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A liquor store near my house has a bunch of Great Lakes stuff, which is kind of odd given that you know, Great Lakes doesn't distribute here at all.
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Apr 5, 2013 23:13
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I feel bad that I've never bothered to order a Dortmunder Gold given how much I love eddie fitz. There's always something else on tap... I probably wouldn't have that problem if I could buy sixers of it in my state.
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Apr 5, 2013 23:31
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cryme posted:Smuttynose's big beers and limited releases are seriously underrated. I definitely agree with this and especially the Baltic Porter. I had it in the bottle and my reaction was also that it was ridiculously good and very true to style.
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Apr 6, 2013 01:28
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Went to liquor store with nothing particular in mind. Left with 3 fresh Plinys and a Parabola  Apparently it was the right day to stop in.
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Apr 6, 2013 01:42
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ChickenArise posted:I definitely agree with this and especially the Baltic Porter. I had it in the bottle and my reaction was also that it was ridiculously good and very true to style. I haven't had any big Smuttynose beers besides the baltic porter, but I'll be damned if it ain't a great baltic porter.
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Apr 6, 2013 01:42
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I love porters but the term "Baltic Porter" has always made me irrationally frightened. What is the difference between the two? Should I be drinking these?
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Apr 6, 2013 01:48
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Friday night. Bolt Cutter? Why the hell not. Haven't had a taste of this before. Six-ish months old and I still get a lot of hops. Really mild barrel. The booze builds as I'm drinking it... I'm going to have to agree with what seems like the general consensus and say this isn't the best thing ever. Would much rather have a Sucaba or a Straight Jacket.
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Apr 6, 2013 02:08
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Went to a local store's KBS release tonight. Got 2 bottles and a 4pack of BCS, hooray! Once we all had our goods, the manager brought out a bottle of '11 Dark Lord for everyone to try. Super cool! I didn't drink enough to form a solid impression, but it was cool to try it. I live in Indiana, but I can never seem to get tickets for Dark Lord Day. Maybe next year!
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Apr 6, 2013 02:15
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crazyfish posted:Yeah, I really meant with their recent new offerings. I think Great Lakes borders on having the best year-round lineup of any US brewery. Three beers that are at the absolute top of their styles (Dortmunder Gold, Eliot Ness, Edmund Fitzgerald), and two that I haven't heard any bad things about but I haven't had recently enough (or fresh enough, for that matter) to make a judgement. I'm actually not the biggest fan of any of GLBC's pale ales. Their other two year round beers are Burning River, and Commodore Perry, an APA and IPA, respectively. I wasn't the biggest fan of Alchemy Hour either, even though it has received a ton of praise and most people seem to like it. The three times that I tried it, it had a pretty significant alcohol presence in the aftertaste, which really deterred me from ever buying more, even though I go to the brewpub about once a month. On the other hand, this past week I tried a Black IPA from them on nitro called Bridge War, and it was absolutely fantastic. It had a perfect malt/hop balance in a Black IPA, at least to me. No matter what, they make fantastic beers, and I'll continue to be a big supporter of them.
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Apr 6, 2013 02:16
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Captain Shortbus posted:I love porters but the term "Baltic Porter" has always made me irrationally frightened. What is the difference between the two? Should I be drinking these? Baltic Porters are fermented with lager yeast.
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Apr 6, 2013 02:27
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Lager yeast + some RIS influence (which I had always thought and is apparently actually mentioned in BJCP history). Homunculus, Gravitation, and Wheat Wine are the other standouts from the Big Beer series. Their small batch stuff that I have come across was also good. their basic hoppy stuff is more of a right time/right place beer for me though. It's good, but not better than other easily available stuff in the same price range or lower. Terrapin's Hopzilla was on the shelves today and it's seeming very balanced to me right now. The hops are nice big syrupy DIPA hops and it doesn't taste at all lioke 10%+. Malt presence is nice. It's a good solid DIPA if not necessarily one of the greats. (I also got a bottle of Dayman, but it broke into hundreds of pieces and I only tasted a tiny bit)
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Apr 6, 2013 02:38
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I randomly came across a bottle of Dayman at one of the local grocery stores the other day. Awesome. It seemed to be a pretty limited release, everywhere I've been in San Diego seemed to be sold out of it. I don't normally go for most of the west coast style IPAs we get out here, but being a fan of coffee, and coffee stouts, I figured it was worth the $6 bucks to see what I thought. It was awesome. I really really enjoyed it.. a good amount of coffee flavor, and just enough IPA flavor to keep it from feeling like you're drinking an iced mocha. Swung by again today to pick up some stuff for dinner, and they had 3 more just sitting on the shelf, so I grabbed 2 more to enjoy over the weekend. Angry Grimace posted:A liquor store near my house has a bunch of Great Lakes stuff, which is kind of odd given that you know, Great Lakes doesn't distribute here at all. Which one? I'd like to try some of their stuff sometime.
