The Beer Thread • Page 83

One of my regulars is paying for me to go to an off-flavor cicerone class in August.

 

never had Focal Banger, but i've had Heady four days off canning, and it was ridiculously good.

 

Have a "Sip of Sunshine" waiting in the fridge. Only had it once before, excited though.

 

My cousin went to Trillium today, and I have a pretty big haul coming in about a week from it to go with some Tree House he recently got as well. I'm really excited to dig into all of that.

 

Drinks tonight:

Deschutes Armory XPA
Columbus Brewing Co Summer Teeth

 

So my girlfriend and I are driving from North Carolina to Maine next summer for a friend's wedding. We're taking a whole week of vacation so that we can hit breweries on the way up and back. While its still the better part of a year away, we're doing as much planning as possible now so that we can hunt for the best deals on places to stay.

So far on our list is:

Bissell Brothers
Maine Brewing
Allegash
Oxbow (^^... these 4 above should be easy as we'll be staying in Portland for 2 nights)
Tired Hands
Trillium (going to the Canton location, probably won't go all the way into Boston)
Tree House
The Veil
Stillwater Artisanal
The Alchemist (vv... these bottom two will be difficult to figure out, VE is a bit out of the way)
Hill Farmstead

We're still undecided about whether or not we'll be spending a night in NYC, but if we do I definitely want to hit up Other Half and Sixpoint. Any others that would be a must-try?

Any other recommendations? I'm far-more familiar with SE breweries than those in the NE.

 

Port City is a mile off the beltway so that may be a good stop in Alexandria, VA.

Heavy Seas in Baltimore is also not far off I-95N.

 

Rising Tide's beers are pretty good. I haven't been to the brewery, though, so I don't know what it's like there. Shipyard is a decent place to stop in because they give you pretty much unlimited free samples and they have some stuff that's not for sale elsewhere or their experiment beers.

If you're going to spend any time in New Hampshire Stoneface has really good beers. And, I've never been but I've heard good things about Throwback Brewery.

 

I completely forgot about Port City but we'll actually be staying pretty close to there so I'll definitely be hitting them up. We get a good bit of Heavy Seas stuff down this way so I probably won't stop by there unless they have something special going on that week. Thank you for the suggestions!

Ah yeah, I'll add Rising Tide to the list to hit while we're in Portland. Never tried any of their stuff but I've heard good things, same with Shipyard. And I've never heard of Stoneface, but looks like they're pretty easy to get to so I'll check out some more about them. Thank you!

 

From my trip in April, Portsmouth NH has a couple good places and is right off the interstate going to Maine. Earth Eagle's gruit beers were wonderful.

Ended up getting to the Canton Trillium location with my folks coming back from Plimoth plantation since traffic was slammed into Boston. Had Pocket Pigeon (great), Vicinity (not as excellent as Mettle but still excellent) and Dusk Trill Dawn (bury me now).

Also finally had one from Maine brewing company today (Peeper, really solid pale ale)

 

Wow, Magic Hat's Grapefruit IPA is very bad.

 

Book and Bar in Portsmouth is a really cool used bookstore/bar inside an old customs building. Not a brewery but still a cool spot with local beer and cider on tap.

 

Didn't go there when I was in town but I'll have to tell my friend about it who lives there.

 

Someone here recommended me Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA. Whoever it was, thank you.

 

Current drink: Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale.

My personal fave.

 

I had Trillium's Melcher Street and Sunshower yesterday and I think it has been cemented as my favorite brewery.

 

Sunshower is the only thing I've had from Trillium but it was excellent.

 

and then i somehow ended up with a fresh pour of The Crusher this weekend. Dang.

 

Anybody ever go to Blake's Cider Dayze in Armada? I know they have a bunch of breweries there too, curious to hear if it's worth the cost.

 

Yo, picked up Cooperstown Brewing Company's Induction Ale while I was in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame induction. Not sure if there's any way to order this online or anything like that, but those who like summer ales have to try it. Really phenomal light, summery ale with notes of orange and grapefruit. Endlessly drinkable. Probably became my second favorite beer behind Brooklyn Summer Ale. I bought 3 6 packs of it while I was up there hoping they would last a little while back down here.

If anyone is in the Cooperstown area, give it a shot

 

Got the job at the new brewery opening up in town, which I'm stoked for. Email specifically said that I'd split time between serving and helping out in the brewhouse. If the plans are still the same, they were going to have only one person do that particular split and then the idea was that person would transition full time into the brewhouse. So excited.

 

In my Comic Con downtime this weekend I went to Stone (twice), Ballast Point, Mission, Monkey Paw and Half Door. All together very successful

 

Had some tasty beers yesterday!

Grabbed a couple of these guys from Cigar City:


And I got to try some things I hadn't had before like their GWAR beer and Xenu honey cream ale. Plus, I picked up some of their best pale ale, Guayabera, to take home. Even got a Cuban sandwich on the way out of Tampa - not a bad morning.

 

Absolutely love Stiegle. Was over in Vienna for New Year, drank a lot of it.

 

How was it all? I'm in SD For a week this weekend. Been to Stone and Ballast Point, but aim to hit a few more new places on this trip.