Beer in the new era

I have no shame, I love NEIPAs. But one of the things I like best is that when you have something different after a steady diet of them, even a regular IPA, let alone something lighter like a lager or pilsner, it's so dramatic.

I drink a lot of Other Half, which is ground zero for hazebros. I love their stuff, but lately been preferring their single IPAs instead of the doubles and triples they pump out in droves.

i get almost all beer direct from tree house, but yesterday i went to the big liquor store to pick up a couple things and spent an inordinate amount of timing staring at the beer case....i wanted to try a new IPA, but they're all $16-20 for a 4-pack, most of them are from breweries i've never heard of, and BA and untappd are useless for figuring out if something is actually good. it's just not worth it.

i was thinking i'd love a good, fresh, west coast ipa but they're almost impossible to come by now outside a couple of obvious heavy hitters.

We have some WCIPA standards here, like Ninja Vs Unicorn or Anti Hero (are those west coast IPAs?). But for a lot of breweries it seems like a style that they only sometimes brew, whereas everyone has several NEIPAs, it seems.

I want to say 4-packs I've been seeing going for everywhere from $12 to $18 or so at the typical high end, barring something high concept or labor intensive. I still think even $20 for four 16oz beers is not bad, by the standards of bars or sporting events or concerts or whatever, but it is a lot to take a risk on. I have seen a few breweries that have started selling 2-packs of 16oz cans, or 4-packs of little stumpy cans. But the shelves are indeed spilling over with options. It's bad enough here, but I was up in Wisconsin the other week and the shelves were stocked with so many brands I was unfamiliar with I didn't know where to start, especially since, like you said, online reviews are almost always positive, even at their most critical.

the worst price offender imo is singlecut, who regularly have $22 4-packs that don't even offer a basic description of the beer.

When I see the $20/4-pack I try to compare the price with wine, $10 a bottle for wine isn't much, and is about the same amount as 2 12 oz beers. I spent $20 on 4 12 oz Oskar Blues BA version of their Ten Fiddy, and it was well worth it. Can't find it at the big box store now.

Seasonal, iirc?

Sure, but I was hoping to get a second crack at it.

Straweberry-Lemon...Thick, viscous and practically pulpy

Different strokes and all but this sounds totally vile to me.

Since lockdown with no beer delivery available in MI my beer selection has been pretty minimalist - I think I could survive indefinitely on Two Hearted or 51k IPA, Brewery Vivant Farm Hand, a cheap macro pilsner like modelo or PBR and a fancier lager or pilsner from a craft brewer. I kind of miss shopping for random beers but nowhere near as much as I miss going out for them at bars.

the conclusion of my new-beer crisis in the store was picking up a sixer of two hearted. at least i know exactly what i'm getting.

xpost I mean, it's basically a pulpy shandy, so if you don't like those, yeah, avoid something like it. But it's not bad, for barely beer.

the worst price offender imo is singlecut, who regularly have $22 4-packs that don't even offer a basic description of the beer.

― call all destroyer, Monday, 20 July 2020 02:15 (eight hours ago) link

Agreed. 5 years ago they were a very good craft beer you could get at a distributor and prices weren't insane. When they followed the trend (because that's what they do) of canning IPAs in 16oz cans, their prices became ridiculous.

Btw, I love, love Treehouse beers, they are so well-balanced. The lines are brutal though (or at least they were).

What can any of you tell me about Other Half?

What do you want to know?

I get them on the regular, probably my favorite of the NYC-metro breweries, along with Sand City. Only available from the brewery (i.e. no distribution) but plenty of NY-metro bottle shops will buy from the brewery then sell individual cans for $6-10. IPA-centric to such an extent that they called their infrequently-brewed pilsner, "Crickets," as in no one wants them. Ground zero for the hazebro phenomenon (cf NYT article about private equity bros buying up their beers).

Their typical beer is a DIPA of 8.5%, many with oats, many with lactose (their "Daydream" beers), though very frequently they release TIPAs of 10.5%. These have gotten to be a little much for me.

