Disappointing. Dark Truth got me started on stouts. It's heavy, complex, basically a meal. Aztec and the tart cherry that I just tried have a lightness to them that I just don't consider a stout. I saw some mentions of Aztec being a "Mexican style stout," and if that's a thing, it's a long way from imperial stout.

Overall, it wasn't bad, I was just expecting something a lot different. Not sure I'll keep going back to that X series, as IMO they're 0 for 2, which saddens me to say.

Had a Prairie Ales Bomb last night, first I've tried from them... quality coffee stout.

Prairie Bomb and Pirate Bomb are the Bomb. Some of the best Stouts on the planet.

Bomb and Christmas Bomb were both very good, and I'm usually not big on stouts.

I enjoyed Dark Truth. I guess I'm still gonna try this Aztec Chocolate, but I'm not really excited about it. I do know that Clown Shoes has a Mexican Stout, and I thought it was awful.

I'm not a stout guy at all, but Schlafly Bourbon Stout is a beast.

Yeah, it's not as consistent as say Goose Island's BCS, but it ranges from very good to amazing, at least somewhat dependent on how long I let it sit in the beer rack.... and it's available all year, as opposed to the BCS bullshit of paying $7/12oz on Black Friday.

I could drink the Schlafly, Sam Smith Organic Chocolate, and Great Divide Yetis for the rest of my life and not touch another beer. Oh, and Crown Valley Pumpkin Smash.

And Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break.

...

big fan of the Schlafly Extra Stout as well.

Finally got a chance to try Tell Tale Tart. If that's a slightly sour ale, I'd hate to taste a sour ale.

I had it this weekend as well. Once again, I'm sensitive to sours, but I agree with you. No slightly about it. My biggest problem was that outside of the sour, there wasn't much flavor otherwise. Kind of a waste.

Its not a good example of the style period. Its more than slightly tart and the tart is the predominate characteristic.

I am not a huge sour fan though a few have blown me away. I had the New Belgium LeTerroir this week and would kill for it.

http://www.newbelgium.com/images/bee...eterroir_l.png

This was a stout thread for like an hour.

Tis the season for a stout...

Had a BCBS 2012 over lunch. Wasn't planned but saw it and went for it.

So long Friday afternoon productivity.

Picked up a Pipeworks Twin Pines Mall for the game tonight because the Back to the Future stuff hasn't run its course yet.

That's a great score, the 2012 bottles are drinking great right now.

had a lips of faith la folie, 2015, first time...dug it, a sour with waves of brown sugar crashing through it

picked up an evil twin ryan and the gosling on a lark, haven't tried it

I picked up Ryan and the Gosling about a month ago and enjoyed it quit a bit. Nice and juicy, citrus PA with a bit of funk.

Had a good haul from Houston this week. Picked up a four pack of the Collaboration No. 5 from Boulevard. Got three Jester Kings: Snorkel, Mad Meg, and The Wytchmaker. I almost picked up Jester King Das Wunderkind, but it mentioned sour on the bottle, so I passed. Got three bottles of 2015 saison-Brett. Got some single 12 Oz's of a mixture of Texas beers, including Real Ale Sisyphus. A couple bottles of Orval. And I stocked up on Tank 7. I should be good for quite a while.

I ****ing hate pumpkin beers, but I couldn't resist Boulevard's Funky Pumpkin when checking out at store tonight.

It's not bad, mainly because it tastes like a sour with a tiny hint of pumpkin in the background. I probably won't buy again (and probably won't be able to since they said the 12 six packs they had left were the last of their order), but I don't regret the purchase.

It's kind of a cool reverse use of pumpkin, similar to their use of chocolate in their ale. You usually expect pumpkin with a big Belgian style spiced ale. Lots of fall flavors with coriander and clove and cinnamon and crap, hence why you usually see it in stouts and ales. To use it in a sour is weird and unexpected and, frankly, enjoyable.

Ahh...that reminds me, I got a bottle of Saint Arnold Pumpkinator. Great imperial pumpkin stout.

