Epic Beer Thread v27 - Happy Brew Year

[hohner]

I'm a little pissed because I am going to miss the Funky Buddha Maple Bacon Porter bottle release this weekend, but a friend of mine should be grabbing me a couple bottles.

Have any of you MA folks or anyone else here had Barbapapa Imperial Stout from Pretty Things?

I had one on New Years day and though it was amazing. Best non-bourbon stout i've had in a long, long time. Highly recommended

Unfortunately Pretty Things seems to sit on the shelves of the one store down here that carries it. We have only had jack d'or and boltoph brown for months.

 

[KazuyaMishima]

Finally got around to trying the original after having the variants. Nice and roasty with a bit of dark fruit. Looks like this and Old Raspy will be my go-to year rounders.

Yo PUO you still down for the trade?

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Not a problem.

Cant confirm yet but I may have landed a few bottles of Maltose Falcon Brownywine.

Word is Fat Head's is brewing Hop JuJu this week to be released in early Feb. It's (along with Permanent Funeral) the best IPA I've had, period. I will make sure a few make it into your box.

 

[PUO3]

Word is Fat Head's is brewing Hop JuJu this week to be released in early Feb. It's (along with Permanent Funeral) the best IPA I've had, period. I will make sure a few make it into your box.

Sweet. Their Head Hunter blew my mind.

 

[hohner]

Sweet. Their Head Hunter blew my mind.

You should get something tuesday.

Also if you find a bottle of Zarabanda saison by Deschutes and can grab one for me I would be very grateful.

 

[hohner]

Hjul & Stejle*- Bryggeriet Dj

 

[KOQ24]

Leffe Brune
Dubbel

-Big, sweet caramel
-slight banana
-slight roasty coffee
-bready
-well carbonated
-sweet,watery finish

pretty good

St. Bernardus Pater 6
Dubbel

-Caramel,Banana dominating
-roasty coffee
-faint vanilla
-mildly carbonated
-sweet,fairly thin finish

very good,just wish some flavours came through more

Chimay White
Tripel

-Big spicy pepper and coriander
-citrus,honey,apricot notes
-slight grapefruit
-lots of sweet malt
-well carbonated
-grapefruity finish with long,lingering hop bitterness

Chimay doesnt do weak shit

La Trappe Blond

-very sweet beer
-big notes of Caramel,Banana,Honey,bubble gum
-slightly spicy
-undercarbonated
-sweet and malty finish

Good, but a little hop character wouldve balanced the huge sweetness more.

 

[Snubnoze707]

Had a couple top notch beers last night.

Cellarmaker did a collaboration with Brasserie Thiriez from Fance and produced a very clean French Saison. No real funk or tart character but very delicious.

Also reluctantly gave some money to AB InBev for BCBS which I can say I don't feel bad about because it is an amazing beer.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Just a heads up to all you traders out there, I came across a fairly cool website as a part of a FB group I'm in. It streamlines the trading process. You add your gots, FTs, and ISOs and they will give you matches based on others who have what you are looking for and are ISO what you have to offer. I think this would be nice for when you are looking for something specific. I am dying to try (in order) Double Sunshine, Ephraim, and Abner. Given the proper bait, this should make it a lot easier to score it than posting on BA like I normally do.

http://www.thebeerexchange.io/

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Stuff...

You post a lot of great Belgian beers. Are these your first runs through mostly or have you had these beers before?

 

[Sasquatch Smith]

Just a heads up to all you traders out there, I came across a fairly cool website as a part of a FB group I'm in. It streamlines the trading process. You add your gots, FTs, and ISOs and they will give you matches based on others who have what you are looking for and are ISO what you have to offer. I think this would be nice for when you are looking for something specific. I am dying to try (in order) Double Sunshine, Ephraim, and Abner. Given the proper bait, this should make it a lot easier to score it than posting on BA like I normally do.

http://www.thebeerexchange.io/

Abner is deeeelicious. Good choice there. DS as well of course...and Ephraim is, sadly, one of the only "regular" HF IPA's I haven't had

I might be going on a short VT trip again in Feb, i'll keep you in mind if I end up getting up to HF again. I sent Hohner some pretty good stuff last time.

 

[KOQ24]

You post a lot of great Belgian beers. Are these your first runs through mostly or have you had these beers before?

usually all firsts

 

[hohner]

Abner is deeeelicious. Good choice there. DS as well of course...and Ephraim is, sadly, one of the only "regular" HF IPA's I haven't had

I might be going on a short VT trip again in Feb, i'll keep you in mind if I end up getting up to HF again. I sent Hohner some pretty good stuff last time.

