Beer in the new era

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.'

i dunno how i did that. sorry.

magnolia brewpup is pretty great. the wife and i did a major beer crawl through that 'hood during the citywide barleywine festival a few years back, some incred drinking was done.

yeah, i would have been happy to try more of their brews. but we neeeeeded to eat. so we left and ate at some puerto rican joint that was great.
i have never eaten so many hunks of delicious roasted pork in my life.

I had two new 3Floyds beers recently, Space Station Middle Finger APA and Snow Weasel Porter. Of the two I think I liked the porter better, just a nicer balance to it and something different than most of their pale ale everythings that I've had lately. Still mystified how they can make so many beers of the same styles, they must sell well because of the artwork. Space Station Middle Finger was pretty funny tbh:

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bkd6Yy7CYAAt7jc.jpg:medium

pliny the elder is a+++ stuff. also quite affordable.. beer place I shop at near home will only sell one bottle per customer when they get a case in

i got two bottles from a friend, didn't see any in shops (not that i went to more than 1 speciality beer store and 2 wholefoods locations.)

Visiting Seattle and finally ran into Boneyard RPM and Hop Venom - I had a pint of the latter, might get the former later tonight. It was pretty delicious, really fruity, not gratuitously hoppy.

Also I ran into a Stiegl Radler last week in Idaho and bought one as I'd never seen it before. Now I swear every place I've been in Seattle has it, and I actually had a Steigl coaster at one of them. Did this get some sort of weird marketing push or did an Austrian ship container end up in the wrong place?

The Radler seems common in LA too, so maybe a nation-wide push.

got Stigel radler at one place in lower Manhattan recently, but haven't seen it elsewhere in NYC

Steigl is happening here too.

Hey Jeff, what did you think of the gose gone wild /creepyuntappedstalking

I liked it a lot, was definitely more sour in a gose than I'm used to. I'm no style purist though, so that's fine with me. So not the best gose I've had, but definitely a really good sour beer.

Speaking of sour, had Boulevard's Love Child #4 last night and it was fantastic. Aged in whiskey and wine barrels.

Over the weekend I popped open the bottle of Logsdon Peche n' Brett that I got from psychgawsple, quite a treat. The barrel flavor and the peaches are a fantastic compliment to the ... farmhouseyness of the beer, and the 10% abv wasn't noticeable at all. I'd love to try some of their other products if they're as good as that.

I'm not a huge New Glarus fan and I've been kinda burnt out on IPAs lately, but the Scream IIPA is seriously great.

xps - glad you liked it! it tastes a little different every time i try it, and i love it every time regardless. i think the bright/fresh peach flavors work really well in that beer, says a lot that the most populist thing they produce is also the most beloved by beer nerds (though, as cad noted, their seizoen bretta is pretty fantastic too)

that Fort George OPA I mentioned upthread is actually an Oatmeal Pale Ale, not Orange (despite the bright orange can and the "Sunrise" name). And it is insanely good, with a fascinating mouth feel and a super bitter/metallic hop profile. At 5.2%, I can drink several in a day, and have been doing just that recently.

makes sense, i'll have to try it again. i also somehow slept on the ft goerge vortex ipa, which is far better than i was expecting. seems silly to put ipas in anything other than a can tbh, love that freshness

Evil Twin Bikini Beer is perfect

I recently picked up a 2010 vintage 650ml of Goose Island Sofie for $12 and didn't think too much about it.

But then after reading about all of The Bruery's issues with infection I thought maybe I should do some googling, and I found this:
http://www.chicagonow.com/the-beeronaut/2011/06/goose-island-sofie-beer-recalled/

...which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence but now I feel less likely to bring this to a bottle share. Any opinions from the Chicago crew?

http://media.mlive.com/michigan_beer/photo/2014/06/bells-planet-series-8cb97301637bf4c5.jpg

So this is about to happen:

http://m.beercamp.sierranevada.com/beer/

According to my beer nerds, allocation is going to be low, and looking at the brewery collaborations, demand is going to be stupid high, so keep an eye out probably.

hey I just saw one of those sitting on the floor of the San Leandro Bevmo this weekend

Isn't that Beer Camp out already? It's been all over my IG feed for at least the last three weeks now. Judging by the comments it hasn't been too hard to find in certain areas, apparently even Costco has been carrying it in some states.

