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RiggenBlaque posted:"Horse blanket" is a stupid loving term people made up.  To me, horse blanket reminds me of new leather and fresh hay and maybe a bit of sweat. Unfortunately that's not going to help you city slickers much, sorry. It's a lot of things that shouldn't be pleasant to taste, but somehow beers with that aroma end up ambrosia-like. A lot of times I hear descriptors like "gym sock" used for probably the same smells. I've been lobbying my local tasting group in an attempt to bring "jock strap" into general parlance; thus far I've met with limited success.
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Mar 3, 2012 04:15
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funkybottoms posted:something my girlfriend was drinking the other day smelled remarkably like cat piss, but i didn't say anything because she was enjoying it. can't remember what it was; i wasn't interested in drinking it, myself. Savignon Blancs, especially from Marlborough (New Zealand), frequently have that and it's considered a positive trait. I've heard more delicate people refer to it as "boxwood aroma," but it's definite cat piss to me. I've never gotten it from simcoe, nor has my friend who loves simcoe above all other hops and is a veterinary technician. I suspect he'd feel differently about them if he did. Noses are weird things.
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Mar 3, 2012 19:38
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Apparently Drake's Brewery is available in Vegas now. I picked up a Drakonic Imperial Stout and opened it last night. Big, malty but not too sweet, more brown sugar notes than coffee or chocolate. It seemed kind of hot for 8.5 abv, but it was quite drinkable and I'll probably pick it up again.
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Mar 4, 2012 21:52
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I liked Brunch Weasel quite a lot as well. The whole weasel poo poo coffee thing is loving retarded, but Mikkeller at least made a good coffee stout out of overhyped poo poo coffee.
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Mar 5, 2012 17:43
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e: For what it's worth, Kudosx, every Stone collab I've had has ranged from mediocre to undrinkable. Wait for some reviews before committing.Phanatic posted:Never been to Vegas or New Orleans? Last night I had dinner with Derek Buono - owner/editor/etc. of Beer Magazine - at Public House, which opened this year and is trying to become The Strip Beer Destination. Derek's a nice guy, and we talked about a lot of beer industry stuff like Alpine's little tiff over ebaying beer, breweries we like and don't like, etc. As far as Public House is concerned, it ignores the origins of its name, tries for gastropub, but feels more industrial/clubby. That's mostly due to the loud-rear end music and not at all homey/intimate decor. The beer selection is very good for Vegas, and it's nice to have another place doing cask pours. It suffers from the usual Strip pricing problem ($9 for the local adjuct lager I can find a sixer of for $7?). There were some uncommon things on tap, like Oro de Calabaza - served too cold, but thankfully that's something that fixes itself over time. The unique thing about Public House is they have cicerones. In theory this is a good thing. In practice, the cicerone that came to our table was some kind of loving caricature of beer spergelord. He had a loving waxed moustache, for Christ's sake. One of those that looks greasy under the nose and gets shiner and more disgusting as its ends curl a complete, 2-inch-wide loop on each side. It took all of my self control to not laugh at it when I first saw him. To be fair, he knew what he was talking about and could immediately answer my question about the local brewery's stout. He was obviously competent, but someone needs to hold him down and pluck that facial abomination off his lip one stringy, greasy hair at a time.
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Mar 13, 2012 16:35
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Phanatic posted:Well, there's the Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay, which has a decent selection, and there's the Yard House further north on the boulevard. But any place with that many taps makes me uneasy. Plus, the food kinda blows. Yard House is actually farther south than Burger Bar, at Town Square where I-15 and I-215 meet south of Russel. Yard House is an overly loud place with too many things on tap for any of it to be fresh, and yes, the food does kinda blow. Burger Bar was the first place on the Strip to have anything good beer-wise, and as far as I know it's still quite good for both food and drinks. There's a sort of new spot in an old casino that has become worth checking out, in my opinion: The Pub in the Mirage. Their selection is at least equal to Public House, better in some ways. They don't usually have stuff on cask, and they're handicapped by the standard casino BMC contract (9/10 of your taps must be a Bud/Miller/Coors product), but they have good things on tap and a very nice bottle selection. Prices are a bit lower than Public House as well; variety of food is lower, but the quality is fine. The managers are trying to move away from the frat house atmosphere and into a more good-beer-centric service model, and it can't hurt to throw them some business if you're in the area. (Full disclosure: one of my friends is a manager there. The more support they get via good beer purchases and good feedback, the better their chances of further improving things.) Other than that, the best places are all off-Strip. And the best places are drat good.
