Beer in the new era

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.

Haven't been able to find the Ommegang Glimmerglass, but I tried the Fleur Du Hoblon Summer Ale and thought it was quite good.

did not have a very beery weekend in nyc but did try and enjoy peekskill's simple sour and singlecut's billy 18-watt ipa.

Churchkey! Thank you, Jeff.

was lucky enough to pick up some adam from the wood and cherry adam from the wood over the weekend, might pick up more before they sell out. also while i was at the taproom i got to try the brandy cherry fred from the wood, which is pretty rare i guess. tastes more than a little like dessert wine but has the complexity to pull it off very very well

jeff - do you remember anything about all the fancy bcbs varieties? haven't even tried the normal one yet this year but that templeton rye one looked incredible

Heading to San Diego in 2 weeks for a conference with not a lot of downtime and will have to be centered mostly in/around downtown but am hoping to scoop up some bottles and get to a few taprooms. Sadly I think San Marcos/North County/Kearney Mesa are all out of reach with my current time commitments.

xpost Honestly no, which is why drinking that much in a row (along with other beers), isn't the best idea for true enjoyment. I don't remember hating it, everything was good, but I wasn't cognizant enough to enjoy any nuances.

Surly Pentagram at my local!

$25?? Maaaan

CAD: How did you like the Singlecut? I like their stuff. I don't remember if the 18 watt is the regular version or the session or the imperial? they do three versions of billy iirc.

i think it was the regular session, because i recalled thinking it was pretty mellow and that made sense later when i looked it up and it was a session ipa. i think it was just listed as an ipa on the menu.

with that in mind i thought it was quite good, drank two of em at a sidewalk table near the beginning of the highline. had a good balance--reminded me more of the notch session ipa that is out now here in mass as opposed to the thinner hoppy versions that stone and founders made.

yeah. not super into those stone & founders session guys. they just taste a bit watery to me. gimme a can of founders centennial over the all day anyday.

The more local of my locals has Pentagram for $24, and Blakkr for $18, but I'm not sure I have the heart to pay that for either. Either worth it, as far as these crazy prices go?

Is pay that for pentagram, just because I haven't had it and that seems to be what it is mostly everywhere.

The trade value of a 4-pack Furious, Abrasive, Blakkr and Bender was quoted to me to be about $18 total, this was like 2-3 months ago?

(btw I'm not in MLPS/STP)

The trade value of a 4-pack Furious, Abrasive, Blakkr and Bender was quoted to me to be about $18 total

Total, you mean for four 4-packs?! That's insane, given Abrasive and Blakkr go for just shy of $20 a pack! It can't possibly be 1/4 the price in MN.

Think he means one of each.

^^

i'm pretty in to this anderson valley gose (the kimmie, the yink, and the holy gose? or something stupid like that). it's definitely not the best gose i've ever had but it has a nice bite of pilsner-style hops with plenty of sour/salty to balance it out. most importantly though - you can easily find tart, delicious, low abv, refreshing beer in cans for under $10

hmm I'm gonna have to try that. Love their IPA, really dislike their winter & summer ales (too sweet). 5 or 6 years ago Hop Ottin was pretty much the only thing I was drinking.

yeah i have many pleasant memories of northern ca that involve boont amber

btw i mean less than $10 for a sixer of that gose

I like the av gose. It's been a little difficult to come by though.

i feel v. left out this year b/c i don't really care for goses :/

could definitely see why some aren't stoked on gose as a style, i guess i'm just kinda excited that there is a sour-ish thing being ditributed on that level

but yeah i'm seeing it pretty much everywhere they have other av beers

Went to a talk last night as part of craft beer week. Brewers from Off Color, Penrose, & Perennial talking about the creative process and how they decide how to make beers. It was interesting, especially since those breweries aren't ones that put out a million DIPA's or RIS's. Also did some mixing with tea, extracts, various spices in a berliner weisse and belgian single. I was really bad at it. I'm glad other people make beer and not me.

"Also did some mixing with tea, extracts, various spices in a berliner weisse"

Some Germans (not sure how beer geeky they were, but hell, they were Germans who have drank beer since birth?) I know were curious at the emergence of Berliner Weisse as a style in the US last summer and asked me why we don't squirt the green and blue colored syrups in it like they do.

Yeah, I definitely prefer BW's without anything in them. A lot of times you lose that nice tartness.

I bought a 4pk of Tyranena Hop Whore double IPA last night and in addition to the terrible name, it just really isn't very good. I got through one and a half and dumped the rest of the second bottle. Too thick, seemingly bitter for bitter's sake, very little balance. No idea how that shit got a 90 on BA, although I am formulating a theory that seasonals sold in 4pks score higher based on those two factors alone before the bottle is even opened.

all DIPAs get at least a 90 on Beer Advocate, that's just how it goes.

yes

if you see one with a score in the 80s it is essentially going to be as tasty as lukewarm bathwater.

