Mitchell101 Posted December 8, 2023 Share Posted December 8, 2023 @AaronS, do you have any insight on why Maine Beer Co. is still making their IPA's in bottles while just about every other craft beer company of its size and stature is using cans? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted December 8, 2023 Author Share Posted December 8, 2023 (edited) the current format allows them to charge really high prices for their beer, I guess selling it in a slightly larger size/different format makes it a different kind of purchase than a four pack and keeps it from being shelved with them a lot of the time. four packs at the current price per ounce would be the most expensive hoppy beer almost everywhere their beer is sold by a decent margin and probably wouldn't work. 15 or 20 years ago almost every brewery was able to sell hoppy beer in 22oz bottles, which only works for high abv stouts or wild ales for almost every other brewery I can think of now. they're lucky, and it probably helps that most beer consumers can't do the price per ounce math in their head. read some beer advocate if you don't believe the last point. also if you look at the packaging it's clearly aimed at a different person than a lot of the other expensive craft stuff, and someone who is willing to pay more for really well made examples of an older style of beer making probably doesn't want 64 ounces of beer a night. it's impressive they can charge so much without chasing trends or making gimmicky beer. almost none of it above 7.5% either, which is usually a prerequisite at their price point. Edited December 8, 2023 by AaronS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 finback wellspring: riwaka pilsner pilsner naturally carbonated and dry hopped with riwaka - 5.4% abv. finback isn't really known for their lagers but I've always liked this series a lot, and riwaka hops are probably my favorite right now and this was an easy purchase. riwaka hops are full of the same lychee/rambutan/new zealand flavors you get in nelson sauvin but beers made with them usually are more delicate and nuanced than nelson ones. this is a lot hoppier than the way I remember the other beers in this series, there's not much malt character here and all you really get is the hops. there's nothing wrong with that, of course, but this isn't as much like a pilsner as I thought it would be. mildly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell101 Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 Schilling Resilience Combover IPA. Hazy and fruity IPA with just the right amount of bitterness for me. And Grimm Day of Radiance IPA, very tropical and very hazy. Lots of pineapple and mango. Both quite enjoyable at my new favorite beer bar, 124 Old Rabbit Club. Small place with friendly servers who seem to know their beer. Really good music too with lots of headbanging tunes @AaronS would really enjoy. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 I went around ten years ago if memory serves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted December 23, 2023 Author Share Posted December 23, 2023 abomination brewing company and hey, fuck 2023 too triple dry hopped india pale ale - brewed at the 12 percent brewing project in north haven ct, 9.7% abv. abomination is a pennsylvania brewer that’s been one of the 12 percent brands for a long time. their ipas are usually toward the bitter end of the north east ipa spectrum, which was a welcome break from the sweeter other half high abv ipas I drank so many of for so long. this is exactly the way I remember their beer - it’s as opaque and hazy as any ne ipa but the primary flavor is best described as hop burn and while you do get some detail after you get used to all the bitterness it never really leaves. I can’t find a record of what hops they used in this one on the web, but I’m guessing it was a lot of strata and nectaron along with maybe some citra. It’s mostly stone fruit (apricot, peach) with a little bit of berry and the tropical part of the citra flavor profile and while there’s no real malt presence there’s a decent amount of sweetness here too. this is a nice version of what I thought it would be. I picked this up because I’m pretty annoyed at how nostalgic my drinking has become but this is the kind of huge, in your face american beer I’ve always liked even if it doesn’t contain any caramel malt. mildly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieL Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 Shmaltz Brewing Company, makers of He'Brew (the Chosen Beer) and others, officially closed in 2021 when the old owner retired. (The name and assets were recently bought by a Reform rabbinical student--no joke.) Last night, we had their very last beer, a barleywine brewed with dates, figs, pomegranate, and grapes called Exodus 2021 - A Farewell to Shmaltz. For a 2-year-old barleywine, it was rich and fruity but not super-heavy. We drank it at room temperature while watching "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" on Netflix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 Schilling Beer Co. Karluv 13° Now THIS is something. It's a Czech-style Black Lager: a kind of beer that I didn't know existed until a few minutes ago. What it has is the dark round bitter flavor of a stout with the sharpness and light texture of a lager. Or to put it a different way, a meeting between the kind of beers @AaronS most likes and the kind of beers I most like. The farmer and the cowboy can be friends! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 This is REALLY good. I never knew I wanted something like this. But evidently I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieL Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 Firestone Walker's Cinnamon Dolce Nitro Stout. Surprisingly subtle, and just a little sweet. I think it would be nice poured over ice cream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 to øl B-Bon mælk imperial milk stout matured with bourbon barrel chips - brewed at de proef in belgium, 11% abv. it's been a really long time since I've had something from de proef, the belgian brewery set up for contract brewing that made almost all of the mikkeller, to øl, and omnipollo beer that I used to love so much. this beer probably goes back to those days, while the bottle is undated it tastes older than the 2019 barrel aged yule mælk's I had so many of. those had a higher abv, which usually helps things age, but this is in pretty good shape and is very enjoyable. there's a big set of roasted malt and vanilla at first that gives way to some bitterness and a very mild set of bourbon flavors that work well with the small amount of apparent alcohol. the finish has a mixture of lactose and some acidity that probably wasn't there when this was bottled, but it's easy to drink and it has the kind of simple depth that good examples of old beer do. not recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 4, 2024 Author Share Posted January 4, 2024 industrial arts brewing power tools west coast style india pale ale bold & evergreen - 7.3% abv. industrial arts has had a beer by this name the whole time they've been open, although I think it had slightly lower abv at first and was simply an american ipa at first. I've always been a little bit frustrated by this beer, it's one of the few non-hazy ipas from a good local brewery and peekskill made a lot of great examples of this kind of beer when the industrial arts guy was there. I don't know if this changed when industrial arts moved to the larger brewery in beacon or how different the recipe is, but this is better than I remember it. you can see by looking at it that it's not a real west coast ipa, but the hop profile isn't that far off and there is some grainy malt underneath the bitterness. the basic mixture of pine and citrus with some pineapple, mango, and a little bit of peach which sounds pretty close to the way I'd describe eastern standard or one of his peekskill beers but tastes worse, probably because it doesn't walk the line between west coast and hazy ipa styles blah blah blah and another hundred blahs. still enjoyable and could be recommended to people with shitty bodegas and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 8, 2024 Author Share Posted January 8, 2024 sierra nevada bigfoot barleywine-style ale - 9.6% abv. this is the bigger version of my other favorite sierra beer - it's got a higher abv than celebration but uses the same six ingredients. I had a slightly older one recently that was terrific - it was still hoppy, had some really well developed malt notes, and the beginning of the classic orange marmalade and caramel flavor profile you get in the good examples of english style barley wines. this doesn't really have any of that yet - the caramel and citrus are there but there's a lot of malt on top of them and this isn't as pleasant as the way I remember fresh ones. recommended if you hold onto it for a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 16, 2024 Author Share Posted January 16, 2024 (edited) tired hands only void imperial stout - 11% abv. tired hands is a main line philadelphia brewer that's a few years older than the similar breweries in this area. I haven't had that much of their stuff, they've been distributing here for at least a year but it's always the same few things and the majority of what I've had has been on tap at special events. I remember being floored by this at a tap takeover at covenoven about nine years ago where I was unable to try any hoppy beer because we showed up an hour or so after it started. this is a pretty credible americanized russian imperial stout - it opens with a bunch of bitter roasted notes that have a lot of nuance - espresso, dark chocolate, but also some grassy hops, creaminess, anise/molasses stuff, and some booze, and there's a nice mix of toffee and mint in the long finish. this is exactly the kind of huge but nuanced beer I've always liked, and the way the apparent alcohol is integrated with the other flavors reminds me a lot of the older evil twin recipes I liked so much. recommended. Edited January 16, 2024 by AaronS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 