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air- posted:https://twitter.com/hopsandjosh/status/928681605199286272 I was pretty surprised to hear about this. I really liked the can of The One They Call Zoe you gave me in a trade years ago and I want to try their other beers. I just don't see them lasting long after all the beer nerds in Colorado have tried their beers and moved on to the next new thing. It happens to a lot of breweries that enter Colorado, they do well for a few months, then people stop buying their beer after they've tried it, and then the breweries usually end up leaving the state. That's what happened to St Arnold, everything except the Bishops Barrel series sat and shelves and didn't sell.
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Nov 9, 2017 20:27
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mrcowcow posted:That's what happened to St Arnold, everything except the Bishops Barrel series sat and shelves and didn't sell. Hops and Grain has a solid line of flagship beers and they recently added two NEIPAs that are seeing distro (Haze County, Pellets and Powder). As far as "limited" beers, I've only seen them on draft at the brewery itself or special events/beer festivals so.... They do have a sour only facility in the works, so maybe that's part of how they got CSA as a distributor. e: Just kidding they have one limited release bottle that is still sitting on shelves here  but yeah enjoy Zoe and A Pale Mosaichttps://twitter.com/hopsandgrain/status/926482922416279554 air- fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Nov 9, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 20:39
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I took some lovely hipster-angle photos and drank a lot of beer on my wine vacation last week (don't worry, I drank a lot of wine too), so I thought I'd treat you nerds to a little write-up with a side of good-brewery evangelism. First stop was Black Market Brewing in Temecula. Someone recommended them to me at some point, and they were the closest place to start coming back from winery tours.  Honestly? Eh. The Rye IPA had a nice citrus/pine note, but the rye wasn't evident at all. Deception (blonde ale with coconut and lime zest) was deceptively bland. Shakedown was an okay brown. It tasted like brown. The NE DIPA was nice and hazy, probably the best of the lot - it was very juicy, but there was too much maltiness for me. I love a good juicebox NE IPA, but if you're going to have a massive grain bill there needs to be at least a touch of bittering to balance. It was also missing the mineraly note I've come to expect from the best NE IPAs; very few CA breweries get the water treatment right (or care at all). Vinous Puma (collab with local Cougar Winery, which I also visited), aside from having an interesting name, disappointed; Cismontaine remains one of the very few breweries that does wine/beer hybrids well. They were out of the Watermelon Gose (recommended by a friend as "better than Anderson Valley!") but hadn't bothered to take it off the board. Staff also seemed annoyed to see me, which was odd given I was their third customer of the day. Everybody has an off day I guess. Next was Wiens Brewing. The Wiens family also owns a large (and okay-ish) winery in the area, along with probably some other businesses. This place was too dark for a decent photo, which is a shame because the hop eyeball logo on their IPA is the best thing they've produced as far as I can tell. Muddy, nondescriptly-hoppy IPA; nicely balanced apricot wheat that managed gold at GABF in 2016; Hoppy Red that tastes like red; super-pale blonde with super-light flavor that I could see being a lawn mower beer; very solid brown with a nice powdered cocoa flavor. Staff was friendly and knew their beers as well as the wines their sister winery produces. I liked that, it's always nice to see multitasking in liver abuse. Right next door to Wiens is Refuge Brewery. I liked the place immediately when I entered - their Halloween decorations were on point, and there were several more locals hanging out at the bar than I'd seen anywhere else. They won gold at GABF this year with their Blood Orange Wit, so I started there. It was nice - light, sessionable, candied orange peel with that slightly musty note unique to blood oranges. Then I went with a Reserve Flight:  L-R: 1. Framboise Noire, black currant/raspberry sour. I fuckin' loved this, probably the best beer I had all day. Nicely but not aggressively tart, bright red raspberry with an earthy currant note. Extremely refreshing. 