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Guess who's back in the muthafuckin' house?   Not sure when its official re-release is, but a firkin of it went on during Day of the Living Ales and Goose Island employees have access to it. It's as good as I remember it being - rich and toasty, with a nice balance from Fuggle hops. I'm super-proud to have been involved in making the new batches. Now, if only there were plans to re-release Oatmeal Stout... 
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Mar 5, 2012 21:02
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BoredByThis posted:I asked Jonathan about that, but got no reply. Oatmeal Stout is the only GI regular brew that I really really enjoy. According to the people I've asked in the brewery, there are no plans to do any Oatmeal Stout this year. Next year is a possibility, but nothing for sure yet. It's a shame, because Oatmeal Stout is my favorite of the regulars too.
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Mar 5, 2012 21:42
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Josh Wow posted:Can you tell me if you guys brew the oatmeal stout for Trader Joe's? The internet tells me Goose Island used to brew the Stockyard Stout, and Trader Joe's still has it for sale under that name and it's really loving delicious. I'm just not sure if it's the same thing since I've never had a Goose Island oatmeal stout before. I know Stockyard Stout used to be the Oatmeal Stout rebranded, but I have no idea what the current stuff is. I miss being able to get a world-class stout for $6 a sixer, though. /fake edit: Ratebeer says Gordon Biersch brews it now. If it's still good, I'll have to give it a shot sometime. More beer content: Day of the Living Ales had some excellent beers as always, but a few of them surprised me. Finch's Mahatma IPA is brewed with curry, and while the beer itself is way too sweet and not bitter enough to be a good IPA, the curry actually meshed really well with the flavor. Metropolitan's Diablo Dynamo - their Dynamo Copper Lager aged with dried chiles - had an amazing fruity quality from the peppers, with just a tiny touch of heat on the finish, qualifying it as one of my favorite pepper beers. Goose Island's entries were all good, especially Rumpus (Juliet and Lolita barrel-aged with lots of extra brett/bacteria - very sour and complex) and Tonic the Hedgehog (a fruited Belgian with tonic water and "gin-inspired botanicals" - very unusual, very refreshing and delicious). And I finally got a chance to try something with Columbia (not Columbus!) hops: Moylan's entry, one of their double IPAs dry-hopped with Columbia hops. "Unique" is the only word I can properly ascribe to the aroma: It had some nice resinous and citrus characteristics to it, but it also had an unmistakable vegetal quality that was best summed up as "fried green tomatoes." I'd be interested in experimenting with them, but in my experience they're incredibly difficult to source. The guys from Metropolitan mentioned their purveyor might carry them, though, so I might finally be able to do some homebrew experimenting with them. Manky posted:On Friday I got a growler of DFH Aprihop, though, and I really liked it. Solidly hoppy pale ale with a really nice flowery bite of apricots. It balanced the sweetness nicely, though the apricot did finish on the cloying side. A little two-dimensional though. It's probably changed in the years since I've had it, but I've tried Aprihop several times in the past and it's the only DFH beer I've ever been tempted to drainpour. At its best it's merely boring, but at its worst it tastes harsh and astringent. I might have to try it again at some point, but I can only get burned by a beer so many times before writing it off entirely (see: Samichlaus of any vintage). RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Mar 6, 2012 |
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Mar 6, 2012 05:36
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Docjowles posted:Sometimes I take my local standbys for granted. Living overseas really taught me this. I really missed Half Acre Daisy Cutter, Metropolitan Dynamo and Three Floyds Alpha King while I was in Denmark, and it made me happy to have access to them again once I moved back to Chicago. Likewise, I now miss the poo poo out of Thisted Bryghus Limfjords Porter and Beer Here Fat Cat now that I no longer live in Aalborg. Honestly, I can't wait for a proper Chicago "swamp-nuts" summer so I can fully enjoy a Daisy Cutter again. It really shines in hot weather.
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Mar 8, 2012 02:04
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Midorka posted:What the heck, Dogfish Head's Tweason Ale has nutritional facts on the side? Well here goes 170 calories. Strawberries seem to be particularly difficult to use well in a beer. Either they have a bizarre mutant strawberry-ish unpleasantness, or no flavor from the fruit at all. The other factor of the beer's flavor may be the nature of sorghum, which in beer tends to leave little body and an unappealing aftertaste. Buckwheat honey is supposed to bolster the "malty" aspect of gluten-free beer, but I can't say anything about it from personal experience. If I ever develop a gluten intolerance I will pretty much have to shoot myself in the face.
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Mar 8, 2012 03:28
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Paul Proteus posted:gently caress Two Brothers. Other than there regular offerings, their beer sucks and is bland. Wait, so if a brewery's regular offerings - which make up the majority of their production - are good but they do a few bad specialty beers, they suck?  I like Two Brothers, personally. Their regular offerings tend to be pretty good, and I'm especially a fan of Cane and Ebel. I don't recall many special releases from them, other than Hop Juice, which doesn't really excite me. Although I do remember Moaten being a pretty sad excuse for a Flanders red, tasting more like liquid dirt than a sour ale.
