Beer in the new era

I'm so glad to see it all coming to light. The women I've known working in beer and the service industry in general have endured more bullshit than I can easily account for. I just have to shake my head.

The main thing it reminds me of is this: https://m.metrotimes.com/table-and-bar/archives/2019/02/13/great-lakes-brewing-news-sexist-parody-starts-brouhaha

And when I say that I mean because of the people I saw defending this behavior, people I would have thought would be empathetic. I didn't go to too many festivals but I worked in kitchens and went to A LOT of bars, and it's fucking endemic to the whole industry. I suppose I expected that others would see it as fucked up, too, but that didn't happen with the brewing news story.

I posted about the allegations on the Weinstein thread a couple days ago, but should have crossposted here. I'm not a festival guy (music or beer, lol), so I've never experienced that end of it. I was a member of a local/large beer Facebook group in 2016-2018 and saw enough, as cad says, fratty and aggressive behavior, I eventually dropped out.

I've been to Tired Hands a couple of times and gotten beer from them when I've been at my parents. I always liked the guy from what I knew of him on social media - he ran a contest a few years ago for a brewing position for a diverse candidate and when followers on social media complained that it wasn't open to white males, he basically told them to go fuck themselves. It's a good reminder that even those supporting women/POC can be problematic in real life. There seemed to be a recurring theme of that in the stories - seemingly progressive owners being (not so) secretly complete assholes to women/POC they actually worked with.

yeah all of these guys have done a lot of good things of the years. but they were also drunk around the workplace, they were big fish in small ponds, they weren't operating and behaving like business owners, and they wound up being boorish assholes an appreciable number of times.

On a more positive note ...

I have to be up in northern Wisconsin this weekend, so of course I looked around to see if there was a local brewery. And not only was the answer (inevitably) yes, but the place has loudly, aggressively dedicated itself to liberal politics as a big fuck you to all its super-red neighbors:

https://minocquabrewingcompany.com

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.