Beer in the new era

Last night I drank a Widmeyer Hefeweizen, which I found meh, and a Maresdous 8, which was very tasty in the tradition of tasty Belgian strong ales. A bit on the sweeter side of what I like but not over the line.

Oh, I'll keep an eye out for that. I've been meaning to start exploring Belgian beers. I was putting it off till I'd tried every English stout but I should probably start sooner.

It's almost summer! Time to put the stouts away!

Oh yeah, I had something called Sunset Wheat the other night which tasted like orange and was surprisingly good considering that fact.

nooooooooooooooooo!!!

(I'm assuming you're talking about Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat, which I declared a vendetta against because it is the single least-pleasant beer I have ever had)

When I was in Belgium last week I totally was rocking all the kriek. But not the Hoegaarden (because that's utterly disgusting). I also had a Trappist (Chimay Bleu) which was pretty intense at 9% ABV

sundar iirc you are in OTT or MTL? where are you getting these amazing beers from in whichever of those two cities you're in?

if you are from neither of those places i apologize, i just remember you saying it once or something. i may be making it up.

I'm from Ottawa (and lived in Mtl 2001-2002) but I've been living in Buffalo NY for almost 2 years now.

When I was in Belgium last week I totally was rocking all the kriek. But not the Hoegaarden (because that's utterly disgusting). I also had a Trappist (Chimay Bleu) which was pretty intense at 9% ABV

Where exactly?

BTW if near West Flanders: Should have tried the Brugse Zot!

(I would imagine that at least Mtl should have good places for this? I couldn't help you though. I drank Colt 45 from the dep when I lived there. Ah, callow youth.)

To be fair, I haven't really looked past my local deps, but the few bars I've found that have bigger selections were pretty disappointing... one place that was recommended highly as a place with a bunch of beers had that greek beer whose name I forget as the rarest one. mythos?

i'll have to check ch0whound or something.

Let me know if you find (or have had) Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque. The ratebeer.com folks rank it as the best sweet stout on earth but I haven't found any around here.

yes. mythos. it's not bad!

I think I am going to drop by Dieu du Ciel tonight, actually. Everything they have is actually to a pretty high standard... the reason you probably haven't found it is because they aren't actually bottling any of their brews yet. Apparently they're opening another brewery north of the city though, and they're going to start bottling there! I can't remember where I heard that. I read it today after doing a bit of ch0whound research. I will see if I can talk to the owners or something tonight (I'm going early so hopefully the place will be near empty, I'm not much of one for the crowd there). I've not had the aphrodisiaque, don't know if it's "in season" (they only brew most things a couple times a year), but if they have it I'll give you a review!

Where exactly?

Brussels. and Paris, but that's obviously not in Belgium. May I also suggest that if you do go to France and decide to try the local brews, Kronenbourg tastes like piss. stay away.

I've developed a fondness for Zywiec lately - I don't even usually like lagers much but it's so smooth and tasty. Perfect warm weather beer.

it is. and that red-temperature indicator on the back is key!

König Ludwig Weissbier is majorly tasty, if a bit pricey.

I recently tried this weird Belgian beer, "La Chouffe." Unpasteurized, 8% and quite good. (Although the floaty yeast cultures were somewhat of a turn-off)

Oh yeah, I've had La Chouffe - very nice. There are so many good belgian beers it's amazing.

I just remembered I have a beer question:

In Mexico I tried Bohemia (regular, not dark) and it was fantastic - at the moment I thought it was one of the best beers I'd ever tried.

Recently I tried some Bohemia in a U.S. Mexican place and it was meh. Is it possible I was getting a different "export" version, or that the transit did something to the beer?

Man...I have had so much "skunky" imported beer, could that be it?

On a related note, what do you do when your beer is obviously off and you've already drank a couple? Can you take the rest back to the store.?

;)

Oh yeah, I went back to Dieu, but no Aphro... was available. I didn't get a chance to ask when/if it was coming back... next time! Maybe I'll go tonight, I would like to dig into my new book and my house smells like cat piss and I am not currently poor.

Oh man! I didn't see that you guys were talking about Biere D'Achouffe. I thought it was a Quebecois beer for so long! True story. Apparently the first place they started exporting to was Quebec! It is very delicious. I don't remember finding any little floaters, though...

Response from Dieu du Ciel to two questions I asked via e-mail:

Hello Will,

Thanks you for your comments. It is much appreciated.

1-) We brew the Aphrodisiaque only 2 or 3 times a year. The next batch
will probably be avaible something like next september.

2-) Yes, it's true, we are in the process of building up a bottling
plant in St-Jérôme. There will also be a pub there. We hope to be able
to sell our first bottles at the end of July.

