Beer in the new era

Thanks! xp

Thanks guys xxp

many xps to dan - glad you liked the blend love! for whatever reason 750 mls are pretty common around here, far more common than other sizes, but they're generally not priced too high

i think there is definitely something to say about shipping ipas across the country through warm climes but i think for the most part you got the normal pliny experience. a few places around here have it available p much year round for $5/bottle, and i def find once the hype/unobtainability/exclusivity is taken away it tastes far more delicious.

still have to say heady topper is my #1 by quite a lot, though i still haven't tried two hearted or abrasive. fresh notorious might be my current #2 but i don't wanna oversell it for you and mordy!

and this is not in the same league of beer-nerdism at all but the laurelwood green mammoth is a damnnn fine 2IPA, i think they really stepped up their game this year. i was surprised to see lukewarm reactions on BA (it's a 2IPA ffs) but those seem to be based on the 2012 release

re: sours, tried a glass of cascade sang noir recently and !!! i need to get a bottle before this goes away, such a great use of bourbon + wine + sour

oh, also had a chance to try the arctic saison that cad sent my way... great stuff! a lot of awesome stuff going on, funk + tartness + some herbal/citrus too. i didn't seem to notice any of the problems w/the bottle (noted upthread) at all

the only sour in a can i had before tnite was the alchemist's petit mutant but i got a 6-pack of anderson valley's holy gose and holy shit it's delicious. i highly recommend.

I like it.

I'm doing this crazy thing where I only drink beer on weekends now. It's hard to do! Last beer I had on a weekday was on Memorial Day.

the av gose is so refreshing and delicious

fwiw it was the arctic soiree that i drank from cad, the hill farmstead / anchorage collab

Drinking Beer Hates Astronauts today. In my top 2 of Half Acre beers.

The av gose is really good, perfect summery beer.

I just bought a 10 barrel swill radler as I've never had one before and it has a "you will either love this or hate this" disclaimer on it which I saw as a challenge

very curious about that one!

i think i fall on the "hate it" side, too sweet for me

wanting to try the 10 barrell cherry sour tho

also, if you are in oregon look for the breakside passionfruit sour in bottles. good stuff, well priced for a bomber of sour beer

huh sweet was not what I expected to hear regarding a beer that is like 4.5% or whatever

yeah i mean it's technically 1/2 beer and 1/2 grapefruit soda! i think if you know you like / are expecting something like that it's a solid bet, but it is still very sugary and soda-like

ive yet to have a radler that rivaled Stiegl

I actually kind of liked the Swill but it wasn't really a "beer" per se. My wife loved it but she has a deep shameful love for the Leinenkugel summer shandy.

yeah i mean if you're in the mood for a shandy you could do a lot worse than swill

so i guess fort george released a 3-way ipa last year with lompoc and gigantic that i remember nothing about, but this year's release with boneyard and block 15 is just insanely good. kinda awesome to see something with the same level of quality as other boneyard and block 15 beers benefitting from the canning facilities and distribution of fort george, i think this stuff will actually get sent to the east coast? but it's worth at least 3x more than the $2.50 it's selling for around here, definitely worth a try

Tried the Half Acre/Maine Beer collab session IPA over the weekend, actually thought it was pretty disappointing. It might have been because I tried it after a couple of Imperial Stouts, but it just tasted pretty bland. Seems to be getting decent reviews though, maybe I'll have to give another chance fresh.

Picked up a Space Station Middle Finger and a Pipeworks Mocha Absuction the other night, anxious to make it though my work week of hell to get to 'em.

dude Fort George rules! xp

really wanna try their OPA, orange pale ale

yeah i love fort george, though the 3-way tastes more like boneyard rpm than anything i've had from fg. i remember good things about their opa, iirc it's way better than that elysian superfuzz blood orange thing

finally broke down and bought the av gose after hearing about it here and elsewhere.

i am still undecided. for part of the time i was drinking a can i was eating pizza and it tasted amazing. when i was just drinking it and not eating it was less amazing.

I see some but not all the Fort George beers around; the Java the Hop coffee IPA was kind of gross but the others I've had have been good. Haven't seen the 3-Ways or the orange one yet.

