Anyone ever drink RoughTail's stuff? They're out of OK. Just released a beer called Adaptation 5 that rivals Tree House, Tired Hands and Trillium's haze bombs. It's almost like drinking some orange juice/pungent IPA hybrid.

I've been on the waiting list for his Illinois membership since I moved here. I jumped at the chance to join the Michigan membership when he opened his taproom. Some of his stuff is starting to show up at the better shops in Chicago.

I thought it was funny yesterday at the taproom, he's got this incredible barrel aged thing going, which people obviously do love. But he just released a NEIPA called Juice Is Loose and people were stiff arming old ladies to walk out with cases of it.

I admittedly bought a 4pk as its a legit hazy, soft mouthfeel, hop juice bomb.

Holler if you want to do any trades for KC area stuff. I would love to be able to get anything from Transient.

Went to a local place that does NY style pizza. Small place and they only had about 10 craft beers on tap. I took a look at the tap handles and to my shock, one says Boulevard!

Was the Boulevard Radler. Girl working had no idea about it and gave me a free pint of it. LOL. Looked it up and it's a ginger and lemon beer. Very light, probably pretty girly for all the macho guys in this thread. Surprised that of all the Boulevard beers, they had this one. Great summer beer though like most shandy style beers and good tartness. I really liked it and paid $2.50 for the second pint. :D

My buddy and I visited Great Raft in Shreveport yesterday.

They had some really good beers. Their Grace and Grit DIPA was very good. They didn't have any bottles, but I had two or three glasses on tap. I'm gonna monitor their Facebook page to find out when they brew it next.

They released Oceans Between Us Batch 002 yesterday. It's a Brett IPA with Galaxy hops. The Brett is strong in that one. It was good. I bought eight bottles of that and 4 bottles of their Farmhouse Slang Batch 001. Anyone looking to try either, hit me up for a trade.

If anyone is ever near Shreveport, I recommend stopping by.

PM sent.

Has anyone cracked their Bourbon County Stout from last year?

I've popped 3 from last year, all fantastic. I had a barleywine that was turnt though.

,
yes have drank 3 or 4 of mine. All were fine. I wasn't in the infected batches tho...

Sweet Jesus, BBQ in 4-packs year-round.

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Yummy

Time for a beer thread bump.

A couple things I wanted to share with you guys.

First, KCUnited put me on to a store in Chicago that has a website where they sell and ship local beers (and other beers from around the world) to your door.

The name of the site is craftbeertemple.com

I went and made a purchase the day he told me about it, and wanted to hold off on posting about it until I received the box, to see if the IPAs were pretty fresh.

I ordered a few different IPAs from the Chicago area, and a few different saisons from around the country. The IPAs were all less than a month old, and everything was packaged very well.

I got four packs of Pipeworks Lil Citra, Spiteful Working for the Weekend, and Pipeworks Ninja vs. Unicorn. I got 22oz bottles of a couple of different Blackberry Farms Saisons and a Logsdon Farmhouse ale.

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Just wanted to share the site with you guys and let you know that they're pretty legit, and they offer some great beers. If you want to try fresh IPAs from the Chicago area, I'd check them out. Shipping can be pretty pricey if you do two day, but I've done ground shipping on my two orders, and both arrived in about 5-7 days. With the cool months ahead of us, that shouldnot have much effect on the beer. My only warning would be that UPS does require signature upon arrival by someone 21 or older, so plan on someone being home to accept the package.


Secondly, I hit Great Raft in Shreveport for their 3 Year Anniversary party a couple of weeks ago. I want to recommend this brewery to everyone one more time. If you're ever near Shreveport, I'd stop in. They're making quality beers. Great saisons, IPAs, and, strong dark ales. Their flagship beer is a Porter called Old Mad Joy. I haven't tried it myself, but it's raved about down here.

Finally, if anyone is ever in Houston, do yourself a favor....go directly to Brash Brewing and ask for a pint of Pussy Wagon IPA. By far the best IPA I've had out of Texas, and probably in my top 5-10 from around the country. Brash just started brewing about a year ago, I believe, but they've got some really good beers, and Pussy Wagon is the cream of the crop.

Awesome. Love me some Beer Temple. I was just in there yesterday for the latest Hubbard's Cave Fresh By DIPA. Going to do a side by side with it and Mikerphone's latest Special Sauce (Simcoe) this weekend. BT also does a fairly decent podcast if you're into that kind of thing. It obviously contains a good bit of Great Lakes content, but they talk to people and discuss beers from all over.

Like most other markets lately, the haze craze has taken over Chicago, which I'm enjoying. A couple of my favorites lately have been Transient's Obligatory (actually brewed in Michigan) and despite being dirty White Sox backers, Hop Butcher For The World's Galaxy Bowl was phenomenal.

