Beer in the new era

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?

yeah there are a lot of good ones out there actually, esp on the west coast. i dig breakside's look actually, they clearly have a graphic designer on hand:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qBBaIx7ImvY/VG5g02xaKqI/AAAAAAAADVQ/S4Wt0SyLh6Q/s1600/la%2Bsour.jpg

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/66/1d/8b/661d8bd7eea8d964ed4c1b8ad88a9056.jpg

ugh sorry those are huge

Fremont are my favorite. They have an artist on staff and it really shows. Just very consistent, classy, and fit with the NW aesthetic.

so has southern tier declined in quality? i've not been super-impressed with them lately, though it's been a while since i've tried their 22oz styles. i remember their winter ale being a lot better than the one i'm drinking now. also i am getting tired of them naming everything "2XIPA" or "2XMAS ALE"

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/12/pop-your-fav-brew-for-this-gallery.html

Fullstream ones are great:

http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/system/images/photo_albums/beer-can-designs/large/beer-28.jpg?1384968217

yea that's great! i dig westbrook a lot:

http://chsbeer.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/custom_1000px/_mg_3244.jpg

Evil Twin Molotov Lite, much better than expected. Taste kind of like Heady Topper.

those are beautiful! xp

got my canadian breakfast stout tick tonight. i am a maple syrup fan so it was a good beer.

Cool to see local startup Bauhaus getting some love in that article.

And yeah, Molotov lite is in my top 5 surprises of the year, along with the evil twin Westbrook hose. It's an absolute killer IIPA

yeah i really dig all the westbrook cans, and fremont has a nice look as well.

passed on molotov lite the other day b/c i thought i remembered hearing bad things. will grab it next time i have a chance though.

also tried sixpoint resin for the first time recently, they just began distributing in portland. not bad for an easy-to-find IIPA, i'd take it over torpedo any day

pricier than torpedo though yea? tbh i'm not a huge fan of torpedo but it's good enough. sixpoint in general i very skeptical of but i have not tried resin

yeah i don't really know anything about sixpoint's repuation on the east coast (bro-y i take it?), i wouldn't necessarily go out of my way for their stuff, and yes it is a few dollars pricier than torpedo. there are a million local options i'd prefer to resin, but it was better than i expected

their beers are expensive and there's almost always a better alternative for a given style available.

sixpoint's reputation afaik is more "BROOKLYN EVERYBODY! CRAFT BEER FROM BROOKLYN!! BECAUSE BROOKLYN IS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD" but i could be way off. like so many things, i feel like the buzz around it is basically b/c it's in brooklyn

and for a period of time at least i don't think they actually brewed there.

they put an utterly innocuous cream ale in a fancy-looking can and ppl loved it, idk

it was like $13.50 a six pack here. same as sculpin, which is far superior, but less per oz than most anything in a 4 pack

those cans really do make you feel like you're drinking red bull tho

psychgawsple FYI the Plaid Pantry on Cesar Chavez near the I84 exit has Sculpin for $10/six, don't know if that's near you or not

I don't know why, it's near a friend's house that we visit frequently

those cans really do make you feel like you're drinking red bull tho

― hug niceman (psychgawsple), Friday, December 19, 2014 1:13 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha otm. at first i was like "oh cool" and then as they sat in my fridge i was like "fuck these look like energy drinks"

that one is not near me but other plaid pantries are, thx for the heads up!

i met one of the owners of $!xp01n+ at that bottle share actually, lol. we need a 77 beer thread so i can share (subjectively) funny stories abt this. nothing necessarily damning tho - he was super generous and friendly

I saw this when I was looking for some beer info the other day. wtf, people
http://www.tgbrews.com/site/2014/12/an-unfortunate-day/

yeah there's a beer advocate thread we referenced last week or so about that

ah, missed it

here you go because i do recommend reading the whole thing

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/i-think-i-got-duped-feedback-please.234718/

what an asshole

that anecdote about someone who may be him changing clothes and getting back in line to buy limited beer is pretty hilarious

so has southern tier declined in quality? i've not been super-impressed with them lately, though it's been a while since i've tried their 22oz styles. i remember their winter ale being a lot better than the one i'm drinking now. also i am getting tired of them naming everything "2XIPA" or "2XMAS ALE"

I bought some 2xRye not too long ago, since it was on sale, and thought it was fairly decent. A little too strong to have with food, but okay on its own.

Sooo... has anyone heard about ppl having to jump through hoops to get a bottle of KBS?
We didn't get any where I work this year, and I had a really interesting conversation about it with a customer today. He says that several places he tried in NYC, you had to buy another Founders four pack (reg Breakfast Stout i think) in order to get a single bottle of KBS. Seems utterly insane to me. He said when he asked the guy at the supermarket about it, he was told that it was because in order to get the KBS the distributors required the store to buy something like 25 cases of regular breakfast stout.

seems insane to me.

so if you want to get four bottles of KBS you have to visit four stores and will wind up with a 16 bottles of breakfast stout in the process.

Is this just some weird NYC thing where distributors are being shady?

oh, yeah, and i finally got to try the grapefruit sculpin today and was slightly underwhelmed. i'll stick with the reg from here on out, probably. or just get a bottle of Dorado for the same price.

That sounds like the stories this year re: BCS and Goose Island product. It's definitely silly stuff, but I think the thinking goes that the distributer rewards various shops based on how much regular stuff they sell, so the more regular stuff they sell, the more special stuff they get. It's all gotten so shady lately, but between tappings and simply waiting in line, there are plenty of shots at getting at least a pour of special stuff somewhere in the city. At least here.

sure sure. i can get myself some KBS if i put my heart into it.
but maybe i will just drink my bottle of last year's and call it a day.

alert to mass and rhode island folks--grey sail's captains daughter double ipa is getting some serious hype and is probably deserving of it.