Beer in the new era

FBS is an amazing beer.

I may have had my first craft beer in L5P when Carl lived there in 2000. A Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at a place I cannot remember.

Took dan m's KBS to a share last night where it was tasted next to 2 other heavy hitter stouts from Midnight Sun and Alpine... it was clearly the best of those three by a long shot.

Good record store in L5p next to porters. "Criminal Records".

I have had two of Founder's BFast Stout so far this season. And I have one more in the fridge. And it's always great. I love this beer. I prefer it to the barrel aged version, much more drinkable for me. Not the hugest bourbon barrel aged guy.

I DID pick up a bottle of Chardonnay barrel aged saison this week, from Other Half. I had it on draft a while back and was surprised at how much I liked it.

in charleston this weekend, which means i finally got to try some westbrook gose! worth checking a bag to bring some home with me for sure.

brother & his wife visited this weekend from the midwest, we had a great time. we shared a 22oz of an uinta sour "birthday suit" i think it was called. fucking outstanding! beautiful light hazy color. it was almost like a kombucha, and also somewhat low alcohol (5% or something maybe?) anyways it was great.

i also stocked the fridge w/ some new england beers that i like so he could get a little regional sampling:

newburyport green head ipa (MA)- this has been my favorite new england IPA for a while, it's incredible
otter creek brewmaster mike gerhart's overgrown american pale ale (VT)
mayflower porter (MA)
the shed mountain brown ale (VT)

it was a good selection i thought, we had a great time.

i'll have to try the shed's brown ale; i like their IPA well enough. and i like that otter creek too. really good value i thought, affordable even in NYC. i'll have to look out for the newburyport green head IPA this weekend, will be in RI but quite near the MA border. wonder if i'll be able to dig it up. not sure if i'll have time to enjoy the red IPA at trinity brewhouse this trip, but that's a new england beer i really enjoy,

ugh, i know beermenus is not very complete, but i am NOT driving into boston to buy a 6 pack of beer.

beer menus is not very complete in the boston area especially--what are you looking for? the green head?

yeah. should it be available at liquor stores in suburban mass, preferably near the RI border? Is there a good liquor store in Seekonk or fall river?

#familylifemakesbeershoppinghard

looks like they're distributed all over the border tbh: http://nbptbrewing.com/faq/

some half-assed challops from david chang, "bud light is the best beer" http://www.gq.com/life/food/201410/david-chang-cheap-beer

kinda undermines his own position with the use of the word bad:

I learned that the world south of Texas makes amazing bad beer: Imperial from Costa Rica, Presidente from the Dominican Republic, Tecate from Mexico—all excellent bad beers.

fuck david chang.

Who cares about drinking beer with food, the move is to have the delicious beer before the food.

and thanks CAD :)

hope you track it down!

i'm not unsympathetic to his point about adjunct lagers as food beers but he sounds like a dummy.

there are a few places within 20 minutes of my mom's house, so i can prob dig it up..

fuck david chang.

― ian, Monday, October 20, 2014 2:09 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who cares about drinking beer with food, the move is to have the delicious beer before the food.

― festival culture (Jordan), Monday, October 20, 2014 2:09 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both OTM

favorite time to drink beer is while i'm cooking

but yea CAD is right too, there are plenty of mexican beers that are very enjoyable served w/ mexican food but i'd never call them bad beers. peruvian beers (most of them lagers) are outstanding imo served w/ spicy peruvian food. but bud light is also garbage in any universe. i mean to make a point about light lagers fine, there are many good ones, but bud light is not one of them.

I always got a kick out of going to my favorite BYOB Thai place in Chicago (Spoon, for all you locals) with a six pack of some crisp, very cold, Polish lager like Warka or Okocim.

BUD LIGHT COORS LIGHT MILLER LITE, WHICH

BL lime

I was in Singapore and Thailand earlier this year and sort of thought it was crazy to drink Singha or Tiger or Chang in a big mug with ice cubes but it totally made sense when it's 95 and 95% humidity and you're eating super hot food. I've also started to appreciate salty/limey beer cocktails on ice a lot more, especially with food. But never with Bud Light.

it's always frustrated me to hear chef-types hate on craft beer. i think the idea of beer pairings is still pretty new to the culinary world, and the variety and inconsistency of craft beer can make it hard to make decent pairings without some pretty extensive research. it's easier to pair a light beer with nearly any dish, but that doesn't mean it's always better

that being said, it's sorta idiotic not to consider the possibilities all these crazy beers offer wrt food. when i was in charleston we hit up this joint - http://edmundsoast.com/ - and they basically created one of the most successful new bars / restaurants in the country based on a huge, impressive taplist and a full menu designed to play off of it. had an amazing beer-sausage dish with roasted shiso peppers that worked brilliantly with beers that i might not have been into otherwise (ie: a smoky, funky, savory belgian wit from against the grain). it's not like it's unheard of to pair a big/sweet wine with dessert, so why not a nice barleywine or w/e

good taplist there

yeah, the bottle list is sorta crazy too. lotsa guezes (not aged) in the $35-100 range

ooh i'm gonna be in charleston in a couple weeks for a conference, will have to check that place out. i see that it's only 2 miles away from the place i'm staying at, that could be a fun walk to explore the city too

what's the vibe like? is it fancy? menu and website are a little slick and calls for reservations but it is a brewpub after all. i.e. do i need to wear a collard shirt there?

lol *collared shirt. honestly straight up i have collard greens braising in the kitchen right now and obv i am excited about southern food before going to charleston

you should totally go! it's got a sort of boiler-plate hip mid-priced restaurant style, which is extremely prevalent here in pdx so honestly i didn't think twice about it. definitely not like torst or anything crazy, i'm sure a t-shirt would fly, but it's def different than your usual 40+ taps kind of place. we went there for brunch (semilol @ brunch beers but i was not going to pass up the opportunity) and i'm p sure it gets more bar-like as the day goes on

(i had a short-sleeved collared shirt fwiw)

sorta crazy tho that they have all those taps and no tv screen system or chalkboard but these silly "artisan" looking wooden plaque-type things for each beer

you can go to torst in a t-shirt, they don't kick you out.

yeah the only places that seem to gaf about dress code / standards are crazy steakhouses or prix fixe places or w/e

http://imgur.com/OugyTMh

http://i.imgur.com/OugyTMh.jpg

oh shit

that looks tremendous.

btw any of you pnw dudes rate hop valley? i just drank a can of their alphadelic ipa and i thought it was a total winner. doesn't seem to be getting very high scores on the usual sites but for a basic and assertive ipa it really did the job for me.

I love love love Hop Valley and live a 5 minute walk from their brewery :)

my faves are the Alphadelic, Cirtus Mistress, and Proxima - the hoppy ones. I also had a great fresh hop brew from them as part of the blind test I mentioned above.

I guess I should join some of these rating sites

CITRUS Mistress, that is. I haven't experimented much with the rest of their beers cuz I'm such a hophead.

in fact, I'm gonna drink an Alphadelic right now

awesome! i had a can of the citrus mistress too, it was fine but did not make as big an impression as the alphadelic.

I am drinking a bell's expedition stout and realllly loving it.
been a week or so of stouts.

exp. stout is so so good.

other stouts i have enjoyed lately:
bells kalamazoo stout (is it weird that i wish the licorice taste was stronger?)
founders breakfast obv
narwhal
central waters 'satin solitude' imperial stout (stupid name, very drinkable, not expensive.)

i regret only getting one bottle. i hope they are still around when i get back from RI. or maybe i'll stop after work tomorrow if i can...