NT, What Beer Do You Drink?

[bryscooplaygrifhold]

Leffe Belgian Blond tonight. Could get used to it long term.....

 

[bruce negro]

Sorry for the Ninjahood-sized pics.

Just moved to NYC for work but my family still lives in MI. This is what we got this past year during the KBS release at Founders.

My stepdad literally has boxes upon boxes of dope MI beer in the basement. HIs collection is honestly sickening at times. I think he has every Founder's backstage series except for one or two.



EDIT: Also, if you ever have the chance to get your hands on some of this....just trade whatever they want for it. This is serious beyond description.

Blood Orange Wheat Wine Ale. The ABV is also like...11%? It's dangerous.

 

[Mark Antony]

That last one sounds dope. I wonder if bb&b takes their 20% off coupon for beer?

 

[wallyhopp]

I skipped a beerfest and decided to have my own

-Went by Marble brewing, had a couple random pints, and walked with a Pilsner growler
- Santa Fe Brewing has this Oak aged Sour ale with cherries added. It's the most expensive bomber that I have ever bought. $22. It's their second year releasing it. It just won a GABF bronze. I guess I took the medal bait and will check it out
-Wasatch Pumpkin Stout sounded intriguing.
-Hop Nosh was super fresh and available in a single. Worth a revisit
-XOCOVEZA. I had to get another!
- Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. Of all places to have a fresh set of bottles, it was Cost Plus World Market. They have a modest selection of craft and euro beers, but they are all unfefridegerated, and most of the dates date the beers back many many months. So this was quite the shock.. This is about a month old. I still see April bottles at TW.
- 4 day old Elevated IPA. I had to get two.
-Anderson Valley Gose.... I had one of these tonight.. It's no Westbrook, with a touch more funk.
-Green Flash West Coast IPA.. Another bottle with a best by of nearly Feburary. That dates the beer to the past few weeks.. Worth checking out.

 

[Comparison Ford]

^As much as I enjoy Pliny, I really feel that Hop Stoopid fills the void for me.  Given the disparity of price and accessibility coupled with the similarities in their flavor profiles, I see no reason to go crazy looking for Pliny anymore.  Don't get me wrong: Pliny is great,  but Hop Stoopid is no slouch either.  A very slept-on beer.

The Anderson Valley Gose is okay, but when you put it back-to-back with Westbrook's the difference is night and day.  Westbrook's is officially one of my favorite beers ever...which is funny because I couldn't even muscle my way through the first one I ever had.  I'm drinking one at the moment and loving every second of it.  So glad I stocked up.

P.S.: can we start an online petition to make Xocoveza a year-round release in 4-packs and send it to Stone?  It's time we dared to dream. 

 

[neosole89]

^ where do I sign . Had one last night actually. One of my favorite Stone beers for sure.

 

[wallyhopp]

^ Fresh HOP STOOPID!.. WOW!. You are right on the money comparison ford.

Somewhat piney and citrusy smell. it follows through in the taste. This is somewhat dry. Very drinkable. No apparent tropical fruit notes. So darn drinkable with that smooth mouthfeel. I caught a bit of an astringent hop bombish pine hop flavor. But its not overpowering... Crazy good @ $4.99, I may need to round up the rest of those bottles since every other place in town seems to hold onto every cache of HS they have received. I guess it doesnt sell and it sits.... It has that PtE or HT type basic approach to an IPA.. La Cumbre's Elevated seems to have layers. Some hop bomb qualities and then some tropical sweetness and then it finishes dry... Here with HS, you know what you're getting from the get go.. I had to give this 5/5. Bottle date was September 8th. I had never seen anything fresher than two months old for almost a yr now. This new batch will likely sit until its old

Stone needs to throw away that milk stout they released, and go the Founders route and release 4 packs of their heavier styles... Bombers are cool and all. But I feel Founders will go national and dominate the marketplace in a matter of years with their 4 pack methodology.

Wasatch Black o Lantern, a pumpkin stout with spices was solid. The 6.5% abv helped as the sweetness and booziness balanced with the crazy amount of fall spices they used. It seems to work in the darker or heavier styles compared to some trying to brew a red ale or a light blonde with pumpkin flavors.

AVBC Gose takes some getting used to. Im happy to have tried it, but I dont know if that can be a heavy rotational beer. Its great ice cold. But I may just be trying to mask some of the funk lol.

 

[corcio713]

Went to Untapped Fest for Houston yesterday which was a lot of fun. Mainly local stuff but I did get to try some stuff I was looking forward to including:

Bishops Barrel 1 through 7 from Saint Arnolds as well as a tequila barrel aged Divine Reserve 14
Some Imagin8tion Casks from 8th Wonder
Bourbon County Brand Stout
Fen Tao from Jester King
2013 The Abyss from Deschutes
Stickee Monkee from Firestone Walker
2013 Figaro from Buffalo Bayou
2012 Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn

And a whole bunch of others that I can't remember. I found it funny because around the end of the night, half of the volunteers at the tents weren't even marking our cards and giving us a bunch of samples just because.

