Beer in the new era

I had the Pipeworks Lebowski beer last night. Weird.

For the first time ever, as far as I can tell, the central waters Bourbon Barrel stout was a behind the counter deal at Binny's, rather than just sitting on the shelf for weeks.

That's wild. I could have bought at least two cases of it when I was in MN just before Christmas.

Just taking some time off to get out of the 2 beers a night to relax habit. Will drink again on Friday for this: http://localoptionbier.com/2015/01/09/catalina-wine-mixer-part-1-beer-event-012315-3pm/

Good luck! It's honestly hard for me to determine how much drinking could be a problem, even potentially. I don't drink that much, and it's not in my blood, and I didn't grow up drinking a lot, but I do wonder: one a night? Two a night? Two glasses of wine a night? A beer and then a sip of bourbon several hours later? Other times I wonder, can a beer a night be a problem? Isn't that better than a couple of cookies a night, or at least on par? The fact that you run regularly should more than ameliorate any problems, but then, just because one works to counter bad habits, does that make a habit any less bad? I dunno.

My kids have been trained enough by society that when they see me drinking a beer they sometimes complain that I'm always drinking a beer, without making the distinction that more often than not I'm drinking a beer, over the course of a long time.

CDC says 2 a day max

For men, heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming 15 drinks or more per week.

i have no problem with a beer a night 5-6 nights a week, and then maybe on a weekend having a couple more in a night

Yeah, I don't think I had a huge problem, but there were negatives. 2 beers would be a light buzz (unless it was 2 bourbon county's or 2 whole bombers), so it's not like I'm getting wasted every night. But it does make me feel sloth like, especially when I'm not running as much because of this foot injury I have now. I don't need those calories either or the questionable food choices that the 2 beers would lead to. It does save some money too.

Certainly NOT eliminating it all together, I enjoy beer too much.

I think I have more than 15 drinks a week most weeks. Been drinking more whiskey than beer lately though.

I should pull my data to see exactly how much I was drinking.

OK, since December 2010, I've averaged 13.57 beers a week. If I just look at the last year, 18.3 per week. Last year it was 13.6 a week.

I meant:

2014 - 18.3 a week
2013 - 13.6 a week

there are four drinks in a bottle of whiskey, right

two pints, so four drinks in two bottles.

approx

thanks omar, I am not good with calculations

I was curious about consumption as I do a 1-2 mid/large-sized beer shares a week and last night I tracked how much I consumed (my taster glass had fl oz hashes). The total was 54 fluid ounces of weighted average 6.2% ABV. So that was just shy of a 6 pack of something like Lagunitas IPA or equivalent. It was spread across 9 different beers.

2 a week! I mostly drink alone or with my friends on TV programs.

Shows how good my math is the morning after a share and pre-coffee: 54 fl oz. = 4.5 x 12 oz beers or 75% of a 6-pack.

One interesting phenomenon I've noticed on beernerd social media is people taking immaculately composed pictures of a single beer* with proper glassware (*sometimes those high-teen ABV bombers/750s of adjunct stouts). If anything makes it onto social media in my circles it's like some blurry potato pic of the remnants of a bottle share: http://i.imgur.com/UN2oACF.jpg

I've talked to my doctor about drinking and he seems fine with a beer a day, maybe two on weekends, and I usually stick to that but sometimes it flexes. I don't think it's ever less than a drink a day. He's also of the opinion that having a cigarette once in a while isn't a big deal and is probably better for you than living in a place with shitty air pollution.

I've got a lot of alcoholics and addicts in my family and hearing them talk about drinking makes me feel like I've got absolutely nothing to worry about. I can have a beer, or three, and realize that I've had enough and will feel bad if I have another so I don't. My three-years-sober, regular AA meeting relative just looks at me like I'm crazy when I talk about this as it's something he simply never experienced at all - like why, if you were not unconscious, would you stop drinking unless you ran of out alcohol and were unable to get any more?

Yeah, I'm usually a two-and-done sort of guy, even on weekends. Never more than three drinks when we're grilling with friends or somthing.

apparently we get Ballast Point in WI now, cool.

(in my house it's one beer pretty much every night, two on weekends)

It's mostly a nutrition thing for me rather than thinking I'm going to be come an alcoholic. 18 beers a week at roughly 250 calories each is 4500 calories a week I'm getting from beer. That's like two days of eating worth of calories from beer that I probably don't need, especially when you look at my weight trend.

