Beer in the new era

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.

I know a lot of people love Binny's, but I think they are pretty much one of the worst stores out there. They have a great selection, but the one closest to me (Skokie) is staffed by people who are either completely clueless about craft beer or shady as fuck and hide beer for their friends.

I was in that store a couple of years ago on the day of Hopslam. I politely asked if they happened to have any more of it, dude laughs in my face and tells me no. Fine. I go pick some other stuff out and I'm standing in line to check out about 20 minutes later. Another dude comes in and asks for this same employee by name. The guy comes out and they give each other a big bro hug, then the employee proceeds to pull out three sixers of Hopslam for him.

idk what it's like in the rest of the country but i have to imagine that if it's anything like philly there is tons of under the radar + even limited release stuff that isn't so hard to get. i didn't end up shlepping out to troegs for that barrel aged troegenator but apparently they had bottles for about a week before selling out. similarly there are so many great smaller breweries around here that are constantly putting out fantastic stuff that it's hard to really starve for great beer. nb i also missed hopslam this year! but whatever, it's good but not amazeballs kill yourself to get it good.

Binny's in the city: PIA
Binny's out in the burbs: better luck. I've found that any of the Binny's off the beaten path a bit - Hyde Park, Elmwood Park, River Grove, even in the city on Grand - can bear results. But everything out here in the burbs, even around Oak Park (where I am), is a hair easier. I just got off the phone with two shops expecting shipments of Parabola tomorrow, albeit apparently tiny shipments.

I feel like it's easier to get rare beer these days than in the past*, for what it's worth.

*colonial India.

and although i have earned my way into a huge hookup hid this for you vibe with my local beer store (which luckily is amazing and staffed by good dudes) A)more and more of that ultrarare stuff is more weird than good honestly and B)ive spent TONS of money there to get to that point, which means that my fortune is costing other dudes from even having a shot at getting any of this stuff

xpost and yeah so that was a post from half an hour ago so feel free to ignore

I think the problem in Chicago is that there are just way, way, way too many dudes with tons of disposable money to throw at this thing. Sure, if I spent a couple hundred dollars a week at a local shop maybe they'd set some stuff aside for me. But if I spent a couple hundred dollars a week on beer, I'd also be homeless and divorced. So.

Nice surprise on my way home, stopped into the overpriced liquor store and they had Three Floyd's Permanent Funeral in the cooler. Thought I had missed out on it.

to be fair, I kind of think disposable time is more valuable in this case then disposable income.

Fair, I think it's a little bit of both. Having the time to track things down certainly helps, but it also helps to be a big spender at your local so they'll hold things for you.

Man U guys live in a different world, here the focus is all on taps and growlers, I have zero interest in chasing limited bottlings and don't really get it.

they don't have any three floyds anything near me

xp i live in a place where most taplists are terrible so

some of my fave ny breweries don't bottle anything, so taps are the only way to get 'em..
singlecut, barrier, and other half all do great stuff but ya can't get it outside of growlers/pints.

If I still lived near Revolution I'd be getting growlers, at least now that their product has leveled up. I'm not really into making trips across Chicago just for beer, though, and there are no decent bars near my current place. Finding rare stuff can be entertaining but I'd still take a well-produced, consistent product that's fresh and easily acquired any day of the week.

Unrelated: I drank too much beer and cider in Portland.

I'd still take a well-produced, consistent product that's fresh and easily acquired any day of the week.

so otm

For me the economics of growlers are not as good as bottles (unless it's some ridiculous growler-fill deal/blowout day).

For the most part, 64oz. growlers are usually priced > 72oz. 6-packs (or sometimes more than 3x22oz bombers!!!) and that is exclusive of the growler deposit ($5-9).

I'll get growlers of #rareshit but most of the time I'm dealing in bottles.

Taps are a completely different story as (unless you're at a brewery or taproom) you are out drinking at an establishment rather than purchasing at a liquor store, so there's the social element of being with your buddies. Then there's things that only show up in kegs so if you want to enjoy it, of course you have to belly up to the bar.

But back to bottles, anything that I'll get a chance to cellar (wilds and sours or anything bottle conditioned/aged), you need to deal in bottles to enjoy that stuff unless your local gets vintage kegs from breweries.

xp i live in a place where most taplists are terrible so

― call all destroyer, Monday, March 17, 2014 6:20 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This makes sense, thanks

my wife doesn't drink beer and most nights i rarely have more than one beer most nights, unless i'm hanging out with friends, that for me growlers would go flat before i could finish them

yeah I should clarify that I don't buy growlers at all, but they sure seem popular in the PAC NW. We just hit a tap room or brewery if we want fancy, but we never get it to go.

