The Beer Thread

James wrote:
I don't think either of them fit the geographic and/or time parameters of my trip. Though I'll certainly have Jack's Abbey bottles on my radar screen for the suitcase home.

Looks like plenty of excellent possibilities in Maine, as well as potential Boston area visits to Trillium, Night Shift, and um, Harpoon.

stevewizzle wrote:

brennser wrote:

James wrote:
Researching my August road trip to Maine, I can across this rather funny review of a place in Portland:

let me know what you find - we're heading up there in July and I think i have my bases pretty well covered but you never know

if you're roadtripping, you should be able to easily hit up treehouse and jack's abbey.  treehouse is growlers only, but it's worth it if they are filling any of their excellent IPAs.

night shift sours are awesome. i recommended harpoon a while back, glad you'll drop in. even BA agrees it's great! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/98/

My hotel is 0.5 miles from Harpoon and 0.4 miles from Trillium. I'd be a fool not to go.

Night Shift of course is a bit more of a trek, but that's why god made running shoes.

stevewizzle wrote:

James wrote:
I don't think either of them fit the geographic and/or time parameters of my trip. Though I'll certainly have Jack's Abbey bottles on my radar screen for the suitcase home.

Looks like plenty of excellent possibilities in Maine, as well as potential Boston area visits to Trillium, Night Shift, and um, Harpoon.

stevewizzle wrote:

brennser wrote:

James wrote:
Researching my August road trip to Maine, I can across this rather funny review of a place in Portland:

let me know what you find - we're heading up there in July and I think i have my bases pretty well covered but you never know

if you're roadtripping, you should be able to easily hit up treehouse and jack's abbey.  treehouse is growlers only, but it's worth it if they are filling any of their excellent IPAs.

night shift sours are awesome. i recommended harpoon a while back, glad you'll drop in. even BA agrees it's great! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/98/

outside those two breweries, you're kind of in a craft beer wasteland as far as boston goes.

Fortunately, I'll have plenty of evening time free to head to Cambridge (and Night Shift).

stevewizzle wrote:
outside those two breweries, you're kind of in a craft beer wasteland as far as boston goes.

i had a beer for the first time since last september.  it was a special occasion and i only had one.  it was founders devil dancer.  so, damn, good.   

walkonby wrote:
i had a beer for the first time since last september.  it was a special occasion and i only had one.  it was founders devil dancer.  so, damn, good.   

what…was…the…occasion?

anniversary.  you know, what is odd; i still dont miss excellent beer.  and good lord, the price of those things should make anybody want to stop, as well.

walkonby wrote:
anniversary.  you know, what is odd; i still dont miss excellent beer.  and good lord, the price of those things should make anybody want to stop, as well.

you forgot to log in to the james ford account

$5/12 oz. 13% abv. Two of them for $10 is equivalent to a $10 bottle of wine.

walkonby wrote:
anniversary.  you know, what is odd; i still dont miss excellent beer.  and good lord, the price of those things should make anybody want to stop, as well.

stevewizzle wrote:

walkonby wrote:
anniversary.  you know, what is odd; i still dont miss excellent beer.  and good lord, the price of those things should make anybody want to stop, as well.

you forgot to log in to the james ford account

how, dare you

Drank 3 beers on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday.  I went into Max's on Saturday and they didn't have one beer that I wanted to try.  Walked a cross to some dump called Leadbetters and they had Paulander on tap.  Score. 

So how is your "getting back into shape" plan going?

atomic wrote:
Drank 3 beers on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday.  I went into Max's on Saturday and they didn't have one beer that I wanted to try.  Walked a cross to some dump called Leadbetters and they had Paulander on tap.  Score. 

James wrote:
So how is your "getting back into shape" plan going?

atomic wrote:
Drank 3 beers on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday.  I went into Max's on Saturday and they didn't have one beer that I wanted to try.  Walked a cross to some dump called Leadbetters and they had Paulander on tap.  Score. 

Good.  I have lost 15 pounds so far. Even with the beer and food frenzy of the weekend with  2 hours of raquetball and an hour and half of basketball and healthy lunches I am still down for the week.   How about you have you put on some muscle?

Good, I reckon. Perhaps this should be in your fitness thread…

Back up to 11 mile runs on weekends. Run four days a week, bike the other three. Haven't lost any weight, but some would argue I don't need to.

I'm trying to drink more low-abv session IPA's and hefeweizens and less DIPA's, at least for the summer. Hoping to do enough hiking and running when on vacation in Colorado to counteract the multiple brewery visits. Though hiking with a seven year old means doing shorter hikes than I like…

Speaking of low abv session IPA's, anybody have a favorite? I've had Lagunitas, Stone, Founders, and Great Divide, and that's my order of preference.