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Mar 13, 2012 20:34
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I'll be in Anaheim this weekend for the Bruery Reserve Club event. Are there any bottle shops in the Anaheim/Orange/Tustin area that could supplement the selection at Bruery Provisions?
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Mar 14, 2012 15:55
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quantegy posted:I've been in there once, they seem to have nice selection. But - they're only open Mon-Fri. Jack Skeleton posted:The provisions store is also great if you never been. But that's more of the same bruery stuff you'll be drinking. Take the few mile drive to go over to Bootleggers Brewery. It's interesting you mention Bootleggers. I just tried their holiday Chocolate Mint Porter last night. It was easily the best mint beer I've had, lots of minty aroma and strong mint/anise/peppery notes in the taste. What else of theirs do you particularly like? I cracked my bottle of Bruery's 2011 Cuir last night as well in an effort to make room for new Bruery stuff. It's aged very well: super-leathery aroma with a background of plum. It's not a pucker-power kind of sour, just a smooth, funky brew with some stone fruit and leather/tobacco. Really pleasant, to the point that I'm considering buying more if Provisions still has it for sale. So much for making room for new stuff.
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Mar 15, 2012 15:41
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Jack Skeleton posted:I typically don't go in for the whole St. Paddy's day bullshit since it's generally overcrowded bars with frat douchebags who can't handle their green budlight. But the Bruery's tasting room is having a hop oil green coloring they can add to your drink, so I may be actually excited for once to turn my beer green... Things of particular interest I did in Anaheim and San Diego this weekend: - Went to Red Poppy Release Day at Lost Abbey. It was nearly as crowded as I've ever seen it (it's worse when beer tours come in), but they have a system down and it wasn't at all difficult to get my doses of Poppy and have a few tasters. This year's Poppy isn't nearly as good as 2008/9 was fresh. It's all lacto sourness (like sauerkraut) with no acetic bite and very little funkiness at present. I'm hoping it will age well. Track Three (on-site drinking only) is a very tasty but not terribly remarkable geuze; it's well-executed but not outstanding in any trait. - Had a tasting flight at Bruery Provisions that included Humulus, Chocosaurus Rye, and Sour in the Rye. Chocosaurus Rye smells exactly like a Tootsie Roll and tastes a lot like one as well. - Picked up enough Chocolate Rain, Smoking Wood, and other things as a Society allotment to, if I were the kind of person to ebay beer, pay for my entire trip (including bottle shop purchases) and make a tidy profit. I'm not, sadly, so I'll just have to drink through these beers on my own. It's a terrible burden I assure you. - Did some tasters at Noble Ale Works. I forget what the special write-in beer was called, but it was their Alpha Red aged in oak barrels. Decent, interesting, but not outstanding. Knight Changer, on the other hand, is a very well-done stout and I recommend it. - Attended the Reserve Society tasting. There was a ten-ticket limit, which seemed pretty light for the number of things on offer. Thankfully I was with a friend who shares, so we both got to try 20 things. Almost everything was at least palatable. The best of the day was probably Sour in the Rye with kumquats - it had amazing citrus/apricot flavors, and the rye spiciness was the perfect touch of citrus peel-like bitterness. Smoking Wood with bacon tasted like a chocolate-covered slice of bacon, smoky and meaty and totally delicious. Melange 1 was a near perfect sour, I kind of want a few bottles. Not so impressive were Melange 3 (candy-sweet and not much to recommend) and barrel aged 2009 Autumn Maple (I have yet to taste a variant of this beer with much flavor besides marshmallow-covered sweet potato casserole, and aging didn't help). Salt of the Earth, a goze with truffle salt and a lot of other weird things, was probably the coolest beer of the day; it had a ton of mushroomy and savory flavors, and I'd love to pair it with any savory dish. - Shared a bottle of uber-limited-run test beer from my local brewery (18 bottles total made) with friends. - Split a Churchill's Finest Hour while sitting next to a table with no fewer than three screaming toddlers. - Spent too much at a nice bottle shop. I didn't get to visit all the places in San Diego I wanted to. Alesmith, Ballast Point, Alpine, and a dozen or so others will have to wait until next time. Despite that, it was a fantastic beer vacation. Now I need a few months to drink what I brought back (three cases and a few loose bottles) and let my bank account recover.