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Mar 8, 2012 11:55
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The Dregs posted:I have really been getting into trying out beers recently. I love stouts and malty beers, but I really don't like strong hoppy flavors and I can't stand IPA's. I was at a big liquor store the other day and I asked if they had any Corsendonk (I loving love that stuff, but it's too expensive to drink often). They brought their local 'beer guy' over to get it for me. He is this skinny dude with huge hair and a thick beard. He heaves a big, sad, sigh and asks me why I would buy that stuff when they have Bernardus. Well, Nugget and Cluster hops taste like Pine-Sol, at least.  But yeah, this guy sounds like the kind of insufferable prick that gives beer enthusiasts a bad name, and his idea of "real beer" is completely idiotic. Hoppy beers can be delicious, but hops aren't the only flavor in beer - there's so much range in the yeast, malt, and everything else that goes in there, and the world of beer would be far poorer if IPA were the only style in existence. In fact, over-the-top hop usage seems to be used to disguise off-flavors and poor brewing practices sometimes. Not everybody wants to choke down an ethanol-soaked hop dildo (god, I still love that phrase) all day every day.Moreover, it sounds like he has no concept of customer service, balance or a reasonable business plan, not to mention basic respect. Brewers and beer enthusiasts should be friendly, generous and enthusiastic about discussing beer. Have fun selling your Cascadian Black Imperial Pilsner to absolutely nobody with that attitude, jackass. Paul Proteus posted:I actually really enjoy Cane and Ebel as well, and I don't mind Domaine Dupage, but I'm not talking about a few beers. When you have five regular beers and most of your "Artisan Beers" or seasonals are boring/bad I can't get behind it. The J series, Northwind, Circus Penguin, Askew, Hoodwink, Bare Tree, Moaten, Why Winter, Atom Smasher, Hop Juice? I don't dislike the company (like I do Finch's), I just think that with the exception of Cane and Ebel there is nothing stand out about their offerings. Maybe they should stick to relatively low ABV "normal" beers? I agree that Two Brothers only has a few standout beers and is pretty average otherwise. The way that post was worded sounded as if you were judging the brewery primarily on the special/limited releases, and I think a brewery should be evaluated on the overall quality of their beers - standards, seasonals, specials and all. There are some breweries that excel at one or the other (I like Great Lakes primarily for its mainstream beers, for instance), and most people can probably find beers from their favorite breweries that they don't like, but those just end up being part of the overall picture. Sorry if there was a misunderstanding there. And Goose Island now contracts out the majority of its Honkers and 312 production to larger AB breweries, so we're a lot less bland than we used to be. 
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Mar 9, 2012 06:20
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I'm drinking a Dark Horse Fore right now, and really enjoying it - most smoked stouts/porters either put the smoke or the roast at the front of the palate, but this one asserts them both and makes the flavors mesh well. Lots of espresso and smoked bacon flavor in this one. Dark Horse's website says that they use peat-smoked malt in Fore, which would make it one of the few peat-smoked beers that I've ever enjoyed: Most peat-smoked beers taste like burning tires or ashtrays to me. Evil Twin's Ashtray Heart, which is apparently also brewed with peat malt (Kosher Man, confirm/deny?), is also very good, but gave me a really wicked case of heartburn that... well, the beer lived up to its name. I managed to snag a bottle of Pipeworks Ninja vs. Unicorn tonight, too. Looking forward to tasting it! /edit: drat, just now feeling the heartburn on this one. What is it about peat that does that, anyway? Scotch tends to do a number on my stomach too, and other smoked beers don't affect my stomach nearly as much. RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Mar 10, 2012 |
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Mar 10, 2012 06:27
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Sirotan posted:This is the rational response. That means there's nothing wrong with you. Agreed. If a special release is something like Dark Lord Day, with bands and special taps and beer nerds all bringing their own special stuff to share with friends and strangers alike, then I can see the appeal - DLD is worthwhile not because of Dark Lord so much as it is for the socializing. But from what I see, the KBS release is nothing but a bunch of poor saps waiting in line to buy beer, and then leaving with either empty hands or a bunch of beer to sell on eBay. Where is the joy in that? Where is the appreciation for beer and community? I like being able to find special releases once in a while on my own, but I will not go out of my way for one unless there's a big social event around it that's worth my time. There are so many amazing beers in the world that it seems like a pointless waste to focus on hunting down special releases and "ticking" them. KBS is a great beer, but Old Rasputin and Victory Storm King are very close in quality, and a whole lot cheaper and easier to buy. Kudosx posted:Flower Power in general reminds me of I recently took part in an interesting discussion over whether "dank" constitutes a valid descriptor for beer flavor. I've always though "resinous" fits the bill just fine without sounding like dumb stoner talk, but I have to admit that there are some IPAs out there that do smell or taste a whole lot like weed.
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Mar 10, 2012 21:20
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, not that the taste, or smell have a specific weed taste, but the overall essence of the beer just reminds me of it.
