Beer snob discussion thread

• cbus4life

  Been enjoying the Hopwired IPA lately.
  
  http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22618/63896
  
  New Zealand hops are absolutely lovely.
• Curly J

  

  O-Trap;806160 wrote:I've gotta be honest. I never thought these words would be uttered.
  
  However, as I've never tried it, I'll have to do so before I make any judgments. Just can't see myself considering a Sammy Smith the beer of the night.

  You and me both Brother Trap. I never thought I'd say that either. I like most of their beers as they are traditional ales. Sammy makes some Solid beers, and in true British fashion/styles, but this one was way out there and tasted like nothing I've ever had. I'd never heard of it before and only tried it since the person running the Beerfest told us about it in person, and to make sure we try it. He said that the Rep from Merchant Du Vin, the distributor of Samuel Smith, was shocked that it was going to be poured for this event. I think it retails at 9 - 10 dollars for a bottle at the Jungle. I've heard as high as $13.00 a bottle at other stores...when you can find it. He said at our Beerfest we drink great beers no matter what the price. Besides some people never had or will ever have some of the beers again, so let them enjoy the experience. Basically meaning it's not so much about the money, but the celebration of Beer. (unlike some Beerfests)
  
  It comes in at 8% which is very high for a British Ale and is a seasonal with limited production, so it can be hard to find. It's made in Yorkshire Squares then it's aged in barrels from previous ales, some that are over a 100 years old, so it picks up a lot of flavor from them. The best way to describe it is a Barley Wine Style Light. Great aroma and flavor, but not the heavy mouth feel and huge alcohol finish of a Barley Wine. Of course most Barley Wines are higher in ABV, so that should be right. It's bottle Conditioned, so it pours a hazy, dirty brown and the aroma is very strong. Nice smooth and creamy with caramel, raisin, and plumish taste. It had a just a little bit of bitterness and sourness in it and the alcohol comes through a little. Very complex. There are a couple of You tube videos describing it.
  
  We did have Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout...awesome as always. The Brew Kettle White Rajah and Sierra Nevada Ovila Dubbel, all 3 on tap. My favorite shirts for the night that I saw was a guy wearing one that said "In dog beers I've only had one" and the lady pouring the Stone Beers had one that said "It's not too expensive, your just too cheap"
  
  I heard it from Jungle Jim himself that next year it will be a 2 day event. They wanted to it this year, but the event center was already booked. Plenty of Hotels in the surrounding area so come on down next year. It's usually Fathers Day weekend.
• UANyg

  Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale is awesome.
• iclfan2

  

  Now that I'm moving to Ohio (near/in Cleveland) what are some beers that maybe I couldn't get in SC/NC? I've had a few DFH stuff, Bells two hearted and hopslam, and the regular great lakes stuff (none of the seasonal or specialties besides Christmas Ale), but not sure of any other "northern" brands that maybe I couldn't get down there.
• Curly J

  

  iclfan2;806689 wrote:Now that I'm moving to Ohio (near/in Cleveland) what are some beers that maybe I couldn't get in SC/NC? I've had a few DFH stuff, Bells two hearted and hopslam, and the regular great lakes stuff (none of the seasonal or specialties besides Christmas Ale), but not sure of any other "northern" brands that maybe I couldn't get down there.

  I'll start with a few Michigan Breweries as I'm more familiar with them, as we see them in the Cincy area a lot
  
  Founders
  Arcadia
  New Holland
  Dark Horse
  Jolly Pumpkin
  
  Mt Carmel and Rivertown are a couple of Cincy breweries. I'm not sure how far north they go at this time.
  
  Just got back from the Jungle. I bought 2 Stingo's (correction to my earlier post, they were $10.99 for a 550ml and the label one this one say 9% ABV).
  A Goose Island Big John, I didn't get to try this one at Beerfest as they ran out before I decided to try it.
  Magic Hat Wacko, I tried this at Beerfest. Interesting wheat beer fermented with beet sugar. I gives it a pink appearance, but finishes as a wheat. (no beet flavor, thank goodness)
  
  I had a North Coast Old Stock Ale with dinner earlier. The Wife had 2 Founders Centennial (draft...I stole a couple of sips of this).
• OneBuckeye

  

  http://beer.ohio.com/#/2011/06/yuengling-finally-coming-to-ohio/
  
  Yuengling in Ohio by October.
• I Wear Pants

  Yeah I heard that yesterday (and last year in the Wall Street Journal). Good news, I like me some Yuengling as far as a cheap lager for getting drunk and playing games with.
• Sonofanump

  OneBuckeye;808341 wrote:http://beer.ohio.com/#/2011/06/yuengling-finally-coming-to-ohio/
  
  Yuengling in Ohio by October.