And as far as hefe's go, Weistephaner is the best in the world. And six packs are cheap. I should be drinking more of that in the summer. DC Brau's hefe is pretty tasty too.

atomic wrote:

James wrote:
So how is your "getting back into shape" plan going?

atomic wrote:
Drank 3 beers on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday.  I went into Max's on Saturday and they didn't have one beer that I wanted to try.  Walked a cross to some dump called Leadbetters and they had Paulander on tap.  Score. 

Good.  I have lost 15 pounds so far. Even with the beer and food frenzy of the weekend with  2 hours of raquetball and an hour and half of basketball and healthy lunches I am still down for the week.   How about you have you put on some muscle?

James wrote:
Good, I reckon. Perhaps this should be in your fitness thread…

Back up to 11 mile runs on weekends. Run four days a week, bike the other three. Haven't lost any weight, but some would argue I don't need to.

I'm trying to drink more low-abv session IPA's and hefeweizens and less DIPA's, at least for the summer. Hoping to do enough hiking and running when on vacation in Colorado to counteract the multiple brewery visits. Though hiking with a seven year old means doing shorter hikes than I like…

Speaking of low abv session IPA's, anybody have a favorite? I've had Lagunitas, Stone, Founders, and Great Divide, and that's my order of preference.

And as far as hefe's go, Weistephaner is the best in the world. And six packs are cheap. I should be drinking more of that in the summer. DC Brau's hefe is pretty tasty too.

atomic wrote:

James wrote:
So how is your "getting back into shape" plan going?

atomic wrote:
Drank 3 beers on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday.  I went into Max's on Saturday and they didn't have one beer that I wanted to try.  Walked a cross to some dump called Leadbetters and they had Paulander on tap.  Score. 

Good.  I have lost 15 pounds so far. Even with the beer and food frenzy of the weekend with  2 hours of raquetball and an hour and half of basketball and healthy lunches I am still down for the week.   How about you have you put on some muscle?

I spent all the time I was in Germany and Austria drinking beer and I still lost weight.  All those castles have a lot of steps.  Plus hiking paths in the Alps burn off calories.


I thought you said you wanted to build up your core so you wouldn't get injured?  Maybe I was thinking of someone else. 

visiting chicago next week… three floyds is on the list, any other beer recommendations?

Ones that I've been to and can recommend:

Revolution Brewpub
Local Option
Half Acre tasting room
Hopleaf (don't let kids in so haven't been in a while)
whatever the nearest Binny's is (for bottles to take home, seek out Pipeworks)
and of course the aforementioned Three Floyds….try to go on off hours or you're going to be waiting awhile
also, near Three Floyds, One Trick Pony has a cool little tasting room with very good beer

Ones that I haven't been to but I'm sure they are good:

Lagunitas tasting room (just opened)
The Map Room (don't think they let kids in)

Not really a fan of the Goose Island brewpubs….

stevewizzle wrote:
visiting chicago next week… three floyds is on the list, any other beer recommendations?

thanks JF! you just gave me more helpful information in one post than the past 20 minutes of reading the BA-great lakes subforum (okay, we get it, chicago is great).  revolution brewpub is a must, didn't realize half acre was chicago, and i was wondering whether or not we should stop at GI or not (it's most likely a no, but it's right next to wrigley…).

now, the harder question: anything i should be seeking out? revolutions barleywine is a must, but beyond that, no real ISO.

Check Three Floyds FB page to see their recent history of which day they release Zombie Dust. That's the day you want to be at Three Floyds, if you have a choice. *The seemed to release it on Thurs quite  bit in 2013.

Binny's has a very good website with updated inventory.

Pipeworks Citra was one of the best DIPA's I've ever had. All of their DIPA's get very high scores.

Half Acre Double Daisy Cutter if you can find it. Half Acre Heyoka is an excellent IPA, better than regular DAisy Cutter.

It looks like they currently have Surly Abrasive at Binny's Lincoln Park (that's the one i usually go to), and Surly Pentagram ($27/bomber) at Binnys South Loop.

Maybe something from Spiteful? Look them up.

Off Color Troublesome is a good cheap (in Chicago it's cheap) gose.

I myself would look to see what they have from Deschutes, but that's not an issuefor you…

stevewizzle wrote:
thanks JF! you just gave me more helpful information in one post than the past 20 minutes of reading the BA-great lakes subforum (okay, we get it, chicago is great).  revolution brewpub is a must, didn't realize half acre was chicago, and i was wondering whether or not we should stop at GI or not (it's most likely a no, but it's right next to wrigley…).

now, the harder question: anything i should be seeking out? revolutions barleywine is a must, but beyond that, no real ISO.

dogfish head one hundred twenty minute is my favorite beer of all time, from all the time, by all of the time.  even though i dont really drink beer anymore, i walked into a local shoppe that sells good beer to get the garden tomatoes that they sell . . . and they had two four packs of said dogfish head beer, so i bought them.  ill keep them for years and have one every time i think life throws me a special occasion.  the end.