Landing the Whale: Beer thread

[Allentown]

Barrel aging jumped the shark as soon as someone tried it with an IPA. Every one I've tasted was disgusting.

I've had a few good ones. Devastation from Brewery Vivant is totally worth getting, and was preferred in a blind taste test by 5/5 people I tested it with over Doom from Founders. Cigar City's Oak-aged Jai Lai is supposedly coming to my town soon, and that was really tasty when I had it in their taproom. BBA, though, I generally agree. Too many breweries just throw everything into bourbon barrels.

[neandrewthal]

give someone a beer, and you sometimes get "wow, that's the best beer I've ever had!" so you say "alright, awesome! Can I get you another one?" and they say "Hmm, no, do you have anything new?"
It's the whole "collecting" mindset I've gotten myself caught up into.

Haha, guilty! 2 of the same beer in a row is just...no. I will only repeat after several months. But now with all the fancy Canadian whiskies coming out my booze budget is so obliterated that I only get any beer once every couple of months.

[neandrewthal]

yellow curry

Love yellow curry but what does that even mean in the context of beer? Do they actually put the paste in?

[Allentown]

Haha, guilty! 2 of the same beer in a row is just...no. I will only repeat after several months. But now with all the fancy Canadian whiskies coming out my booze budget is so obliterated that I only get any beer once every couple of months.

Since I hit my 1,000 goal, I've been drinking about the same amount, but if I go somewhere and don't see anything new that sounds particularly good or if I have a second, it's been almost always a "repeat" beer that I know I like. I haven't bought any 4/6/12pks of something new, but I have been buying mostly packs of beers at the grocery store I want vs. only buying from a bottle store that sells everything individually.

Love yellow curry but what does that even mean in the context of beer? Do they actually put the paste in?

I should have asked. My assumption would be seasoning bananas with the curry, frying them or something, then tossing the whole mess into the fermenter.

[TimK]

@Allentown I probably just missed it but what was the 1000th beer?

[Allentown]

@Allentown I probably just missed it but what was the 1000th beer?

Black Raspberry Tart Side of the Barrel at Vivant. Not a new top 5 or anything, but very tasty.

[TwoFoursStrohm]

Was able to grab some Pseudo Sue and DDH Pseudo Sue in a beer shop in Cape Cod last week. Excellent beer. Also had Heady Topper last night for the 2nd time and 1st time sober and its good not great. Not a huge fan of the bitter IPAs.

[bugbomb]

Texas brew that impressed/surprised me most recently:

Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero. It's a "Mexican-style" stout, but it's obviously a response to the Prairie BOMB! series. Big ol' stout with ancho, cinnamon, vanilla, and who knows what else. I bought it without looking it up at all because I have a Mexican friend who hates most craft beer and I wanted to torment him, but it turned out to be incredible.

[Allentown]

Texas brew that impressed/surprised me most recently:

Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero. It's a "Mexican-style" stout, but it's obviously a response to the Prairie BOMB! series. Big ol' stout with ancho, cinnamon, vanilla, and who knows what else. I bought it without looking it up at all because I have a Mexican friend who hates most craft beer and I wanted to torment him, but it turned out to be incredible.

Clown Shoes is in Massachusetts.
Their Blaecorn Unidragon is awesome, get it.

[bugbomb]

Clown Shoes is in Massachusetts.
Their Blaecorn Unidragon is awesome, get it.

Shit you're right. Now I have to figure out which one I had them mixed up with...

I agree about the Blaecorn Unidragon, it's just too damn hot for stouts in TX right now.

[Allentown]

My least favorite brewery in town seems to have opened a second location up north. Which now makes me wonder if I should try revisiting their beers in a blind taste test? Seriously, last time I was there the "taproom" had a faded, partly busted big screen tube TV that still had buttons on the front. The linoleum floor was about 20 years beyond it's useful life and appeared to be held in place mostly by grime, not glue. The beer labels all look like they were drawn by a failed comic artist 20 years ago and are mostly of busty pirate-type women wearing very little clothing, and were printed on those super shiny labels that look and feel like stickers from grocery store quarter machines. You get your beer at the bar, served more often than not by someone who seems to be working in exchange for drinks. I've never seen more than 10 people there, and more often than not it's just the same 5 people who are always there every day.

Yes, I did have a mug club membership there, because when I moved here it was about a mile from my apartment and a new friend was getting paid in beer to make the chalkboard look nice.

[brkriete]

Did we all quit drinking?

I have been cutting back from 2 beers a night most nights to ~2ish nights a week since I'm trying to lose a few lbs. Have had a few stouts lately - a Wormtown Sweet Tats that did absolutely nothing for me (although I really like their Hopulence. I also had an AleSmith Speedway Stout that was really good. Not super heavy on the coffee flavor but very roast and rich.

Also had some really good Trillium beers, Dialed-In was great and reminded me of a white wine but without losing any IPA flavor.

[Allentown]

Did we all quit drinking?

Kinda-sorta. Down to 1-2 beers a week since my meet.
Speciation: if you like sours, this brewery does a fantastic job. They harvest their own fermentation bacteria. I suspect it doesn't get wide distribution

Planning on doing a blind taste-testing of IPAs sometime soon to end the summer/get rid of my IPAs and clear space for another Oktoberfest tasting, but trying to find a time to get my BiL and our wives all free for at least a few hours is tough, and also I can't smell anything at all right now.

