Beer in the new era

Todd, I was thinking about Long Room on Monday, since it's only a few blocks from me. Would've gone to Whole Foods on Sunday but, y'know, Easter.

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to miss most of the Stone events because my Mom is visiting this weekend. Though I'll still most likely be at the Long Room on Monday.

I'm just going to pick up a few 6 packs to see what the big deal is.

I can get behind a visit to Long Room on Monday.

ok so normally i hate anything that summit does that isnt the boring standby pale ale, but to my shock i had the new rye IPA and it was kind of fantastic.

fuuuuuuuuck this beer is delicious

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/3301982659_8a45cfb228_o.jpg

I haven't been so impressed with a beer in a loooong time

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3375/3245727597_08e7701970_m.jpg

normally blue bottles are kinda tacky but the silver and blue combo is really nice imo (its kind of a deep sapphire-ish blue in normal light)

just a nicely done hefeweizen that's really drinkable and balanced and I can't wait for summer to get here

Enjoyed some things on tap at the new German-style beer garden in Jersey City this past weekend. Noteworthy to me was the Leffe Brown (I usually have the Blonde), which I thought was pretty good with spicy notes and not as sweet as I feared.

Coors in the new era
http://assets.bizjournals.com/story_image/850471-0-0-1.jpg

RIP Goose Island Nut Brown and Oatmeal Stout. Sad.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/goose-island-beer-co/hex-nut-brown-ale-and-oatmeal-stout/109674202396880

dear bottle of belgian beer: is there a reason you keep on foaming 10 minutes after I have opened you? is it a sign you want me to pour you into a bottle?

into a glass you mean? yeah prob.

glass, yeah. I poured a little bit into a glass just now and it nearly tripled in volume -.-

I just used HEXNUT in a crossword puzzle, and probably the only reason I even knew it was a thing was b/c of Hex Nut Brown Ale.

there are some belgians that'll do that...just gotta wait to drink it, putting off sweet beer satisfaction

coming to the realisation that i massively prefer stout and porter over all other beer. Drinking Midnight Sun Porter, microbrewed in Alloa. Yum. Going to start frequenting the famous real ale pub that is a couple of hundred yards from my flat.

captain lawrence double IPA
six point diesel stout
(both good)

which pub is tht, jim?

The Bon Accord.

where i just had a pint of orkney dark island. om nom nom.

of local interest only i think, but the grainbelt nordeast is pretty much as expected, much better than premium, less banana taste and some sort of vague brown ale thing going on? worth a bottle or two, def wouldn't buy a 12 pack.

I will admit that "less banana taste" is very very very high on my list of desirable qualities in the flavor of my beer

suggest banana taste in your beer

obv you guys have never fallen victim to the trick where someone tells you to think about bananas when in the middle of a premium and then you can never ever drink the stuff again

once you taste it you cant ever untaste it is what i am saying here

hahaha I'm going to just start doing this at random, with random things

hopefully I will find someone with defective tastebuds for whom I can ruin sushi

I was at a bar in northeast Mpls last week where almost everyone was drinking Grainbelt Nordeast. Don't know if it was super cheap, if they all got curious to try it at the same time, or if it's actually that good. Didn't try.

whoah waht is it maed this GB NE? granted i live in the wrong part of mpls to imbibe it, i guess, btu still

also: i first noted the banana flavor thing in BUDWEISER---it's endemic to a lot of american "pilseners" imo

I read some blog reviewing the japanese beer I had upthread and it mentioned banana and bubblegum flavors which made it all the more delicious imo

surely the ultimate banana beers are hefeweizen and suchlike

how have I been blissfully unaware of this banana beer phenomenon

Yeah, Franziskaner Hefeweizen is very banana-y but in a good way.

There was some discussion of the banana/bubblegum/clove taste of most Hefeweizens way upthread. It's all about the esters.

banana/bubblegum/clove taste

lol, I didn't know Bobby Flay made beer

Dan (not HI DERE, the other one) I think the launch was last week and they did a bunch of promo stuff in NE MPLS, maybe at grumpys and a couple of other places, so that would prob explain that

this fine beer should be pretty freely available around town now i think, i can of course guarantee that it is in ready supply at my dear beloved BOOZE MART

lol "grumpys"

avoid the brownie surprise

on actual beer topics, I've noticed that I've been buying Harpoon assortment packs almost exclusively because I don't actually have one particular beer that I like drinking all the time

(xpost) I was at Shaw's. Yep, that's probably the reason.

Speaking of fruity beer, as in grapefruity, I've been drinking Widmer Deadlift Imperial IPA a bunch lately. Excellent.

i love assortment packs but i have gotten so burned by some of them that i am very cautious these days. however i learned that the breckenridge and horny goat breweries make shitty beer that i hate across the board from getting these, so i guess thats a win?

xpost

actually the Sam Adams assortment packs are often great as long as they don't include one of their crime-against-nature fruit beers

my default assortment pack is the brau brothers one because i love literally every beer in there (even the strawberry wheat! no really!)

but you cant get that outside of mn right now so nananana booboo sucks to be yall

btw is it sad that the reason i am most excited to go to an upcoming wedding in philly is so i can drink the monks sour red ale?

depends, do you hate the ppl getting married?

also trying to figure out how to bring back a case of the yards brewery stuff, which is fucking fantastic imo, esp the brawler:

http://www.yardsbrewing.com/ales_brawler.asp

xpost no its m1ch3ll3, who is one of my closest friends! (i think you might remember her from like a million yrs ago) i just really really like that beer and cant get anyone here to track it down for me

and since were on the subject if anyone has any suggestions for other sour beers that would be ace - its really hard when you are one of the rare freaks that really like sours because NO ONE stocks them, at least not around here.

philly is one of the great underrated beer cities as far as i can tell, tho maybe its rated really highly and i dont know

Last night at Hopleaf I had the limited-edition Lagunitas Fusion Ale -- which was quite good. I think I've been spoiled a bit by IPAs, because my first reaction was that it wasn't hoppy enough, but then as I kept drinking, I found it pretty refreshing. And it still had a lot of character.

My gf ordered a Short's Magician -- which usually isn't distributed outside Michigan, but Hopleaf acquired a few bottles when Short's was in town for the recent Craft Brewing Conference. Anyway, it was kind of weird. It billed itself as a "dark red ale"; I picked up notes of black bread and baker's chocolate but also a slightly unpleasant sourness.

i had no idea this thread was so full of mentalism

philly is one of the great underrated beer cities as far as i can tell, tho maybe its rated really highly and i dont know

I always thought Philly was well known as a great beer city!