  
  Good news for me.
• End of Line

  

  OneBuckeye;808341 wrote:http://beer.ohio.com/#/2011/06/yuengling-finally-coming-to-ohio/
  
  Yuengling in Ohio by October.

  
  Great news!
• Curly J

  

  I had a new one last night, actually a few of them. Hop Crisis Imperial IPA from 21 Amendment. Great beer !!! It still feels weird pouring from a can. Very hoppy and drinkable and rolls in at 9.7% ABV and 94 IBUs.. This one was great tasting, so good I wanted all 4 cans of it for myself. I did drink 3 and saved one for The Wife. It is aged in Oak spirals, kinda like the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. I tried a Founders Reds Rye after having a couple of the Hop Crisis and it had no flavor, so that should tell you about the Hop content. It's one I will be drinking more often. I'm not sure what the price was as The Wife bought it yesterday.
• OneBuckeye

  

  Got a trip planned for the Twin Cities in August. Will be getting some Surly while in town. Any others I should look at that are MN native and not available in Ohio?
• gorocks99

  

  OneBuckeye;811159 wrote:Got a trip planned for the Twin Cities in August. Will be getting some Surly while in town. Any others I should look at that are MN native and not available in Ohio?

  
  Surly is my #1. Furious is just awesome.
  
  Others would be Grain Belt Nordeast (Premium is a decent cheap beer by Grain Belt, Nordeast is cheap as well but decent for what it is), Summit, and The Herkimer on Lake and Lyndale in Minneapolis. Do yourself a favor if you have a day and get to Wisconsin to get some Spotted Cow, too.
  
  Also, Alaskan IPA is good and I don't think you can get it too far East of Minnesota.
• Curly J

  

  OneBuckeye;811159 wrote:Got a trip planned for the Twin Cities in August. Will be getting some Surly while in town. Any others I should look at that are MN native and not available in Ohio?

  Does New Glarius Brewing make it to that area. They are in Wisconsin. I've heard they make some pretty good beers and won more than a few awards at the Great American Beer Fest.
• gorocks99

  

  Curly J;811836 wrote:Does New Glarius Brewing make it to that area. They are in Wisconsin. I've heard they make some pretty good beers and won more than a few awards at the Great American Beer Fest.

  
  New Glarus is only in Wisconsin right now, literally border to border but not over ... but to its credit, it's the third best selling tap beer there (behind Miller Lite and Bud Light). Their Spotted Cow is REALLY good, and their Octoberfest (Staghorn) is the best Octoberfest I've ever had. Not crazy about some of their other offerings, but these two make it one of my favorite breweries.
• Curly J

  

  gorocks99;811895 wrote:New Glarus is only in Wisconsin right now, literally border to border but not over ... but to its credit, it's the third best selling tap beer there (behind Miller Lite and Bud Light). Their Spotted Cow is REALLY good, and their Octoberfest (Staghorn) is the best Octoberfest I've ever had. Not crazy about some of their other offerings, but these two make it one of my favorite breweries.

  I wasn't sure how far they distributed. A friend of mine gave me a bottle of Fat Squirrel a few years ago. I guess he got it from a friend that visited up there and brought back a six pack to him. I've heard their Wisconsin Belgium Red was supposed to be tasty. (from the same friend) I know the Fat Squirrel did not disappoint.
• I Wear Pants

  Looking for something new to get next time I'm at the store. Someone tell me what to buy.
• Sonofanump

  Estrella Dam
• BORIStheCrusher

  

  Just had one of my biggest beer disappointments which resulted in my first drain pour in a while. I wanted to grab a beer out of my collection so I went with Mikkeller It's Alive. I had 3 or 4 sips and I was done. It was just a very flat, sour (not the good sour) belgian ale. On the positive side, I've got 3 cases of beer left over from a party we hosted, one each of Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale, Anchor Steam, and Sierra Nevada Pale ale so I should be good for the next week or so.
• Curly J

  

  I've never tried that Boris. I know it's brewed with brett or brett is added at bottling. I was looking at the reviews on Rate Beer and BA and they all looked good...until I saw someone type "To say I am utterly disappointed with the flavor profile would be an understatement. The mouth feel is equally underwhelming, while it has fine small carbonation, this really comes off as watery and flat with a tannic tea bag finish." (yes the bold type was in bold on Rate Beer)
  
  Don't think I'll try that one. It's a Retired beer so I'll probably never find it.
  
