state your beer, drinkers

[debaser]

been hitting up toronado pretty much every day the past week but yesterday afternoon stood out in particular due to the sheer number of allagash beers they had just tapped, here's the rundown of what i had:

confluence

curieux

victor

alpine pure hoppiness

rr pliny de elder

swear i had one more somewhere in the middle.......... shrug

[renski]

if you see alpine exponential hoppiness make sure to get a 10oz glass of it as it should be out within the next few weeks. their bad boy IPA is really similar to RR elder when we are in drought in SD

[twistedtrees]

had the Palo Santo from Dogfish Head the other night. It was pretty good, a nice balance of a brown ale with a slight bit of twang. But I'm glad I only got this bottle, it's so expensive for what it was.

[debaser]

^can't rep. expensive it is, but i think it's definitely worth it if you're in the mood. best brown i've had

[B-Dawg]

Been so damn busy at Mad River Brewery I have not had time to post my escapades.

At my grad party my friends and I enjoyed a bottle of Cantillon Vigneron. The Muscat graped predominantly added a sensuous wine-like texture, though were all but absent in the nose and palate.

Still hoping someone will post pics of the Toronado Belgian Inspired Beer Dinner I attended. 5 course meal which was superb, including standout beers LA Cable Car, RR Toronado 20th Anniversary, Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru 2008, RR Damnation Batch 23 (1st release), and RR Consecration Batch 002. It was easily worth the $100 (even though the CEO of Mad River paid for me to go), a real once in a lifetime experience with great food, beer, and friends. My friends and I got a few vials of sediment from the Cable Car to subculture for a brew. Furthermore, our bangin' waitress wanted to smash, which I would totally have but I have a gf. Son of a bitch.

They had the recent batch of LA Cuvee de Tomme on tap as well, which was crazy good (got a few bottles from the CEO who got a case from Tomme last weekend).

I also acquired some bottles that weekend (RR Beatification batch 002/003 not pictured)

Funky delicious. Not the best, but definitely good.

Sadly I really did not like this. Way too much sour cherry. Pretty much tasted like sour cherry soda. Definitely did not expect this from Cantillon, especially as a Lou Pepe release.

Vinous, winy, strong vanillin/oaky finish. Brett and ripe fruit in the nose. Not bad, but a bit sweet for me. Of course Lucy liked it. She's always down.

[soonami]

last one from a case I bought this spring:

[B-Dawg]

^Glad I got to try that. Truly a superb beer. Will rep when able.

Recent swoopage

[soonami]

^^can't rep either

I've heard Cuvee de Tomme and Brandy Angel's Share 2009 releases are low on carbonation in bottles and I was wondering if you experienced the same

[soonami]

Got the Dogfish Head X Rogues Gallery Squall IPA (90min DIPA unfiltered and bottled conditioned) and Weyerbacher Unfiltered Double Simcoe IPA today on my way home today. Other stuff has been just chilling in my beer fridge. I will taste both tomorrow and let you all know how it goes

[kiya]

Went to Steelhead brewery tonight, that is still truly one of the most mediocre breweries i've ever been to.

Don't cop.

[B-Dawg]

^^can't rep either

I've heard Cuvee de Tomme and Brandy Angel's Share 2009 releases are low on carbonation in bottles and I was wondering if you experienced the same

Haven't had the bottle yet. I am going to hang onto it for a while as the CEO at Mad River brought a bunch of bottles back from Tomme for us employees to try. I have heard good and bad though. Hopefully my bottle is one of the good ones. It was definitely amazing when I hat it on tap at Toronado.

Went to Steelhead brewery tonight, that is still truly one of the most mediocre breweries i've ever been to.

Don't cop.

My brewery got into legal debate with them over the name Steelhead, as it is one of our beers names. I guess they reached some kind of settlement...

Tonight, Russian River's superb take on Lambic/Gueuze with some fresh oysters splashed with lemon (pardon the crappy iPhone pic):

[twistedtrees]

some late pics

so bitter. unrelenting

[twistedtrees]

If this beer was an olympic dive, it would be the most elegant swan dive ever, a unanimous 10 from all judges. A simple, yet excellently executed lager. If you're in chicago try it

[KAME]

Awesome... I love Beatification...

Here are pics of a couple goodies from the cellar

Tonight, Russian River's superb take on Lambic/Gueuze with some fresh oysters splashed with lemon (pardon the crappy iPhone pic):

[renski]

if anyone has ever thought of taking a class @ stone brewery for the Beer U, it is worth it. i attended the DIPA class yesterday where we sampled 9 DIPAs and roughly went over characteristics and some brewing methods. Ken did a good job with the class, and got to try Marin brewery White Knuckle which was promising, definitely have to check this brewery once i go up north.

