Beer in the new era

Oof

http://a63.tinypic.com/2zpty14.jpg

Rolling into my local today

get in ma bellay

https://thirdcoastreview.com/2018/11/19/draft-bcbs-preview/

Beer budget is busted for this month. November’s are rough.

So is your grammar
But I hear you
The cheapest shit in my local is $7 per

Was seeing BCBS all over the place for weeks last year, including some variants, let's see if 2018 is a repeat. It's a great beer but I don't need more of it.

Blue Cross Blue Shield?

Beer is my health provider.

https://i.imgur.com/OAKrsHe.jpg

Ha, what a dick. I had a pour of Bourbon County Vanilla last night. Was ... sweeeeeeet.

I’ve had reg, coffee barleywine, midnight orange and bramble so far. Midnight orange is my favorite, but I love chocolate orange candy. Now it is in beer form.

My allotment included everything but Reserve, not sure I’ll get to taste that anytime soon, quantities seem low.

There are actually a couple of variants avalable here in Mpls, to my surprise. I went for wheatwine over the orange, there was a two bottle limit.

anyone else just kind of... lose their taste for beer? i still drink it but tbh only really light stuff like high life or pbr which i appreciate for how unobtrusive they are. partly it is a money issue, but that too, spending that much more money on craft beer just ultimately wasn't feeling worth it even though i really felt it was for about 15 years. when i spend money on alcohol now it's mostly cider, and there are some really good ones available now. i can't imagine wanting to order a beer over a good cider right now.

Not a damn bit tbh

I've lost most of the taste for fruit/chocolate/adjunct-of-the-day beers, including coffee stouts, which I used to like. I've also developed a taste for lager styles over the stronger IPAs I used to like, but I'll still go for bourbon barrel aged beers, ambers, and lighter IPAs.

I bought two regular BCBS and one one of the Wheatwine variant today, don't know when I'll try them.

At Whole Foods, and they were sitting out with the other beer, so I guess the bloom is off the rose. The guy there did say the other ones went fast the first day. I wanted to try a Reserve.

I have developed a taste for craft brewed pilsners though

Aren't you in LA? I tried the Iron Triangle lager and it's really good, as is MacLoud's Van Ice.

i think beer contains enough multitudes that it's hard to completely lose one's taste for it. when i'm in doubt i just go back to some classics and do a little reset.

Nickn i split my time between LA and Vancouver, Canada

I never gave craft pilsners or lagers a chance but i vaguely remember us liking similar beers so I’ll check out macloud’swhen I’m in town in a few weeks!

drinking my first sierra nevada celebration of the year which is as good a reset beer as i can think of

moving to a new city last year was a big help in rekindling my interest in beer, but I am drinking a lot less overall because of work

craft pilsners (& other lagers) otm, but I still drink APAs & IPAs most frequently

I think what I really lost interest in was the hunt for white whalez etc

Still crave it, drink a wide variety, but it’s all low effort.

I still usually take 1 to 2 months off a year from drinking though. Usually a reset after the holidays. I didn’t drink for 97 days straight this year.

I did not love Celebration this year compared to other fresh hop releases....

...that said, I'm super stoked on the upcoming Resilience IPA that 1,800 (!!!) other breweries will be brewing with Sierra Nevada, all proceeds going to benefit victims of the Camp Fire.

that is a very cool thing

Currently nursing a BCS regular because it's been a long day

I don't feel caught up in pursuing new things all the time, and have gotten kind of burnt out on IPAs (so I only have them like half the time now instead of 80%). Also way more into barrel aged anything (Founder's scotch and old ales for example), and much more likely to buy and enjoy pilsners and lagers, either american craft ones or German imports.

Done running around and waiting in line for beers, not that I really did much of it, because there are sooooo many good beers I can find on even regular grocery store shelves these days.

