Let's talk good beer

Went to a buddy's house over the weekend, who has similar craft beer tastes and a larger checkbook ;) He goes to New England twice a year to bring back stuff from Alchemist, Tree House, Hill Farmstead. For instance, he brought back 100 cans of Heady Topper, which is mind boggling. Even moreso for the cash he shelled out for it.

So I had 2 Heady Toppers, which is amazing...although I think I prefer Union's Double Duckpin more. Both are quality Double IPAs. Which reminds me that I haven't had a 120 from Dogfish Head in a while.

Had a Tree House Julius. Reminded me of Cigar City Jai Alai. The color is outrageous, looks like an Orange Julius (hence the name I assume).

He traded some Heady for Pliny The Elder, so I got to try. Bottled 7/31, the hops had already gone bad. At least that's what it tasted like. I know IPAs should be had fresh, but it could have been how it was treated during transport and whatnot. So I checked it into Untappd but didn't rate. I'd love to try it fresh.

Split a Foundation Wanderlust. A hoppy farmhouse ale. It was a goregous yellow-orange color, and quite tasty. Would make for a great summer session beer.

Split a Lawson's Sip of Sunshine and Noda's Hop Drop n Roll with my buddy's wife (since they were in her beer drawer). Both very good.

I brought a growler of Flying Dog's The Fear, their Imperial Pumpkin Ale. It was my first pumpkin beer of the year and the first time I've had it. Quite tasty.

Last beer I got to try was Hill Farmstead's Grassroots Brewing Brother Soigne, which is a saison with lime and blood orange, which made for a great way to end the evening.

Very awesome lineup.

I'm heading up to Burlington VT this weekend, definitely will be on the hunt for Heady Topper.

Went to a buddy's house over the weekend, who has similar craft beer tastes and a larger checkbook ;) He goes to New England twice a year to bring back stuff from Alchemist, Tree House, Hill Farmstead. For instance, he brought back 100 cans of Heady Topper, which is mind boggling. Even moreso for the cash he shelled out for it.

So I had 2 Heady Toppers, which is amazing...although I think I prefer Union's Double Duckpin more. Both are quality Double IPAs. Which reminds me that I haven't had a 120 from Dogfish Head in a while.

Had a Tree House Julius. Reminded me of Cigar City Jai Alai. The color is outrageous, looks like an Orange Julius (hence the name I assume).

He traded some Heady for Pliny The Elder, so I got to try. Bottled 7/31, the hops had already gone bad. At least that's what it tasted like. I know IPAs should be had fresh, but it could have been how it was treated during transport and whatnot. So I checked it into Untappd but didn't rate. I'd love to try it fresh.

Split a Foundation Wanderlust. A hoppy farmhouse ale. It was a goregous yellow-orange color, and quite tasty. Would make for a great summer session beer.

Split a Lawson's Sip of Sunshine and Noda's Hop Drop n Roll with my buddy's wife (since they were in her beer drawer). Both very good.

I brought a growler of Flying Dog's The Fear, their Imperial Pumpkin Ale. It was my first pumpkin beer of the year and the first time I've had it. Quite tasty.

Last beer I got to try was Hill Farmstead's Grassroots Brewing Brother Soigne, which is a saison with lime and blood orange, which made for a great way to end the evening.

Wow dude...just wow!!

Yall keep listing good beers and Im gonna keep looking for them...like Union Double Duckpin, its on the list.

BD - nicely done.

schlafy's tasmanian ipa should be on shelves for the next few months.

hope its on the shelf when i stop by DTC today.

might make a run to DC to see what they have. deschutes, founders, etc. havent done a DC run in a while

Yeah, that lineup dropped into my lap. I knew he had the Heady and Julius, but the rest was stuff he was more than willing to share. From which I was thankful.

I'm going with friends to do a Delmarva Brewery Crawl on Oct 10-11. Hitting up a bunch of places (Fordham/Dominion, Mispillion River, 16 Mile, Dogfish Head, Dewey Beer Co, OC Brewing, Assawoman Bay, Backshore, Burley Oak, Tall Tales, Evo, 3rd Wave and rar) and taking in what we can. My fave is Burley Oak as they do a lot of funky stuff. I have a growler of their Triple IPA in my fridge, waiting for 2 friends' schedules to align. My other fave is Mispillion River. They only distribute in DE for now, but their single IPA is quite good, as are the other beers I've had. They are expanding, and I hope that means more distribution in the future.

@Chico - Union is only distributing in MD as of right now I believe. They do a couple runs of Double Duckpin a year, and when it's out in the wild, it disappears quickly. Their regular Duckpin I've never had, but those who have had both say its good, but can't touch the double.

@otm - Adroit Theory is doing a tap takeover at DTC tonight. I may get by there tomorrow if I can sneak out in between family things and hope they still have stuff on tap.

never heard of Adroit Theory but im gonna stop by and check it out.

whisper voice - i like the reg duck pin vs the double. the straight pale ale duck pin is tasty, crisp and the perfect nice weather day beer.

really need to find some two hearted and 51 rye, no where to be found in mont county.

OTM - come up to Frederick. I can get Two Hearted at several of the beer jaunts I hit up. I usually get the tall boys. 51 Rye is a bit harder, but I have seen it. The place I normally go to is DJ Liquors on the Golden Mile. If he doesn't have it, he'll gladly order it if he can get it.

I will eventually try Duckpin, especially since it's more readily available. Union hasn't made a beer I didn't like yet.

Hopefully you got to try the adroit theory wares. They are funky for sure.

i had a good beer weekend.

went to DTC, got 15 day old tasmanian ipa and 43 days old sculpin cans and a sixer of laguinitas sucks.

i was surprised to still see a sixer of sucks (since they stopped making 6ers) and more surprised that it was so fresh. i think i read that lil julian date wrong (223) bc it tasted like the malt had time to resonate a lil too long. sucks turns sappy or something when it sits too long. sappy isnt the right word.

adroit theory - they had the bottles out but it was like 11:30 and no rep was there to give me a pour. sucked bc their selection looked unique. beer types ive never seen before and i wanna try before dropping money on.

GABF Winners - Great American Beer Festival (http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/)

list of winners from the great american beer fest. read that ppl would wait in line for 1 oz of pliny, drink it then turn around and get back in line. lol. i hope that line wasnt long. pliny is great and all but at 1 oz, russian river can go fuck themselves.

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port city brewing out of alexandria va won in a few categories. happy to see saucony creek win something w a beer ive never seen from them. another VA brewery won as well.

congrats Port City on a really good showing.

Finally got my hands on some heady topper this weekend, only problem is I was 5-6 beers into the evening so my palate was shot. Still, it was worthy of the hype. Burlington Vt is craft beer heaven.

OTM - IPAs tend to lose their hop punch when they aren't fresh. The malt takes over and the hop smell isn't good. I'm guessing that it what you're smelling. Adroit Theory (http://www.adroit-theory.com/) is kinda like our area's Wicked Weed. They are super small and really push the limits on all their beers. But since they are so small and do very limited runs, they can get pricey.

Matty - I can see that being an issue but Heady is Heady. So so good.