Got Beer?

Restocked our Wall Of Stouts today, annnnnnnd at the end of my shift I may possibly have bought a couple things.

BA Old Rasputin XVI, XVII, XIX, and XX, and a 2017 BA Darkness.

My wallet thanks me that it’s a 25 minute drive to get there.

I doubt it can be had in the TC, but if you can find it in recommend Engkanto especially their Double IPA.

We didn’t really plan any specific brewery trips while in San Diego but a few places stood out.

1. The Lost Abbey opened a location called The Church that used to be a Mexican Presbyterian Church. They turned it into a pretty neat space and their beer is excellent…definitely lived up to their reputation

2. We went to a couple beer bars that double as retail spots. Bottlecraft (we went to the one in Little Italy based on a recommendation) had 24 taps and about 600 beers you could buy retail. They usually have Pliny the Elder on tap which was a nice bonus and you can get a lot of different Russian River beers on the retail side. They also had a good local selection and a ton of Bottle Logic stout as well. And if you really wanted it they had a couple Drekker beers too

3. We also went to a newer place called Ale Tales in the East Village. They have 40 taps and a smaller retail store. The big winner for me was the flight of AleSmith Speedway Stout variants but they also had an exclusive beer from Horus Aged Ales that was excellent. [mention]The Rube[/mention] will appreciate this because I was talking about that Maple Beer I tried at Shorewood and the guy pouring beer was gushing about it too.

4. Down in Seaport Village they have a location for Mike Hess brewing. The story here was the taco joint they partner with for tacos. The place was called Quiero Tacos and they were some of the best tacos I’ve ever had. We made two trips there and the second time was just for the tacos.

Alesmith is a forgotten great beer. The Speedway Stout (and its variants) are so dang good.

One of them I had was aged in apple brandy and maple syrup barrels with almonds, vanilla and coffee. It was better than nearly everything I’ve tried the last two years. I wanted to go back tonight for more of it but we have a really early flight.

Sampled a few beers today, but there were some highlights. The first one was Exit Row by BlackStack, they continue to produce high quality hazy IPAs, real bangers. The other highlight was Tmave Pivo by Fair State, a dark lager. Coming in at 4.4%, it’s this year’s Schell’s Cave Aged, the light version (the Cave Aged is 10.9%).

2021 (2022) Surly BA Darkness comes in a pint can (about $14). The end of an era.

If Darkness wasn’t so good (and tradition), I’d write it off. Sigh.

Pro: loved the artwork

Con: just regressed to another brewery, nothing special for a trademark beer that one is known for

Pro; Time it for one sitting. 4 pour a hockey game.

Con: Yes, you are committed once you crack it. Surly, even with their “special” beers has basically turned into a macro, with being a macro. Quality has faded, they have become run of the mill. I know I hated on them in the past, but always loved their Anniv/Darkness offerings. BUT, those have been fading, also.

Had some friends over on Saturday night and we cracked open a bunch of stouts to split 4 ways. The first one we had was the Double Barrel Soviet Slayer from Back Channel. It was the one released in late 2020 and aged in Heaven Hill barrels and then a Cognac barrel.

Back Channel makes a lot of great beer and nothing compares to what this tasted like. It was just so much better than anything I’ve had from them and it was one of those that now I’m kicking myself for not having bought more of it.

That one is a doozie. They are tapping some heavy hitters this week, BA stuff. Just announced today.

Had some friends over on Saturday night and we cracked open a bunch of stouts to split 4 ways. The first one we had was the Double Barrel Soviet Slayer from Back Channel. It was the one released in late 2020 and aged in Heaven Hill barrels and then a Cognac barrel.

Back Channel makes a lot of great beer and nothing compares to what this tasted like. It was just so much better than anything I’ve had from them and it was one of those that now I’m kicking myself for not having bought more of it.

That one is a doozie. They are tapping some heavy hitters this week, BA stuff. Just announced today.

They had some of those on tap over the weekend. We are thinking about trying to go on Sunday when the Parlour Food Truck is there.

