Beer in the new era

finally picked up the anderson valley goses - the one with the stupid name and the blood orange one. they are good, but not as good as the westbrook gose. also the cans are hideous, such terrible design

i am also super psyched by mystic brewing in chelsea, MA. their table saison was outstanding. they have tons of other weird and seasonal saisons that i need to check out. like their whole brewing approach

marcos otm re: goses

mh - idk if this qualifies as an "american-style" pils - as cad pointed out it is very true to the czech style - but the heater allen pils is phenomenal. also really dig the occidental kolsch and breakside's pilsner and post-time kolsch.

in general i think the "american" session stuff is crap though, a lot of bitterness without any of the floral/citrus/pine/pepper payoff. seems like all my favorite american session stuff is only american by name as opposed to style

berliner weisses and goses are definitely my low-abv drinks of choice these days. de garde just got their bu weisse into stores at $4.50 a bomber, only 2-3% abv and pretty delicious (if far from their best offering)

i scored some blood orange gose' recently - they were great imo

American session pales: If you ever get your hands on Russian River's Dribble Belt, it's one of the most delicious session pales I've enjoyed.

I echo the berlinerweiße & gose love in general but not this time of year, moreso in the hot weather. That said, I anticipate cracking a deGarde Hose (hopped Gose) this Thursday night. Also, I think the Anderson Valley goses are fantastic.

CW's La Petite Mort tasted very bourbon-y, basically it tasted like watered down bourbon with not a lot of beer flavors for balance.

Beer trade grammar insanity: "3F" should be reserved for Drie Fonteinen whereas "FFF" should designate "3 Floyds". tmyk!

I'm getting some Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock this week, it's been highly recommended to me.

Speaking of session beer, I had one (1) single bomber of that "rare" bundle-only Firestone Walker Velvet Mocha Merlin brewed with Intellegentsia coffee and woke up to one of the worst hangover in many, many moons. 4.5% ABV has never treated me so poorly. Ready to permanently cross Firestone Walker shelf beers off my list.

mass only i think but these guys do great work http://www.notchbrewing.com/

always been curious about notch, wanted to try it but was worried it i'd get burned with a boring beer. i'll try it now

cad what do you think of mystic

i haven't had too many of their beers, i did get one of the ones where they were like "this has fruit and crazy wild yeast" and it just tasted like a boring saison. the table beer was ok. i'm kind of wait and see on them.

notch beers are not super crazy, but it's by design. they're just low-abv beers in basic styles that are good. they make by far the best <5% ipa i've ever had.

At churchkey now and it kind of sucks because the menu is full of Christmas beers, which normally isn't my cup of beer. Still, have been drinking some good stuff. Silent Night from Mother Earth was really good.

yeah i have been craving a good christmas beer lately. cascade is starting to bottle gingersnaps, that stuff is great

went to my first bottle share over the weekend. it was weird. i got to try so much crazy stuff though, including cantillon (another first! never thought i wanted my beer to literally smell like a barn floor but hot damn), perennial 17 (mint chocolate imp stout and it works), all of the eclipse fifty fifty variants (high west rye and pappy were my faves), the fremont cinnamon coffee bbomb (my new fave imperial stout fwiw), a ton of insnaely high abv beers like portugese brandy barrel sucre and chocolate rain, and my own personal new reigning champ for best pumpkin beer ever - cigar city good gourd almighty

Which cantillion? I'm down to 2 bottles left that I brought back from Brussels. Sadness.

Related, I made a Miller Lite drinking coworker try 3 Founteinen Oude Geuze tonight.

She did not like it.

Oh also good tonight, cognac barrel aged Santa's little helper.

lol good work

xps - fou foune, lou pepe, and mamouche. lou pepe in particular gives a new meaning to funk, why can't we do this in america yet

i will say tho that jester king atrial rubicite was def a strong showing for the american sour scene. also de garde imperial peach bu killed it, those guys know their way around a stone fruit

tho tbf de garde is a guy and a gal

One of the cantillion's I have left is a Lou! Never had it, so excited to finally try it. Just need an occasion.

Isn't the think about the lambics though is the spontaneous fermentation? It's specific to the place, so you could never make a cantillion in a place that isn't the cantillion brewery.

Last 2 nights had a bourbon county coffee nightcap. Great idea.

CAD, it was great, it took great effort to get her here and she asked the server that would be like a miller lite and before he could answer I just told him to bring the 3F.

After that she did order a Reindeer droppings by ridgeway brewing and she found that acceptable.

Isn't the think about the lambics though is the spontaneous fermentation? It's specific to the place, so you could never make a cantillion in a place that isn't the cantillion brewery.

A guy can dream

did she make it through the whole glass of 3f?

I've only had one of my BCS bottles this year, but whether it was the day or night or just good timing, it tasted so stupidly perfect that I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep and dream of the next one. But then, I've been plowing through a pile of New Glarus lately, and that stuff is so mild/subtle compared to BCS that maybe it was just the contrast.

Anyone else see this? Pretty funny, I thought: http://www.reddit.com/r/beercirclejerk/comments/2ktktj/2015_craft_beer_predictions/

To save everyone the link:

2015 Craft Beer Predictions

January

Bell's does not release a session IPA. It would be called '1 hearted' if it existed, but it doesn't.
Some dicks get like $100K on kickstarter to open a brewery

February

Some brewery in bumfuck nowhere, Nebraska, probably? releases 8 bottles of a BA imperial stout. Hanes profits rise as all beer nerds replace the underwear they just shit.
Yuengling continues its slow, determined march into a new market that doesn't care about it.

