Beer in the new era

Hoptical Illusion has a really atrocious label, yes, but I remember it being totally drinkable.

btw had a few more newport storm hurricane amber ale's last night, and i decided that the scent is v v similar to this stuff:
http://www.flexpack.org/images/Public/juicy.jpg

i got a six pack of those hop wallops tonight; pretty nice beer. not syrupy like a lot of other high abv ales.

Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA tonight -- loving it.

Not sure if I've had that -- I always get Burning River for some reason.

Had a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse last night - yummo. Best weissbier I've had - just the right amount of tartness. Will be drinking loads more of it, I think.

just noticed that my local, favorite bar/restaurant, beachwood bbq, has moinette on tap. had it when i was up in portland and was definitely a stand out in a trip that involved many a beer tasting. might have to go and revisit.

xp - yea franziskaner weisse is one the best wheats ever imo

does anyone actually like Carlsberg or is it just cheap?

i have a friend that drinks it pretty regularly but it seems to be residual from his time in scotland. since it's not cheap in america there is no reason at all to drink it.

i've only ever seen it in british-style pubs like this place.

... I got 24 cans for $9.99

ha getting any full strength beer for that price in australia is impossible. they brew carlsberg and tuborg here locally now so it's affordable at about au$45.

and it's kind of bad.

This on sale was 3 weeks before the "best before" date though.

I like Carlsberg Elephant.

today:
Sam Smith's Taddy Porter with lunch (excellent beer, will drink more of A++)
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Long Hammer IPA

Lately I feel a little fatigued by the variety of available beer.

in your neighborhood or in life or what?

Like last night I went to a bar and there was an Ommegang I had never had, a Six Points I had never had, a Blue Point I had never had, etc.

Aside from that though, I am loving Lagunitas IPA lately.

Had Bear Republic Racer 5 for the first time tonight. Great stuff. An explosion of hops but with a nice caramel undertone.

This was also very good:

http://www.ericronning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/img_2534-480x320.jpg

Maybe the closest a beer's come to matching my beloved Two Brothers Cain and Ebel (both hoppy red ales).

I bought a 22 of Racer 5 yesterday, pretty good but not overwhelming. It may have had something to do with the 22 of Beck's I had first.

There was also a dark but hoppy-for-a-dark-beer somethingorother from Southern Tier that I had the other night and can't dredge up the name of.

Jaymc, have you tried the Green Flash Hop Head Red? You may like it.

Had an Allagash Hugh Malone tonight, really really liked it. According to Beeradvocate it is a "Belgian IPA" -- I had no clue that such a style existed, but I am glad it does. And the name does pretty accurately convey the taste.

last night i had a Speakeasy double IPA which I was actually pretty disappointed with. An exceedingly bitter beer--and I can take my hops, but this was way OTT. A sort of caustic boozy finish. I also had some kind of Norwegian porter which was v v excellent, but I don't remember the brewery.

Today I have had a brooklyn IPA and a few of the Green Flash Hop Head Red.

john, you'd also probably like this: Stone 13th anniversary ale, although i doubt you're going to be able to find it or anything. but, it is a hoppy, big red with some nice dried fruit flavors, too.

oh yeah, and craftsman's triple white sage is also awesome, way more herb flavor than i was expecting, but in a good way.

Thanks for the tips. It looks like Green Flash just started distributing to Chicago recently, so I'll keep an eye out for it.

DFH raison d'etre --- i've tried this a bunch of times over the past 5 years or so but damn i am very happy that i have this right now. style's a belgian strong ale but fucked if that's what it tastes like. if you think of it as a brown ale, it's prob one of the most well-rounded, complex browns i've ever tried. caramel, very soft notes of coffee, malty, little bit earth, very slightest bitternes, everything you'd want in to a good brown ale

^^^ love this stuff. probably the only dfh i can drink more than a few of in a sitting. (not that i should, given apv and calorie count.)

i said caramel but it's really like HUGE fucking caramel. with raisins and dried fruit or something. tbh tho this is like one of the first craft beers i've bought since drinking no other beer but pabst for like a month. i just moved so all the moving expenses + being in between jobs for a couple weeks made for cheap 30 packs.

