Beer in the new era

My dad lives some kind of charmed life. He's out in Portland, ME for work and is leading a tour of Allagash brewery tomorrow. NB he is an archaeology professor so I don't really get the connection but shit, sounds like a good gig to me.

got a nice box of oregon stuff from beer thread poster psychgawsple, and normally i would drink a few more and post some quick hit thoughts, but i need to take some time to praise the heater allen pils. i consider myself a czach pils fan, and not only is this the only u.s. pils i have ever had that is worth a damn, it is just an outstanding pils in general. fresh, good malt character, nice hop spice and really dry finish. extremely well-made, quality is evident in the clarity, lacing, mouthfeel, etc.

making a pils is hard. to turn out that product from a tiny brewery (and assuming their batches are consistent) is pretty impressive.

hi CaD while you are in nyc/bklyn this week, trust me and :
drink Singlecut "Dean" Mahogany Ale
and any IPA from Other Half
if you see 'em.

my fave local beers.

aw thanks, i'll keep an eye out!

singlecut has a fun tasting room in queens, but i'm not sure if singlecut does or not.
if you want any other rec's relative to where you're gonna be, let me know. i have drank a lot of beer in a lot of bars tbh.

i mean.... not sure if other half does. i think they were planning to open a tap room but i haven't followed up.

http://chibeerweek.com/schedule/

My liver and wallet may not recover from the next 11 days.

xp we're staying in a boring part of manhattan, i expect we might make it to brooklyn on one of the days we're there but if you happen to have any manhattan recs i'd love em.

in manhattan, ginger man and blind tiger are both great, though usually clogged with postwork crowds. i like 124 old rabbit club and burp castle a lot for belgian stuff, though it's highly likely that you've had them all in boston already.

i've repped it upthread already but peekskill has just been awesome lately, and i second ian's recommendations re: other half and singlecut.

if you make it out to brooklyn you should give me a holler - i'm always good for a trip to torst, barcade, one stop beer shop, brouwerij lane/dirck the norseman...

glad you liked the heater allen pils! such a good beer to drink with food. they're based in mcminnville, which is one of the larger willamette valley wine hubs, i need to check out the brewery sometime but usually when i'm in that area i'm neither in the mood for beer nor in a state where i should consume more alcohol. they make the best malty beers too... their maibock (lenz bock) is one of the best i've ever tasted in the style, the perfect pizza beer. the normal bock (hugo) and their dunkels are also awesome.

I had that pils last week, it was indeed excellent

Any fans of la microbrasse québécoise on this thread? I have a tremendous, almost alarming, amount of experience in this area and would love to discuss with other Montrealers or provide recommendation to other heads planning a summer visit.

Picked up a bottle of that New Holland Dragon's Milk w/ Chiles last night. I'm curious. Dragon's Milk is a solid brand of its ilk, overshadowed by all the hard to obtain white elephants.

got a chance to try the tropical slam variation of sticky hands, it reminded me of a more refined version of sucks. tropical fruit and coconut maltiness, taste it if you can (probably just talking to sleeve here lol, even within oregon this seems mega-limited).

also the green flash road warrior is great! probably my favorite rye-pa to date, the flavors come through well without tasting too much like rye liquor or being overly bitter

I'm so glad Chicago Craft Beer Week exists and is a thing, but I'm going to celebrate it by digging into what I've got at home. None of the events I've been to in the past few years have really been worth the crowds and hassle. Maybe if I lived closer to some of these things I'd give 'em a try, but just feels like too much work right now. I'll just crack something open at home where I can play whatever music I want and actually have some personal space.

i picked up another bottle of that Dragon's Milk reserve because i was kinda craving it, hope you like it.

Jon yr plan sounds perfect imo

xp thanks psychgawsple, I saw that on tap the other day and wondered abt it

j/v/c, I'm pretty picky with the events I attend. Main one I'm looking forward to is the Sunday Funday at the new Goose Island Barrel warehouse. Mini-golf, dodge ball, and beer. Also going to one of the Beer Temple events.

Yeah, I'm not saying some of these don't sound fun, esp that Goose Island one, I've wanted to check that out, I'm just not sure I'm up to the crowds. Admittedly, doesn't help that I'm under a huge deadline at work and will likely be in the office most of the weekend.