Hell yes you did. The Clara and Susan were two of the best beers I've had. I hate to admit it because I'm getting sick of beer that is purposefully hard to get, but Hill Farmstead is just as good as they're made out to be.

 

[Sasquatch Smith]

Hell yes you did. The Clara and Susan were two of the best beers I've had. I hate to admit it because I'm getting sick of beer that is purposefully hard to get, but Hill Farmstead is just as good as they're made out to be.

I'm getting sick of it too. Honestly. The hunt is getting old really, really quickly and coupled with the fact that craft beer is still exponentially getting more popular and the fact that there are some huge assholes out there, some parts of the "beer scene" are becoming borderline unbearable.

In the past couple weeks I have seen this same thing happen a couple times, and it happened again today...someone shares a link in a New England beer facebook group to some dickhead who has posted a case of Heady Topper on a local Craigslist for $250.

That's over $10 PER can, and it's about $150 MORE than a case costs. Yet, some people were defending it, and some people were even claiming "i'd buy it, I don't have time to drive to VT" and shit like that. Which means that someone probably bought it, positively reinforcing the seller and anyone who knows that a case can sell for that much even as close as a couple hours away from VT.

Such horse shit. Really getting old. I wish some of these places would just brew more beer, and I wish some of these idiots would move on to their next hobby already.

 

[MASShole]

^^ I've stopped hunting whales for that reason. It's not worth the effort in many cases.

 

[hohner]

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next few years. Unfortunately I see it getting a lot worse before it gets better.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Hell yes you did. The Clara and Susan were two of the best beers I've had. I hate to admit it because I'm getting sick of beer that is purposefully hard to get, but Hill Farmstead is just as good as they're made out to be.

It makes me furious. I could go on a very long rant but I'll try to keep this short.

Breweries refusing to distribute will cause me to not support them. Breweries who have a massive presence in one market and only one market is ridiculous. Hill Farmstead sends kegs to NYC and Philly so I can respect that. They are a tiny brewery who is still trying to handle production demand in one market. I'm not talking about breweries of that size. What I can't respect however is breweries like New Glarus who are in the top 20 breweries in terms of BBLs/year but only distribute in one state. Distribution is what I do for a living. It's my livelihood that I get paid fairly well to have a firm grasp on. Wholesalers in other states guarantee them a minimum purchase amount per cycle. The risk for a brewery that size is essentially non-existant as this would be an additional cost to the brewery of exactly $0 unless they want to add a sale consultant in that market (which would be unnecessary as the wholesalers handle that end). Simply reduce the allocation of cases in non-performing markets and cap their buy to use it in another market that will perform better. Based on what I know about them, their core beers (while excellent, I'm sure) are essentially shelf turds in their home market. WHY?

There is not room for every brewery to be Lagunitas, Sierra, et al. But when you are that big and that successful, have the means to increase salaries of your employees and provide them with a better standard of living (and maybe even create more jobs if necessary) for an additional cost of 0, not doing so is insulting. They wouldn't even have to increase production.

It's their business and they can run it however they choose. I know I'm normally in the minority in this opinion as craft beer aficionados are generally firmly entrenched in their anti-big business, hipster mindset. But, this makes the capitalist businessman in me want to scream.

/rant

On to more fun topics. One of my best friends from Penn State and my groomsman lives in Dekalb, IL but he just moved from Iowa. He's trying to bring me some Toppling Goliath for my wedding. Pretty excited about that.

 

[Snubnoze707]

SF beer week coming up in a month.

Can't wait to see all these idiots line up for Younger like it's Black Friday...

 

[PUO3]

You should get something tuesday.

Also if you find a bottle of Zarabanda saison by Deschutes and can grab one for me I would be very grateful.

Sweet. Im heading back to Georgia that morning but the ball and chain will be here to grab it. Ill have something back out your way shortly after, will keep an eye out for that saison.

Edco, Ill put yours together also. Send requests.

 

[hohner]

Sweet. Im heading back to Georgia that morning but the ball and chain will be here to grab it. Ill have something back out your way shortly after, will keep an eye out for that saison.

Edco, Ill put yours together also. Send requests.

Tell her to put the lunch and tiny beautiful something in the fridge asap.