The Beer Thread: 2009 – 2012

[Funketown]

I had the New Glarus Berliner Weisse today. It is one of their Unplugged beers. Not good at all. Again, my fault for not reading the label. It clearly says it is Pino Grigio like. Sour beer colored white wine is what it tasted like. I don't like white wine.

I had that when it first came out, and thought it was one of the best Berliners I'd ever had. If you don't like white wine, it probably makes sense that you didn't like it, but I've had the Berliner from about one month old to four months old, and now it is over a year old, so that could have something to do with it.

[logan82]

Short blog on "Drinkability." Link

[Beerambassador]

I've been off of work for the last couple of days so I've made a point of trying out some new beers. Had the New Glarus Imperial Saison and the Potosi Snake Hollow IPA yesterday. The saison was outstanding...very fruity and warm. Couldn't drink it all day, but I really enjoyed it. The IPA was an oustanding IPA. I was hoping to make it out to Potosi to check out the brewery, but I settled for having their beer on tap. Nice bitterness and floral qualities. I wish they distributed their beer more. I also had the Blueberry Kinda Lambic and Cocoa Imperial Porter at the Tyranena Brewery. I'm not sure if either of them will be bottled, but the lambic was really nice. Base brown ale with blueberries added and aged in bourbon barrels. I'm assuming it was fermented with wild yeast if they called it a lambic. Sour and kind of funky. Not an ordinary blueberry beer. The porter was very good, but the cocoa doesn't assert itself as much as I'd like it to.

[logan82]

I know I know. All I post about is New Glarus beer lately. They have a new Unplugged beer out now. Old English Porter. Haven't picked it up yet. I will let you know how it is when I do. More accurately, I will post my wife's response.

 

And the depressing news that D-Man is gone for another year. Buy it up while you can.

 

I ran across this looking around the New Glarus website. Vote for what style you want to see next year. Link

Vote for the specific beers you want to see in 2010. Link

[Ando Calrissian]

Anyone ever been before? I'm going for the first time in a couple of weeks. Any suggestions on how to make the most of the event? Anything I ought not miss out on?

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Anyone ever been before? I'm going for the first time in a couple of weeks. Any suggestions on how to make the most of the event? Anything I ought not miss out on?

I've never been to Denver's but the best tip I can give you is pace yourself. Everybody gets drunk, just don't be in a rush to do it. A lot of people scan the guide for the higher ABV stuff early so they can "get in the mood" then when somebody later on when asks them what they thought of a certain beer, it's like "I dunno, what'd you say about my sister? ....she's got a pretty mouth...."

 

nobody wants that.

 

I'm sure altitude doesn't help that.

 

The breweries for sure to put on your list from the left coast . . .

 

Diamond Knot
Boundary Bay
Hopworks

 

(pause, those three stand apart from the rest of these)

 

Elysian (had a fantastic seasonal Hefe at their brewery recently, so glad we brought a girl!)

Ninkasi

Fifty|Fifty (my favorite CA brewery!)

Hale's
Baron
Lagunitas

 

I see Pabst is there, that made me laugh. If they came to PDX, they'd clean up at the festival. Half the town drinks that swill.

 

TLB, did you try those Diamond Knot I gave you?

[TooLiveBrew]

TLB, did you try those Diamond Knot I gave you?

 

Oh, yeah -- for sure. I just forgot to post on them http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/embarassed.gif

 

Basically everything you gave me was good. The Diamond Knot Industrial IPA was (obviously) very, very good.

[colbyjack]

Lagunitas

 

A while back a friend had mentioned Lagunitas to me, and I recently found it at a bar on the East side (the Nomad). I found it again at Sendik's and have tried a few of their beers. I gotta say, I though they were just ok (I was anxious to try their IPA, and it certainly didn't reach out and grab me like my favorite IPA's do).

 

I'm going to keep my eyes open for the other companies you mentioned. Some of the liquor stores by me do a really good job getting hard to find beers.

 

I'm going to miss the American Beer Festival by a day, as I get into Denver on the 27th.

