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.

That is such a nice area, shame there are so many nuts around

this place is like 10 minutes from me, their beer is pretty ubiquitous in this part of mass and is usually a decent option on tap: http://wormtownbrewery.com/combatting-harassment-in-the-workplace/

kind of sucks that "owners taking a step back" means ownership still profiting from the work of everyone else with the punishment of not being able to get loaded for free in the taproom.

Xpost I spoke too soon, apparently that guy's lefty views literally got him run out of town!

Gordan @Lightfoot365 the workers on The Edmund Fitzgerald were United Steelworkers from @usw5000. @GLBC_Cleveland makes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter and the brewery workers are building a union with the USW now! Please RT to support them and tell Great Lakes: respect their rights! pic.twitter.com/T5aK8h9GlR

— United Steelworkers (@steelworkers) July 12, 2021

Mikkeller Raspberry Blush. A Berliner Weisse brewed with raspberry and coffee. Get it. Way better than it sounds.

I know IPAs are no longer cool and we're all supposed to hate hop bombs, but I still love 'em (especially in the summer) and I continue to be impressed with every beer I try from Hop Butcher.

What's cool now?

I don't really follow the scene anymore and just buy great IPAs online that I used to have to hunt around for.

Most everything from Hop Butcher tastes more or less the same, and it's all delicious. Lately I've been loving everything from Revolution, new or not. Their session sour box has been the gift that keeps on giving this summer.

What's cool now?

I was being a little facetious and flip, but it seems like every few weeks there's a beer twitter thing that kicks off with "here's why IPAs are actually terrible" or IPAs being the butt of jokes.

I actually taste more variety in Hop Butcher's offerings, at least compared to Three Floyd's (I love them, but it is absolutely valid that a lot of their hoppier offerings all taste kinda the same).

IPAs are the best, and one of my favorite things about them is that after a steady run of IPAs, or DIPAs, or whatever else you might be drinking that month, if you need a palate break, a solid pilsner or lager really hits the spot. Then it's back to the hoppy stuff.

The trendy stuff I've most soured on, honestly, is barrel aged stuff, not because it's bad, but because I just have so much trouble putting it away, let alone when the weather is warm.

Yeah, I love a good DIPA, I'm a sucker for good hazy IPAs too. Yes, I've had absolutely terrible versions of both, but that doesn't stop me from trying new ones and finding lots to love.

I haven't had anything barrel aged since winter, but I did buy a Surly barrel aged Darkness when I was in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Pretty much my favorite beers now are a hazy single IPA of about 6%. I've nearly lost my ability/desire to drink any beer over 8.5%

I'd gotten so used to the high ABVs that I started considering 8 or so pretty standard. That said, I'm amazed how drinkable some of these beers are in the 8-10% range. Dangerous.

Oh, they are delicious going down. I just can't handle ABV anymore. Would rather be able to slowly drink beers all night and not die.

I'm in MA for a wedding. Going to Treehouse tomorrow I guess? What's good here these days?

fun! what's your travel radius/timeframe?

xp Pretty much everything IPA. Be prepared to wait in line ime.

cad probably has the current dope.

treehouse has moved to an all-online ordering process and it's solved a lot of the line issues. if you're buying cans i'd recommend placing an order in advance. when you get there someone will usually take your can order # before you get to the bar and they will prep it while you're enjoying beer/coffee/seltzer.

woah

Staying not quite on the Cape, just before the bridge. There's a chance of driving to Gloucester for a day trip, too.

gotcha. went to a lovely wedding in bourne a few years ago. guessing you are going to the tree house sandwich outpost in that case? charlton is a bit of a haul.

things that are not entirely off the path if you trek to gloucester:

- trillium in canton for aggressive IPAs and stouts plus pricey food in a former corporate office
- vitamin sea in weymouth for all kinds of stuff in a small commercial building with bad parking
- notch in salem for fantastic european low-ABV stuff in a serene taproom near water

I don't post often about beer anymore, but tonight I had some St. Bernardus Tokyo, and damn, it was SO good. Beautiful can too.

Chicagoans, you might want to check this out:

So. What about this beer? It’s a blend of 70% Doppelbock Lager (think Metro) and 25% Native Fermented Flemish Style Ale aged in Calvados Foedres for 1 year with pressed apples & 5% American Wild Ale aged in wine barrels for 3 years with Cabernet Franc grape must (think Off Color) pic.twitter.com/0HSLinzU2v

— Off Color Brewing (@OffcolorBrewing) November 2, 2021

All of this was then refermented with Balaton cherries and wild yeasts before being aged in a mix of 2nd use bourbon barrels & Pomegranate Fox barrels for an additional 3 months (both of us). Phew. Do we have any characters left? We do? Awesome. We’ll see you at Metro on the 11th pic.twitter.com/XHbaegHmMy

— Off Color Brewing (@OffcolorBrewing) November 2, 2021

A great friend of mine orchestrated this beer with Metro and Off Color's help. I so wish I could be at the unveiling, but I can't, so go in my stead if you can and say hi to Marty.

Thanks for the heads-up -- hope to try this!

It's getting to be silly season in Chicago, and the compulsive beer hoarder in me is having trouble saying no. I just got another 4-pack of Revolution's Deth by Cherries that I found, because it was awesome and who knows when they might brew it next, and a 6 pack of Stone's Tres Leches Xocoveza, which is the usually stout plus ... other stuff. On the way back from Milwaukee last week I stocked up on Spotted Cow and a bunch of other fruity New Glarus stuff. And meanwhile, Hop Butcher continues to release amazing stuff every week. I had to tell my wife to make me promise no more beer buying for a couple of months ... after next week, when I hope to snag a pack of Vanilla Deth. I will hold true to my promise of last to skip Bourbon County Stout this year, though, no matter how tempting it may seem when the hype boils over.