prob anything would taste delicious after cleaning out that pbr 30 pack tho, but still, i think this is a really good beer

but yea the abv is big on this one

also i bought some budweiser american ale 'out of curiosity'

it's not that good, but not bad. totally what you'd expect i guess - bit more flavor, super mild hop bitterness but still recognizable, bit more malty than the regular bod. gorgeous color tho i have to say

i think the label's cool too. props for doing a pry-cap too, i didn't expect it and ripped my hands apart trying to twist the fucker off

http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/2008/09/bud-american-ale.jpg

i did the american ale experiment when it came out--it definitely has its uses and i was expecting much worse.

you been to publick house yet btw?

ha no i haven't

just talking about it on the boston thread right now

I've enjoyed Surly Bender and Coffee Bender. I was actually trying to find if there's anywhere in Chicago that sells Surly in six-packs, since I am going to a (don't ask) Minnesota-themed party on Saturday. Guess I'll have to settle for Summit.

― jaymc, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:38 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

two months late but vas foremost in logan sq sells it im pretty sure

surly comes in 4 packs btw

i finally tried founders breakfast stout over the weekend--god damn what a great beer.

Waaaay x-post:

...some weird overpowering something going on that gets in the way of what is in there that i might appreciate i guess. feel the same way about laguinitas... grass clipping vibe...

I bought a 6 of Lagunitas IPA over the weekend, which I've liked before, and yeah this has some hayloft taste/aroma going on that I'm really not finding all that pleasing.

https://www.fine-wine.com.au/image/cache/frame-product-large-cf478d3ef560755387c98afc945f5c8a.png

Working thru a carton of this^

it's pretty ace. also seems like its on tap more and more around these parts.

http://usera.imagecave.com/hbartlett/pumpkin.gif
heaven in a bottle.

cool! i should give it a try then.

i shouldn't discriminate but tbh w/ a name like 'shipyard' and the label looking the way it does, it looks like a lot of other pretty boring and unexceptional new england breweries that make up basically the whole craft beer section of my local liquor store. which is a pretty shitty liquor store btw, unfortunately - functions essentially as a place for BC students to buy cases of natty light

which reminds me - CAD what are some of the best beer/liquor stores in boston?

hahah i've never had shipyard for that reason tho i know people like it. should get over my boring label bias sometime.

OK, liquor store rundown:

since marty's allston is sadly departed, that leaves blanchard's allston as the best general-purpose store i know of in our area. it's big, not overpriced, and has expanded its warm bottle section to include some pretty weird/exotic stuff recently (see: $25 750ml beers from italy that i kind of want to investigate further).

for wine and if you ever suddenly become a fan of pricey scotch, brookline liquor mart on comm ave (not in brookline at all!) is the best. it's not cheap but their wine selection is enormous and the staff is really friendly and knowledgeable.

downtown liquors in davis sq. in somerville is a great little store with a surprisingly huge beer selection for its size. lots of good stuff cold which is really convenient.

charles st. liquors in beacon hill is maybe the place to go for weird belgians and stuff like that. some people swear by it. i have gotten referred there by a belgian beer distributor in the past when i was amped on the de dolle brewery.

i've never been to wine gallery on route 9 in brookline, but the small wine gallery in kenmore sq. was awesome for getting nicer stuff when i lived near there.

there is supposedly an enormous store in south boston with a crazy selection but i have only heard rumors of it....

the marty's in newton is a little bit out there but has a pretty deep selection of standard commercial beers and micro brews/belgian beers. they also have some weird sales where certain microbrews get sold for really cheap.

i've been told good things about liquor world in porter square but have yet to stop through it.

and as always julio's out in westborough but that's a trip all on its own.

MARTINGETTIS!

and yes Julios out my way is fantastic

yeah shitty label but a tasty brew.

chris v where u at (i work in marlboro)

Marty's Allston is closed? Crazy. When I live in Boston, that was the go-to place. I lived up Commonwealth, so it was very easy to get to. I'm in Colorado now, and am just a hop skip and a jump away from the Lefthand and Oskar Blues Breweries. Both have good stuff and not so good stuff -- just tried Left Hand's Oktoberfest brew last night and it was pretty good! Also around here, there's the new Upslope Brewery, which has a decent IPA.

yeah dude iirc they just didn't want to pay the rent anymore.

Used to work in Westboro, live in Auburn