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I'm patiently waiting for anyone in KC to come out with a hazy IPA. They would certainly sell like crazy. The last batch of Roughtail's Adaptation 5 was in and out of stores in 2-3 days. It was flying out.

That Galaxy Bowl was Hop Butcher's first attempt at the style and they completely underestimated how crazy people got trying to get it. They self distribute to a small number of shops and people were blowing up their social media trying to find out when and where it was being delivered and when they're brewing it again. A couple weeks ago, a chain restaurant/brewery, RAM, had a brewer release one as a side project and people were lined up around the restaurant bottle sharing hours before they opened...in the rain. It was gone before I got there an hour after they opened. Hopefully more start showing up here so the madness dies down a bit.

That shit looks so dope. The only Transient I saw available on the site were the saisons. I'm hesitant to try them because I've heard mention that they can be rather sour.

Transient's saisons are legit and are more funk than sour. Although he seems to be doing much more sour stuff lately than saisons. His pale/ipa production seems to have expanded after teaming up with a former Spiteful brewer last year. I'm hoping to see a lot more canned pales/ipas from them in the future as they've been very well received.

I personally don't get the haze craze.

I've really enjoyed all the Tree House and Trillium stuff that I've tried. They are super creamy and give you all the hop character you'd ever want without being overly bitter. It's a great combo.

I don't necessarily understand the craze, but I definitely enjoy the "style" and am happy to have another take on the IPA becoming readily available to me. I also still enjoy a palette busting West Coast IPA and the hybrid of the 2 like Heady and Two Hearted, etc. It's certainly a polarizing topic for some with butthurt west coasters, inferior complex New Englanders driving the hype, and the get off my lawn IPAs should be clear style nazis.

I tried five Trillium beers a couple of months ago, and they were all really good, but I had a batch of Special Sauce from Mikerphone Brewing out of Chicago that was better than them all.

I hear the the Double Dry Hopped Congress Street is the Trillium to try, though.

Another beer I've seen everywhere online lately that's making me jealous is Lambo Door from Grimm. It looks gooood.

That's all I needed to hear. I'll add one to my next order.

Got five bombers of 2016 Saint Arnold Pumpkinator today. I know pumpkin beers aren't for everybody, but I know a few of you here like them. Pumpkinator is a quality Imperial Pumpkin Stout.

I'm down for trades if anybody is interested. I'm looking for good hops, preferably NE style.

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Also, if anyone lives near Tired Hands, I really want to try more of their beers. I'm willing to trade whatever I can. I'll have another case or two of Ghost in the Machine next month, plus a new IPA that Parish Brewing is putting out.

PLEASE tell me you're willing to spare one? I was disappointed I missed out last time.

Not sure what I can get here in STL that you can't, but I'd gladly reciprocate.

EDIT: Not spare a case, spare a bottle or two. LMAO

I got you, bud.

Call me crazy if you want...but I enjoy the tangerine series of Stone's Enjoy By more than I do the normal series.

I like the tangerines, but they're probably my least favorite and I'll usually pass if they're in a 6-pack. The unfiltered are my favs, but heck, I even like the black IPA version.

You all can keep all the IPAs. Disgusting bitter things.

I know that Timbone is way too generous and modest to actually tell you what to get him from St. Louis, but I'd suggest Side Project, if you can snag some. It probably has the most limited distribution of St. Louis breweries. Not sure if the can get Urban Chestnut or 4Hands down there either.

Given TimBone's IPA leanings, I would think 2nd Shift to be the goto.

Made a field trip over to Transient in Michigan this afternoon. Picked up a couple "Light" (only 10%) version of their coffee, vanilla, maple breakfast stout. A rotating porter, a couple barrel aged saisons, and a brett DIPA. Sucks I was driving and couldn't have anything on tap.

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EDIT: Awkward factoid about Transient Artisan Ales. The founder and head brewer has the exact same name, spelled identical and everything, of some chick I used to defile after I got out of high school. I'm talking total ditch pig that I practiced porn moves on so I'd be ready for the real action. I think about her every time I see him or have one of his beers.

You know what, I'm glad this convo got started. I've been meaning to ask all of you guys about St. Louis breweries.

If I were spending a week in KC, would the beer in St Louis be worth making the 4 hour drive there and back in one day in order to visit a couple of the breweries?

lol @ that last part.

I was on my way to buying a couple bottles of Transient and another four pack of Todd the Axe Man last night from Beer Temple. I thought they had my info stored in their system. They had all except my credit card info, and I was too lazy to get out of bed to go get it. Maybe I'll finish that purchase today.