...and if it's lower than a 98 on rate beer, avoid at all costs.

I didn't pick it based on its BA rating, fwiw, but I've gotten in the habit of googling beers I haven't tried before and the BA rating is almost always at the top of the results. The barrel-aged porter I had from Tyranena was pretty good and it was another of these seasonal 4pk things, so I was hoping for a lot better out of this IPA based on that.

i wasn't going to bother braving the crowds for tired hands 2 year anniversary this year but this taplist is making me very tempted:

SaisonHands
Only Void (Imperial Stout)
St. Twoer (Our 2nd Anniversary Citrus Galaxy/Nelson/Simcoe IPA)
Geodesic Saison (Hoppy Spelt Saison. Half Acre Collaboration)
American Youth (Serious American Pale Ale. Half Acre Collaboration)
HandFarm (Our Chardonnay barrel fermented four-grain Saison. This is Batch 4)*
The Emptiness is Not Eternal (Oak fermented Sorrel & Dandelion Saison)*
Negative Creep (Oak fermented Kiwi Sour Ale)*
So It Goes… (Hearty Pennsylvania Sour Red)*
Enact Positive Change (Mixed Culture Saison)*
BrainHands (Culinary Gose)*
Parageusia1 (Cab Franc Barrel fermented Ale. 6.5% abv)
Parageusia2 (Cab Franc Barrel fermented Ale. 8.2% abv)

Gigantic Firebird Smoked Hefeweizen is the first smoked beer I've ever enjoyed, a cool mix of the typical hefe flavors with a mild smoked finish. It actually tasted like a summer beer instead of (in the words of one of the ppl I shared it with) "drinking a sausage".

if any of you end up in wisconsin or do trades there, do not sleep on the new glarus berliner weisse, its the best of the style i have ever had. it might be the best new beer ive had this year, actually.

just picked up a bottle of the de garde imperial hop bu weisse last weekend, which is another great berliner weisse. all their bu weisse varieties have really impressed me actually. will seek out the new glarus if i get access!

have yet to try that gigantic smoked hef, but it looks interesting. i have also thought many times that drinking smoked beer is like "drinking a sausage", but i'm pretty open to the style regardless (sausage is delicious!). gigantic just put out an imperial ipa - ginormous - that looks interesting too, but it's really hard to separate the high ratings from everyone loving imperial ipas so damn much that i really don't know what to expect.

definitely getting spoiled around here lately. got to try one of the 6 total kegs of peche n brett last weekend, and it tasted very very fresh. also i think boneyard just put out this year's batches of notorious and hop venom and they taste much different than last year, so much less bitterness and more sweetness / hop character in a general sense. again i think this probably has more to do with it being super fresh than any tangible difference in quality from last year, but who knows?

waiting impatiently for 10 Barrel to start making their ISA again, I drank that all last summer

definitely getting spoiled around here lately. got to try one of the 6 total kegs of peche n brett last weekend, and it tasted very very fresh.

jealous. just cracked the seizoen bretta you sent on sunday and it was tasting great.

glad you dug it! it's always less than $10/bottle, available at most grocery stores, and way better than it has to be. those guys sure know their way around some yeast.

guy at the bottle shop told me today that 10 Barrel ISA was discontinued in bottles :(

Everyone needs to trade w/ psychgawsple and get a bottle of Trinity Red Swingline IPA Primitif. So good!

glad you liked it! it really is one of the strangest beers i can remember tasting and enjoying, so much weird funkiness going on. i actually did not send that one to any other ilxors, sorry dudes! you'll have to make do with bourbonic plague ;)

so trinity hasn't showed up yet in chicago? what i can find online seems to indicate that they don't usually even distribute outside of colorado, but for some reason literally every bottle shop i've been to lately in pdx seems to have at least 5 of their beers

I've never seen Trinity in Chicago, but I mostly patronize only two different beer stores.

they might just know people around here? who knows. they seem to be expanding like crazy right now

xps - bummer about the 10 barrel ISA! if i see an old bottle i'll have to pick one up

http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-economy/solutions-bank/would-you-pay-1-000-once-to-get-free-beer-for-life-20140529

I'm guessing jjusten and any other Minneapolitans are familiar with this place, it's right around the corner from my brother-in-law's house. I've been a few times and it's a good neighborhood spot, though a tad pedestrian in their beer offerings. I wasn't aware of the beer for life promo, though.

I would take that deal in a heartbeat.

yea it's a pretty good deal! beer is expensive