Beer in the new era

btw i should have written Devil Over a Barrel, that's the new Tyranena. it's like Devil Made Me Do It but with coffee beans + bourbon barrels.

Had a fresh pint of Freshly Squeezed at a Deschutes Event last summer and it registered as okay/average. Maybe they tweaked it this year, I'll have to try it again. Their Chainbreaker was equally average if memory serves correct.

Switching gears, results of that IPA tasting I posted a few pages upthread:

Knee Deep - Hopoholic 4IPA
Delicious. I'd had a couple quad-IPAs before and with exception (I think Pliny the Younger is technically a 4IPA?), they've all been pretty unremarkable. This was actually quite tasty and very balanced. Knee Deep is one of my favorite breweries that gets very little press/attention/awards/fanfare.

Rip Current - Caught In A Rip 3IPA
This was not great, not even very good, I think it suffered from a lack of balance. Very fresh keg so no excuses. A definite pass on this.

Russian River - Pliny The Elder 2IPA
This is one of my all-time favorites. Ultra-hyped but 100% worthy, had a very fresh keg (doesn't come much fresher in fact). The keg was not for distribution, but small-batch brewed on their brewpub premises. Very, very hard to get that unless you pay them a visit.

Alpine - Nelson IPA
Another ulthyped and totally lived up to the reputation. New Zealand Nelson hops backed with rye malts. Poured thick and cloudy, almost looked like a mimosa. They just increased their production (Green Flash production loan) so expect to see more kegs of this (and Duet) around the country soon, which is good news for those of us who live very far from far east San Diego county.

Russian River - Blind Pig IPA
This is thee gold standard in my book, the one that started the whole craze. It's had a few names going back 20+ years to it's roots at Blind Pig brewery in San Diego, then as "Russian River IPA" for Korbel. For those of you who want a full flavor sessionable beer, this is all you need. 5.6% ABV and that signature Russian River Simcoe/Amarillo/Citra hop recipe.

yeah i should stress that it blew my mind in context, there's no way it could compete with the kind of stuff you just listed lol

also - awesome news about alpine!

a few notes on beers i've tried from a recent box from ilx's own dan m:

off color/scurry - this was challenging to place stylistically, dry and relatively light bodied but with dark malts and lots of molasses. interesting beer, maybe for fall/early winter?
revolution/a little crazy - "belgian-style pale ale" is such a bad category but i like this beer a lot, retains the better qualities of both belgian yeasts and pale ales. would be easy to drink a lot of this in the spring/summer.
bell's/smitten golden rye ale - maybe more golden than rye? didn't get the spice i normally see in a rye beer, but perfectly pleasant.
bell's/java stout - very nice, tons of fresh coffee flavor in a reasonably drinkable stout
bell's/porter - bell's doesn't really seem to make bad beer, this is a very straight-up representation of a porter and it works just fine.
bell's/hopslam - i think i posted a bit about this already? this type of heavy/sticky dipa seemed a lot more prevalent a few years back, like people were really into dfh 90 minute and stuff like that? this is sort of the opposite of drinkable, it's a sipper at best, but it achieves an amazing depth of flavor before destroying your palette. selling this stuff in six-packs is a ballsy move.
three floyds/zombie dust - i always get a kick out of contrasting the three floyds aesthetic with this beer which is probably the first thing i would give to anyone who wanted a definition of elegance and succinctness as they relate to brewing.

i still have to get to the larger formats! that saison will get cracked soon on the type of nice spring day i'm guessing it's built for.

what don't you like about belgian pale ales?

i think when american brewers try it, it usually results in a really over the top belgian yeastiness that is not enjoyable to drink.

Pretty much. Well done American made Belgian-style beers seem to be in the minority.

I feel the same about Smitten, but I still like it well enough. My wife loves it. Scurry is supposed to be some pre-purity-law German style I think?

I like scurry a lot.

The off color beer I'm most excited about them bottling is dinos'mores.

Bomber of Brickstone APA for me tonight, It's good but I don't understand how ppl can say this tops Zombie Dust.

