I hit up their website right after I asked that question, but it's hell to navigate on my phone.

I see your question was answered. I was occupied with this cherry and bourbon goodness.

Yes sir. Enjoy!

Saison-Brett 2012. I assume y'all are all out of that in KC, right? There's still quite a few sitting on the shelf here at Spec's in downtown Houston. I'm here for two more days. Anybody want one?

Chocolate Ale as well just in case anybody is interested.

My new obsession is Brasserie des Franches Montagnes, from Switzerland. Specifically their Abbaye de Sint Bon-Chien, which I had on-tap in Richmond, VA a few days ago. One of the best beers I've ever had in my life. Stylistically it is somewhere between a strong Biere de Garde and a Flanders Red. The base beer is aged in wine barrels, whiskey barrels, sometimes rum and/or grappa barrels, and blended together at bottling. It tastes like a marriage of tawny port and Rodenbach Grand Cru. Deeply, deeply complex.

Don't know if this has been posted yet but I thought this was funny. See if you can find Reaper.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KWBV7yKWhWE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There was like one or two lines that made fun of craft beer drinkers. The rest made fun of craft beer naming conventions.

Closest to me would be blonde mustache guy, because he identified a flavor and knew where one brewery was located.

ROFL

This seems like as good a place as any to post this.

http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/B...255262781.html

Love Blind Tiger beer. Haven't tried the Dunkle because I'm not a fan of that style. The Maibock, however, is freakin' awesome! Yum.

this where I've been recently...really like all these sessionable ipas

terrapins
Stone's
and my favorite Founders All Day IPA

also, Terrapin just release a 'single hopped rye ale' called Mosaic (maybe you or someone already mentioned this) that is excellent and delicious
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2372/90912/

i generally like-but-don't-love Terrapin beers, this is my exception

also, if anyone finds themselves in Georgia, there is a new microbrewery opening - beer out in kegs next week - that people are pretty excited about..here is a description of their core beers: http://creaturecomfortsbeer.com/year_round_beers/

I opened a Trinity wild ale last night that I got for Christmas. I really enjoyed it and hope to try a few others from them when I'm in CO next month.

also enjoying the Westbrook Gose

http://beerpulse.com/wp-content/uplo.../Gose-can5.jpg



(haven't been in the thread for awhile, mea culpa if i'm repeating myself)

Tried some of their beer at last year's Parkville Microbrew fest... pretty good. There was another one from Wichita.... River City, I think, that had a great bourbon stout.

Almost forgot about it... this year it's on 4/26. PBJ

We are finally getting Founder's down here. I can vouch for the All Day IPA.

We got Prairie Artisan ales here now as well. Having their Birra Farmhouse tonight. Has anyone tried Prairie Bomb or their other crazy expensive offerings?

Hell yeah.

I've only had their farmhouse ales. Haven't had an opportunity to buy their stouts.

Not sure I will be trying them at that price unless someone gifts me with one, though splitting a four pack would be a little more palatable.

I don't blame you. Hard to take a gamble with those prices for only a 500mL bottle, so I only gamble on their farmhouse ales. I'll gamble obscene amounts of money on farmhouse ales.

Enjoy By is a pretty solid offering from Stone's.

I had their Funky Galaxy Farmhouse Ale. I enjoyed it. It's funny, at the time I thought it was just slightly above average....but I've been wanting another one ever since. Kinda weird.

Speaking of Farmhouse Ales. I have a buddy who's not huge into craft beers, but absolutely loved Boulevard Tank 7. He's wanting more recommendations. I'm a little hesitant to recommend anything else, because I don't consider Tank 7 to be a normal farmhouse ale. It has a bit of a different taste to me. Any of you more experienced guys have a farmhouse recommendation you think he might like?