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Mar 19, 2012 15:46
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James Bont posted:Man, hit up Bruery Provisions earlier since I was in the neighborhood. Great idea. Did the specialty flight, 5 2 oz samplers for $8. Filmishmish or something like that, an apricot sour, was pretty drat great. Super refreshing. I would love to have a couple of bottles of that for the summer. Not too acidic but just that nice tart lemony funky goodness, think it was probably brett. Humulus lager was just a heavily hopped lager, also a great hot weather beer. Tasted like it had a good amount of citra. Sour in the Rye was probably my favorite, that was a bit more acidic and lip puckering and complex and great. Reminded me a bit of Supplication. White Oak was good, but maybe a little sweet and oaky for my liking, but would probably age pretty drat well. Last was chocosaurus rye, the collaboration between Bruery/ Bootleggers. Really chocolatey, but I wasn't crazy about the mouthfeel all that rye gave it. Overall it was good though. James Bont posted:Yeah, Red Poppy has been pretty tough to find this year, I don't know what's up with that.
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Mar 20, 2012 15:02
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funkybottoms posted:speaking of food and beer pairings, some of you might enjoy this article, even though they misspelled "crustacean."
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Mar 23, 2012 16:12
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Paul Proteus posted:Not too surprising. It's expensive and much worse than the on tap version. I also doubt it ages much considering I'm pretty sure it's filtered. (Because I know it will be mentioned, this does not include the cork & cage versions.) New Belgium also pasteurizes everything, so the La Folie in bottles is a dead beer. Which makes me sad.
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Mar 24, 2012 17:06
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Retemnav posted:Also had a Weihenstephaner Korbinian which was great and pretty cheap. How do they make a 7.4% beer in Germany, ship it to the States, and still sell it for >$4 for nearly a liter? CalvinDooglas covered most of the reasons - no hype, no real "fame" markup, etc. I just want to chime in to say everything from Weihenstephaner is of excellent quality, and their bottles run 1/2 to 1/3 the price of most micros available around me. They suffer from the same problem (if you can call it that) as most old world brewers in that they're not innovating a whole lot, but if you just want a solid, well-crafted beer Weihenstephaner is a very good place to go.
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Mar 26, 2012 20:17
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Vertigo posted:So, my local bottle shop is getting 1 case of each of the Cigar City/Bruery Dos Costas beers(3 varieties I think), ... are these worth tracking down? I don't think I've had any of those beers, but my kneejerk reaction when I see Cigar City on a label is BUY BUY BUY. They know how to age on cedar for sure, cedar-aged Marshall Zhukov was fantastic.
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Mar 27, 2012 00:49
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I opened a bottle of Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar Finesse triple after dinner on Saturday and was pretty blown away. It's aromatically powerful, especially the baking spice components, with some apple/pear background. Flavor-wise it's REALLY assertive, but also very simple - not very finessed at all but I found it enjoyable. It's definitely on the sweet side, but as dessert with a bit of soft cheese it went very well. Aopeth posted:Also, agreeing with all the love for Jolly Pumpkin! I'm also happy to report from last night's experimentation that this year's Red Poppy was considerably better in-bottle than the sample I had on tap on release day. More sour, just a touch of lacto twang, and a start to the acetic character I loved so much in older bottles. It's not as good as the 2009 release and probably never will be, but in six months to a year it will be very, very good. e: Oh and here's a story of possible beer heresy. One of my friends had a bottle of 2009 Bourbon County Stout. We made ice cream floats with it using frozen custard from the best frozen custard store in Vegas. That float was loving *amazing*, but it got ten times better when we topped it off with a bit of Bruery's Filmishmish. It kind of blew away any other beer float I've ever had (and I've had quite a few). I tried both the BCS and Filmishmish on their own as well. Filmishmish might be my favorite Bruery product to date - super sour, with enough apricot flavor it almost seemed jam-like. It was totally refreshing, both on its own and mixed in with BCS. The BCS was perfect and I kind of want more that old so I can do more wonderfully evil things with it. Or just drink it; that could work too. bartolimu fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 20:06
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Corbet posted:Why does it seem like everybody on the Internet has access to tons of Cantillon except me? 