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Apr 6, 2013 04:13
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FreelanceSocialist posted:The only iffy beer that I have had from them was the Hail Ale. Or Hale Ale. Or whatever it was called. The chamomile one. That just didn't mesh well. I'd love to score a sixer of Moondog or Nosferatu, but I'm now living way outside their distribution area. I'm going to go out there and say the Smuttynose Baltic Porter is one of the most underrated beers out there. This beer is a fantastic display of subtlety, big and flavorful without being too big and trying to punch you in the face, complex without being schizophrenic, good both fresh and with really amazing with some age. Just a really nice balance of smooth malt and chocolate characters with very little roast. Also, whats the difference between a baltic porter and the other porter styles? Most of the other porter styles are lower in alcohol and various degrees of being dryer and a little roastier. A baltic porter has a fair amount of body and malty sweetness from a 50% or higher munich malt base, low roast character but lots of chocolate. It is also generally a hybrid "steam" yeast (ferments at ale and lager temps like Anchor Steam) or exclusively lager fermented and lager conditioned, lending to a pretty smooth overall character. There aren't a ton of commercially available styles that you can get in the states but I don't think I'm far off in saying that the Smuttynose Baltic Porter is probably one of the best examples out there.
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Apr 6, 2013 04:26
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Kudosx posted:I'm actually not the biggest fan of any of GLBC's pale ales. Their other two year round beers are Burning River, and Commodore Perry, an APA and IPA, respectively. I wasn't the biggest fan of Alchemy Hour either, even though it has received a ton of praise and most people seem to like it. The three times that I tried it, it had a pretty significant alcohol presence in the aftertaste, which really deterred me from ever buying more, even though I go to the brewpub about once a month. That's the one I was thinking of. I don't like Commodore Perry almost at all. It somehow just was completely meh for me. I like IPAs quite a bit, but that just didn't seem to do anything for me. It actually sort of taints my whole subliminal impression of the brewery because I had it so soon after I started drinking beer. I just have to keep reminding myself that yes, these are also the guys that brew Ed Fitz.
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Apr 6, 2013 04:58
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Picked up a bottle of the Deschutes/Rogue/North Coast collab Class of '88 Barleywine. It's meant to emulate the original definition from Fred Eckhardt of a barleywine. Pretty drat good, and not nearly as sweet as I'm used to Barleywines being. Might pick up a few more to try and age.
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Apr 6, 2013 07:42
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rage-saq posted:There aren't a ton of commercially available styles that you can get in the states but I don't think I'm far off in saying that the Smuttynose Baltic Porter is probably one of the best examples out there. Victory makes one called Baltic Thunder that is also quite good. Beer Advocate classifies Flying Dog Gonzo as one too, but I don't think it really fits the style as well as the other two.
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Apr 6, 2013 14:52
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cryme posted:Smuttynose's big beers and limited releases are seriously underrated. That was my thought after Gravitation. I'm not passing any more of them up. Also, it doesn't look like I'm getting KBS this year. I checked my local store and the beer manager said he was unable to hold me a beer because the owner said their was too much demand. The other beer manager said they were getting phone calls every few minutes about it. I'm not going to even ask any other stores because I'm sure they are all out and I don't want to be that guy. I'm just wondering what happened between last year and this year as far as demand is concerned.