March

The Bruery announces its latest beer is infected. beer geeks are PISSED because they were super pumped to spend $30 on a bomber of it.
Oberon is released, beer nerds rejoice. Finally, a hoppy wheat ale is widely available.

April

KBS comes out, and the brand-new baby beer nerds go nuts, asking about how to cellar it. They're advised to drink it fresh, but don't listen.
3 floyds releases DL. It's better than 2012.

May

Dogfish releases a beer with Ringo Starr featuring beetle shells or some shit
Some idiot writes another stupid article about 'what is craft beer??', and beer nerds shout their opinions at one another

June

Bell's continues to release a wide line of great, to-style beers at fair prices
The brewer's association raises the volume cap on the definition of a craft brewery

July

Some sours come out, are the new IPAs
the BJCP releases new style guidelines, recognizing the following new styles: East Coast American IPA, West Coast American IPA, and Delaware Imperial IPA/Barleywine hybrid

August

Flying Dog becomes the first major brewery in america to produce a cock ale. They call it 'PUT THIS COCK IN YOUR MOUTH' and the label has a trippy drawing of a penis on it.

September

An ancient beer recipe for a bavarian-style lager is found by an archaeologist in what's know known as St. Louis, Missouri. The archaeologist teams up with Dogfish Head to reproduce this forgotten, refreshing 'american-style pilsner'

October

Lagunitas and Stone go 'in costume' as each other for a month. Lagunitas IPA is put in Stone IPA bottles, Stone IPA is put in Lagunitas IPA bottles, nobody fucking notices.
Bell's continues to not release a session IPA. It continues to not be called '1 hearted'

November

Goose Island releases bourbon county in 30 racks. The propietor's reserve is malort-barrel aged, and features poppy seeds, yellow mustard, chopped white onions, bright green sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices, pickled sport peppers and a dash of celery salt. ISO.

December

Those dicks who got all that kickstarter money release their first beer and it's super infected and gross. ISO anyway
The Bruery cuts the shit, releases 7 swans a swimming, made with REAL FUCKING SWANS.

OTM

haha I saw that on fb and thought about posting it

also Bell's session IPA is 2 Hearted imo

did she make it through the whole glass of 3f?

Nah, which was probably my master plan the whole time to drink it all.

FYI, I'm drinking a lot in the new era tonight, hence the chatty posts.

founders cbs tapping here in two days but i don't know if i can make it

Seen it hitting around Michigan. Honestly, I think it is going to be such a cluster if it gets here I would probably avoid it.

CBS was one of the first whalez I had, won it at a raffle at a local liquor store a few years ago. Wonderful beer, but it is one of those that there will just be mass hysteria around when it is released again.

durnk

Pig Minds Vanilla Bitch Slap: fantastic cream soda-esque red ale, I think? Super smooth, just enough vanilla.

Marz Umami Stout: this http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/12/15/yes-marz-community-brewing-aged-a-mushroom-stout-in-soy-sauce-barrels-and-i-drank-it is good, I can't explain it better than the article.

Surly Damien: hoppy brown? Sort of, but I thought it was pretty standard for a Midwest brown, like Best Brown from Bells but had the Surly "edge"

I refuse to drink Pig Minds. They just seem like awful people.

I'm sure other brewers are awful people too, but at least they don't wear it so clearly on their labels.

It was on draft so there wasn't a label, but that sounds like my reasoning for not drinking Local Option products due to the nazi imagery they use, intentionally or not.

vanilla bitch slap is a grotesque name for a beer

speaking of vanilla, been realizing more and more that i don't have much of a taste for these super sweet, dessert-like chocolate milkshake-tasting stouts that have been very common lately. when i want something very dark and roasty i've been going for porters much more often

btw i love the founders porter but they need to ditch the "dark rich and sexy" slogan, it's some stupid fuckin shit

too many beer bros brewing

Browers

I hate the labels and names of 90% of these beers. Even by the standards of shitty art so much of the shit is totally shitty. They seem like Pushead crossed with some dude doodling on some primitive paint program crossed with the stuff I see tagged on bridges and overpasses. And then the cherry on top is the stupid name they pick. Everything's, like, a viking with grills on his teeth puking rainbows up a woman's skirt. I call that beer "Rainbow Legged." Or "Up Yours." Or "Erik the Thigh-King."

where is Battle the beer label fascist when we need him

more 10 Barrel backlash:

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/anheuser-busch_inbev_acquisiti.html#incart_river

Ugh GISing Pig Minds stuff tells the tale. Wow.

so many breweries with such terrible aesthetics. i'd imagine there's no real incentive for them to hire a legit graphic designer when they can just get their bro friends to get high and draw some stupid shit and it'll sell anyways

though in most cases it seems like they have the logo dialed in, and still fail miserably when it comes to packaging

There are some places that seem to have their act together - I will again rep for No-Li out of Spokane, whose packaging I really love (they rebranded a couple years ago, it was terrible before that). But right next to one of their beers in my fridge is a Lagunitas Little Sumpin which is all the worst in one shot - awful design, stupid name, sexist imagery. But a good beer.

Pig Minds stuff looks really awful though, especially shit like the PD. But then again the name of the brewery kind of tips you off I guess?