 

[jbug88]

P.S.: can we start an online petition to make Xocoveza a year-round release in 4-packs and send it to Stone?  It's time we dared to dream. 

I'll be the second signature. It was a super solid, enjoyable beer.
Sadly, it is nowhere to be found in SoCal (L.A.) anymore.
Total Wine is out. Bevmo is out. Local bottle shops are out. I've found a few places online, but the shipping is more than the beer. Can't bring my self to do that. I am heading to San Diego next weekend, so I'll snoop around down there. Hunting for 2 more bottles.

 

[villansfinest]

solid line up from my camping trip this past weekend.

 

[wallyhopp]

Anyone else slowly going into hibernation mode for the winter? Winter styles don't thrill me. Octoberfests are about the peak of my interest and those are selling out right about now. Pumpkin beers are ehhh. I had a shipyard pumpkinhead, a SA harvest saison (tastes almost like a tart hefeweizen), and a buffalo bills pumpkin ale to clean out my pumpkin stash around Monday. All were drinkable, but very unremarkable as far as flavors.. Other than that, I don't feel thirsty with this changing weather. Usually its a beer or two on the patio basking in the sun every evening. Now I'm confined to drinking only on the weekends and I don't feel left out. I'll probably drop a couple pounds now... I even chose not to go to a beerfest tomorrow. Unfortunately, I may take that $40, and buy four different growlers and have my own fest. We shall see.

I feel like this is normal behavior. Though I am in disagreement on the Pumpkin beers. Fall is my favorite time for 'seasonal beers.' The process of going out, bearing the cold, and not having the greatest beer selection during the winter months gets me to buying a 12 pack and 'hibernating,' like you said, as well. It's just easier to do in the winter than in the summer when you feel like you should be outside. It's always more going on in the summer that involves drinking too

That's good to hear. I'm not crazy after all. Drinking in cooler weather does seem ideal. Hangovers arent so bad the day after. Beer stays cold longer. I guess it just has to do with social events not really occurring outdoors during this time. I'm more of an outside drinker.. Drinking in a confined space doesnt appeal to me.. I guess I'm more of a weekend football drinker in the fall time. I do know some breweries who try to set up space heaters and have events outside. That's not such a bad idea.. Definitely stout weather.

P.S.: can we start an online petition to make Xocoveza a year-round release in 4-packs and send it to Stone?  It's time we dared to dream. 

I'll be the second signature. It was a super solid, enjoyable beer.
Sadly, it is nowhere to be found in SoCal (L.A.) anymore.
Total Wine is out. Bevmo is out. Local bottle shops are out. I've found a few places online, but the shipping is more than the beer. Can't bring my self to do that. I am heading to San Diego next weekend, so I'll snoop around down there. Hunting for 2 more bottles.

Crazy.. My area just seemed to barely get it in stock. I think I saw 2-3 cases worth at my TW. I do know that all it takes is one guy to buy out the place. But so far, I know of at least 2 places that seem to have quite a few. Not sure how trade worthy it is for you, but I can help you out if you need some.

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So I pretty much ran through my cache of weekend pickups. I wouldnt have it any other way.

I had my first crack at a "sour"

I guess after having some truly funky berliner weisse attempted beers, I was so turned off by anything "different". But this right here was darn good.. Highly carbonated, like a soda almost. I got hints of cheeries and some oak wood character. Taste wise, I caught some major tartness and a bit of a sour pucker feeling. But no funk or weirdness. Ive had a few "sour" samples that tasted like pickle juice lol. I want to call this one very approachable and "basic". But it may have taken quite an effort to make a "basic" sour. I just dont know enough about the process. I do know that the yeast can really spread fast and funk up a batch quickly. So this rather subdued beer was a treat. It was apparently 8.5%. I caught none of that, or really any sort of hop prescence. It was all a carbonated mellow tartness throughout the whole process. I'm happy to have tried it. But the jury's out on it being worth $22 for 1 pt 9 oz.

Apparently Green Flash bottle dates their beers 6 months instead of the typical 3 or 4. So my bottle wasn't as fresh as I thought. But still within 6 weeks old

I'm getting the same story out of a lot of IPAs lately. Pine and citrus up front. I caught more heaviness here since its 8.1% abv. A bit of a hop astringency. Caramel malt taste in the background. Very solid. It wouldnt be bad as an only option. But IPAs are everywhere, so I can see me passing this up. I was surprised BA score was 94. I felt it was really good but it'd be underrated in the 89 range. Glad to see that it wasn't.

