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danbanana posted:To compare... Beermenus lists Local Option having this for $20. That's a bar... $27 seems more and more insane. Good to know. Weird, because this store is known for having high but not ludicrous prices, not gouge level poo poo like this. I hope that someone else gets it so I can get one for a semi-reasonable price. On a more positive note, today I opened a bottle of Russian River Consecration that I brought back from San Francisco in February. Holy poo poo, what a great beer. Goose Island's 3 sisters have nothing on this. I'm even more excited to drink the Supplication I have in the refrigerator right now...
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Aug 12, 2012 01:21
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$27 is a little expensive, but it's a great beer, and I don't think they've made it since like 2008.
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Aug 12, 2012 02:25
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CalvinDooglas posted:$27 is a little expensive, but it's a great beer, and I don't think they've made it since like 2008. A little expensive doesn't even describe it, especially when Sucaba is under $20 everywhere except the gougiest of placees (and iirc still on the shelf in some spots).
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Aug 12, 2012 02:31
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crazyfish posted:A little expensive doesn't even describe it, especially when Sucaba is under $20 everywhere except the gougiest of placees (and iirc still on the shelf in some spots). If the barrel aged Ruffians are an ongoing thing, then no, I wouldn't pay that much either. I had been under the impression it was limited to the original release a few years ago.
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Aug 12, 2012 02:58
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CalvinDooglas posted:If the barrel aged Ruffians are an ongoing thing, then no, I wouldn't pay that much either. I had been under the impression it was limited to the original release a few years ago. About 3 months ago, I grabbed a bottle of Old Ruffian at a local store with a bottle date of 2010. I was a little confused but thought for $12 they basically aged it for me. I wonder if Great Divide is purposely releasing older brews? If the barrel aged versions are hitting shelves again and it was a one time release... That said, there's a bar in the same town selling it for $7 cheaper. That still screams gouge to me.
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Aug 12, 2012 05:42
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I still haven't seen Wookey Jack or DDBA in my area yet, which is odd considering XV was so heavily distributed here that most stores got 3-4 cases, if not more. Abacus was barely on the shelf though and Parabola I barely was able to snag. I guess Firestone Walker is finally getting the recognition they deserve?
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Aug 12, 2012 07:29
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danbanana posted:To compare... Beermenus lists Local Option having this for $20. That's a bar... $27 seems more and more insane. I bought one as a gift for my Best Man at the Great Divide taphouse two weeks ago, and $27 was the pricetag there as well. Luckily I got my $10 homebrewers discount! 
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Aug 12, 2012 07:55
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crazyfish posted:So I was excited when a local shop posted that they had Great Divide barrel-aged Old Ruffian, so I took a walk there and got excited when I saw a bottle on the shelf...but I wasn't excited when I saw the $27 price tag so I put it back. Is that how much it is everywhere or is that gouge level? My bottle cost me about $23-24, I believe. It was worth every penny and I'm not even big on barley wines.
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Aug 12, 2012 09:01
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Barrel-aged beers are expensive and even more expensive once they hit distribution and get retail mark-up. $27 sounds reasonable for that.
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Aug 12, 2012 13:05
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record cutter posted:Not really except avoid Fridays if you want to sit down and enjoy a sample flight or something. It's just too busy. Ok, I think we're comin Wednesday then!
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Aug 12, 2012 14:53
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I wonder why Great Divide's is so much more than Firestone's, anyone have insight? Doesn't Abacus sit for a year in barrels? How long does Great Divide's sit?
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Aug 12, 2012 14:59
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Pretty sure Firestone Walker makes a shitload more of their barrel-aged stuff. Great Divide is pretty small compared to them, I think.
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Aug 12, 2012 18:07
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record cutter posted:Pretty sure Firestone Walker makes a shitload more of their barrel-aged stuff. Great Divide is pretty small compared to them, I think. Yeah, both Pale 31 and DBA have barrel aged components; DBA is a 20% blend of barrel aged ESB and Pale 31 is 10% DBA and those are their most popular regular production beers. I think they have a pretty huge barrel aging program.
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Aug 12, 2012 21:31
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Angry Grimace posted:Yeah, both Pale 31 and DBA have barrel aged components; DBA is a 20% blend of barrel aged ESB and Pale 31 is 10% DBA and those are their most popular regular production beers. I think they have a pretty huge barrel aging program. Those parts aren't technically barrel aged, they're "barrel fermented". More here.
