Beer in the new era

Oh man, that's not what I wanted to hear, that's on my next to buy list. I love Ballast Point, love citrusy IPAs, and love grapefruit, so it's hard to believe I'm going to find it terrible but...

i think i am just not in an ipa place right now, i keep getting disappointed by them. i've kind of realized what i am looking for in an ipa and many of the most widely available ipas don't deliver that, sculpin failed for me.

when i pour an ipa into a glass and it is that totally clear amber color i immediately know that it's probably not for me, and by contrast when it's a murky, hazy unfiltered hue like heady topper or green head ipa (a local MA beer) then i get excited. i don't quite know how clarity relates to flavor in ipas but the murkier ones tend to taste more complex and maybe have less of that acidic shriek of many ipas

okay not very surprising at all i don't quite know what i'm talking about re: how beer clarity or filtration relates to flavor, it is much more complex that i had any idea of https://byo.com/hops/item/190-tips-from-the-pros-beer-clarity

lol @ "acidic shriek"

I've been a little burned out on NWIPA style for a while, looking for different styles (much to my wife's dismay, her love for hops remains unabated). ISAs are hard to find! Lagunitas Daytime Ale is pretty good.

I had a pint of PBR while I was reading a book at my local bar and it totally hit the spot

Sierra Nevada's Hoppy Lager is pretty good but limited - 7%!!

all I know about clarity is that I put irish moss or isinglass into homebrew to help clear it, my impression from brewing & reading abt it has always been that cloudiness was not a desirable factor in most cases.

Local BA Revolution has already shifted from Straightjacket to Very Mad Cow, the former of which is great, the latter of which I've never had.

duchess de bourgone tastes kinda like balasamic vinegar

also had this http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1114/97343/

it's called le roar grrrz kriek and it's a "wild ale" from bullfrog brewery. another sour beer of sorts but it had other tastes i can't really place. really weird but really cool.

Wow, you are lucky, that beer is pretty hard to come by.

Duchesse is not as vinegary to me as some Flanders' beers but I do get this uncooked hotdog flavor on the finish, kinda ruined it for me once I isolated that particular tone.

vinegar is a common note in many sours, at least the ones i've tried

it's called le roar grrrz kriek and it's a "wild ale" from bullfrog brewery.

― Treeship, Monday, February 23, 2015 8:49 PM (Yesterday)

Wow, you are lucky, that beer is pretty hard to come by.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, February 23, 2015 9:05 PM (Yesterday)

I asked a friend who has one and he says the brewery produces 250 bottles a year.

Oh i must have had the regular le roar grrrz wild ale. It was on tap at local 44

Dang, that is the one to get apparently. I need to hit up Philly soon.

Local BA Revolution has already shifted from Straightjacket to Very Mad Cow, the former of which is great, the latter of which I've never had.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, February 23, 2015 4:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went back and bought a Very Mad Cow last night (and another Straightjacket). Drank the VMC, it was decent but not as good as the barleywine.

Have to say that the Stillwater "Stereo" IPA is really good. I am not generally a stillwater fan, but I am an IPA drinker and felt compelled to know my product. Really good beer, some southern hemisphre tasting hops, not too far off Pliny IMO

have gotten to try grapefruit sculpin and i hope to heck it's around in the summer, so crushable. otoh i did not dig the sierra nevada hop hunter, had no idea what it was trying to be.

Got a couple of the grapefruit bottles I'm hoping to down this weekend.

A couple of pleasant surprises on the shelf:

Brickstone's Dark Secret, Russian Imperial Stout brewed with local coffee roaster beans. This won an award a bit back and I thought it was a one-off, but a few more cases were I guess released.
New Holland's Dragon's Milk with raspberry: the chili variety was relatively easy to find, but I thought this came and went months ago.
Revolution's Very Mad Cow: one of the weaker of their BA beers, this one is an aged milk stout. Barrel comes through at a lower temp, but as it warmed up the milk stout characteristics really came through.
Off Color Dino S'Mores: Often hard to find, but they must be making more. It was OK. Sort of subtle.

Learned that barely any of the Central Waters reserve brews made it down here, for some reason. May take a quick trip up to WI. Or maybe down to Gary to try 18th Street Brewery, which is apparently killing it but not available outside of northern IN yet.

love:

http://winedinewith.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Spencer-Trappist-Ale-Bottle-e1390272040107-768x1024.jpg

never thought i'd see the day when i had a local trappist ale to drink!

lovely beer at an appalling price point.

I should be getting some Pliny the Younger tomorrow.

First trip to Surly taproom tomorrow for my birthday tomorrow, I will destroy all these beers.

happy birthday

speaking of first trips to taprooms, I went to Half Acre's tonight

wait sorry lol I meant Revolution, honestly officer I'm really not drunk

There's a Surly tap takeover here this week.

I may drink a beer today.

praying for u Jeff

solo'ed a bomber of Sump. Wish all coffee tasted like this.

I am having a beer. Off Color Bare Bear.

I am having a beer, too. Bell's Expedition Stout.

Had the PtY, and also a Russian River Supplication, a sour, wine barrel aged beer, which I liked even better.

new holland/night tripper imperial stout - boooooooze. this is fantastic tbh, i like bitter boozey ashy imperial stouts and this one also nails the right mouthfeel.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, April 23, 2014 10:01 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a delightful byproduct of new holland distributing here is that 4-packs of this beer just showed up. best non-ba imperial stout i've had.

2014 New Holland Blue Sunday Sour? Fucking amazing.

Dark Lord? Prepare for blasphemy. Ehhh.

Supplication mmmmm

I tried that Hop Hunter, it was OK? I feel like I could at least taste the "fresh distilled hop oil" flavor.

picked up a 6-pack of Racer 5 in NorCal over the weekend, what a solid and drinkable supermarket IPA. I don't see it around on tap so much anymore.

I love racer 5 but it's totally vanished from my area, haven't seen it in at least two years. The beer guy at my hippie co-op said they had some distribution problems but I don't know if that was everywhere or just here.

xps Ooooh 4 packs? I'm going to have to keep an eye peeled for those. I love that stuff and it'd be nice to have it in smaller than bomber volume. I recently drank a bottle of Night Tripper that I had in my beer closet for almost a year; I'm still a little unconvinced about aging beer but it was damn good either way.

Also there was apparently a one-off BA version of it, too: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/77438/

cad where are you seeing new holland? my local stores don't have it :(

haven't had racer 5 in a while but i do remember it being pretty good

new holland six packs popped up at most of my normal places in camb/somerville (downtown, pemberton, etc.) but night tripper i've only seen at ball sq. fine wine.

yea i need a better beer store. west rox isn't great for liquor stores, though i guess there is a blanchard's but it seems far from where i live and consistently charges $1-2 more whatever it is i'm buying. JP has a very small but cool store (http://streetcarwines.com/) but it is also a little pricier

streetcar is one of the stores that gets trillium bottles i think so pick those up if you haven't

oh yea will do, i didn't know that

people are loving the cigar city/sam black church collaboration beer "captain of the world" but i COULD NOT HANG. it could have been my pre-knowledge of the brewing secret ingredient (not listed on the can) but all i could taste was rosemary. other ppl love it tho, so wtf do i know.

I don't like herby beers. DFH saison du buff is one of the worst liquids I've ever tasted.

i think i agree with that general statement. i am not a fan of stillwater's "cellar door" which has white sage... thought it was groosssss

I've had Epic's sage beer and like it, but it's rare that I'm in the mood for that.

New Glarus Enigma lived up to the name.

Surly is back in Chicago, with Abrasive and Doomtree in tow

Wait, hasn't Surly been back for a couple of years now?