Beer in the new era

90 minute is pete smith's fave, but yeah, the 60 is fine for me.

This would either be Sam's (North/Clybourn area) or Binny's (Clark/Belmont area). Yeah, I bet there are probably a number of craft breweries that you wouldn't necessarily see at your corner liquor store that have a presence at one of those warehouse places.

It was Sam's, which is pretty awesome. I got the Harpoon and a couple of other random east-coast beers that I hadn't seen before there. I think I actually bought the Gumballhead at some hole-in-the-wall liquor store elsewhere.

agree that this regionalism is funny, like i don't mean anything by this but it's weird thinking abt you guys seeking out harpoon because in boston it's really ubiquitous and (imo) nothing special.

I need to try Gumballhead.

When given the choice I'll always try something new that I can't get locally, and yeah a lot of them are nothing special but you never know, they could be great.

I honestly really like Gumballhead a lot though and would eagerly buy again when I can.

harpoon is alllll over the northeast. it is the beer of choice for work functions. and it's not a favorite, but it's fine.

yea, it's totally nothing special and i rarely buy it (northeast has too many good-to-great choices that i'd rather have) but it's a decent brewery. happy to drink it if it's there

actually their winter warmer was pretty good

maaaaaaaan, I really wish I had a Terrapin Rye Pale Ale right about now.

inspired partly by this thread, I stopped by the liquor store on the way home from work. They didn't have the sour ale mentioned upthread, but they did have this:
http://beernews.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/haandbryggeriet-haandbakk_site.jpg

Norwegian sour beer! I think I could heavily into this shit, if it wasn't so expensive.

According to a brewer I spoke to recently, sour is set to be the new bitter in beerland.

whoa that'd be interesting

at first i'd say that i don't really see it catching on much, seems to be an acquired taste (some sours are really, uh, SOUR), but then again you could easily say the same for floral hop bitterness which obv. has tons of fans

Yeah, though I'm not sure how much the popularity of uber-hopped beer extends outside a relatively small circle of beer nerds. Also, my girlfriend had a sip of the Norwegian sour and immediately said, "that's completely disgusting." Though she doesn't really like any strong/intense beers, so...

"that's completely disgusting."

lol yea the bartender who served me the flemish sour red ale i mentioned upthread prefaced the pour w/ "this absolutely terrible"

admit that it had an almost vinegary taste, but i didn't think it was so bad. was definitely interested, would try again. basically i just need to determine whether or not i can get into them

some liqour store just opened here in aurora/naperville, il and they had bottles of the DFH 120 min IPA. awesome, i hadn't seen it around since September.

jaymc, the guys who run the two brothers brewery in warrenville also run the windy city distro i believe... either that or they are right next door.

Bell's Hopslam is absolutely one of my favorites... maybe my third favorite double/imperial ipa after the 90 minute and Three Floyds Dreadnaught.

Have you been to the Two Brothers Brewery, Todd? I was thinking about going on their free brewery tour sometime.

actually their winter warmer was pretty good

lol harpoon winter warmer has to be the most polarizing beer ever (unless sours take off). everyone i know is firmly love or firmly hate (i am the latter). other harpoons (ipa, ufo, summer) are drinkable but there's almost always something better around. i guess i should have the ipa again, i haven't done so in ages.

there's almost always something better around.

that's pretty it wrt harpoon

tho they have this big beer series out, think maybe an IPA and a tripel? something else maybe? anyone know if they're any good? i haven't tried them yet b/c, yea, there's usually something better to choose from

pretty *much it

uh oh: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123976316293519743.html#mod=djemEditorialPage

In their sober unwisdom, the state's pols plan to raise taxes by 1,900% on . . . beer. The tax would catapult to $52.21 from $2.60 a barrel.
...
But Democrats who run the legislature are desperate for the revenues to help pay for Oregon's 27.9% increase in the general fund budget last year. If they have their way, every time a worker steps up to the bar and orders a cold one, his tab will rise by an extra $1.25 to $1.50 a pint.

i will write a letter to your congressman, just gimme the info. fuck a beer tax.

there's a restaurant in l.a. that pours an insanely good pint of old rasputin, and i believe also serves up allagash curieux (which is still one of the best beers i've ever had.) most recent discovery:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Kwak.jpg

yea the curieux is outstanding

can't say the same about allagash white, tho. i've had it on draft a few times and thought it was pretty good. bought a 4-pack a few weeks ago and was really underwhelmed

i had a really good allagash which i've been unable to find since called musette; i picked up a 750 ml bottle of it in chicago. i think the white is okay but i think it really suffers in comparison to the curieux and several other allagash brews.

what was the musette like? i think i may have had it a few weeks ago

I've ordered Kwak at Hopleaf just for the chemistry-lab set-up. Beer's pretty good, too.

the musette is pretty dope. not quite as strong as the curieux but slightly similar in style.

http://www.allagash.com/musette.htm

okay i did not have that. sounds awesome tho. belgian-style scotch ale. i got pretty into scotch ales this past winter, they're delicious

i actually had kwak in belgium. it's really funny to be in a restaurant where everyone has this ridic glass in a big wooden stand and no one is really considering that it's weird. mostly when i was there i just hit the duvel tho.

I wish there was somewhere to get Old Rasputin on tap around here. Someone fill a brother in.

where r u?

brooklyn, NY.
surely there's at least somewhere in manhattan, one of the many gourmet beer bars.

yea no clue about new york. i did have it on tap a couple weeks ago at delaney's tap room in new haven, CT. ha, not sure if rasputin is worth that much to you but delaney's is a pretty incredible beer bar. make a day trip out of it and get some new haven pizza too

will maybe stop by next time i'm going to RI via automobile; lunch & beer break.

http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/distributor.htm

any of you peeps lucky enough to be in the distribution area of the Yards brewery in philly should def try the new "brawler" ale they have out. a friend of mine brought out a case of it when she came to visit and it is AMAZING.

http://www.yardsbrewing.com/ales_brawler.asp

nice label

The beer for Wondermark readers.

Warming up with Negro Modelo's with lemon wedges. Will soon proceed to Grimbergen.

Okocim O.K. 16oz.x4pack you are O.K. w/ me!

jaymc, I have been to the two brothers brewery many times! I haven't been on the tour, but it looks like a run-of-the-mill microbrew tour. Basically just one big room with big vats.

The restaurant that is attached is fantastic though. Tasty food, all of their currents on tap and always something on cask (hit and miss, but always interesting). Last time I went, I had their coffee porter, domaine dupage and cain & ebel.

http://www.twobrotherstaphouse.com/

Okocim, the official deuce-deuce of the Greenpoint deli!

I am also determined to go at some point to the Two Brothers brewpub, and Three Floyds too. Maybe Flossmoor. Chicago's southern suburbs are a wonderland of beer.

Though upon further investigation, Two Brothers is in the western suburbs...

Victory Prima Pils -- bought cuz it was on sale/being promoted at the liquor store, and it's A+. Normally skeptical of pils, just cuz of Bud et al., but this is really, really good. A nice break from the over hopped American IPAs I've been drinking lately

^ yea that's just a flat-out awesome beer. i'm a big fan of pilsners, and tbh i think regular bud or lol 'bud heavy' as it's known is a good beer

Swearing by ThunderHead IPA, which I never heard of before (brewed by Pyramid Breweries Inc. in Portland and Berkely) since moving to Austin, where I can't find Harpoon in the stores like I could in Queens. (Regular Harpoon in the blue-labeled bottle, that is; their yellow-labeled summer brew was too acidic, and the dark-green-labeled winter one too thick.)

Still stick to Stella where it's on tap, though.