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Aug 12, 2012 23:27
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I think the shops around town sell bal Ruffian expensive because it's very, very small batch. The first release of the 750ml Aged Ruffian and Yeti were something like 1000 bottles each, hand numbered. Even if it's still in production, I doubt they release more than that. Their facility really is tiny for such a widely distributed brewery, so their barrel aging capacity is limited. You can tell how old the bottle is by the label. They changed their label art in like 2010. edit: they're also aged in Stranahan barrels (a Denver microdistillery), instead of some big-name bottom-shelf brand like Jack or Jim. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Aug 13, 2012 |
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Aug 13, 2012 00:01
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CalvinDooglas posted:I think the shops around town sell bal Ruffian expensive because it's very, very small batch. The first release of the 750ml Aged Ruffian and Yeti were something like 1000 bottles each, hand numbered. Even if it's still in production, I doubt they release more than that. Their facility really is tiny for such a widely distributed brewery, so their barrel aging capacity is limited. Regardless, $27 is a bit much for me, though I'm not sure I would have been able to resist BA Yeti at that price point as the base beer is just so goddamn good.
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Aug 13, 2012 00:21
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yeah, I'm not saying I'd buy it. But the price does come from somewhere, and GD is usually at a pretty good price considering its quality and strength. In other news, I got Little Sumpin Sumpin this week so I'll have something to drink besides my homemade IPA. I'm not a big Lagunitas fan, but this is always a good beer, this time of year especially.
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Aug 13, 2012 00:40
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I remember balking at like the $15 I paid for a barrel aged Yeti at the tap house back in 2010 and thinking the $11 for the Yeti varietals (only $10 for a normal Yeti!) back at the Ohio bottle shop were still kingly. That was also the summer I started buying $4 Lagunitas bombers and I've been a cheap bastard ever since. Although I can't resist JP Bam Biere even if it is $10.
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Aug 13, 2012 02:31
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The bar I was at for lunch ran out of Parabola literally as I was standing at the counter waiting for the bartender to walk back so I could order some.
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Aug 13, 2012 03:33
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I saw this posting of someone trading an Apple Brandy Hunahpu Growler for whatever he is looking for. I know there's a Cigar City dude here, just wondering how you feel about this, I'm not being facetious at all. I know growlers are not intended at all for long-term storage so the odds are that whoever gets this will get something off from what it should be. Does this bother you at all?
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Aug 13, 2012 04:57
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Drank Troeg's Sunshine Pils for the first time yesterday and my reaction was  Oh my God that is such a fantastic, crisp and refreshing beer. Not much beats that when you're repairing an old Jeep on a hot as hell 90 degree sunny day.Definitely worth driving into NY to buy that again in the future. Troeg's owns. I wish they'd come into CT.
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Aug 13, 2012 14:03
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Went back to TX, got some more Love Child #2 and it's starting to lose a little luster. Also Stingo (Boulevard Collaboration 3 with Pretty Things) was awful. What is appealing about having sandpapery liquid scrape your palate? There's sort of a roasted, bready, toffee-ish flavor, but I just can't get past the mouthfeel. I was expecting it to be more creamy, but certainly not unpleasant. Had a better-than-usual black and tan at the DFH Alehouse last night, made with Chicory Stout and 90 Minute. Would love any other suggestions that work out pretty well 
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Aug 13, 2012 14:13
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I'm gonna ask you guys something out of my own ignorance — hope it's not a horrible derail or anything. With regard to startup microbreweries: Am I offbase in thinking that early on in their operations, they need to put out a product, regardless of its quality? Like, something they realize is not very good, but they need to bottle/can it anyway to cover costs? For example, there are couple of young breweries around here (one in Lincoln, NE; the other in western Iowa) that have yet to put out anything my friends and I feel is worth drinking again — yet alone buying — and the sentiment seems to be shared by the bartenders and other random acquaintances we ask. The stuff is just not good, and I can't imagine that anyone who enjoys beer enough to make a business out of it would agree. Are we being snobs of the highest level, or is this an established necessary evil in the microbrewing industry?
