Beer in the new era

session IPAs are useless to me tbh, even if I've had plenty that are pretty good. If I want an IPA I want a real one, and if I want a 4% beer I'd pick something else in a style that is like traditionally a low abv beer

― marcos, Wednesday, November 25, 2015 12:48 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly.. I dont want the bud select version of what I actually want to drink

I've got such a rant about American microbrew all ready to go, I'll spare the board, though

do it

It's probably a total challop but I perceive this kind of mad scientist mentality w/r/t ingredients and recipes etc which is admirable of course.. but I feel like "basic-ness" for lack of a better term is scarce. It's like we're in the Oasis - Be Here Now era of beers. Everything is all turbo hopped up and flowery and has millions of notes. Just seems a little outa control, a runaway train. I'm a native Californian.

I'm a Hefeweizen worshipping philistine too, fwiw, so I'm probably not even qualified to opine on beer

Don't even ask me about west coast wheat beers

preach it, I'm a hophead but I can dig yr criticism, it'll be interesting to see how many of these 30-tap bottleshop/growler places are still around in 5-10 years. sometimes it's just all too much.

o and also, at least in the Pac NW, I am seeing more single hop styles which is kinda nice

This year's batch of BCBS is pretty nice off the bat, seems like previous years had a bit more heat when fresh.

Also, the 15 Prop sounds not as tasty as 13-14 imho.

Heard too sweet. I'll happily judge for myself.

It's pretty darn sweet, but I like sweet.

exactly.. I dont want the bud select version of what I actually want to drink

I like F-W's Easy Jack, and (in my dotage) find lower alcohol IPAs that are still beers I want to drink a very good thing.

i left out the part about the "hops race" etc shit being emblematic of American insecurity w/r/t its own culture... connect it to the "you're supposed to eat/drink it with/like this" American affectation I swung my cane around about last week

yeah, i think it's a certain generation of american brewers feeling beholden to certain styles/classic examples and not having a strong background in european styles.

Everything about this year's Bourbon County release seems like a paradox push to make bottles more available, less practical and even less of a deal. First there's the decision to get rid of the 4-pack (the ideal way to sell/drink that beer, imo) and package it as weirdly shaped single bottles. Then the prices per bottle have really gone bad. From Binny's:

Brand Stout - $10
Barleywine - $13
Coffee - $13
Rye - $24
Prop - $24
Rare - $65

Someone did the math, and per case, it's something like a 30% drop in volume, for those slightly inflated prices. I dunno, man. I like the beer, but the whole thing is annoying. On the plus side, it all seems to show up on tap pretty often.

Not even gonna sweat getting any, it's not worth my time.

Got confirmation I'm getting the option to buy the full suite from my local. They have a Dutch auction with reward points you've accumulated by buying stuff there. Clearing bid was 710 points. I bid 3600, so I was pretty sure I had it.

For some reason my local grocer has Troubadour Magma Special Edition 2013 "Galaxy" on sale for like $10 / 750ml. This is 1. crazy? where did they find this? 2. Fucking Awesome

I picked up a pack of the Anchor Steam 2015 christmas brew, but haven't cracked one open yet. Gonna wait till tomorrow.

Picked up barrel aged Narwhals out in prairie-ass Minnesota, really good! Also found NG Milk Stout in Wisconsin but haven't tried it yet.

I love going to rural stores with good selections. Dudes are carrying out 120 cans of Coors Light and I get my pick of stuff that disappears within hours of hitting the shelves in Chicago. And so cheap!

Let us know about the Anchor Steam, I may break down and get one of the 3 liter bottles, because it'd look cool on my shelf.

FYI, Jeff, Rare is solid but not worth the $60, imo. You get a bit more of the oak, but to my tastes was not as radically distinct as, say, Prop or Rye. Cool souvenir to have, though!

drank regal rye and this year's coffee tonight, both were tremendous

^^^ Yep, both awesome. Also Rare 15 which is not in the same league as Rare 10 imho but a decent BBA stout with serious upside, I'm not gambling on that though.

i really enjoyed how different they were. regal was thinner and more tart than the earlier fruit variants. i think the salt was doing something really interesting in there.

coffee was not an attempt at a fresh coffee stout at all, more like a thick coffee milkshake. totally decadent and awesome.

Boy the Anchor christmas brew is damn good this year. Last year's was more flowery, this year's is more chocolately and malty.

Bourbon County release handled as well as can be at Costco. Four bottles of regular per customer, I believe $7.99 each, and they wrote down your member ID with purchase and then checked all purchases against that list to thwart double-dippers. And thwart they did.

Dang, that's the cheapest I've seen.

I'm only getting 2 bottles of reg from my place, hope to stumble on a few more. I love having it saved to drink throughout the year.

Whole Foods release is ... 12/4 I think?

today i hit a few different places and got 6 regulars, a coffee, and a barleywine. missed a bottle of regal by one place in line.

session IPAs are useless to me tbh

I kind of felt that way until I tried the Otter Creek Over Easy. It's like a weird cross between a piney, skunky American IPA and a crisp, refreshing pilsner. It shouldn't work but it does.

The funny thing, if you focus for a while on high ABV beers, then suddenly 7% seems reasonable.

haha true

xxp otter creek in general is really good

which is weird bc like 6-8 years ago i do not remember them being very good? idk if the beer was revamped too when they did the whole logo redesign but once they started showcasing the brewmaster series things started getting a lot better, they used to just be a boring VT brewery but somewhere things started getting really good

the attempt to fit in better with the vt scene was not surprising, the fact that mike gerhart turned out to have a really interesting and distinctive take on that scene definitely was.

I think some places just hone their craft (pun intended) and improve their products. When Revolution first opened in Chicago I was totally unimpressed, but over the past few years they have gotten exponentially better across the board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=101&v=V5YO5gOGZlA

Goddammit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5YO5gOGZlA

Revolution Deth's Tar is as good as BCBS regular IMO.

And so much easier to get.

i don't love bcbs regular this year as much as usual but i was not impressed by deth's tar at all

Yeah, it's not their best. I have a bottle from a couple of years ago I should try though.

Found a couple more regulars today. Really miss the 4 packs. At least for reg.

yeah i've stopped looking b/c the new format is really unpleasant for one person to drink ime

i haven't been in my local beer shop v much recently (was finishing off a box of jai alai instead) but i went in today and got some cool stuff - victory java cask, a large bottle of lagunitas sucks, this terrapin/cigar city double IPA collab called vapricot, and free will blood and guts. free will has been putting out some tremendous sours recently. i had another free will sour off the tap that was great too - cuvee aigre was super funky.

Genuinely surprised to hear you say that CAD, I think it gets things right that a lot of the pretenders to the throne like Central Waters and Dragon's Milk never really did, namely the body. To each their own of course!

apparently i have no notes on it but i remember the body being good, think it was more the flavor that was lacking in my mind

Any of you French press stuff into your stouts? Been meaning to try, and Deth's Tar seems like a more than solid enough base for experimentation.

Agree the new BCBS bottles suck. Four packs were ideal. This, less so.

I don't mind drinking 500 ml at a time (but I'm the guy who will finish a bottle of red wine in one sitting if I'm not paying attention), but the price increase kind of angered me: $6.50 for 12 oz last year vs $12 for 17 oz this year. I got one bottle this year, may try for a second tomorrow.

Anyone try the recent Stone barrel aged? I bought a Double Bastard in the Rye (haven't tried it yet) and noticed today at WF that they have 3 more barrel-aged low volume beers.

Found a couple of bottles of Destihl's Dosvendanya, one bourbon barrel aged, the other rye. Did really well at FOBAB and have heard good things.