what beers are you drinking? (post-apocalypse)

[Sneakeater]

The Seneca

[AaronS]

no, the franny’s of ridgewood is rolo’s. it’s worth going to if you’re in the area.

Edited January 27 by AaronS

[AaronS]

the seneca is good too. better beer than rolo’s.

[Sneakeater]

Oh I'm at Rolo's all the time.

When I can get in.

[Sneakeater]

I've even had a Kölsch there.

(Well not a Kölsch.)

[AaronS]

fat orange cat less more new england style double india pale ale - 8.4% abv, brewed at the 12% beer project in north haven. 12 percent llc has a lot of brands I don't really keep up with, the key food has a bunch of their stuff at the moment, this is the second freshest one after the omnipollo beer I had last time, and I didn't remember that the last thing I had from this one was terrible until I left the store. this is a straight up the middle north east ipa. it was made with citra and ahtamun hops, which is a combination you don't see much although I think ahtamun is used in beers like jai alai. this is pretty bitter with a simple citrus hop profile underneath - I would have have guessed this was mostly mandarina bavaria or one of those german hops that's never that interesting. meh.

[Sneakeater]

I always assumed Krainerwurst was either German, cuz I first had it at the Ideal on East 86th Street, or Austrian, cuz I've had it most often at Café Katja.

Turns out, though, that it's Slovenian.  Which means the Gottscheers come by it honestly.

I ate my Krainerwursten in the Austrian manner (not that my Austrian forebears ate pork sausage), on buns with mustard.  A Bavarian sweet-and-sour cabbage dish on the side.

It seemed to me that a smoked Helles would be a good thing to drink with this.

Schilling Beer Co. Glimmer

Helles is a style of Lager made around Munich.  Vulgar American that I am, I usually find it insufficiently hoppy:  I like my Lagers razor-sharp.

Smoke the malt, though, and you get something that, while it drinks well enough on its own, becomes absolutely sensational with a smoked sausages.  This is one of those pairings that you eat and drink it and you just go, "right!"

Edited January 28 by Sneakeater

[StephanieL]

When I travel domestically, I like to get beer from tiny local breweries that I know won’t be available at home, even in my ginormous Total Wine. When I visited PA for Thanksgiving, I picked up two beers from Neshaminy Creek Brewing in Croydon: a collaboration with Rita’s Italian Ice (to have in the summer) and JAWN of the Dead Red Rye IPA. The latter is a copper-red, bitter-but-not-super hoppy IPA that clocks in at 6.5% ABV. Part of the proceeds from the sales go to The George A. Romero Foundation.

[AaronS]

omnipollo eliphas double india pale ale - 8.1% abv, brewed at the 12% brewing project in north haven. this is a relatively new omnipollo recipe that uses a mix of "the juiciest hops they could find"  that can't be googled. this is pretty solid - there's a slightly thicker than average mouthfeel, more bitterness than usual, and the hop profile is something like tangerine pith and mango creamsicle. this is better than the last couple things I had at finback and so on. mildly recommended.

[Mitchell101]

Anyone know anything about NY’s new experimental hops 008? Going to pick up fresh cans of Kent Falls Shruggie made with them over the weekend. 

[AaronS]

abomination brewing co love letters from hell milkshake style triple India pale ale with candy hearts, sprinkles, marshmallows, milk sugar, vanilla bean, strawberry, ice cream & artificial colors - brewed at the 12% brewing project in north haven, ct, 9.7% abv. I don’t know what the artificial colors are about, this looks like a typical hazy ne ipa. you wouldn’t really expect it to taste like one, but this more or less works like a triple ipa despite all of the adjuncts. there’s an artificial set of sweet vanilla and strawberry notes, followed by a little bit of hop burn and some lactose. this isn’t as well put together as the omnipollo or mortalis stuff but it’s more or less what I hoped it would be.

[AaronS]

trillium fort point pale ale - 6.6% abv. trillium, as we all know, is one of the original north east ipa makers that's gone from being trade bait to legal distribution over the last ten years. I haven't had enough of their beer to get a real handle on it, the stuff I had on tap at their boston location wasn't great but I've enjoyed some of the cans I've had over the years. this is one of their early beers and I remember enjoying this last time I had it. it was also the freshest can at the place I picked this up. this one has citra and columbus and tastes mostly like the former - this is a really nice version of the really familiar mix of grapefruit, mango, and pineapple you get with citra that has the right amount of bitterness in the finish along with a hint of some vegetal stuff that's not great. middle recommended.