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Apr 6, 2013 15:29
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Craft beer boom. The market is expanding like crazy as the economy improves. Also, even though Founders expanded their production, they're selling in more markets (and in more stores in each market) - while it remains profitable to spread their product as thin as they do, they're going to keep on doing it, even though it means there's not enough for everyone. (22-bottle crusaders excepted) Heading to New England Brewing Co today to get some of their saison! Always a fun thing whenever I'm up in CT visiting the fiancee's family.
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Apr 6, 2013 15:39
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Any Florida or otherwise goons going to the Berliner Bash on the Bay April 20th? Its at Peg's (home of Rare DOS and RareR DOS and other such amazingness). Also, I had recently a Siren Noire by Heavy Seas. Its a bourbon barrel aged chocolate stout and its really really good, especially at 8 bucks a bomber. You get virtually no bourbon though. However, what does come through is an amazing coffee and chocolate flavored stout. Imagine a chocolately version of FBS. I was seriously impressed at how good it was. I only bought it on a whim because it was 8 bucks, and its tough to pass the promise of a BA version of beer for that price. I also didn't expect much from Heavy Seas, but drat. While I didn't get the barrel, I did get some deliciousness. I highly recommend it if you see it. Also, had Weyerbacker Riserva 2012 last night. Wayyyyyy better than the 2011 bottle I had a few months ago. The previous bottle I had was more raspberry than anything. This years is much more tart and sour and overall very good. A tad dangerous at 11.5%, but worth the cost at $16 a bomber. swickles fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Apr 6, 2013 |
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Apr 6, 2013 20:12
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Toebone posted:Victory makes one called Baltic Thunder that is also quite good. Beer Advocate classifies Flying Dog Gonzo as one too, but I don't think it really fits the style as well as the other two. Barrel-Aged Gonzo is one of my all-time most favoritest beers, ever (if anyone has any, do want). BA and regular, Gonzo is a wonderful porter, but yeah, I have never felt like it fit well into the baltic porter category. It's an imperial porter, really. But now we're splitting hairs. If anyone wants to trade for some Smuttynose Big Barrel stuff, hit me up in the trades thread. I'm in the brewery's back yard so it's all easy to get.
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Apr 6, 2013 20:59
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swickles posted:Any Florida or otherwise goons going to the Berliner Bash on the Bay April 20th? Its at Peg's (home of Rare DOS and RareR DOS and other such amazingness). You find that heavy sea's bomber in orlando? If so where. Also I got a Riserva last night from total wine on colonial and man that is seriously tart stuff. Kinda heavy handed in the sour department but the raspberries came through nicely.
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Apr 6, 2013 21:45
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SketchyNick posted:You find that heavy sea's bomber in orlando? If so where. Also I got a Riserva last night from total wine on colonial and man that is seriously tart stuff. Kinda heavy handed in the sour department but the raspberries came through nicely. I live in South Florida, got it at the TW here. They are still at them all.
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Apr 6, 2013 21:47
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So the Craft Brew Alliance (Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Kona) sent a cease and desist to Great Lakes regarding Alchemy Hour. Apparently they own the trademark on the word alchemy when it comes to beer. So Great Lakes announced that Alchemy Hour will be known by a different name next year but the recipe will remain the same. This is pretty dumb but part of me thinks that if Anheuser Busch didn't have a stake in the CBA then this might not be happening. On the other hand with the exponential growth of craft beer, this poo poo is inevitable. A shame.
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Apr 6, 2013 23:27
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Mahoning posted:So the Craft Brew Alliance (Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Kona) sent a cease and desist to Great Lakes regarding Alchemy Hour. Apparently they own the trademark on the word alchemy when it comes to beer. So Great Lakes announced that Alchemy Hour will be known by a different name next year but the recipe will remain the same. That poo poo is annoying. If anything it makes me want to boycott the sender's line up if I actually drank any of it to begin with. I think its even more annoying when its wine vs. beer companies. Like with Abacus and Sucuba. A local guy is starting a brewery that they initially wanted to call Barefoot Monk, but Barefoot wines sent a letter saying they were infringing on their copy right. So they settled on Barrel of Monks. I think if that happened to me I would rename the offending beer something like Steve is a Tool, where Steve or whatever would be the first name of the CEO of the company sending the C&D.
