Beer in the new era

though i will say i kind of appreciate the reference pages on the site that talk about specific beer styles http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/

celebration ale is out!

hey anyone try allagash confluence? it's pretty pricy and i don't like spending a lot of money but i'm headed home to cleveland for the holidays and want to share some interesting stuff w/ my brother. we've both been on a funky/sour kick recently and i don't know if confluence is a sour but i hear it is very funky and delicious

No, but I did have their Coolship Resurgam and it was a fantastic geuze. Would love to see how it performs in a blind taste test with the Belgians.

yeah i haven't had confluence either, but it's probably excellent. 750ml is just a tough format sometimes. anything allagash puts in a corked 375ml should be purchased without questioning.

this is kind of interesting: http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/11/14/state-investigating-pay-play-allegations-massachusetts-beer-industry/o4m3VbNmSVw8CdGzVXFoyJ/story.html

"Massachusetts regulators have launched an investigation into whether beer distributors, brewers, and retailers are violating state law by agreeing to promote certain beers at bars and liquor stores in exchange for payments that freeze out competitors.

Investigators for the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission said they have issued subpoenas to a number of breweries, beer distributors, and retailers for records to determine whether they are paying for, or demanding payments for, access to bar taps in pubs and restaurants and shelf space at stores.

The practice, known as pay-to-play, is illegal under state and federal liquor control laws, primarily to keep large national breweries from dominating beer markets. Though dating to the end of Prohibition, small breweries say the laws are especially relevant today because the surging popularity of craft beer has little and big companies alike competing for limited space at retailers."

been a common allegation in chicago for a while afaik

1-month-old Sierra Nevada Celebration ON SALE for $9 per six at my grocery store? Hell yes.

― dan m, Tuesday, November 11, 2014 7:04 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bought two six packs yesterday for $7.99 each. Brewed October 14, 2014

Saw 12-packs in the supermarket today for $13.99. It's normally priced like the PA and Torpedo around here.

FOBAB day! FOBAB day! FOBAB day!

Program for this year:

http://i.imgur.com/KwGFC0f.jpg

The Side Projects, GI Prop/Vanilla Rye, BA Abraxas will probably all kick before I get through the line.

jeff how was it?

drinking a year-old allagash merveilleux which is top notch, seriously need to start hoarding their one-offs (and a second job to afford doing so).

Heard FOBAB was nuts this year.

Did hear, specifically, that this year's Proprietors was great, the regular BCS was great, and that the Vanille Rye probably needs 6-months to take off the sweetness,

Hey people who know about these things, how does beer aging work? If the bottle is sealed, what is going on and how? And why?

http://draftmag.com/cellar/required-reading-the-chemistry-of-beer-aging/

a bit of this is beyond me but it's interesting

OK, that's cool

http://draftmag.com/new/wp-content/uploads/aging.jpg

That is cool, but that's decades before the advent of these super high ABV barrel aged stouts. Those are the ones people like to age, right? Not the sort of beer people were drinking (and aging? as opposed to just letting it get old?) in 1977. I always thought alcohol in essence served as a preservative. I know some people swear things like barrel aged stouts change radically over the years. Some folks say it is subtle. Others note that other flavoring agents - vanilla, or cocoa, or coffee - fade. I have no idea/opinion.

i've never aged a beer longer than a year and i think it was north coast old ale and it mellowed out a little but i didn't notice a huge difference.

also this brewmaster mike gerhart series from otter creek is pretty much uniformly good. picked up the kind ryed ipa and it's awesome. favorite is probably the overgrown pale ale but they are all good

FOBAB was fantastic, as usual. A bit crowded, but that is expected. Took a different approach and went with a lot of lighter stuff this year, sours, cider, mead. I didn't even feel that drunk at the end of the night. Didn't even go for any of the Goose stuff or other popular stouts. Standouts bolded below.

Dark Kriek - AC Golden Brewing Co.
The Jones Dog (Buffalo Trace Barrels) - Pipeworks Brewing Company
Grampappy - Rhinegeist
Sympathy for the Devil (Bourbon Barrel) - Sun King Brewing Company
Oskar The G'Rauch Double Date - Oskar Blues Brewing
Forest GINger - Finnriver Farm & Cidery
Yuzu Er'g Od Begravet - Off Color Brewing
MechaHugs - Half Acre Beer Company
Rambutan Lambic - Upland Brewing Company
Imperial Breakfast Magpie - New Day Meadery
Agrestic - Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Barrel Aged Neapolitan Milk Stout - Saugatuck Brewing Company
Big Bourbon Series Curse the Goat Doppelbock - Shoreline Brewing
Pappy's Ink - Rhinegeist
Swan Song - Bourbon With Cherry - Hailstorem Brewing Co.
Mastodon - Rhinegeist
Cheval Deux Barrel Aged - Horse Thief Hollow Brewing Co.
Dinos'mores (Wild Turkey Barrel) - Off Color Brewing
Absinthe Barrel-Aged Sales Guy Abbey Single - Spiteful Brewing

The Yuzu was my favorite of the whole show. Gin barrel aged Berliner Weissbier.

Gin barrel aged Berliner Weissbier.

sounds amazing!

I've liked the two off color beers I've had (a Berliner Weisse and an Altbier). Great labels too if you care (I do!)

I know some people swear things like barrel aged stouts change radically over the years. Some folks say it is subtle. Others note that other flavoring agents - vanilla, or cocoa, or coffee - fade. I have no idea/opinion.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, November 17, 2014 10:20 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

having done bourbon county verticals there is no question that the beer changes over time. outside flavors are delicate and will fade from their peak of freshness. malty high-abv beers like bigfoot or backwoods bastard taste pretty different a year or two on ime as well. in the case of bastard, it actually becomes drinkable.

i think my main takeaway from the link was that just because a bottle is sealed and alcohol is present does not mean that chemical changes aren't happening, it's just that spoilage isn't happening.

in the case of bastard, it actually becomes drinkable.

whaaaaa? Don't like it fresh?

