"Craft" beer recommendation

[UserX]

Not yet but hopefully next year. My sister lives in San Diego and it'd be a good excuse to visit. Ballast Point and Green Flash are also pretty close by.

I am planning on heading to Pikes Peak this year though so hopefully I can knock out Avery, New Belgium and Oskar Blues. Then next year I will be going to Delaware for Dogfish Head.

If you go, I highly recommend hitting their restaurant in Escondido versus the one in SD. Don't get me wrong, the one in SD is very nice, but too close to the airport and the constant takeoffs and landings ruin the outdoor dining experience.

Go to Escondido during the day and sit outside, their outdoor garden area is a great spot to enjoy their fantastic beers.

Another great SD brewery to check out is Hess. They're not widely known yet, but trust me they will be soon. Great beers and a cool dude. I'm a big fan of Green Flash too.

[jdgregory84]

I know Sam Adams isn't "craft" but they just released a Grapefruit Ale that I sampled today and it was pretty damn good.

[BP]

I know Sam Adams isn't "craft" but they just released a Grapefruit Ale that I sampled today and it was pretty damn good.

The brewers association keeps redefining what a "craft brewery" is specifically because of the Boston Beer Company.

http://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/craft-brewer-defined/

They are a very big company and are publicly traded but unless they start buying up other breweries and closing them they'll keep the craft status. Their former employees have started up plenty of other breweries and Jim Koch personally mentored many of them.

[BP]

So the Fort Worth Aviation Museum is doing a Hops and Props event on May 16th.

http://www.fortworthaviationmuseum.com/docs/Hops%20and%20Props%20Public.pdf

The have Rabbit Hole, Martin House, Cedar Creek, Rahr and Chimera (formerly Zio Carlo) on board for now. It looks like a typical beer festival which is awesome on it's own but this one is at a pretty badass museum. It's more than a museum though because they have a full service hangar and are constantly doing restorations and repairs on vintage aircraft.

Additionally they have at least two planes where you can do onboard sampling while in flight. It's a little expensive but a cool concept.

[95DRGT]

This is off the charts with flavor and finish

[BP]

I managed to get a 4 pack of KBS last week. I gave it a solid 5. Pretty much what I look for in a barrel aged coffee stout. Lots of all of the above and well balanced.

Also had Brooklyn's Wild Horse yesterday and it wasn't really good. It's supposed to be a full bodied porter with souring from the Brett yeast. The nose had a little bit of funk from the yeast but it didn't really come through in the flavor at all. That and it was a very flat and thin body for a porter.

I had Circle Brewing's Nightlight aged in JD barrels right before it and it was very good. Also very expensive at $9 for a 9 ounce pour, for a 5.2% abv beer. Good though. I'd never had a whiskey barrel aged Irish Stout before, it was good. I really want to find it in regular form now, surely it'll be cheaper.

[Tyrone Biggums]

I managed to get a 4 pack of KBS last week. I gave it a solid 5. Pretty much what I look for in a barrel aged coffee stout. Lots of all of the above and well balanced.

Nice. I only got one, so it's gonna hang out for a while. I did, however, score one of the six FW 18's from Hall's.

[BP]

We went out to the Lonestar Roundup this weekend and Oasis Brewing was running the beer tent. Basically you had the standard Inbev, Sabmiller stuff and then all of their offerings. I'm not a huge fan of "session beers" but they are popular and for a venue like this they are great. The London Homesick Ale won gold at last years GABF so obviously they know what they are doing. It was enjoyable for sure, as was the Slow Ride.

What was much better though was visiting the brewery afterward. The brewery itself is very small, basically more like a brewpub setup and it's inside of a venue called the Mansfield. They rent it out for weddings, meetings, whatever. They have their own tap room just outside that also serves a local wine.

http://mansfieldeventsaustin.com/

It's the nicest view I've found in Austin. It's at the very end of Lake Travis at the Oasis and on the top floor. I used to really like going to the Lake Saucer in Rockwall for the view but this blows that away.

[BP]

Oh yeah, I also had 512's Pecan Porter but out of a cask this weekend. It had the same body and similar carbonation but since it wasn't filter at all the pecan flavor is in your face, it's like drinking fresh pecans. Pretty good! I generally don't like the cask version of any beer but this worked well. It probably helped that I was 5 miles away from the brewery drinking something they tapped the day before.

[Tyrone Biggums]

Drinking a Lakewood Hopochondria now. It's super clear, yet tastes like they filtered it through a dirty sock. Oskar Blues Pinner was the same way. I'm not a fan of some of these newer session beers. Overly hop bitter with not enough malt to back it, but less fermentables is the only way they can keep the ABV down. As far as an all day beer, my new favorite is Four Corners Red's Roja. Damn good American Red with a stone fruit finish.

[BP]

Hops and Props is this weekend

http://www.fortworthaviationmuseum.com/home1.aspx

Kind of a bold move scheduling it the same weekend as Grapevine's Main Street festival. I don't know which one to hit up. Guess I'll try for both.

[Strychnine]

Oskar Blues Pinner was the same way.

Dude, I love Oskar Blues, but Pinner is pretty damn bad



*cracks open an Avery IPA*

[Cobraman]

Oh yeah, I also had 512's Pecan Porter but out of a cask this weekend. It had the same body and similar carbonation but since it wasn't filter at all the pecan flavor is in your face, it's like drinking fresh pecans. Pretty good! I generally don't like the cask version of any beer but this worked well. It probably helped that I was 5 miles away from the brewery drinking something they tapped the day before.

Pecan porter is a hit in my book. Love it.

[Tyrone Biggums]

Dude, I love Oskar Blues, but Pinner is pretty damn bad



*cracks open an Avery IPA*

Someone posted up the other day that a Whole Foods in Dallas had bourbon barrel G'Knight on tap. I about shit. I didn't even know they made one. I'm considering making the drive for a growler of it.

[TeeShock]

Someone posted up the other day that a Whole Foods in Dallas had bourbon barrel G'Knight on tap. I about shit. I didn't even know they made one. I'm considering making the drive for a growler of it.

Ill check the Addison location this week. They have a really good 20th anniversary St Arnold's around 9% abv for $17.