The elysian superfuzz has suddenly been everywhere here and isn't bad but isn't really that orangy to me.

oh, this looks good!
http://www.dogfish.com/community/blogfish/members/justin-williams/beer-thousand-celebrates-%E2%80%A820th-anniversary-of-seminal-guided-by-voices-album.htm

java the hop is so weird! i still don't know how i feel about it, tastes kinda like drinking an ipa out of an unwashed french press

Still haven't tried the WB Gose, but picked up a couple of these today. Interested to see how they compare: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22150/121506/

Also got some Boulevard Love Child Number 4, and Barrel Aged Spiteful GFY Stout.

let us know how that stillwater gose is, i'm curious

err stillwater and westbrook... i should probably just pick some up while i can

That is the beer I have been raving about FYI. Hope you like insanely sour.

ahh that's right! i dig insanely sour for sure. didn't realize westbrook was involved when you were talking about it earlier

a lot of the collaborative brews i've tried in the past have been somewhat of a let-down (parts vs. sum of the whole i guess) but these newer ones are definitely making me more optimistic

i might actually be near tillamook tomorrow anyway! can't believe how limited these releases are

http://imgur.com/J1PylFh

err whatever, the image is just a de garde facebook post announcing the release of a ton of berliner weisse varieties

Yeah, I know it's Sam Adams, but I think this idea of creating a sampler with similar, single hop IPAs is cool:

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/blogs/99bottles/2011/04/sam_adams_releases_latitude_48.html

That is awesome, but unfortunately it happened 3 years ago

D'oh! I think they must be doing it again, though? A local beer store just ran an ad today including Sam Adams on sale, excluding Latitude Deconstructed 12 packs, which is the first I heard of it.

Yeah, apparently they are doing it again -- there a bunch of new reviews on BA. I gotta get some of this asap.

really like this He'Brew 'Death of a Contract Brewer', it's pretty unique. i had it at a bar then was able to pick up a bottle.

so new holland brewing just started distributing to mass. anything i should be excited about from their year-round lineup?

iirc dan m sent me one of their stouts and i enjoyed it, not sure if it was a seasonal or special or what.

That was Night Tripper, part of their High Gravity series, so seasonal/special/something. Not a regular offering for sure.

I've found most of their offerings to be good but maybe nothing really worth seeking out. People seem to love/hate Dragon's Milk, I don't know if that's because it's not as gonzo as a lot of other barrel-aged stouts or what. I know the guy who did the labels for their "Hatter" series, a few of those are worth tasting but I couldn't say any really stand out.

thanks, that is in line with my intuition. there's a year-old rumor that we're getting bell's at some point, that would be much more rad.

i had the coffee dragon's milk recently on tap and thought it was fantastic

it's good, they also have a arbol chile version of that now. And raspberry?

I just loaded up on some unfamiliar (to me) New Glarus. Yokel, Dancing Man Wheat, Scream IIPA.

Now the New Holland Knickerbocker Gin, that I will rep for.

The chili dragons milk was really good.

http://www.clickhole.com/article/11-microbrews-you-have-try-summer-423

vacation beer run down -- with the caveat that i did not get to drink as much as i wanted to. so much stuff i'd never had, so i kind went in blind to some things --

lost abbey saison - draft - delicious, refreshing, pretty light. (looks like they have a cpl saisons and i have no idea which one this is, sorryyyy.)

pliny thee elder - very very very good IPA. i don't know if it is the best i've ever had; i would rate it under heady topper and perhaps also under a cpl of my other favorite IPAs (main beer co 'another one' was a huge fave this year, as was other half's 'hop showers'.)

deschutes 'cinder cone' red ale - one of the best red/ambers i've had. not too malty and sweet, really drinkable and nice.

dustbowl brewing -hops of wrath IPA - very good. very affordable (i think the 22 was 5 or 6 bucks.) could become a go-to if i lived in norcal.

had an IPA at magnolia brewpup on lol haight street. it was fine, enjoyable. i was talking a lot to steve shasta at the time so by the end it got warm and was less good.

alesmith IPA - not that great, but i noticed the bottle was 2+ months old so maybe it's better when fresh. i guess the one to get from them is the stout, but i didn't know that, and i didn't want to drink a stout tbh.

BOTTLES I BROUGHT HOME:
russian river consecration - courtesty of mr shasta; will drink with a friend sooner or later?
woodfour brewery - brett comet -- brett pale i think? very small brewery, seems like something i'll really like. stoked to try it.
new belgium la folie lips ov faith. -- i didn't know we could get this in new jersey, so i didn't really need to bring it all the way across the country. oops.
+ one bottle of pliny for bosses at cheese shop.

also of course tecate, modelo, sierra. wife had a local pilsener which was nice but i don't remember the brewer..

i can't believe steve shasta ruined your ipa

seriously.
verdict: bay area gets a big two thumbs up for beers. i wish i had time to try stuff on tap at beer revolution; they had tons of stuff i knew nothing about, but i was 'on a schedule.'

seriously.
verdict: bay area gets a big two thumbs up for beers. i wish i had time to try stuff on tap at beer revolution; they had tons of stuff i knew nothing about, but i was 'on a schedule.'