Also, I had a trade lined up on Reddit for all five bottles of that Pumpkinator and was getting Trillium in return. The guy wanted to do a $ for $ trade, and I accidentally misquoted what I paid for my bottles. I think he thought I was intentionally lying, and it scared him off.

Damn it.

I thought the trade was such a sure thing, that I went out and bought four more bottles. Now I'm sitting here with nine bottles of Pumpkinator.

I haven't had the unfiltered, and I am not a fan of black IPAs. That tangerine, though....damn it's good.

Damn it, man. I keep forgetting you don't like IPAs. I was gonna try and get you to head into north Houston and see what you thought about that Pussy Wagon from Brash Brewing.

They do have a stout that everyone loves called Hammer Smash Face, and I'm pretty sure it's still on tap right now. Just in case you're looking for something new to try. That brewery is about to make a big come up.

Doh. I've been really wanting to try some Trillium, but no dice yet. Had some Treehouse Julius recently, which was awesome. This East vs West coast IPA thing that's going on right now is pretty fantastic.

I think that Todd is pretty fresh, but **** me, $20 a 4pk hurts. It's totally worth it, but I always have a hard time pulling the trigger on it (and opt for some $12 bomber instead, lol).

I don't keep up with Stone's distro, but I know the last unfiltered was only available on tap in IL. Not sure if that was a one off distributor moment (thanks corruption) or if the unfiltered version is more limited. And I typically don't like black IPAs or hopped up stouts, or whatever they call them either, but I enjoy Stone's version which surprised me a bit.

Julius was the other beer he and I were discussing. I really want to try that, or anything from Treehouse really.

...and I agree about the east vs west deal. But just like the hip hop coast wars of the '90's, there are Midwest players k8nda being overlooked because of it (pipeworks, Mikerphone).

Speaking of Mikerphone, I saw someone on Reddit trying to trade a Special Sauce batch #8. He was looking for hops, but I sent him a note about Pumpkinator on a long shot. I'm headed over to reddit now to see if he responded by laughing at me.

I looked at the date last night, and I believe it's less than a month old. I can't remember, though.

You're right, that shit is expensive, but very worth it. I hadn't realized I paid that much for it the first time around. I forget to look at prices sometimes (that's partly why I misquoted my price in my reddit trade earlier today), but I noticed the price on the Todd last night when I went to buy more. I wanted to get two more 4 packs....but after seeing the price tag, I switched to one.

I don't think I would say it's a can't miss. Side Project and Perennial are probably the best St. Louis has to offer. Unfortunately, the Side Project Cellar opened up not long before I moved and I never got the chance to visit. There are several other good places, 4 Hands, Urban Chestnut, Civil Life, and Schlafly to name a few. Second Shift is good too, but is well outside the city and not a convenient stop. Side Project and Perennial both produce world class beers, but I don't think I could justify traveling 4 hours there and back in one day. That may just be me and my nearly 40 year old self though.

Julius was amazing. Definitely worth the effort to get. Would love to get my hands on more Treehouse, or some Trillium.

For sure. Hell, I live in the Midwest, and don't have access to either of those mentioned. There are a few good IPAs made here in the Cities, but most don't compare to the coastal options. Would be interested in trying some of those before I move out to CA in a month - may have to see what I can hook up.

FYI, Mikerphone SS8 wasn't as good as 7, simply because galaxy > simcoe for that style, imo. Still a really good beer that would be a steal for something pumpkin ;)

Yeah yeah, I know pumpkin ain't for a lot of folks, but for those that like it, Pumpkinator is great.

I'm not one of those guys that can identify single hops a lot of the time, but I do tend to notice shock hops are in the beers that I always like. For me, when I see that Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin, or Citra on a bottle, then I usually like what's inside. I do wish I was better about identifying hops, though.

I may be getting some Trillium, yet. That dude just got back to me on reddit. Looks like he's willing to send me a four pack of their high end or 5 cans of their regular beers for two Pumpkinators.

I hear ya. I was more so trying to say that Mikerphone SS8 didn't get me all excited compared to his other efforts, and you know I'm a Yuge Mikerphone fan.

You can already see it's not as hazy.

http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...psbouqbcz1.jpg

I still wanna jump through the phone and try it!

I still think about that last batch. Maan.

I don't know if I mentioned that the power to my house went out two minutes after I cracked open that batch #7. I looked forward to that beer all day, waited until the end of the night. Cracked it open, poured it into a glass, sat down on the bed to watch an episode of a show with the wife, and click... everything went dark. I didn't give a ****, sat on the bed in the dark watching old Howard Stern clips on my phone and sipping that beer. And it was one of the best beers I've had since getting into craft beer a few years ago.

ROFL

That's an awesome story.

