Beer in the new era

treehouse has been around for maybe 4+ years now. they always had a little hype but since they started canning in early 2015 it's been a complete explosion.

Anyone have opinions on BA Old Rasputin? 20 bucks at my local.

don't do it

^^^Curious why you say that, although online reviews seem kinda mixed...

Also, for Chicagoans* -- a bartender friend is organizing this, should be p sweet: https://m.facebook.com/events/1285111024865343/

*except Jeff who has 6 years of BWB already ;)

Big article in Cleveland SCENE this week on our growing brewery scene and whether there's a bubble: http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/excitement-over-clevelands-brewery-explosion-has-given-way-to-questions-of-a-brewery-bubble

xxp it's just not a very good example of barrel aging and it's extremely expensive. seemed like a soft, muted version of the base beer.

I was already prob p drunk when I tried it, but I really liked the kona Hanalei ipa -- its their take on the fruity ipa style f/ guava and passionfruit or something idk. in fact, I think ive liked all konas ive tried

huh someone was talking to me abt treehouse just a few days ago, had never heard of it before but p'haps unsurprisingly as im not really an aficionado like that

Big article in Cleveland SCENE this week on our growing brewery scene and whether there's a bubble: http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/excitement-over-clevelands-brewery-explosion-has-given-way-to-questions-of-a-brewery-bubble

― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Wednesday, February 1, 2017 11:55 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha was just going to post that. it was interesting. i've been wondering about platform for a while. new cleveland palesner is a great beer. i like their porter a lot. but everytime i go to a beer store i see a new platform beer and many of them are not good. too many experiments with fruits that just don't work out. tbh that article made me like them a lot less too, it made me admire the conservatism of all the great lakes brewing people. GL has been around forever and all their beers are good and consistent

i remember liking the barrel aged old rasputin but i wouldn't buy it again, iirc it's not even a 750ml bottle. the OG is just so great on tap i'd rather have it like that.

xp Yeah, Platform is more miss than hit, but I do like a lot of theirs. The dry hopped cider they had out in December was really good, and last summer their grapefruit Veloracer was terrific.

Bottlehouse makes no attempt to sell in stores but their beers and ciders are pretty uniformly good. Their Rising Star Coffee Stout is probably the best coffee stout I've ever had.

yea i need to visit bottlehouse!! i live in lakewood. i was excited to hear that rising star opened a temporary shop within the brewery. their coffee is outstanding

phil have you been to griffin cider works?

No, not yet, but I hear a lot of good things about it. Definitely go the Bottlehouse, the Lakewood location needs the business! The Cle. Hts. location is about a mile from my house so in the summer we bike over there all the time.

Anyone have recommendations for Atlanta? Going there in March and will have a bit of time to kill.

I spent an afternoon at each of these and they were quite nice but this was several years ago:
http://www.theporterbeerbar.com/
http://www.brickstorepub.com/

The former was in Little Five Points which I kept hearing about like it was going to be some insane hipster/hippie mecca full of crazy shit...and it was like two blocks with some record stores and stuff. But man the cross section of weirdos hanging out there on a really nice Saturday afternoon in the spring was kind of ridiculous.

The latter was in Decatur and had lots on tap and the guy gave us a mini tour of his aging cellars and cask area and such.

https://twitter.com/brew_york/status/826647192173678592

should have named names

Agreed.

for real though--guy says he's been to 750 breweries and 150 of them shouldn't have been making beer! ppl with tenuous beer "journalism" gigs are so hilariously scared of pissing anyone off.

Haha, I had beers very recently with the beer guy from Paste Magazine (scroll upthread for numerous links to Paste's blind tastings/best IPA/IIPA/Stouts/etc. list-baits).

While we were in the hotel room, no fewer than 3 brewers came by and joined our smallish share (8 people) dropping off beer and chatting. All three of those brewers (admittedly all are great brewers) made his top 10 list from that event unsurprisingly.