bartolimu fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 01:45
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My buddy who works for Southern Wine and Spirits says Reno gets whatever Cantillon makes it into the state, so there's a good chance he could find it somewhere. I don't know the town at all, so I can't recommend particular bottle shops or anything.
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Apr 13, 2012 01:53
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Track 4 is sounding kind of good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oz5CmGskhk Release day is the 21st. I'll be there, because apparently I've picked up a pokemon complex with the Boxed Set beers. Will probably also hit Alpine, since it's one of the few SD places I haven't been, along with a few others like Alesmith and Ballast Point.
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Apr 13, 2012 16:06
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The SARS Volta posted:Dumb question, goons: New Belgium pasteurizes, so it won't age like an unpasteurized sour. That said, I had a taste of a Cocoa Mole on Wednesday and its flavor has developed a lot since it first came out. I'd guess up to six months would be fine, maybe a year if you feel like a daring experiment. Long-term isn't likely to do good things.
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Apr 13, 2012 21:22
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Gentlemen, I have gazed upon the eldritch horror that is Rogue Voodoo Donut Maple Bacon Beer. It smelled like melted plastic and scorched fur. It tasted like slightly sweet burned plastic with hints of fenugreek (fake maple syrup flavor). It was, to my palate, utterly without discernible redeeming quality. I'm halfway through an Old Viscosity and still have that cloying horrible smell in my nose.
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Apr 15, 2012 05:22
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If you've got a charity idea you want to post about, clear it with mods BEFORE posting. Spoiler warning: the answer is probably going to be no.
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Apr 15, 2012 17:29
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I cracked a new-batch Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme this evening. There's quite a lot of woody barrel character, the cherries come through pretty well, and there's moderate but not overwhelming sourness and funk. More time in the bottle will only do good things to it. If I had to find something to complain about, it would be the very low carbonation (cork came out without even a little hiss, no head, barely any fizzing of any kind), but that's not really a dealbreaker in this kind beer.
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Apr 16, 2012 05:21
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Angry Grimace posted:This years, like most years, has pretty much no carbonation. It's a Cuvee de Tomme thing. quote:When I had it this year it really had a strong tartness and cherry cordial-like flavor. I found it made an excellent dessert-beer and paired well with some dark chocolate. Speaking of cheese, I've been giving some thought to running a little beer/cheese pairing thing for my beer buddies at my local wine and cheese shop. The Oxford Companion to Beer (which is overall excellent as a beer encyclopedia) has a short discussion of cheese pairings, but if any of you have encountered unusually good combinations please speak up.
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Apr 16, 2012 14:21
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Sirotan posted:Has anyone ever had a particularly good and memorable collaboration beer? I'm reading about Founder's first collab, which is with Green Flash, and I'm filled with 'meh'. What few collab beers I can even remember having, none of them were particularly great. I've still got a bottle of a Jolly Pumpkin beer called Collababiere, which was with Nøgne Ø and Stone, and it's probably one of the worst JP beers I've had. Marron Acidifie is another great collaboration, as others have mentioned. I'm not sure Cigar City did their own bottling of that, though. For the combination kind of collab, I really like Collaboration Not Litigation Ale from Avery/Russian River. It's a mix of the Salvation Belgian Strong from each brewery. At some point I'm going to do a side-by-side-by-side to see how the beers interacted, but even without doing that Collaboration is a very enjoyable beer. The JP/Nogne/Stone Collabiere varied hugely by who brewed it. The Stone version is thoroughly meh. Jolly Pumpkin's went sour (I'd say by accident, but with the amount of brett they work with it was predictable) and horribly awry. They tried to serve it at Stone's Sourfest last year as some kind of intentional thing and it was like rancid cough syrup, completely undrinkable. So basically, making a good collaboration beer is like making any good beer, really hard. Except you're adding in another layer of difficulty by testing the too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen adage.
