|
Are seasonals really that hyped? I know people will show up for a release tapping, but I've never gotten the impression that it's anywhere on the same level as one-time beers.
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 03:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
CalvinDooglas posted:Are seasonals really that hyped? I know people will show up for a release tapping, but I've never gotten the impression that it's anywhere on the same level as one-time beers. Pliny the Younger? Exponential Hoppiness? Dark Lord? There's a ton of them that are super crazy and come out every year.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 03:53
|
|
|
Heading to Boston for someone's wedding on Saturday. I want to make a couple of brewery or brewpub stops more interesting than Sam Adams and Harpoon. Anything awesome within 30 minutes of the Charlestown area? I hear tell Cambridge Brewing Co is pretty good.Angry Grimace posted:Pliny the Younger? Exponential Hoppiness? Dark Lord? There's a ton of them that are super crazy and come out every year. I don't know, there's a spectrum of release types for beer. It's certainly not as if breweries have to choose between year-round and one day per year releases. Hype, aka marketing, is undoubtedly a part of the one-day release tactic.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 04:58
|
|
|
Angry Grimace posted:Pliny the Younger? Exponential Hoppiness? Dark Lord? There's a ton of them that are super crazy and come out every year. Isn't Exponential Hoppiness never going into growlers anymore because they saw a few of them go up on ebay. HA! Like, seriously. If you want to stop people from reselling your product, you're going to have to up the production of it. Simple as that. Get it to their hands by YOUR means and you cut out the ability of others to do it for you. You don't see Stone facing this problem all that much for anything other than those Millennium barrel aged bottles, and even then, they have a system in place where you're not going to bother doing so. But for their other beers, say IRS, you don't see it go on ebay because it's so easily available. While most breweries don't have the luxury of Stone's distribution and vast production means, it's a good loving sign that you're doing something right in how you make your beer if someone from across the country is willing to pay a kings ransom to try it. Spend less time focused on getting those kids from distributing your beer and more time brewing or working on making building up your brewery.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 06:58
|
|
|
I'm headed to Vermont in October and asked whoever runs HF's twitter feed if I could bring in outside (read: stainless steel) growlers or if I had to buy their own; I know CA's growler laws are dumb but didn't know what it was like in VT, not to mention that I can check luggage containing stainless steel growlers with more confidence than wrapping a glass bottle or 4 with sweaters. The response was to attack California's "'environmental consciousness'" (quoting with quotes as that's how it was posted), which I thought was slightly odd as I was looking for an answer to a legitimate question, but whatever. I ended up trying to grease their palms via a possible arrival gift in the form of some Alpine beers (ironic!), so hopefully I can get somewhere/something with that. What chafes me is the aura of jealousy I get from guys like Pat McIlhenney and Shaun Hill, like there's this wedge of angry envy seething from them when they see other people making more from their beer than they are making. If you're in it for the love of the craft, then don't worry about other people spinning your wares on the secondary market. You've made the profit you built into the original sale price to allow you to continue to make beer for another day/week/month/year. If you care about people eBaying your beer, then take concrete, effective steps to prevent it. Bitching about auctions or making your consumers jump through hoops to enjoy your product have the lovely effect of both taking your focus away from making great beer AND failing to prevent reselling. There's no middle ground that fails to make you look like a petty jerk. HF referenced going the Lost Abbey/Port route, but I don't always want to drink a beer at 11 am on a Saturday standing up in a packed warehouse not to mention having to make my way home 30-40 miles from their brewery after consuming a high abv beer. Something tells me the slow, quiet farm roads that comprise the Vermont highway system are ripe for DUI pickoffs by the state troopers. What's the line from War Games? "The only winning move is not to play"?