I saw Sat’s lineup, but I was working, so boo. At least I have them at home.

Does Back Channel do more fruity (non-IPA) stuff in the summer? Neat space and the seltzer was okay, but that was the only thing to fit my palate when we were there Saturday night.

Also did excelsior brewing; the grapefruit lime seltzer was good. Brought home a crowler of strawberry cream ale – tolerable for someone who doesn’t like beer.

Unmapped had the best things I tried. But couldn’t take the fruit sours home in growlers nor crowler them. Guess I’ll have to go back!

Back Channel’s Empress series is one you would like, that is mostly summer.

Unmapped got Ineffable’s old brewer, who used to be an LTD Brewer. From what I’ve heard, their beer has improved.

In general, breweries follow the “seasons.” Summer is all fruit/lighter beer, and in winter it’s the stouts/porters.

I think LTD’s new seltzer is a Mango/Pineapple. They also brought back Night Falls Double Choc Stout…on nitro. Hooboy is that good.

Few weeks ago I went down to Shorewood liquor to look around. tRube showed me the infamous Wall of Stout which included a bunch of cellared beers. One I bought was a 2009 Avery Mephistopheles Stout that I opened tonight.

There is no way you’d put this in a glass and someone would tell you it was bottled 12+ years ago (bottled Dec 2009). Pour still had a good amount of head, especially for a beer pushing 17% abv, and still a complex set of flavors. I haven’t had this beer for a really long time and it was ‘fresh’ then but I don’t think it’s lost much at all.

Few weeks ago I went down to Shorewood liquor to look around. tRube showed me the infamous Wall of Stout which included a bunch of cellared beers. One I bought was a 2009 Avery Mephistopheles Stout that I opened tonight.

There is no way you’d put this in a glass and someone would tell you it was bottled 12+ years ago (bottled Dec 2009). Pour still had a good amount of head, especially for a beer pushing 17% abv, and still a complex set of flavors. I haven’t had this beer for a really long time and it was ‘fresh’ then but I don’t think it’s lost much at all.

FTR, IIRC, Avery stopped producing this beer in 2016, due to the fact that some states will not sell a beer that strong (see also: Sam Adams’ Utopias). So, Avery said screw it, and stopped making their heavy hitters.

I knew they stopped producing a lot of their big beers but didn’t know why. They made some great high ABV beers and I still occasionally see them around.

Few weeks ago I went down to Shorewood liquor to look around. tRube showed me the infamous Wall of Stout which included a bunch of cellared beers. One I bought was a 2009 Avery Mephistopheles Stout that I opened tonight.

There is no way you’d put this in a glass and someone would tell you it was bottled 12+ years ago (bottled Dec 2009). Pour still had a good amount of head, especially for a beer pushing 17% abv, and still a complex set of flavors. I haven’t had this beer for a really long time and it was ‘fresh’ then but I don’t think it’s lost much at all.

FTR, IIRC, Avery stopped producing this beer in 2016, due to the fact that some states will not sell a beer that strong (see also: Sam Adams’ Utopias). So, Avery said screw it, and stopped making their heavy hitters.

I knew they stopped producing a lot of their big beers but didn’t know why. They made some great high ABV beers and I still occasionally see them around.

I think they were dubbed the Demons And Dictators series.

I don’t think the high ABV was the reason they stopped making this series as they quit making a few other 10%ish beers like Imperial Stout and Imperial Octoberfest at the same time and shuffled their lineup. They just wanted to move on and focus on their newer barrel aged series. I’m sure their brewers were happy about it, making 17+% beers is kind of a PITA.

The high octane ones are a PITA. Lots of care goes into those, because it is necessary. That is the reason I heard, though.

The official statement, and honestly, the “Botanicals And Barrels” series is no less complex….

https://thefullpint.com/beer-news/avery-brewing-removes-dictator-series-demon-series-2017-lineup/#:~:text=To%20make%20room%20for%20the,by%20the%20end%20of%202016.