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Apr 16, 2012 21:18
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LeeMajors posted:Hopefully with the renewed interest in sessionable beers, we will see more Berliner Weisse. Between Oarsman and Howling Wolf I've really grown to appreciate that crispness. One of the best things BA did with Extreme Beerfest this year was require every brewery to bring a session beer. There were at least four Berliners there, some of them with interesting adjuncts for variety. I think it's very healthy for the industry to stop thinking of Extreme Beers being just high-gravity malt- or hop-bomb things aged in bourbon barrels and start exploring further afield.
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Apr 18, 2012 15:13
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I got something special last night. Something very, very special. Something exclusive - in fact, it's a world first as far as I'm aware. I hope you ladies and gentlemen of the Beer Thread are capable of appreciating it as much as I do. I hope you can see that we're here at the beginning of a revolution in brewing. It's signed by the brewer and numbered (7 of 20 produced). It's one of the rarest single-run productions ever. I'm having trouble articulating just how rare, special, and revolutionary this is. It's truly astounding. 
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Apr 19, 2012 16:53
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internet celebrity posted:Those are clearly the actions of a rogue private citizen waxing everything he can. The double-waxed Hop Box was waxed, signed, and hand-numbered by the CEO of the brewery.
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Apr 19, 2012 17:13
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Kudosx posted:Have you tried Hop Box before? It's got crazy low rating on RB, although I've never tried it so I can't say as to whether the reviews actually hold any credence. RB's rating is based on the original formula, which was definitely subpar. They retooled the recipe this year, and it's decent now - you can actually taste some hop, which is a welcome change. Talking to the new head brewer (Alex Graham), it sounds like he's still not completely satisfied, so they'll keep tweaking. Same goes for their other beers, especially the Red Fox stout, which started out watery and mediocre but has turned into something nearly world class. For Red Fox it's easy to tell which is new batch and which is old - only the new stuff is sold in four packs. It's not so easy with Hop Box, unfortunately.
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Apr 19, 2012 21:51
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Munkaboo posted:I feel like poo poo but im going back out to this place, look at this tap list:
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Apr 20, 2012 07:12
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Had a pretty nice beer vacation in San Diego this weekend. I met some neat people and had a lot of really good things to drink. We got in Friday and headed straight for Churchill's. They had a lot of great stuff on tap, including Pliny the Elder, a sour wheat beer from Craftsman that rocked, Ballast Point Sextant on nitro (good but not outstanding) and cask-conditioned Karl Strauss Wreck Alley, which is a stellar coffee stout. I'd never even heard of Leavenworth Brewery, but their Hibiscus Hefewiezen tasted like hibiscus and wheat beer, so I'd say they did pretty well. Cold Spring John Henry 3 Lick Spiker was the only loser of the night - it tasted like diabetes and diacetyl. The bottle list had good stuff on it too. They had Unibroue Quatre-Centieme, which I'd never heard of before. Apparently it was released in 2008. It has aged very nicely - most Unibroue beers, if aged, turn into a similar-tasting delicious beer; this one was no exception. First stop Saturday morning was Lost Abbey for the Track 4/Framboise de Amarosa release. Framboise is very good fresh - significantly better than Poppy this year - and has always aged spectacularly. If you find yourself in the area, pick some up. It's only sold at Lost Abbey. Track 4 is the best track I've tried (I missed 2) - really smooth, tons of barrel character, some definite cherry background and a decent sour/funk mix. I wouldn't mind it being more sour, but that may happen over the next few months. Alpine Beer Company was next. The drive up to Alpine is nice, it's a beautiful area and the roads are good. Alpine the town kind of sucks; most of the roads have been torn up and left that way due to delayed construction, so finding parking as a bit of a problem. That said, the brewery makes it all worthwhile. My buddy and I sat down at the bar next to an old couple who turned out to be Pat McIlhenny (the owner/head brewer)'s wife's grandparents. I had a nice chat with grandma about the history of the place (what is now Alpine's restaurant used to be a soda fountain, then sat vacant for years before Alpine came back in and opened it up), had an excellent beef brisket sandwich, and