The Beer Thread

First a marriage, then a puppy. When should we expect a Sweetcell Jr.?

sweetcell wrote:

stevewizzle wrote:
baked bread last night from the leftover spent grains from homebrewing.  delicious!

a fringe benefit of getting away from all-extract brewing.  the missus is an amazing bread baker but we have yet to incorporate the used grains into anything.  there are also recipes that can use beer yeast, including harvested (post-fermentation) yeast - hit up the googles for "barm bread".

i found a recipe for dog treats using spent grain.  just got myself a puppy last week, so i now have someone to bake them for ;D

definitely not before we're certain we can keep the puppy alive  :o

sweetcell wrote:

stevewizzle wrote:
baked bread last night from the leftover spent grains from homebrewing.  delicious!

a fringe benefit of getting away from all-extract brewing.  the missus is an amazing bread baker but we have yet to incorporate the used grains into anything.  there are also recipes that can use beer yeast, including harvested (post-fermentation) yeast - hit up the googles for "barm bread".

i found a recipe for dog treats using spent grain.  just got myself a puppy last week, so i now have someone to bake them for ;D

awesome.  thanks for the heads up on barm bread.  looks like a lot of work.

made dog treats too. although no dog to give them to.

thanks for the heads up - as of this morning they had wised up and were selling it for $9 a bottle instead of the $24.99 you got it for

Yada wrote:
Unlike our good friend James Ford, I'm willing to let my fellow boardies know that I just picked up two four packs of KBS right here.

http://wagnersliquor.com/

They had a few cases as of noon.

Seems like this would be a better option…(copied and pasted from BA forum)

Was just at the Fairfax, VA Total Wine, and they had FBS for 3.99 a four pack. Picked up a case for 23.94, bottled 11/11/11. They also had Bell's Cherry Stout and Bell's Java Stout for 3.99 a four pack.

thats a pretty wild and crazy price for FBS - I don;t really care for Bells cherry stout but those are killer prices

Hey guys… been reading this thread for awhile and have had some great finds.  I have been deployed since December (return in June) and have had my wife pick up some beer that you guys have suggested (and some random ones she grabbed) to stock up for when I get back.  What do you think I need to add to my list? (Just recently getting into this).

Founder's KBS
Founder's Imperial Stout
Breckenridge Small Batch 471
Bell's Hopslam
Firestone Union Jack IPA
Firestone Walker's Reserve
Dogfish Head Faithfull Ale (Pearl Jam 20)

Stopped by the Lincolnia location:

FBS was sold out, but other discount deals included: Williamsburg Coffee Stout 3.99/6 pk, Dogfish Chicory Stout $3.99/4 pk, Magic Hat Howl $3.99/6 pk, Weyerbacher Winter Ale, 3.99/6 pk. Saw signs for Bells White Winter and Double Cream Stout and Victory Yakima Glory, all 3.99/6 pk. but they were all sold out.

James wrote:
Seems like this would be a better option…(copied and pasted from BA forum)

Was just at the Fairfax, VA Total Wine, and they had FBS for 3.99 a four pack. Picked up a case for 23.94, bottled 11/11/11. They also had Bell's Cherry Stout and Bell's Java Stout for 3.99 a four pack.

Those are all good to great. If the words barrel aged barleyine appeal to you, seek out Weyerbacher Insanity.

Stillwater wrote:
Hey guys… been reading this thread for awhile and have had some great finds.  I have been deployed since December (return in June) and have had my wife pick up some beer that you guys have suggested (and some random ones she grabbed) to stock up for when I get back.  What do you think I need to add to my list? (Just recently getting into this).

Founder's KBS
Founder's Imperial Stout
Breckenridge Small Batch 471
Bell's Hopslam
Firestone Union Jack IPA
Firestone Walker's Reserve
Dogfish Head Faithfull Ale (Pearl Jam 20)

brennser wrote:
thanks for the heads up - as of this morning they had wised up and were selling it for $9 a bottle instead of the $24.99 you got it for

i got a 4-pack from them on friday for $25, glad i made it there before they switched to gouging for singles (name for a new band?!?). 

yup, KBS lives up to the hype.  simply delicious.  i might try aging a bottle because i thought the bourbon was a touch too forward and the bourbon fades a little with cellaring supposedly. 

Stillwater wrote:
Hey guys… been reading this thread for awhile and have had some great finds.  I have been deployed since December (return in June) and have had my wife pick up some beer that you guys have suggested (and some random ones she grabbed) to stock up for when I get back.  What do you think I need to add to my list? (Just recently getting into this).