 

Ando Calrissian, if you can, drive up to Fort Collins to check out these microbrews if you hadn't planned to do so already. New Belgium's brewery is really, really nice, and they have a few people that work there (or at least they did) that are from Wisconsin that are quick to talk Brewers and Wisconsin brews. Odell is making a new brewery to rival New Belgium's, but I think they just broke ground. They have a great line of beers, consistently better than New Belgium's (although I know we've had the discussion before that New Belgium beers are good, not great -- Odell pushes greatness).

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Basically everything you gave me was good. The Diamond Knot Industrial IPA was (obviously) very, very good.

Yeah, I was at that brewery recently too and I pointed out to my collegues after the third one that you know it's a fantastic beer when you're already well buzzed from it and you take that first sip from the newest pint you still go, "damn that kicks ass!"

 

It's really that good.

 

It and the Amnesia Copacetic IPA are my favorite non-seasonals.

 

But the breweries around here always have just the most kick ass stuff at their brew pubs. Maritime Pacific had a special Double Dry Hopped Pale in a Firkin Cask a few Fridays ago that was sublime. And $2.75 a pint I might add . . . it went quick like a bunny quick.

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2499/3839135953_c7ae53bf26.jpg

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Lagunitas

 

A while back a friend had mentioned Lagunitas to me, and I recently found it at a bar on the East side (the Nomad). I found it again at Sendik's and have tried a few of their beers. I gotta say, I though they were just ok (I was anxious to try their IPA, and it certainly didn't reach out and grab me like my favorite IPA's do).

 

I'm going to keep my eyes open for the other companies you mentioned. Some of the liquor stores by me do a really good job getting hard to find beers.

I don't disagree with that assment. You will note I had them last on the list. I'm accused often of not giving the California breweries enough of a chance, but other than Fifty/Fifty really, "okay" is my best recommendation. My local store just started stocking 21st Amendment in cans, so there's that.

 

Boundary Bay doesn't have bottles and Diamond Knot just started, but Maritime Pacific has a couple which might make it out there. The Flagship Red is their main seller in sixers. I bet you could find an Elysian or Ninkasi pretty easy 'tho. Baron just brews german style beers so that might be around too.

[SeriesFinale]

North Coast and Lagunitas are a lot better than just OK in my book. You do seem to have an odd anti-California beers bent (I understand us Golden Staters aren't too popular up there in general!), truth be told, but you also drink a lot more beer than I do, so I'll grant you that.

[blatzlight]

Just to let everyone know - Three Floyds has started 6 pack distribution in Milwaukee this week. I picked up a case of Gumball Head at Blatz Liquor in Milwaukee this afternoon. Beer Capital will be distributing it.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't disagree with that assment.

 

Nor do I. Lagunitas always tends to be one of the most overpriced breweries when you go out shopping for bottles, at least here in Portland. It's good, or solid, but not great.

[SeriesFinale]

I'll fight you!

 

That said, I have no idea what they're charging up there for their available products. It may well be a rip-off.

 

I do suspect a lot of this is regionalism all the same. For instance, I can't imagine ranking Lagunitas below what I've drank from Hale's here or in Seattle, but I haven't drank anything else on EDR's list (although I'm sure that speaks to our arguments both ways).

[colbyjack]

A bar by me that I frequent after Brewers games has Three Floyds' IPA on tap, and it is very, very tasty. I'll definitely be looking for their other labels, so thanks for the heads up.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

I'll fight you!

 

I do suspect a lot of this is regionalism all the same. I can't imagine ranking Lagunitas below what I've drank from Hale's here or in Seattle, but I haven't drank anything else on EDR's list (although I'm sure that speaks to our arguments both ways).

I don't disagree with that statement either, at least the Hale's part. They're just okay too. The second part of that list isn't a ranking, but they are better than the others on the list like Laughing Dog. Full Sail and Pyramid.

