Beer in the new era

I'm a big fan of the Peak brewery and their packaging basically looks like store-brand yuppie beer.

This could be a box of almost anything natural -- quinoa, fruit leather, biodegradable adult diapers

http://greatbrewers.com/sites/default/files/images/Product%20-%20Peak%20Organic%20Variety%2012%20Pack.preview.jpg

I think Uinta stuff has a very distinctive look. Unfortunately haven't cared for their beer.

http://static.wine-searcher.net/images/labels/73/32/mcneill-s-brewery-warlord-imperial-india-pale-ale-beer-vermont-usa-10377332.jpg

always been too put off by mcneill's terrible labels to actually try their beers

http://beerpulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/reagingovsample1.png

If it helps, all the mcneills stuff is actually as terrible as the labels imo

And wow yeah that peak package jesus

that's funny about mcneill's. the packaging is horrible but i spent an evening at the brattleboro brewpub and every beer i tried was outstanding. i've seen their beer in stores but due to the ugly packaging i never have given them any thought or even associated the bottles with the brewpub -- i didn't even know they bottled stuff!

and fwiw as good as the beer was, most of the beer i tried didn't strike as me as stuff that would translate well in the bottle. not sure how to phrase it but there is often a difference in quality between draft and bottle and just tasting the draft i feel like i could anticipate it not working in a bottle. i'll have to test out my hypothesis though

ah xp jjjusten i guess i don't have to do any testing then!

Struck out at 2 of 3 KBS spots thus far today, but the place that's the best chance for some hasn't gotten their delivery yet.

Binny's Lincoln Park lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Limit a surprising 1 4-pack per customer. Previously I believe they did one bottle.

I do like those Jon Langford DFH designs, but then I would.

Binny's HP put all theirs on hold for individuals, I'm pretty sure. I got there 4 minutes after they opened and the beer guy said it was all gone.

honestly i kind of hope that my local didnt squirrel any of that away for me - its good, but ive got a million other beers id rather spend money on right now

a bar in the boston area put on a ton of out-of-distro stuff today (crooked stave, russian river, three floyds, etc.) and used april fools day for the purpose of plausible deniability

oh wow that is a dick move

naw it's cool they're just trying to not get in trouble--basically they printed menus with the actual taplist and a disclaimer saying some of these are april fools jokes/please don't post on social media

skunked on KBS in my 'hood, might as well kill myself

ha, was that lord hobo cad?

yep

Rank in descending order: Furious, Abrasive, Blakkr, Bender

I have been drinking a lot of abrasive. Should probably learn to like Furious more. Cheaper.

Abrasive
Furious
Blakkr
Bender

But how would you rank:

Abrasive
Zombie Dust (I know it's not a double IPA, but still ... )
Sucks
Hopslam

Apples oranges bananas grapes.

hah

Grapefruit pine ...

Had a customer bring in a haul today for end of work sampling, Cigar City Helles Lager, Cigar City Cubano style espresso brown ale, and dogfish head sixty-one. It pays to treat people right.

Oh and ranking wise:

Furious
Abrasive
Blakker
Bender

Sucks
Abrasive
Hop slam

Never had zombie dust

For those in the LA area, I had an Angel City bourbon barrel aged "dark rye lager" that was pretty good, especially for $6.50/bomber (Bevmo). Will buy more.

It pays to treat people right.

Is Dogfish Head 61 hard to find? I see it at Walgreens these days.

Its Pilsner time...beer me some good ones.

ha neither dogfish head or cigar city distro to MN, so yes, impossible around here in both cases

dogfish head not being available there is one of those weird things for me, first learned about it when my brother in law requested I bring him a bottle of their Sahti

are pilsners the most regionally-oriented beer style? just thinking that breweries probably export the stuff that will stand out the most in a beer case, seems like microbeweries rarely consider pilsners their flagship signature brew or w/e

just realizing that most of my favorite pilsners are probably not distributed very far... i really like the upright engelberg pils for subtle yeastiness, the southern oregon brewing za ndravi czech-style pilsner has some nutty flavors that i dig, and the heater allen one is pretty well balanced

I tried that Heater Allen pilsner last night! pretty good but I prefer the Bitburger (?) that's on tap locally

Trumer Pils

xp i need to try more german import pilsners this summer

i predict summer will also bring lots and lots of berliner weisse this year, seems to be the NEW HOT STYLE tho obv it's been around forever

dogfish head doesnt distro here because MN liquor distro laws are totally fucked and wrong, basically you have to pay one of the two big monster corporate dudes (inbev and sabmiller) to put your stuff on their truck/palatte. DH guy specifically singled out MN in a doc for this and said that as a result he would never sell his beer here.

FSV Pivo Pils

FSW

beer hauled! :D

http://i62.tinypic.com/30nds9t.jpg

btw, san diego ended up being a beer bonanza. i went to green flash, alesmith, societe, new english, rough draft, pizza port and then on the weekend i drove up to encondido and went to stone (gorgeous) and lost abbey (crowded). there are so many breweries in san diego that i could probably go back and visit the same number of breweries and have no crossover. for instance i didn't get a chance this trip to go to ballast point (close by but just no time), or karl strauss. also thorn street was recommended to me but i didn't get a chance to check it out. i didn't get to visit modern times or belching beaver but i had beers from both (modern times at pizza port and belching beaver made an amazing peanut butter chocolate stout that i had at stone). oh, also scored 2 enjoy by 4-20 glasses from stone :D apparently they're almost always sold out of them since stocking them so i lucked out. of the breweries i went to, i think societe was probably the best. no sours (almost no sours in san diego at all i found!) tho they're aging some in the back. the place is done up like a wild west saloon kinda - and the beers are all named after wild west archetypes - the madame, and the butcher (a big stout) and the widow (an even bigger stout). all really delicious and i highly recommend a visit. (also while i was there i met some dudes - everyone in san diego breweries are super nice apparently - who hooked me up w/ some legit 420 so that was loverly.)

i did drink some karl strauss red trolley and some ballast point beers while i was out there even if i didn't get to visit the breweries bc they are all over the freaking place.

3Floyds Jinx Proof is the only Chicago-area pilsner that springs to mind. I guess Lagunitas Pils will be locally-made soon enough.

lost abbey didn't have any sours? sounds like an amazing trip tho, i've been meaning to visit friends down there but hearing this definitely provides me with some extra motivation

v jealous of the enjoy by 4-20 glasses

lost abbey had something brett on draft but all the sours were tapped. i did buy two bottles (red poppy + another one) of sours there. also tried their tequila barrel aged beer (agave maria) which was great, and a saison (red barn iirc?) that was good. also tried the witch's wit. so it wasn't a total loss despite the sold out sours. they also had a food truck outside (this turns out to be super common in san diego) which sold me a delicious portabello burger.

nice SD report Mordy.