what beers are you drinking?

[StephanieL]

I was chatting with a friend the other day, another East Coast transplant, and he was moaning about how difficult it was to get beer not loaded with excessive hops.

[Wilfrid]

That's exactly the problem I find with a lot of IPAs, let alone Double IPAs. I grew up drinking draft bitter, which is certainly hoppy, but I now find IPAs over the top. It is likely my tastes have changed too, of course.

[AaronS]

pretty easy to find well made examples of almost everything except traditional english beer in nyc nowadays.

[Wilfrid]

Would not expect the latter. Cask, not keg, and uncarbonated. I do remember dba having it occasionally.

[Sneakeater]

Let me just say, apropos of a little, that going to the UK in the early ‘80s was a revelation. 

[Wilfrid]

I can admit that going to the CAMRA festival, I guess in my early twenties, was both a revelation and an opportunity for disgraceful behavior.

An hour of, oh this is interesting and great, followed by several hours of inexcusable craziness.

I still have a scar on my thumb from imaginative ways of opening bottles.

[AaronS]

the alchemist heady topper ale - 8% abv. I won’t bother to rehash what a big deal this was at one point, but I will mention it’s probably the newest beer mentioned in mitch steele, who was the brewmaster at stone during their heyday, and the story he tells is about a bunch of people from tampa or someplace else in the south flying to vermont to try this when it was tap only. the way that looks forward to the silly things that people were willing to do for ipas in the years since that book came out is probably more important than the influence the way this tastes has had on subsequent beers. this is regularly available here now, and unlike the last few times I’ve had it I can buy as much of it as I want and I may just post about it all week. the last time I had it it struck me the way sip of sunshine does now - a necessary step on the way to the way that the ne ipa turned out. if I had gone to other half or finback tonight I could have found many, many versions of focal banger, their year round ipa, but nothing that really tasted like this. I still think that’s true, but it understates how good this really is. there’s a decent amount of bitterness at first, and some unusual grain notes that have a lot in common with the early other half beers. this is made with a secret blend of six hops, most of which probably start with c. there’s some of the dankness you get with columbus, along with some melon you get from mosaic or maybe citra, and while I’ll stop guessing there’s some berry, papaya, and a surprisingly small amount of citrus. there’s also just the right amount of sweetness in the finish, which makes the fruit richer while it balances out the bitterness and so on. they didn’t use to date these cans, and these are nine days old, but these are a lot better than the way I remember them and they have the same combination of simplicity and detail that make the best beers endlessly quaffable blah blah blah. strongly recommended. duh.

[AaronS]

industrial arts state of the art experimental hop hbc-586 ipa - 6.5% abv. apparently  hbc-586 is a newish hop from the yakima valley that’s descended from two hops that don’t have names yet. it’s got a mixture of tropical fruit (lychee, papaya) with a little bit of citrus and some weird vegetal stuff that’s pretty similar to a lot of the newer hops without really being distinctive, although I guess it’s like a less abrasive version of vic secret if that makes sense. it’s been a long time since I’ve had an industrial arts special release that’s as good as one of their core beers. buy some wrench. blah blah blah. 

[AaronS]

fantôme vertignasse blanche saison belgian ale brewed with spices - 4.5% abv. fantôme is one of the stranger belgian brewers whose beer shows up in new york - almost all their stuff has a combination of their distinctive house yeast and weird vegetal flavors. this one has more of the latter than the former - there’s a lot of the flavor you get when make beer with sage, basil, some of the house yeast. this is a 750ml bottle, the first couple of pours were golden yellow, I accidentally poured the dregs of the yeast into the last glass and it’s pretty close to army green. it’s a little bit yeastier but doesn’t actually taste off, which is pretty odd given the way it looks. these are usually a lot brettier, but this manages to be interesting and drinkable despite all the vegetal stuff. recommended to anyone who misses the weird beer stillwater used to make. 

[AaronS]

kings county brewery collective penguins on planet x hazy pale ale amarillo, motueka & cenntenial hops - 5.2% abv. this is another one that’s more or less exactly what I wanted. it’s got the body and malt presence of a north east ipa, a really nice combination of southern hemisphere fruit (lychee, papaya, melon) and some old school dankness. the nice thing about this is it has a lot of flavor for the abv and beers that taste like this at around five percent are surprisingly hard to find and so on. recommended.

[mitchells]

9 hours ago, AaronS said:

kings county brewery collective penguins on planet x hazy pale ale amarillo, motueka & cenntenial hops - 5.2% abv. this is another one that’s more or less exactly what I wanted. it’s got the body and malt presence of a north east ipa, a really nice combination of southern hemisphere fruit (lychee, papaya, melon) and some old school dankness. the nice thing about this is it has a lot of flavor for the abv and beers that taste like this at around five percent are surprisingly hard to find and so on. recommended.

I think this is one of the reasons I'm so happy drinking these kind of beers from Kent Falls. Most of their beers like this are in the 5.0-6.0 ABV which contrasts to those from Treehouse as an example with ABV's 7.0 +. 

[AaronS]

beermenus says the closest place with their beer is in westport.

[mitchells]

A few places in Greenwich, CT have it too. Both retail stores and restaurants. Here is a link from the brewery:

https://kentfallsbrewing.com/event/20220830-2/

ETA: This week distribution to Greenwich is light but typically gets to several liquor stores and a few restaurants. 

[AaronS]

hudson valley brewing straylight sour ipa with blueberry and lemon - 7% abv. I had the pleasure of visiting the brewery yesterday, and their sour ipas worked for me in a way they never had before. this isn’t one of the beers I had on tap, but the approach is pretty similar and I really don’t know why it doesn’t work as well now. there’s some mildly tart blueberry, lemon, and maybe plum, along with some simple lacto notes in the finish. there’s a little bit of sweetness, some apparent lactose, and not much beer. recommended to people who drink in large industrial spaces or something.

[AaronS]

hudson valley brewery x root + branch x evil twin brewing new york city an even more sour adaptation of root + branch’s “the nomadic approach to reinventing the wheel” brewed with great care at hudson valley brewery in beacon ny under the direct supervision of jeppe himself from evil twin nyc. sour dipa - 8% abv. this pours a nice shade of purple orange, and smells mostly of fruit. they used blueberry, tangerine, coconut, and vanilla in this one, which is more or less how it tastes. this one works a lot better for me than the beer above it, the fruit flavors are better done, it has a thicker mouthfeel, and most importantly the sour notes are a lot less tart and seem like they have more than just lacto in them. the end effect isn’t quite as fruit smoothie like as a lot of the et nyc stuff, there’s no beer flavor here (or apparent alcohol), and I’m sure my kids could crush a few of these.