my buddy mike will be arriving from PDX this afternoon with this in tow:


seriously stoked for that Fred.


oh, and i finally ponied up for some Sucaba for us to share, aaaand when i got home and opened the door to get the groceries, guess what had made it's way right to the edge of the seat/door?

i was able to salvage this much (thru the soaked box hopefully filtering out glass shards)...and GOTDAMN it is a good beer. really tempted to grab another if i have time today

Ouch estone.

Was in Athens last weekend and stopped by 5 Points Bottle Shop and found this:



Goose Island - Pere Jacques

Have no idea how they got this since there is no distribution down here for Goose Island. I didn't even know what it was but I grabbed it anyway. It's their version of a Belgians Dubbel (Abbey ale). Not my favorite style but like everything else by these guys it was solid. Def a step up from the Allagash Dubbel I had 2 weeks ago. Still, it was well made and restrained. Good not great. Maybe about the 5th or 6th best thing I've had from Goose Island.

A couple recents...

Founders Curmudgeons Better Half - I don't drink bourbon anymore, but I've drunk enough to know what it tastes like and the difference between good stuff and blindness inducing firewater. This beer takes the concept of "bourbon barrel aged" a step further and actually just tastes like straight up really fucking high quality bourbon sans the 80 or 90 proof alcohol burn (In fact for a beer with 12% ABV there is little to no burn at all). Delicious but maybe not for everyone.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine - I'm a little miffed I paid close to 4 bucks for a single of this and later saw a six pack for 12...At any rate, I've never had this before--I remember it being one of those beers cited in the pre-high ABV beer days in Georgia as "why cant we get this here". I thought it was pretty good, nice hops, nice body, nice booze, but lacking something; like somehow it doesnt all come together right. I suspect aging would make it better.

Corsendonk Pater / Abbey Brown Ale - I think I've figured out that Dubbels just really aren't my thing. Not terrible by any stretch, just sorta there.

Matilda is the belgian joint from Goose to get, from what I've had.

And eStone, dammit man that sucks. Of course it wasn't the fucking ketchup... of course it was the firestone. It's a testament to your addiction, though, that you strained out the glass shards and drank what you could anyway. Page out of my own playbook, there.

Are you guys worried about Goose Island being owned by Anheuser-Bush or will it probably be business as usual?

From all i've heard they aren't trying to change anything.

I've had that Pere Jacques but didn't like it much.

Will be interested in your thoughts on the Fred estone. I really dig all of Hair of the Dog's beers that I've had. I have their Barleywine at home to try and a Fred that I'm not touching for a year. I think their Ruth is now my favorite session beer.

I had that Lagunitas Imperial Red last night. It was pretty good but not great. Very light and not complex. I had to look twice at the ABV. It didn't drink like a beer with 8% ABV.

That's hilarious, 5 Points openly running a rogue operation. Speaking of, my local store does have a Cigar City beer (the Brown Ale) so I guess they do have some sort of distribution in GA.

I swear they must just get dudes to hook them up from time to time. That was the only Goose Island they had and I've scored a couple sixers of Bear Republic Racer 5 in there before as well. The closest distro they have is in North and South Cack.



While their Bourbon County Stout is insanely good, if I had to choose one of theirs to have all the time, it'd be the Matilda, with maybe the Sophie or Honker's ale a close 2nd. So good.

Honker's is so creamy and smoothe.

I am eyeball deep in homebrewing literature, btw. Shit is complicated, and so very similar to what my company does in the building I work in now... wierd. Lots of common terms.

Beers I consumed tonight and/or forgot to mention this morning due to a hangover:
Goose Island Bramble Rye Bourbon County Stout
Crow Peak Olde Crow Ale
Saison Dupont on tap
Odell Friek

The Bramble Rye was consumed last night and includes raspberries and blackberries added into the Rye whiskey barrels with the beer. It was a bit disappointing for Bourbon County Stout standards. I and many of the people who consumed it thought they should have stuck with a rye whiskey version without the fruit.

