Beer in the new era

..holy sweet jesus this hopslam is delicious. My favorite of the Bell's main line, by MILES, has always been the Two-Hearted Ale. & this is very similar to that, but smoother & crisper & w/ subtleties that I don't really have the knowledge to accurately describe. Out of no sense of obligation to my purchase, I am PLEASED. A++ Wld Recommend.

Finally got around to dropping the loot for a sixer of this tonight, from a store in Ann Arbor that allegedly gets preferential product directly from Bell's. Regardless of whether there is any validity to that claim, I've now heard two unrelated reports from two of my most trusted beer insiders that this shit is now there all-time favorite beer ever. Those are some tall words. The question I now face is if this has been overhyped to such a point as to ensure disappointment & even if not, could it really have been worth the $21.95?

― in movie 2001 resurrect thread on planet jupiter (Pillbox), Thursday, 22 April 2010 04:13 (1 hour ago)

the deal with a lot of IPAs is that the fresher, i.e. when it was bottled, it is, the better it's going to be. someone above posted a bottle of russian river's pliny the elder, another one of the more highly regarded IPAs on the market and all over the label it basically says "don't wait! drink it now!" so on that, the hopslam is available basically all through january and some of february iirc. a few weeks old bottle i had awhile back is absolutely bonkers and well worth the $20+ price tag in my opinion. that company's two hearted ale is another well worth seeking out also!

*their

Had a Summit India Style Rye Ale last night. Nice and very rye-y.

22 bucks for a sixer?????

I've typically been disappointed by bells beers, but I do love the hopslam.

this strong ale fest is coming up near me. wish i could go, but the wife and baby would probably not be too into it: http://beeradvocate.com/events/info/31621 maybe next year.

in other beer news ... good lord: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-beer-travelers/2010/04/12800-for-a-bottle-of-beer.html

Wow. Thought about going to Dark Lord Day this year, but it's supposed to rain.

Apologies if this has been discussed here, I haven't kept up with the thread
7 Eleven rolls out Game Day,a store-brand beer

I am going to Dark Lord Day.

I had a glass of the 2009 vintage on tap at the Publican over the past few weeks.

It was not one of the ten best beers I had over the past few weeks.

Take from that what you will.

ha, Game Day is kind of a great name for a beer

went here http://www.dieuduciel.com/ yesterday and it was great. i'm pretty suspicious of brewpubs usually--the beers feel like sketched-out versions of what they're trying to be, but they never get the details and the complexity of something that's actually good. this place, however, was not that--9 or 10 different brews were ordered by our group and they were all pretty great.

was at the paisley beer festival and had a Thornbridge Hall Brewery McConnells, Ellan 1872 Porter, Neuzeller Porter, and Highland Brewery Orkney Porter.

RIP Anchor Brewery

Enjoy it while you can, big changes expected v. soon.

noooooooo

well that sucks. I fell off w/ Anchor Steam a long while back (prob for no other reason than that it was regular enough for such a length of time that I grew bored w/ it) & I've sort of been enjoying revisiting all that lately, largely b/c of all the Anchor love on these threads.

had a great mikkeller single hop (warrior) ipa -- would love to do a tasting of their full line of these single hop brews. and i found out that mikkeller is a "phanton" or "gypsy" brewery -- some danish guy who goes around to different breweries.

also, kind of excited that ninkasi, from eugene, ore. is now distributing in southern california. had their total domination ipa, which wasn't totally dominate, but still more than decent. but the guy at bevmo told me that tricerahops, their dipa, is better.

having Ninkasi available in every PDX grocery and corner store is pretty ace

Ninkasi is suddenly everywhere here in the shitty part of WA over the last year too - I'd only seen it in Eugene before that.

I'm seeing more Goose Islands showing up here too lately - I found two different Belgian 22s and one 12oz at the co-op last week.