More pine and citrus here.. Way easier to drink than the Green Flash DIPA. At just 0.8 lower than GF DIPA, I feel there is definitely a threshold for drinkability. If they use a 4 month cycle, this bottle was about a month old. I compare Hop Nosh to SN Torpedo, Marble IPA, and a couple of others. Just a straight forward pine/flowery

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villansfinest, I've heard great things about SIMTRA. Nothing wrong with Sculpin being next to PBR. At some point you need a water break to clean the pallet. JubeAle is solidly rated but I just never found winter warmers too appealing. DId ya'll share or do a tasting, or just randomly grabbed stuff to drink and enjoy?

 

[neosole89]

^ If you like hop bombs, you'll love SIMTRA. Very good triple IPA. At 11% ABV, you'll definitely get a nice buzz.

 

[villansfinest]

yeah, simtra is definitely up there for me. i rinsed between beers with water. this was our selection for 4 folks, i didn't take pics of the doubles, but we definitely all got to try each.

if you like knee deep's simtra, please do check out their hoparillo also.

 

[meyer23]

 
OG Yeti is probably the hoppiest stout I've ever had.  Great beer regardless.

I pulled the trigger on one this weekend and I actually enjoyed it. I want to try more f the Yeti now. 

 

[meyer23]

-Wasatch Pumpkin Stout sounded intriguing.

-Anderson Valley Gose.... I had one of these tonight.. It's no Westbrook, with a touch more funk.
 

The Wasatach did nothing for me, what did you think?

And that Anderson Valley Gose, I think, is fantastic for the price. I couldn't get enough of it when I first tried it. 

 

[wallyhopp]

-Wasatch Pumpkin Stout sounded intriguing.


-Anderson Valley Gose.... I had one of these tonight.. It's no Westbrook, with a touch more funk.

 

The Wasatach did nothing for me, what did you think?

And that Anderson Valley Gose, I think, is fantastic for the price. I couldn't get enough of it when I first tried it. 

Yeah. nothing for me. I did give it a 4/5. Nice balance of pumpkin and stout. Quite sweet. But that made the beer for me. I need some ABV and sweetness if its gonna be a pumpkin beer. Too often, breweries try to make a session pumpkin beer. It's not gonna happen. It was worth a try. But one I just dont see myself wanting again.

Avbc gose needed some time in my mouth. One can was okay. But by the second my mouth adjusted to these seemingly odd ball flavors.

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Man oh man. Another haul for a trade partner

-Spotted more hop stoopid fresh. It'll sit like this for another three months

-Latest project dank is out 10/9. Surprisingly so. I was expecting it this week. I haven to try atleast one of what I'm sending out.
-Triple multiple pack of locals. Elevated, Santa Fe oktoberfest, and a marble pilsner
-stone xocoveza. I counted at least 16 in stock at the moment.

 

[neosole89]

^ Nice haul Wally. It's almost impossible to find fresh Hop Stoopid near me and I live a few hours away from Lagunitas . Local bottle shop just received a restock of Xocoveza. Time to restock!

UPS just dropped these off. Comparison Ford came through big time with some goodies . Appreciate the extras man.

Westbrook Gose
Founders Backwoods Bastard
Cigar City Big Sound
Jack's Abby Mass Rising x4
Jack's Abby Hoponius Union x6
FBS x8
MBC MO
MBC Peeper Ale

Where to start.......

 

[meyer23]

Man, I gotta get in on these trades 

 

[Comparison Ford]

 
Man, I gotta get in on these trades 

Wanna keep me in mind when Bourbon County Proprietor's comes out? 

 

[jaysfiend23]

Anybody try the new Guinness blonde looks delicious

 

[meyer23]

 
Wanna keep me in mind when Bourbon County Proprietor's comes out? 

Absolutely, if I can get to it. That's usually the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) and you need to be in line SUPER early. Last year I just got lucky and got a 4 pack of the Regular. This year I wanna try and get one of each so if I can snag an extra or even trade, I will. 

 

[dream5hift]

I went to a local bevmo to find the Stone Xocoveza and couldn't find it. I asked one of the older worker there and he said he tried ordering them but corporate wouldn't allow it? So I pulled out my phone and told him there's 18 available which I should've tried ordering for store pick up but didn't before I went. He didn't have a clue about store pickup either. Then he said the sku could be the same as another Stone brew which shows the number available online for the Xocoveza. Thought it was weird what he told me or just BSing.

 

[Comparison Ford]

So I thought Xocoveza was all sold out around my parts, but I hit up Facebook after clinical today and saw that a distributor by me had it as its "beer of the day."  I was able to buy 3 bottles and got a 4th one free.  I asked the lady behind the register how they still had it and she told me they "sat on their cases for a while before opening them up."  

I don't know either, but regardless...today was a good day. 

 

 

[based mod]

Wow I didn't realize Xoco was that hard to find. I guess I'll have to load up next time I'm at the store.

 

[Comparison Ford]

Wow I didn't realize Xoco was that hard to find. I guess I'll have to load up next time I'm at the store.

Maybe it's just around my parts, but Xocoveza came and went within a matter of a week or two.  Every other collab/general release they come out with is a shelf-turd around here.