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 07:36
|
|
|
Jack Skeleton posted:Isn't Exponential Hoppiness never going into growlers anymore because they saw a few of them go up on ebay. HA! Ugh and let's not forget they were letting people get multiple growlers. Nothing says "put that poo poo on ebay" like consuming growler #1 and selling the other one, which will surely lose a decent chunk of CO2 in the trip and more than makes up for the cost of time/gas/purchase spent to retrieve it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 07:43
|
|
|
Even though I've had the chance to try some rare Lost Abbey beers, I've passed all them up because I had to drink/open the bottle and drink it on-site. Whenever I go to Lost Abbey I generally got to Stone or at least have a few taster sizes of the many other beers they have on tap. No way am I finishing a bottle by myself simply because they don't trust me after I paid for the god drat bottle.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 08:42
|
|
|
Jack Skeleton posted:Even though I've had the chance to try some rare Lost Abbey beers, I've passed all them up because I had to drink/open the bottle and drink it on-site. i thought you just put a little funnel in your sleeve and poured it into a flask instead of drinking it, then refilled the bottle after you left- i mean, it's not like you have to worry about losing carbonation, right? (also, JS, i emailed you a little while back) (VVV it's cool. could've sent a text, but i stubbornly refuse to adopt the technology) funkybottoms fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Jul 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 10:48
|
|
|
I haven't checked that e-mail addy in a hot minute (no idea where that phrase was coined nor why I'm using it, but here we are) So I'll get back to you asap on that. On the way back up from San Diego I went to Pizza Port for some Poorman's IPA and got the end of the keg. Yeastie as gently caress, but still delicious Poorman's IPA.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 11:45
|
|
|
I never got a chance to pick up Blue Mountain's Dark Hollow or Isabel, but just saw this is going down tonight. I already had happy hour plans, but will try and swing by after. One thing I've noticed living in DC, it seems like these events always end up being announced with super short notice. Big change compared to how things were done at craft bars around Texas in general.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 13:25
|
|
|
Step 1: Do something about it. $2250 in 3 months? That's not a whole lot, in my opinion...
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 13:43
|
|
|
air- posted:I never got a chance to pick up Blue Mountain's Dark Hollow or Isabel, but just saw this is going down tonight. I already had happy hour plans, but will try and swing by after. FYI, i was told that bad bottles of Isabel were recalled, so whatever makes it up there should be safe. from what i've had, DH is good, Mandolin and Isabel are okay, and Local Species is terrible. some brewer friends claim that the non-Barrel House offerings have suffered due to a lack of attention from the head brewer (Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain Barrel House are different concerns), so maybe stick to the BH and cask stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 14:24
|
|
|
danbanana posted:Step 1: Do something about it. Cue people sneaking away to pour their beer in a bottle to resell a'la PtY.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 14:39
|
|
|
The thing about all this is that it often seems to have nothing to do with how good the beer is. I really don't get PtY hype for example. I like PtE a lot but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 14:48
|
|
|
Yeah so I use to be good friends with Shaun. He brought me over to Denmark and we started our own brand (Grassroots) but in the end he has one of the biggest egos I have ever run into in this industry. Not surprising that he would talk this way now and that people are starting to see the side of him that ended up messing up our friendship. Not to mention he pretty much dicked me and the other partner in Grassroots out of any of the money we ever made from it. He writes about not liking his beer sent all over the country yet he ships them out himself at times. He has even sent a handful of beers over to Denmark. Dude has his head up his rear end because so many beer geeks treat him like a god right now. We will see if that last a few more years though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 14:49
|
|
|
Boy oh boy do I not care at all about people selling beers on eBay. I guess he can try upping the price of his bottles big time to make up for the loss revenue via eBay but...no one will buy his beer, because people who buy his beer on eBay don't go to Hill Farmstead because they're nowhere near Hill Farmstead, and they're generally excited to try a beer they have no access to otherwise.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 14:58
|
|
|
My stance on Ebay is I don't really care to much. It makes up such a small portion of the community I have learned to just not care. I care more about people hand bottling beer and poo poo then I do someone paying 200 bucks for my beer. For some people 200 bucks a good price when the brewery is located in the middle of nowhere like HF is.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 15:01
|
|
|
Jack Skeleton posted:Even though I've had the chance to try some rare Lost Abbey beers, I've passed all them up because I had to drink/open the bottle and drink it on-site. I did have Cable Car once, but mercifully I got to drink it at a non-crowded bar at 9 PM with three other people.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 17:10
|
|
|
CalvinDooglas posted:Are seasonals really that hyped? I know people will show up for a release tapping, but I've never gotten the impression that it's anywhere on the same level as one-time beers. Only some seasonals are worth the hype, I think. Others just get purchased because "oooh, a beer I can only buy temporarily!"