It was much better when I had it on draft than when in bottle.

huh, brickstone is amarillo-hop based while zd is citra...would be curious why they're getting compared.

i've become a bit cynical about citra-hopped apas and ipas but zd still stands out for being ridiculously clean-tasting.

IDK the label of the bottle says "intensely hopped with citra"... though it was on sale for $5 and the space labeled for ZD was empty with a $12 price tag for a sixer

Sorry citra _and_ amarillo. :p

oh ok i was looking at it on ba and they only mentioned amarillo

I hope the bottle of scurry I had was fucked up, because it was the weirdest most tasteless thing I have ever had

Never had Zombie Dust, you guys are pretty connected!

Bell's is great in the sense that I got a mixed sixer in the mail, and while HopSlam was very good, it was also the least interesting and enjoyable beer of the bunch.

i'm still feeling this out but i think i like amarillo hops best. is there a consensus favorite hop for beer geeks

Never had Zombie Dust, you guys are pretty connected!

Bell's is great in the sense that I got a mixed sixer in the mail, and while HopSlam was very good, it was also the least interesting and enjoyable beer of the bunch.

Well, I've never had Pliny, so... ;)

I've been thinking about Bell's a lot in the past year or two in relation to all the craft beer available in the midwest right now. 10-12 years ago it was pretty much the only game in town, at least where I am from, beyond like Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, those sorts of outfits. I think CAD is right that they don't really make a bad beer (tho Oarsman was disappointing imo) but they also don't really go out on a limb that often, at least in their distributed offerings. To my knowledge they've never done large format beers or even 4-packs really (Black Note aside?). They're just sort of... there, with consistent quality but never pushing the envelope too much anymore. Of course, there are some exceptions, like their "Batch" series, Eccentric Ale, and their taproom stuff which can be pretty crazy.

damn you guys are really making me want to try three floyds

i think when american brewers try it, it usually results in a really over the top belgian yeastiness that is not enjoyable to drink

i've had pretty good experiences with these lately, but i guess there are only a few instances where they were from american brewers. pfriem's belgian pales are great fwiw

I've had a few pints of Zombie Dust, at Trenchermen and at the Hopleaf, both in Chicago. Was really nicely balanced without being overwhelmingly wow--though I'm not a serious beer studier.

Zombie dust is a drug cocktail composed of Triazolam and Cocaine.

?!?!

I mean I know that's not in the beer, but still!

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Well, I've never had Pliny, so... ;)

Oeuf (that's French for egg, like a bird's egg) feather (like a feather, like a bird has) bird (like a bird) oeuf (like I said, French for egg, like a hen's egg I HATE HENS) tit (like the bird, the tit, not what you were thinking, but who is the real sick man, and then I got off the bus, 28 ysars old ladies and gentlemen, ah)

Saw 3Floyds War Mullet last night -- there really is no end to different versions of double ipa things for them, is there?

It wasn't as good to me. I'm ok with them keeping churning then out as long as I get the occasional permanent funeral/good life.

FWIW, Black Note Stout has hit, at least to some extent. Maybe it is still hitting. Maybe it has hit and run.

I got no hookups for Black Note. My little local shop has no idea if they are getting any. Beer distribution/allocation is so weird sometimes.

Yeah, it seems even weirder than usual in 2014 so far. The shops I go to that always used to have solid answers (even if I don't like 'em), seem to have absolutely nothing to go on lately. Every question on limited release seems to be, "we don't know, we have no idea what we'll get, when we'll get it, or even if we'll get it".

I got a bottle of the Bell's, but man, was it hard this year. Harder than KBS, in a way, and certainly harder than Parabola or BCBS. I had a guy at a Binny's who was going to give me a call about it coming in - no one knew, because Bell's was in blackout mode - but a friend texted me late last night that a different Binny's, in River Grove, got it in. So first I called my closer Binny's at 8:30 this morning. They told me to call back at 9am when the beer guy was in. Then I called the River Grove Binny's, and the manager told me they had a few bottles left. It turns out while I was on the phone with them, the first Binny's, my erstwhile hook-up, left me a message to say they were out. So I hustled to River Grove, where things linger a tad longer, and by the time I got there, five minutes after opening, they had already sold most of what little they had. The funny thing is - and they apologized for this - they had been telling everyone (including me) the day before that they had no idea if and when it was coming. Sometimes that's a bit disingenuous, but when it arrived it was apparently a total surprise. One bottle per customer. This was more or less far more severe than everything else, both in terms of quantity and availability.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140418/ukrainian-village/three-floyds-expand-production-distill-dark-lord-whiskey