Bought a 6 pack of this last night. Was pretty damn good. Oculto.

Victory Hopdevil on special for 4.99 a sixer at a local store. Uhh. Yeah.

Check the date.

Yeah. Still 2 weeks left. But they must have massively over ordered.

I'm on to a Pipeworks Close Encounter "hopped up" stout. Pipeworks makes some great stouts but I can't say I'm a big fan of this one.

I tried Funky Pumpkin on tap in St. Louis. Didn't realize Boulevard had a pumpkin beer until I saw it. I like pumpkin beers and that's why I decided to try it. Wish I would have known how sour it was. I hate sours. I could have been one of the worst beers I have ever tried. Couldn't take more than two drinks.

Thought I had responded to this, but yeah, I liked it.... forgot it was a sour, but had low expectations because of the possible funk. Wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again, but it was better than any of the other new offerings I've tried from them lately.

Drove across the river to pick up some Dogfish Head, and finally saw some Firestone Walker.

Picked up a 6 of Union Jack. Hope it's as good as advertised.

Meh. Not "World Class" as Beer Advocate claims, IMO.

Firestone Walker is sold all over St. Louis. Union Jack is ok, Double Jack and Wookey Jack are both great though. The Parabola stout is incredible.

I was at Randall's - all I saw was Easy Jack and Union Jack - no sign of Double.

Not a stout guy, but thanks for the info - my nephews are both into stouts so I might grab some for them for Thanksgiving dinner.

Heard a rumor today that Bell's is only going to release Hopslam in 16 ounce cans.

Anyone heard anything similar?

Had a FFF Amber Smashed Face on tap. As expected, that was one aggressive-ass amber. Hope to find a bottle.

Surprised you didn't see them if you were at Randall's. For a long time the Double Jack was my go to, year round available, ipa. The Wookey Jack is an awesome black ipa. If you shop at Costco, you can usually find those 2 there for a decent price.

The Parabola stout, while incredible, is an extremely limited release. If you're a member of Randall's club, you can probably get some that way.

Parabola is hard to come by unless you live on the west coast.

Had Real Ale Commissar which was pretty good for an imperial stout at 6 bucks for a bottle.

Also had my favorite Unser Aventinus. Great as always.

Tonight is Clown Shoes Royal Standard which is great Wee Heavy Ale with a bit of floral to it. Karbach's Oktoberfest and St. Arnold's Santo.

Aventinus is my all time favorite beer. Great beer for the price.

Are you located in Houston?

Yep. Humble to be exact.

Umble, as it's pronounced. lol. Oddly enough, I learned that during an NFL broadcast after having been to the city over 100 times.

Reason I asked is this, have you tried anything from Buffalo Bayou Brewing? If you get a chance, you might want to head down to their brewery on a Saturday morning. They have a gingerbread stout this time of year that is fantastic on tap.

You can also get a bottle of it at Spec's right now. Not as good as on tap, but it's still pretty dang good. I don't care a whole lot for stouts, but that and pumpkinator are two great stouts from Texas.

I just roll with it. I have lived in Western Washington and rural southeast Virginia which both have hard to pronounce names. Washington was Indian origin and Virginia was part Indian and part 17th century Scottish/British.

Nothing from Buffalo Bayou yet. I saw that my local HEB had Smoke on the Bayou and I am a fan of porters in general. I liked Stone's Smoked Porter and I am not a big fan of Stone's output in general.

Smoke on the Bayou was the first Buffalo Bayou beer I had, and I enjoyed it. I believe it's a Wee Heavy alle, though. Their More Cowbell and Meer Koebel are good for Texas IPA's if you like IPA's. And the Saigon Sunset is a highly rated Porter, but I haven't had it. Anyways, I just saw you mention stouts earlier, and your post hinted to me that you were in the Houston area, so I thought I'd tell you about that gingerbread stout in case it was up your alley.

I tend to prefer darker malty beers. I do like Hefes, Kolschs, and blonde ales though. I tend to not like the hoppy bitterness.