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BoredByThis posted:Is anyone in Chicago picking up Pipeworks' first release of Ninja vs. Unicorn today? It goes on sale at WLV and Binny's Marcey St at 10am. I can't get there today, but I'll be looking for it elsewhere, mostly because the three dudes that comprise Pipeworks are all good dudes. Late response to this: I got a bottle when I was shopping for beer the other day because of a friend who does all the beer buying for a certain large Chicago liquor store chain, and I'm sipping on it right now. It's a drat fine beer along the lines of Three Floyds Dreadnaught, with a huge pine/citrus aroma and a similar hop flavor. It's moderate in body, and extremely well balanced between the bitterness, hop flavor and malt sweetness. Not an earth-shattering beer, but a great starting point for a new brewery.
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Mar 11, 2012 03:12
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ShaneB posted:It was kind of a spontaneous thing, sorry bro. I'd like to get in on next, too  I'll see if I can scrounge up something interesting, and maybe I can shoot some ideas for my group's innovation beer by you...Julio Cesar Fatass posted:As recommended, I picked up some of the 2009/2010 Orval I found locally. drat this stuff is acidic. The tasting note at the store was all about hops, but I guess those have fallen off in the three years since bottling. Orval should be funky, dry and tart after that long, but not outright acidic. Hop flavor and aroma falls off before almost anything else in beer, but I'm surprised that your batch seems as lambic-y as you make it sound. You may indeed have an infected batch, or maybe just one that was kept in improper conditions (e.g. on a fluorescent-lit store shelf at fluctuating temperatures for years on end). And no, sour beers will not make you ill, since nothing pathological to humans can live in beer. You might have some bad gas though.
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Mar 15, 2012 01:52
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Does anybody know how much differently DLD functions from how it did a few years back? I last went in 2009, and I didn't have a Golden Ticket but just wanted to hang out with friends in line. I ended up getting one at the venue anyway because they had a ton of extras there, but I would have been perfectly happy not buying any Dark Lord and just sharing beer with friends. Is it still possible to do that, or do they kick your rear end off the premises if you don't have a ticket? Again, I don't care about actually buying any so much as hanging out with folks.
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Mar 17, 2012 19:17
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Sirotan posted:This page http://www.darklordday.com/ says you have to have a tickets for entry, so looks like you can't just hang without one. :/ Well, that's balls. A lot of bars in Chicago usually have pre-DLD events going on, so I'll probably just go to one of those. Or maybe some of us can arrange a beer hangout up in the city and avoid all the mess of driving to and from Muenster.
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Mar 17, 2012 19:26
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Midorka posted:Tonight I'm doing a beer pairing with cheese for my first time, I picked up a variety of cheeses but really don't know how to pair cheese and beer. I picked up some cheddar cheese with maple and bacon and I plan to pair it with a Flying Fish Exit 8, I figure it'll be a good pair at least. Kosher Man's PDF is a fantastic resource and starting point, but I'll put in my two cents as well. I did cheese and beer pairings for a gourmet cheese purveyor in Chicago, and I've run into some general rules of thumb that work well: -Hoppy beers work perfectly with sharp cheddar and any kind of blue/gorgonzola cheese. Barleywine and imperial stout do the same. -Malty beers work great with any kind of cheddar or gouda, as well as similar cheeses like gruyere. -Milder, softer cheeses work well with beers like kölsch, weissbier and other beers with light body and flavor. -Funky, stinky cheeses generally play nice with Belgian beers of any type. -Match lighter cheeses with lighter beers, and more intense cheeses with more intense beers. -The best simple pairing: Pale ale and mild cheddar. A few of my favorite pairings that I've done: -Uinta Labyrinth with an American gorgonzola. -Old Rasputin with aged goat gouda. -Ska Brewing ESB with a 4-year aged cheddar. -Founders Centennial IPA with Bavaria Blu, a blue/camembert hybrid. I'm not sure I've ever had a better pairing. air- posted:I had Adelbert's biere de garde recently and this was my second experience where the cork popped itself off, flying across the room upon removal of the cage. I nearly took my nose off with a Lost Abbey Ten Commandments once. This is why I now open all cork/cage beers over the sink, pointing away from me.
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Mar 19, 2012 19:39
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CalvinDooglas posted:So I've got this Allagash interview tomorrow. If I'm hired I'll be their new tour guide. It's the first of two interviews, should I be successful. WEAR CASUAL CLOTHES. Nothing turns off brewers like a guy who comes to a brewery job interview in a dress shirt and slacks. If you're just going to be a tour guide, wear a decent polo and khakis, but nothing above that. If you're going to be involved in any sort of brewery work, the more "working man" you look the better. Kosher Man will back me up on this. Show a passion for beer in general, along with a lot of knowledge - in particular, a knowledge of their beer. Some breweries will quiz you on their history and their products, and if you're going to be a tour guide it'll be especially vital to know that stuff. Do your research beforehand - I've lost jobs by not doing so. Better yet, have some questions prepared that you can ask about their particular process and such - potential employers eat that up, especially in the brewing industry. Be assertive and confident. It's generic advice for any interview, but if you're going to do a lot of public speaking you need to sell that poo poo. But make a point of not acting like King poo poo of gently caress Mountain - breweries like people who are personable and friendly, and who work well as part of a team. It's the mentality that people expect from a brewery, and craft breweries tend to be close-knit and friendly workplaces. Also grow a beard and don't get drunk during the interview.
RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 21, 2012 |
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Mar 21, 2012 00:29
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CalvinDooglas posted:I'm pretty sure I'll never get to use "ginormous" in a cover letter again. And that is why the brewing industry rules.
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Mar 21, 2012 03:14
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Quiet Feet posted:Fun story from the brewery: apparently they once tried to brew a garlic beer. This went about as well as you'd expect, with every order being brought back to the brewery the very same day they shipped. This was several years ago. They sold three bottles. They kept the remaining stock around and now whenever somebody screws up on the job they're expected to chug a bottle. When I was brewing in Denmark, I once accidentally used Magnum hops for a whirlpool addition instead of Citra because the previous brewer mislabeled the bag (  ), and it made for a fairly unique liver-and-garlic character in the fermenter. Yeah, that batch got dumped. It's entirely possible that yeast health/autolysis could have done that too, but all the other pitches from that generation were just dandy.I want to echo all the Weihenstephaner love from the last page: Their Weissbier is probably the finest example of the style on the market today, and all of their other beers are excellent as well. Vitus is a particularly nice weizenbock, and relatively unusual in being a very pale example of the style. Ayinger and Augustiner are also truly excellent Bavarian breweries, and I've never had a bad beer from any of the three. Plus, the little plastic goats on Celebrator make awesome Christmas tree ornaments. See also: the little Thomas Hardy bottle medallions.Hopleaf in Chicago has Brooklyn Sorachi Ace on draft, and when I tried it the other day I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sorachi Ace hops and saison yeast seem to complement each other particularly well, and Brooklyn's version is a good example. It's nicely balanced between earthy, dry saison yeast character, and the floral/citrus/herbal qualities of Sorachi Ace hops, with enough malt backbone to make it work. Not one I'd seek out, but if you run into it it's well worth a try.
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Mar 27, 2012 12:02
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I think hop extract is still subject to the same solubility limits as normal hops, but it's a far more efficient way of packing more IBUs into your beer. Like Docjowles said, you don't get so much volume loss from the hops absorbing the wort when using hop extract for bittering. And it probably makes it easier for the alpha acids to isomerize and absorb into the beer, so it might allow a few ticks extra that whole/pellet hops wouldn't. Not that you'd taste them, since the human palate taps out somewhere around the 100 IBU mark. If you want to try a super-fun experiment, taste a spoon of hop extract. It tastes like burning!
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Mar 27, 2012 20:50
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All the Weihenstephaner talk compelled me to go out and snag a bottle of Vitus tonight, and it's as good as I remember it: Sweet but spritzy enough to control it, with an excellent balance between the equally prominent banana and clove characteristics of the weizen yeast. Nice subtle maltiness and just enough bitterness to wrap everything together. It's my favorite weizenbock, other than possibly Schneider-Weisse's Aventinus, which is the best of the darker examples of the style. I also tried Great Divide's Colette tonight, which happens to be an excellent farmhouse ale - pale, earthy, highly carbonated, good subtle hop character, and incredibly easy to drink. I'll definitely be going back to it in the future. And Half Acre Baume is an exemplary rye stout - rich with chocolate and coffee flavors, with the distinctive but subtle spiciness of rye, and a silky mouthfeel with a slightly dry finish. Why bust your rear end for special releases when you can get so many great loving beers so easily and (relatively) cheaply? RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 06:37
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Midorka posted:I drank an Ayinger Celebrator tonight and am I the only one who thinks it tastes and smells like concord grapes? I'm looking up reviews and don't get anything of what others are describing, it's as if I'm drinking a different beer. It may be that you're getting an oxidation character from an old bottle. Some oxidation shows up as "wet cardboard/newspaper," but some of it shows up as a distinct raisin-y/ribes flavor. It's highly probable, given the fact that it's imported from Germany and probably sat on a shelf for a while before you bought it. Oxidation is the biggest drawback to buying imports, and often gives people a false impression of what the beer is meant to taste like.
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Mar 28, 2012 07:24
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Corbet posted:Beer releases are really fun, have you been to one? Yes, beer release events are fantastic, and a great way to meet people and try a shitload of new beers. I did Dark Lord Day several years in a row and had a blast every time. My contention is with seeking out and "ticking" those rare beers outside of the events and dealing with inflated prices, competition from other beer nerds and eBayers, and so forth. There's no reason to let the "gotta catch 'em all" mentality make your life miserable when there's doubtlessly something just as excellent elsewhere on the shelf. If you can find them easily, great! If not, don't get your panties in a bunch just because somebody else got to that bottle of KBS before you did. Also ShaneB, that totally loving sucks, and it shows a basic lack of respect on his part that he just goes into your property and gets drunk on your collection without saying a drat thing. It seems like he knew drat well what he was doing and is just apologizing because he got caught.
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Mar 28, 2012 18:08
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Quiet Feet posted:Or a millenia. Weihenstephaner is going to be 1,000 years old in less than three decades. I'm hoping that there's going to be something huge happening for that, because a trip to Weihenstephaner's millennial party would be a great 60th birthday present.