[ahk1979]

If anyone that has access to Russian River stuff and is looking to do some beer trades let me know. I would really like to try some Pliny the Elder. I have access to some good Canadian beer...the most notable being Dieu Du Ciel stuff. They make one of the highest rated Stouts in the world, a really good Imperial Stout and a great IPA.

Anyway, if anyone is interested let me know.

[B-Dawg]

Started making a bastardized/experimental version of an Oud Bruin yesterday:

The setup

Adding grains for mashing

Transferring malt water to the filter thingy

Cooling the wort for that yeast pitch

Pitching the Belgian yeast culture I got from work (sorry guys, my friend is one of those incessant no shirt people)

Of course we had been sessioning beer all day, but we had to end with something special:

Started the sour culture by adding sediment from Beatification (which we drank next), Supplication, Consecration, Hanssens Oude Gueuze, Isabelle Proximus, and Cable Car (sediment in the sterile vial) to some malt water. This will be pitched after racking to secondary fermentation.

The $180 bottle

[twistedtrees]

that's cool, I'd definitely like to try to do some homebrew someday.

Here's some stuff from last week. Three Floyds Apocolypse Cow. Nothing really special here. I don't think I'd be able to tell this from any other good DIPA.

And a little haul of singles I got from a decent store around my parents house. I made sure to try the Mad River for you B-Dawg. I gotta say it is a great DIPA. Nice and hoppy without an insane bitterness, but also with a bit of malt backing. But my favorite part is that it wasn't overly sweet like a lot of the DIPAs I've had recently have been.

From left to right:

Mad River Steelhead DIPA

Blue Heron Pale Ale

Shlafly No. 15

Upland Brewing Helios Pale Ale

Victory Hop Devil IPA

Three Floyds Gumballhead Wheat

Seven Mules Kick Ass Brew IPA

Lost Coast Indica IPA

and some pics of the Three Floyds Gumballhead. If you want a hoppy wheat beer try this. But it took on a nice peach flavor after it warmed up just a tad

[Fookums]

^^

Hah, a friend purchased a brew kit and made a batch recently. Ended up being pretty successful. Good luck with yours.

Tried this out the other day:

First smoked beer I've ever tried (and didn't even realize such a thing existed until I saw it on the menu). Once you get over the initial 'weirdness' of drinking a smoked beer, it starts to become really drinkable. Really complex in a much more obvious way, imo, than something like a stout, simply because of the unusual flavoring, but it's surprisingly light. Definitely something to drink at a barbecue, hah.

[juan_bernado]

yeah, sufu goes homebrew.

got 4 ready homebrews in my cellar( my first).

wheat (without a real hefe yeast, but good for the first one)

Kölsch (wasn't readily fermented before bottling, aqful at first tasting)

Hob Goblin (untasted and mayby infected, cause bottles weren't cleaned thourogly)

own creation: Pils Vienna 50:50 + Tradition and Fuggles + S-04 (long fermentation plus lagering3 months - mayby my best and clear)

cheers

[alexryb]

assuming someone has had it. lately it's been flying off the shelves, but i can't get over the fruit aspect of it to try it. ratings/reviews?

[eplsoccer7]

Just a few beers Ive been enjoying lately. Nothing too outrageous. I have recently spent some time in the Baden-Württemberg area of Germany and got hooked on wheat beers.

[KAME]

Reviews are decent for a wheat beer, but Gumballhead > ALL

http://ratebeer.com/beer/ofallon-wheach/46637/

assuming someone has had it. lately it's been flying off the shelves, but i can't get over the fruit aspect of it to try it. ratings/reviews?

[renski]

took the day off to rest with a dog fish 90 min IPA before heading to nor cal. i hope the growlers from Alesmith and Alpine make it on the flight. TWA i better not catching you drink my beer.

[shufon]

Got back home from Japan/Hawaii a few days ago... was kind of disappointed in the beer in Japan because most places only served the big four (Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo,and Suntory), but I did manage to make it to a few places on my list that had some good beers. In Tokyo we were able to get to Popeye Beer Club which is supposed to be the best beer bar in Japan.. 70 taps, plenty of bottles, lots of Japanese and international stuff.. I drank quite a bit here, haha, Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio (same as the Classic Gueuze), Baird Divine Vamp Imperial Black Ale, Hakusekikan Super Vintage (2004 Barleywine), Hakusekikan Crystal Ale (2001 Old Ale, not pictured), and Onidensetsu Red Ale (not pictured).

