Beer in the new era

their biggest problem is they make way too many beers

I had their Rebel ipa for the first time at the New Orleans airport and thought it was pretty good, esp for an airport bar.

Btw the place to go in NO for beer is the Avenue Pub on St. Charles. Fuckin fantastic draft and bottle lists.

ha, i'll withdraw "terrible", although a good number of their beers are genuinely terrible. painfully mediocre is probably better

they make really uninteresting beer xp

tbh though i think the boston lager is the best beer they have

Also maybe if Koch wasn't drunk as shit 24/7 his company might be doing better XD

MOR is the appropriate descriptor for me.

If I were him, I'd sell that shit. AB would totally scoop them up. No more worries.

latitude 48 and whitewater ipa were both really nice but got lost in the 80 other things sam adams has out at all times

They (Boston Beer Co.) did a tap takeover of one of my locals with all these single hop IPAs that I thought might have been a good idea, until I saw the prices (more expensive than top tier world class IPAs also on the board) and then I tasted a friend's and it was remarkably average.

hey what do you all think of 21st amendment? i see them all the time and finally dried their main ipa (brew free or die) and was pretty disappointed

they stink imho

I cannot think of one of their beers that is decent. I will say that their much-maligned Watermelon beer is really not much worse than their other beers that people stand up for.

when they are good (back in black, marooned on hog island, sneak attack saison, and i do like brew free or die) they are great, when they miss (fireside chat, monks blood, and the worst goddamn beer in the world that watermelon thing) they miss HARD.

I think they have two brewpoints, because up here it is contract brewed by cold spring, so the source might also have something to do with it?

haha xposts say tastes differ

Oh hey look, Bell's distributes to San Diego/Imperial Co. now.

21st amendment is pretty bad ime

thoughts:
- 21st amendment is not for me, but people sure do love that watermelon beer. it's fuckin disgusting but we sell a ton every summer.
- hops hill is a fine bar; i had my birthday drinks there a few weeks back. it's near our apartment and they have lots of different stuff on tap. get updates almost every day from them with the new offerings.
- still never been to torst!
- i enjoyed the westbrook anniversary stout this year. the almonds and coconut were mostly in the nose and the taste was more chocolately. i liked it. shared with one other person. was good.
- victory hop ranch is still so good.
- gigantic imperial IPA is better than their regular IPA.
- i want someone else to try "beat it nerd" so i know if the funk is a product of my imagination or not. other tasters seem not to have experienced such extreme sock/foot aroma.

ack i want hop ranch but i haven't seen it anywhere. i gotta get a case of that.

i was going to take a hops break but made an exception to grab a 4-pack of hop ranch

feel like need a major hobs break tbh. IPAs, even really good ones, aren't hitting the spot for me much lately. i have also been buying a lot of newer stuff (well, new to me) rather than going for tried and true so i've been getting burned with a lot of middling IPAs

I haven't seen hop ranch in awhile. Miss you hop ranch.

woo just ran out to my local beer distro and scored a case of hop ranch!!

they also had cases of lagunitas sucks but for like $90 each which c'mon man

Visited Fremont Brewing yesterday. 77 Select Session IPA is available in 6 packs and I couldn't be happier. Even for a session, I find it superior to Interurban and Fremont Pale; much more flavorful and better carb. Also nabbed some Sister DIPA, still a massive pineapple mint bomb. The cask IPA w/ lemondrop hops was something else. Taste was intense citrus and mint, almost menthol-y. Lingered on the palate long after the pint was gone.

Pretty much all Victory beers shit on the shelves up here, I'm surprised. Wild Devil, Dirt Wolf, and Hop Ranch are all fantastic.

Anyone a fan of The Abyss? I've seen that sticking around on some shelves. Other places, they say it was gone in a blink.

I like it. People say it needs time, but IDK. I just drink it.

It's the rare beer I've come across with a drink after date, actually.

Is bourbon county hard to find in NYC? I'm visiting for a few days, wandered into a little grocery and found plenty of the regular and barleywine there. Actually the first time I'd had the stout, I'm not enough of a beer nerd to try to find it in Seattle. It's pretty good, I think it could become a big thing.

Beer naming

they also had cases of lagunitas sucks but for like $90 each which c'mon man

Hahahahahahaha waht

after the earlier conversation about embarrassing or just horrible beer names I had a really cringeworthy walk through the supermarket beer aisle

but seriously, lagunitas really has some naming probs, but if they're all perpetually stoned I guess it makes a little sense

yea lagunitas' whole aesthetic in general is just awful

oh lol I just tried going to lagunitas' website but apparently it's been hacked and is all spam now?

hmm? seems fine to me.

maybe it's a weird work proxy thing? it does seem to work from my home connection

your work is spamming sites that reference w33d

nah, usually it just says BLOCKED with a notice that repeated attempts will bring the long arm of HR down on you or something

yea the page is fine for me. i'm at work but universities don't block anything afaik

had the boulevard smokestack series dark truth stout, man what a good stout! just incredibly balanced, rich and complex throughout, sometimes i feel like there are not a ton of heavy (9% ish or more) stouts that are this balanced. no desserty sweetness overwhelming you, no burnt barley bitterness, no alcohol hotness dominating.

Went to rattle and hum, now at torst. Good times. Nice that they do rather generous 5 oz pours here.

Best beer I've had tonight: crooked stave Surette

Brooklyn is too big. I would walk to hops hill but shit is like 3 miles away.

Oh Ian, I tried the Beat it Nerd. I loved it, but didn't get a whole lot of funk from it. Just the right amount, actually.

my neighbor was nice enough to share a bottle of Pliny the Elder last night, my first. it was...fine? like, a really nice & balanced IPA, nothing crazy. i guess i don't understand the hype, do they not have a selection a of great IPAs in Cali?

I agree, I think it's just that it's "more limited"/harder to find

yea definitely. same goes for alchemist, which is a great fucking IPA but not miles better than some other widely available ones

heady topper that is

Pliny the Younger is the harder to find one. I had a glass of each last year and neither blew me away, but maybe drinking them more often, in different contexts, would make one appreciate their qualities better.

imo real hard to be blown away by an IPA. Would certainly love it if my local bar was Toronado or Prohibition Pig and I could get one of these regularly, but not really worth seeking out so much as just real good drinkin' beer.

also I chuckled at

do they not have a selection a of great IPAs in Cali?

― virtuoso thigh slapper (Jordan), Friday, January 9, 2015 12:38 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speaking of West Coast IPA, I bought a 6-pack of the Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' earlier this week. Probably around ten years ago this was my go-to beer. Now it seems really heavy and malty to me, more like Dead Guy and less like the kind of lighter, crisper IPAs that have won me over in recent years (Hop Valley, 10 Barrel (RIP)). I dunno if the recipe changed, or my tastes. More likely the latter.

my neighbor was nice enough to share a bottle of Pliny the Elder last night, my first. it was...fine? like, a really nice & balanced IPA, nothing crazy. i guess i don't understand the hype, do they not have a selection a of great IPAs in Cali?

― virtuoso thigh slapper (Jordan), Friday, January 9, 2015 9:38 AM (7 hours ago)

Hahaha, awesome. That new brew on the block Pliny sure don't taste anything like those good old west coast double IPAs our grandfathers enjoyed.

lol yeah there is some history and context that should be appreciated here.