Exodus Strength

Allentown wrote: ↑Fri Nov 02, 2018 5:29 am It was better back before it got popular.

Such a hopster.

Root wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:12 am Such a hopster.

Probably more accurate: I enjoyed it more back before I had experienced the variety of beer I currently have. More and more I find with stouts that most every one I have, I'd have been just as happy, or happier, with a Breakfast stout or Kalamazoo stout.
I still have 12+ coffee, milk, or oatmeal stouts to try out this winter.

Got some CBS down here in Florida, in a grocery store. So, yah.

First time I'd had it. Was good. But probably outside of whale status now.

TomK wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:39 pm Got some CBS down here in Florida, in a grocery store. So, yah.

First time I'd had it. Was good. But probably outside of whale status now.

Yeah, when all the grocery stores in my area (which, sure, is ~4 miles from the brewery) have cases of it, it's probably not a whale.
If it wasn't $25, I'd suggest picking up a few bottles and letting it age. All the aged CBS I've had has been better than the fresh stuff, so either the older batches were better, or the aging mellows it out.

Allentown wrote: ↑Wed Nov 14, 2018 5:31 am

TomK wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:39 pm Got some CBS down here in Florida, in a grocery store. So, yah.

First time I'd had it. Was good. But probably outside of whale status now.

Yeah, when all the grocery stores in my area (which, sure, is ~4 miles from the brewery) have cases of it, it's probably not a whale.
If it wasn't $25, I'd suggest picking up a few bottles and letting it age. All the aged CBS I've had has been better than the fresh stuff, so either the older batches were better, or the aging mellows it out.

Yup, $25 per. I did grab a few, had one fresh and aging at least one. How long, 6-ish months or more?

Made a trip up to Freeport, ME with my fiancee and stopped at a couple breweries on the way there and back.

Goodfire and Lone Pine in Portland (which are in the same building). Lone Pine Strig Harvest Grisette was my favorite, kind of a dry, champagny ale, also got their Chaga Stout which was pretty good. All the Goodfire beers I got were pretty generic DIPAs, good but nothing exceptional.

Stopped at Maine Beer Co in Freeport and got a case of Dinner, which was fantastic, kind of a throwback DIPA, not as juicy as NE or as piney as West Coast styles, just really nice and balanced. Also stopped at Bissell Brothers, got "The Substance" and a few others, all good but nothing too exciting.

There's some controversy in the local beer scene right now about Trillium; an ex-employee made a bunch of allegations including that they fill growlers from trubby kegs after the junk in them settles, that they added tequila to a batch of beer that was supposed to taste like tequila (which is apparently illegal in MA) and that they switched a bunch of employees from one location to another and cut their pay in the process. Sounds like most of the allegations are more or less true which is kind of disappointing but also not sure how much I really care.

TomK wrote: ↑Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:55 am How long, 6-ish months or more?

I'd say at least 12mo.

brkriete wrote: ↑Fri Nov 23, 2018 9:30 am Sounds like most of the allegations are more or less true which is kind of disappointing but also not sure how much I really care.

I generally avoid Perrin beer because a few years back I heard from a few employees they were treating people like crap. Also I don't like their beer much anyways, so no huge loss.

Local taproom has done one (so far) blind testing of in-town IPAs, is doing a stout testing coming up soon. Founders came third in the IPA, BTW, the other don't distribute so that doesn't help anyone else.

Haven't found any stouts I am super enamored with yet this year, and today is the annual Bells Hopslam release day. Hoping to get to the bar up the street for a glass with the wife sometime tonight, SiL was going to come over and "babysit" after kid's bedtime but she just texted me that she is sick.

I've got quite a lot of bottles of sour beer I marked to open in 2019, so hopefully they are all still good! All the 1-2 year old bottles I've had so far have been quite good, so we will see if any 3-year bottles lost their shine.

Allentown wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:13 pm Local taproom has done one (so far) blind testing of in-town IPAs, is doing a stout testing coming up soon. Founders came third in the IPA, BTW, the other don't distribute so that doesn't help anyone else.

Haven't found any stouts I am super enamored with yet this year, and today is the annual Bells Hopslam release day. Hoping to get to the bar up the street for a glass with the wife sometime tonight, SiL was going to come over and "babysit" after kid's bedtime but she just texted me that she is sick.

I've got quite a lot of bottles of sour beer I marked to open in 2019, so hopefully they are all still good! All the 1-2 year old bottles I've had so far have been quite good, so we will see if any 3-year bottles lost their shine.

What other IPAs won?

Root wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:29 pm What other IPAs won?

Arvon, Creston, and Founders, in that order. Don't know the criteria, but I know I think the NE style IPAs from Vivant are comically better than anything Founders has done, and the barrel aged IPAs from Founders are pretty uniformly terrible. I actually dumped a Founders "Double Barrel Aged" IPA over the holidays, it was so bad.

The whole point of the New England style IPA is the fresh hop character. Barrel aging an NE IPA is like aging your lettuce before making salad.

Speaking of NE IPAs, Lawson's Sip of Sunshine has become widely available near me in the last couple months (it's contract brewed by Two Roads in Connecticut although Lawson's is a Vermont brewery). I tried it a year or two ago and didn't particularly like it but that must have been a not so great one for whatever reason because I've bought two 4 packs in the last couple weeks and they've both been delicious. Definitely competitive with all the "limited release, wait in line" type stuff.

brkriete wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:34 am The whole point of the New England style IPA is the fresh hop character. Barrel aging an NE IPA is like aging your lettuce before making salad.

I'm comparing the NEIPA stuff directly from one local place (Vivant) to the canned/bottled BA/non-BA stuff from another (Founders)- I don't know what either place submitted to the contest, only that when I've done head-to-head tastings of matching styles (BBADIPA), and comparing stuff I've had from the two places, I'd put the spectrum of IPA from one on a range from 10-5, clustered at >8 (I didn't like Vivant's brut style IPA) and the other's from 7-1 clustered around 6 (Founders' IPAs are generally very solid, and I'd happily buy or drink many of them, but I wouldn't be able to pick them out from among 100 Grand Rapids IPAs, and their attempts at making non-standard IPAs range from alright to terrible, IMO).
I just want to see what beers the breweries sent. If they were pretty strict about "IPA," then the results are plausible to me?

Guys Bells' Hopslam is good. Get it.

Allentown wrote: ↑Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:41 am Guys Bells' Hopslam is good. Get it.

I looked for it yesterday and it wasn't there

Root wrote: ↑Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:23 am I looked for it yesterday and it wasn't there

Should be in stores by now. Last year Costco had 6pk for like $12 or something crazy.

Guinness is my drink of choice when out with friends. At home, I just like Bud Light.

I think that is a bannable offense.

I think I heard Allen's head explode

It got better.
Had two different versions of Bell's Cherry Stout last Sunday, 30th Anniversary and Whiskey Reserve.
Neither were good, IMO.
I've had a couple alright fruit stouts (Dragon's Milk variations, Neapolitan Milk Stout), but on the balance I would recommend leaving them alone.

Nonsense you'll be stone dead in a moment. Hmm.

Stone needs a new release. Dead in a Moment. Hey Stone, let's talk. Get in touch for my rates. That first one's on the house.