The Beer Thread • Page 177

@Oddpac87 my thoughts on the beers you sent me (I have one left to drink):

Favorites: Alien Church was a fuckin' stud. Fantastic beer. Loved basically everything about it. Pineapple milkshake was very tasty, but a notch below Alien Church. Mountains of the Moon was good (just saw I gave it a 4.25 but I meant to give it a 4) and a tick below Pineapple Milkshake. Stoner Witch was also solid.

The Port Omna stout (regular version) had some dried beer on the top and a slight sour tinge. I drank maybe 1/4 of a can, so I can't say if I liked it or not. But, of the variants you sent: Coconut, Cinnamon, Lactose > Coconut > Orange Zest. All of these were just missing something and I'm not quite sure. Maybe the base-stout was a bit too dry for my liking or the adjuncts weren't as explosive as I wanted. Well executed and if I lived there, would buy/drink again for sure, but it wouldn't be atop my list.

Regular Coffee imperial Cream Ale from Carton was very good. As was Cafe Y Churro, but again I wanted a bit more cinnamon -- full disclosure, I'm a huge cinnamon and coconut fan, so I tend to have the same critiques of all cinnamon or coconut beers haha -- and I'll drink the final variant of the coffee imperial cream ales this week.

Thanks again! I'll start gathering some beers here in the next month or so. I'm swamped with beer events coming up in Feb/March, but I'll be collecting some beers and sending some stuff out. I have a couple of beers already in mind (and good timing on a new Jolly Pumpkin release that I was going to get for myself that I think you'd be very interested in trying out).

 

Alien Church is killer for sure. It doesn't get the hype it deserves because they release it all the time, but it's one of the best beers they put out. Same can be said for the only two flagship beers that they always have on, Hophands and Saisonhands.

Shit, that sucks. Must have happened in shipping. My order is the same for the variants. It's a relatively small stout that's coming up on a year old, so the adjuncts/the beer in general are definitely dropping off by now, which is probably why it's feeling a little off to you. It's their St. Pat's release, so I'll have to shoot you over whatever they do this year.

Yeah, that's kinda just Carton's M.O. in general. They like to do a lot of weird shit with their beers, but they don't usually go nuts on the adjuncts when they do.

Aww yeah.

 

I love that you two are trading, so cute

 

Don't get jealous. Proxy my Rare Barrel stuff for me and I'll send you some goodies too. :)

 

Ahh, didn't know that they were last years releases, so that makes sense. They're better now, in my eyes, knowing that.

My mailbox is always open, Steve!

 

Rare Barrel is extremely far away from me, haha

 

Haha, come on, my geography knowledge isn't that bad. They ship, but only within California. I'll shoot you a PM about it if I don't end up setting up a trade out that way anyway. I have until the end of March to pick up or ship my 2017 bottles.

 

I can totally ship it to you if you need :) just let me know if so!

 

I live about a 25 min drive from rare barrel, am down to help you out as well.

 

My Chicago friends:

Cigar City, the renowned Florida beer, headed to Chicago

 

Chicagoans, rejoice. Delicious stuff

 

I was just in Florida for 3 days and drank about 11 Jai Alai. My girlfriend's mom spoiled me that weekend.

 

Yeah i'm lucky it's so widely available. You can snag Jai Alai from pretty much any gas station or restaurant.

 

My only concern about Cigar City in our market is its freshness and where it's going to be brewed at. As good as Jai Alai supposedly is (never had it but HYPE), why would I get it over a local brewery's IPA in a sixer in my market? Is it going to be better than week-old Anti-Hero/Daisy Cutter or Hubbard's Cave IIPAs (which is literally across the street from me)? Is it going to end up like Toppling Goliath when the first launched here and screwed the pooch by distributing month plus old PsuedoSue when we could have gotten the Decorah brewed stuff from right across the border? Basically, I'm just skeptical at this point. I'll for sure buy a sixer to test out the hype for myself though.

 

You bring up a good point. It will never beat the freshness of the local breweries, but the article did say it would be brewed at the Oskar Blues facility and not shipping up all the way from Florida.

 

CC stamps can dates on the bottom of the can so you can always know if it's fresh. I always check can dates before buying anything.

 

I hope CC makes their way to Michigan

 

I know everyone loves Cigar City, but don't sleep on Garagiste Meadery. Fantastic stuff.

 

So from North Carolina then? That's still a bit of a hike.

And I always try to catch the canning/bottling date when I buy stuff from the store now...it's standard practice. I won't buy something hoppy that's not "fresh".

 

Finally got to try something from them last week and was blown away. Wish it wasn't so impossible to get a hold of.

 

Fresh Jai Alai crushes fresh Anti-Hero, IMO. Daisy Cutter I haven't had in a while, but going off of my memory I'd say it's close. The worry with a move like this is does this turn into a Ballast Point situation where none of their hoppy beers are fresh at all and then they just sit on the shelf getting worse and the brand just kind of fizzles out of their buzz. But, as pointed out, they do can date and if they do that, that indicates to me that they'll be sending the freshest they possibly can. To be honest, about 95% of freshness issues falls on the distributor.

Could also potentially get some batches brewed in Grand Rapids, Mich. at Perrin. They brewed some batches of Jai Alai last year for fun which I heard was...

...A way to test the Michigan market without actually committing to distro here at the time. I'm surprised the move to Chicago took this long, but I fully expect CC to be in Michigan within 12 months.

 

Totally get that entire point. Like I said, I'm excited to try their stuff when it rolls out here. But your point about out of regional breweries like Ballast Point holds way too true in the Chicago market. It's a major market, but it's also one of the most crowded in the country. If they are getting weeks fresh Jai Alai here, then awesome. Maybe it will even be in the rotation for me. But for hoppy beers to succeed, the turn around time needs to be quick because a mediocre product will get eaten alive here.

Sorry for any typos. Mobile posting does that to me.

 

Forest & Main opened up a new spot. Might check em both out tonight

 

Just had Sip of Sunshine. Thought it was good nothing special at first, halfway through was sold.

Also had good stuff at Aeronaut

 

This was a gift from before Xmas 2016 and I just opened it tonight. Pretty good.