Beer in the new era

almanac's a good one. they have tasting rooms in the mission and in alameda.

Almanac is a hard pass from me, all their beers taste the same.

I like the Farmer's Reserve series from them (but haven't had one in an age). An IPA I had at the taproom was good but not great.

East coast vs West coast FIGHT!

I know I've talked about Blue Owl sour beers a lot, but today I got to visit the brewery and stock up on a whole assortment of sour beers. Was impressed with how busy they were on a Saturday afternoon. Hopefully someday they'll be able to extend their reach beyond Austin because their beer is fantastic.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/od1ssvofhqtz7ib/20180714_162524.jpg?dl=0

Huh, never even heard of them, will keep an eye out. When I was in Austin, I was loving fresh cans of Live Oak Hefe/Pils everywhere, and Jester King for the more serious beer nerd adventure.

love the logo.

The range of sour beer varieties these guys brew up is kind of crazy. There was a bunch of stuff I decided not to buy today because it was feeling like too much.

Got the rhubarb compote sour from evil twin, like an alcoholic version of the rhubarb compote my grandmother used to make

Mmm, that sounds like my jam

Drinking this tonight. What a beer world we live in.

http://a67.tinypic.com/2igygyw.jpg

Is it good? Sounds a little nutso.

My wife has had two (2) pickle beers out west. Tastes like ... pickle beer.

Even Cel-Rey is tough to stomach. Not sure about pickles ... though it would probably go well with potato products

Bartender at Deschutes said most don't make it past trying a sample. But my weird wife went back for more!

What to drink in Cambridge MA? Or Boston proper I guess, though I may not make it that far.

I remember a big 2 story beer hall there with a massive amount of taps but can’t remember the name

I defer to CAD, but in the meantime:

Smoke Shop BBQ https://untappd.com/v/smoke-shop-bbq/4943177
Area Four http://areafour.com/locations/kendall-square/
Russel House https://russellhousecambridge.com/menus/#beer
Five Horse https://www.fivehorsestavern.com/somerville/#home-menu-6

you can stick to cambridge and be perfectly happy, here's a quick list.

taprooms:

cambridge brewing co. - o.g. brewpub, makes some interesting wild ales and good stuff across the board
lamplighter brewing co. - cool new brewery/taproom with n.e. ipas and a decent variety of other stuff
aeronaut brewing - technically right over the somerville line but close enough to count...good beer, slightly over-the-top camberville scene, can be fun at times.
remnant brewing - also in somerville, very very new taproom that's got a great space and is flying a little under the radar (or at least it was a month ago, maybe not anymore)

bars:

lord hobo - still offers a great taplist beyond the average-ish lord hobo brewing offerings.
5 horses - deeper in somerville but my go-to spot when i'm back in my old neighborhood
bukowski tavern if you're in inman sq. proper
the 2-story bar calstars is thinking of is probably meadhall....if i were in that neighborhood i'd just go to CBC but it does have a huge variety.
russell house is a great all-purpose gastropub

finally here are two more under the radar places i couldn't not recommend:

green st. - short but good beer list, amazing cheap cocktails, good food, cozy.
shay's pub - completely regressive beer list but my favorite bar in the city. minimally changed since the 90s and may it never change more. if you're there on saturday afternoon my pal chris will be playing pavement and silkworm and shit like that, he's the man.

yeah mead hall, that’s it.

Bukowski has a fantastic beer selection

I just bookmarked all of CAD's recommendations.

Is there any place in the city to readily drink Trillium or do you have to go out to Canton to get on-premise pours/tasters?

there's a handful of places that technically carry trill but ime it's usually just a single tap at best.....they are currently doing a summer beer garden in a great location on the greenway and i think they'll having a roving winter taproom going forward (they did one in the less-visited roslindale neighborhood this past winter but per my inside info they're not going back there). they also have a big new space opening in fort point probably later this year, rock-throwing distance from their original location, so they'll have a permanent city taproom. i welcome this development since canton is a pain in the ass.

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I am tentative for a conference in the Fall pending some other travel... Will be calling you out if it goes through!

oh sweet, let's hang if you make it out here

Bit of a hopeful punt, but anyone know of any good bars/taprooms in Zurich?

xps thanks! I will endeavour to drink as much as possible during my 3.5 day work visit

can't think of anything else to do on a work trip. lmk if you end up digging any of those places or find anyplace else you like.

Exclusive for YOU: @GABF her-story in the making. 2018 will be 1st time since 2002 American IPA is no longer the top entered #beer style. How’s that for a juicy year-one showing? https://t.co/OfEE4zzBoZ

— Julia Herz (@HerzMuses) August 9, 2018

Over 700 hazy IPA’s at GABF this year.