Royal Standard was good. I have had it before. It is a nice wee heavy ale with a bit of floral in the back. It is 10% ABV but you won't taste it.

Santo is a dark beer that is easy drinking. Not much taste up front but a slight bitterness. The back has the malty flavor one expects from a darker beer. A dark session beer to go with spicy food.

Karbach Oktoberfest was a disappointment. Just tasted like a regular mass produced lager. It didn't have the maltiness and body you would expect from a German marzen or the sweetness of an Austrian.

Don't forget about Sucaba - incredible beer. And Stickee Monkey. And Helldorado. And Velvet Merkin. And Double DBA.

FW's barrel aged program is amazing. Wish I could get it here.

Velvet Merkin LMAO

What a great ****ing name for a beer.

Finally got to cross Speedway Stout off the list with Alesmith's Chicago distro.

Probably should have saved it for the 5" of snow they're calling for tomorrow though.

What the **** is so special about Sam Adams Utopias that it warrants a $200 a bottle price tag?

A number of FW kegs tapped in Chicago. Got a 6oz pour of XIX Anniversary.

Some Bourbon County kegs being tapped as well in anticipation of black Friday. Had a 6 oz of BC vanilla rye last night.

No Double Jack at either Randall's location last night, but did find it at Lukas, along with a few bottles of BBQ.

If you like Port, it's pretty good... not $200 good, but still. I split the price of a bottle after seeing it in Omaha of all places, and I think we got five 3-4oz pours out of it each. I thought it was clearly better than some of the $30-50/10-20yr Port I've purchased since, granted there's also a lot more to drink.

Not sure I'll even try this year... stores sell the single bottles of the four packs with a limit of one per customer. It was a big deal to me a few years ago, but there's too much good beer these days to drive all around town to pay $20 for a couple of 12oz bottles.

That said, if you have any extras.... :D

They moved to 16.9 oz bottles this year to get more $$$ per oz. I'm not waiting in line for it, not because I'm too cool, but there's some outstanding stouts readily available here. I didn't realize people camp out the night before at the Lincoln Park Binny's. I do have an insider spot near me that apparently gets overlooked that I'll check out on Black Friday, but I'm not making a huge effort. I'll mostly be looking for a Rare which has been aged for 2 years in 35-year-old Heaven Hill whiskey barrels or the Proprietor's.

I can survive off the 3 Floyd's Wig Splitter coffee stouts I've accumulated.

Damn... yeah, not really worth that kind of hype these days.

I edited my post after you quoted me, but they're 16.9 oz bottles across the board this year.

Outside of the Chicago exclusive stuff, you're probably better off getting it outside of the Chicago market. Similar to Boulevard, there's bottles of Chocolate, Saison-Brett, and Love Child just sitting on shelves up here.

Crazy, but at this point you'll probably be disappointed if you do eventually find it. Truth be told though, I fell in love with it back when there wasn't as much of on abundance of quality big IPAs. These days you have so many more choices that you probably won't see what I see in it. The Calling is every bit as good.

So the BBQ is out then? I've been asking about it for weeks and nobody can tell me anything. I google it every day and come up with nothing and they've never posted anything on Facebook. I want to squirrel away a case. Moving outside of Boulevard distribution has been rough.

The one time I had it, it was more like a butterscotch liqueur than beer. We really tasty, though.

Lucas had BBQ last night. I picked up two bottles.

I've been to all three Randall's locations in the last 36 hours and none of them have it.

Was able to finally pick up some 90 Minute. Usually all they have is the 60.

