to hit two Binny's (assuming I'm at home and not at work) in the time some people could get to 3 or 4 (or more) of them.