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 22:59
|
|
|
Sitting at the bar drinking a $6 10oz pour of Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop. Pretty expensive for what tastes like a good, simple homebrew. A line up of a bunch of the single hops would be interesting, I guess, but the individual bottles are massively overpriced for what you get.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 23:58
|
|
|
Well I'm back from Maine and I must say you guys are pretty lucky (Americans) when it comes to the price of your beer(s), however in Maine pickings are slim and I wasn't able to find much that was out of the ordinary. Now that I'm back home in Canada, I'll be more on the lookout for some of the brews you guys suggested (Probably ridiculously priced, but that's fine).
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 00:45
|
|
|
Retemnav posted:Sitting at the bar drinking a $6 10oz pour of Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop. Pretty expensive for what tastes like a good, simple homebrew. A line up of a bunch of the single hops would be interesting, I guess, but the individual bottles are massively overpriced for what you get. I got that exact same impression from the Warrior single hop. Tastes like the first IPA I brewed, too much bitterness, too sweet, not enough hops in the flavor/aroma range. The Citra single hop was really good though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 00:51
|
|
|
NYC beer goons, I'm going to be in the Penn Station area tomorrow around lunch time. Is there anyplace around that area where I'll be able to get a Good Beer with some food?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 02:40
|
|
|
Doesn't Left Hand make a Warrior-only/dominant beer? I'd wager it's a few bucks cheaper than Mikkeller.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 02:41
|
|
|
I committed to go to a beer tasting on Friday night and just got an email from the guy hosting it. He's been incredibly weird and spergy about the whole thing, including sending out the invites via BA complete with beer-themed clip art, telling people to bring their beer in paper bags so that it all remains a ~*~secret~*~, and warning everyone to be there at 7pm sharp otherwise you will be fined a beer! Now he sent out a message to everyone going with his address, along with this:spergy as gently caress beer nerd posted:People/Ounzes: He actually took the time to add up the volume of all the beer people were bringing. Christ. Why am I even still going? Edit: Oh god. I think I found why he's so anal about everything. I googled him and found his website. He's a big time born again Christian, and it says his life goal is "to be a disciple of my rabbi, Jesus". I'm going to be preached at at this tasting aren't I?  Edit 2: Turns out it is the power of Christ compelling me to go. Sirotan fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Jul 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 03:16
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:He actually took the time to add up the volume of all the beer people were bringing. Christ. Why am I even still going? Because that's 66 oz of 10.6% beer. Average. Unless someone bogarts. Then my math powers stop working.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 03:21
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:and warning everyone to be there at 7pm sharp otherwise you will be fined a beer! gonna have to assume he's serious, so... does that mean he won't let you taste one of the beers? "oh, sorry, Sirotan, you can't have any Kate the Great because you got here at 7:12" the power of what the christ is telling me you need to get some video.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 03:56
|
|
|
funkybottoms posted:gonna have to assume he's serious, so... does that mean he won't let you taste one of the beers? "oh, sorry, Sirotan, you can't have any Kate the Great because you got here at 7:12" Well I guess at the very least being late will inconvenience him a lot because he will have to explain everything again! quote:Time: Edit: Oh and also, no getting drunk! quote:Other:
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 03:58
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Edit: Oh and also, no getting drunk! So you're not supposed to get drunk after the equivalent of five 10.6% (by my math) beers? I concur: get this on video.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:12
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Well I guess at the very least being late will inconvenience him a lot because he will have to explain everything again! This guy sounds like one of those people who becomes an admin on a CS server and goes completely power crazy. Why do you actually still plan on going? This sounds like an absolutely disaster, and not in a fun way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:13
|
|
|
