The Beer Thread

Upgrade'd

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
dang…wasn't quick enough
soo barren here I look forward to reading dots now

here's a beer story for ya:

last week my local homebrewers' club had their christmas party, including a secret santa/white elephant exchange.  folks were to bring a desirable bottle from their cellar.  observations from a bunch of beer nerds coveting bottles and repeatedly stealing them from each other:
- most stolen (AKA most desired) bottle: barrel aged rasputin.  it's a good beer but given how widely available it is, i found the fuss over this bottle surprising.  in second place was a bottle of flanders red from a recently-closed local brewery.
- most undervalued bottle: calvados-barrel aged gulden draak.  stolen only once.
- most over-valued bottle: anderson valley BBA'ed stout.  it's an insipid beer that is widely available… both the person who brought it and the person who ended up with it fell in my estimation.
- most interesting bottle: a brett'ed barrel-aged cider.  it was the only homebrew on offer as gifter didn't realize we were supposed to bring commercial bottles.  he brought a second one to share, after tasting it i would have considered stealing it.
- best score, IMO: the bruery cuivre, which i ended up with. i was very late in the picking/pecking order and clutched that bottle tightly as the last few folks picked/stole their bottles.

the party was on a heated patio of a condo with nice views.  so much good beer and mead on offer.  when we got kicked off the patio we went to our host's condo, where he put on some Throbbing Gristle (not exactly party music IMO) and got all emotional about a 10-year old homebrewed barleywine he shared with us… ahh, alcohol… good times.

good stuff…but I'd pair Throbbing Gristle with Moonshine

sweetcell wrote:

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
dang…wasn't quick enough
soo barren here I look forward to reading dots now

here's a beer story for ya:

last week my local homebrewers' club had their christmas party, including a secret santa/white elephant exchange.  folks were to bring a desirable bottle from their cellar.  observations from a bunch of beer nerds coveting bottles and repeatedly stealing them from each other:
- most stolen (AKA most desired) bottle: barrel aged rasputin.  it's a good beer but given how widely available it is, i found the fuss over this bottle surprising.  in second place was a bottle of flanders red from a recently-closed local brewery.
- most undervalued bottle: calvados-barrel aged gulden draak.  stolen only once.
- most over-valued bottle: anderson valley BBA'ed stout.  it's an insipid beer that is widely available… both the person who brought it and the person who ended up with it fell in my estimation.
- most interesting bottle: a brett'ed barrel-aged cider.  it was the only homebrew on offer as gifter didn't realize we were supposed to bring commercial bottles.  he brought a second one to share, after tasting it i would have considered stealing it.
- best score, IMO: the bruery cuivre, which i ended up with. i was very late in the picking/pecking order and clutched that bottle tightly as the last few folks picked/stole their bottles.

the party was on a heated patio of a condo with nice views.  so much good beer and mead on offer.  when we got kicked off the patio we went to our host's condo, where he put on some Throbbing Gristle (not exactly party music IMO) and got all emotional about a 10-year old homebrewed barleywine he shared with us… ahh, alcohol… good times.

You need to find some new beer friends sweets.

Yada wrote:
You need to find some new beer friends sweets.

Was going to make the same response…but when I thought about my beer friends…

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
good stuff…but I'd pair Throbbing Gristle with Moonshine

or speed.

Yada wrote:
You need to find some new beer friends sweets.

fair assessment, given the information provided ;D

however i would point out:
- i hang out with these folks because they're fellow brewers, not because of their cellars.  some members are certified beer nerds, others just like to homebrew and don't get all this fuss about chasing down commercial beers…  folks in the latter group are the ones who brought anderson valley-type stuff.
- of the certified beer nerds that i chatted with afterwards, we all agreed that we brought something nice from our cellars, but not whalez - "no way i'm giving up a Cantillon."  i wouldn't judge them too harshly based on this bottle exchange.  i definitely went mid-level: i brought the cognac gulden draak. 

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
Was going to make the same response…but when I thought about my beer friends…

burn?

sweetcell wrote:

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
Was going to make the same response…but when I thought about my beer friends…

burn?

In that, my beer friends rarely share anything other than crappy beer, so who am I to judge when someone shows up with some decent bombers

sweetcell wrote:

Skronk-Hatch wrote:
good stuff…but I'd pair Throbbing Gristle with Moonshine

or speed.

you win that round

Labatts...now with weed!


also this coming out in colorado

Someone needs to tell this reporter than barleywines are not Belgian.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/01/07/why-elizabeth-warren-every-would-be-president-prefers-macrobrews/?utm_term=.a859ff57be38

Space wrote:
Someone needs to tell this reporter than barleywines are not Belgian.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/01/07/why-elizabeth-warren-every-would-be-president-prefers-macrobrews/?utm_term=.a859ff57be38

indeed, barleywines are originally from england so you're right about that.

however, belgian barleywines do exist:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/158/37524/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/385/24273/
https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/great-dane-belgian-barleywine/118929/
etc.
you can make anything "belgian" (ex: belgian IPA) by using belgian yeast (bonus points if you also use belgian candi sugar).

so my reading of the author's use of "belgian barleywines" is that he was going for an over-the-top example of a craft beer - admittedly, a belgian barleywine would be the opposite of a macrobrew (intense flavor, high alcohol, small batch, etc.).  i supposed he could have said "nectarine-infused imperial stout" or "barrel-aged rhubarb and vanilla sour" to make the same point.