I ain’t complaining, but it is fascinating.

Hazy IPAs destroy me

yeah I'm not really into them

I could drink Trillium & Hill Farmstead haze all day, but there are so many terrible ones.

My wife's theory is that their color makes them very Instagramable, which I guess is a thing.

By the way, some random beer data by way of her as well (she works with MillerCoors). Apparently legal pot has depressed beer sales in states where available. Apparently young people today prefer spirits over beer. Apparently younger people like to hang in groups at home rather than go out to bars. Apparently the craft beer market is (duh) pretty saturated.

I try them all that are released locally, many are good. Some are ok. Some are bad.

Only instagramable with a boss pour.

I'm not sure I've had any NEIPAs from bigger breweries, are they any good? Like Hazy Little Thing from Sierra Nevada?

Btw, on my west coast trip I hit Deschutes (which is a nice space) and Crux (which had some really interesting beers) in Bend, and Russian River, in Santa Rosa. I'd had Pliny before, and it's good, but I feel very lucky to live in a city that gets Ninja Vs. Unicorn.

they're pretty forgettable. i've had hazy little thing and couldn't tell you anything about it.

They don’t compare with a fresh local. I don’t think anything with a widespread distribution is going to compete with the best locals.

my in-laws are visiting and the only thing that makes it palatable is that they brought some beers from IL inc ninja vs unicorn and this beer i've never had before but is delicious + refreshing snaggle tooth bandana

I like Hazy Little Thing but mostly because it's cheap (was going for about $8 6-pack).

Well, it's that time of the year again: https://program.greattaste.org/

since the entire province of bc is going up in flames i guess this is a good time to rank some of bc's best beers, i've been to about a dozen breweries here so far and have tried all types of brewskies

one thing to note is that beers here tend to be extremely mild compared to the us and a lot of pubs/restaurants/bars don't even show abv numbers

the mild thing goes both ways -- sometimes it's good if it's a heavy beer like a stout, because it doesn't mess you up so much and you can enjoy it a bit more; but lighter or hoppy beers tend to be so mild it borderlines on lager or pilsner

i never used to like pilsners, but i've grown to like them here because bc actually makes decent pilsners

anyway here we go (ranked)

brassneck geezer (porter)
brassneck staircase hibiscus wit
brassneck changeling raspberry (american wild ale)

postmark juicy pale ale
postmark stout

luppolo tart wild with apricot
luppolo oatmeal stout

parallel 49 cowboy crusher (session ipa)

bomber park life passionfruit ale

backcountry widowmaker ipa

doan's rye stout

yellow dog high five hazy ipa
yellow dog shake a paw smoked porter

moody ales affable ipa

33 acres of darkness (schwarzbier)
33 acres of ocean (american pale ale)

best breweries (ranked)

brassneck (tie)
postmark (tie)
luppolo
parallel 49 (it gets a lot of hate from the hipsters who chilled there before it got big)
yellow dog

like in most cities, lots and lots of duds, i have lined up another 5 breweries in the next few weeks, then probably heading to the island to check out the scene over there

Of that list I've only had 5 beers from Brassneck & Parallel 49 and all were fair to below-average in my opinion (including the Changeling Raspberry which always seems to be on-tap at the Alibi Room).

I did find a raw bar in Kits that had Cantillon Iris on tap which made me forget all the mediocre local brews.

brassneck changes their beers like almost every week

i go there often

they bring back the raspberry changeling because it's so popular though

if i rate them against us beers, i think they're all pretty average though

i find that the popular beers are all bad weirdly enough

so i have to pick wisely or just keep going back til i find the right one

but ya, check out postmark, but i can't see a huge difference between postmark and brassneck

p49 has a huge selection tho

I visited Brassneck for the first time recently and tried 8 beers (2 flights of 4) and while they were all enjoyable to some degree, there wasn't one that I would take the trouble to go back for.

For me the most consistently good brewery around here is Dageraad, but that may just be because I love Belgian(-style) beer. Their Lake City Farmhouse is back on the market now and it is delicious stuff.

Another favourite is Four Winds, but while they hit some high highs they have also had numerous duds or average beers. Many of their special releases have been excellent... That said, the most recent one, "Meli", was pretty bad. They have good food at their tasting room.

Other worthwhile breweries in the region: Steel and Oak, Twin Sails (right next door to Yellow Dog), Strange Fellows.

Worst I've experienced in the area is Fuggles and Warlock. I've tried 7 or 8 of their beers and they were all disgusting except for the Yuzu Berliner Weisse which was at least drinkable.

Oh and Field House is worthwhile too but further afield.