Yeah, I'm usually a two-and-done sort of guy, even on weekends. Never more than three drinks when we're grilling with friends or somthing.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea this is me, too.

on new year's eve this year we had some friends over, it was the first "party" we had in a while and there were a bunch of toddlers running around. i went a little crazy and drank FOUR or mayyyybe FIVE beers and after all the friends left at 8pm and i was putting my kid to bed i started getting super nauseous in the rocking chair. as soon as my kid was asleep i immediately threw up in the toilet.

Yeeah, on new year's eve I realized I had had like five beers and a glass of champagne and that is way more than I ever drink. This was over the course of like 7 hours though.

and I am also way more worried about calories/$$$ wrt to beer consumption than I am about becoming an alcoholic or anything

I've only been hung over twice, maybe three times, ever. Jeff, one time was actually after I met you guys at WF (long story). Barfed once, in college. Sangria.

I found a Sucaba just sitting on the grocery store shelf today! Felt good.

Whew boy, I've been hungover in my life. But I'm probably down to maybe 5 to 10 times a year. I should track it.

Hungover, with kids, is the worst anything ever.

xp - apparently sucaba doesn't have as much of a following as their other limited stuff? i see it on shelves all the time, the guy at the brewery was saying that it's one of the least popular. it's delicious, i feel like people might just not comprehend that abacus and sucaba are the same thing?

wish i had the chance to head to their barrelworks facility in buellton, but was able to try a good amount of firestone stuff in paso when i was in the area last week. surprised how much i liked stickee monkee actually, probably my favorite quad in a while (though it is prob technically an old ale). agrestic and double dba were pretty good also, but i was not impressed with the velvet merkin (i think they only have this at the brewery? was boozier and more intense than the merlin) nor the velvet mocha merlin. too roasty and bitter for my tastes, still haven't tried parabola but sorta thinking i wouldn't shell out $25 or w/e for something with a similar grain profile

I've only been hung over twice, maybe three times, ever.

I was once like you

this is relevant, i had no idea how many calories were in a high ABV craft beer (and it's actually less than i thought/feared):

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/31/374187472/if-youre-toasting-for-health-beer-may-be-a-good-bet

psychgawsple: Parabola is way better than Velvet Merkin, different base beer. Definitely worth tracking down in March or I could ship you a 2014. Actually, I'm going to be in your fair city this weekend. I could mule one to you in exchange for more of that delicious Apricot Bu.

Also, a polite thank you for moving this thread away from that fascinating "homebodies gone wild" subplot.

I think FW is discontinuing DDBA. That was the one I saw hanging around the most. Sucaba maybe second. The others - Parabola, Anniversary, Velvet Merkin, etc. - they go pretty quickly.

2x on DDBA hanging around. Is it Sucaba season?

Surprised to see that the Old Stock Cellar Reserve Ale does not seem to be flying off the shelves.this year is back in bourbon barrels, & I have heard great things. At least of previous iterations.

xp - apparently sucaba doesn't have as much of a following as their other limited stuff? i see it on shelves all the time, the guy at the brewery was saying that it's one of the least popular. it's delicious, i feel like people might just not comprehend that abacus and sucaba are the same thing?

Sucaba is one of my favorite beers! And FW vintage beers are a non-entity in my town, sadly. Sitting on a 2014, some day I'll decide is special enough to warrant opening it...

can anyone say why clarity in beer is a desirable feature? most of the beers i've been enjoying lately are murky and hazy, and some styles are by their nature pretty cloudy too so i can't quite understand why there is so much talk about clarity being such a good thing in beer

because some people just have a bunch of shit floating in their beer`

has anybody tried this. gonna grab some on tap after work today
http://brewtallyinsane.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DSC_0642-e1391277967934.jpg

haven't tried it, no, that's the same combination of ingredients in the stone xocoveza stout iirc

It's "The Bomb".

Don't take that on a plane.

Bomb is fantastic. More of a chile/coffee punch than Xocoveza had.

yea xocoveza was very heavy on the vanilla, i wasn't a fan

Very encouraged by finding Dino S'mores in Whole Foods today, the first I have seen it in the wild.

I've looked down on He'Brew beers before, but I had Death of a Contract Brewer black IPA tonight without knowing it was their beer, and man it's delicious.

Josh, did you end up going to uppers downers?

Did we talk about paradox brewing yet? Because holy fuck it's the best us sour thing happening right now imo.