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Mar 29, 2012 03:49
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Paul Proteus posted:Daisy Cutter, Over Ale, and Gossamer are all pretty available at all the Binnys. Binny's definitely has Cipher, but I didn't see any Baume there. And you can get Daisy Cutter everywhere these days. Drinking a Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout right now, and I have to say this is one of the best examples I've ever had of the milk stout/cream stout style. Deep chocolate/roast flavor with a rich sweetness from the lactose, and a perfectly creamy/silky texture from the nitro carbonation and lactose. LH Milk Stout has always been an excellent beer, but this version is just sublime.
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Mar 29, 2012 04:48
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Mahoning posted:Just got back from a big alcohol joint across the river in Kentucky called the Party Source. I remember back when I was in college I used to go over there and marvel at the amount of beer they have. Today was the first day I've been there since I've kind of known a lot more about beer. I was thoroughly unimpressed. If you're anywhere near Louisville, you absolutely loving need to go to Sergio's World Beers. Picture your favorite used bookstore - the one with plywood wooden shelves bending and creaking under the weight of too many books, packed to the gills with every spare inch dedicated to as many books as possible. Now imagine that with beer. Sergio's has numerous fridges crammed with everything from your average releases to things I've never ever seen in the US elsewhere - including beers I thought were only available in Denmark (e.g. certain Beer Here and Søgaards releases). Every square inch of wall is packed with beer signs and posters. Every square inch of shelf space is packed with bottles or glasses. And the owner can be a bit of a snot, but he knows his stuff and is super-generous. I had my first taste of Sam Adams Utopias from Sergio's, and while I didn't get a taste he also has the port-barrel aged Uerige Stickum Plus bierbrand whiskey, which is SUPER-difficult to find. If he has a bottle you want, he'll open it for you - if there's something you want, he'll try to find it for you. Plus the Mexican food from the kitchen is pretty delicious, if slightly pricey. FreelanceSocialist posted:Honestly, I find myself caring less and less about the unicorn beers. I'm well on my way to fulfilling my NYE resolution of drinking a new beer each day and there's just so many year-rounds readily available that I haven't made a trade for a rarity yet, this year. Once I got past the whole BA-circlejerk factor of having a rare bottle, I realized there is a whole universe of accessible beer out there. I've already said this, but I just have to say another "amen" to this sentiment. The number of year-round, readily-available releases that are excellent is already so overwhelming that I tend not to seek out special beers much. I took my brother-in-law out to Haymarket Pub for dinner tonight, since he hadn't been there yet, and they continue to put out solid beers. The dry-hopped version of Oscar's Pardon is an excellent session beer and Last Chance Belgian IPA is one of the few good examples of the style, but I was most impressed by Lizzie's Simcoe IPA (a nicely-balanced all-Simcoe IPA) and the Indignant Templeton Rye Imperial Stout (a 12% ABV imperial stout aged in rye whiskey barrels, super-smooth and drinkable with a nice touch of spice from the rye whiskey). The Defender dry-hopped stout also proved really tasty. One of my old Siebel classmates is doing a bunch of the brewing, so it's really cool to see him putting out excellent beer. And dumptruckzzz, Old Ruffian is an excellent barleywine no matter what its vintage. It tends to be very hop-forward up front, but with a bit of age it exhibits a very fruity, caramel-y character.
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Mar 30, 2012 04:37
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crazyfish posted:Oberon is the beer that non-beer nerds tend to get really excited about when it hits shelves. Not to say that it's not a good beer - quite the contrary in fact, but at least in Chicago it feels like that. Oberon and Gumballhead are two of my favorite summer beers (alongside a long list of others). Oberon's a nice compromise between the German hefe and the lighter, cleaner American wheat; Gumballhead's a great straight-up American wheat beer with lots of Amarillo hops. Do you know if you're sensitive to Amarillo at all? Some people get an aspirin-type flavor out of them, and it seems to be a matter of individual tastebuds. If you like other Amarillo-heavy beers, it may just not hit your tastebuds right.
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Mar 31, 2012 02:00
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FreelanceSocialist posted:No one is in it to get rich. There are exceptions to this, but they tend to be owned by people who invest more in equipment and advertising than in quality control, process and staff. In other words, dumb assholes. I've worked for the type before, and these are often the people who put out mediocre or outright terrible beer - either because they cut corners and just want to make a quick buck (which, as you said, really doesn't happen), or because their staff are too overworked and dissatisfied to be at the top of their game. This seems to be a lot less common since the industry crash in the 90s, thankfully, but those guys are still out there. Most people who visit a brewpub don't get a full tour and chat with the brewers, so the beer and atmosphere are the first thing the brewery/pub puts forward, and the primary criteria by which people will judge the establishment. But getting the chance to talk with the brewers tends to be very rewarding and enjoyable, so it's nice when they put a lot of effort into establishing a more personal relationship with the public. But despite all the niceties, a brewery is still a business first and foremost, so no matter how friendly the brewer is, if the brewery isn't putting out good beer it's the first thing people will notice. And if a brewery puts out some bad beers, it's not necessarily because they're not passionate about the craft - putting out high-quality, consistent beer is hard, and individual preferences and tastes vary a lot. While larger craft breweries can afford to have their own labs and QC departments, the really small ones can't, so they have less data on which to assess beer and fewer opportunities to catch mistakes before they make it into the bottle/keg/can. Going from an idea to a recipe to a finished beer takes a shitload of planning, formulating and testing, plus any new brewery will spend some time getting the hang of its process and equipment.