(TAN: i currently have a belgian imperial stout on tap.  it might be my fav stout that i've ever made.)

So, whoever the distributor is that has the Bell's contract for central VA just sold to another distributor and apparently that distributor and the Bells guy have a long running beef since high school and the Bell dude refuses to sell them beer. Now my favorite watering holes can no longer get Two-Hearted. Julian has the sads.

sweetcell wrote:

Space wrote:
Someone needs to tell this reporter than barleywines are not Belgian.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/01/07/why-elizabeth-warren-every-would-be-president-prefers-macrobrews/?utm_term=.a859ff57be38

indeed, barleywines are originally from england so you're right about that.

however, belgian barleywines do exist:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/158/37524/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/385/24273/
https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/great-dane-belgian-barleywine/118929/
etc.
you can make anything "belgian" (ex: belgian IPA) by using belgian yeast (bonus points if you also use belgian candi sugar).

so my reading of the author's use of "belgian barleywines" is that he was going for an over-the-top example of a craft beer - admittedly, a belgian barleywine would be the opposite of a macrobrew (intense flavor, high alcohol, small batch, etc.).  i supposed he could have said "nectarine-infused imperial stout" or "barrel-aged rhubarb and vanilla sour" to make the same point.

(TAN: i currently have a belgian imperial stout on tap.  it might be my fav stout that i've ever made.)

Before posting I did google and confirmed that a Belgian barleywine indeed has been made….but my thought was that someone writing for the Post was more likely to be making a mistake than going for an over the top example…maybe I wasn't giving them enough credit.

Wish you weren't 2000+ miles away and could taste your beers once in a while. Our last batch ended up being a complete drain pour. Not sure what went wrong. Well a couple of ideas but still not sure.

Speaking of stouts, the Whole Foods near my office has Vanilla BCBS on. $6 for an 8 oz pour, which is way cheaper than the ounce per dollar bottle cost. See ya.

sure, Colbert yucked it up using beer to "explain" the shutdown… but now it's not quite so funny: DC Breweries Especially Harmed by Federal Shutdown. 

annoying that Colbert opened with "craft beer is being held hostage", then proceeded to only use BMC (beers except 2'ish)… 

best line of the bit: "that is a nightmare, it means you might actually have to try your brother-in-laws home brew" ;D

I kept waiting for him to pull out The Truth with Obama on the label…

Cross-posting:

Buy a beer for a furloughed fed:

https://payitfurloughed.com/

Pending approval from the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, Flying Dog Brewery and Green Leaf Medical Cannabis plan to release Hop Chronic IPA, the state of Maryland’s first THC-infused non-alcoholic beer.


why even be beer if it's going to be non-alcoholic?

Julian, wrote:
So, whoever the distributor is that has the Bell's contract for central VA just sold to another distributor and apparently that distributor and the Bells guy have a long running beef since high school and the Bell dude refuses to sell them beer. Now my favorite watering holes can no longer get Two-Hearted. Julian has the sads.

Bells seems to have alot of beefs…first chicago, now this.

Highly recommend this year's Nugget Nectar on tap

Ok…so the beer kinda sucked, but was a decent venue and they were trying to support the homebrewers too

but bordie favorite] Portner Brewhouse...closed again* in june 2018

*Portner founded in 1869 in Old Town. His brewery became the largest in the southeast before closing in 1916 when Virginia created a Prohibition law.

made it longer than Sehkraft brewery (rent I'm sure was MUCH cheaper)

in related Alexandria Brewery news….on monday The Aslin Beer Co said operation is shooting to open in mid-2019 in Alexandria


So this location is in an industrial area…which is less than a 1/2 mile from where Portner was…they really should have the tasting room at the Portner location

NoCaveHatch wrote:
Ok…so the beer kinda sucked, but was a decent venue and they were trying to support the homebrewers too

but bordie favorite] Portner Brewhouse...closed again* in june 2018

*Portner founded in 1869 in Old Town. His brewery became the largest in the southeast before closing in 1916 when Virginia created a Prohibition law.

made it longer than Sehkraft brewery (rent I'm sure was MUCH cheaper)

in related Alexandria Brewery news….on monday The Aslin Beer Co said operation is shooting to open in mid-2019 in Alexandria


So this location is in an industrial area…which is less than a 1/2 mile from where Portner was…they really should have the tasting room at the Portner location

Are you suggesting Aslin have two Alexandria locations? With the issues they seem to have had in Herndon, I'll be surprised if they get one location up and running.

Different NoVA note: We hit Dominion Wine and Beer for food for the first time Sunday…tasty. And of course their beer list is the best in Fairfax County.  Had a couple of NEIPA's from Equilibrium, one IPA from Charlestown Fermentory, and a barrel aged sour from Horus that were all top of the line. The food and drink actually made sitting around watching football for a couple of hours fun.

Actually, I think Dominion is in Fallc Church City and not Ffx County, but anyhow…

https://www.quora.com/What-county-is-Falls-Church-VA-in-What-determines-its-borders