Beer in the new era

lol

Buncha grouches, clearly that was an unserious goof from a former CIA agent turned national security expert.

i am liking milkshake ipas these days.

neon fantasy by icarus brewing is really good.

any "oat cream ipa" produced by other half rules. i had two kegs of that stuff at my wedding.

i wish i didn't love these calorie bombs.

a brewery near my parents' house, old hights brewing, had a good milkshake ipa brewed with strawberries. also one near me -- alementary -- had a good vegan one called "lizard brain." not as sweet as others in the style but still with that rich mouthfeel.

I'm drinking Hamm's

Man, there is just so much good beer and so many good breweries.

My godly local beer shop has closed after 20 years. The owner died, sadly. This was a guy with an immense taste in beer, but who also had Faust and Coltrane box sets behind the counter (he had to keep them in the shop 'to save my marriage' was his explanation).

Anyway, I went to a different place I'd not been to for ages, and the dude there was saying he felt things had reached critical mass; that he wasn't sure how the market was going to cope with a) the fall off in spending coupled with b) the fact that the prices had got so unmanageably high - supply side and in the shops and bars. There's also the traditional market - brewers with 4 or 5 solid beers, who were, for a time at least, supposed to be victims of the craft beer craze: these haven't gone away, have maintained a basic price strategy and are as solid as ever. He felt that so many brewers had fallen into the trap of novelty and simply didn't have a 'core range' to fall back on.

It's a conversation that'll be happening across a bunch of industries I'm sure but it'll be interesting to see where it all goes.

Yeah, there are all sorts of crises that beer shops and breweries are navigating, from the cost of cans to ingredients to more general stuff like rent and energy costs. As I understand it beer drinking has been trending downward for years as a broader market, but I've also heard tales of breweries benefitting from covid and quarantine and seeing increased sales. The newer breweries that have caught my eye do seem to be focusing on a relatively simple set of core beers, typically lagers, but even they can't resist a little novelty now and then. And of course, if you are known for novelty then novelty becomes your stable; one man's novelty is another man's core, be it hazy or sour or wild or whatever.

There was a casual poll taken at one of the beer forums (beer advocate?) that established the highest price of a pint at their local spot was currently more than $8. That's inflation at work, I guess. I can't tell if the price of canned beer is going up, but I do see more 4-packs going for $18, though there are far fewer more than that than there are less than that.

My post was actually sparked by a couple of closures I read about, but not necessarily the way one might think. I had never even *heard* of these breweries before, let alone tried them. They'd just sort of opened, succeeded for a few year, failed and closed all without me knowing, which sort of speaks to the saturation of the market. There are extremely well regarded breweries with very limited distribution in (for example) the Chicago suburbs that I presume are doing OK in their little exurb islands, with cheaper rents and regular patrons with more limited local options. The same reason I don't go out there (too far) might be the same reason they have a more dedicated clientele (it's close), and if they catch the attention of beer nerds willing to make a 45 minute drive, or lure them there with limited distro in the city, that's just bonus stuff. In the rare instance I get something from one of these places I think, man, that's a good beer! Too bad it's not being sold down the street.

This guava gose tastes just like the block of guava paste I used to buy from the corner store in 1984

Just opened up a 2013 Goose Island Proprietor's Stout (their bourbon barrel stout with coconut) that I've had hidden away in the basement, and amazingly, a decade later, it's tasting pretty good! I mean, maybe I'll get really sick or something, but it tastes fine to me. Still got some coconut going on, too.

you'll be ok josh, glad it's tasting good

That was the year Treasure Island in Hyde Park kept stocking that beer as fast as I could buy it. I sent bottles to a few thread regulars then. I miss bottle trading a bit, but it is also cool having expanded access to great products now in a way that didn't exist then.

Josh (or other Chicago folks), have you had anything from Light The Lamp up in Grayslake? Had an IPA (a cold IPA, I think) from them that I loved, been planning to visit their taproom.

I have so much probably gone bad beer in my closet that I’ll never drink. Should have drank it 10 years ago.

xpost Never had them! Grayslake is pretty far north, at least for me, but it looks like they do some distro in the city. I'll have to keep an eye out.

My latest, belated discoveries have been Goldfinger (which does great lagers and the like) and Roaring Table (which does great everything, afaict). The former is in Downer's Grove, the latter Lake Zurich, both of which take some time to get to, though not quite as far as Grayslake.

The other day I opened one of the New Glarus "R&D" beers I picked up at the brewery last spring, and based on reviews I'm not the only one who got an over-sour gusher. Felt like we lost half the beer just by opening it, and the other half was very much not to our palate.

Good to know about those! I had Light The Lamp at Beermiscuous, which now makes me plan to take the train to Grayslake.

real sign of the times that all the shitty towns I grew up near have good microbreweries now!

