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Valencia posted:Went to a random little burger joint in Durham last night and had a pint of Peak Organic King Crimson imperial red. Didn't really like it much at all- it smelled like an open container of malt vinegar and had a really corrosive, bitter aftertaste. I probably should have asked for a sample first because it was the first beer in a while that I almost couldn't finish a full glass of. I liked King Crimson actually, despite the HUGE diacetyl in it. It was a nice caramel malt-heavy beer with a strong hop presence that somehow managed to work with the buttery diacetyl. That kinda sounds like an off keg.
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Sep 2, 2012 01:58
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Went to Societe Brewing in San Diego today and I left convinced that this is the next big thing in craft beer. Pretty much everything was well above average, with some, like the Butcher and Every Man's IPA being great. Then again, my opinion might have been influenced by the total amount of beer I tried today (we went to White Labs for their yeast comparison as well.)
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Sep 2, 2012 04:04
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Angry Grimace posted:Went to Societe Brewing in San Diego today and I left convinced that this is the next big thing in craft beer. Pretty much everything was well above average, with some, like the Butcher and Every Man's IPA being great. Nah that's about what I'm getting from them too. Their worst beer is still good and the Butcher and the Pupil are top shelf. The IPAs they're cranking out are all sharp but I have a feeling their sours are going to blow people away.
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Sep 2, 2012 05:41
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Just came back from the Goose Island 312 Urban Block Party (sup Ubik!). Showed up at 8pm, missed out on a bunch of rare tappings, but still got to try: - BCBS Coffee blended with BCBS Bramble. Would rather have had one or the other, but still quite nice. - 312 with brett. It tasted like...312 with brett. I'm glad these guys have the sense of humour to do something like that. Wasn't bad to drink at least. - "4 year old saison". I don't know what this was, but it was a saison that was four years old and was pretty good. Didn't detect any crazy flavourings. - 2010 Night Stalker. Tasted like what I remember from the vintage tasting a couple months ago. Not bad, but not amazing. - Sour Matilda. I didn't get a lot of info on this, but it tasted like (in a good way) a lacto/pedio infected batch of Matilda. - Gran Gas (belgian ale with spruce tips and lingonberries). I was absolutely floored at how balanced and delicious this was. Given the aforementioned flavours I expected it to be a bomb of either, but it was so good that my wife (who hates most beer) took my cup away from me and downed it. - BCBS with ancho chiles, which I got two pours of and was probably the highlight. The chile flavour was perfectly balanced with the BCBS - a nice aftertone rather than a punch in the face like a lot of chile beers. They knocked this one out of the park. - BCBS with pears. In contrast to ancho, this was a disappointment - there was zero pear flavour. That didn't matter though, BCBS is so good by itself that it's hard make a bad variant.
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Sep 2, 2012 05:56
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deadwing posted:I liked King Crimson actually, despite the HUGE diacetyl in it. It was a nice caramel malt-heavy beer with a strong hop presence that somehow managed to work with the buttery diacetyl. That kinda sounds like an off keg.
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Sep 2, 2012 06:13
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One last shot for those who missed out on morning tickets to FoBAB: http://fobab.brownpapertickets.com/ Only the evening sessions are left. I'd go, but I have a gig scheduled that night...
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Sep 2, 2012 06:25
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wattershed posted:Nah that's about what I'm getting from them too. Their worst beer is still good and the Butcher and the Pupil are top shelf. The IPAs they're cranking out are all sharp but I have a feeling their sours are going to blow people away. They had an entire room filled with barrels and I asked them what was in them and they said they were all sours that were about a year off. Honestly, that would just make me laugh at most places (since its just an upstart that has yet to bottle a single thing), but the rest of the stuff they were already putting out was so high quality that I was really interested. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Sep 2, 2012 |
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Sep 2, 2012 07:55
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crazyfish posted:One last shot for those who missed out on morning tickets to FoBAB: http://fobab.brownpapertickets.com/ Only the evening sessions are left. I'd go, but I have a gig scheduled that night... Had a proxy snag me a ticket for the morning session yesterday...
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Sep 2, 2012 14:11
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Angry Grimace posted:They had an entire room filled with barrels and I asked them what was in them and they said they were all sours that were about a year off. One of their head brewers (might be the top guy, I'm not sure about their organization) helped start up The Bruery, so he knows a thing or two about barrels and sours. I expect standout awesome things from Societe.
