The Beer Thread

James wrote:
Completely agree. Glad I and a free paste and didn't pay for it.

Sadly, I think Dogfish has been pretty much been surpassed and overtaken in the beer world. Not that I wouldn't be happy to drink some at a party or something.

Yada wrote:
Finally tried the American Beauty release from Dogfish Head… pretty, pretty mediocre.

James Ford has to be the person who drinks the most beer but knows the least about it.  Stop talking about beer you are an idiot when it comes to beer. 

walkonby wrote:
god im glad i quit drinking two months ago.  i got tired of the pressure of what i thought i was suppose to drink.  stupid beer cults.

Here is a clue drink what you like.  Cool people don't care what others think of the beer they drink. 

Nice writeup/reviews of the 2013 Bourbon County variants:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/25/brace-yourselves-here-come-goose-islands-2013-bourbon-county-variants

but hutch . . . im not cool.  never have been, never will be.  im a nerd, and nerds have big cocks.  oopps, that just slipped out.

I think you're confusing Hutch with Atomic. Sounds like you are drinking again. Congrats.

walkonby wrote:
but hutch . . . im not cool.  never have been, never will be.  im a nerd, and nerds have big cocks.  oopps, that just slipped out.

damn . . . you

the in-laws asked me to do a beer run yesterday, which 'round these parts means checking into the Harpoon brewery.  they will essentially pour you unlimited samples, especially if you sit at the bar and order a beer.  as has been discussed here before, most of their offerings fall somewhere between boring and serviceable.  several of their beers are a lot better fresh on tap: their rye IPA, white IPA and chocolate cherry porter were good.  they had a barley wine that was way too sweet.  the two best things the had on tap were:

- my glass of Saison Various was downright tasty.  unfortunately they kicked the last keg before i could fill my growler.  they had sold out of bottles.  dammit.  the barkeep said it was one of the best beers they've brewed recently, i would be inclined to believe him

- their imperial IPA was entirely respectable.  i didn't get a growler of that because of price ($16, twice the cost of other fills) and the fact that i'm the only hop-head around.  i bought a 4-pack, which was a bust: totally unimpressive.

sweetcell wrote:

Yada wrote:

James wrote:
Was that the Warren Store by any chance? Or are you saying you actually found those beers at a gas station?

if it was the Warren Store, he should've walked out with HF and Lawsons, so I'm assuming not.

nope, literally a gas station.  well, the quickie-mart/convenience store inside the gas station.

i stopped into said gas station yesterday on my way back from Harpoon.  as if the previous selection wasn't impressive enough, i missed the following bottles on the shelves:

- Founders Bolt Cutter ($19, wasn't it like $25 or more when i last saw it on shelves… in may?)
- Element Dark Element
- Element Red Giant
- Uinta Cockeyed Cooper
- AleSmith Speedway Stout
- AleSmith Old Numbskull

must… resist…

What beers did y'all have with your Thanksgiving meal?

Our Thanksgiving was brought to us by the Duvel and In-Bev empires.

With the vegetarian bratwurst and potato latke we had a bomber of La Chouffe.

With the pecan pie, we had a bomber of 2012 Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout.

Yum.

the 3 stars cranberry saison went very well with our turkey

a growler of deschutes abyss was opened yesterday… but mostly wine during the meal.

i had water.  beer is dead.

stevewizzle wrote:
a growler of deschutes abyss was opened yesterday… but mostly wine during the meal.

dang!

finally got to try DirtWolf tonight.  as much as it pains me to agree with Ford, it's better than The Truth.  the bitterness is comparable but not as harsh.  truth is more on the dank side while dirtwolf is tropical and fruity (no wonder, what with its use of Citra, Chinook, Simcoe and Mosaic).  i suppose one thing that the truth has over dirtwolf is value: i just paid $10 for a 4-pack of dirtwolf, while you can get 6 truths for the same price.  but i'd rather have less of better, so dirtwolf wins.

James wrote:
What beers did y'all have with your Thanksgiving meal?

in providing beer for the feast, my goal was to bring something that looked fancier than it actually was.  i didn't want to break open the cellar too much so i brought 2011 and 2012 version of Unibroue/Trader Joe's Vintage Ale.  folks liked it just fine, but talk about meh.  there was little to no difference between the two versions, so aging isn't bringing much to this brew.  maybe if i had a fresh version there might have been a discernible difference.  i'm done with the vintage ale.

we had a much better experience comparing a fresh Old Dominion Millennium Ale with a 2 year old version of itself earlier this week.  talk about a huge change.  the new version was mostly hops and alcohol burn.  the 2 year old version was pure caramel.  

I was at Pizza Paradiso Dupont and they said they were in the process of getting rid of all of their pint glasses. No more servings larger than 12 oz, even on the low abv beers. No pints at a bar? WTF is up with that? Bad move. And what about those cool 20 oz hefe glasses? Guess they are a thing of the past too.

Props to Pizza Paradiso on doing better prices than Churchkey today though 4 oz pour of Parabola at Pizza Paradiso=$4.50. 4 oz pour of BCBS at Churchkey=$6.50.

12 oz of a 3% berliner wiesse… awesome.  i'll take 3, please.

Just a guess, but maybe they are clearing space and planning on going the 4 oz pour route. Good for non-happy hour times, I reckon.

sweetcell wrote:
12 oz of a 3% berliner wiesse… awesome.  i'll take 3, please.

Bourbon County Regular, Coffee, and Backyard hit Total Wines in VA today. No Barleywine.

they had backyard rye?!?  hope you grabbed some (and bring it to the next bottle share ;D)

Backyard Was sold out when i got to both stores.

TW Springfield said it sold out as soon as it got in the door. There were 12 people standing in line waiting for the truck to arrive.

WF Fairfax posted that they got it a little while ago. i'm not even bothering with trying.

sweetcell wrote:
they had backyard rye?!?  hope you grabbed some (and bring it to the next bottle share ;D)

drank a boneyard hop venom two nights ago. damn is that a fine beer. 

i'd put it somewhere between heady and pliny, it's that good.