I don’t doubt that was a secondary factor but they revamped their whole lineup at that time. I’m just going off the presentation their rep did when I worked for their Wisco distributor. The problem with very high ABV batches is they are very expensive and if you don’t baby the yeast and fermentation you can have to dump the whole expensive batch. There’s an episode of the Dogfish Head show where they have to dump a batch of 120 Minute and they are heartbroken. I don’t remember if they said how much that cost them but I’m sure it was a lot.

Just cracked a Dragon’s Milk Reserve: Rye Barrel-Aged Stout With Cinnamon, Toasted Chilies And Vanilla Extract (2022-1) by New Holland Brewing, the first variant of this year….hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooboy. GodDAMN this is good!

I found a 4 pack of this at Princetons tonight and grabbed one. That’s the 3rd time I’ve been there this winter and found one of the variants (double barrel and salted caramel were the other two). It’s usually impossible to find the variants and stuff like that there if it’s been out awhile so it’s been a good surprise.

The store I work at still has a bunch of it. I’ve found that this happens with these types of beers (we have soooooo much Drekker) b/c it’s outside of the 494-694 loop, so people think it’s way out there. It’s 15 min west of downtown Hopkins. The main issue I’ve found w/the Dragon’s Milk variant is getting it in the first place. I didn’t see one of the variants last year in the metro, but found it in MI.

I live in the West Metro and it’s a drive me for me to get there. Unless you live in Minnetonka or Hopkins it’s a drive for most others.

We came to Omaha for a short Spring Break trip and ate at a place in the Old Market. They had a Pineapple Cinnamon cider from a brewery in the middle of nowhere Nebraska.

Pineapple isn’t a flavor I gravitate towards in beer and this sounds like a strange combo but it was an excellent cider. I’d have never guessed it would actually work

Went to Brickway Brewing and Distillery which is a block from our hotel in the Old Market of Omaha. They just recently released their Epic Blackout Stout and a bunch of variants that included Raspberry Vanilla, Vanilla TootsieRoll, Red Hot, sour Patch and a bunch of aged stuff. Some really tasty stuff but all were 17% abv so I’m glad it was a block away from the hotel.

If you’re in town it is worth a stop there. We were last there 6 years ago and enjoyed it again this time as well

Tried Glory Daze from Bad Weather. It’s a west coast IPA and the best way I can describe it is meh. Nothing bad about it and nothing particularly good about it.

Bear Cave (Hopkins, eta opening April 1, after a delay of about a year and a half):

“Wow, Bear Cave is literally copy/pasting the most boring bits from Wikipedia to explain IPAs.”

Self serve pours, but they have food service, event area, hiring a ton of people, etc? I have no idea what to expect.

This just seems like disaster written all over it.

Edit:

“Their post is literally the first sentence from wiki”

Bear Cave (Hopkins, eta opening April 1, after a delay of about a year and a half):

“Wow, Bear Cave is literally copy/pasting the most boring bits from Wikipedia to explain IPAs.”

Self serve pours, but they have food service, event area, hiring a ton of people, etc? I have no idea what to expect.

This just seems like disaster written all over it.

Edit:

“Their post is literally the first sentence from wiki”

Self service on their own produced beer? That will be new here although it doesn’t interest me much

After being in Nebraska the last few days I got another good reminder of just how much our alcohol laws suck. I went to an arcade that had an above average tap list and they could sell any beer there they wanted in a 12 or 16oz Crowler. There was even a place where on our way back to the hotel we bought cocktails (sealed) to go through a drive thru lane

There is/were a couple places that tried this. One shut down, I think, and the other is still going. My thing is, if you are hiring THAT many people for staffing/food/etc…why self serve?

Got to sample Drekker’s Pinky Promise tonight. Holy crap is that one boozy. Delicious, though. Cracked a Lupulin Whiskey Demigod, and that packs a punch, although a bit smoother than the Drekker, despite being higher ABV (13.6 compared to Drekkers 12).

Anything from Blackstack

What should I have to celebrate 10K?