Anyone tried this one?

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24300/90585/

that makes me want to quit drinking

someone itt sent me a bottle of that

I had the same reaction as dan, though I have heard some friends enthuse about it.

Had it, liked it.

excellent beer actually, and i didn't realize when i sent it to cad but it's as much a play on justin as it is on http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/388/36316/

I saw it at my favorite snobby beer store but couldn't justify buying it just for the silly bottle. Evil Twin has never let me down though.

kinda want to try that despite the terrible bottle, still in search of a good cheap summer berliner in bottles (full sail had one last year that was pretty solid actually, hopefully they do it again). so much evil twin hatred in this thread! which is weird to me b/c i've barely tried anything by them but have enjoyed what little i remember

I'm pro evil twin. Has been more consistent than his bro.

Ha I am on the far far other end of that opinion, I've never had a mikkeller I wasn't fairly amazed by, evil twin is good 50% of the time but not as good as the mikkeller stuff, and the other 50% is completely awful.

I agree that Mikkeller is better

Both of them release too many beers.

So one of the Three Floyd's/Bruery collabs in one sale at the brewpub in Muster today, a bargain at only $30 a bottle! Heard great things about those but, uh, $30. Huh.

i thought those were infected and were thus "discounted" to $20, different beer?

http://thefullpint.com/beer-news/interesting-news-regarding-bruery-3-floyds-collaboration/

Hmm. Three Floyd's just posted on their FB page 2 hours ago, saying $30. Interesting.

So nobody interested in fields of salmon's guide to la micro québécoise ? Sauvages.

i had a great time a dieu du ciel a couple years back but no mtl plans in the offing

i live not close to there and have no plans to visit anytime soon. you should probably tell us about it anyways tho

Not gonna reload the thread but Boulevard Rye on Rye is totally great if you haven't had it.

Concur

Lagunitas nighttime is cheap but meh.

I am in Singapore where beer options are basically Tiger, Singha, a couple of Carlsbergs and Heiniken. Bombers cost $6 US and you drink it out of a mug over ice which actually is perfect in this particular circumstance.

The only American beer I've seen was a six pack of Colt 45 cans that cost $18.

Works everytime.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bnzkk8SIcAElcub.png

Went to the Goose Island Barrel Warehouse event yesterday. Above is what the tappings were throughout the day. It was extremely well run, the lines moved super fast with probably 4 oz pours of bourbon county each time. And when you were waiting in line for the next one to tap, they'd bring pitchers of the leftovers for the previous tasting to pour for people in line. And then there were the guest taps....

Needless to say, by the time I got to Coffee, I was pretty much gone. Probably should have stopped there, but I powered through. For better or for worse. Mostly worse. And I've got seven more days of craft beer week to get through.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr07-07-11vinnie.mp3
(keynote starts around 4m30s, content starts around 13m40s)

Kind of technical/dry but very informative Basic Brewing podcast, 78mins with Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River talking about 25 years of brewing starting from home in San Diego, starting a brewery, inventing the double IPA, pioneering wild yeast and barrel aging techniques in the USA, cultivating and testing experimental hop strains like CFJ90 (predecessor to Centennial) & 369, basic history lesson from someone who started in the garage and ended up as one of the most influential brewers in the USA if not the world.

Courtesy of call all destroyer, I'm drinking Pretty Things Grampus which is subtitled Hoppy Golden Double Mash. Very surprisingly sweet, and then booooooze. It's not bad but it wouldn't be something I'd usually reach for, I wish I had someone to share with but my wife took one sip and then poured herself a glass of wine instead. It's almost like a bigger, sugarier Hopslam.

Btw can anyone tell me the name of the DC beer/cocktail bar with the wallet-emptying tap list that has been referenced a few times itt? Pretty sure I DIED mentioned it...

Churchkey?

Sadly pretty sure I hate this years Sierra Nevada hoptimum. Molasses sweet, gross mouth feel, hop throat itch. Always tastes like it's too warm no matter how cold it is, or at least that's my best impressionistic description.

Oh also, why oh why do I ever give 21st amendments monks blood a second chance. Night of beer fail.

that's what hoptimum always tastes like imo

I was up in Kingston NY (home of Keegan's Ales) and I tried a Keegan's Old Capital. Man, what a lousy beer.