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Sep 2, 2012 19:25
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bartolimu posted:One of their head brewers (might be the top guy, I'm not sure about their organization) helped start up The Bruery, so he knows a thing or two about barrels and sours. I expect standout awesome things from Societe. One from the Bruery, one from Russian River. I suppose you could say the pedigree is good.
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Sep 2, 2012 19:45
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Hey out of curiosity have any of you folks had anything from Brash Brewing Company? I ask because it's run by the owner of my favorite bar in Houston and I haven't had much of it yet (he can't sell it at his bar because you can't own both a brewery and a bar in Texas). I understand that it's in the Northeast, parts of the deep south, and randomly at Chicago.
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Sep 3, 2012 02:17
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SUPER HASSLER posted:Hey out of curiosity have any of you folks had anything from Brash Brewing Company? I ask because it's run by the owner of my favorite bar in Houston and I haven't had much of it yet (he can't sell it at his bar because you can't own both a brewery and a bar in Texas). Which bar if you don't mind my asking? Edit: OK, should have googled first  I'm from Houston but go to school in Indiana and I fuckin' love Petrol. I have a lot of beer geek friends in Chicagoland, so I'm gonna try and put out some feelers.
b c n u fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Sep 3, 2012 |
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Sep 3, 2012 06:16
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I don't care what people have to say about Southern Tier, they do Autumn seasonals right. Pumpking is great for what it is, and I swear it's a bit more balanced this year, not being as sweet as I remembered, nor as thick. Their Harvest Ale is also fantastic. I don't know how ESB's are supposed to taste, but this is excellent with nice floral and citrus hops balanced very well with a mild caramel sweetness. This is the best ESB I've ever had, though I admit I haven't had many. Ratebeer seems to think incredibly high of it though so I assume it's a great representation. I'll probably end up actually buying a 6 pack of this for an upcoming camping trip.
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Sep 3, 2012 06:32
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The other day I visited a local specialty beer store and bought some Maui Big Swell IPA and Coconut Porter on a whim. Didn't expect much as they came in cans, but I really liked them. Well done USA! Color me impressed, these were both very nice beers. They explain the can thing on the side of it, too... well, they do make more sense on the beach than glass bottles I guess.
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Sep 3, 2012 08:20
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pigdog posted:The other day I visited a local specialty beer store and bought some Maui Big Swell IPA and Coconut Porter on a whim. Didn't expect much as they came in cans, but I really liked them. Well done USA! Color me impressed, these were both very nice beers. They explain the can thing on the side of it, too... well, they do make more sense on the beach than glass bottles I guess. And most importantly you can usually get one with instructions in English instead of Italian.
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Sep 3, 2012 14:51
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back from a vaca to montreal. in beer related news: not a good beer town. or at least, doesn't seem to have a beer culture even close to the one that's developed here in the US. tried a bunch of different canadian brews but very few were noteworthy. not trying to rip the place, but i'm surprised that such a food-oriented (EAT AT BONAPARTE!) city hasn't embraced beer yet. ...but we did end up making it to dieu du ciel. great little brewpub with surprisingly fantastic food. unfortunately they kicked their last in-stock keg of peche mortel the previous night, but everything else i had was good to great. - deesse nocturn, a stout on nitro that was hoppy on the front and dry on the back. excellent. - mea culpa, what they very accurately described as an india cream ale. wrap your head around that one. best thing i had there. - rigor mortis, a solid abbey-style. - penombre, black IPA. not the best, but absolutely drinkable and better than any beer i had any other place.
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Sep 4, 2012 00:08
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Everything I've heard about Montreal is that it's a pretty awesome beer town.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:03
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crazyfish posted:- BCBS with pears. In contrast to ancho, this was a disappointment - there was zero pear flavour. That didn't matter though, BCBS is so good by itself that it's hard make a bad variant. Apparently this was a mislabel of some sort, because according to John Laffler, we've never made any version of BCS with pears. We're still trying to sort out who tapped it and labeled it, and what it actually was. So far the consensus is that it was most likely a keg of Lazarus, an imperial stout brewed from the second runnings of BCS. Yes, even the second runnings turn into an imperial stout.  The 4 year-old saison was also inoculated with Brett. Claussenii, which is part of what made it nicely tart and extra fruity. It's something I want to experiment with more.  Gran Gås is my favorite of the innovation beers so far (shh!) but was a hilarious pain in the rear end to process, especially since the lingonberries were loose in the fermenter instead of in bags.  Also, it's apparently the most expensive beer per barrel we've ever made. Well worth it for how well it turned out though!And yeah, I was floored by the ancho chile BCS myself.