My favorite SS was Nelson, God that was a treat. I struck out on the Citra one though.

I have a week off of work in early Nov so I might take a trip since I live in Spring anyways.

It is not just IPAs, I find all bitter things pretty disgusting.

Polished off these yesterday watching college football.

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4 Hands would be an easy get, obviously - but I can't imagine he'd be overly impressed with Incarnation. It's good, but nothing special like the stuff he normally drinks.

Also easy to get. AON and Brew Cocky would be good choices.

They've recently moved to The Hill off of Sublette.

Been gone for less than 2 years and I don't even recognize it anymore. Shame, we used to live in Clifton Heights, adjacent to The Hill.

I try pretty much anything, man. I'm certain we can work something.

I kinda bounce back and forth between thinking it's worth it and then thinking like you about not being able to justify the four hour drive there and back. That's a heck of a hassle. I just feel like I need to take advantage of it when I'm near the big cities. Hit as many spots as I can before coming back to middle of nowhere Louisiana.

Have you had Scarlet Betta yet? Thoughts on it? I worked that trade for the Special Sauce batch 8 on Reddit that I mentioned earlier, and he asked if I wanted to try anything else from the area. I mentioned the fish series and he offered up a Dragonet or the Betta. I went with the Betta since I've tried the Dragonet. He did say that he didn't enjoy the Betta as much as the other Fish series beers.

If you could swing an overnight, I would definitely recommend. The Lou is great. I wouldn't drive back and forth in a day though.

Yeah, I think it's the consensus least favorite of their fish series. I liked Dragonet better. Scarlet is a little heavy on the raspberry, imo. Still a good beer, though, and really the differences in the fish beers are minute. They're all 9.5% DIPAs with the same base.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on SS8. Glad you were able to work one out.

I'll tell you what, man. The best aroma of all the Pipeworks I've had so far is the one that went all over my kitchen floor. Damn that kitchen smelled good. Mango goodness.

If you're going to St. Louis to see some of the beer culture, play to stay a few days. Side Project is really the cream of the crop, but don't ever go in expecting to be able to buy anything to go. The demand for his beers is great enough that whenever there is a "to-go" release of any kind, it will be gone within hours. I have folks in town that will stop by and grab me these types of releases, but it's a total pain in the ass if that's all I'm going to town for. Perennial and 4 Hands are also top notch and you might actually have a decent chance of grabbing some nice stuff to go in their respective tap rooms.

I also highly recommend Civil Life and Heavy Riff. Civil Life brews the best damn brown ale in the whole world (in my humble opinion) and their tap room is a blast. Kid friendly with decent food. Heavy Riff is in the same area (Manchester corridor) and their food is excellent, plus they also have my next favorite browns (and favorite brown ale variant) the Velvet Underbrown beers. They do a version with coffee and vanilla that is f**king unreal.

That's great info. Thanks, man. I don't know that I'll have multiple days available, but sounds like it would be worth it if I did.

Took a day trip to Parish Brewing. Surprisingly, they had fresh Opus Vert (bottled 10/21). They didn't announce it anywhere that I saw, which seems weird. Anyways, I bought some to trade on reddit, and gave a four pack to my craft beer buddy here. I figured I'd share a few bottles with you guys as well.

First four people that want a bottle, get a bottle. Sorry there's not more, but I do want to keep a couple for myself.


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The Crowlers are the Reve Coffee Stout, the Maple Shade Imperial Stout, and Ghost. The stouts went quick on Reddit, and the Ghost is getting devoured by me.

You know I'll take one, and send something in return ;)

You don't count! I've got something I want to send you anyways, so I'm already throwing a bottle in there.

:toast:

I'll take one if you don't mind throwing one in with the Ghost.

We need to talk about what you want in return.

It absolutely would be. And depending on when you'd be here, I'd go with you if you wanted.

You got a bottle. I'm gonna send it out this week, though. And then I'll send the Ghost next month when it's released. That way you'll get this as fresh as possible. Shoot me a pm with your address, and I'll get it sent out.

For sure, man. If we decide to head that way, I'll let you know!

I'm going to bump and blame the server on the lack of bottles being claimed. What's wrong with you weirdos? I'm trying to spread the word of good beer.

Three more bottles up for grabs.

I'd love some if still available! Let me know what you want in return.

Check your PMs.

Tim has been more then generous with me so I will sit this one out.

I did get a hold of some Pseudo Sue finally, going to crack it tonight. I afraid its probably going to be a little bit of a disappointment considering there have been so many kick ass beers made since it hit its height of popularity.

I am sure its tasty though.

Is that your first time trying it? I saw people trading for it on reddit. I looked it up and it sounds delicious from the description. Enjoy!