RiggenBlaque posted:This guy sounds like one of those people who becomes an admin on a CS server and goes completely power crazy. Why do you actually still plan on going? This sounds like an absolutely disaster, and not in a fun way. Honestly he just sounded like sort of a spergy beer nerd/control freak from his previous correspondence. It wasn't until an hour ago when I googled him and found his website that I became actually horrified. But I already committed to go, the guy is probably (hopefully) harmless, and I'd feel like a dick to skip out at this point. Besides, if I don't bring my 48 ounces of beer along it will totally wreck his calculations. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:16
|
|
|
Hahaha, what's to "explain" about a beer tasting? He's going to have some crazy system set up with weights and measures and droppers to make sure everyone gets EXACTLY their 2 oz of beer per pour.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:21
|
|
|
RiggenBlaque posted:This guy sounds like one of those people who becomes an admin on a CS server and goes completely power crazy. Why do you actually still plan on going? This sounds like an absolutely disaster, and not in a fun way. Sadly I'm stuck going too. He was probably really annoyed when I swapped out one of the beers I decided to bring a few hours ago and ruined his precious ounzes. I'll definitely try and take some pics/video. Corb3t fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jul 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:25
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Honestly he just sounded like sort of a spergy beer nerd/control freak from his previous correspondence. It wasn't until an hour ago when I googled him and found his website that I became actually horrified. But I already committed to go, the guy is probably (hopefully) harmless, and I'd feel like a dick to skip out at this point. dude, don't gently caress with the community- they will check you in a literal fashion! seriously, i wanna crash that poo poo with some Steel Reserve and start a fight. i understand if you'd rather not share, but i'd really like to see his website and/or BA profile ^^^ and yeah, what's to loving explain?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:30
|
|
|
For the love of God (heh), film this. If there's any questions just convince him you're going to show it to your local church youth group or something to show how "cool" being a fundamentalist nutcase can be 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 04:41
|
|
|
So Blue Moon's Summer Honey Wheat is pretty decent to drink. I just thought I'd throw that one out there. It looks terrible with a bunch of sediment in suspension and no head, and the aroma is severely lacking, but this has a nice semi-sweet honey and citrus intro to mid-taste and a slightly earthy/floral finish drying it out rather nicely. I am enjoying it after a long day at the beach.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 05:02
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Honestly he just sounded like sort of a spergy beer nerd/control freak from his previous correspondence. It wasn't until an hour ago when I googled him and found his website that I became actually horrified. But I already committed to go, the guy is probably (hopefully) harmless, and I'd feel like a dick to skip out at this point. Corbet posted:Sadly I'm stuck going too. He was probably really annoyed when I swapped out one of the beers I decided to bring a few hours ago and ruined his precious ounzes. When I have a tasting here in the Fort, I EXPECT EVERYONE TO ARRIVE PROMPTLY AT 6:42 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME FOR APPROXIMATELY 85 DRAMS OF BEER AT SQRT(-1)% ALCOHOL BY MASS (ABV IS FOR PUSSIES). IF YOU ARE NOT REASONABLY DRUNK WITHIN AN HOUR, WE (THE COMMUNITY) WILL CHECK YOU PHYSICALLY. ROOFIES WILL BE ADMINISTERED PROMPTLY UPON PASSING A SOBRIETY TEST.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 05:04
|
|
|
Thanks to the boundless generosity of one Mr. bottoms, I got my hands on a bottle of Pliny the Elder tonight and cracked it with a friend. What we had (which had a few months on it, so the hops had faded) was a pretty great base of a high-ABV IPA. The hops were present, though had lost some of the floral/fruit notes that I was looking for. If you took Hopslam and toned down the sweetness by about half, you'd get pretty much what I experienced. Considering I found Hopslam to be too sweet for my liking, I quite enjoyed it. Not only was it quite tasty under the very conditions the label rails against, but it has redoubled my resolve to one day try a fresh one. And seeing as how my brother is in California at this very moment, this may end up being quite soon. Or Supplication, god I hope he can find that somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 08:43
|
|
|
There's a lot of spergs in our glorious community, they just never get the chance to host a beer tasting. Welp.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 13:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
speaking of which, finally got a picture of the sour tasting i attended a few months back, at which point i realized we missed a glorious opportunity for a Last Supper shot: there are three or four bottles of homebrew (one blank might be Ithaca Brute with the label removed), but maybe like five others i can't identify and it's been bothering me since nobody made a list.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 15:06
|
|