Beer in the new era

I still have the one I traded you for. When will I ever drink it?????

yes, i meant the anniversary blends, which have been pretty incredible lately.

yea I've never tried parabola but I haven't been terribly impressed with any of the other 3 or 4 firestone walker beers I've tried

OverratedTM

Of their barrel-aged beers I've had Sucaba, Parabola, and DBA, and I think DBA was the best. That may have been situational, though.

I spent a couple hours at Lagunitas tap room today, they had an oat pale ale and a rye barrel-aged stout on draft that were both much better than a lot of their standard offerings. Nice space, too.

I am drinking a standard Lagunitas IPA right now

a lot of the FW limited stuff is pretty legit but i do agree that the price and hype are generally disproportionate to the quality. feel like the hype has a lot to do with how long they've been making beers like that (distro is obv important too), same goes for russian river and deschutes and all sorts of first-wave west coast craft brewers. i guess they get points for originality? idk. somehow north coast has escaped this fate and continues to make tasty underrated and highly distributed stuff like old stock and old rasputin, north coast rules

speaking of overrated - nugget nectar. wtf. is it just that it's not fresh at this point?

otm about north coast. old rasputin is such a reliable and consistent imperial stout, one of the best imo. Had it on draft yesterday

also otm about nugget nectar, troegs in general is not that great. I have the "troegenator" (such a terrible name btw) in my fridge now and I was excited about an American doppelbock that is highly rated but it is just not that great imo

i'm sure i've said this before but anything fw puts in a barrel is well worth drinking. their standard lineup is perfectly good too but it runs into price/freshness issues here.

north coast really isn't that different, they have very good beers that can sit for years on a shelf and then they have red seal ale, when was the last time you even thought about red seal or scrimshaw?

nugget nectar is a great example of a beer seemed very innovative like 8 years ago but isn't going to impress too many people nowadays.

i was mainly thinking about the old stock and old rasputin variants wrt north coast, i see red seal and scrimshaw on shelves all the time but have never even considered purchasing them much less forming an opinion

and ok the history/context definitely helps makes sense of nugget nectar. i remember some mild excitement over IRAs a few years back so i'm sure an "imperial amber" was pretty unique 8 years ago, especially such a hop-forward one.

probably 4 or so years ago whenever GI BCB got really difficult to obtain, a friend and I were both at the exact same agreement of "at least no one's realized how great North Coast Old Stock actually is."

i dig it fresh but it actually seems to reward aging ime! and the affordability factor kinda makes it perfect for verticals, similar to bigfoot.

the cellar reserve version is predictably even better but much less affordable.

Praise Allah for Ballast Point putting Victory At Sea into 6-packs. Also heard they will start canning GF Sculpin.

Seems easier and cheaper to get than many of its ilk, so I highly recommend tracking down a couple of bottles of Lagunitas's High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout.

After 3+ weeks of trying to give up beer for Lent I broke down and cracked one of the grapefruit Sculpins in my fridge. It's a bit *too* fruit forward for me, but I do like the bitter hop balance. Very good, just not the nirvana I was hoping for. (And will probably go down better if they're still doing it this summer.)

i kind of reassessed my thoughts on that troegenator double bock, i had it with some very sharp garlicky pesto and an arugula salad with some strong cheese last night and its heavy maltiness balanced out the sharpness of the salad and pasta really really well, it was kind of exquisite man

yeah, troegenator is probably my favorite troegs beer - i had a variation that was bourbon barrel aged + it was great. also if you ever make it to the actual brewery they have some bottled sours that can only be purchased on premise that are far-out and also they make a great grilled cheese sandwich

Parabola is out and about.

Evil twin nomader Weiss. Good.

Yeah, wow, the Lagunitas High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout is a steal at $8.99. Don't get a lot of coffee from it, but as far as a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout goes, it's excellent. And for a (supposedly) limited release, I've seen it all over, especially at Whole Foods, which has been my go to as of late for reasonable beer hunting. They get smaller quantities of stuff in than Binny's does, but they're fair. No tweeting out new arrivals for beer nerds, no dudes stalking the loading doc. If you ask them when something is coming in (like, say, Parabola yesterday), they'll tell you, and they might even save you a bottle. Binny's, it's gotten to the point where I just don't trust the way they operate when it comes to special releases. Then again, I made a point of running around less than I did last year, so maybe I am the problem.