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Apr 6, 2013 23:32
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Mahoning posted:So the Craft Brew Alliance (Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Kona) sent a cease and desist to Great Lakes regarding Alchemy Hour. Apparently they own the trademark on the word alchemy when it comes to beer. So Great Lakes announced that Alchemy Hour will be known by a different name next year but the recipe will remain the same. Do Widmer, Redhook, or Kona even make anything worth a drat? Kona is new to Chicago and I haven't gotten up the motivation to actually try any of their beers. Everything I've had from Widmer has ranged from bad to meh. edit: I understand why they sent the notice though. If they own the trademark and (edit: don't) enforce it, they risk losing it. crazyfish fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Apr 6, 2013 |
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Apr 6, 2013 23:49
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crazyfish posted:Do Widmer, Redhook, or Kona even make anything worth a drat? Kona is new to Chicago and I haven't gotten up the motivation to actually try any of their beers. Everything I've had from Widmer has ranged from bad to meh. Kona makes a coffee porter that is respectable. CCB just collaborated with Widmer, which might be the first thing from them I will actually seek out.
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Apr 6, 2013 23:52
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Mahoning posted:So the Craft Brew Alliance (Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Kona) sent a cease and desist to Great Lakes regarding Alchemy Hour. Apparently they own the trademark on the word alchemy when it comes to beer. So Great Lakes announced that Alchemy Hour will be known by a different name next year but the recipe will remain the same. Got a source? Here's the trademark http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4006:hdjho9.5.95 As much as I hate C&Ds, I'm also getting sick of knee jerk reactions wherein small companies victimize themselves and stir up publicity before even loving replying to the thing. Getting mad at Widmer for merely sending a letter is akin to getting mad at the mere idea of trademarks. Even if it turns out that Widmer are being dicks, Great Lakes deserves a grand facepalm in their direction for making and shipping a beer before doing a trademark search. A C&D is the minimalist response here and Great Lakes should be thanking their lucky stars that they're not being forced to buy back all stocks. Even then, that would be a drop in the bucket in comparison to the worst case.
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Apr 7, 2013 00:22
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Noni posted:Got a source? From the horse's mouth: https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/news/alchemy-hour-double-ipa-an-update
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Apr 7, 2013 00:33
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crazyfish posted:From the horse's mouth: https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/news/alchemy-hour-double-ipa-an-update Well it sounds like CBA granted them a license to use the name through 2013 and retroactively. That's actually the nicest way they could possibly be expected to handle this and I think it deserves kudos rather than condemnation.
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Apr 7, 2013 00:42
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Anybody else here the supposedly confirmed rumor that the next Bourbon County variant that will be released is Coconut? Interesting choice, I've heard it's really good but I'm not sure it will be as hyped as the other variations.
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Apr 7, 2013 00:59
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crazyfish posted:Do Widmer, Redhook, or Kona even make anything worth a drat? Kona is new to Chicago and I haven't gotten up the motivation to actually try any of their beers. Everything I've had from Widmer has ranged from bad to meh. I am pretty unimpressed overall with Widmer as well. They had their raspberry chocolate imperial stout on tap nearby (at least I think it was that, it had at least four or five words in the name) and it was good but not great. Redhook is passable swill, as in I'd rather drink Redhook than Coors but it's low-tier "craft" beer otherwise. They make a double black stout or whatever they called it that was decent, but good luck finding it. Kona is exceptionally average. Their stuff doesn't take any risks, it merely ticks off check boxes on style requirements, but it does result in a pleasant if unremarkable beer experience. So while the CBA might at least be cool about dealing with trademark infringements, from the probably 8-10 beers I've sampled from them over they years, they don't regularly put out great product.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:06
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Mahoning posted:So the Craft Brew Alliance (Redhook, Widmer Brothers, Kona) sent a cease and desist to Great Lakes regarding Alchemy Hour. Apparently they own the trademark on the word alchemy when it comes to beer. So Great Lakes announced that Alchemy Hour will be known by a different name next year but the recipe will remain the same. They recently discontinued their Drifter Pale Ale in favor of a beer called Alchemy Ale, so I can see why this'd happen. And, as said before, Widmer/CBA seemed to have handled this very well as far as copyright issues go, allowing Great Lakes to continue using the name for the rest of the season. Widmer does do some stuff I rather like, some of their Rotator IPAs are very good and very inexpensive, and the SXNW beer they did earlier this year was fantastic.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:14