 

Now to the other part, I actually do disagree. I don't travel as much as some, but when I do I always try the regional stuff and I search it out when at festival or at the stores and I gotta say the Pacific Northwest has the best beer right now, probably because they grow the best hops and get them the freshest. Also the brewery culture is different. I was talking to the owner of Big E Brewing about the relationship between them and the others here in the north suburbs (Diamond Knot, Lazy Boy) and how they have this weird sort of brotherhood. It's really not a competition between them, it's a labor of love. None of them really desire to be bigger than they already are. They make good beer, they make money and they have a great time doing it. The California breweries I've been to seem like more of "investments" and restaurants who are trying to follow Gordon Biersch and Redhook to the promised land. Other regions are catching up but it takes a couple of years for a brewery to "find" itself.

http://www.gordonbiersch.com/

[PeaveyFury]

Took a hard-hat tour of the new New Glarus Brewery on Friday- very, very cool and had a wonderful opportunity to do the tour with the owner/head brewmaster Dan. Also very impressed by their still relatively new Totally Naked, and think they may have another huge hit on their hands when it's mass-distributed.

[logan82]

My wife and I will have to look into that tour. We were already talking about going back down to New Glarus again at some point.

 

We had the Old English Porter. Not good. Had a very sour aftertaste to it. Again, it is exactly as they described it.

 

Edit: Sounds like the next New Glarus R&D series beer is going to be a Lambic. It is currently aging in oak barrels and should be ready around the end of the year. Dan Carey did an interview with TheFullPint.com.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

so i'm really worried about my possible bias in these areas, so I've been trying a lot of out of region stuff. My first review, sadly, is poor. I had a coney island freaktoberfest, and it was terrible.

 

talk about trying too hard. rock an ocktober or harvest or don't. the beer was actually colored red. how freaky! it tasted terrible.

 

crap.

[fstorm1]

Finally (!!!) had the cash this past week to buy something more than just High Life (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I scooped up a 12er of Honey Moon, a case of DaMan, and a 6er build. The first I tried was Lakefront's Wheat Monkey Ale. Really nice. Carbonation a tad higher than others of the style, and although there was nice sweetness, it's source wasn't easily discernible...banana, bubble gum, clove, hard to tell. But it was very crisp and refreshing. Certainly a notch below the "classics" of the style, but quite good. Looking forward to their Pumpkin for the holidays.

 

Only looked at Festival, but they, despite having a solid number of new brews, and Belgium's 6 packs, didn't have Gumballhead. May try Flanagan's this week for that.

 

May also possibly grab another case of DaMan this weekend. Thank goodness it holds up as well as it does.

[logan82]

D-Man should be easy to find for a little while longer. I couldn't even find any until almost a month after it was scheduled to come out. Even then, the previous seasonal was still on the shelf and I frequently had to ask to check in the back for D-Man.

[diomedeh2]

"I don't disagree with that assment. You will note I had them last on the list. I'm accused often of not giving the California breweries enough of a chance, but other than Fifty/Fifty really, "okay" is my best recommendation. My local store just started stocking 21st Amendment in cans, so there's that."

 

California is actually really strong when it comes to beer. Moonlight, Drake's, Northcoast, Anderson Valley, and heck, even Uncommon Brewers are all pretty interesting and are trying some different things.

 

And then there are the GREAT breweries that are just doing some off the wall, crazy awesome stuff, like Russian River's Temptation and Consecration and Lost Abbey's Cuvee de Tomme. Them's some seriously wild beer.

[diomedeh2]

Lagunitas

 

Ando Calrissian, if you can, drive up to Fort Collins to check out these microbrews if you hadn't planned to do so already. New Belgium's brewery is really, really nice, and they have a few people that work there (or at least they did) that are from Wisconsin that are quick to talk Brewers and Wisconsin brews. Odell is making a new brewery to rival New Belgium's, but I think they just broke ground. They have a great line of beers, consistently better than New Belgium's (although I know we've had the discussion before that New Belgium beers are good, not great -- Odell pushes greatness).

 

Speaking of New Belgium, I just placed an order for their latest in the Lips of Faith series, Le Fleur de Monsieur. It's an Orval tribute, which means I'm curious to say the least. I'm actually not up to snuff on Odell, but I will say that New Belgium's La Folie rivals almost any sour on the market. It's a fantastically superb ale.

[diomedeh2]

Has anyone had the opportunity to try the New Glarus Cran-bic? I'll be back in WI in about 2 weeks and I've sent out a few requests for some, but haven't heard anything back yet. Any word on the availability?

[TooLiveBrew]

I take it that's the Lambic that logan referenced?