*hic*

Been loving deuchars IPA lately. Was on a pub-crawl yesterday and only one out of the 8 or 9 pubs we went to had it though :'(

drank a bunch of great stuff at various engagement celebrations recently but (haha) dont remember all of it.

some highlights tho - the rodenbach grand cru flemish sour ale is like beer kombucha, stupidly refreshing and drinkable - not my favorite sour ale, but i will take what i can get since its so hard to find.

also the Odell brewery just started bringing stuff into MPLS/STPL, and their IPA (they make several, but this is the only one just called IPA) was just fantastic, a little of the grapefruity thing going on but just kind of perfectly balanced with some piney something and light carbonation zing. super super good, on my short list for favorite new IPA at the moment.

anyone seen nordeast outside of nordeast?

for sale at (you guessed it) boozemart - or do you mean outside of the TC area?

no, inside! haven't seen it anywhere in these parts

figure out a day that you arent busy doctoring and i will lead you to the zone

basically free from now until may 23rd. then into the memory hole for six weeks, then free-ish until late august :D

i am out of town next weekend, but hey lets do this! also included in offer - patio, dog of unseemly size.

newcastles in triumphant end of week pre-practice quaffing!

cuz i'm taking off friday for a bros wedding

enjoying a green flash imperial ipa. a bit surprised by how sticky/sweet it is. more like orange than grapefruit, but still plenty dry and bitter.

Drinking corona tonight!!!!

I know, sad. It's what my inlaws drink.

i am becoming a bit of a beer snob. Pretty much derive no pleasure from lagers i used to enjoy and guinness, which i used to love, has gone down a lot in my estimation vis-a-vis real ale stouts and porters that i've tried.

Enjoyed a sixer of the Stone Levitation Ale over the past few nights. Really, really good stuff.

Want to get into some heavier IPAs this weekend.

just finished a big bottle of heineken :(((

beer kombucha

LOL, this is a good thing? My wife keeps trying to sell me on kombucha, but I ain't havin' it.

my wife loves kombucha but to me it's like drinking a bottle of salad dressing

He says, pounding yet another bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwkcBi0_L28

cool little trailer featuring MI beers across the spectrum, the little breweries from my hometown make an appearance

Black Isle Organic Porter: a real disappointment. Pours without much of a head, thin mouthfeel, not much of a nose, bland taste.

Can I just say I love Terrapin's Hopsecutioner...

I've got a fairly random assortment of beers in my fridge right now:

Weyerbacher Quad (2)
O'Hara's Stout (1)
Sierra Nevada Stout (1)
Samuel Smith Porter (4, but soon to be 3)
Smuttynose Porter (2)
Troegs Java Head (2)
Dogfish Head Chicory Stout (2)
Stone Smoked Porter (1 bomber)
Troegs Flying Mouflan (1 bomber)

Michigan beer fest at my local tonight. On tap:

new holland night tripper
new holland dragons milk
dark horse fore smoked stout
dark horse crooked tree IPA
founders old crumudgeon oak aged old ale
founders reds rye IPA
founders double trouble imperial IPA
founders cerise (bottle)
jolly pumpkin ES bam bier
jolly pumpkin la roja(750ml bottle)

...plus a "special treat" from Bell's.

Yeah, ton of stuff going on for Chicago Craft Beer Week.

It's over: Mammoth Brewing Co's Double Nut Brown has the dark chocolate flavor nailed.

I had a bomber of Arcadia Sky High Rye last night, very good. I'm starting to get a taste for ryes, they might break me from the IPA habit yet.

i don't want to break my IPA habit; I'm still on the Deuchars big time. had a few bottles of Brew Dog IPA which was maybe a bit too strong for me, in terms of alcohol -i prefer a lighter IPA and find it more refreshing-, but still palatable.

Beers I drank in Portland that were new to me:

Double Mountain India Red Ale
Widmer W'10 Pitch Black IPA
Firestone Walker Union Jack
Amnesia Copacetic IPA
Upright Farmhouse Rye
Fearless IPA
Roots Burghead Heather Ale
Ninkasi Total Domination IPA
plus about a dozen 4 oz. samples (shared with my gf) of various Rogue beers

Notes:
The IRA may have been my favorite -- no real surprise there, since I really love that style. The Copacetic had a strong but very pleasing weed aroma, though it was a bit undercarbonated (may have just been the keg). The Farmhouse Rye was subtly flavorful. I didn't love the Burghead Heather, but it was fairly drinkable (and I liked trying a beer made with heather tips instead of hops). The other IPAs were all stellar, though none in particular stood above the rest.

I found the Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA to be quite good, and well-priced when on sale ($8 / 6-pak). Doesn't hit you over the head with its IPA-ness.

I also bought a sixer of Samual Adams Longshot, which is actually 2 bottles each of 3 different style beers developed by their employees. One is a lemon pepper Saison, which wasn't as weird as it may sound, neither lemon nor pepper flavors were detectable to me. Another is a Scottish Ale type that I haven't tried yet, and the third is an Ale with 9% abv that was very good. Dunno how long this will be in the stores or if there's even a chance any of it will make it to regular production.