"Craft" beer recommendation

[46Tbird]

I'm going to try to find some of this. It's not very highly rated (3.4ish out of 5 stars seems to be a consensus) but I think I'll like it.

Roasted Hatch chili peppers and lime infuse this limited release with a zesty kick. Also attending the fiesta are tomatillos for a subtle sweetness, lime for tartness and cilantro to mellow it all out. The full-bodied blonde malt provides a great counter-balance for the intense rush of flavor.

[BP]

I'm going to try to find some of this. It's not very highly rated (3.4ish out of 5 stars seems to be a consensus) but I think I'll like it.

I wouldn't let the rating deter you, chile based beers rarely go over well with beer folks. While they go nuts over chocolate/chile beers. Speaking of I found a keg of Mexican Cake in Rochester, NY this weekend. It wasn't tapped and they weren't planning on cracking it open any time soon but it was there. I got to Fraunce's Tavern in lower Manhattan last December about an hour after their keg floated. I guess that's my new Unicorn beer. My wife is heading to NC next week so hopefully she'll find me a bottle.

[txsr20de]

My wife and I made a road trip up the California coast last month and stopped at some breweries along the way. This was my haul for the trip. Mostly sours from Russian River, Firestone Walker Barrelworks, Libertine, The Bruery, and The Rare Barrel. Can't get the majority of this stuff in TX, unfortunately(The Bruery has limited distro here). Picture quality sucks I know.

[BP]

My wife and I made a road trip up the California coast last month and stopped at some breweries along the way. This was my haul for the trip. Mostly sours from Russian River, Firestone Walker Barrelworks, Libertine, The Bruery, and The Rare Barrel. Can't get the majority of this stuff in TX, unfortunately(The Bruery has limited distro here). Picture quality sucks I know.

Quality haul! The shelf life of those Pliny's is fairly short, drink up. That's our next trip hopefully though. Russian River is most certainly on the list.

[txsr20de]

Quality haul! The shelf life of those Pliny's is fairly short, drink up. That's our next trip hopefully though. Russian River is most certainly on the list.

Yeah, that picture is actually from a few weeks ago when I first pulled everything out of the wine shippers I used on the plane ride home. The Plinys were consumed within the first week home.

Russian River was very cool, but the place is hammered all the time, so you are usually looking at 1-2 hours to get a table. We waited about 40 minutes just to get in and fought for a seat at the bar. Make sure you also go to The Rare Barrel in Berkely if you are in the area, there stuff is killer(if you like sours) and no wait.

[BP]

I hit two new breweries this weekend. The North Brewery in Endicott and Binghamton Brewing which is actually in Johnson City, NY. Every city up here has at least 3 local breweries it seems. Most are trying to advertise that they use all NY state sourced ingredients, which is funny because I see Rahr malt bags in all of them.

Anyway you won't see any of these beers unless you head to a craft beer bar somewhere in the Southern Tier portion of NY.

I did pick up a 6 pack of Bell's Two Hearted Ale though, this stuff is fantastic. Every bit as good as 90 minute, Sculpin or Yellow Rose. I wish Bell's would distribute to Texas. That and I grabbed two more bottles of this years Woot Stout.

The funny thing is that the local beer store wants Revolver's Blood and Honey. They don't have anything like it up here but everyone loves it. Seriously I could probably trade two bottles of it for a KBS.

[Tyrone Biggums]

Haven't checked this thread in a while. We're supposed to have Bell's next year. Sweetwater is coming to Austin and DFW as well. I haven't gotten any W00tstout this year, but last years is aging well. Haven't really been buying many bombers lately. Too much stuff to keep up with anymore and I've already got so much beer "cellaring" that I didn't intend to have this long. It just kind of piled up.

Per tradition, I drank an 18 month old DFH 120 on IPA day. Pretty good. I still think 2-3 years is the sweet spot, but I'm going to let the rest of them get to 5 years just to see what that's like.

Had a '13 Pumkinator last week, still holding well. Birthday is coming up, so I'll be opening my Firestone Walker XVII. Really looking forward to that.

I think my favorite new(ish) local beer right now is Texas Ale Project's 100 Million Angels Singing. Going to hit up Division Brewing and Legal Draft in Arlington this weekend to see what's up there.

[phaux]

Going to hit up Division Brewing and Legal Draft in Arlington this weekend to see what's up there.

Division has some good beers, they're heavy on the IPA's. I like their "Squeeze" and "cosmic awe". Had one of Legal's wheat beers at a beer bar and wasn't too impressed, can't speak for any of their other stuff.

[BP]

So there has been some big news in the DFW beer scene. Revolver sold a controlling interest to Miller last week and today Grapevine Craft Brewery sent a letter out to distributors that they are shutting down effective immediately.

Revolver has absolutely exploded over the last 4 years so it's no surprise they were on the radar. Grapevine though seemed to be doing very well. I'm hoping this means they'll focus on contract brewing and keep the tap house open.

[BP]

OK scratch that. Grapevine isn't shutting down completely, they are killing their distribution lines. Which basically means the same thing to consumers. You'll only be able to buy their beer at the brewery for now. They would be able to self distribute up to 40k barrels a year though. That's what Revolver was doing before the Miller buyout.

[Strychnine]

So I have an office in downwtown FW and an office in Tulsa. I spend a week to a week and a half of each month in Tulsa so I know the bar staff at my hotel pretty well. That's where I do all my work in the evenings. I get to the hotel today, pull up to the bar to start emailing after my roadtrip, and see that they have Boulevard Rye On Rye on tap. Fuck yeah, I was pumped! Tulsa got 6 kegs this year. Here, a beer/burger placed called McNelly's, and one other place that blew through theirs in about 7 hours. It's a 12% rye ale aged in rye whiskey casks. Amazingly delicious.



I'm on my second snifter and loving life. Well there's some corporate event here with some international folks, and a Spanish looking/sounding woman (who might weigh 115 lbs) starts asking about beer. She landed on the Rye On Rye and the bartender said, "a small one or a large one?"

I paused in disbelief...

She said LARGE.

She walked away from the bar with a 32 oz 12+% beer (granted she paid $40). She's going to be wobbly in a bit. I looked at the bartender and said, "You can do that??? That's a fucking 12% beer..." He said, "I heard this year it may be closer to 15%, but she's at her hotel. Hope she has a good evening!"
(I looked it up after she left - he's right, this year's is 14.6%)




Edit: 6:30pm - she's finished it

[BP]

I've liked most of Boulevard's stuff I've had and thankfully Duvel bought them before Miller or AB.

Have you ever checked out Prairie's place in Tulsa? I guess it's actually Krebs now but they make some fantastic beers.

[dsrtuckteezy]

am i behind the times? heard of oskar blues new brewery in austin today

[BP]

am i behind the times? heard of oskar blues new brewery in austin today

Way behind, it opened in April! They are canning lots if Cigar City beers there right now, not sure what market they are for though.

Inbev bought Bosteels this week as well so no more Kwak and their weird glasses.

[Fatass]

Guess I'm late to the party as well, just recently started drinking beer again and have been hitting the taps and caps near me pretty regularly for growler fills. Taps 1-10 are $10 or less for a 64oz fill. Haven't stepped out very much into the crazy stuff, been enjoying the live oak hefeweizen and the dogfish head punkin more than anything.