[AaronS]

jester king citrus froot direct farmhouse india pale ale with fresh squeezed orange juice - 6.6% abv. jester king is an  austin, texas area brewery that makes some of the best yeast driven beer I've had. I especially like their farmhouse ales - there've all had a great version of the classic belgian farmhouse yeast profile that's a little drier than usual. this beer pairs that with some initial malt sweetness, orange juice, and a mild amount of new american hops which are followed by a slightly bretty version of the dry farmhouse yeast I like so much. that yeast note is the dominant flavor here, but everything is well done and so on. recommended.

[AaronS]

evil twin brewing new york city emperor marlon quadruple india pale ale hops: double dry hopped with citra, mosaic, cashmere - 12% abv, brewed in ridgewood. this is exactly the kind of beer evil twin used to make before they had their own brewery - a huge, exaggerated versions of american beer that almost worked. I haven't really kept up with their stuff - for instance this is the first of the quadruple ipas they've made in this series that I've had - but my general impression is that things got a lot worse after the initial brewer left for root and branch. this has a decent version of the hop profile you'd expect from these three hops - a little bit of melon on top of the usual tropical stuff and a fair amount of apparent alcohol. meh. 

[Mitchell101]

I missed your reports. 

[Sneakeater]

Ditto

[backyardchef]

Ridgewood, you say........?

[Wilfrid]

During those heat waves I was limping into At the Wallace and ordering a large Forged Irish Stout, partly because large means large At the Wallace, and partly because (frozen mug) it was ice cold. A little sweeter than Guinness perhaps.

[Sneakeater]

6 hours ago, backyardchef said:

Ridgewood, you say........?

Yeah on George Street.

[Wilfrid]

23 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

During those heat waves I was limping into At the Wallace and ordering a large Forged Irish Stout…

Today was hot enough.

[AaronS]

thanks guys.

the alchemist heady topper ale - 8% abv. the guy at the bodega was upset that I didn't want to buy this from him because I had already picked it up at the grocery store, and what's interesting about that to me is that this hasn't lost any of it's luster as it gets easier and easier for me to buy. I still have no idea what hops are in this, it's still dank with barely any citrus, it's still insanely easy to drink, there's that weird peanut butter jelly belly note that a lot of early other half beers had, and so on. really hope I get to the brewery sooner rather than later and have something other than this and focal banger blah blah blah....

[AaronS]

OEC brewing space lion ipa - 6.4% abv. OEC makes terrific beer, I think this is the first IPA I've had from them, there's no date on these cans, this is terrible. I think it's far more likely that this is pretty old than anything else, but I guess I have no idea blah blah blah and blah and some other blah.

Edited August 26 by AaronS
I put a space where it was needed.

[AaronS]

blackberry farm brewery ipa - 7% abv. this used to be made at a fancy resort that people here will be familiar with, although apparently the brewery changed hands recently and this was made at peaceful side brewing.  the new owner seems to have stuck with an old fashioned brewery model - they have a stable line up of straight forward interpretations of classic styles. this has become one of my go to beers - it’s one of the better renditions of a classic west coast ipa on the shelves around here. these cans aren’t dated and seem to be a little older than usual, but there’s still a nice version of the pine and citrus with some stone fruit underneath you get with older style ipas and a light malt presence. the overall effect is a lot like a lesser version of the current version of firestone walker’s union jack, but fresher cans usually have the detail that’s missing here. I guess I don’t know if things got worse when they started making it elsewhere blah blah blah.

anyone looking for this kind of beer should get the newish industrial arts week 417 release, which I’ll try to pick up tomorrow.

[AaronS]

industrial arts brewing company week 417 west coast india pale ale ipa brewed with cascade, citra, mosaic, and simcoe hops - 6.4% abv. this is the kind of beer that jeff oneil used to knock out of the park at his previous breweries - ithaca and especially peekskill were reliably among the very best local examples of older style ipas. that isn’t really true of industrial arts, and I’m always frustrated that their power tools - their beer that’s most like this - isn’t better. this is great though, and easily the best new beer I’ve had from them in a long time. this isn’t as malty as the old beers were - and it doesn’t look like they used caramel malt - but it’s there, and the hop profile has some strawberry and underripe fruit underneath the pine and citrus you’d expect from the old school hop bill. this has a lot of flavor for the abv, really wish they would replace power tools with this in their regular line up blah blah blah

[AaronS]

firestone walker oaktoberfest oak aged lager - 52% abv. this is a fairly traditional festbier aged in french oak barrels. it’s a little bit hoppier than most, and has a lower abv than almost all festbiers. did it have the required original gravity? does the oak aging reduce the abv? etc? the overall effect is a straight forward malt festbier with just a little bit more detail and a little bit more noble hops.

Edited September 11 by AaronS
festbier not feather