Parish Brewing Company in Broussard, Louisiana had a release party today for their Grand Reserve Barleywine. Also available for purchase at the party was Ghost in The Machine, their super popular Imperial IPA. Both are high quality beers, but the Ghost in the Machine is probably the best beer I've ever had from Louisiana. From what I understand, they originally only released it once a year, but they've recently been doing more batches. I hear there has been minor consistency issues since they've been putting it out more regularly, but I'm willing to bet it's still pretty damn good.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11...c4cd0d141e.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11...c33d262f00.jpg

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24822/87633/

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24822/113403/

I didn't hear about the release party until tickets were already sold out. In a panic, I called the brewery, and the guy working told me I should be able to come in Monday morning and get at least a couple of four packs of Ghost, and a couple bottles of Grand Reserve. He also mentioned that they didn't make enough Ghost to ship to stores, so really the brewery is the only place I can buy it. It's an hour and a half drive, but I'll be making it Monday morning to try and get my hands on both beers.

Also, if any of you are ever in Texas and see Yellow Rose IPA from Lone Pint brewery for sale anywhere, do yourself a favor and try it. It's wonderful both on tap and from the bottle.

Nice. Jealous. As a frequenter of SEC boards (tigerdroppings), I'm extremely familiar with Ghost's reputation and hype. Congrats and enjoy!

Of all the Firestone Walker taps available this weekend, Viaje De Roble is my favorite. Mezcal barrel aged, definitely hit my sweet spot.

Yeah, most of the BBQ I've had in recent years came from Omaha and I've seen a bunch of Chocolate Ale and others up there before.

That's happened once with BCS, and it was BCS coffee... found 3 of them at a Hy-Vee in Omaha... hadn't ever seen one and haven't seen one since though.

if i have the 51st beer on this list will i die? all the before you die stuff. my luck it would be a jerk chicken beer and id choke on a chunk of grizzle.

Going near where it's made next week. Something I can find at Specs in the Woodlands or try harder than that?

This is my first BCS release since I've lived here and I guess my "insider" spot isn't so insider. Homebrew friend told me to check out the Walgreens near me on Black Friday. Reading online that people start gathering at that Walgreens at midnight for a 10 am BCS selling. Yeah, **** that. It's a ****ing Walgreens. If I don't fall ass backwards into a couple bottles, I'll probably just wait for some kegs to get tapped.

Limited beer releases can be the absolute worst.

And on the one day a year I don't want to leave the house.

I'll most likely get plenty here in KC if anyone is looking for extras and has something interesting to trade for it.

Double Jack is solid, never would have expected nearly 10 ABV.

Still prefer The Calling.

Today during lunch, the guy behind the counter recommended this beer as I was looking for a Flying Dog that they ran out of. This was quite cloudy with a little zing of a finish and nice IPA flavor. I liked it alot but probably could only handle 2 when eating and 3-4 MAX when not. Very filling.

Shit, I just saw this, man. Sorry. Yeah, if there is any available while you're in Texas, a good specs will have it.

Southern Tier is my favorite brewery right now... Mokah, Creme Brulee, Choklate, Choklate Orang, Warlock, Pumking.


They can't spell for shit, but it's damn good beer. :D

I love Warlock, Pumking, and a couple of their IPA's. Creme Brulee is too sweet, though.

BCS will be MUCH more available this year. A small store here is getting 40 cases alone. Single 16oz bottle, $8.50.

It's definitely over the top, but I couldn't get enough of it... Mokah might be my favorite of the bunch.

Eh, guess I'll see what the beer store says on facebook, they're pretty good at posting limits as they get stuff that's in high demand.... and well, if it's limit one, my brother and his gf are staying over this week, so I'll drag them along. :)

So, I made my trek to Broussard, Louisiana to pick up some Ghost in the Machine and Grand Reserve. They sold me a case of Ghost, and I like to share....and since I only have a couple of buddies in my town that are into craft beer, I want to share with y'all.

The first four people to reply that they would like one (and are comfortable with pm'ing me their name and address) will receive a 12 oz. bottle of Ghost in the Machine.

I don't care who they go to, but I would hope guys that don't care for IPA's hold back, and let those that do enjoy them have at it. Still though, first come, first serve.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24822/113403/


http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11...f4ce5d9fbd.jpg

I'd like one, but only if you're willing to accept something (beer) in return.

Will pm shortly.