Cheers!
[dude's name removed by me]

currently - harviestoun Butter and Twisted is amazinhg, but we've just come back from North East France (ie very near the Belgian border and lots of Flemish beer-making tradition) and have been loving L'angelus which is beer's swankiest bottle I fear, gold foil and everything. Also Maredsous, Amadeus (lemon flavoured, should be wrong but oh so right) and god's own beer - Orval.

erm that's bitter and twisted of course

When alcohol content is shown on U.S. beer, it is often labelled by weight. Since alcohol is lighter than water, this can leave the mistaken impression that U.S. beer has much less alcohol, on average, than Canadian beer. A 3.2% beer in the U.S. (by weight) would be equivalent to a 4% beer in Canada (by volume).

Wikipedia I LOVE YOU. Did anyone know this? It boggles the mind! WHY?!

let's have a sesh

link?

my girl friend brought me a 6 pack of Hitachino Nest White Ale. Pretty good stuff. nice floral aromas ,perfect for a hot summer day. i think it's kind of pricey though

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/409121525_01915ec7ca.jpg

link, sorry: Canadian Beer

Apparently they have Aphrodisiaque in now. And I'm destitute poor and going away for the weekend! NOOOOO!

Recommend some beer. Not too heavy, not too wheaty, crisp and refreshing in the style of Tsing Tsao or similar.

Also recommend some beers like Paulaner or the white Kronenberg with the fruity taste whose name escapes me.

I am in the mood for trying different beers.

Dude, Zywiec

(re: light, crisp, refreshing, not wheaty)

I was at the nashville beer fest and the best thing there was a homebrewed bock that they ran out of by my second go-round. After a while though all you care about is that the beer is cold, because it's nearly august, and you're outdoors in nashville.

I think I might have talked my dad into getting a 30-gallon kit from Boot Lager. (ha ha, "boot lager")

I also finally made myself a michelada with a little kosher salt on top of a can of tecate with a lime in it. not half bad, if you don't mind a bit of foamy foam foam.

Sundar, have you tried Flying Bison? I can't quite remember which bars serve it (I think the Ulrich's, but they have closed, I think). I miss it dearly.

I swore by Aviator Red (which you can get at Wegman's) for a while. I still think it's good but have gone off it a bit. Are there other good FB beers?

I wanted to make it to Dieu du Ciel when I visited Mtl earlier in the month but couldn't make it. Drank a lot of St-Ambroise (and some nice micro wheats) instead.

They have seasonal beers (which I can remember the name of), that friends would bring me in growlers. I never managed to locate the brewery, which apparently is on the West Side (on Niagara, maybe?). Anyway, I remember enjoying the summer and winter ales quite a bit.

Available in Wegmans!? Ahh! This was not so when I lived there! I love you, Wegmans!

"Dude, Zywiec"

One of the benefits of my area of London filling up with large numbers of young eastern Europeans is the availablity in the cornershops of excellent Polish beers at ridiculously cheap prices.

Zywiec is one of the better ones, at about £1 a bottle. The dark lagers especailly are a revelation.

Ronan WTF?? This is truly a new era for you!

Saku from Estonia is pretty good

Saku or Saku Kuld, anyway. The dark variety has that soy saucey aftertaste I can't get with.

Ronan WTF?? This is truly a new era for you!

is this a joke? heh...I don't get it if so. is it that unusual that I ask about trying new beers?

I had a Saku Porter that had a weird aftertaste, that was probably the same one.

Wheats: Last night I was drinking Sprecher Hefe Weiss, which was all right.
Non-Wheats: Last night I was also drinking New Holland Mad Hatter, which was goddamn awesome.

I guess I am in the dark :/ I thought you were still teetotalling because of your stuffed-upedness-in-the-cabesa.

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!

Yeah, the old brewer from MORE moved on to found Phase Three, I think, but I've heard that More has kept it together in his wake. Revolution's barrel aged stouts are all great, btw, no stinkers.

IIRC that was the brewer who was early on brewing thiccc stouts at RAR before getting poached to More?

i’ve got a local snooty beer bar with one of those can machines, it’s great. never seen them before! whatever they’ve got on tap that you want, they will put in a can, for about a pound cheaper than you’d pay to sit in. by the time i get home the condensation on the can has eroded whatever they’ve written on the can do i never remember what one bought and which ones i should buy again.

Man, Ryeway is so good. Just saying.

Also, keep not buying Surly if it's an issue where you are.

sam adams makes $250 bottle of beer?

It’s almost more of a spirit. Uncarbonated, served ambient temperature, close to 30% abv, and it ages well- even after opening. When I have a bottle in the house, I keep it tucked away and bring it out for special occasions or sharing a nip with friends. It lasts for months or even years that way, and it’s a delight to the very end. But, full disclosure, I work for the company.