:thinking guy emoji:

lol, and those paste lists are pretty good as far as beer writing goes!

Re: Hopslam, no kidding, they really did up production, because it is sitting around everywhere.

I just picked up a 4-pack of Half Acre's DIPA called ... Navaja? Like the idea of stuff like this, Ninja Vs. Unicorn, even Chillwave being easy to get. But then, I still like IPAs.

^i really like that Navaja, very citrus-y.

This is only on tap around town, apparently, but it's the best new thing I've had in a long time - a belgian blonde made with rye

http://www.handsomebeer.co/portfolio/rise-above/

trib writer apes Food & Wine's list, fails: http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/drink/beer/ct-most-important-beers-ever-food-0222-20170214-story.html

Really enjoying the new Untappd app. So many ways to sort beers. Handy since my local is a verified venue so I can see what they have and easily find something like the highest rated Dopplebock that I've never had.

It is like if Beer Advocate ever got their shit together on mobile.

wow, that's an impressive update. even in my little corner of mass there are a ton a verified venues. i'll use this every time i'm out.

Drinking Evil Twin Sour Bikini. Extremely tart.

would try, although I fear my peak sour enthusiasm phase has passed. preferring just shitty mexican beer with a lime these days.

guinness is pretty good. wish i had the cans with those little widgets in them that help maintain carbonation but the store only had bottles.

Don't some of the bottles also have those nitro widgets? I don't know how they get them in there, they are larger than the mouth.

I can't wait for it to get back to tecate with a lime weather

Drank an 18 year old Westvleteren Special 6 last night. Wasn't sure what it expect, but it was solid. Probably don't need to sit on beer for 18 years though.

although I fear my peak sour enthusiasm phase has passed

bad sours have proliferated too

sours are not a forgiving style. every brewery making a mediocre IPA is different than the market saturation happening right now w/ goses and berliner weisses

Bought a 12-pack of Staropramen since it was cheap. It's not as good as I remember.

Marcos what are some good sours in your opinion?

I'm not marcos, but I like the Anderson Valley Holy Gose (and the blood orange one) for relatively inexpensive ones.

Epic makes a couple good ones.

And Eagle Rock brewery (not sure what their distro is outside of Los Angeles) makes a couple, Yearling and Tarte Noir, that I really like.

Almanac has a whole line of them, but I've only had the Farmer's Reserve Citrus and maybe the plum (or was it pluot?) one.

My first sour was the Cuvee de Jacobin, which is very sour, but great when I'm in the mood for that. The Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale is also good.

i haven't tried any of nick's recommendations, they look good

i have had AV holy goes and the blood orange one, i think they are pretty good

best american goses i've had are westbrook from south carolina and lost nation from vermont

prairie from oklahoma makes outstanding sours, all of them are good imo. a little pricey but they are good

white birch from new hampshire makes a good berliner weisse.

platform here in cleveland has made a few good goses and weisses but some of them are awful. very hit or miss. they do have a sour dry-hopped cider that is excellent though

grimm from NY is excellent, very adventurous weird sours

mystic in boston can be hit or miss too but they have some good wild ales

lagunitas aunt sally is another dry-hopped sour (a cool style imo) that i think is really really good

all the pricey allagash big bottle wild ales are very interesting and well-worth trying on special occassions

i am less familiar with belgian and flemish sours

yeah those are pretty good. I got over the gose / berliner weisse / flemish sour thing pretty fast though. they're refreshing but they don't warm your belly like a good tripel or IPA or tripel IPA etc. I'm ruined for <4% beers now

jolly pumpkin in michigan has some good ones too

yea i agree xp

it is weird seeing so many of them released as winter seasonals too? goses and weisses are summer beers imo

did I post about HANSEL here? https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33098/198299/
it was not very good but I did end up drinking all four cans, I think

everybody's tryna flip the script and put out low gravity beers in winter, saving the hard hitting imperial stuff for springtime. they all stole the scheme from Bell's (winter white / oberon)