677 replies to this topic

[Baggy Spandex]

One thing you have to give to AB is that their product is consistent. It always tastes the same, albeit some can't stomach it and some love it. New to this thread, but this was my haul for last week. All singles.



This week I scooped up a Founders KBS, Ballast Point Sculpin, Stone Ruination, Green Flash West Coast IPA, some more of the ones above and a Lindemans Framboise for the lady to try

For the hop-heads in here, skip the Anderson Valley and beg/borrow/steal to find the Founders Devil Dancer.

Edited by Baggy Spandex, 08 July 2011 - 10:13 PM.

[Jimmy Leeds]

Bud should be F. I'd rather drink dog piss while it is having a UTI after rolling around in the mud for 10 hours.

..........and you are obviously the authority on beer.

[Baggy Spandex]

..........and you are obviously the authority on beer.

Although his opinion may differ from yours, you have to admire his passion

I happen to thing seafood tastes like garbage juice, but everyone in my family loves it. I won't try to change their mind though. I'll just have the chicken, please.

[devilsfan26]

One thing you have to give to AB is that their product is consistent. It always tastes the same, albeit some can't stomach it and some love it. New to this thread, but this was my haul for last week. All singles.



This week I scooped up a Founders KBS, Ballast Point Sculpin, Stone Ruination, Green Flash West Coast IPA, some more of the ones above and a Lindemans Framboise for the lady to try

For the hop-heads in here, skip the Anderson Valley and beg/borrow/steal to find the Founders Devil Dancer.

Dude where did you find Devil Dancer? None of the stores I called have it yet. Speaking of imperial IPAs, I just got five bottles of Pliny the Elder delivered to me today as part of a trade with someone else on Beer Advocate. I never had it before, can't wait to pop one open when I get home from work tomorrow!

And what the hell store still has KBS?!?!

Edited by devilsfan26, 08 July 2011 - 11:44 PM.

[Quinn01]

Whats up with the keg situation? Apparently you can no longer get full kegs in NJ, they only can sell half and 1/4 kegs?

[DevilMinder]

I brewed my beer at the brewers apprentice in Freehold. This brew is like a summer ale.

Jimmy, do you like that place? I keep seeing ads for it and meant to check it out.

[Pepperkorn]

Yeah I saw that in his fridge and got all mouth watery! (Devil Dancer)

Wegmans in Bridgewater actually has a decent selection - but it's inconsistent. Supersaver on 22 also in bridgewater/Sommerville had good stuff...

Edited by Pepperkorn, 09 July 2011 - 10:56 AM.

[DevsMan84]

..........and you are obviously the authority on beer.

and so must you be after taking a remedial course on brewing beer that I see advertised all over the place online.

[Jimmy Leeds]

and so must you be after taking a remedial course on brewing beer that I see advertised all over the place online.

I don't even know what that means. You are a beer snob, and I've never even heard of one before. If I like my Budweiser, good for me.

Jimmy, do you like that place? I keep seeing ads for it and meant to check it out.

Costs about $200 or so when all done. You get about 72-76 22 oz. bottles of beer. Multitudes of different brews to choose to brew.

[95Crash]

Drinking a Long Trail Brewmaster Series Double IPA right now -- courtesy of Devilminder's recommendation, I believe. I also recently tried River Horse's Hop-A-Lot-Amus, thanks to DM's recommendation.

A few that devilsfan26 recommended that I tried recently and liked were Stone Ruination IPA (loved it so much I bought more -- damn, it's expensive), Flying Fish's Exit 4 -- damn, that stuff is strong (but good!), and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

I, too, hope Baggy Spandex writes back to let us know where he got the Founders Devil Dancer and KBS.

I've heard a few people talk about Firestone Walker Union Jack (Paso Robles, Calif.), but I haven't seen it in stores yet.

Lastly, I tried Lagunitas Hop Stoopid recently.

...

All of the above I liked a lot (except for the Firestone Walker Union Jack, which I'm wating to try).

Edited by 95Crash, 09 July 2011 - 03:33 PM.

[devilsfan26]

With regards to MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch...the fact that I dislike the taste of their beer isn't even the reason I hate those companies, it's the way they do business and manipulate the beer industry to their benefit. If they tried to put out a good beer and just didn't do a good job that's one thing, but quality isn't even part of their business strategy. They use cheap ingredients and have no interest in styles that are really great but take more time and effort to brew. Rather than competing by making a better product, they buy up competing craft breweries and push them hard for a few months as a way to knock out the other craft taps and then once that is done they just run it into the ground. They constantly break the law by offering bars and stores free kegs or cases if they stop selling beer from certain craft breweries or move it to a less visible part of the aisle, they sue craft breweries over frivolous things just to make them use up their limited resources (for example Anheuser-Busch sued Dogfish Head over use of the word "Pumpkin"), they manipulate the marketplace with their lobbyists clamoring for ridiculous and illogical laws that serve no function other than to preserve their dominance by throwing tons of obstacles in the way of craft beer's distribution (i.e. the three-tier system). As a result, creativity, entrepreneurship, and quality are all stifled. They have no interest in making a quality product or free market competition.

I prefer that my money go to the guys who actually want to make good beer than the ones who just want to maximize their stock prices by any means necessary other than increasing quality. I can't wrap my head around people who claim to be beer enthusiasts yet continue to support the massive companies who only want to crush the entire beer industry except for adjunct light lagers.

