Beer in the new era

What's new now??

Around the Bend is the latest one I've tried. Both beers were good. They are contract brewing out of the Ale Syndicate space.

Beer in the old era (8/28/2010):

http://web.archive.org/web/20100828090327/http://beeradvocate.com/lists/top

Arrogant Bastard rated higher than St. Lam hahaha.

#21 Masala Mama India Pale Ale
American IPA / 5.90% ABV
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery A / 4.32 527

what the hell is this?

i'd love to see what the list looked like 10 years ago

Tasted a lot of stuff yesterday, but the best was Assassin by Topping Goliath. Wow! It was amazing.

the preponderance of session ipas now is boring and kind of annoying

like when i want a beer i do not think "yeaaa get me a session ipa!"

aw man I love those :(

all the hops, half the buzz
still haven't found anything to beat Lagunitas Daytime Ale "fractional IPA"

haha sorry sleeve

no problem, you have turned me on to gose so it's all good

also drinking a lot of Worthy's Kolsch

I've been seeing Logsdon Ales around Chicago which is a very welcome arrival. Had a Beer Hates Astronauts from Half Acre the other night, that stuff is as good or better than ZD.

Beer hates astronauts is awesome. Got a bottle of it left, need to drink it soon.

xpost to CAD a week ago: Masala Mama is the house IPA at Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. They don't bottle or can, so it's tap or growler only. And it's dang good stuff.

Firestone-Walker's Easy Jack is a pretty good session IPA. I'm getting where I don't like the buzz that comes with 2 or 3 8%-ers.

I love the rise of session IPAs and session beers in general. I only wish there were more of them and they had even lower ABVs. I bought a growler of a DIPA on friday and, while delicious, it was just too much for me.

Like that Smuttynose Hayseed is great, 3.8% and drinkable and flavorful.

hayseed is great

hayseed is a saison though, i think it is more just the lack of imagination that bothers me about session IPAs? maybe more that they are IPAs and not that they are "session" beers? maybe this is really yet again about the dominance of IPAs in the american craft scene, which i thought was waning but seems to have a resurgence now with session ipas

the low abv "session" beers i like are styles that are frequently low-alcohol by nature, e.g. gose or berlinner weisse, and i think it would be cool if more breweries explored styles like that or the "country table beer" like hayseed or mystic's "table saison" instead of creating another ipa. like sculpin for example, their line is like 1) ipa; 2) dipa; 3) grapefruit ipa; 4) session ipa and my reaction to that is like please make other styles, other styles are good!

by "sculpin" i mean ballast point obv

and okay BP does make other styles i see, i am on the east coast though and pretty much only see their 4 ipas

Ballast Point's amber has gotten some love on here iirc

IPAs are still where the wider craft market seems to be, so it's natural that session beers concentrate there.

xpost to CAD a week ago: Masala Mama is the house IPA at Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. They don't bottle or can, so it's tap or growler only. And it's dang good stuff.

― Half as cool as Man Sized Action (Dan Peterson), Monday, June 29, 2015 1:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks, crazy that a non-packaged ipa could rise that high in the rankings at one point

i've been hoping for a return of the pale ale, but with new fruity/dank/tropical hops or with interesting malt or yeast or something. westbrook one claw is a good example of this, a very drinkable ("sessionable") rye pale, plenty of peppery flavor but not too bitter. fort george oatmeal pale ale is my favorite easy-to-find canned pale, so much citrus, but unfortunately they do not make it anywhere close to the east coast. threes has some good belgian-y pales that have been hitting the spot, but definitely a growlers-only type situation

grimm super going is a gose that is just under 8% (which probably means that it is not actually a gose) but fuuuuck is that stuff tasty

that westbrook pale ale is outstanding yea

as is Fort George OPA, still a favorite

I don't know if I've ever had an oatmeal pale ale. I gotta get on that.

so good

http://fortgeorgebrewery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/OPA_PintGlass_ForSellSheet_sm.jpg

RE: NON INDIA PALE ALES --

agreed that Westbrook's One Claw is killer. I could drink that beer all goddamn day.

Grey Sail out of RI do a nice pale ale w/ some tropical/funky hops -- Flying Jenny, it is called, and I really enjoyed it. (Side not to anyone in New England who can get their beers regularly -- please send me cans of their "Captain's Daughter" imperial IPA, i have heard incredible things about it but did not see it when I was home last)

a few local, non-bottled pales that I have enjoyed are Other Half's Motueka Pale Ale and Greenpoint's Smash Street.

capt's daughter comes around here often enough. interesting beer, huge fruit bomb. i've heard there's some batch inconsistency.

next time you see it, think of your ole pal Ian, and maybe we can work out a trade for some NYC beer or something you can't get up in MA!
i looked around a lot when i was in RI a few weeks ago but no dice. i love juicy fruity IPAs.

sure no prob!

Gonna get some of this:
https://lagunitas.com/u/img/beer-images/citrusinensis-pale-ale/Citrus_12oz_Web_lr.png

Whoa, sorry. Actual size!

The Lagunitas oat pale ale, Equinox, is pretty good.

i kind of want to hate lagunitas based on their loathsome design but their beers are really really good

I don't know if I've ever had an oatmeal pale ale. I gotta get on that.

― Modern French Music from Failure to Boulez (askance johnson), Tuesday, June 30, 2015 7:34 AM (4 hours ago)

Surly Abrasive is fantastic.

al i was thinking of you the other day because we just got a drop of knee deep stuff here. picked up a simtra for me and another to share with a friend who should love it. anything else you recommend from their lineup?

I officially approve of the Lagunitas blood orange pale ale. It's tasty and easy drinkin' for 7.9. That's a hair stronger than Sucks.

re: knee deep: their citra extra pale and breaking bud are good. i thought hoptologist and batch 138 were ok to good. lupulin river is really excellent (it used to be called deep river and was a collaboration with kern river brewing)!

citrusinesis is far better than i expected it to be.

awesome! thanks for the tips

Yep, Lupulin River is the next best to Simtra imho.

i think i might like lupulin river better than simtra, but simtra is great too. just seek out any of their hoppy beers.

paging ian--ran into capts daughter at whole foods today. ilxmail me and we can work on the logistics?

:D mailed u

i always disregard knee deep for some reason, i should rectify this

a few local, non-bottled pales that I have enjoyed are Other Half's Motueka Pale Ale and Greenpoint's Smash Street

i enjoyed motueka, and will check out the greenpoint one if i see it. in terms of local stuff i've had some tasty pales from barrier as well, i dig what they do

i'm not the hugest barrier fan for some reason... maybe i just have not tried the right beers.
i like some of the stuff singlecut does; their sour cherry lager is delicious. and i've liked some of their dbl IPAs.

had a hoppy saison with simcoe and sorachi ace yesterday. the sorachi ace definitely gave a lemon pledge aroma/flavor and had an aftertaste of dill. nasty.

I recently went on a trip and brought along a Lou Pepe Kriek from Cantillon as it is my wife's favorite beer.

Unbeknownst to me, my parents met up with us and they are not big beer drinkers... actually they don't drink much alcohol at all.

After dinner one night we all came back to our room and my wife asked me to open up the LPK which I did and then poured 4 glasses.

I was curious to what my parents would think of this prized world class lambic, a prestigious beer steeped in much Belgian history but relatively unknown in the US outside of obsessive beer nerds.

My mom: "Well, this tastes just like sour cherry pie." She asked for a second pour when finished.
My dad: "Tastes like the cherry fluoride from the dentist office, no thanks." He passed the glass back to us.

LPK is the last cantillion I have left from my trip a couple of years ago. Will be a happy/sad day when I finally drink it.