My current favourite UK brewery is Nightjar in Hebden Bridge - the bar where I DJ frequently has them on cask and/or keg, and they've all been reliably superb thus far. Of the current range, I can recommend turbo tuk-tuk and lost in ikea.

BCBS Sir Isaac is the first variant I have had in a while that I have wanted more of.

Met a fellow "beer wanker" here in Australia who pointed me to a local micro brewery doing all sorts of weird/gross maybe US inspired kitchen sink brews. Pastry stouts, etc. The prices, though ... woof. Like $13 US a can! Kind of more impressed that anything higher than 5% is more or less considered a strong beer. My brother in law is a super fit machine who can climb trees and swim a few miles in the ocean even when he's sick, but it took only a couple of 8oz. 5.6% beers to totally throw him off kilter. My training has paid off!

https://images.foxtv.com/static.ktvu.com/www.ktvu.com/content/uploads/2023/01/932/524/HORMEL-Chili-Cheese-Brew_Media-3.jpg

Okkkaaayyyyyy....

I thought about posting that but decided against it… it's another in a long line of weird Minnesota beers (for example: https://untappd.com/b/invictus-brewing-salted-nut-roll/4995009). Modist is a decent brewery but this seems to be such a lame publicity stunt, idk.

i had other half's "cream of broccoli" beer in the fridge and my wife was horrified at what she believed to be a cream of broccoli flavored beer.

it's actually one of the best beers i ever had fyi. i love their oat cream ipas and this one is perfect. not too sweet.

That is one of my favorites. Broccoli (non cream version) great as well.

lol I have to search that one out, great name

I like Other Half a lot, but I want to say they were the first 4-packs I saw going for $20+.

We had all the neighbors over last night for a haven't-seen-you-in-a-while party. They liked the selection of "weird" beer I had on offer for the summer block party, so I filled my fridge with a whole bunch of good stuff again, only "weird" if you're used to, like, Bud. Once again, it was all a big hit, but best laid plans, etc., since my ulterior motive was to thin out some of the cans I'd amassed, but as usual people brought their own beers, which led to an almost 1:1 replacement of my DIPAs and the like with cans of Coors Lite. I almost suspect someone on the block was trolling me.

Uh

Curious if more breweries will be putting out a note to confirm they don't have connection with the "ultra-right" beer. https://t.co/TkaCN3B9w3

— Mike Zoller (@mikezoller) April 14, 2023

At the moment, the price of 6 cans of "Ultra Right Beer" is set at $19.99.

nothing woke about that!

it's also 4.0% ABV! Fuck that shit

At least it's not a 3%-er.

In one post, a potential customer told Weathers they decided against buying the beer, saying that while they wanted to support him, they could not afford the $35 total cost it would have amounted to with the shipping cost included.

Critics of the brand quickly piled on.

LOL

Revolution is selling VSO Gravedigger for $40+ a four pack and that's 14.9% abv, lol

I suppose this sort of post is very much in character from a beer as (usually) innocuous as Bud-Light:

pic.twitter.com/oyyfPzd1FM

— Anheuser-Busch (@AnheuserBusch) April 14, 2023

Maybe insipid is a better word? Mealy-mouthed?

Did they really think this 'boycott' would have any real impact? It's already forgotten

Guessing it had an impact in old-man bars in certain states…

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13884/49215/

this my jam

https://vimeo.com/830643144

Two Hearted still my fav

My 8 year old told me recently that for as long as he can remember his mental image for 'beer' has a bottle of two hearted

Not a fan of ambers

Is that directed at Two Hearted? Because that's an IPA (and an excellent one imo.) I once picked it out in a blind taste test easily, the floral hop profile is very unique.

Otherwise yeah, amber ale is mostly pretty meh.

Weather's been super hot here, I've been enjoying some lagers and pilsners, and a few Maibocks.

My mistake, I thought the bells 2 was an amber ale
I’ve had it many times but never felt the need to seek it out

https://i.imgur.com/NQAw9CD.jpg
This is a bells 2 and it is an amber

I honestly don't think I've ever seen this.

https://storage.googleapis.com/images-cub-prd-9400d55.cub.prd.v8.commerce.mi9cloud.com/product-images/detail/5908ee7f-830d-471d-9e74-58cf56859045.jpeg

What

i have suddenly lost my taste for "sweet" hazies.

tired hands' "alien church" is now my "king of beers." it has the rich, oaty mouthfeel but a dry finish.

that bells' amber ale is an ai generated prank btw. the only "bells" beer has a fish on it and it is an ipa.

Ha. it's real, but iirc they have new owners, maybe they did it.

it has all the tells of an ai rendering. for example, the person featured on the box has unusually thin legs and a long neck.

Ehh