When I was a sophomore in college, we had a Kegerator in our dorm room and just bought nonstop kegs of PBR because it was the cheapest.
Interesting. Stores here get SO MUCH and then distributors just end up getting more returned after it goes out of date in January.
I'm halfway into my Canada trip, but so far beer is not their forte. I looked at literally every brewery in Victoria and they ALL have pale, wheat, ipa, lager then maybe one or two others, but all very... Basic? Is that rude?
I mean, sparsely populated Vancouver Island/small city Victoria is prob not the best representation of the national beer scene. Quebec is at the top and has a ton of good stuff, followed by Ontario or Nova Scotia. Problem is that transportation costs/distances and strict federal or provincial regulations make distributing beers more of a challenge.
I've had some good stuff from Central City but it appears that's in the suburb of Surrey. Granville Island Brewing is in Vancouver but i don't think it's all that great. Prob would hit up the inter-webs for other recs lol
Having my first Monkish tonight and it is delicious. Got a Beats is Infinite through a trade and even though it's a little over a month old it's still fantastic. I think the hype is valid for them
I'm salty about Monkish tbh. I live about 5 minutes away and used to always go. The theme was Belgian with a twist, and they vowed to not make ipas... Now they almost exclusively make ipas and barely do any Belgian, sours, or anything else really. The ipas are fine, but they all kinda have the same thing going for them, and it gets old. Maybe I'm just a crabby old man, but it bugs me that they went from something unique to a trend grabber.
I think it's kinda dumb for a brewery to pigeon hole themselves to begin with. Why say "We're only doing Belgian beers," that's just going to limit the creativity, just as doing only IPAs would do. I would say they "trend hopped" but Monkish legit are one of the top 3 or 5 IPA breweries in the world.
Yeah I agree with that sentiment, good point. what I'm most bummed about is that they have almost completely left behind what they used to do, which was really creative and amazing Belgians. The ability to balance more than one style doesn't seem to be something they can do
Yeah, i def understand that. I'd be bummed too if Brewery Vivant -- a brewery in Michigan that makes really good belgians and some sours -- abandoned that, for sure. My guess is that they honestly don't have the tank space for belgians -- especially any that take some time to condition in secondary fermentation -- and the IPA's are just a cash cow that they're smacking the hell out of at the moment.
Since I moved to Long Beach I've applied at like four different breweries, there's basically one on every corner. No bites so far :/
I've had a lot of good beer lately. Some highlights: Sante Adairius West Ashley (apricot sour), Rare Barrel Hyper Paradise (mango-passion fruit sour), Alvarado Street Pithing Contest (grapefruit gose), Avery Apricot Sour. Also North Coast's Passionfruit-Peach Berliner Weisse is awesome, especially at its price point. I also tried the new Founders watermelon gose, Green Zebra, the other day. Softer feel and a lot sweeter than Briney Melon Gose, which is more like watermelon rind. Interesting how two watermelon goses could taste so different! Oh and late to the game, but feel free to add me on Untappd: Djwildefire.
Schlafly makes a decent pumpkin beer. Otherwise, pumpkin beers in general suck. Bring on the marzens. Such a better seasonal style.
I find Sip underwhelming, at least relative to the hype. I am hoping we get Triple Sunshine in at work soon, though, so I can try that one.
Sip of Sunshine and Hunahpu are the only two massively hyped beers I haven't had that I really want to try.
Sip of Sunshine is very good imo, people say it hasn't been very good lately but I haven't had it in a while so I'm not sure if anything has changed. It's not really an NEIPA, which I think has people having it for the first time now disappointed. It's more like a slightly fruitier Heady Topper, somewhere between New England and west coast.
dude, this year's batch of Hunah is killer. IMO, best since 2014's batch 1 pinnacle (not including BA variants, of course).