Are you referring to Halftime Beverage? It’s a legit, respectable craft beer retailer. I don’t want to resort to ordering online, but I had two excellent bottle shops near me. One closed unexpectedly a year ago and the second one, which was a highly reputable business, all of a sudden just isn’t getting anything in stock anymore. Been four straight weeks of literally nothing. Used to get new stuff in left and right for a decade. Feel like I’m running out of options for new choices.
Yeah. With so many brands distributing I see IPAs sitting on shelves for months and months. Without being able to check can dates I would be weary of buying some ipa online and getting some six month ipa that’s been sitting in a warehouse.
Understandable. That’s an issue with any craft beer store though. Feel like if Halftime were sending customers beer way past the canned date, it would be a mark on their reputation though. I would only be ordering featured new beer drops. I can assure you the craft beer store by me has shit sitting on the shelves for way longer than it should, but I only buy from the new weekly drops anyway.
The only thing I’ll say about dates is it’s VERY hard to keep dates fresh when mf’ers will purposely dig for fresher dates thus older ones never selling.
I don't know this brewery but it came up on my explore section and I chuckled Edit: OMG their entire feed is WILD
My local spot finally got a large delivery this week. Their first in like, 5 or 6 weeks. Bought 18 different beers (individuals).
So, did the new(er) Humble Sea spot at the pier and they had an insanely good BA Stout they were pouring. Also did Troubadour and Zeitgeist. Troubadour selection was nuts. Probably the best beers I had of the trip were found there. Went to a couple other bar/cocktail places too but not sure they were as good as the spots above. Did hit up Cellarmaker too but found it to be just okay.
Haven’t been to the humble sea at the pier yet, mainly because of the location. I’m also not a big fan of pastry stouts (BA or otherwise), which seems like what they mostly do in addition to their “foggy” aka hazy ipa’s, another one of my least favorite styles lol. Did the BA stout you tried have adjuncts? I have had some really good humble sea beers, but it’s hard to justify going there for the 1 or 2 beers I might be interested in, when I’m just as close to Sante Adairius in Oakland which always has an excellent range of at least 2 lagers, a handful of mixed ferm saisons and other Belgian styles, plus the occasional BA stout or barleywine. Idk Troubadour, I’ve never heard of that spot; where’s it located? Zeitgeist is a cute spot with a solid tap list. Holy Water might be my favorite bar in the city. Only 12 taps but so well-curated and the cocktails are amazing. I also like Liquid Gold as a beer bar/bottle shop hybrid. Cellarmaker imo is consistently good across styles. It’s a reliable choice but not tops for me in the bay. I’m a Sante stan so I’d probably give that the number 1 spot, followed by Tenma for their lagers, Wondrous for their lagers and BBA options (as insanely overpriced as they are), and I’d probably put Cellarmaker 4th on most days. Some would argue Cellarmaker’s quality has gone down with their expansion into the east bay. I’m not sure about that, they might’ve just been surpassed by Tenma and Wondrous. If you have a more generous definition of the Bay Area, Private Press in Santa Cruz, Moonlight in Santa Rosa, and of course Russian River in Santa Rosa are all worth mentions as well. And Geisthaus is a great new lager-only brewery in Sacramento that deserves a shout-out as well. Sorry for the tangent, just very passionate about the NorCal beer scene!
I’ve got too many Sante mixed-ferm saison 750’s in my beer closet. Need to start making my way through them.
Reminds me of the 20.2% triple BA stout from Private Press I tried a couple weeks ago. Good stuff but I’m not sure I see the advantage of getting the abv that high!
I treat them like hard alcohol at that point, I'll pour a taster glass and sip on it for like an hour plus. I'll often take three nights just to have one 375ml bottle
I drank the whole bottle of a Black Tuesday in one night Steve sent me one time and that was not a smart idea. I wish they would sell those high ABV stouts in the mini soda can sizes, that's all that's needed at a time