Had a pretty solid beer weekend, can't complain. Found that I do, after all, have a ticket for Dark Lord Day, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Was visiting my dad in Wisconsin over the weekend and we stopped at the Mars Cheese Castle, mainly to stock up on some New Glarus stuff, but they've added a pretty decent craft beer selection over the past few years. Ended up picking up a 4-pack of that Tyranena Devil Made Me Do It mentioned upthread, as well as Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout.

Oh and Friday, I got to meet Josh in Chicago, definitely a beer weekend highlight! Thanks again Josh. Oh, also picked up a Mikkeller Brunch Weasel and a Three Floyds Backmasking from one of my local stops.

so i mentioned upthread that i've been on the lookout for bocks to enjoy during the spring. picked up anchor's bock which is really good, lots of caramelized malts and dried fruit tastes, dark but really not heavy at all. i don't drink a lot of anchor in general, i feel like i always overlook them, but i've always liked this beer. sadly they are phasing it out:

“Anchor Bock has been a beloved seasonal not only by craft beer fans, but by the folks here at Anchor,” said Mark Carpenter, Brewmaster at Anchor Brewing Company. “In an effort to expand and innovate, as we have done for decades, Anchor will be retiring Bock after the 2014 season to allow room for several all-new American craft brews, which we will be sharing with the world very soon.”

My tired eyes kept reading "books" for a second and I was all trying to figure out why you'd want to be reading about caramelized malts and dried fruit tastes.

I'm heading to Wisconsin this weekend, will be keeping an eye peeled for the New Glarus Dubbel & Black Top. We'll be in/around Sheboygan and will have to swing by this place, too: http://3sheepsbrewing.com/

mmm Habanero Sculpin on tap at my local!

Not big on bourbon beers but finally tracked down some of Sixpoint Imperial Otis and liked it a lot, hope it sticks around

jon, have you had the central waters brewhouse before? it's stellar for a cheap bomber, like outrageously good

^otm

so i tried to take a better picture of this but eventually i gave up

http://postimg.org/image/acad4iyb9/

thanks cad! i am so stoked to try all of this new england beer you have no idea

umm let's try this

http://s10.postimg.org/7i77r2w55/10154417_10152391408069577_5492726656843998143_n.jpg

yeah! it made it! special thanks to your community center, special non-thanks to fedex.

Nice, I see a few similar bottles in there to the box I just got!

Shared the Grassroots saison with Jeff and some other friends on Sunday. It was good for a brunchy party situation but I thought it was a little flat? Seemed pretty popular overall though.

I've also tried the Peak Organic, Be Hoppy, and the Citizen Cider so far. Be Hoppy was quite tasty (especially loved the unfiltered quality), Peak was crisp if a little basic, and the cider very nice and appley, especially yesterday when the temperature touched 80.

Looking at the Notch Session Saison tonight and maybe cracking open the growler as well...

unrelated, but I can't see this being at least slightly disturbing

http://philly.thedrinknation.com/articles/read/12742-Craft-Brewed-and-Nude-No-Clothes-Allowed-at-This-Beer-Fest

*not* being

xp - lol, i really wanted to just crack something open and start playing ping pong but not sure they would have been into that

i have been collecting a LOT lately btw, both for trades and for myself... over the weekend i found some pannepot, capitalized upon a limited bottle release at the commons, and discovered the largest and most unorganized beer store in portland (best belgian selection i have ever seen! and decent prices too). i have gone from having a couple special bottles in the basement to having several cases in just a few weeks lol

dan i owe you a treehouse growler in the future! that's the one that they overfilled and i was scared it might be leaking. interesting about the arctic, i haven't cracked one yet but carb issues would kinda suck. be hoppy is sort of a sleeper around here, no one goes crazy for it but it's so solid.