Also, I just stumbled across this place which let's you put together your own case of beers.

http://www.halftimebeverage.com/index.htm

Help me think... I can't find anything so far that they carry that I can't already find here. No Russian River, no Bell's, no small WI breweries (of course)... Maybe some of the southern stuff?

Goose Island Pepe Nero?

They have a bunch of the Mikkeller single hop series but they're $4.99 a bottle.

I dunno, I'm blanking.

The winter beers are out. I saw Bell's Winter White (and the Cherry and Java Stouts) and probably a half dozen others at the store today.

On my store's shelves earlier today:

About 20% of the pumpkin beers still (mostly the more expensive ones that don't move as quickly)
A bunch of all year round stuff
2 sixpacks of Wachussett Summer Wheat that have GOT to be skunkier that jersey shore pussy by now

Russian River Framboise for a Cure. All $20 goes directly to breast cancer research. This base is Temptation with a shitload of fresh raspberries. So good.

A couple from the weekend...



Founders CBS - As much as I enjoyed the regular Breakfast Stout, this really does take it up a notch or two...I guess it's like the difference between an A and an A+ or a 3.8 and a 4.0. At any rate, it's brilliantly flavored to the point where you don't even taste the booze. My wife, who still can't quite understand the concept that certain beers are only available in limited quantities, said "This is great, you should have bought more." Indeed.



Dogfish Head Squall IPA - A bottle conditioned bomber of DFH 90 Minute DIPA. Has basically the same flavor profile as your standard 90 with a bit of funkiness (good funkiness) and less alcohol bite. Delicious.

Awesome.

Recents.

Session - Lager

Lo and behold, look what turned up at a different party... the other one. This isn't exciting or anything but there's something homely and likeable about it. It's a very light body with subtle hopping, but it's still not boring. Neuro: "It's just beer." Me: "Yeah but pleasantly so." Nothing to dislike here. B


Wachussett - Imperial Pumpkin

They're local, they make pretty bad beers mostly, but I figured I'd give this a shot. It's a stronger bad beer with pumkpin flavor added on. Not worth it even at half the cost ($6.99) of the big good ones. C


Straffe Hendrik - Triple

My old friends from Brugge... had to go back and revisit. This triple doesn't have the brilliance their quad did (the one I had the brewery) or their blonde, which sells over there as a rebranded beer called Bruggse Zot. THAT was a fucking great beer. This is just "sorta awesome." But it is authentic, and it hits the spot. It's thinner than other triples to my taste, with a little more of that Candy Sugar alcoholic finish. Great stuff but not better than St Bernardus, I wouldn't say. A-


DFH - Punkin Ale

Almost forgot to try theirs too. I was surprised at how little pumpkin flavor there is. That seems to be the trend this year... subtlety. This is a great beer anyway, and then it has the little seasonal twist. But if you're itching for a fireplace October Pumpkin Beer experience, it may not have enough flavor to scratch the itch. Especially cold - let it warm up a little first, I guess. Definitely a tick up on most of the other 6 packable pumpkin offerings, as you would expect. A-


Valeir - Extra

The high end grocery place on Huron that does BBQ always has delicious oddballs like this in their fridge. Picked up some sandwiches there Saturday with friends and all the kids in tow, and decided to have this. It was really really good, a nice surprise. So the "extra" seems to be Dutch for "extra hops." This was a belgian IPA, pretty much. It had the yeast and malt taste of a good Blonde, but then it was hopped like Sierra Nevada Pale. Very green and sweet and wet hop taste, not too bitter, just right for me. I enjoyed the hell out of it. A


Buffalo Bill's Brewery - Pumpkin Ale

Hard times. There's a tiny beer store right by this building I have to go drive to for work a lot, and I know their selection is shit (honestly, it is so small and bad, Guinness is the nicest thing they have period). But I was in a big hurry and I was out of beer and it's so damned convenient. I managed to find something I hadn't had before, at least. I don't know where Bill lives but he has 2 or 3 different breweries on the west coast making this for him, according to the label. The malt profile is cheap and thin, the pumpkin tastes kinda fake almost, it wasn't good. C+


Weyerbacher - Imperial Pumpkin Ale

If memory serves, this is the one Shiv loves...? It is pretty good but not as good as I was expecting. I stored one in the vault and I'll try it in the spring, to see if it's developed anything interesting, but so far it's just ok. There's something missing, and I can't put my finger on what it is. It's like the alcohol and pumpkin are there, but some of the malt flavor is missing. It's not quite thick enough or something. I donno. Good but not great. B+

over the weekend:

I've seen that Buffalo Bill's what feels like thousands of times and something about it just looked cheap and shitty. Glad I never spent actual money on it to prove my instincts right.

Whoa, Two Brother redid their logo and branding, looks like?

From the Google image search results, I'd say so. The person's house I stayed at this weekend was stocked with Two Brothers from a trip they had made to Wheaton. Also, that Schlafly Pumpkin Ale was probably the best Pumpkin beer I've had. So if you're into that style of brew, check it out.

Never seen or heard of Shlafly.

St. Louis microbrewery - http://www.schlafly.com/#

they make quality brew and distribute to Nashville and femdisco's sister used to live in STL, so I made a couple of trips to their bottleworks location which has a pretty good restaurant attached to it.

Hey Ky, what do you know about Clown Shoes? The dude at the store the other day said they just got their White in and it's flying off the shelves. *shrug*

Schlafly is selling a new Schwarzbier lately and I knocked back a few of those over the weekend. Good stuff if you like the style, malty but not too sweet and pretty easy to drink.

I like that Session Lager. I often keep a 12'er of that around in the summer time. Session Black is pretty good too (although again more likable than exciting).

I found Santa's Little Helper in a Whole foods in Orange County over the weekend but didn't pick it up because I didn't want to leave it in my car in the 80 degree heat for a couple of hours. I'll find it again somewhere.

I like Pumpkin and I like Beer. I have no interest in mixing the two.

It's all over the place up here, it's local I think. Only popped up in the last year or two, really, it just showed up out of nowhere. I had / have work type friends who "like good beer" but really just dabble, and they all say they like it a lot. I have passed it over several hundred times because (in all seriousness) I just cannot bring myself to buy something with a clown on it. It just creeps me out a little. It may be amazing, I have no idea. There are about 5 varieties at that grocery store with a surprisingly good selection 2 blocks from home.

And I should not have had that last beer last night. Ugh. I still feel a little crappy at 2pm. One 12oz toke over the line, sweet jesus.

Our really good friends moved to St Louis about 2 years ago, and we see them once a year there. I will have to check them out next time.

what's the most y'all have spent on a bottle? i just can't seem to bring myself to throw down $25 for this, as much as i want to:



though i guess that's what i'd pay for a pretty good bottle of wine without question....hmmm....

Personally, I'd suggest Tap Room over Bottleworks for a Schlafly place. But either way, worth checking out. They always have a bigger variety of beers available at their places than you can buy in bottles.

Hey Bloor, FYI, Hop City is currently pouring Founder's Breakfast Stout for their Growlers.

Also, for my birfday FemDerris bought me a St. Bernardus sampler (w/ Goblet) and a fat gift card from my local beer shop.

I should marry her.

It's good stuff. Most, if not all of, the barrel aged Great Divide stuff stays inside Colorado unfortunately. When Liquor Max shipped, I was all about it... even at $25.