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Anybody else here the supposedly confirmed rumor that the next Bourbon County variant that will be released is Coconut? Interesting choice, I've heard it's really good but I'm not sure it will be as hyped as the other variations. It has been made to some degree - coconut was available at Day of the Living Ales on cask. It was quite good. I believe they're testing it in bottles though it is not yet confirmed if it'll actually see the light of day. edit: It's Bourbon County. I find it near impossible to believe that it won't be as hyped as every other variation.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:20
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swickles posted:Also, I had recently a Siren Noire by Heavy Seas. Its a bourbon barrel aged chocolate stout and its really really good, especially at 8 bucks a bomber. You get virtually no bourbon though. However, what does come through is an amazing coffee and chocolate flavored stout. Imagine a chocolately version of FBS. I was seriously impressed at how good it was. I only bought it on a whim because it was 8 bucks, and its tough to pass the promise of a BA version of beer for that price. I also didn't expect much from Heavy Seas, but drat. While I didn't get the barrel, I did get some deliciousness. I highly recommend it if you see it. crazyfish posted:Do Widmer, Redhook, or Kona even make anything worth a drat? Kona is new to Chicago and I haven't gotten up the motivation to actually try any of their beers. Everything I've had from Widmer has ranged from bad to meh. The aforementioned pipeline porter is good fresh, and longboard lager is pretty serviceable. Koko brown is ok, but the first time I had it, I found it to be kinda funky. One month later it was improved. Red Hook to me is pretty 'intro to craft beer' if anything, but Widmer makes a few good ones, things like O'Ryely, Shaddock, and their imperial 4-packs.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:23
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Anybody else here the supposedly confirmed rumor that the next Bourbon County variant that will be released is Coconut? Interesting choice, I've heard it's really good but I'm not sure it will be as hyped as the other variations. I love coconut, so I really hope I can get my hands on a bottle of this.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:37
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Speaking of coconut and Kona, I had a beer of theirs on tap a few months ago and it had this horrid coconut undertone that completely ruined the beer for me. I have no idea which one it was but it made me swear off giving them another shot for a while. And I have no problem with coconut. I think Sucaba is one of the tastiest things I've ever had. This was just weird though
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Apr 7, 2013 01:42
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So it looks like New Belgium's Asheville site was burned down by an arsonist? http://westashevillewatch.com/two-simultaneous-fires-at-new-belgium-brewing-site/
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Apr 7, 2013 01:46
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XxGirlKisserxX posted:So it looks like New Belgium's Asheville site was burned down by an arsonist? That really sucks, but I don't see any proof at all it was an arsonist edit: It was, here's a better story http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130406/NEWS/304060031/Update-Arson-suspected-four-Asheville-fires?nclick_check=1
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Apr 7, 2013 01:50
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At least they hadn't started building a brewery on it yet. Sucks tho. A similar random arson spree recently gutted one of Bend's oldest church buildings and it's generally bummed everyone across town.
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Apr 7, 2013 01:54
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| # ? May 26, 2024 04:25 |
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swickles posted:That poo poo is annoying. If anything it makes me want to boycott the sender's line up if I actually drank any of it to begin with. I think its even more annoying when its wine vs. beer companies. Like with Abacus and Sucuba. A local guy is starting a brewery that they initially wanted to call Barefoot Monk, but Barefoot wines sent a letter saying they were infringing on their copy right. So they settled on Barrel of Monks. I think if that happened to me I would rename the offending beer something like Steve is a Tool, where Steve or whatever would be the first name of the CEO of the company sending the C&D. The thing is, the company legally has to protect it's trademark or it loses it. A C&D is standard, but it really doesn't mean anything unless the company follows up with it. It seems from reading further in this thread, though, that they handled it admirably. crazyfish posted:Do Widmer, Redhook, or Kona even make anything worth a drat? Kona is new to Chicago and I haven't gotten up the motivation to actually try any of their beers. Everything I've had from Widmer has ranged from bad to meh. Kona's Pipeline Porter, a winter seasonal, is a great coffee porter.
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Apr 7, 2013 02:41
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