21, 2024 Author Share Posted January 21, 2024 three floyds artic panzer wolf imperial india pale ale - 9% abv. nostalgia is undoubtedly the main reason I go out of my way to drink three floyds, but when their stuff is good it’s really good and I’m glad I bothered to go to the UES to pick this up. (the met was worthwhile too.) this is a terrific old school double ipa - there’s a bunch of sweet peach and white grape flavors that have the carmelized/marmalade character I like so much with only a little direct malt flavor. the finish is a little bit drier and has some citrus and nz hop like greenness, although the can says they only use american hops. if the year round beers that are so easy to find were anywhere near this good I’d buy almost nothing else. it may help that I’ve looked at stuff from the guy who did the can art everyday since 2000 without getting tired of it blah blah blah. strongly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 22, 2024 Author Share Posted January 22, 2024 (edited) omnipollo nebuchadnezzar imperial india pale ale - 8.5% abv, brewed by twelve percent, north haven, ct. this is one of the oldest omnipollo beers and the de proef version was definitely the first omnipollo beer I had. this makes an interesting contrast with last night’s beer - this has an older hop bill (columbis, centennial, simcoe) but has flaked oats and it’s not surprising that the next beer they sent to new york was a north east ipa, even if I didn’t know it at the time. this is slightly hazy and has a combination of peach and grapefruit that’s reasonably bitter at first but has some layered soft citrus flavors in the finish, and it tastes a lot more modern than the hop bill sounds. I haven’t seen their beer around much lately but this is the first beer I’ve had that was canned in 2024 and there was a batch of this that I missed somewhere between haloween or thanksgiving. hard to say how much nostalgia is at play here but I like this a lot more than anything I had from a local haze merchant blah blah blah. recommended. Edited January 22, 2024 by AaronS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted January 23, 2024 Share Posted January 23, 2024 After a concert of music from the Weimar Republic, what you might call an Axis Dinner. A Morscher's hot dog, on a sort of pretzel roll that I think came from Poland. With that Swedish hot dog mustard and some of this carroway-flavored sauerkraut that we're going to be seeing a lot of this week (tomorrow will be its apotheosis). I'd never had a Morscher's hot dog before. It was fantastic. SIGH. On the side, some mizuna with scallion, dressed with sesame oil and rice vinegar, sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds. You might say this beverage isn't particularly season-appropriate. But compared to yesterday, today was Summer. Goffel Kölsch It feels lame to say this about something so mass, but this really is one of my favorite things to drink, of any kind. The crispness of a Pilsner, but with a honeyed malty undertone. Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds? Not reallly: definitely tilts toward crispness. That's why I like it so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 25, 2024 Author Share Posted January 25, 2024 the franny's of ridgewood has it on tap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted January 26, 2024 Share Posted January 26, 2024 I always end up drinking wine there. But maybe not next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted January 26, 2024 Share Posted January 26, 2024 Wait I misspeak. Wine after an earlybird 'cini & 'tini special: to my mind, the best deal going right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 26, 2024 Author Share Posted January 26, 2024 wine goes better with most food. would have a beer with their burger I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted January 26, 2024 Share Posted January 26, 2024 You know, my understanding is that in Italy beer is preferred to wine as a pairing for pizza. Although I think I misconstrued what is the Ridgewood Franny's. Haven't been to the place you mean yet. Very soon, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted January 26, 2024 Author Share Posted January 26, 2024 franny’s wasn’t a pizzeria. didn’t I learn that from you? I’m kinda shocked you haven’t been. the first time I went I overheard the one of owners interviewing a potential cook and he said they were trying to be franny’s. I think it’s one of the better nbc places I’ve been to, and the multiple vernaculars thing kinda works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted January 26, 2024 Share Posted January 26, 2024 (edited) I’ve certainly stared into it several times. I was never there at the right time. Soon I’ll be there ALL the time. Edited January 26, 2024 by Sneakeater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Bonner Posted January 26, 2024 Share Posted January 26, 2024 Why are being vague about what place this is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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