I hope that some of the Deths make it up this way (I'm living in SE WI now fwiw)

Does it usually? I think Revolution has a pretty wide distribution range.

I've only had the Cafe Deth, would love to try these others.

I love Cafe Deth and Deth by Cherries, but I'm so exhausted at the thought of chasing any of these down. If they happen to be on the shelves, cool, if not, whatever.

I've seen Revolution IPAs at like Woodman's and some other stores, but haven't seen any of their other offerings around. Then again I've only been here a few months.

They tend to linger a little, at least some of them. I love that they are in 12oz cans.

Oh my god Larry Bell sold Bells.

Holy shit. https://t.co/15uxzcb1Hj

— Guys Drinking Beer (@guysdrinkinbeer) November 10, 2021

oof

Wow, did not see that coming.

Backlash against Goose Island this year is palpable. Anecdotally, people seem to be sick of the high prices, and particularly the sense of hyped false scarcity that eventually gives way to the realization that with the exception of a few special variants their overpriced barrel aged beers often sit on the shelves for months and months. That's what happens when the big corporation that buys the company loses sight of what made the company worthwhile to begin with and focuses too much on flooding the market, strong-arming small companies (who themselves have begin to push back), and focusing on big chains like Jewel and Target and for that matter Binny's. Dunno if the story was posted, but some craft shops are just refusing to stock Goose Island at all.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/drink/ct-food-chicago-beer-stores-skipping-bourbon-county-stout-goose-island-20211122-7fr5t65qenhtzcoeho3434yhjm-story.html

I had the cola variant, it was weirdly okay. $24 a pop is too much though.

Not all the BCS sits on the shelves. I went to Woodman's, which is as big as any Jewels or Mariano's if not bigger, and the dude at the desk said their entire allotment sold in a day. Thankfully there was some Revo Straitjacket to soothe my barrel aged hankering.

It's still not that easy to get hold of here in the UK and generates some minor degree of fuss when it does make it over via Goose Island's UK presence or Beer Hawk (AB InBev owned UK online beer shop). I admit I'm aiming to buy some when the 2021 appears in the next week or two.

Don't get me wrong, it's still popular. But I also see it sitting on the shelves for months and months. Same with KBS and a couple of other once-coveted barrel-aged offerings. Just a few weeks ago I was able to get another 4-pack of Revolutions's Deth by Cherries, which was one of my favorite variants (is that word tainted now?) from 2020. Not by hunting for it or anything, just finding it where it usually would be at the usual Binny's. It's been sitting in the same place on the same shelf since last year.

Now, top-tier bourbon, pretty much anything with an age statement or pedigree, that stuff has not been able to keep up with demand.

For bottling spirits, there has also been a glass shortage.

Josh Noel, in another Chicago Trib article, ranked this year's BCS-es and ranked the basic bottling #1. Which is nice, since that's the easiest one to find.

I only had Revolution's main Cafe Deth but loved that. Also happened to have two others recently, Pipeworks' Rudolph vs. Unicorn ("peppermint bark" imperial stout) and Off Color's Holiday Fatigure (brewed with orange, pink peppercorns, and cloves). Loved them both, though I'm just a casual beer person.

Want to pick up some Death By Coconut from Oskar Blues while it's in season. Was a total epiphany first time I had it.

I like that beer a lot. Want to say it got a label redesign relatively recently, so I think I've walked by it a bunch without realizing it was there.

Picked up a four-pack of something today and saw a 4-pack of Half Acre's Benthic (bourbon barrel aged with coffee and coconut) marked at $48 on the shelf. And that's not the store gouging, either. I dunno, given even the priciest Revolution variant is more than $10 cheaper for a 4-pack I just can't pull the trigger on close to $50 for this. $12 is a lot for 12oz.

Fucked up (in an OK way) ordering a Maine “Lunch” not realizing it was $11 for a 14 oz. pour, and it felt like a bookend to Pliny The Younger. Loved it.

I'm drinking this stuff called Pecan Pie Mind Over Matter from Magnify, which is out of character for me as I don't typically buy these desserty beers. It's ok. It reminds me a little of rum and coke somehow, but not as nasty. Definitely sugary tasting, not sure why I would have expected otherwise.

can i ask how you came to possess this beverage that you weren't predisposed to like and as a result are not really liking?

I went to a local place I like and just said "what do you have right now that's interesting" and got a few different single cans. The last one I drank from the batch was a Grimm dunkel, which I really enjoyed.

Just heard about this. Various Oskar Blues beers and Cigar City Jai Alai are regulars with me.

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/monster-beverages-buys-canarchy-craft-beer-breweries

"When did getting grabbing a beer become so complicated?"

With the caveat that I know next to nothing about brewing beer, there is little that amazes me more than when a brewery is able to create a delicious high ABV beer that totally disguises the alcohol level. Like, barrel aged stouts and the like play up the ABV, pushing the barrel, the whiskey hints, that sort of thing. But I'm drinking an absolutely delicious Hop Butcher triple IPA (tasting notes are "juicy peaches, fresh citrus and ripe tropical") and it is so smooth my wife guessed it was 4.5% when it's actually 10.5% (!).

In perhaps the clearest expression of BCBS "whale" decline I have personally experienced, today I bought a bottle of Double Barrel 2021 for something like $20 under MSRP and there were several more bottles on the shelf.