[devilsfan26]

A few that devilsfan26 recommended that I tried recently and liked were Stone Ruination IPA (loved it so much I bought more -- damn, it's expensive), Flying Fish's Exit 4 -- damn, that stuff is strong (but good!), and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

Cool, glad you liked them! With Ruination (and most or all IPAs), the beer is better the fresher it is. I think there is a best by date on the neck of the bottle, which is 90 days after the bottling date, so if you subtract three months from the date on the bottle you can determine how fresh it is. Most of the time, the date on the bottle refers to the day the beer was bottled, but Stone is different, most of their beers show a best by date of 90 days after the bottling date.

Edited by devilsfan26, 09 July 2011 - 03:42 PM.

[devilsfan26]

Just tried a Pliny the Elder (#3 on BeerAdvocate). Very good, but didn't really live up to the hype for me unfortunately. Although I can see how this could be world class if you like really balanced imperial IPAs, but I like my imperial IPAs to dropkick me in the face with an overwhelming hop flavor. It's probably harder to make a very smooth and balanced IIPA like this, so credit to Russian River for filling that need though. This one was bottled on June 16th, so maybe it is better fresher, but I feel like three weeks isn't all that old.

Anyway, I prefer Devil Dancer, Ruination, and Exit 16. I think Exit 16 may be my favorite IPA. Maybe I'm just being a New Jersey homer, but I don't think so.

Edited by devilsfan26, 09 July 2011 - 10:44 PM.

[insanity_gallops]

This thread is why mrsheeps needs to come back and post more. He has some kind of spreadsheet in which he ranks the new beers he's tried. Last I checked, it cleared 500.

I'll see if I can get him into this thread at least.

[DevsMan84]

A friend of mine told me at Wegmans they have a thing where you can make your own six-pack for a set price and you can choose a bunch of craft beers. Anyone heard of this before?

[Bulletproof]

Tried two new beers this weekend, both of which were quite good, if not great.

The first is a Scottish black porter called Midnight Sun, brewed by the Williams Bros Company, if that helps anybody. The beer was heavy as all get out but absolutely delicious. There is a new British gastropub type place by me (which really means overpriced) that I had to check out and when my friend asked for a really dark beer, that's what they pulled out. Really tasty.



The second is a wheat beer that was quite amazing called Hennepin. I think it's made in upstate New York and since summer are all about wheat beers for me, this one was a really tasty one.



Of course, while this is a beer thread, my favorite drink of the weekend was a 15 yr single malt Oban but I digress

[DevsMan84]

Also want to say that the other thing I love about beer are the beer glasses. I got a set of 4 of those fancy Sam Adams glasses and they are really great.

I also just purchased a glass that I have been looking for years for. They finally showed up on ebay and I snatched the up. You cannot get these over hear and I heard the brewery that makes them does not export these, so these have to be mailed from someone who bought one in Germany. They are from the Eichbaum brewery in Mannheim (my mother's home city). They are a smaller to mid-sized regional brewery in Germany and they only export a few of their brews over here and quite hard to find. These glasses are really cool and remember them from when I was last over them but never bought them (I should have). They are called horn-stemmed glasses and they literally look like they should tip over every time but they are really sturdy. They come in different sizes and below is an example of one.



And the beer is great too. They pump their own spring water form their property however their brews are nicknamed corpse water cause their brewery is literally right next to a graveyard. When I took a tour there they were not kidding how close it was but assured us that they use filters and barriers so their water doesn't get tainted by rotting bodies lol.

[Quinn01]

And the beer is great too. They pump their own spring water form their property however their brews are nicknamed corpse water cause their brewery is literally right next to a graveyard. When I took a tour there they were not kidding how close it was but assured us that they use filters and barriers so their water doesn't get tainted by rotting bodies lol.

Sounds like my kind of beer. Those are cool glasses, I always liked the taller glasses over the normal every day pint glasses. You always feel like your pinky should be out while drinking from one.

[DevsMan84]

Sounds like my kind of beer. Those are cool glasses, I always liked the taller glasses over the normal every day pint glasses. You always feel like your pinky should be out while drinking from one.

Haha yeah these are great. I got 1 already and it is the smaller kind so while it is smaller than a pint, it is taller than the traditional pint glass. (it is in fact a 0.2L glass) I have 2 coming on the way and they are bigger. The one I got already is to drink pilsner and over there, they consider pilsners more of the champagne of beer so that is probably why this smaller glass is for pilsners.

They also have another cool glass too but this one is more pricy and I have found these a few times on ebay. They are the "boot" glasses and well they are exactly how it sounds lol.

Edited by DevsMan84, 11 July 2011 - 10:43 AM.

[devilsfan26]

A friend of mine told me at Wegmans they have a thing where you can make your own six-pack for a set price and you can choose a bunch of craft beers. Anyone heard of this before?

I think I remember reading about that on Beer Advocate. I'm sure the higher priced beers are excluded from the set price. I've never been to a Wegman's that sold beer though. I heard there's a law in New Jersey that says chain grocery stores can only sell alcohol in two of their stores in the entire state. I believe in most other states you can walk into any grocery store and buy beer. I also heard there is a law in New York that forbids liquor stores from selling beer, so I guess grocery stores are the only place you can go to for beer in that state.

They sell single bottles at Joe Canal's on Rt. 1 in Iselin and at the Buy Rite on Oak Tree Road in South Plainfield, so you can make your own six pack there, but not for a set price.