The Beer Thread

Scored a bottle of Parabola.  :o

I also got a four pack of Surly's Overated West Coast IPA. Excited to try this…

also got a parabola.  soooooooooo excited about this.  dunno how long i'm going to be able to hold off… must… cellar…  need… streeeeeeeeeeeength…

Schlenkerla Fastenbier
Allagash Odyssey
Brooklyn Blast


Had these at Paradiso Old Town last night. All were very good.

Can definitely see why Fastenbier is the #1 smoked beer in the world on ratebeer. Definitely one of the best German produced beers I've had. Makes me want to go to Bamberg on our next trip to Germany.

The Oddysey is a barrel aged  10.4% abv dark wheat beer categorized as a "strong dark Belgian". It was very good and reminded me of a weizenbock (the best German beer style in my book). Though it wasn't as good as a Schneider Aventinus.

The Brooklyn Blast was a pleasant surprise (not typically a Brooklyn Brewery fan). It's a DIPA in name, but it's definitely low on the bitterness. Very refreshing with burst of flavor. A DIPA for people who don't like DIPA's (and for those who do but want something a little different).

sweetcell wrote:
also got a parabola.  soooooooooo excited about this.  dunno how long i'm going to be able to hold off… must… cellar…  need… streeeeeeeeeeeength…

Try to age it if you can. I popped one open in March that I bought last year and it was well worth the wait. Is it just me or is Parabola even harder to come by this year?

James wrote:
Schlenkerla Fastenbier
Allagash Odyssey
Brooklyn Blast


Had these at Paradiso Old Town last night. All were very good.

Can definitely see why Fastenbier is the #1 smoked beer in the world on ratebeer. Definitely one of the best German produced beers I've had. Makes me want to go to Bamberg on our next trip to Germany.

The Oddysey is a barrel aged  10.4% abv dark wheat beer categorized as a "strong dark Belgian". It was very good and reminded me of a weizenbock (the best German beer style in my book). Though it wasn't as good as a Schneider Aventinus.

The Brooklyn Blast was a pleasant surprise (not typically a Brooklyn Brewery fan). It's a DIPA in name, but it's definitely low on the bitterness. Very refreshing with burst of flavor. A DIPA for people who don't like DIPA's (and for those who do but want something a little different).

Funny I just read something from the Brooklyn Brewery guy who basically said Double IPA's were dumb.  I guess it was a few years ago.  Sell-out. 

He did make an interesting points in the article.  That Craft Breweries only have 4 percent of the market and if you keep introducing people to craft beers with double ipa's you won't get market share as people will say craft beer is awful.  And then go back to drinking mass produced beer.  He makes good points.  He also said a double IPA is like saying be a man and drink this it is the hoppiest beer you have ever drank is like a chef saying be a man and eat this roast as it is the saltiest roast you have ever tasted.

I agreed with all he said and then he does something stupid like make a double IPA.

Garrett Oliver is a cool black man who makes controversial statements that keep Brooklyn Brewery inthe limelight, but he himself is probably too busy doing book tours to have actually brwered any beer himself in the past few years.

I think he made that statement for the same reason the Sam Adams guy made his anti-IPA statement…sour hops. Neither of them have done a decent DIPA. Until now.

Your 4% seems like old numbers. It was 5.7% in 2011 and 6.5% in 2012. See below. That's a significant increase.


Bottom line is no matter where you are, the masses are going to drink the shitty stuff. Even in Belgium with all of their great Trappist and Trappist inspired ales that have been around forever, most people drink Jupilier and Stella. The masses drink beer to get drunk, not for taste. And tasteless lager goes down much faster than tasty beer.





The Brewers Association, which represents ?small? American breweries that produce less than six million barrels annually, proudly announced that craft beer had a terrific 2012. Across the board, craft beer numbers were up: 18% more breweries in the U.S., 15% more beer produced by volume, a 17% increase in sales, and a whopping rise of 72% in American craft beer exports.

Overall, beer sales by volume increased just 1% in 2012. Sales of traditional mass-produced beer in the U.S. have basically remained flat for several years, giving the impression that if consumers are drinking more beer, they?re probably turning to craft beverages. Drinkers even seem to be shying away from the usual beer options on chug-happy holidays like St. Patrick?s Day, when beer sales declined by 4% over the weekend at bars, compared to last year.

All that said, craft beer still accounts for a small portion of the market. A little over 10% of all U.S. dollars spent on beer is directed to craft brews, and in 2012 6.5% of the total volume of beer purchased in the U.S. was craft, up from 5.7% in 2011.



Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/03/22/as-craft-beer-gets-bigger-will-it-become-more-like-big-beer-or-perhaps-wine/#ixzz2Si5JfHfH

atomicfront wrote:

James wrote:
Schlenkerla Fastenbier
Allagash Odyssey
Brooklyn Blast


Had these at Paradiso Old Town last night. All were very good.

Can definitely see why Fastenbier is the #1 smoked beer in the world on ratebeer. Definitely one of the best German produced beers I've had. Makes me want to go to Bamberg on our next trip to Germany.

The Oddysey is a barrel aged  10.4% abv dark wheat beer categorized as a "strong dark Belgian". It was very good and reminded me of a weizenbock (the best German beer style in my book). Though it wasn't as good as a Schneider Aventinus.