2. Blanco, Blonde Stout aged in a Rogue chipotle whisky barrel. This tasted almost exactly like The Bruery's White Chocolate - like a freaky-sweet vanilla waffle cone. It had the same dense, not-quite-syrupy mouthfeel too. It's a crazy rear end beer, but not something I want even a full sample pour of. 3. Pumpkin Jack, pumpkin saison aged in Jack Daniels barrel. Definitely the tastiest thing to ever come out of that barrel. Not recognizable as a saison, a little boozy but with a vegetal note and satisfying body. 4. Some kind of stout. I'm pretty sure it was Barrely Standing, imperial stout aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels. It was quite good, but much like every other barrel-aged stout. The other stuff was more interesting and unusual. I wasn't expecting much at Refuge - their website only features their Blood Orange Wit, Grapefruit IPA, and West Coast Red. In the end they surprised me with a ton of variety and interesting styles. They were the biggest surprise of the trip, and my favorite in Temecula by quite a lot. Last stop in Temecula was Garage Brewing. I mainly went there for the pizza, which is prepared Subway-style with toppings you call and delivered to the bar when cooked. Good thing, because the beers were the brewing equivalent of the hyper-sweet almond "champagne" the worst breweries in the area offer. Lime IPA, Hatch chile IPA, Marshmallow Milk Stout...you get the idea. Skip these guys unless you've got a game of sportsball to watch (they have about 80 TVs around the bar) or you want a clumsily-executed gimmick adjunct beer. And yes, I did just say that after describing Blanco favorably above. After a couple of days touring Temecula, I headed for San Diego for some pre-Beer Week shenanigans. There's a new guy squatting one block east of Lost Abbey:  That's right, Mister "Doctor" Bill Sysak, former Certified Chicharone for Stone Brewing and overall pedantic schmuck, has set up shop just 100 yards from Stone's original brewery. They're cranking out a variety of styles and appear to be gearing up to produce 1250 cases per month, which is pretty big for a startup. How's the beer?  In a word, okay. Pictured are their four fruited "Berlinerweisse" offerings, sold as San Diego Vice. L-R: 1. Strawberry - Surprisingly not band-aidy like most strawberry sours are. Mister Doctor Bill actually graced the bar with his presence briefly and deigned to speak with me about this. He says he thinks that off flavor comes from the strawberry seeds, so he got special de-seeded fruit for brewing. That was actually good info and softened my opinion on The Myth, The Legend, Bill Sysak a bit. 2. Montmorency Cherry - Muted cherry flavor, muted acidity compared to the strawberry version. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not exactly a standout. 3. Pink Guava - The bartender said this was the sweetest, and his least favorite. I agree with his analysis. This isn't quite ready to go on pancakes, but it's definitely got way too much malt/sugar for the little bit of lacto fermentation they got. 4. Black Currant - Best of the lot. Good, solid black currant flavor, with less sweetness than any of the other berliners. This is the only one I'd enjoy a full pour of, and I'd enjoy it very much - again, in agreement with the bartender. I also tried two of their IPAs: Indie IPA with Citra and Prince of Darkness Double IPA dry hopped with Ekuanot and Motueka. They were nice bookends of hoppiness - Indie was fairly light but had good Citra quality, while Prince of Darkness was a big fat malty DIPA with fuckloads of hop aroma and bitterness attempting to balance it out. IPA is a crowded field in SoCal and I see no reason to recommend these over many others, but they weren't bad. White Rabbit, their witbier, is solid enough and would make a good lawnmower beer. For those who weren't aware, Toolbox Brewing lost their head brewer (possibly the most knowledgeable sour beer brewer in the US) about six months ago. He moved to Denmark where I'm sure he's making obscenely great things. What has Toolbox done to recover from such a staggering loss? They've moved into the world of trendy gimmicky adjunct beers. For instance, Fruited Milkshake IPAs like Purplish:  That's right, it's a Hazy IPA! With lactose! And boysenberries! It'll bring all the beer nerds to the yard! ...and I actually don't hate it. The fruit flavor is kinda muddled, and clashes a bit with the hops, but overall the effect is a dense creamy beer-like object and I can't be too mad at it. Mashugana, the Raspberry Milkshake IPA, is considerably better as the raspberry comes through more clearly. It's also a bit more tart, which is nice. Toolbox's owner once told me, "You can cover up a lot of poo poo with raspberries." Take that however you like in this context. My advice for fans of Toolbox: buy their barrel aged stuff now, while it's still the previous guy's best work. Eye the newer stuff with suspicion, because it's pretty drat suspicious. But give it a chance. There's good stuff up in Anaheim too. For instance, Chapman Crafted Beer. From what my local friend told me these guys had a rough opening with a lot of kinda-bad beer. Now, though?  