Beer in the new era

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)

"sour ipa" seems like such a dumb american novelty style, like the stupidly obvious next step in dumb craft beer trends, but man i fucking LOVE them

if we are still talking sours, I want to shout out Paradox's Skully Barrel line which I have found to be top to bottom amazing

I don't have access to or the budget for a lot of sours, but New Belgium La Folie is my favorite. Monk's Cafe Flemish, mentioned upthread, is good too.

Upland, Cascade, Desthil, Prairie, WeldWerks, Boulevard all do great sours.

I paid $28 for an Upland Peach the other day and it was absolutely worth it.

Boulevard does great at everything in my experience

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

along these lines, new belgium 'la folie' is one of the best beers i've ever had, def worth 14/15 for a bomber if you see one

cool i will give it a try. new belgium is generally good ime

though i confuse them with new holland which is also pretty good

A friend brought over a 1989 Bigfoot Barleywine a couple months ago, it held up pretty well. I think it was either the 2nd or 3rd batch that Sierra Nevada produced.

Also that same friend brought a 2003 Westvleteren XII to a share 2 weeks ago. He loves old beer.

Forgot about La Folie, I agree, it's very impressive. Haven't tried this year's though.

Never got around to trying Aunt Sally, though I meant to. I think it's not in stores now.

worth noting that new belgium pasteurizes their sours so there is no point or effect to aging also

the 2014 one was the best i thought

I just saw a bunch of Aunt Sally actually, at my favorite beer store when I visit Portland. Also had a bunch of Half Acre beers which I've never seen outside Chicago, I got four packs of regular and double Daisy Cutter.

Also I never think about New Belgium for some reason, I've never really liked much of what I'd had from them and they all seem to share some unique characteristic that I don't care for, same with Rogue. This was awesome in Las Vegas a couple years ago where there seemed to be only one decent beer bar, and when I drove there they had a New Belgium tap takeover.

Back to Ipas because sours are too sour and lagers and pilsners are too boring

haven't had a beer in a week bc of the flu :(

Had a good trip to LA last week: visited Bottle Logic (known for their BA stouts), Monkish (known for their IPAs), Highland Park Brewery*, The Bruery, Firestone Walker and also ducked into the new Mikkeller Bar and Barbara's (great pub). It's amazing how LA turned around it's beer culture from the last time I was there.

*Drive Like Jehu fans should note that it's located next to Mark Trombino's donut shop.

Shit man that sounds awesome
Just another reason to visit the promised land

how was highland park? my buddy lives near it and was talking it up last time i saw him.

Highland Park brewery is located in (behind) the Hermosillo restaurant on York, right? I like their beers.

Monkish are one of the better local breweries

I've been enjoying the slightly boring but stupidly fresh and high quality lagers from Chicago's Baderbrau lately. Aside from Marz it's the closest place making beer near where I live.

back on a sour tear recently, managing to have 4 kinds in the past several days. this one was my favorite but it was also $18 a bottle : (

https://apinthalffull.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/wp-image-128613897jpg.jpg

Threes neither way, hoppy lager, recommended