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Apr 1, 2012 22:04
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Ayinger simply doesn't make any bad beers, as far as I can tell - everything I've had from them has been universally excellent. And they have one of the most incredibly beautiful brewhouses I've ever seen.
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Apr 2, 2012 20:54
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Tigren posted:Dry or sweet? These are opposite flavors. Many of the more citric/fruity hop varietals can, in large enough quantities (when used for aroma, not bittering), seem slightly sweet on the palate. It's not impossible to have a very dry, bitter beer that leaves some impression of sweetness simply from the hop flavor and aroma. Nelson Sauvin seems particularly good at this, in my experience. CalvinDooglas posted:nope nope nope. If this is A Thing it's going to show up in every drat beer I drink. I had a perfectly good Gubna nearly ruined because of someone's assertion of onion flavor. In fact I had to drink another one just to convince myself it wasn't true. It's not showing up for you because you don't have that particular flavor sensitivity. The impression I get is that different hop sensitivities operate on a principle similar to people's interpretation of cilantro: Many people enjoy it, but a significant proportion of people think it tastes "soapy." Some research indicates this may be due to a genetic factor, or that some people may have a stronger instinctive reaction to the aldehydes that contribute the "soapiness." But there's definitely a difference in individual tastes and experiences that can't be immediately attributed to "you're a big crybaby." Taking all that into account, type "summit hops" into Google, and "summit hops onion" is the fourth suggestion down. It's definitely A Thing - it's just that your taste buds, olfactory nerves and brain don't interpret Summit hops the same way as those people do. That doesn't make those people dumbasses or Summit hops worthless, it's just different. The fact that the power of suggestion so strongly influenced your own experience with Gubna just shows how many factors tie into individual taste and interpretation of flavors. RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Apr 4, 2012 |
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Apr 4, 2012 09:27
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I found a bottle of Pipeworks End of Days at West Lakeview Liquors (one of my favorite bottle shops in Chicago), and I'm sipping it now. It's good, but not great: Smooth stout flavor with a nice, moderate burst of heat from the ancho chiles on the finish, but not much flavor from the cocoa nibs or vanilla. The body's a bit thin as well, and it's a tad fizzier than I'd prefer. Still, it's a fine beer considering how young the brewery is. And the name and bottle art are less embarrassing than Ninja vs. Unicorn.
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Apr 7, 2012 03:07
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FreelanceSocialist posted:They might as well have aged it in coffins on the far side of the moon and then buried it at sea for a decade and then filtered it through a nuclear reactor Don't give Brewdog any ideas. TenaciousTomato posted:What got ya'll into craft beer? For me it was my family offering me a La Fin du Monde last Christmas which is still one of my favorites to this day. My dad started me on Newcastle Brown and Guinness, which is a better start than most people get. After a few years of subsisting on Leinie's Red in college, my best friend and I started checking out some of the other beers in the fridge at the local liquor shop. One of my formative experiences was drinking a Unibroue La Terrible at his neighbor's place one fateful night, which hooked me on dark beers and Belgians. A Rogue Shakespeare Stout a few weeks later locked me into my stout fixation. After college I began my descent into beer in earnest, starting with a Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre with some friends at a bar in Chicago. I started collecting bottle caps, which prompted me to buy more and more unusual beers to fill gaps in the collection, which furthered my education along with simply being interested in drinking more. Then that same friend and his girlfriend got into homebrewing, got me into the hobby, and it's been a steady roll from there into brewing professionally. I probably owe the guy for my current career path more than anybody else. Short answer: Unibroue La Terrible and Rogue Shakespeare Stout are most directly responsible for getting me into beer, but there's a whole slew of beers I could name that have been critically important along the way.
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Apr 9, 2012 04:22
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Drinking the last of a Jester King Black Metal I split with family after Easter dinner tonight. It's pretty tasty - very much on the dark fruit/molasses side of imperial stout, and a bit cloying on the tongue, but still delicious.
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Apr 9, 2012 04:45
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CalvinDooglas posted:It's my opinion that poor labor practices lead to overall increases in cost and low quality, caused primarily by high turnover and the many problems that come with it. I agree 100%, having experienced a similar situation at my previous job in Denmark: Sales before quality, belligerent and incompetent management, and employees who are overworked, undercompensated and treated like garbage. I did everything I could to improve quality, but it's kind of difficult when you work 90-hour weeks and your manager still thinks you're a worthless piece of poo poo because you still bother to sleep once in a while. If that is, in fact, the situation at Rogue, then hopefully things will catch up with them the way that they're now catching up with the Danish guys. They're now on their fifth head brewer within the last year. Ethical and equitable management isn't just a warm fuzzy sort of thing, it actually results in better efficiency and quality! I'd read the Rogue jobs page when I was seeking brewing work, and even when I was desperately sending out hundreds of resumes that page instantly prevented me from applying there. It's absolute psychobabble coming from the mouths of business managers who don't want to look like business managers and want to maintain an image. There's not a single word in there that sounds like it'd make anybody want to work there, it's belligerent and insulting, and it's poorly-formatted word soup that communicates absolutely nothing. Plus, they only accept resumes by snail mail? And require a copy of your high school transcript??? And they REQUIRE you to become part of the Rogue Nation club just to have the privilege to apply? It's like a window into lovely management policies and mental illness all wrapped together. Thankfully I now work at a brewery that treats its employees very well, and who understand how important employee satisfaction and safety are.