Now, they're brewing probably the best basic pilsner I've had in the US. The bartender said it was kegged the day before, and freshness definitely helps. Table Friendly was so fresh they had to pull it out of the brite tank. Liquid Chords managed to taste like coffee and toast in addition to brown, which was a nice change from most browns. Closed Caption was a perfectly solid stout. Nothing at this place sucked, though I do have to call out their odd choice of tasting-flight holder:  That is a 12-inch(ish) hunk of aluminum framing with four holes drilled in it. Pretty dang heavy for a tasting flight, and way sturdier than wooden paddles, but with the grommets in those holes are just slightly too small. The glasses kept getting stuck, both on the way out and back in. Still, Chapman is doing a lot of stuff right and I can't be too mad about such a minor quibble. By contrast, these guys have found a good mix of sturdy, lightweight, and accessible for their tasters:  That's the tasting flight holder, and the logo, of Green Cheek Brewing. Evan, former head brewer of Noble Ale Works and all-around amazing brewer, started this place. They have a wide variety of styles, and more lagers than most places bother with:  Despite the glut of hazy IPAs lately, I really enjoyed Apricot Agenda. The additional (but subtle) fruit was a nice touch, and Evan knows how to do water correction. Note they also have some beer-ish things: a Michelada and Grapefruit Shandy. Both are served on ice, the Michelada with an appropriately-rimmed glass. I tried the Shandy and it would be perfect for those rare days when OC gets over 100 degrees. Everything at Green Cheek was impressively well done. I'd recommend them over any other brewery in the Anaheim area except possibly Noble, depending on who has what on tap.
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Nov 9, 2017 21:50
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Any other goons going to Fobab sat pm session?
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Nov 9, 2017 22:08
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Compusaurus posted:Any other goons going to Fobab sat pm session?
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Nov 9, 2017 22:29
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So the new hot poo poo that will be likely be coming out of the Chicago area is Afterthought Brewing out of Lombard. All farmhouse, mostly mixed fermentation. Tiny right now and only distributing to Beer Cellar in Glen Ellyn, where I snagged a few bottles last week. Just killed their Farmhouse Mild and the hype is legit. Beautiful beer, near perfect in its balance of saison sweetness and just the right tartness. Extremely drinkable. This is one of the best saisons I've had in a while.
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Nov 10, 2017 03:29
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Just ordered a terrible ipa from the newest brewery to open in Sacramento called Cultivar. Total oxidation and a wierd mineral taste like salt but softer. How the hell do you ship a keg of this poo poo out.
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Nov 10, 2017 04:11
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I dont know but Im going to line up for their limited NEIPA release
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Nov 10, 2017 04:12
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Control Volume posted:I dont know but Im going to line up for their limited NEIPA release The hero we need. Make sure you check it in on untappd though.
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Nov 10, 2017 04:23
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http://respect-mag.com/2017/11/rock-abruham-craft-gods/ Aslin should send this dude a c&d
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Nov 10, 2017 10:35
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Lt_Tofu posted:Just ordered a terrible ipa from the newest brewery to open in [city] called [name]. Total oxidation and a wierd mineral taste like salt but softer. How the hell do you ship a keg of this poo poo out.
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Nov 10, 2017 13:55
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danbanana posted:So the new hot poo poo that will be likely be coming out of the Chicago area is Afterthought Brewing out of Lombard. All farmhouse, mostly mixed fermentation. Tiny right now and only distributing to Beer Cellar in Glen Ellyn, where I snagged a few bottles last week. The guy that owns that brewery talks a lot on talkbeer about saison and he's very knowledgeable. I'd love to try his stuff
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Nov 10, 2017 15:28
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Aaaaand my local bar has Geuze Tilquin on draft. Time to stock up on antacids.