Founder's KBS
Founder's Imperial Stout
Breckenridge Small Batch 471
Bell's Hopslam
Firestone Union Jack IPA
Firestone Walker's Reserve
Dogfish Head Faithfull Ale (Pearl Jam 20)

awesome list, looks like Nugget Nectar should be in there too (if only under the "tasty beer hyped on the 930 board" category).

do you have a source for KBS and Imp Stout?  they are both seasonals.  KBS only comes out in march, is hard to find unless you're right on top of it (and they disappear fast).  if you wife hasn't already scored some you're out of luck until march 2013.   Imp Stout is also only available once a year, in january.  i can help you with an Imperial, i've got a few aging in the basement.  sorry, i'm not sharing my KBS ;D

p.s. kudos to the wife for hunting down all that delicious beer for you.

All of these she already got her hands on.  I live down in Yorktown and the Total Wine in Hampton has had all of these (seemingly without the mad rush of the metro-DC area stores)

…and yes, she has been awesome throughout this deployment

Bourbon in Woodley Park has KBS and Goose Island BCBS.

posted this on homebrewtalk.com:

went on a tour of the Harpoon brewery in Windsor, VT.  if you happen to be in the area i strongly recommend it.  not sure what the boston brewery is like, but the windsor one is way chill.

- the people there truly love their job.  two different tour guides blurted out during their segment of the tour "I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD!".  infectious attitude :)

- they have the most kick-ass plate-chiller… as in, it can handle something like 5000+ gallons of boiling wort in less than 15 mins.

- dry-hopping requires someone to scale the outside of a 3-storey fermenter to manually drop in a large basket of hops.  i want that job.

- they aren't supposed to serve you more than four 2-oz samples of their beer at the end of the tour, but they do.  oh gawd to they ever (hic!)

- saw several 44-pound bags of hops laying around, including falconer's flight… drool.

Harpoon will always hold a special place in my heart because we had a keg of their summer ale at my wedding.  that being said, i also recognize some of their offerings are a tad same-y.  however i can heartily recommend any and all of the following, which i both sampled today and walked away with:

- Rich & Dan's Rye IPA: damn solid.  nice strong hoppiness with a mild bite, rye woodiness, 6.9% abv.  recommended.
- Catamount Maple Wheat: good maple taste without being too sweet.  alone it's worth the trip up to the brewery.
- Leviathan Imperial IPA: everything you'd expect in a IIPA.  delicious.
- Leviathan Quad - OMG OMG OMG one of the tastiest american-made quadrupels i've ever had.  amazing balance of sweetness and alcohol heat.  i bought their very last case of the stuff.  those bottles are going straight to my cellar.  looking forward to enjoying these as their complexity develops over the months and years #kidinacandyshop.
- Leviathan Barleywine - the only one i didn't sample today, but one can't really go wrong with a barleywine (especially if aged a few month/years, as i intend to do with this 4-pack)
- Leviathan Triticus - walked out with a growler of this stuff because they barrel-aged the draft version in bourbon barrels (bottled stuff isn't).  it was absolutely amazing.  can't wait to crack into this one next weekend.

Harpoon's regular-gravity beers are decent to very good, but these guys really know how to make strong & flavorful beers.  i'm very lucky that my in-laws live a few miles up the road from windsor ;D

Has anyone had the opportunity to try the "Insidious"- a bourbon barrel aged russian imperial stout from Fegley's Brewworks in Allentown, PA?  I was up there last weekend and picked up a case for $60. It's a bit thinner than the KBS and not as chewy.  But the flavor comes pretty darn close, at a fraction of the cost….  9 % ABV.  As it warms, you can taste the bourbon, vanilla, chocolate and hints of toffee.  A real nice overall roasty quality.

Bagley wrote:
Has anyone had the opportunity to try the "Insidious"- a bourbon barrel aged russian imperial stout from Fegley's Brewworks in Allentown, PA?  I was up there last weekend and picked up a case for $60. It's a bit thinner than the KBS and not as chewy.  But the flavor comes pretty darn close, at a fraction of the cost….  9 % ABV.  As it warms, you can taste the bourbon, vanilla, chocolate and hints of toffee.  A real nice overall roasty quality.

beer is like fashion, now . . . the name means everything to some.

walkonby wrote:
beer is like fashion, now . . . the name means everything to some.

very insightful.  thanks.

Finally cracked a KBS… that stuff tastes much better as it approaches near room temps. IMO.

I had a rather agressively bitter Brown Ale last night by The Duck-Rabbit (NC brewery). I like Legends and Cap City's brown ales pretty well. This one seemed to be going for the extreme flavor so if you're in to that you may want to give it a try.

top 50 craft breweries & breweries by volume, in 2011:
http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/media/press-releases/show?title=brewers-association-releases-top-50-breweries-in-2011

while touring the harpoon brewery last weekend, the guide told a story of how the Boston Beer Company has, on several occasions, pressured the brewing association to up the limit on what constitutes a "craft brewery".  essentially, the definition has been changing as a function of (and keeping pace with) BBC's production capacity.  he said there was some frustration among brewers and a movement to kick BBC out of the nest… unfortunately they have weight, so easier said than done.  BBC is the country's fifth largest brewer, just behind Yuengling.

which of course begs the sophomoric question, "what is a craft brewery, anyways?"…