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Sep 4, 2012 04:28
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Picture heavy I know, I'm a beer picture taking whore... I just finished my first six pack of TJs Mission St Pale Ale and its pretty drat tasty. Then today at the grocery store I saw a fresh shipment of Lagunitas Daytime IPA, which is remarkably similar but I think I might like it more due to the hop profile. Going to be drinking a lot of this I think...  Did some brewing this weekend which means beer drinking, decided to go at it with gusto and pulled out some good stuff.  Friend brought two Heady Toppers and the Kern River Double Citra IPA. Both were really excellent IPAs, the Kern Rivery Double Citra was a really really amazing beer. Glad the Rye IPA I brewed had a ton of Citra in it.  Next up was The Bruery Filmishmish which was really really good, reminded me of Fou Foune. Nicely sour but balanced, clean mostly lacto, subtle on the apricot. Wish I had a bunch more.  Bruery Trois Poules Francais which is the latest in their "extreme" version of their christmas beers, this being signficiant because its the first one not aged in bourbon barrels. The "regular" Three French Hens was a great quad nicely aged in red wine barrels, it really hit the red wine character perfectly and I really really enjoyed it. This version was aged longer in red wine barrels with their sour bugs and a healthy amount of syrah grapes. Quite fantastic though I was hoping for more acidity. The quad character was a bit in the background but that typically happens when soured.  Lost Abbey The Angels Share 2007, aka the accidentally slightly funky/sour version. Ah the Angels Share. Its a beer that when the first brandy batch hit (2005? I forget) blew everybodys brains out of the back of their head and many still to this day consider That Batch to be one of the best BA beers made. Fast forward to modern times and The Angels Share is distributed in both Bourbon and Brandy versions and while its good, its usually kind of referred to as Not That Good. 2007 went a little tart and funky, 2008 was totally flat, 2009 was pretty much perfect, 2010 (released Jan 2011) had some weird almost acidic character and was also almost flat, 2011 (released late 2011) was kind of back to form and almost as good as the 2009. The Angels Share kind of gets a little unfair hate due to the 2008 initial not-only-at-brewery bottle release that was totally flat. Some of it deserved some of it not, but it is recognized as the start of "Flat Abbey". I look at it like stamps, its the flaws that make it rare and valuable. This is the first time I've had the 2007 vintage and though it is recognized as being "infected" I actually dig on it pretty well. A decent bit of carbonation and funk give an interesting spin on the big brown sugar brandy decadence. One of these days I'll do a vertical if I can ever find someone who will trade me one of the initial 2006 bottled batches since I have 2007-present. Note that in 2010 they released a blend of brandy Angels Share blended in with some sour beer as the Sinners Blend and it is loving fantastic, but thats a story for a different day.  Last beer of the day was The Beer That Is Always The Last Beer Of The Tasting. The Bruery 2011 Black Tuesday, 18.3% ABV. I opened up a bottle of this last December at a party hosted at my place and remember liking it, but not nearly as much as I did this time. There is a little roastiness, a bit of chocolate, oak, caramel and lots of burnt sugar like a good creme brulee. Despite this being such a significant flavor in the beer, it is not a cloyingly sweet mess like many other high ABV beers (anything dogfish head, southern tier, etc). Due in part to the large portion of The Bruery's Special Candi Sugar it actual keeps it medium bodied instead of a grotesquely sweet mess of some kind of boozy sugar bomb. I like it and actually drank a decent amount. I have a 2010 and 2011 bottle left, and I think with a few years of aging I can see it taking a really nice direction.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:12
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I like to think I'm a beer snob in my own right (being a huge fan of the Stone Brewery in Escondido, California), and I'm just checking into this thread to let you all know that you now have an emote where the smilie guy doesn't tragically spill his glass of beer before he gets the chance to taste it. Old emote:  New emote: 
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Sep 4, 2012 06:40
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I almost bought a bottle of Oude Tart before I noticed that it was $20. I didn't want it quite that much. Is it always that much or is that some kind of dealer markup?
Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 08:44
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Angry Grimace posted:I almost bought a bottle of Oude Tart before I noticed that it was $20. I didn't want it quite that much. Is it always that much or is that some kind of dealer markup? Its $20 normally. Its not the most sour flanders red out there but it has a lot of really good complimentary malt/red wine flavors going on. I like it a lot.
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Sep 4, 2012 08:54
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Angry Grimace posted:I almost bought a bottle of Oude Tart before I noticed that it was $20. I didn't want it quite that much. Is it always that much or is that some kind of dealer markup? it's pretty drat good. not Red Poppy good, but considering that it's about half the cost... i'd say that if you like the style it's worth buying at least once.
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Sep 4, 2012 10:08
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XxGirlKisserxX posted:Everything I've heard about Montreal is that it's a pretty awesome beer town. Maybe if we had more time to hit more of the brewpubs, it would turn out that way. But "awesome beer town" implies regular availability of different, good beers and we didn't see that at most of the restos and cafes we stopped at.
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Sep 4, 2012 12:25
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Jazzimus Prime posted:I like to think I'm a beer snob in my own right (being a huge fan of the Stone Brewery in Escondido, California), and I'm just checking into this thread to let you all know that you now have an emote where the smilie guy doesn't tragically spill his glass of beer before he gets the chance to taste it. This is important news and I've updated the OP appropriately.
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Sep 4, 2012 12:47
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rage-saq posted:I think with a few years of aging I can see it taking a really nice direction. This might be the only nice thing I can say about Black Tuesday: maybe if I let it sit for a few years it won't be so... Brewdog.
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Sep 4, 2012 13:35
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Mikey Purp posted:Fellow Beer Goons, I'm heading to Brussels next weekend and although I will absolutely set foot in the Delirium Tremens Bar for tourist giggles, I remember a while back someone made some very good recommendations for places that they preferred more than Delirium. Could you guys refresh my memory on where I should be going? Cantillon. 3Fonteinen is right outside the city, it's like a 15-minute drive to Beersel. La Porte Noire is a cool student bar. Moeder Lambic (A bartender just sold a friend of mine a bottle of 3F Millenium for 100 euros after he couldn't get in touch with the owner to find out what the price was or if he was even allowed to sell it, you could ask around and find out if that guy's still working there). Do *not* go to In't Spinnekopke, the service was the worst I've ever experienced, even worse than in Venice. My friend and I were very close to just walking the gently caress out out without paying because *they would not bring us a check*.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:27
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Foothills just announced that the 2012 Sexual Chocolate release was going to be this weekend. Seems like they really sprung it this year, last year I was pretty sure they had a several week run-up to the release? Haven't heard if they've increased capacity again this year. Goes on tap at the pub 9/7 at 6 pm, with the bottle release starting the next morning at 10 am.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:29
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rage-saq posted:
quote:Fast forward to modern times and The Angels Share is distributed in both Bourbon and Brandy versions and while its good, its usually kind of referred to as Not That Good. 2007 went a little tart and funky, 2008 was totally flat, 2009 was pretty much perfect, 2010 (released Jan 2011) had some weird almost acidic character and was also almost flat, 2011 (released late 2011) was kind of back to form and almost as good as the 2009. quote:
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Sep 4, 2012 15:45
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Angry Grimace posted:I almost bought a bottle of Oude Tart before I noticed that it was $20. I didn't want it quite that much. Is it always that much or is that some kind of dealer markup? It's normally this much. It's aged in oak barrels for 18 months before it's bottled. It's a great beer and I picked up a few bottles but I don't think it's all that much better than La Roja, which can be found for almost half the price.
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Sep 4, 2012 16:20
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danbanana posted:This might be the only nice thing I can say about Black Tuesday: maybe if I let it sit for a few years it won't be so... Brewdog. Not even. If brewdog made this it would be used as a paint cleaner. Its quite good right now but I can see it turning into something completely mind blowing with age.