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Nov 10, 2017 15:58
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funkybottoms posted:http://respect-mag.com/2017/11/rock-abruham-craft-gods/ Looks like a tasty tape to blast.
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Nov 10, 2017 16:25
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cryme posted:The guy that owns that brewery talks a lot on talkbeer about saison and he's very knowledgeable. I'd love to try his stuff Hit me up come spring and I will see what I can do. Weather literally turned over night here so shipping isn't ideal. *crosses fingers and prays the box from Belgium arrives in one piece*
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Nov 10, 2017 17:13
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danbanana posted:Hit me up come spring and I will see what I can do. Weather literally turned over night here so shipping isn't ideal. *not a solid piece of ice, though*
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Nov 10, 2017 19:00
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ChiTownEddie posted:
This is good. But Coffee Eugene on cask yo.....
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Nov 10, 2017 19:25
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danbanana posted:This is good. But Coffee Eugene on cask yo..... That is also a good beer  I'm going to hit up the new Off Color taproom after work tonight. I look forward to nitro Scurry and whatever else I decide to drink.
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Nov 10, 2017 20:25
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Spuckuk posted:Aaaaand my local bar has Geuze Tilquin on draft. Time to stock up on antacids. Draft Tilquin is significantly lighter than the bottled stuff. It’s also one of the most crushable beers I’ve ever had and i would drink it by the gallon year round if i could.
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Nov 10, 2017 20:30
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Dan's fanboism of Coffee Eugene warms my heart. Also Nitro Scurry is A+++++ much better than regular.
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Nov 10, 2017 20:42
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HatfulOfHollow posted:Draft Tilquin is significantly lighter than the bottled stuff. It’s also one of the most crushable beers I’ve ever had and i would drink it by the gallon year round if i could. Tilquin Draft GOAT
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Nov 10, 2017 20:43
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HatfulOfHollow posted:Draft Tilquin is significantly lighter than the bottled stuff. It’s also one of the most crushable beers I’ve ever had and i would drink it by the gallon year round if i could. Excellently they had good stock of bottled Tilquin as well. The draft version is really spritzy and fresh and great in a different way from bottles
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Nov 10, 2017 23:14
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Ironically enough, Pierre didn’t have anything on tap when I visited his brewery in Belgium.
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Nov 10, 2017 23:45
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I guess it's SD beer week. Nothing seems as hosed as I remember as I've routinely skipped big beer events for the last couple years due to burnout with crowds and such. I'm sitting at the bar at Toronado and the dude keeps telling me it's gonna be crazy but it seems no busier than 640 on any given Friday to me. I'd rather have done the Barrel thing at O'Briens but I can walk to Toro and O'Briens requires me to drive and when I'm doing this stuff alone like the sad sack divorcee I am it's not really worth driving.
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Nov 11, 2017 03:43
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last night i attended a big bottle share for all the breweries participating in today's East Coast Covenant festival at Triple Crossing. only drank one truly notable beer (Hardywood's Family Tree Barrel Blend), but had a fantastic time hanging out with my dudes from Kent Falls. we invented a game called Phish or Not, made guesses, and then asked people to confirm our guesses, which lead to hanging out with the crews from Interboro and Finback, who are all really cool guys (and definitely Nots).
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Nov 11, 2017 13:29
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People lined up last night for tickets to the Angry Chair anniversary party: Last night I went to Garagiste with some friends and literally everyone agreed that everything was way too sweet and some even tasted like cough syrup. I'll never understand why beer geeks go crazy for that stuff.
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Nov 11, 2017 17:25
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Holy poo poo is that outside in line? Trying to figure out what the gently caress I'm looking at. Also Mead is good
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Nov 11, 2017 19:22
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Angry Grimace posted:I guess it's SD beer week. Oh wow, I wish I saw this last night as I too was at Toranado. Particulary ironic since I as whinging about them recently. But they are open after 12 and North Park Beer Co. or Modern Times aren't. I enjoyed the Phantom Carriage Lugosi. At Mikkeller brewing now, I like how they redecorated the old alesmith location. It's as Mikkeller as possible.
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Nov 11, 2017 23:44
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El Lupolo Libre is so goddamn good and I’m glad they finally put it in bombers.