That's tough, because he might like Tank 7 so much because it is a hoppy farmhouse ale. So I'd have him try some other hop-forward farmhouse ales (Praire 'Merica, Green Flash Saison Diego, Stone's new saison, Firestone Walker Opal), and also some CLASSIC Belgian examples (Saison Dupont, Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre) to see what it is about Tank 7 that attracts him so much.

Thanks. Yea, I figured the hops in it had a lot to do with him liking it. Have you tried the Firestone Walker Opal? My wife is in California right now and I'm calling stores over there to see if she can grab me a bottle. Nobody seems to have it.

Abita bourbon street pappy van winkle barrel aged stout on tap tonight FTW!

Getting ready to pour one for the first time right now.

That's pretty damn good.

Shocked that it's under 5% ABV.

Having a Little Sumpin' Sumpin' for the first time.

Nice.

Yes it is and cheap considering how good it is.

One of my favorites.

Lagunitas has become my second favorite brewery behind Bell's.

Agreed. Very economical, considering.

Two Hearted is superb. Probably my single favorite beer.

Same here.

If I had to choose one beer for the rest of my life, Two-Hearted Ale would get the nod without hesitation.

It's been Lagunitas and Boulevard for me. The Sucks, Hop Stoopid Ale, Cappuccino Stout, and Lucky 13 Mondo Large Red Ale are all wonderful beers from Lagunitas.

You can still get Lagunitas SUCKS at Fairway liquor in Westport. By Oklahoma Joes.

Hairy Eyeball (seasonal) is also really good.

Yeah, you can still get it at a few places in STL too. Cannot remember it ever being available this late in the year.

Still have a case stashed in my laundry room.

If somebody could answer this one for me, I'd appreciate it. IPA's are supposed to be consumed fairly quickly from what I hear due to all the hops. With something like Sucks being a seasonal release, how good is it after sitting on the shelf for six months? My wife is in Cali and is bringing me back 4 or 5 bottles to Louisiana.

I haven't had any issues with what I've bought.

At some point, dude, we'll need to knock a few back.

Anytime. You know where I'm at.

Thanks.

She's also bringing me a Pliny the Elder, which I'm super excited to try.

Haven't had it yet personally, no. I figure it'll be widely available in all FW markets within a month or so.

I'm gonna have to make a trip to Houston late next month then. That Opal and Lagunitas Lucky 13 should be on their shelves about that time.

One of the dudes I follow on Untapp'd had a bottle the other day and he's in Indiana. I figured it might already be on shelves everywhere.

Has anybody tried Boulevard Terra Incognita?

I prefer OB's Mama's Little Yella Pils to the Dale's. Twisted Pines makes a few great beers as well. Odell makes a decent.IPA.

Yep. I liked it. I need to try another soon.

Has anyone had Green Flash Palate Wrecker?

Yep. It's OK. I tend to get a little bored with all of the west coast IPA hop bombs lately and Palate Wrecker is right, smack dab in the middle of that territory.

However, if you like your beers high on the IBU scale and piney/thick/syrupy, it's for you!

Is it as hoppy as New Belgium Ranger?

Ugh. I'm just about at the point where I'm going to have to quit drinking.

It's become more common in the last 6 months, but no matter how much I drink, I wake up the next morning with severe sinus congestion.

I had two Modus Hoperandi last night, and can't breathe this morning. Same happened Friday night after two All-Day IPA's and last weekend after only one Dry Hopped APA from Schlafly.

****ing horseshit.

It is SO MUCH HOPPIER than Ranger. Ranger isn't an agressively hoppy beer in the first place, and Palate Wrecker is called what it is for a reason.

Maybe you're developing an allergy to cannabinoids (i.e. hops)? Or does the congestion develop after drinking, say, whiskey also?

Definitely still develops after wine, but I haven't had a drop of hard liquor in quite a while. Sounds like an experiment is in order.

I adore it, but I understand where phisherman is coming from. There was a time that the west coast hop bomb was a niche market. In recent years though, the style has become fairly over saturated. I would suggest trying it if your hoppy scale is set by Ranger. It's not even in the same ballpark.

