Let's talk good beer

Sierra Nevada is taking over all 22 taps at DTC tomorrow. Including all of the beer camps on tap. Debating on whether to take the plunge.

Damn, I may have to make the drive up and check it out.

Just being real, I love me some beer, but I'm getting tired of the IPA/Sour trend. I've had many great beers of both styles, but goddamn hipsters are driving some really shitty versions of both. IPAs were the thing a few years back and it's driving some palette-wrecking hops. When sours were the vogue thing, there were some unique and awesome offerings, now everything is swinging into the overdone direction.

Sad face.

This is aimed at no one in particular unless you're my favorite bar dowtown: HIGHER IBUS DOESNT MEAN BETTER. :(

Helluva trip to MA/CT this past weekend. Going to be a long time before I can save the scratch to do a similar trip, but it was well worth it.

Scored the following (pints, samples/flights, cans, bottles, bombers...some were brought home for later, others were had there):
NEBCO: G-Bot, Captain's Daughter, Sea Hag
Lawson's: Sip of Sunshine, Super Session #2
Tree House: Alter Ego, Haze, Eureka w/ Citra, Single Shot w/ Vanilla
Wormtown: Be Hoppy
Night Shift: Whirlpool, The 87, Santilli, Morph
Trillium: Coffee Pot & Kettle, Summer Street IPA (Regular and Double Dry Hopped), Fort Point Pale Ale (Regular and Double Dry Hopped), Publick House IPA
Beer'd: 8 Days A Week
Lord Hobo: Steal This Can, Hobo Life, Boomsauce, Consolation Prize
Cambridge Brewing: Brett Semetary, Sturdy Bottom, Business Time, Tall Tale Pale Ale
Jack's Abby: 3x Dry Hopped Hoponius Union W/ Azacca And Caliente, House Lager, Calyptra Session IPL, Excess IPL
Hill Farmstead: Walden, Sumner, Edward, Society & Solitude #3
Maine MO (dated 4/19)



Holy crap sounds like one hell of a trip!Compared to some of you I am only an amiture when it comes to the time and effort you put into your beer endeavors but I love it when I can just as much.
Heading to Canada this summer Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia for a week.Have rent a cottage for a week on the ocean and am looking forward to trying some great Canadian stuff!

Just being real, I love me some beer, but I'm getting tired of the IPA/Sour trend. I've had many great beers of both styles, but goddamn hipsters are driving some really shitty versions of both. IPAs were the thing a few years back and it's driving some palette-wrecking hops. When sours were the vogue thing, there were some unique and awesome offerings, now everything is swinging into the overdone direction.

Sad face.

This is aimed at no one in particular unless you're my favorite bar dowtown: HIGHER IBUS DOESNT MEAN BETTER. :(

I bought a 4-pack of guinness draught the other night...its like coming home

Just being real, I love me some beer, but I'm getting tired of the IPA/Sour trend. I've had many great beers of both styles, but goddamn hipsters are driving some really shitty versions of both. IPAs were the thing a few years back and it's driving some palette-wrecking hops. When sours were the vogue thing, there were some unique and awesome offerings, now everything is swinging into the overdone direction.

Sad face.

This is aimed at no one in particular unless you're my favorite bar dowtown: HIGHER IBUS DOESNT MEAN BETTER. :(

I think I try a good variety of beers and I have my favorites of each style .. but I lean towards the IPAs, DIPAs and pale ales. For other beers, i need to be in the mood for an imperial stout or strong ale.

i will drink a pseudo sue, sculpin, nanticoke nectar, dbl duckpin, clownshoes or galatica, maine another one or mo or lunch, 51 rye, etc. any day of the week.

I hear what you are saying about an over-flooded market but I dont look at it in a bad way. I think its good. Sure we can drop $10 on a new beer and find out its crap or not to our liking but thats the breaks.

20 years ago our choices of actual tasty beer were bass ale, yuengling, wild goose (now flying dog) and 1 other brewery i cant think of right now and that was it. literally I had 4 choices. i just drank a ton of bass ale when i could afford it.

im excluding stuff like becks, honey brown, heinkeken etc. which i also was forced to drink back then.
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Now that I think about it ... the cost of hops and the price being passed along to us the consumer kinda sucks. I could def do without all the heavy hoppy beers that suck and are just a waste.

Just being real, I love me some beer, but I'm getting tired of the IPA/Sour trend. I've had many great beers of both styles, but goddamn hipsters are driving some really shitty versions of both. IPAs were the thing a few years back and it's driving some palette-wrecking hops. When sours were the vogue thing, there were some unique and awesome offerings, now everything is swinging into the overdone direction.

Sad face.

This is aimed at no one in particular unless you're my favorite bar dowtown: HIGHER IBUS DOESNT MEAN BETTER. :(
Yeah it's hard sometimes. Breweries are trying to keep up with trends, and oversaturate the market (IE Pumpkin beers in August). Sours are a big thing now and it almost seems that breweries are going out of season to brew stuff (Sours in winter, stouts in summer, etc).

The biggest thing is find a few beers you like and look at the hop profiles. I tend to gravitate towards beers that have Citra in it because I know I like the nose and flavor Citra gives a beer.

And then talk to the barkeep or the beer manager at your favorite watering hole about beer. Ask him if he's tried this or that and get a feel for what he's ordering. And if it's not to your liking and he's not willing to budge, find another watering hole.

My favorite watering hole has 20 taps (2 nitro) and once one keg goes, a different beer it put on (Here is the current list: 20 Draft Beers - Roasthouse Pub (http://roasthousepub.com/draft-list/)). I've talked to the bartenders and beer manager enough to know that they do a great job bringing in different stuff. Going to be some hits and misses but overall there is something for everyone.