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Apr 10, 2012 20:16
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Drinking a Pipeworks Close Encounter, which they bill as a "Hoppy Double Stout" but falls pretty snugly into the bill of a black IPA. It has a nice mix of super-resinous hop character and dark malt flavor that reminds me of Goose Island Night Stalker, but not as refined or well-executed. I also keep getting some hints of soy sauce here and there, but I'm not sure if that's just the hop and dark malt flavors mashing into each other messily. Another one that's good, but not great. At least the bottle art isn't too bad this time, and has a nice retro kick to it. Hopefully they stick with these guys for labels for a while, because otherwise beers like Ninja vs. Unicorn and Jones Dog will put them in the unfortunate company of Weyerbacher for worst beer labels on the market.
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Apr 13, 2012 04:47
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Munkaboo posted:Any good beer places in SF other than monks kettle and toronado? Preferably near financial district? I'm not a native, so I don't know if it's in the area you want it to be, but I really enjoyed Zeitgeist when I was there a year ago. The bar has a rockabilly aesthetic, and has tons of local beers on tap.
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Apr 16, 2012 10:44
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Brooklyn and Schneider did one of the "each brew the same beer differently" Hopfen Weisse colabo that was pretty damned good. Schneider-Weisse's version of this beer was one of my Siebel class's staples while we were in Munich. Partially because some of us were going through hop withdrawal. The waitresses at the main Schneider-Weisse beer hall on Marienplatz are hilariously reluctant to serve it, too.The Schneider/Brooklyn is probably my favorite collaboration result, but I'm also a fan of Victory's version of Saison du Buff, as well as the Bruery/CCB Marrón Acidifié. Many of the others people listed here are good too. The Stone/Brewdog Bashah is probably the most palatable Brewdog beer I've ever had. wattershed posted:http://beerstreetjournal.com/goose-island-brewings-bourbon-county-to-be-year-round/ I haven't heard about BCBS becoming year-round, but judging by my personal experience, we've been brewing enough of it. You'd be surprised at how much goes into that beer!The article cited there is great too, about how things at Goose Island are going a year after the AB acquisition. Some surprisingly candid observations there by Goose employees, too: http://chicagoist.com/2012/04/16/the_honk_heard_round_the_world_goos.php#photo-1 And if you guys are interested in seeing more behind-the-scenes stuff at Goose: http://goodbeerhunting.tumblr.com/post/21214672328/goose-island-the-next-king-of-beers-a-good-look-at Joel and Zach are awesome guys, by the way. RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 02:08
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danbanana posted:first time i was ever in the vaunted map room in chicago (~7 years ago), i ordered something and the bartender's response was, "do you know what that is?" needless to say, i've been there less than 5 times since and never by my own choice. To be fair, sometimes people ask for the strongest or most unusual beer without having a clue whether they even enjoy the style, and bartenders often like to give recommendations and steer people in the direction of something they'll like. The bartender may have just worded his or her question poorly. Personally, I've generally had good service at the Map Room and enjoy stopping by once in a while. Hopleaf, however, is almost as notorious as the Toronado for having dickbag bartenders, and for good reason. In my experience, and those of my friends, the bartenders tend to be inattentive, rude, and not terribly knowledgeable about the beer. If it weren't for their excellent kitchen and great selection - as well as having a nice location in Andersonville - I'd never go. As it is, I find myself patronizing the other good bars in Chicago far more often. Really though, I'm stumped as to why bars like Hopleaf and Toronado get away with fuckstickery so regularly. Beer is supposed to bring people together, not be another excuse to be a dick and make yourself feel superior! You're supposed to advocate beer and bring more people into the fold, not drive them away! Attitudes like that are the entire reason the term "beer snob" still exists. Docjowles posted:Anyone familiar with "blanche de bruxelles"? Had it on draft yesterday at Falling Rock taphouse in Denver, who usually know what they are doing to put it lightly. It was the hugest diacetyl bomb I have had in my life, it was like smelling and drinking a tub of buttered popcorn I've had Blanche de Bruxelles a few times, and I've never tasted any diacetyl in it. It tends to be a pretty solid Belgian witbier. Either the keg was off or the bar's lines were filthy. Speaking of witbier, I made a stop at Revolution Brewery for the first time in a while yesterday, and their Bottoms-Up Wit is still one of my favorite American-made examples of the style. Creamy in body but still refreshing, with nice wheat tartness and citrus aroma. I followed it with their Poetic Justice, an English bitter made with a newer variety of hop called Sonnet. Does anybody have experience with this one? Supposedly it's a relative of the Goldings lineage, and it definitely had some nice floral, earthy English hop character to it. RocketMermaid fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 22:33
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Passed it around the table and everyone agreed, it wasn't just me being a diacetyl-hating sperg. Just nasty. That must have been a bad keg, right? No one would drink that on purpose.