she introduced me to Pat. He seemed like a nice guy, distaste for seeing his beer eBayed notwithstanding, and overall I had a thoroughly small-town kind of experience. I'd like to note for the record that Alpine Beer Company does not make beers that suck. They had Nelson on cask; it was hoppier than usual and still perfectly balanced. Chez Mognieux, their cherry kriek, can hang with any American-produced sour and a large percentage of Belgian ones as well. Willy Vanilly is still an odd duck of a beer but paired really well with the barbeque sauce. It's a bit of a haul from San Diego proper to get to Alpine, but with beers of this quality it's definitely worth the trip. We went down to explore San Diego proper for a while and checked out Downtown Johnny Browns, which is right next to the SD opera house. They had a Sour and Bitter Festival on Friday that we missed out on, but a lot of stuff - Sanctification, Consecration, Red Poppy - was still on tap from that. Next we went to a newly-opened place near the airport called The Regal Beagle. It may become a regular stop. They have a decent, constantly-rotating taplist (three things kicked and were replaced with new while we were there), non-objectionable music that isn't too loud, and a their kitchen produces a great selection of sausages ranging from German to Hungarian to more exotic stuff like portabella mushroom/red wine. The crew was pretty cool, too, and knew a decent amount about beer. I tried Firestone Walker Pale 31 there. It smelled like Humulus Light and was a very balanced, very tasty pale. You just can't go wrong with Firestone. We headed to Anaheim on Sunday with the plan of having a few at Bruery Provisions, but it was packed. We just picked up our latest Reserve Society stuff and left. I planned on buying one case of beer this trip but somehow managed to bring home three. I'm terminally out of storage space but can't stop buying beer. Someone help me. 
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Apr 23, 2012 17:58
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Midorka posted:Awesome post Bartolimu, my friend will be going to San Diego this summer, how far is Alpine from it? Also what are some breweries to see in San Diego for someone who may or may not be able to travel too far (not sure his car situation). Isn't Stone and Ballast Point there? Alpine's about a half hour each way from anything else San Diego-flavored, so it takes up a good portion of the day by the time you try a few beers and have lunch. Chill_Bebop covered it pretty well with those links, but I'll say my favorite brewery to visit is Lost Abbey. Everyone on staff is really cool, and the head bar guy, Jason, is full of useful trivia and one of the most knowledgeable people about beer (Lost Abbey and otherwise) around. Protip: bring a bottle or two of stuff from wherever you live as a gift, they look kindly on that kind of thing. Lost Abbey is also very close to Stone - their brewery was actually Stone's original one before they expanded to the new location - which is worth a visit to wander around the Beer Nerd Backyard. Stone's taplist isn't great compared to the better bars, and the food's a bit expensive, but there are worse ways to spend an afternoon. I'd say if your friend likes certain breweries that's where he should go. All tasting rooms are awesome if you're sufficiently into the products. For bars I'd recommend Churchill's in San Marcos from personal experience. Neighborhood in the Gaslamp District sounds nice, but between parking being expensive as gently caress and how crowded it looked I didn't stop to try it. Bottle shops: Beverages 4 Less in Santee has ludicrous selection but you'll definitely pay for it. Holiday Wine Cellar is close to Lost Abbey and has become my default spot to visit. Other than that, maybe locals can suggest some other places.
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Apr 23, 2012 19:13
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There was a Scavenger Beer Tour there when we went back Sunday to pick up another case of Framboise, and yeah, that looked like a really fun way of touring. I was also surprised there was a tour there at all - the crowd was smaller and more relaxed/less drunk than I've come to expect when a tourbus rolls up. I've been in Lost Abbey before tour arrival and everyone's nice and happy, then a bigass bus dumps off a hundred or so frat boys and the whole place gets tense, angry, and less enjoyable.
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Apr 23, 2012 22:12
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SnowDog posted:That said, any particular local brands to FL I should try to sample while I'm down there, if the opportunity arises? I'd never heard of them before they were at EBF this year, but they were seriously loving impressive. Even their gimmick beer, Crustless, was great. The passionfruit Berlinerweiss was my hands-down favorite session beer there. Yes, Cigar City is great and worth checking out, but Funky Buddha is even harder to find and really is spectacular. Drink a lot of both.
