Beeradvocate is the worst site I spend a considerable amount of time on. The Alstrom brothers are elitist jerks who hold some weird level of smug superiority for having started the site/been into the beer world a long time. I laughed out loud at the cancellation of ACBF (their huge sampling fest) in favor of "microbrewer's fest" with a thinly veiled rant about tickers in the description. It's like man, you encouraged this shit and now want to pretend you're above it. It's also moderated like crazy by a dude with the worst hall monitor complex imaginable. Two posts in a row mention Trillium in the Tree House thread and 3/4 of it's getting deleted. Say something negative, it's probably getting deleted. Point out that reasonable discussion got deleted, get banned. Weird stuff, I'm convinced they're getting some kind of extra cash to use their forum as incognito advertising because otherwise some of their practices make no sense. /rant.
I heard from a PA native at an Other Half release that they had gone to Tired Hands, ordered a ton of beer and expected to be fully comped for it because they're the almighty Alstrom Brothers. Bashing their Milkshake IPAs was a retaliation for having to pay the bill I guess. LOL.
Lol. Whack. They bashed HopHands, their flagship pale ale, calling it a milkshake IPA. So after getting the bad review they actually started making milkshake ipas. Either way BA is terrible.
On another note, I just got some Bissell Brothers Reciprocal and I'm stoked to try it. Also have Diavoletto, probably going to have them at Zwanze Day.
My roommates and I love doing readings of the absolute ludicrous things people say on Beer Advocate. like, how many people have actually had a stonefruit. Also, apparently they've gone to other beer websites and into user PMs; if someone says omething bad about them, even on another site, they get banned. If more people wrote things, Untappd would be solid for rankings.
I always get a kick out of people tossing around stonefruit. Why not just say peach? Or nectarine? Or Mango? Nah, gotta say stonefruit. Get that cicerone level street cred, hah. Wow, Beeradvocate is hilarious.
I used to use beeradvocate for the simple 1-5 rating, then they forced you to rate every aspect of the beer to enter a rating and I stopped using it. Small, dumb, little reason... but when I drink a beer I just want to quickly mark if I like it or not, not spend time rating 5 aspects of it. Also, most of the reviews on each beer are painful to read
Thankfully never ventured onto BA. As simple as it is, Untappd is enough for me to check/rate. I trust my friends' taste for the most part
I actually never knew what the "milkshake" beer meant. Interesting, so basically there's a collection of people who feel that IPA's need to be clean/clear vs. the cloudy nature of a lot of TH/Milkshake beers? I'm entirely ignorant to beer snobbery, it just seems like if it tastes good you should drink it
I'm pretty sure it used to be a negative term, now it's not really a term with a positive or negative connotation/a lot of NE IPAs have the haziness. but @bigmike can probably give an infinitely better answer
I see King Julius all over my instagram explore section and am always floored by the color of the beer itself, can't believe it's an IPA. I'm guessing this is what milkshake beers are. I guess I'm only used to clear IPAs
i live your dream multiple times a month :p #humblebrag There are Trillium beers that literally look like slightly discolored OJ.
Haha I guess I can't complain, there's so much great beer in Michigan. I need to make it over there though to try some.
Turbidity and Haze is like the staple appearance for NE style IPAs. Floating hop particles from dry hopping clinging to hop oil and suspended yeast, some people just don't like the appearance. Then there's Tree House, who make their hazy IPAs look beautiful. Sometimes haziness can indicate poor quality control and even infection, depending on the style. I've actually never heard anyone refer to hazy IPAs as milkshake IPAs, just the lucky PA folk who can go to Tired Hands and enjoy all their Milkshake series installments. (Still really want that Watermelon Milkshake) I know some people who prefer filtered and clarified IPAs, but I think it's because they don't like the more robust mouthfeel that unfiltered IPAs have. Whether it's Sculpin or Julius, I love both interpretations of the style.
I visited Jolly Pumpkin last year and it was one of my favorite experiences going to a brewery. Amazing beer, food, and atmosphere. Really wanted to go to Dark Horse, but didn't have the time.
I get it if it's not your thing, but the people that try to claim that NE IPAs are just poorly made beers drive me insane. I've actually heard people try to claim that you can get the same mouthfeel/body out of an IPA and have it be perfectly clear, which is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Makes sense. I did a little reading and saw that TH also puts some protein in their beers, apparently. I still don't understand why people are so mad about it if it tastes good
I typically buy a random 6-pack once a week and will quickly pull up Beer Advocate on my phone to get overall rating. If it's over 85 I'll usually pull the trigger. I don't read individual reviews though. What's the best iPhone beer app? I used to use Pintly but now I think it's like $10.
Beer Advocate is good for what you're using it for now. If you're looking for something different, Untappd would work. An Untappd rating of like 3.75 or better would probably work out to about the same as the 85 on BA method you're using now.