Beer in the new era

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.

just got the beer camp box, cringed at paying $24 for it.

The Stumbling Monk is really nice, especially if he digs Belgians/sours.

(Re: Seattle)

My main issue with the beer camp box is that I don't want to have to carry the box home.

tbh the rush of people jumping over each other to call it average on beer forums is making me excited to drink it.

John fed me good beer after good beer this past week and I'm bummed I can't get New Glarus stuff outside of Wisconsin.

Yeah, the ridiculous hyperbole against Beer Camp is making me want to stan for it harder. A dude I follow on Instagram responded to someone else's picture of the box with, "oh wow, another $25 box of drainpour, yawn". C'mon.

Seriously, nothing in the box really jumped out at me as memorable, or as "wow, I wish they made this year 'round!" I love the concept, though.

Yeah, so far nothing has been super great, but I'm loving just having all these different, solid beers.

That's all I'm really hoping to get out of it.

The beer camp Yvan the Great has assorted of vanilla flavor and I can't decide if I like it or not.

a sort of

Sorry for non Beer Camp related post, but a buddy of mine is in Portland, OR and promised to ship me some stuff.

What should I be asking for? I've had various De Garde brews that I've loved, and I distinctly remember my first bottle of Mother Of All Storms... kinda blanking on what else though.

de garde has been hard to come across lately, that would definitely be one of my top priorities.

cascade has several amazing beers in bottles right now (sang royal, sang noir, noyeaux, vlad the impaler, bourbonic plague, figaro), none are cheap but all are amazing and definitely worth trading for.

try to get some logsdon - seizoen bretta, oak aged seizoen, or peche n brett of course if your buddy can find any. the cerasus and far west vlaming are killer too

FOR SURE get some fort george/block 15/boneyard 3-way ipa, $2.50/can and i'd drink it over pliny any day. i think this is the only summer they'll be putting this out so definitely do what you can to get some

been getting very positive feedback on anything by heater allen, seriously everything they do is great. been diggin on the isarweizen lately, the pils and lenzbock are great too if you want something outstanding in a more typical german style

also hair of the dog adam is everywhere, and cherry adam from the wood might still be around at the brewery. probably want to put them away until at least winter (probably much longer) but i love that stuff.

huge fan of breakside as well, their passionfruit sour ale is great for $5/bomber. if you like the idea of the av gose + thick passionfruit sourness, you will like this. it's definitely a session sour tho, not nec super complex but a good summer chiller.

reverend nat's passionfruit sour cider might be the best cider i've ever tasted. definitely sweet and candy-like with tons of passionfruit, but really well balanced with the sourness and yeastfunk. i think this is definitely worth trading for if you're open to ciders

another neighborhood brewer - upright - just released their most highly-rated saison - flora rustica. i actually like their normal lineup of saisons better, but it's all very impressive stuff. i think they have a gruit coming out soon too, which also looks excellent

fort george/block 15/boneyard 3-way ipa, $2.50/can

this sounds amazing, will buy

second the heater allen recommendations, esp the pilsner

the 3-way is kind of my platonic ideal for an ipa, especially at that price point and with that level of distribution, but others might have different taste preferences or w/e. lots of tropical fruit/mango/citrus

OH! and a few places in town just got like 8 different variations on the trinity red swingline. kinda pricey for the bottle size but this would be near the top of my list of things to trade

Thanks Psychgawsple!

Weirdly, we get decent distro on Cascade (that is, except for the rarer stuff you listed) and Logsdon so that's why I blanked on them.

The more obscure stuff has been noted and requested, cheers!

is anyone else in brooklyn a fan of other half?
their taproom now open thursdays in addition to fri-sat-sun. thiking of maybe driving over tonight and filling a growler. my fave local brewery.

Weirdly, we get decent distro on Cascade...

Less than 15 mins after posting this my local tells me he just received cases of Kriek, Noyaux, Blueberry, Strawberry and The Vine.

nice! i'd say go for anything but the strawberry and blueberry and you'll probably be happy. the vine is not my fave but still pretty great. noyeaux definitely the best of the more rare ones you listed, kriek is easy to find but definitely among the best bottles they put out (suuuuper sour stuff)

New Glarus Oud Bruin is taaaaasty.

I have four of those in the fridge right now (I am in Door County, WI today) but was in no condition to open one last night. I will do better tonight, I promise.

In retrospect I should have bought a second 4pk but it wasn't available not-chilled. I also got a 4pk of Scream IIPA.

Still have never had any of the NG thumbprint beers. Only their blah non-fruited regular lineup and the Wisconsin Belgian Red.

I've got 3 of each left, Jeff, we should have a beer sometime soon.

You bet! It's about time at had just you and R over, shoot me a message and we'll coordinate.

Is the Beer Camp 12-pack to this thread what a Daft Punk release is to ILM? Who's going to bring up Michael Jackson?

Speaking of which just had the beer camp supplementary bomber (west coast double ipa) and it was totally awful. Avoid.

i'm doing the beer camp thing now too lol. the belgian pale with allagash is definitely something i wish i could find year round with sn-level distribution, and i'd probably pick up a six pack of the oskar blues rye bock thing too. pretty great to have this many choices all in a box at home

I found more at a supermarket last week and bought 2 boxes @ $25 each. Yesterday I was in the same market and they still had one left.

i was into the beer camp thing until i heard they were gonna be 25 bucks each and i'd have to hunt for them. shit is ridiculous. i used to work at a fancier bottle shop in MPLS and dudes would beat certain distributor's trucks to the store by 10 minutes and asking us where different releases were. like 9am asking where Backwoods Bastard was and shit. like, truck chasers are totally a thing, it's not an exaggeration in the slightest

^ that is crazy, tho i do have to admit i get the impulse to follow the boneyard trucks whenever i spot one

but beer camp does not seem like something you'd have to hunt for? i've seen boxes everywhere, pretty much anywhere that updates their stock consistently and sells sierra nevada beers... has it been harder to find in other regions?

of course the supermarket i picked mine up at also had (has?) peche n brett in stock for some glorious reason, perhaps this is not a representative sample

it wasn't very hard to find here

Yeah, I found it at my local supermarket without even looking. And the price is a bit steep, but still totally worth it.

Gone everywhere as far as I can tell in Mpls/STpl on the first day, maybe not in ringer suburban stores

I haven't seen it, but the only supermarket I've been to recently is trader joes. Or using peapod.

I bought it at Whole Foods for $25. Didn't seem steep for a 12-pack -- I buy plenty of $12 6-packs.

i spotted it several times in michigan too. i thought that was kind of the point, working with breweries that have limited distro and making the results available pretty much nationwide

the more i think about the choice of beer styles in this thing the more i love it; all these breweries that have built their reputations on imperial stouts and IPAs and sours and whatnot making bocks and altbiers and english bitters and pales. beer nerds predictably respond with indifference because their beloved styles are not represented, but how the hell could you not enjoy all these easy-drinkin' throwbacks? definitely feeling jon/via/chi and cad's perspective... the more ppl talk shit, the more i wanted to do this thing