My favorite beer they brew is one of their OG IPAs called Broccoli, which I believe has Cascade, Simcoe, Mosaic, and Hallertau Blanc, which, at 7.9% is relatively light for them.

Just to add: what do I like about them? Great hop aroma and extraction. Have a certain indefinable flavor across many of their beers that is instantly definable, though can also make them taste samey. I will admit that their IPAs, especially the oat/lactose ones, sometimes tend toward the malty side, which could translate as too sweet/heavy.

Lol @ indefinable flavor being definable. definable = recognizable

I just noticed that they occasionally drop locally is all, and people seem to be excited. There's a place near me that got a few varieties so I was wondering if it was worth seeking out and/or paying, yeah, $18 a 4-pack or whatever.

$18-$20 a 4-pack is what they charge at the brewery depending on the release. Worth giving them a try at least once if they're relatively fresh.

Any particular release? Assuming they're still around they have/had Broccoli, Forever Ever, Small Green Everything and Space Diamond, iirc.

when’s that new dank dipa drop, dawg

Dank DIPA Drop, Dawg would be a good name for a beer.

Ground zero for the hazebro phenomenon

huh, I would consider Tree House the ground zero for hazebroze. Other Half's flagship beer up until a couple years ago was Green Diamonds (which used to be a malt-forward IPA, but it looks like it's been retooled quite a bit since I first had it 5+ years ago).

Other Half reminds me of an East Coast version of Monkish, massive focus on branding and very loyal to trends/hype with reliable beer. I had the Other Half anniversary beer which was a (stick with me) bananas foster inspired BA stout... but it was really well done in that late '10s style long-boil/"thicc", heavily-adjuncted stout.

I bought Small Green Everything and Space Diamond. Prices were at the very very upper end for something not barrel aged or anything. Doubt they can be good or special enough to make me want to pay that again, but I imagine they will be good.

Space Diamonds is one of my favorites. It's all or mostly galaxy hop. As I said above, Broccoli is one of my absolute favorites.

huh, I would consider Tree House the ground zero for hazebroze. Other Half's flagship beer up until a couple years ago was Green Diamonds (which used to be a malt-forward IPA, but it looks like it's been retooled quite a bit since I first had it 5+ years ago).

Other Half reminds me of an East Coast version of Monkish, massive focus on branding and very loyal to trends/hype with reliable beer. I had the Other Half anniversary beer which was a (stick with me) bananas foster inspired BA stout... but it was really well done in that late '10s style long-boil/"thicc", heavily-adjuncted stout.

Yeah, Tree House was definitely a little earlier than Other Half, perhaps along with Hill Farmstead and maybe Tired Hands (milkshake IPA originator). I'm not sure anyone so totally embodies the hazebro mentality as Other Half though (at least the private equity hazebro mentality).

Monkish cans I had a couple years ago were amazing, but I was less wowed when I visited the brewery last fall. Might have been my mood though. I can definitely see the similarities to OH, but OH's philosophy can be summed up with, "more hops".

Has anyone been to Forest & Main in Ambler, PA? One of the coolest breweries around. Two dudes: one brews farmhouse ales (especially barrel-aged saisons); the other brews hand-pulled English-style bitters and stouts in the 3-5% abv range. The latter are some of my favorite beers ever.

i've had some of their stuff - it's good. we're blessed w/ an abundance of good breweries (and great beer distribution has gotten really impressive around here) in PA. have u had bullfrog or pizza boy? both make fantastic memorable sours.

a huge portion of the o.g. treehouse fanbase is like plumbers from northern connecticut, so i feel like true hazebro culture originated elsewhere

hazebro culture: Tree House King Julius b1 (I think?) was the first time I saw people trading fruited lambic for IPAs.

have u had bullfrog or pizza boy? both make fantastic memorable sours.

I have had pizza boy beers, including a great IPA called, "Spandex, Glitter & Ego", at Al's of Hamden. Never had pizza boy sours and never heard of bullfrog.

