The Beer Thread • Page 108

Beers that I rated the highest in 2016, with a focus on beers that (to my knowledge) were new releases this year or new to Michigan or new to me:

Bells - Traverse City Cherry Third Coast Old Ale; Traverse City 355 E Stout with Vanilla Beans; Hopsolution; Blackbeard's Rum Barrel Aged Bear Hug Stout; Traverse City Whiskey Barrel Dagger Stout; L'appel du Vide Pear;
Mikkeller - Black Hole
Tree House - Green; Alter Ego; Julius
Rodenbach - Alexander
Shorts - Batch 5000 Triple IPA
Hoppin' Frog - Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S. Oatmeal Imperial Stout
Fat Head's - Hop JuJu
Clown Shoes - Amandine Exorcism
4 Hands - Constellation: Mosaic
Witch's Hat - Wine Barrel Gose; Raspberry Coffee Night Fury
Fonta Flora - Blen F'n Diculous 3: Blackberry Bretta Have My Money
Thumb Brewery - Black Heart Stout
Hoof Hearted - Everybody Wants Some Idaho 7
Dark Horse - Smells Like a Citra Meeting
The Alchemist - The Crusher
Trillium - Double Dry Hopped Fort Point Pale Ale
Cascade - The Vine

Those are all the beers that were new to me in 2016 that I rated 4.75 or higher, save for variants or yearly things that I had in 2015. If I had to pick a standout, it would be Rodenbach's Alexander. That's a 10-out-of-5 beer for me and I'm really glad I got to have some of it. Also of note: I had Black Hole from Mikkeller on two different occasions and one was phenomenal and one was pretty garbage, so that's par for the course for Mikkeller in the states.

 

has anyone had dogfish head's beer for breakfast yet?

 

just had a Banshee Cutter from Insight. Golden Ale w/ Coffee. strange combo, but it works.

 

I sorted mine out for highest ratings of 2016, not sure how to filter to see how many check ins I had for the year, I'm guessing it's around the 800 mark for distinct check ins. I couldn't stick to just 10. Second list are vintages I had this year that blew me away.

Tree House - King Julius
Trillium - Raspberry Soak
Other Half - Second Anniversary
De Garde - Passion Fruit Pom Bu
Angry Chair - Ultra Violence
Holy Mountain - Misere Au Borinage
Toppling Goliath - PseudoSue
Prairie - Barrel Aged Bomb!
Jester King - Aurelian Lure
Transmitter - H4 Italian Plum Harvest
Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus - Rothaus Pils

Lost Abbey - Duck Duck Gooze (2013)
Goose Island - King Henry (2010)
Goose Island - Bourbon County Vanilla (2010)
Fremont - Coffee Cinnamon Bourbon Abominable (2015)
Ale Apothecary - Sahalie (2014)
Kane - ANTEAD (2015)
Funky Buddha - Last Snow (2015)
Hill Farmstead - Genealogy of Morals (2013)
Brouwerij Westvleteren - Westvleteren XII (2013)

 

Had a bit of free time recently so I decided to index my cellar into an Excel sheet. Here's a published copy if anyone would like to check it out: Craft Bottle Collection

 

with such an impressive cellar, how do you decide what to drink and when? I feel like I'd have such like... drinkers remorse if I drank them without big occasions

 

Haha, the only time I've experienced drinkers remorse is coming home in a bad mood after work and angry drinking a good beer that should've received better attention. Plus, I keep a healthy smattering of sessionable "grocery store" beers in the fridge for causal drinking.

What's really helped build up this collection, and also limit my ability to answer your question fully, is my girlfriend's 6-month-long drinking hiatus. A lot of these are specifically saved for her and I to drink together or with friends once she starts drinking again (which is this coming weekend, actually). And since we haven't been drinking them we haven't really hit the problem of having to debate which to drink in what order. Of course, I've already drank a few of them on my own or with friends if we got duplicates, and a lot of them will be shared with our friends at bottle shares, as we do that a lot anyway. I just started this collection back at the beginning of the year, as well. I can tell you that she's decided on her first two beers she'll have once she finishes her classes on Sunday: Wicked Weed Red Angel followed by Westbrook Mexican Cake.

 

Dynamite cellar @DontTellMom, especially for the relatively recent dive into cellaring beers.

 

I really should do that with my cellar someday.

 

Thank you. I'm pretty heavy on southeast beers at the moment, but intend to focus more on trading for NE and west coast stuff in the next year.

 

I have a box coming from a guy in Vermont tomorrow. I don't know specifics yet, but it is supposed to have 6 Tree House beers and an assortment of 6 other New England style beers. My cousin, who trades with him regularly, got him to give me an at-cost shipment. I can't wait to drink these over Thanksgiving week.

 

Going to try and get a bottle of BCBS and the coffee variant next week. Doubt I'll have any luck, but I've been wanting to try BCBS for a couple years now and still haven't gotten it.

 

Does it sell out that quick where you live?

 

I'll sadly be out of town for any of the Bourbon County releases that are going on around Chicago. Ugh. I'll probably try and track it down on draft in the coming weeks though.

 

Good luck to you on your hunt, sir. Coffee last year didn't hit Lansing because there was less of it with their infections/dumping that they had to do before it even released. I'm hoping the coffee hits Lansing. My girlfriend and I both have friday mornings off (she has every friday off) so we'll be at our bottle shop early for some BCBS.

 

Thankfully I have Friday off, so I'm going to talk to the bottle shop by my house and hope I can get some.

 

My bottle shop is dope because a good portion of the patrons are just old dudes grabbing 12 packs of Bud or Miller on their way home from work. Rare shit usually lasts until I am able to get out of work that day/the next day.

 

I'm jealous. I was so excited to head to my bottle shop today and pick up the Oskar Blues BA Ten-Fidy, but it's already sold out.

 

How is their coconut one? Not a big fan of the flavor but I grabbed it anyway. Seems that coconut is the flavor of this year, eh?

 

I actually really liked Death By Coconut out of a can, but not as much on draft for some reason

 

I missed out on BA Ten-Fidy too.. by like ten minutes hah. Fortunately, I got to nab the Westbrook/Evil Twin Collab, Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break. Absolutely stoked for that.

 

Got Prairie Bomb, Aun Mas Jesus and Aun Mas Todo Jesus. Excited for that tasting

 

After a year or so of contemplation, I made the jump and joined The Bruery's preservation society. This quarter I get these, and I am quite excited already

 

Sunday Mole Stout is dope. I just found some Sunday Mornings stashed away in my basement. Nice surprise

 

Got to drink a can of Julius tonight by Tree House Brewery. That beer is Amazing.