For that Bell's thing, Pluto should be a radler or a shandy - kind of a beer but not quite.

i made it through a case of Heady Topper last week with my cousins :o

been seeing the beer camp stuff everywhere lately (both the large bottle of DIPA and the collaborative box). the cigar city tropical maibock thing sounds awesome, so does the bells dark ale, tho my understanding is that sierra nevada took on most of the work with these. i can see the reason for the hype, but it seems almost impossible to live up to? i'll prob buy a box regardless

How are New Belgium's sour beers? I saw the Transatlantique Kriek in Tupelo yesterday, but $15 for a 22 oz. bottle is just ridiculous.

New Belgium brewed one of American sour beers with La Folie back in 1997. I can't think of that many American sours that were available back then, maybe very small batches of Temptation and Cuvee de Tomme out west and Southhampton's oud bruin out east. La Folie is a solid example of the style, I have never had their Kriek though.

Barrel aged and bottle conditioned sour beers are incredibly time and labor intensive so to compare the cost to an ale that takes <1 week to brew and bottle may not be a fair practice.

Bought a six-pack of Schafly's Summer Lager, tempted by the "Helles-Style" label. I think it's missing just a smidge in the hops department to qualify in my book. It's not going to give Hofbrau Munchen a run for its money, but it goes down easy on a hot day, which is I guess the point.

Had a few from my Beer Camp box I picked up while in Colorado. Nothing special so far IMO, but I love the concept.

I got the box Wednesday and had three that night. I liked the Belgian lager with corriander, and then I had the Alt and the one called Torpedo Pilsner I think (made with Firestone). The latter two didn't impress me as much, but maybe it was third-beer syndrome.

So this is about to happen:

http://m.beercamp.sierranevada.com/beer/

According to my beer nerds, allocation is going to be low, and looking at the brewery collaborations, demand is going to be stupid high, so keep an eye out probably.

― Everyone is awful except you. Wait, no, you are also awful. (jjjusten), Wednesday, July 16, 2014 7:54 AM (2 days ago)

Not sure about that, our local big box store got a pallet a few weeks ago and they're slowly going through them:
http://i.imgur.com/iP09tAy.jpg

I'm in hilton head for vacation and had Westbrook gose last nite. Tasted like battery acid.

$26.99 at Bevmo, where do you live, Albert?

I went to a Sweet and Sour Belgian festival last night and had a few I liked. The New Belgium La Folie I think is a very respectable American sour (pretty sure I've had previous incarnations but I don't remember it being that sour). Also had an Almanac Farmer's Reserve Citrus that I loved. And one actual Belgian that I don't remember the name of.

I"m in Jersey. That Almanac citron is brand new, I like the pluot one if you can get your hands on that.

A friend spotted the Band Camp box last week at the local Winco for like $24 but they seem to be gone now. The local beer and wine shop had a bunch out today but they were all spoken for already. And I spotted the Cigar City maibock on tap yesterday but it blew right as I asked for a sample. I guess this isn't going to happen.

Ended up with a couple bottles of Dogfish Piercing Pils that someone left in my fridge, and I actually like it! Haven't had a tea beer that worked for me before.

yeah, im shocked that that band camp is sitting around anywhere - if you are a beer trade dude, you might want to pick it up even if you arent interested, there are areas where its in high demand and very low supply

The distribution for Beer Camp must be so weird. I picked a boxup last night at, of all places, Cost Plus World Market (my local Costco didn't have any). But when I asked at a couple local beer stores, they sounded clueless.

Tried the Yonder Bock from the beer camp box (collab with Cigar City) and really liked it. They call it a tropical maibock and I was afraid of some pineapple flavor stunt, but there was no weirdness. The label says "aromas of guava, mango, and passion fruit" but I didn't get any fruity aromas. Would buy.

Ended up trying or drinking 90% of my beer camp box, and nothing really jumped out as particularly awesome, imo. Not bad, all drinkable, but given the names of the collaborators I guess I expected more.

My brother is in Seattle for another day or two. Any place with great beer he should hit up? Apparently, he is currently drinking at the Quarter Lounge

I had good beers at the Pine Box on Capitol Hill, cool space too in a "used to be a funeral chapel" way.

i'm not really interested in Beer Camp, but when my gf went around to the local stores it had sold out instantly, although a dude at one store gave her a can from his own six pack for free.

Gonna look for this in Atlanta this week, but don't have my hopes up.

The Yonder Bock I mentioned above was one of the two cans, if she got that one she's lucky.