I think I have enough BB for a four year vertical now. Who knows when I'll actually get a chance to have them though. Feels indulgent for just myself.

But because each year of BA beer is slightly different from the last - chemically, flavorings, ABV - won't each year's edition taste different from the next's anyway? I mean, each year's BCS, for example, tastes a little different from the last, so unless you could somehow have the same beer a year apart, and remember what the first one tasted like when you had the second a year later, it's not exactly an easy comparison, is it?

fresh bastard has historically been way too sweet for me. i bought a single yesterday to give it another shot. when i stashed one for a year i found it had mellowed out nicely.

josh all i can say is you have to trust your palette at some point--the difference between a 1-2 year old bcbs and a 4-5 y.o. bcbs is much greater than batch variation could account for, and the character of the difference is the "mellowing out" that shared experience suggests most people taste with aged high-abv beers.

I totally get that. But I also do commonly see takes like "this BA beer needs to mellow a year because right now it is so hot it's like drinking straight bourbon," which as a bourbon drinker I find sort of crazy. It does seem like the more distinctly flavored beers (cinnamon, cocoa, vanilla, coconut, et al.) are better the fresher they are, because the flavor does fade.

At the least I think *I* am mellowing with age, so who knows what affect that might have on my beer drinking/tasting.

yeah it's useful to remember a lot of beer ppl aren't bourbon drinkers, booziness doesn't bother me usually (provided the other flavors are there) so i find the "this needs to age" language a little annoying.

I spent large chunks of the weekend very jealous of FOBAB folks. Looks like a fun lineup.

I keep scanning it as FUBAR.

Ballast Point "Dorado" double IPA = delicious, deadly. at 10% i gotta watch myself around this. one at a time or else i'm gonna fall asleep.

I almost bought one of those yesterday, I will take that as a recommendation (to split w/Laurie)

xpost It's one of the few beer festivals that is still worth the money most are charging these days. So many special beers and one offs that you would never be able to try otherwise. In talking with local brewers, it along with the Great American Beer Festival are the ones they get the most excited about to showcase their creativity.

i tend to let my barrel aged beers sit, but it's not always a necessity. i haven't gotten any backwoods bastard yet this season. i'll probably get two; one to drink on a cold night when i want to get loopy and one to save until next year.
i've got a few things in my fridge now, like last year's KBS, last year's bourbon county coffee stout, and the bourbon county barleywine. note that i am also a fan of letting big ABV stouts and such sit around, even if they are not barrel aged. i have one of those evil twin "I love you with my stout" bottles, but I need to split it with someobody; 12% is tooooo much for meeee xposts

yeah it's useful to remember a lot of beer ppl aren't bourbon drinkers,

yea definitely, before i started drinking bourbon i often described a beer as "too boozy and hot" but now a bourbon presence never really overwhelms

now that i think about it, the bourbon county coffee was fucking delicious fresh, but i'm curious what aging will do.

Had a 2012 BCBCS a few weeks ago. Coffee had definitely faded, but still present. Was delicious.

http://beergraphs.com/bg/584-palate-effects-my-problem-with-beer-tasting/

I can totally relate to this, I have the same issues and problems with trying to describe anything I'm tasting with beer. I'd be a horrible judge. I usually just stick to good/bad descriptors.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WvloVyQc8jUJ:www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/what-it-looks-like-when-an-alcoholic-finds-your-cellar.228462/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

all my shit is stored in my actual cellar which is open to the upstairs apartment, always makes me a little nervous.

CAD, hire me to stand guard in your cellar. I'll make sure only worth people drink the best beers.

I have yet to try it but I keep laughing at the name of this one when I pass it by in the stores:

http://www.allagash.com/beer/limited-edition/farm-to-face?ao_confirm

i'm drinking it right now, it's good

i got to visit allagash over the weekend, really nice brewery tour if you happen to be in portland me

What did you come home with?

just two of those farm to faces (that was the limit) to go with one i got around here. they had everything you can normally get in stores well-stocked in the retail shop but that's nothing i need to hoard. you can also buy cases of their brewery-only house beer which they gave out on our tour (apparently that's not standard practice and we just lucked out).

the tasting section of the tour happens in their barrel aging space. all the barrels are clearly marked so it was fun to see what might be coming.

my brother just came back from a trip back east and handed me a four-pack of heady topper. best brother!

went to a de garde release party last weekend, pretty amazing stuff. got in on some bottle pours of perennial abraxas, block 15 super nebula, a few side project saisons, some jester king bottles, and of course super limited de garde craziness such as:

Café Samson
A strong dark beer, with nods towards the imperial stout style, but run through our coolship. Aged in American oak barrels, then infused with Bali Blue Moon coffee beans from Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters. 11.5%abv,

Maple Samson
The same base as Café Samson (minus the coffee). Aged for an extended period in Rye Bourbon barrels, then transferred for secondary aging in Bourbon barrels that previously aged Maple Syrup. 12%abv

Earl Desay
A blended wild farmhouse ale aged in barrel for over a year. We added a large amount of characterful Oregon buckwheat honey to the barrels to induce a secondary fermentation, then conditioned it with Earl Grey tea after blending. 6.2%abv

that maple samson might be the best beer i've tasted all year. very fruity and vinous for a super strong BA dark sour, subtle maple and a whole lot of other stuff going on in there. cafe samson is maybe the only coffee-sour i've tried, really acidic but bright and fruity in keeping with the whole de garde "thing". i am such a fanboy.

farm to face! lol