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Aug 13, 2012 14:17
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They're probably just bad breweries that will flop. There's no reason a brewery should put out bad/mediocre beer unless they're bad or mediocre. Almost every NJ brewery I've had has been mediocre aside from a few good beers, all of them are hit and miss.
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Aug 13, 2012 14:37
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Especially now, with so many choices, a startup better hit it out of the park or they'll get lost in the milieu.
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Aug 13, 2012 14:40
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air- posted:Went back to TX, got some more Love Child #2 and it's starting to lose a little luster. You, sir, are spoiled. My local bar has one more bottle of this. I've drank 2 of the 6 they got at a high price but it was totally worth it...
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Aug 13, 2012 14:42
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danbanana posted:You, sir, are spoiled. Oh oh, I still liked it a lot, but I felt like this particular bottle's tartness/acidity had gone down compared to the one I had about a month ago. Of course, the flavor could have felt dramatic since I knew to brace myself for it. What are they charging at a bar? These retail for like $15-20 in a store. My huge-rear end care package shipment from a friend actually had another bottle of it that got crushed in transit  My rear end is indeed spoiled though; I have a 4 pack of Daisy Cutter to cheer me up.
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Aug 13, 2012 14:53
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Midorka posted:They're probably just bad breweries that will flop. There's no reason a brewery should put out bad/mediocre beer unless they're bad or mediocre. Almost every NJ brewery I've had has been mediocre aside from a few good beers, all of them are hit and miss. Yeah. I would never actively root for one to fail (well, maybe if it had some terrible marketing going on) but I wasn't sure if they just figured "Well, we have all this beer; might as well sell it." Remember when Rogue started making whiskey? My best friend got to sample the first batch at a tasting. By the time the Rogue rep came around to chat him up, my friend was buzzed enough to tell him it wasn't very good. The rep told him "Oh, I know. We're going to sell it for $50 a bottle." That story stuck with me. Real Name Grover fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 13, 2012 |
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Aug 13, 2012 14:54
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The weekend beer festival was a rousing success with many good things and a few disappointments. Overall I'd say it was the best one to date and I'm looking forward to them trying to top it in December. Things of particular note: Stone 2008 Bourbon Barrel RIS is still the best thing they've ever made. It's just at the edge of turning, so if you're holding any drink it now. Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest was utterly forgettable and easily the weakest thing they make. Double DBA was fantastic, and XV is doing very well for itself. Noble Ale Works 2011 Barrelled Knight Changer was very good. They've changed head brewers recently, but this keg was from before that switch. I hope the new batches continue to be this great. Tons of vanilla from the barrels with a good strong coffee backing. Speakeasy Scarface was on the other side of the spectrum, it was like unsweetened chocolate cake. One of the best things from the entire three nights. Left Coast Port Barrel Aged Epeteios was loving terrible. It was like a showcase of everything that can go wrong with beer - diacetyl, over-oxidization, DMS, fusels - it was a train wreck. Sierra Nevada Knock On Wood was a bourbon bomb. If you like beers that taste like bourbon and oak, this is your beer. I also got to try a bit of Beatification, which means I'm pretty sure I've had everything Russian River bottles widely.
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Aug 13, 2012 14:59
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I have been to lots of lovely new breweries in my time and I find that unless it's a really experienced and well-funded operation, it usually takes about 4-6 months for the beer produced to get really consistent. "Good" is another question, but it takes that long for consistency to settle down, anyway.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:00
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air- posted:Had a better-than-usual black and tan at the DFH Alehouse last night, made with Chicory Stout and 90 Minute. Would love any other suggestions that work out pretty well Victory brewpub serves up their own concoctions, one of my favorites is their Dark Devils: 1/2 Storm King, 1/2 Hop Devil
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Aug 13, 2012 15:00
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air- posted:What are they charging at a bar? These retail for like $15-20 in a store. $25. I'd drop that at a store in a second so as a bar cost it's not terrible. I just would rather drink at my own pace than feel I need to kill a 750 while in a public place. Every place that got it around here only got 6 bottles and most of those were sold within a day of being on the shelf...