  Tonight it's going to be some Riesling with cheese and bread once I get home. The it's onto the Hop Crisis Imperial IPA. The Wife picked up two 4 packs tonight, one for me and one for her.
  
  She also bought 2 more bottles of Stingo. What he has on the shelf is all he's going to have for a while. That brings us up to 4 bottles on hand. I'll cellar these two and save them for something special...maybe even a future OC gathering if that ever occurs. I told The Wife every time she goes to get beer get 2 bottles each time until they run out.
• BORIStheCrusher

  

  Curly J;813190 wrote:I've never tried that Boris. I know it's brewed with brett or brett is added at bottling. I was looking at the reviews on Rate Beer and BA and they all looked good...until I saw someone type "To say I am utterly disappointed with the flavor profile would be an understatement. The mouth feel is equally underwhelming, while it has fine small carbonation, this really comes off as watery and flat with a tannic tea bag finish." (yes the bold type was in bold on Rate Beer)
  
  Don't think I'll try that one. It's a Retired beer so I'll probably never find it..

  I saw it showing as retired also but I have no problem finding it; regardless, plenty of better beers you can get for $15. Had quite a few sours with brett that were all great, this beer was just plain flat. I'm thinking of trying to make up for it tomorrow with something else out of my collection, most likely Fantome Strange Ghost.
• gerb131

  

  Ohio beer fest or wtf ever its called begins July 8th in Athens. THink I will venture down at somepoint.
• BORIStheCrusher

  

  Stopped at the store while running errands and picked up a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam which I'm enjoying right now. Also managed to grab a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 09-09-09 to put on the shelf. Now I have that to go along with 10-10-10, but wish I would have understood the purpose of them a few years ago so I had at least a couple more of the years for when 12-12-12 comes along.
• Curly J

  

  BORIStheCrusher;813598 wrote:Stopped at the store while running errands and picked up a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam which I'm enjoying right now. Also managed to grab a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 09-09-09 to put on the shelf. Now I have that to go along with 10-10-10, but wish I would have understood the purpose of them a few years ago so I had at least a couple more of the years for when 12-12-12 comes along.

  I have a few of the Stone Verticals from 06-06-06 up to the 10-10-10. I was told the 02-02-02 never made it to Ohio, the first year it came out. I'm not sure if it was due to Limited production or ABV %. We buy a few extra bottles of it each year when it comes out. Of course 06 was the first year we starting collecting. At the Stone tasting a few months back, they were auctioning of a set of Verticals 03-03-03 and up. The proceeds went to a Local Charity. It went for over a Grand. I believe Greg Koch even bid on it saying for the price they were bidding, he'd buy it and take it back to California with him. Then the bidding went up real quick.
  
  Tried a couple Hop Baron Double Down IPAs, Rivertown Brewing here in Cincinnati. Good beer. I was alternating it with the Hop Crisis and both stood their ground when drank after each other. I was avoiding the Hop Baron as I've tried a few of the others from Rivertown and they were alright, but didn't blow my mind. Looks like their higher strength beers are decent. I'd buy it again.
• I Wear Pants

  Sierra Nevada Torpedo interspersed with Bud Light tonight. Why the Bud Light? I don't know.
• O-Trap

  

  I had some no-name beer the other night. It was a barrel-aged stout ... bourbon barrels, I think. Anyway, it's been sitting in the corner of that STORE for about a year, so I'm actually able to buy it aged. Had a four-pack of it the other night. One of the most kick-ass beers I've ever had ... largely due to the aging I'm sure. Also, the aging added QUITE a kick. I'm certain that the alc./vol. is much higher than what's on the label, and even higher than the legal limit in Ohio.
  
  I'll be grabbing another one tomorrow. I'll post the name when I get it.