I gave up on Binny's long, long ago. Worthless store, imho, though maybe just because of the ones around my house. The one in Skokie, in particular, is absolutely shady about handling special releases. I can't tell you how many times I've been in there to ask about something, been able to literally see the boxes of them behind the counter, only to be told "nope, never got any". Fuck 'em. I won't spend money there.

Funny coincidence: Binny's just stopped tweeting new releases or otherwise announcing limited stuff. Rumor has it they will be introducing a loyalty card of some kind, which is fine by me, because right now their card is stupid, or at least does nothing for beer purchases.

I'm not as bothered by the tweeting of new releases as I am by how blatantly they hold stuff back for friends. At least pretend a toss a couple bottles out on the shelf.

Man, it's been a couple of years since I've seen anything special in the beer n bourbon scene actually make it to the shelf. Even modestly scarce but regularly released stuff, like Grapefruit Sculpin, or Zombie Dust, or Dino S'mores, barely sticks around for more than a few hours.

I like the way my place does it. They have a rewards program where you get points for every purchase. When a special release happens, you bid those points to get an option to buy an allotment. That's it. No stress, no waiting in line, you just go pick up your beer.

Man, it's been a couple of years since I've seen anything special in the beer n bourbon scene actually make it to the shelf. Even modestly scarce but regularly released stuff, like Grapefruit Sculpin, or Zombie Dust, or Dino S'mores, barely sticks around for more than a few hours.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 20, 2015 1:43 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

distro issues are so weird. grapefuit sculpin has been available in my very unremarkable but decent local beer store in boston for months

I always hear tales of Bourbon County Stout sticking around on shelves in New England, even NYC.

I'm in Capitola, CA currently, headed to Sante Adarius Rustic Ales with my brother in law very soon. Thanks to Al B for the recommendation!

jealous!

No bottles to go. :(

Fuck me, this thread's American now

Halfway through a Hanssens Oude Gueuze and let's just say it made me post to this thread despite enormous reservations - possibly the best lambic I've ever quaffed (hi nakho!)

my gf is midway through imbibing (hi!) the st bernardus tripel, which is exceptionally elegant and summery of execution

have moved onto the liefmans goudenband, which is a fine dark red lambic, perhaps not as intense as rodenbach grand cru but highly drinkable and full-bodied

gf is onto liefmans kriek which gives a far above-average fruit beer sip & comes recommended

On the Montmorency vs Balaton Blend 2 Release

We managed to stop several people throughout the course of the weekend who attempted to go through the Montmorency vs Balaton line multiple times. However, other people were successful in breaking the limit. Certain individuals managed to go through the line more than once by removing the ink stamp applied to each customer’s hand upon purchasing a bottle and/or by using disguises to fool our staff.

lol

So Sante Adarius was badass despite the lack of bottles. Had their house saison, Anaïs, a berlinner weiss called MF Choom, and some of my BiL's IPA. All were tasty. Serious indie nerds working at that place with MF Choom + "I See A Darkness" as beer names. Fun joint, and only a mile from the ridic beach house we were staying at. Wish I'd had more time there.

Scored a grip of Russian River at a store in SJ that Al B suggested, too. They had a bottle of Abacus (not Sucaba) in there for $100 and a bunch of Cantillon behind the counter because people try to rip it off, I guess.

berlinner weiss is such a tasty style

dan m: you did NOT get to try any West Ashley at SARA????

i'm really into bocks now

xp nope :(

When I win the beer lottery, I will send you a case.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/johnjusten/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-03/94C7C563-9446-482C-82F2-88C8EBF07A50.png

Welcome your teeth peeling sour overlord, fyi

damn just saw that today but didn't buy, I should have

sour bikini sounds... wrong

is it brewed with crotch yeast?

lol yes th name is godawful, which is basically why I didn't buy it

And at $12 it's also 2.7%ABV putting it somewhere between kombucha, vanilla extract, non-alcohol beer & a watery berlinerweiße.

lol

haha, tbf though i've had 3-4% beers that are very complex and tasty

Even if I like a beer, paying full price for something in the 2-3% range just seems wrong.

I've been going all-in at Holy Mountain here in Seattle. Great crew of dudes, great taste in music, incredible mix of classic styles and some fancier sour/brett fermented offerings. Their Celestial Lineage Imperial Milk Stout tasted better than any adjunct heavy cocoa-cream-vanilla-chile stout I've had all year.

Seattle's also getting Alpine and E. House no. 9 kegs now too. Going to be a good summer.