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Nov 12, 2017 00:03
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If you’re from SoCal and not at Woodshop now, you have failed.
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Nov 12, 2017 00:13
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Furious Lobster posted:If you’re from SoCal and not at Woodshop now, you have failed. It's me, I am the failure... Edit: O'Briens still has '15 Pugachev's Cobra, I am doing ok. Snack Bitch fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Nov 12, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2017 00:19
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Spanish Manlove posted:Last night I went to Garagiste with some friends and literally everyone agreed that everything was way too sweet and some even tasted like cough syrup. I'll never understand why beer geeks go crazy for that stuff. Mead made by beer nerds is invariably hypersweet fuckgarbage. I'd be interested to hear how the producers talk about it because I can't imagine anyone being proud of making stuff like that. I'd bet that they're dipshits who cargo-culted all their techniques, and couldn't so much as tell me what grape is used in Beaujolais wine for example. funkybottoms posted:last night i attended a big bottle share for all the breweries participating in today's East Coast Covenant festival at Triple Crossing. only drank one truly notable beer (Hardywood's Family Tree Barrel Blend), but had a fantastic time hanging out with my dudes from Kent Falls. we invented a game called Phish or Not, made guesses, and then asked people to confirm our guesses, which lead to hanging out with the crews from Interboro and Finback, who are all really cool guys (and definitely Nots). That sounds like it was a lot of fun! ECC sounds like it'll be a really cool event in a couple years, I look forward to checking it out in the future. Also Veil is a whole brewery made up of Nots, and as a Not I respect that.
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Nov 12, 2017 05:01
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Breweries: Make more ESBs and English Milds. Gimme a good Dopplebock.
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Nov 12, 2017 05:55
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Shabadu posted:Breweries: Make more ESBs and English Milds. Gimme a good Dopplebock. There's a brewery near me that makes a really nice blackberry dark mild, and esb is everywhere. Then again I live in the north of England. I'd be very surprised if there are many brewers in the US making cask ales at all, they're not exactly trendy, and difficult to handle properly.
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Nov 12, 2017 08:14
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poop dood posted:That sounds like it was a lot of fun! ECC sounds like it'll be a really cool event in a couple years, I look forward to checking it out in the future. Also Veil is a whole brewery made up of Nots, and as a Not I respect that. had a long, candid discussion about the event with one of the TCB owners and, aside from Burial pulling out at the eleventh hour, the one big "problem" was that almost everyone was pouring IPAs. the only dark beer was Hardywood Bourbon GBS, then there were a three fruited Berliners, a pils, and a kvass. TCB guy said they're gonna look at it from all angles to see if they want to adjust pricing and crowd size- not to mention seeing if they can vary the offerings a bit more- but they did a really good job overall and i would recommend checking it out next time around. oh, i also talked to Jesse from Interboro some more about the RTJ beer and had no idea that he basically managed the Def Jux record label, so i got to have mini fanboy with him about that. as for Nots, it's really unfortunate that i can't make the same claim for us. but, hey, not a single tattoo between nine back-of-house staff, so that's gotta mean something, right? Shabadu posted:Breweries: Make more ESBs and English Milds. Gimme a good Dopplebock. every brewer i know says they would love to make a bitter or mild, but the very next words out of their mouths always have something to do with how it would never sell. we make a pretty good doppelbock, though!
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Nov 12, 2017 14:13
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Shabadu posted:Breweries: Make more ESBs and English Milds. Gimme a good Dopplebock. http://www.lazarusbrewing.com/taproom They're doing ok, yet shitlords don't give them the time of day despite the beer being solid representations of English styles.
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Nov 12, 2017 14:27
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Tired Hands is real good at milds but the lactose fruit cocktail dorks never drink them
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Nov 12, 2017 14:55
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I like milds but I think there's a time, place, and price for them and most modern beer bars have neither of those criteria.
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Nov 12, 2017 14:56
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It's pretty wild that you're more likely to see a gose than a mild on, most places.
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Nov 12, 2017 15:08
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I think Forest & Main both does milds very well and has the right sort of place to drink them.
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Nov 12, 2017 15:31
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