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Sep 4, 2012 16:49
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rage-saq posted:Not even. If brewdog made this it would be used as a paint cleaner. Granted the bottle I had was somewhere between 9 and 12 months old, but it came off as everything bad about "extreme beers." Big for big's sake, with no subtlety or secondary flavors past the alcohol. Really, really disappointing to me.
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Sep 4, 2012 17:24
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danbanana posted:Granted the bottle I had was somewhere between 9 and 12 months old, but it came off as everything bad about "extreme beers." Big for big's sake, with no subtlety or secondary flavors past the alcohol. Really, really disappointing to me. Yeah, I hate extreme beers that are just big sugar alcohol bombs with shitloads of fusels and nasty poo poo, like anything DFH makes above 11% ABV, all brewdog beers, etc etc. Stupid gimmick beers are bad. I wouldn't count Black Tuesday in that list because it actually had a pretty good flavor profile, the alcohol was fairly subdued given the extremely high abv and though the burnt sugar flavor (which I liked) was pretty dominant there were other complimentary flavors going on too. I do still say that the beer is too young and needs more time to come into its own. That being said I wouldn't really hold this beer up with Marshall Zhukov as far as the best of the RIS category, but I don't really consider them to live in the same category of beer.
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Sep 4, 2012 17:46
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Looks like Crooked Stave in Denver has added a tasting room. Consider hitting it up if you're in town for the GABF, their sours and brett beers are loving phenomenal and hard to get outside the region.
Docjowles fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 19:15
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rage-saq posted:That being said I wouldn't really hold this beer up with Marshall Zhukov as far as the best of the RIS category, but I don't really consider them to live in the same category of beer. Definitely different category, if you ask me. Anything barrel-aged is obviously seeing a different process and therefore is going to be a different beer (or should be). I've had my fair share of BA'd stouts and Black Tuesday might be my least favorite. Just tasted like the stereotypical West-Coast-Can-Do-It-Bigger thing. To each his own... Haven't gotten to try Zhukov yet, but if it's half as good as Hunahpu then I need to ASAP.
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Sep 4, 2012 20:02
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Docjowles posted:Looks like Crooken Stave in Denver has added a tasting room. Consider hitting it up if you're in town for the GABF, their sours and brett beers are loving phenomenal and hard to get outside the region. goddammit. anybody who ever wants to send me Crooked Stave beers is more than welcome to. please. bartolimu posted:I think I'm down to one bottle now and would really like more as well. It's one of my favorite Bruery sours because it manages to be intensely sour and yet balanced. I'd disagree with funkybottoms and say it's better than the last couple of years of Red Poppy. just to be clear, i was talking about Oude Tart (there was a different picture up). both times i've had Oude Tart and Red Poppy were at tastings featuring numerous sour beers, so order might've had something to do with it, but Red Poppy really stood out for me (although OT is delicious, too)
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Sep 4, 2012 22:31
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Docjowles posted:Looks like Crooked Stave in Denver has added a tasting room. Consider hitting it up if you're in town for the GABF, their sours and brett beers are loving phenomenal and hard to get outside the region. Duuuuuude that's only a mile from my GABF hotel  Man I hope word doesn't get out too fast because it'll be (deservedly) totally packed that weekend otherwise. That bit of Denver may very well be the best 2mi walking radius for beer in the world at this point. SUPER HASSLER fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Sep 5, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 23:54
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I normally love Great Divide, but man Wolfgang is a really unremarkable Dopplebock. The malt is far too heavy giving a very caramel and toffee body even approaching a burn toffee on the finish with only hints of grapes and red apples. This is borderline syrupy and just too malty, I'll stick with Troegenator.
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Sep 5, 2012 04:37
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SUPER HASSLER posted:Duuuuuude that's only a mile from my GABF hotel Crooked Stave Facebook posted:Preparing the draft line up for tomorrow.. So far:  Yeah I'm staying with friends right near Denver Beer Co for GABF. Crooked Stave is gonna be a mandatory stop if it's not insanely packed as you said.
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Sep 5, 2012 04:46
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Docjowles posted:
Maybe it's time to try organizing one of those scary horrible things called a goon meetup. Anyone else here going at this point?
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Sep 5, 2012 04:50
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