I never go out drinking (that is, where drinking is the point) and when I have a beer out it's usually either one at lunch (with a low ABV) or one at dinner (one that won't put me to sleep). So I tend to avoid heavy beers out and about. If any of you think chasing down hard to find bottles is a rich man's game, I would counter that going to bars is a rich man's game, since the prices are exponentially higher for stuff like beer and whiskey, and I still have to factor in transportation costs and (in my case) babysitting. I mean, how can I say $20 for a six pack of Hopslam (or whatever it costs) is expensive, when a shitty beer at a Cubs game sets me back $8? But anyway, if I can find beers that I like in the stores, which I can then cellar to share with my friends or family, I'd prefer to go that route, which to me is easier, more convenient and more cost effective. Plus, I get to try a variety of beers I otherwise wouldn't try.

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Thank you all for your love and support throughout the past (almost) two years of operations. Stick with us... We are just getting started.

(that's a quote obv i'm not speaking as a rep of tired hands)

good for them

yeah I should clarify that I don't buy growlers at all, but they sure seem popular in the PAC NW

lol i buy growlers all the time, but then again i live with 3 others who are usually down to share and we live just a few blocks from a grocery store with two taps and a "growler station" with like 40 amazing taps so i def acknowledge that we are blessed. they're perfect if you want to drink beers a notch above the usual bottle offerings (which, as i have mentioned several times here, are also great) and still way less $$ than drinking them on-site. more often than not we just acquire growlers that people bring at potlucks or dinner parties, akin to a bottle of wine

just finished a growler of block 15's caves saison, it was sour and amazing and just $12. also the growler place will discount things based on demand, so ie: tonight i will probably grab a $6 growler of a solid cigar city/widmer collaboration chile beer that other people avoided

also sleeve - SOMEHOW i avoided the 10 barrel ipa until just a couple days ago, which seems crazy because it's everywhere. but damn! you were right, i will drink that all spring/summer long, really good hop flavors and nice light body

Unrelated: I drank too much beer and cider in Portland.

sounds about right. i saw that 2L cider around over the weekend, should i give it a try?

I submitted a pic to the "Book and Beer" tubmlr: http://bookandbeer.tumblr.com/post/79969729274/pietr-the-latvian-by-georges-simenon-and-sierra. Now I'm famous.

xp Haha really? I was traveling with some friends and we bought two bottles of it, one of which was fucking impossible to open because it looked like the cap had been cross-threaded while being sealed. So we only got to try a little bit -- but it was tasty! We went on the most amazing boondoggle of a public transit trip and loooooong walk in the rain to get out to Bushwhacker cider where the release was happening, too. It was annoying at the time but I wish I had more than 36 hours to spend in Portland.

yea, public transit must be really terrible there with all the light rail construction going on. it's usually not that bad!

bushwacker is great tho

Anyone on the East Coast having any luck finding Firestone Walker Parabola?

I haven't had a beer in two days!

i'm pretty sure we haven't gotten it yet xp

Can someone explain to me my love for Aventinus?

mentioned this yesterday or something but seriously you guys, dogfish 61. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/64/91677/

i have not bought a dfh beer in a minute but I would prob try a single of that.

I've seen it around but doesn't sound appealing.

it's way better than it sounds. i was blown away by how crisp and refreshing it was while still maintaining a hoppy "bite."

also c.a.d., you were right about the yankee doodle ale at nassau inn being a sam adams thing sold under a different label. it's lost some of its mystique for me now, but i still think it has a really distinctive flavor to it.

that wasn't me but glad the mystery is solved regardless

Some more evangelising in favour of Aventinus: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/72/224/

i remember really liking some of the dfh large formats (like red & white) but man that was a million years ago in terms of my palate and what i'm interested in.

For the local Parabola hunters: talking to a few stores and a distributor, Parabola is spread out thinner than ever this year. Every store, and the distributor, complained that they got 50% less than expected, which in the case of stores often meant a single case, which means a whopping 6 bottles. Owners are being cagier than ever, but it's attainable. Just call first. It hit the city, where distro begins, last weekend, Friday or Monday at the latest, and has been radiating out from there. I found a bottle in Berwyn. I understand more drop locally around Friday, though again, call first.

Funny story, though. The same place I got the Parabola I found a couple of 6-packs of Hopslam hanging in the freezer. I asked the owner what was up, and he said he had left his brother in charge while he went to India on vacation, with specific instructions not to put certain beers out on the shelf without checking with him first. The brother decided it was too much work and just held on to a few limited bottles or packs in the back, so the other brother, when he came back from India, found a pile of good stuff that no one had claimed. He seemed a bit miffed, actually, that he was forced to put them out on the shelf well after the hype had moved on.

Yeah not even trying on the Parabola. It's come and gone (or never entered) my normal shops and I have no way of getting to whatever far flung suburb it may be hiding in. I'll comfort myself with the 8 bottles of KBS being picked up for me today.

still have never had KBS

kbs is amazing on draft, the bottles i can take or leave

I honestly like parabola better (and bourbon county even more), but I have to comfort myself in some way.

I've been abstaining from beer for a couple weeks, not really Lent related but just to take a little break.

I may be going to Duluth next week though, in which case I will certainly go to Fitger's as I always do, and the streak will end.