First picture is the Cantillon, sorry, drank most of it before I thought to take a picture.

Super Vintage '04 barleywine, the Baird Divine Vamp IBA, and my firend's Hida Takayama Weiss.

A few nights later in Tokyo we wound up in an izakaya (cheap food/beer afterwork kind of place) that had two beers from Land Beer, a microbrewer out of Nagoya. I got the last three bottles in the place, two of the Kinshachi Miso Lager (red label) and one of the Kakukyuu Hacchou Miso Lager. Not really sure where they add the miso in the brewing process, or what kind of miso they use for that matter, but the beer was awesome.

Also, in the same place, there was an old school Asahi poster that I thought was worthy of a picture:

Later that night after some drunken debauchery, I wandered into a convenience store to find a few bottles of Kirin Stout which isn't brewed anymore as of earlier this year. Definitely the best Japanese macro I've had.

So, that is actually about all the good beer I had time for in Tokyo. My friend who was travelling with me isn't a beer nut so he didn't want to go back to Popeye's (it was in an odd part of town). So, later on in the trip we were in Nagoya for a few days. I tried to get a tour of Land Beer but it is a pretty hard feat to accomplish, so I settled for drinking more Kinshachi Miso Lager at a restaurant, and I was able to get Ginga Kogen Wheat on draft at the same place as well... no picture, sorry.

Next city was Kyoto, where I had a decent bit of luck finding beer. We stumbled into a place the first night because they had salmon and camembert fried and discovered they had some decent beer to go with it... mostly Belgians, Japanese love Belgian beer. I had two Hoegaardens I've never tried before... Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Verboden Vrucht. My friend tried a Lion Stout because he'd never had it. I also got a Kirin Heartland just to try it, but it was definitely just another macro.

My friend loved how cloudy the Verboden Vrucht was.

[shufon]

Ok, part two:

The next night in Kyoto we found a couple of spots to drink good beer, one with just a good selection of international beers (nothing spectacular), and the other with a great selection of international and domestic micros. At the first one, I drank Phuket Island Lager, Heineken Dark Lager, and Ryoma Sakamoto (which I'm still trying to find info on...).

(Bad picture I know... somebody find me information on this beer )

The second spot had an awesome selection of beer ranging from numerous Japanese micros to American micros to a good selection of lambics. Due to my already drunken state, I didn't drink too much, but I did try Baird Rising Sun Pale Ale (Baird is a microbrewer from the Tokyo area), Girardin Framboise, and I got my friend a bottle of Jan de Lichte.

We also found a place with a brew from Minoh (microbrewer from Osaka) on tap in between the last two places.. the had the Minoh Real Ale which is their version of a dry stout. It was pretty good, a little too watery though.

Lastly, after about a week of hardly drinking beer I found this random brewpub in Tokyo about 6 hours before my flight back to the states and got a sampler of five of their beers. The brewery is Harvestmoon and their beers were actually a lot better than I expected, probably the best pilsner I've ever had (I hate pilsners). I tried their Pilsner, Belgian Wheat, Pale Ale, American Brown Ale, and Schwarz.

Aside from that I tried numerous offerings from the big four that I picked up in vending machines. Most of them sucked. Here's the list... they have a ton of names for what seems to be the same beer:

Asahi Style Free

Kirin Enjuku Kuro

Sapporo Premium

Sapporo Reserve

Yebisu Premium

Suntory The Straight

Suntory The Premium Malts

Yeah, so that was my beer drinking experience this time in Japan... I'll probably be back later this year by myself and I'll be sure to hit up some actual breweries next time. From there we went to Hawaii, where I failed to take any pictures, but I did drink most of Kona's lineup, Mehana Island Lager, and Primo Island Lager. I also found a decent store where I got my hands on Cantillon Classic Gueuze only to find out it's the same as the 100% Bio Gueuze, as well as the Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout (awesome), and Mad River Double Dread. Picked up the Mad River for Bdawg, definitely a tasty beer

[Appleseed]

^ Great post. I still prefer Yebisu's Black to the kuronama offerings from Asahi, Kirin, or Sapporo.

[soonami]

Some from the other night:

[Lucas]

This beer is really good.

It was originally named ballard bitter before Red Hook bought them out.

[soonami]

^^^ imo, not a very good IPA at all. IPA and DIPA are two of my favorite beer styles. You could do much better than this like: Stone IPA, Lagunitas Maximus or IPA, Dogfish Head 60 min IPA, Smuttynose IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Victory HopDevil, Clipper City Loose Cannon, Beer Republic Hop Rod Rye and Racer 5 IPA...