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Aug 13, 2012 15:03
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Stopped by Tired Hands on Thursday, Brian Strumke from Stillwater was up for a collaboration with Tired Hands and Teresa's, which provided the special ingredient. Apparently they're doing an escargot stout, like an oyster stout except with snail shells. I suggested they call it Snail Trail Pale Ale, but that was rejected as gross and misleading. I think it's going to be called Artisnail. If you're in the area and haven't been to Tired Hands, fix that as soon as you can. They make some really good beer. They did a berlinerweisse recently, and had a house-made blueberry syrup to go with it, and it was so goddamned good, with or without the blueberry. On Thursday I was drinking a clementine orange saison, again, so very good. The menu's limited, they don't actually have a full kitchen so it's meats and cheeses and paninis and pickles, but what they do have is also done well, and they bake all their own bread. Worth a stop. Worth multiple stops. So's Forest & Main if you're anywhere near Ambler. These guys were late in opening, but they got their booze license months before they got their restaurant license, so they were able to sell beer to some other local bars, and I liked what I had. A really nice English mild called Tiny Tim, awesome caramel and toffee, and at 3.5% you can drink a lot of it. But opening a brewery's hard enough, opening a brewery and a restaurant at the same time's sort of ridiculous, so I was hopeful but concerned. Everything was better than I had any right to expect. They do mainly two kinds of beers: English session beers and saisons. The IPA I had was closer to the ones I drank in England than anything else I've had in America. They have a barrel-aged saison that's a bit funky and which I could drink by the gallon. And the food turned out to be consistently excellent. The burger's fantastic, they have bacon popcorn and cilantro-lime popcorn and both are great, my sister got the chicken and it was awesome. That impressed me, chicken at a restaurant is usually just a bland vehicle for whatever stuff they're serving it with but this actually tasted like meat. Next time I go I'm getting the fish and chips because I saw about half a dozen orders go by while we sat there and it looked incredible.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:24
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The SARS Volta posted:Yeah. I would never actively root for one to fail (well, maybe if it had some terrible marketing going on) but I wasn't sure if they just figured "Well, we have all this beer; might as well sell it." it's just like any industry- somebody sees all these people being successful and decides, "this is the right time to open up shop!" if they're in the right place, they might be successful, and if they have a good product they might be successful. if they have neither.... this happened not too long ago with the initial surge of interest in craft beer, and just like with the .coms a few years ago, a fair number of breweries are gonna crash and burn. out of the dozen or so breweries that have opened in VA in the past two years (and one that's about to open), there are five that produce completely lovely beer, and if it weren't for a strong "Taste the Local" movement, i bet a few of them would already be gone.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:25
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Thanks guys. Should I cross paths with somebody from one of the aforementioned breweries someday, perhaps I'll have the balls to ask them "Do you actually think this is good? Be honest."
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Aug 13, 2012 15:31
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air- posted:
Bitch you better share! I'll share my New Glarus Blacktop
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Aug 13, 2012 15:34
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funkybottoms posted:if it weren't for a strong "Taste the Local" movement, i bet a few of them would already be gone. That's the only thing saving Live Oak and eventually, Deep Ellum. The only thing they have to cling on is how they are early adopters (oh we're the first brewery in ____ area, rah-rah-rah). There's only so much space on a tap wall and on a store shelf, so something has to give, it's just a matter of time before a crash. Especially since we're at a high point of number of breweries in the US. Not sure if this chart had gotten linked here: http://www.brewersassociation.org/p...s-craft-brewers Munkaboo: just fire me a PM/text, whenever works man... have a LOT of beer to drink.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:36
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I don't know why, but recently I've been really happy to have Sly Fox in my area. I don't love any of their beer, but they're all solid and really cheap.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:38
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Phanatic posted:Tired Hands/ Forest & Main Agreed on both counts. Wife and I took a trip to both of these about a month ago and we were very impressed, especially by Tired Hands.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:43
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air- posted:That's the only thing saving Live Oak and eventually, Deep Ellum. The only thing they have to cling on is how they are early adopters (oh we're the first brewery in ____ area, rah-rah-rah). There's only so much space on a tap wall and on a store shelf, so something has to give, it's just a matter of time before a crash. Especially since we're at a high point of number of breweries in the US. local Krogers (a large regional grocery store chain) have done the calculations and gotten rid of a lot of their craft/import shelf space- it's literally not worth it for them to stock.
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Aug 13, 2012 16:02
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