Pizza boy brewer iirc was bullfrog brewer before starting pizza boy my faves of his are this blueberry sour that is v intense and hoptart which is v hoppy and v sour alas I rarely get over there bc it’s outside Harrisburg and the stuff that comes to Philly are all IPAs I haven’t seen any of their sours on tap here

I will keep an eye out for pizza boy and bullfrog sours. I did order a couple 4-packs of Tired Hands since I am visiting my parents for the first time in 7 months.

One thing that I have thought about is that I love the brewery-direct model that a lot of the Tired Hands, Trillium, Tree House, Other Half, etc. use. Theoretically it's an American version of the English/German model where you drink the local beer that's brewed within a 30-miles and there is variation of styles from region to region. That's why it's a little bit of a bummer that IPAs (first, West Coast, then, NE) have become so ubiquitous because it reduces that regional variation. Regardless, pre-coronavirus, one of my favorite things was to check out the local breweries when traveling.

*30-mile radius

Other Half's Space Diamonds was excellent. Small Green Everything was just OK.

I love it when my favorite but distressingly creative and prolific breweries release something like a maple stout (in summer) or a triple IPA, because that makes it easier to take the week off. Kind of like when the New Yorker drops its fiction double issue.

https://t.co/typBftZB5d pic.twitter.com/HoqbgGVSO1

— Worst Beer Blog (@WorstBeerBlog) August 31, 2020

Today Surly announced they're laying off their entire hospitality staff and closing their taproom. This TOTALLY ISN'T A RESPONSE TO UNIONIZING EFFORTS allegedly, and is due to covid/winter/etc excuses. Super gross imo.

yup, gross

A Surly employee tells @CityPages the company hired about 12 new employees at the brew hall in the last couple weeks, some were still in training when the layoffs/closure announcement came down https://t.co/qSPQb024MC

— Matt DeLong (@mattdelong) September 2, 2020

Are there any notable union shops in the craft beer world? I feel like there must be but I'm drawing a blank. I should probably just google.

That does seem pretty gross and like very suspicious timing. Tried to go there twice when I was in Minneapolis last summer, but the wait was ridiculous both times. It made sense the first time since we stupidly tried during a dinner rush, but the second time was 3:30 on like a Tuesday afternoon and there was still a two plus hour wait.

anchor has a union iirc

While not a union, Modern Times is an employee-owned ESOP cooperative.

^^^I wondered about that, they've done a bunch of collaborations with Fair State

there's a new(ish) Brewer in Rhode Island, FOOLPROOF BREWING. I tried their IPA yesterday and really liked it. Good flavor, not syrupy, not over-hopped.
I love almost everything Foolproof has put out. Peanut Butter Raincloud!

i think they are for sale if you are interested.

makes the choice of twin cities beer even easier

https://fairstate.coop/news/we-are-americas-first-unionized-microbrewery/

One bottle of Sam Adams Utopias at my local, only $249. That seems too expensive for a pleb like me to contemplate.

It would be one thing if that beer tasted good, it is absolutely not worth the price of admission imho.

sam adams makes $250 bottle of beer?

The midwest (or at least Chicago) seems to like its beers on the sweet side, so while I think a lot of breweries are killing it when it comes to NEIPAs, the beers I find to be sometimes just a little too much. I do like it, then, when breweries try to emulate/replicate other regional beers, just to mess with different flavor profiles. Phase Three, for example, recently released an excellent beer called Terrazzo, which (as I understand it, based on the hops used) was kinda its take on a west coast IPA a a Pliny, and this week they released Blue Hour, a "Vermont-style double IPA," so you know what they're going for there. Drinking that one right now, though both were excellent, with more bitterness than a lot of the brews P3 and Hop Butcher (my other local fave these days) have been releasing. Revolution really seems to be doing great here, too, with tons of interesting one-offs and experiments along with their regulars. What a glorious time to drink beer.

A buddy of mine sent me cans of MORE Morever IPA which was very well balanced plus some Revolution Ryeway To Heaven (have yet to open). Thank you Chicago!