To me, Ranger tastes like hop juice. How could it not be high on the hop scale? Why is it so damned bitter?

There are tons of variables that effect bitterness and hoppiness in beer.

Types of hops used, and most importantly when they are added in the process.

Hop flavor and bitterness are really 2 different animals.

After a certain IBU level you wont tell much difference in bitterness but you certainly can in flavor.

Whats responsible for the bitterness we taste in Ranger?

Most likely lots of hops added early in the process. The earlier hops are added the more alpha acids are extracted. Alpha acids are bitter.

Ranger is 70 IBU which isn't really that high.

Pallet Wrecker is 100+ but its also 9.5%.

Typically hops balance alcohol content, that's why a good session IPA is hard to make though they are figuring it out.

The key is blending bitterness with flavor and alcohol content.

There are lots of way to do this and hop addition is being taken to all sorts of new ground with when they are added and how much etc.....

Its really a science in itself.

Lagunitas Sucks is decent. More than decent, actually. But Little Sumpin' Sumpin' is better.

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree.

I have. I really wanted to like it too. It's one of the few Smokestack series I don't really care for.

Lil Sumpin Sumpin is a drinkable beer but Sucks is eons better. It's like comparing the 93 and 94 Chiefs.

I'm in the same boat. I saw it while stocking up on my last trip to Houston. I saw that it was a Boulevard/Sierra Nevada collab, and I figured it should be great. I grabbed two big bottles. Opened the first bottle last night. It was finishable, but beyond that I wasn't impressed. I'll drink the next bottle as well, but it's not one I'm looking forward to drinking.

I wish Boulevard would bring back the Reboot White IPA. That was a beer I was pleasantly surprised by.

Overall though, the Smokestack series is very impressive. Tank 7, Double Wide IPA, Sixth Glass are all great...and that's not even getting into the seasonal and limited releases.

Yeah, I obviously love Boulevard and I like most things from Sierra Nevada as well so I was sure I would like it. Nope. I'm not even certain I finished it. I only had Reboot on tap at the brewery and it was good enough but there wasn't anything about it that really resonated with me to the point I wanted to buy it.

I actually have a Chocolate in my fridge if somebody is dying to get their hands on one, I'm willing to part with it.

A couple of months ago, I would have jumped at that. Mikey hooked me up though, and I found a couple of bottles in Houston. It was just average, but I hear this years batch wasn't as good as normal though. I've still got a bottle as well. Gonna save it for my sister in law coming from Cali in June.

Saison Brett was a huge disappointment for me. Bourbon Barrel Quad is easily one of my most favorite beers on the market.

More beers with Brettanomyces for me then, I guess.

This years batch was hit and miss. I bought a couple bottles when it first showed up and was hugely disappointed. Found it on tap at a beer bar here and it was fantastic. A couple more bombers showed up so I figured that I'd give it another go round, and it was closer to what I had on tap and the last time Boulevard made it.

:spock:

I wondered about that too.

Saison Brett is consistently very good and continues to improve with age.

We're 50 pages into a beer thread and you're assuming my tastes will be in lock-step with other planeteers? I read a lot of acclaim for Saison Brett and jumped on a bottle as soon as I saw one, expecting a wonderful beer experience. I guess my expectation were too high.

Do you generally like Saisons?

1.) It's OK to not like something. We're not in control of our palates and none of us like every style of beer equally.

2.) It's not like Archie is saying Saison-Brett is bad. He's just saying that it didn't work for him. It IS a great beer by objective and subjective metrics. But you kind of have to like Brettanomyces to enjoy it.

Unless that something is Saison Brett :D

I'm a huge fan of Ommegang Hennepin. I also like Tank 7. I haven't had a lot of different samples of the style.

I'm quickly becoming a huge fan of saisons in general. Saison-Brett is fantastic to me.