The Brooklyn Blast was a pleasant surprise (not typically a Brooklyn Brewery fan). It's a DIPA in name, but it's definitely low on the bitterness. Very refreshing with burst of flavor. A DIPA for people who don't like DIPA's (and for those who do but want something a little different).

Funny I just read something from the Brooklyn Brewery guy who basically said Double IPA's were dumb.  I guess it was a few years ago.  Sell-out. 

He did make an interesting points in the article.  That Craft Breweries only have 4 percent of the market and if you keep introducing people to craft beers with double ipa's you won't get market share as people will say craft beer is awful.  And then go back to drinking mass produced beer.  He makes good points.  He also said a double IPA is like saying be a man and drink this it is the hoppiest beer you have ever drank is like a chef saying be a man and eat this roast as it is the saltiest roast you have ever tasted.

I agreed with all he said and then he does something stupid like make a double IPA.

i guess making something that people might enjoy . . . is out of the question.  so if the brooklyn brewer guy does like lambics, they are stupid too?  

walkonby wrote:
i guess making something that people might enjoy . . . is out of the question.  so if the brooklyn brewer guy does like lambics, they are stupid too?  

Lambics are fine.  More breweries should make them.  But Lambics are a lot harder to make than a double IPA.  I also hate how so many craft brews are so strong.  Who wants to drink beers that are 9 percent all the time?  How many can you drink?

you know . . . i hate that too.  but then, i have to look at the fact that i only drink one or two of them a day; instead of the normal, local tradition of being on your 10th budweiser by 5:30pm.

atomicfront wrote:

walkonby wrote:
i guess making something that people might enjoy . . . is out of the question.  so if the brooklyn brewer guy does like lambics, they are stupid too?  

Lambics are fine.  More breweries should make them.  But Lambics are a lot harder to make than a double IPA.  I also hate how so many craft brews are so strong.  Who wants to drink beers that are 9 percent all the time?  How many can you drink?

What's the point of drinking eight mediocre beers when you can drink two or three of a great beer?

walkonby wrote:
you know . . . i hate that too.  but then, i have to look at the fact that i only drink one or two of them a day; instead of the normal, local tradition of being on your 10th budweiser by 5:30pm.

I might want to have 2 or 3 beers with dinner.  If I have 3 eight percent beers I shouldn't be driving. 

atomicfront wrote:

walkonby wrote:
you know . . . i hate that too.  but then, i have to look at the fact that i only drink one or two of them a day; instead of the normal, local tradition of being on your 10th budweiser by 5:30pm.

I might want to have 2 or 3 beers with dinner.  If I have 3 eight percent beers I shouldn't be driving. 

This is true.

then only have one . . . is that so hard, you alcoholic slut?

walkonby wrote:
then only have one . . . is that so hard, you alcoholic slut?

Actually having one is hard.  Once you have one you want another.  Especially if it is tasty.

told you, you were a slut.

I don't see the need to drink two or three beers with dinner all by myself. 12-16 ounces of beer plus a glass or two of water seems like a more than adequate amount of liquid.

Then again, I only weigh 169 pounds and aint built like a linebacker.

atomicfront wrote:

walkonby wrote:
you know . . . i hate that too.  but then, i have to look at the fact that i only drink one or two of them a day; instead of the normal, local tradition of being on your 10th budweiser by 5:30pm.

I might want to have 2 or 3 beers with dinner.  If I have 3 eight percent beers I shouldn't be driving. 

BrettnotBritt wrote:
Try to age it if you can. I popped one open in March that I bought last year and it was well worth the wait. Is it just me or is Parabola even harder to come by this year?

oh, i will.  i was just reminiscing last night about the Parabola (and Sucuba, and 16, and…) that i had on tap during CBC.  it was awesome then, i can only imagine what this will be like after a year.

James wrote:

Then again, I only weigh 169 pounds and aint built like a linebacker.

 

At least you have your hair. 

atomicfront wrote:
That Craft Breweries only have 4 percent of the market and if you keep introducing people to craft beers with double ipa's you won't get market share as people will say craft beer is awful.  And then go back to drinking mass produced beer.  He makes good points.  He also said a double IPA is like saying be a man and drink this it is the hoppiest beer you have ever drank is like a chef saying be a man and eat this roast as it is the saltiest roast you have ever tasted.

I agreed with all he said and then he does something stupid like make a double IPA.

you can't deal with a DIPA, we get it.  many of us do like them, note how quickly many DIPAs sell out.

and your 4% number is old.  craft beer is knocking on the 10% mark… and the #1 driver of that growth is big, hoppy beers.  people aren't saying hoppy = awful. quite on the contrary, it's introducing folks to the fact that beer can be incredibly flavorful.  many folks move on to big stouts, coffee porters, weird belgians, fruit-aged kolsch, sours, etc… but the hop bomb is the gateway beer.

edit: agree with Ford about the sour hops.  they day that BB and SA figure out how to make an award-winning DIPA is the day they retract those statements.  i'm not holding my breath, but it's fine by me.  not everyone needs to make one.  i much prefer BB's belgian-influenced offerings.

my favorite (its hard to not add that u, for no reason) thing to do is to find the hoppiest, most ipaiest beer i can find, and just drink one . . . then walk around smelling like i have drunk five.  that always works out great.