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Darth Goku Jr posted:I'm certainly not arguing with you on the business sense, but there is definitely something to be said about Session beers being the next thing in a lot of ways. In a discussion with other beer lovers, like this thread, the words Imperial, Double/ Triple/Tripel are really thrown around pretty often, because 'nerd' movements tend to focus on the extreme. Extreme beers for this reason are the best way to get your name out there and sought after... within certain circles. While the extreme side of brewing can be awfully fun and even playful once you know your poo poo, it can be pretty daunting to someone trying to get into beer. This can help lead to the perception that the beer nerd movement is just Toronado bartenders and if you aren't already in the club why the hell are you bothering, turning people AWAY from something they could otherwise embrace. I agree with all of these points, really. I appreciate a lot of the extreme and experimental beers, but at the end of the day I'm more often interested in kicking back with a drinkable, balanced beer, or having a flavorful beer that compliments my dinner instead of demolishing it. Extreme beers are great for drawing new converts and exciting the enthusiasts, but the more "sessionable" beers tend to be the ones that people keep coming back for. While much of the beer community is still stuck in the "Gotta catch 'em all/Too good for you" mentality, I've noticed a far greater enthusiasm and respect for session beers taking root in the last few years, and I'm glad for it. The skill it takes to make a flavorful but drinkable session beer is at least equal to, if not greater than, the skill it takes to toss a shitload of specialty malt and hops into a beer and chuck it into a barrel. It's interesting looking at the US market now after spending a year working in the Danish market. The Danish market is really reaching a peak of enthusiasm for unusual and extreme beers, at the same time the US beer enthusiast is really starting to focus more on session beers. I'm still surprised there hasn't been more of a culling of the Danish beer industry, considering how ridiculously high the breweries-per-capita number is. Denmark has approximately 150 breweries for a population of six million people - it's akin to having 150 breweries within the Chicago area. For a country dominated by Carlsberg, Tuborg and Royal up until the last decade or so, it's really kick-started its craft beer movement with a vengeance.
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Apr 18, 2012 07:44
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danbanana posted:i've heard good things about vivant... i've also heard they'll be distro'ing in illinois soon. If Vivant starts distributing to Chicago, I'll be really happy. They were my favorite stop on a recent trip through a bunch of Michigan breweries. wattershed posted:Sorry, can't let this slide by here, aside from Rogue's tiny bottles, how are either of them overpriced? I agree, Stone and Rogue are generally among the cheaper bombers out there. With Rogue, though, you often get what you pay for, since the majority of their beers fall squarely into the "mediocre" category. About the only one that still stands out for me is Shakespeare Stout, and that's largely because of nostalgia. Stone generally has much better quality than Rogue, but not a lot of variety. For cheap bombers, though, Lagunitas is right up there with Stone: Great quality for what you pay for, and Hop Stoopid is not only a great beer but probably the cheapest DIPA bomber on the entire market. Even when I was in Denmark, the imported Lagunitas beers were cheaper than almost all of the native Danish craft beers. By the way, those of you in the Chicago area should see if you can find some of the En Passant from Goose Island's innovation program. It's a rye mild ale with blood oranges that's really tasty, and it's only on draft for a short time. I know Revolution and Haymarket have it, as well as GI Clybourn (of course), but I'm not sure who else does. The brewers who worked on it did a great job.
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Apr 21, 2012 20:44
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Valencia posted:it was like drinking a Yankee Candle That's probably the best description I've seen of ST Creme Brulee Stout. Remember how we were just talking about Stone having cheap bombers? My local Binny's just had Sublimely Self-Righteous on sale for $5.99 a bottle, and Arrogant Bastard for $3.99. But Lagunitas had them beat with Hop Stoopid for $3.49. Needless to say, I'm having a pleasant night in for cheap tonight.
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Apr 22, 2012 06:03
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Midorka posted:Last night I had a Chouffe IPA Tripel or something and thought it was terrible. The clash of pine/grapefruit with the Belgian spices was a huge turn off to me, smelling like it was skunked to me. The beer said best before the end of 2012 but there was heavy sediment so it could have been a bad bottle. La Chouffe's IPA Tripel is one of my favorite beers, personally, and one of the few beers under the "Belgian IPA" aegis that's truly excellent. But given that it's packaged in green bottles (  ) and is often found hibernating on Trader Joe's shelves for long periods of time, you may have gotten a bottle that's skunked or otherwise off.The sediment shouldn't be an indicator of bad quality - if it's bottle-conditioned, that sediment will always be there. And as far as I know, the IPA Tripel isn't made with any spices, but Belgian yeast often gives that impression. Yesterday I tried a relatively new craft beer bar in Rogers Park (far north side of Chicago) called Norse, and it's a pretty solid hangout. Very laid-back, with twelve well-maintained taps and a decent bottle selection. Not an AMAZING BEER DESTINATION or anything, but it's nice to see my old neighborhood getting more craft beer places.
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Apr 23, 2012 17:23
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