Beer in the new era

the Michigan beer scene is so bad about this, remember this whole shitshow? https://www.metrotimes.com/table-and-bar/archives/2019/02/13/great-lakes-brewing-news-sexist-parody-starts-brouhaha

probably all beer scenes tbh smh

Lolled hard here

I can't wait for the upcoming release of Founders' I Don't Know If It's Black Ale

— cmitown ... but spooky 👻 (@cmitown) October 22, 2019

Was in the store and came across Revolution's latest annual fruity barrel aged stout, Deth by Plums. I'm sure it's good, but I think it was $36 for a 4-pack of 12oz cans, and I just couldn't do it.

Yo, Twin Citians: Pryes' Miraculum IPA w/ Blood Orange is my new favorite beer of the season, just right for Christmastime.

Anyone else see that Ballast Point, which literally sold for a billion dollars a few years back, just got bought by a tiny Chicago hobby brewery for what I assume was a pittance?

excited to try some 3 Floyds Alpha Klaus my buddy is bring me this weekend

Alpha Klaus is one of my favorite porters ever.

I haven't had any Pyres besides their dry stout, which is nice. Will keep an eye out for the blood orange. If it's on draft at my local, even better.

Lately I've been hooked on Central Waters' brut pilsner, and not only because it's on mega sale at my favorite store for what seems like forever.

Anyone else see that Ballast Point, which literally sold for a billion dollars a few years back, just got bought by a tiny Chicago hobby brewery for what I assume was a pittance?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, December 11, 2019 5:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

supposedly $50-$80M. there's wine money behind it.

Yeah, I read that, and there is bigger money behind it. When I read that Kings and Convicts brewery had an annual output in the hundreds of barrels (iirc), before knowing anything else, I was totally o_O.

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/ballast-point-sold-kings-convicts-wine-group

I bought a bottle of Pliny the Elder; I remember walking miles across San Francisco years ago to the one place that had it on tap, and buying a bottle once in Portland because you were limited to only one at a time. But there was a ton of it at a shitty strip mall liquor store in San Diego today. Also there seem to be a ton of 22s here which for some reason isn’t a thing I ever see in Michigan and I have no idea why.

What’s good in San Diego? I know Stone and whatever Ballast Point is now are here but there seem to be a lot of other brewers around as well.

Modern Times is a good place that does many styles of beer very well.

A guy at my local liquor shop told me Russian River Brewing expanded their distribution this year. I saw a bunch of their beers including Pliny at a popular local (east bay area) grocery store the other day. It's nice to see it around. It's surprisingly inexpensive for the reputation it has and it is a pretty delicious beer imho.

If you ever get up to Windsor (Sonoma County), you can see why/how they've been able to increase their distribution. Good food and great location as well.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-12/ballast-point-rise-fall-constellation-kings-convicts

90%+ loss of valuation in 4 years pretty much tells you all you need to know. Insane.

re: San Diego, have been wanting to pilgrimage for Stone and Black Plague, so might check the latter. Always curious re: the most known versus the lesser hidden gems in each region. Like for Seattle, would recommend Holy Mountain, Reubens, Dirty Couch, Urban Family, Cloudburst in addition to the more obvious ones.

i'm very interested in what happens to ballast point from here. the guys who bought it do not seem like idiots but this industry makes smart people dumb and every common-sense bone in my body says this is not the time to try to figure out a national craft beer brand with a fading reputation.

Thread of gold

Stay tuned for this up and coming brewery pic.twitter.com/Pt3x6XKGzG

— Worst Beer Blog (@WorstBeerBlog) December 15, 2019

The logo of this place is perfectly awful

Don't need to click on that to realize that finally, we're get an aggressively right wing, overtly racist brewery. 'Bout time, right? Make beer great again!

So Founders is adjusting their PR take?

Big flight delay --> stuck in SF --> beers at Toronado

I've heard about that place, any good?

Mikkeller in SF is great. So is Cellarmaker if you like IPAs.

Xp yes, cool place with plenty of stuff to try including a crazy rare beer list. Cash only though.

That’s the place I walked miles to get a Pliny at

re Pliny, better distro makes sense, my local pub has it on tap rn and I was initially surprised

'sometimes when i'm drinking narragansett, I feel like it has a little too much flavor'
WHAT DAT?

Someone who'd really rather be drinking Bud?

Toronado was great. Went there when I was in SF specifically to get Pliny on tap since a trip to Russian River wasn't going to be in the cards. Tons of other great stuff to be had and the vibe was nowhere near as tech-broey as some of the other bars we hit up.

Someone who'd really rather be drinking Bud?

"Bud"? Is that one of those new THC infused IPAs?

Is CBS the fastest "white whale" to "clearance aisle at Target" beer we've seen? What a world we live in.

Just back from two-ish weeks in New Zealand (see flight delays post above). Pretty vibrant craft scene there, favorites were Emerson's, Good George and Panhead.

Seeing months old Founders and Lagunitas IPAs on the store shelves there was pretty lol.

i knew a woman who literally followed a delivery truck around cambridge mass c. 2013 so she could buy as much as possible of the annual release of KBS (not even CBS!), a beer that is now available year-round in my whole foods.

Wasn't (and isn't) KBS rarer than CBS?

never was around here....we got KBS once a year (in march iirc) and went years in between seeing CBS outside of a few draft accounts.

Hmm, I thought CBS was just a coffee stout, googling shows it's Canadian whiskey/maple syrup barrel aged. Seems like I've been seeing CBS on the shelves in large quantities for a few years now.

I think they must have upped KBS and CBS production significantly, because they linger. There's also a coffee KBS now, I saw.

Anyone else feel like bourbon barrel stouts do uniquely bad things to them? I drank a sixpoint master blend the other night and felt like shit for two days.

i barely fuck with em anymore, same for a lot of guys i know. not only are they very likely to wreck you, but the flavor profile has become unappealing. there are old bottles of bourbon county in my basement that i look at w/dread.

I like them, but I think the key is to split one with someone and drink them like you might drink, I dunno, bourbon. Share them, and smaller pours, and you (and they) are good.

Just had my first beer with cryo hops. Tasted like beer.

Xp yeah it wrecked me in this unique way that a similar amount of some other 13% alcohol beverage would not. It also does taste a little odd to me, syrupy and sort of somewhere in between cola/dr pepper/very sweet coffee.

https://media.giphy.com/media/JRsY1oIVA7IetTkKVO/giphy.gif

My daughter said "hmm what if" and made a rhubarb shandy yesterday with a gose she didn't care for as-is, and it is the best thing ever drunk.

https://chicago.eater.com/2020/5/19/21264134/jeppsons-malort-revolution-brewing-anti-hero-collaboration-chicago

Surprised it took this long for something like this tbh

rhubarb shandy sounds great

It is Oberon season again, thank god for some liquid sunshine in the age of covid

I’ve also been making beermosas on the weekends as supplies permit. So healthy and refreshing

To avoid this thread turning into a thread about beer for people who don't like beer...

Chicagolanders: Hearing rumblings that Three Floyds is in trouble and may be closing their brewpub?