Top 3 beers on Beer Advocate right now, and 6 of the top 10, are Stouts. Could be because we're coming off the winter right now but it definitely shows that a good beer will get recognition no matter what the style is.

Ironically, I wrote that post slightly drunk last night...

I'll elaborate more since I'm coherent today. Bohnzie and OTM, I definitely enjoy many different aspects of many styles of beers. Thank God the craft beer movement is in full swing, because I think the trends also lead to lack of creativity. I have some friends (and the bartender at my favorite watering hole) say, "Hey man! Check this out. ULTRA hoppy!" I deeply respect their opinions, and after tasting it, my palate was absolutely ruined. Pure pine notes, zero balance. I don't want someone saying, "Taste this! It's DEFINITELY got the characteristics of THIS type beer." I want someone to say, "Taste this! DELICIOUS."

One of my top five beers is considered "hoppy" but it's hoppy with balance. Recently the bar has started putting a lot of Sculpin on tap (huge fan!) so I can now stop bitching about the over-hopped offerings. And Bohnzie, maybe that's why the new offerings are so bad. If they're rushing them out due to trends, maybe they're not letting them age properly or sacrificing quality for quantity.

Chico, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Guinness. There's still a few macro-ish brews out there that hold a soft spot in my heart (Labatt being one of them for some reason).

Guinness is the gateway to craft beers. I know it's how I got started. Still an old reliable to this day. Good session beer with the low abv too.

Ironically, I wrote that post slightly drunk last night...

I'll elaborate more since I'm coherent today. Bohnzie and OTM, I definitely enjoy many different aspects of many styles of beers. Thank God the craft beer movement is in full swing, because I think the trends also lead to lack of creativity. I have some friends (and the bartender at my favorite watering hole) say, "Hey man! Check this out. ULTRA hoppy!" I deeply respect their opinions, and after tasting it, my palate was absolutely ruined. Pure pine notes, zero balance. I don't want someone saying, "Taste this! It's DEFINITELY got the characteristics of THIS type beer." I want someone to say, "Taste this! DELICIOUS."

One of my top five beers is considered "hoppy" but it's hoppy with balance. Recently the bar has started putting a lot of Sculpin on tap (huge fan!) so I can now stop bitching about the over-hopped offerings. And Bohnzie, maybe that's why the new offerings are so bad. If they're rushing them out due to trends, maybe they're not letting them age properly or sacrificing quality for quantity.

Chico, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Guinness. There's still a few macro-ish brews out there that hold a soft spot in my heart (Labatt being one of them for some reason).
I love a good Guinness...some of these stouts and porters craft breweries are putting out are neither sometimes...still good, but not what they are labeled to be...

Yeah, there is a different between ultra hoppy balanced and ultra hoppy INYOURFACETOBEBITTER!!! Some folks take the real bitter stuff and drink it and like it because BA has it rated as a 98 so it must be good. The beers I got into that really showed me that you don't have to be in your face bitter but can be super hoppy is Laguintas. They figured out how to hop the hell out of a beer but not taste like it.

But in all honestly, I think sheeple tend to go with the popular notion of a beer instead of really trying and determining whether they like it or not. Between BeerAdvocate and Untappd, you'll see a trend among the top beers, that their ratings don't fluctuate too much. Whereas lesser known beers will have a lot of leeway in ratings. Don't hate on a sub 85 beer just because a bunch of hipsters on BA didn't care for it because it wasn't "hoppy" enough.

It's funny you said "Taste this! DELICIOUS." because the small group of guys i drink with...that's what we do. We don't try to sell anyone on ABVs or hoppiness or whatever. We say, you have to drink this because it's good. And then we talk about it from there. And if we're trying something new, we'll compare notes. It helps that our palates are similar, and we'll disagree from time to time. But that whole selling it based on gimmick words bites.

I love a good Guinness...some of these stouts and porters craft breweries are putting out are neither sometimes...still good, but not what they are labeled to be...

Yeah, there is a different between ultra hoppy balanced and ultra hoppy INYOURFACETOBEBITTER!!! Some folks take the real bitter stuff and drink it and like it because BA has it rated as a 98 so it must be good. The beers I got into that really showed me that you don't have to be in your face bitter but can be super hoppy is Laguintas. They figured out how to hop the hell out of a beer but not taste like it.

But in all honestly, I think sheeple tend to go with the popular notion of a beer instead of really trying and determining whether they like it or not. Between BeerAdvocate and Untappd, you'll see a trend among the top beers, that their ratings don't fluctuate too much. Whereas lesser known beers will have a lot of leeway in ratings. Don't hate on a sub 85 beer just because a bunch of hipsters on BA didn't care for it because it wasn't "hoppy" enough.

It's funny you said "Taste this! DELICIOUS." because the small group of guys i drink with...that's what we do. We don't try to sell anyone on ABVs or hoppiness or whatever. We say, you have to drink this because it's good. And then we talk about it from there. And if we're trying something new, we'll compare notes. It helps that our palates are similar, and we'll disagree from time to time. But that whole selling it based on gimmick words bites.

Totally agree. I've just recently discovered Beer Advocate over the past few years and some of their ratings I just flat-out disagree with. People were hating on Voodoo Donut offerings, but I find those to be some of the most unique beers I've ever tried. Would I drink a bunch of them? Hell no, but part of drinking beer (sometimes ;)) is enjoying the experience.

Anyways, can you guys get Blue Mountain Barrel House in your area? It's about an hour northeast from here and they have a GREAT beer in Hopwork Orange. Sometimes you'll have an orange beer taste like "citrus", but you could give a blind taste test of this and people would instantly say "orange", not lime, not lemon. Really nice warm weather beer.

And while we're on the subject:
A Hopwork Orange | Blue Mountain Brewery | BeerAdvocate (http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16352/121408/)