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Apr 25, 2012 14:56
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Retemnav posted:drat, that just sounds really good. Crustless was really good too, despite being a gimmick peanut butter and jelly beer. Every flavor was there - peanut butter, concord grape jelly, and cheap whole wheat wonder bread. When Short's tries something like that it's vile. Funky Buddha somehow made it both interesting and drinkable.
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Apr 25, 2012 16:12
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I had a Squatters Crest Trail Small Batch (brewpub-only release, but my local bar did some trading or something to get a few) last night. It's a really nice APA, clean with great hop/malt balance. I've never been a tremendous IPA fan (though I can appreciate a well-crafted hop bomb once in a while), but American pales are starting to impress me a lot lately. Squatters also impressed me with Fifth Element. It's a farmhouse ale with significant bretty funk, and it's really well balanced and enjoyable. Actually I had a bit of Outer Darkness last night as well, and it seemed a lot better than I remembered - more chocolatey, a bit richer. Maybe it's aged well or maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance the first time. Other noteworthy stuff from last night: - Dark Lord 2011 is drat tasty. It's sweet but not cloying, with tons of complex cola, root beer, chocolate, and grassy flavors. It is in no way worth waiting in line for hours and possibly facing a riot when some people don't get any, but it IS a very tasty beer. - New Glarus Raspberry Tart. Holy poo poo this beer. I've had a lot of fruit beers, and they've ranged from cloyingly sweet to lambic acid bombs to impressively not-fruity. This one is is a class of its own. According to the guy who brought it for tasting, New Glarus uses a pound of raspberries per bottle, and it shows. It smells exactly like freshly-picked raspberries. It smells more like raspberries than any raspberry jam I've ever had. I had some serious flashbacks of grandma's garden, picking raspberries from the vine and eating them. Flavor backs that up - it's not cloying but not really sour either, just deliciously raspberry. One of my friends commented it was a savory raspberry beer, and that's not a bad description. The sweetness and acidity are so nicely balanced that the primary experience of the beer is raspberries, with some toasty/yeasty flavors in the background for interest. I want more of this.
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Apr 26, 2012 14:54
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No idea. I know Dark Lord Day is frequently a bit of a poodle screw, but I've never felt the need to go for it. Most super-hyped beers are in the same category as DL, very good but not worth the drama to actually procure it on a regular basis.SUPER HASSLER posted:I'll take New Glarus's fruit beers over DL every time.
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Apr 26, 2012 15:28
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Is there a more accurate beer distribution comparison tool than SeekABrew? They're at least six months behind on what's distributed in Nevada and I have to assume they're equally off in other places.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:57
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I'm drinking an Alpine Mandarin Nectar from a Weihenstephaner glass. It's nice, slightly tart and very refreshing. The flavor reminds me more of apricot than citrus, and that's reinforced by the almost fuzzy mouthfeel - very slightly viscous, and the carbonation plays with the texture in a certain way. It's hard to explain, but it feels a lot like apricot skin. Anyhow, it's a tasty beer, but probably not one of Alpine's strongest offerings. I don't regret picking it up, though.
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Apr 27, 2012 04:19
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Retemnav posted:I love their Chicory Stout. It's not overpowering, it just adds a nice, pleasent background flavor to the beer. Chicory Stout is very much an everyday drinker kind of beer to me. It's a decent stout, not too huge and not too thin, with the chicory adding bitterness and flavor interest. Not sure what's going on with the people who get pukey from it, I've ever had that problem.
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Apr 27, 2012 18:03
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Julio Cesar Fatass posted:I see that a lot of reviewers poo poo on Leinenkugel's shandy from a very great height. Is this just a fashionable opinion or do I have to turn in my beer geek card because I cannot get enough of that piss-yellow sugarwater. Berry Weiss was my beer of choice in college and remains a guilty pleasure. I have to buy a sixer or two every fall. It's kind of like my food critic friend who, when he's alone at home, fixes Wisconsin-style Hot Dish complete with cream of mushroom soup and canned green beans: we all have junk we like even though it's not fashionable or sensible.
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Apr 28, 2012 09:01
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