I made it before the switch. :dance:

Congrats

Anything from Blackstack

I’ve got a better idea

We’re listening

I Googled that to see what it was….don’t hit images

I Googled that to see what it was….don’t hit images

:lol:

A friend brought it back from a Caribbean vacation. Per the bottle looks like Cayman Islands. It’s not terrible.

I Googled that to see what it was….don’t hit images

Yeah, definitely do not Google Image Search ‘Pitlick’

And for those that don’t know, Grizzly’s is doing a re-branding. IIRC, the Plymouth one will be patio only starting May 8, lasting 6-8 weeks. :shock:

The way it’s going they’ll be lucky to get 4-6.

Just saw that Tin Whiskers is closing. I was surprised to see that.

Although to be fair, they were a few down on my list of brewery stops, on the occasions I made it over to St. Paul

To be truly successful as a small craft brewery relying on your tasting room, you need to have at least one of:

1 – Great Location

2 – Great Beer

3 – Truly unique offerings that have enough draw

Tin Whiskers had none. The location was definitely not the best, and the beer, while solid, was generally not something I considered to be that special.

Point 3 is directed more toward the couple Cider/Mead places in town. There’s only a few of those right now, so people looking for those will go out of their way. If we get a couple dozen Cider/Mead producers, those will be back to relying on points 1&2

Exactly. Tin Whiskers had a couple beers that I definitely liked, but not enough to deal with going to a meh taproom in that location.

Barrel Theory has great beer and a good location (especially in summer with games at CHS Field).

Bad weather has really good beer and another good location.

Surly is Surly. Still has the cult following, but even aside from that, the facility is a great room and solid location.

etc

Steve nailed it. Barrel and Bad Weather had better beers and locations. Tin didn’t have food options either and will hit up Waldmann on occasion for their beer garden and german food.

Clutch Brewing in Keg and Case in St Paul is thriving due to location, but the beer isn’t mind blowing. Lots of great food options and good location.

Exactly, you can get by with good but not great beer, but your location has to have something else going for it to bring people in. Really good food can easily be that thing.

You fine gentlemen have given me an excuse to swing by Bad Weather on the way home today

Glad to help :beerchug:

Steve nailed it. Barrel and Bad Weather had better beers and locations. Tin didn’t have food options either and will hit up Waldmann on occasion for their beer garden and german food.

Clutch Brewing in Keg and Case in St Paul is thriving due to location, but the beer isn’t mind blowing. Lots of great food options and good location.

Exactly, you can get by with good but not great beer, but your location has to have something else going for it to bring people in. Really good food can easily be that thing.

That didn’t work well for Wayzata Brewworks.

Oh wait, you said they needed to have good beer…

Steve nailed it. Barrel and Bad Weather had better beers and locations. Tin didn’t have food options either and will hit up Waldmann on occasion for their beer garden and german food.

Clutch Brewing in Keg and Case in St Paul is thriving due to location, but the beer isn’t mind blowing. Lots of great food options and good location.

Exactly, you can get by with good but not great beer, but your location has to have something else going for it to bring people in. Really good food can easily be that thing.

That didn’t work well for Wayzata Brewworks.

Oh wait, you said they needed to have good beer…

Yeah, if the beer is just bad (Blue Wolf up by me for example) location can’t overcome that.

Steve nailed it. Barrel and Bad Weather had better beers and locations. Tin didn’t have food options either and will hit up Waldmann on occasion for their beer garden and german food.

Clutch Brewing in Keg and Case in St Paul is thriving due to location, but the beer isn’t mind blowing. Lots of great food options and good location.

Exactly, you can get by with good but not great beer, but your location has to have something else going for it to bring people in. Really good food can easily be that thing.

That didn’t work well for Wayzata Brewworks.

Oh wait, you said they needed to have good beer…

Yeah, if the beer is just bad (Blue Wolf up by me for example) location can’t overcome that.

Covid did them in, didn’t it?

Lockdown happened, take away their killer location, and all you were left with was just their pretty bad beer. Not a recipe for success!