My theory: IPA is IPA is IPA. Certainly things like the west coast styles vs NE will be easily identifiable, but I would be really surprised if I will be able to pick out a brewery or specific beer. This is kind of my biggest frustration with modern craft beer- every brewery has 5-6 IPA on tap, and it feels like you could randomly swap those kegs around with every other local brewery and not notice. "Founders makes fantastic IPAs!" someone might say. But I'd put a little money down that if I gave them 3 IPAs, containing between 0-3 Founders beers, they would be unable to identify it either way. Meanwhile, I was able to instantly identify Bells Kalamazoo Stout from a single sip despite not having it for a few years, knowing only that it was among the ~10 different stouts I had in the fridge.

[brkriete]

Did we all quit drinking?

Kinda-sorta. Down to 1-2 beers a week since my meet.
Speciation: if you like sours, this brewery does a fantastic job. They harvest their own fermentation bacteria. I suspect it doesn't get wide distribution

I don't like sours. Or goses. Or whatever the one is that's popular now that has fucking salt in it.

Planning on doing a blind taste-testing of IPAs sometime soon to end the summer/get rid of my IPAs and clear space for another Oktoberfest tasting, but trying to find a time to get my BiL and our wives all free for at least a few hours is tough, and also I can't smell anything at all right now.

My theory: IPA is IPA is IPA. Certainly things like the west coast styles vs NE will be easily identifiable, but I would be really surprised if I will be able to pick out a brewery or specific beer. This is kind of my biggest frustration with modern craft beer- every brewery has 5-6 IPA on tap, and it feels like you could randomly swap those kegs around with every other local brewery and not notice. "Founders makes fantastic IPAs!" someone might say. But I'd put a little money down that if I gave them 3 IPAs, containing between 0-3 Founders beers, they would be unable to identify it either way. Meanwhile, I was able to instantly identify Bells Kalamazoo Stout from a single sip despite not having it for a few years, knowing only that it was among the ~10 different stouts I had in the fridge.

Depends on the brewery. Wormtown makes a "Be Hoppy" IPA that's a piney West Coast IPA and I also like their Hopulence which is a much juicier "NE IPA."

I would say that a lot of IPAs from the same brewery tend to taste the same - Treehouse is super popular by me, they are known for IPAs, and although I like some more than others most of them taste about the same or at least close enough I couldn't tell the difference if I had them a week apart. Trillium IPAs taste very different from Treehouse. Greater Good tastes very different from either.

A blind taste test is a good idea - I'd like to do something similar but with different hops in similar base beers to really nail which ones I should look for.

[Allentown]

Yeah, I expect we will figure out NE vs west coast style, and since we will be supplying the beer ourselves we will at least know the selection so we might be able to guess between 8-10 options. Ideally we could do it totally blind but that's a little harder to arrange.

[neandrewthal]

Did we all quit drinking?

Most beers these days are too big for me Usually a 3/4 oz pour of whisky hits the spot but it looks like I've started a tradition of having a beer on the last day of my MM training cycle, this time to lament my failed bench and celebrate my 25 lb deadlift PR.

Last cycle was the Great Lakes (the Canadian one) Octopus Wants to Fight IPA which is a standout for me with tons of tropical fruit and somewhat restrained carbonation. Now I want to do a blind IPA test and see if I'm just full of shit. I never try similar beers anywhere near close enough to each other to compare them except that one time I realised that Schneider Aventinus and Unibrou Trois Pistoles are not the same beer as it seems when had weeks apart but still equally awesome.

Another Ontario one tonight: Collective Arts Mashup the Jam dry hop sour. Wow, I thought it just meant a sour beer that's dry hopped but the thing really is dry. I love sour beers but I prefer them to have at least a touch of sweetness. I couldn't help but mess with it. The second pour (yeah I'm so slow I pour it three times and keep the can in the fridge in between) I added some Islay scotch which was kind of strange and added an earthy bitterness. The third one I added a few drops of @strega and now we're talking! Sometimes I add some to my last bit of really bitter IPA if my palate is getting tired but it works way better with a beer that is too sour.

[Root]

clear space for another Oktoberfest tasting, but trying to find a time to get my BiL and our wives all free for at least a few hours is tough, and also I can't smell anything at all right now.

When is this happening? My Costco is carrying Warsteiner and Hacker Pschorr right now. I picked up the Warsteiner, and I love it, though it has a hint of skunk to it, which doesn't turn me off all that much. Need to get the PS before the case of Warst is gone and do a test.

I fucking love cooler weather and Oktoberfest beer.

[Allentown]

When is this happening?

Don't know yet, but I can let you know when I figure it out. Goal will be around 12 different beers.

[bugbomb]

I love Oktoberfest celebrations. My friend is hosting one - we'll probably have a stupid number of beers to sample - but in stupid Texas it's still going to be 90 degrees in the evening on 10/20, though.

Another buddy just swung by to drop off a bottle of Pliny the Elder. He picked it up at RR a week or so ago. I've had it once before, but it's been probably 8-9 years. I was underwhelmed then, but it was part of a multi-course tasting/pairing dinner, and the food was frickin' horrendous, so my experience of the whole things was pretty weird.

[Root]

My first task at my new job involves collaborating with a German company. Maybe I could finagle a trip over there in a month or so.....