I've found my tastes in the last several months to be veering away from the strong stuff, like double IPAs and barrel aged anything. It's just too much: too bitter, too sweet, too strong, too rich. Sometimes it's a struggle to finish a glass. I'd rather drink bourbon, especially in the colder weather. But when in doubt when I'm out and about I'm almost always OK with a pale ale or IPAs, interesting enough to stand up to most food but not total pallet wreckers, and rarely terrible.

I had a taster of a scotch barrel aged (Laphroaig) stout at MacLoud's that I didn't really like, just that that peaty a scotch has no business housing a beer, I guess. They had a bourbon barrel stout many months ago that was excellent, but that doesn't happen very often.

And I've never waited in line for a beer, but even having to ask at a counter seems like too much effort now. That said, I'll probably ask at Bevmo and Total Wine for the BCBS Reserve tomorrow to see if they have any.

I've felt a bit jaded recently. I sought out a lovely beer shop (Beer Merchant, natch) in Sussex recently and spent the requisite £30 on 8 beers and felt a bit stiffed. It's like vinyl in that the prices are visibly creeping up as more beards come on board. I'm glad the market is doing so well, I just find myself increasingly underwhelmed at the beer and irritated at the pricing.

Yeah, pricing is fuckin' wacky. The other day I noticed a craft beer that I have seen for $5 at one store listed at $10 at another. No difference in freshness or anything else.

I think I've posted before but freshness is what drives most of my purchases these days, insomuch as most breweries are putting packaging date stamps on their products these days. The difference between two weeks and six weeks, depending on the style, has been a dealmaker/breaker.

Yeah for ipa’s/dipa’s freshness is definitely a factor

My local has BBA Expedition Stout on draft, it's a very nice alternative to Bourbon County. Actually quite hoppy!

god damn I wish I still lived in the UP

http://www.upperhandbrewery.com/sisu-stout-series/

I've shared & traded beers with this guy:

https://oct.co/essays/having-beer-with-will-oldham-interview

happy 85th birthday, 21st amendment!

The numbers have been crunched and there's a new city atop the list of "most breweries in the United States."

Chicago. https://t.co/T6Q2ktB0yu pic.twitter.com/7GoKSzpBbx

— Josh Noel (@hopnotes) December 11, 2018

I can believe it!

I remember reading somewhere that Wisconsin is home to something like 7 of the 10 biggest (most) drinking cities in America.

I really wanted to respond to that tweet with "OK, now how many of them are 'good'?" but I figured it was too snarky.

pipeworks just started distributing in philly!

“I don’t think Chicago is thought of with places like Seattle or Portland,” Watson said.

I don't think Seattle is frankly that impressive (but that's changing very rapidly of late), but Portland is an absolute mind-fuck how much good to great beer is everywhere.

Also, agreed on needing to see a "quality versus quantity" study, rural Vermont would probably walk this.

b-b-b-but that said, I had an amazing time in Chicago... although if John Laffler ever asks if you want to see his bourbon library, you're probably better off declining and taking a taxi home.

my take on chicago is that people there really like drinking

I cannot believe that BCBS release keeps growing and growing. Every Thanksgiving I'm out at my mom's house, a few hours outside the Chicago limits. For the past three or four years, I usually roll into the liquor store in the nearby town of 7000 tat opening and walk out in five minutes with a handful of variants. This year I did the same, but there was already 75 people in line, 20 of which had camped out overnight in the store parking lot. I still only had to wait in line like 45 minutes and got every single variant but Prop's, but I think I'm done with these release day things. Just too much.

This year's Prop is great. Vanilla is fine, but a step down from Vanilla Rye. The Wheat Wine was nice (and still sitting on shelves).

Wheat Wine being $24.95 at my local is the only reason it's still sitting on shelves, because I can't justify buying it all.

I think I like the barley/wheat wine variants better than the stouts tbh. That goes for most BBA beers.

Yeah, it was an expensive day.

Forgotten context in my last post - in 2017 when I showed up five minutes after opening, there were 4 people there buying BCBS. So jumping to 75 people in line with camping out in one year that far out from the city seems particularly crazy.