Goose Island = best is Matilda, Pepe Nero, Bourbon County or Fleur.

I'm going to a place tomorrow that's let's you fill growlers of what they have on tap. Should be interesting.

And Ye all shunned Bramble the Shill!
All those in attendance took a chance to take him down. And his family too!
Oh Smackers! You sneaky sneak!
Thine brewed bride of Bourbon County!

King Henry should replace Matilda on that list, and I really liked Big John and Night Stalker as well.

If anyone has any Bourbon County Rare, now is the time to drink it. It is the absolute perfect beer and will probably stay at it's peak for another 8-12 months.

I've never had King Henry or Big John. Night Stalker was alright. As For Matilda, I used to love it but the last one I had on draft wasn't so great.

THE ONLY laws that Bush follows are the ones that say you have to have ID to purchase alcohol. As long as he does that, the police stay off his back, and he's cool and the gang. I'm sure someone scored them a case on the sly. You could probably ask with a wink and smile for some of that Cobra Whiskey they drink in Vietnam and they'd have a hook up.

There's an event here on Thursday with a Founder's Tasting. I'm certainly considering it.

Yeah, I'm not surprised by anything coming out of that place after the stories you've told from your years working there.

Just scored a 22 of 2011 Pepe Nero at Shaw's by me. They had at least six of them. For $7.99 a 22oz.

?!?! I should've gotten more than one but I was biking with full baskets.

Recents


Sam Adams - Alpine Spring

Sounds like a deodorant frangrance, tasted really odd too. Had one at a friend's place for dinner, the switched to Naragansett (gulp). Didn't snag a pic, so I stole one. B-


Cerveza Cusquena

Another stolen picture, another beer had at a party. This guy is peruvian, so he bought a case of peruvian beer. Watery, sightly crisp, indistinguishable from the other 25 central / south american light bodied beers. C+


Straffe Hendrik - Bruggse Quad

Same one I had at the brewery in Brugge. Never seen it stateside before, but the place in Belmont had it. Took me 3 nights to finish it, no joke. I just kept stoppering it. Coppery, tannic, full bodied, utterly belgian, and packs a motherfucking whallop. This is a special treat. A+


Honey Gardens - Sparkling Meade

Somehing the wife picked up... the search for good meade continues, as this was abysmal. Both sweet and stinky, just wierd and not enjoyable. C-


Pretty Things - Lovely St Winefride

A decoction method brown ale (has to do with the way hot water is sparged upon the grains, I believe... I'm learning). Brand new, or at least I've never seen it til now. Once again these guys take big steps and don't falter. This was really complex and interesting, changing a lot with temperature. Honestly one of the better breweries in the country. A-


Cisco - Reserve Saison Farmhouse Ale

They're a solid local brewery (Nantucket), and they make some unique beers. I'm a fan. But this was the worst beer I've had in a long, long time. It tasted like sour lemonade, with a beer aftertaste. Someone fucked up. There's NO way this was what they were shooting for. Cannot believe I finished it... I probably have a drinking problem. "Probably." F-

Meant to post this last week, but I thought of you when I read it, Squirg.

The 14 Best (and Worst) Gluten-Free Beers

totally agree with you on that cisco saison. it was awful and i've been hesitant to try any of their other reserve beers.


i never got to go get that growler of beer from The Green Growler which i'm kinda bummed about because it seems like they have a pretty good selection.

i did pick up:
green flash rayon vert 4pk
southampton triple abbey style ale 22oz
sixpoint righteous rye 4pk
lost coast brewery indica ipa 6pk
mendocino brewing company mixed 6'er (3 white hawk select ipa, 1 eye of the hawk amber ale, 1 red tail ale & 1 blue heron pale ale)
and a dogfish head 120 that was only $10, as opposed to the $15 i paid a few months ago here.

I picked up a bottle of Samuel Adam's Alpine Spring and Whitewater IPA in a mix and match six pack on Saturday, but I have not consumed the Alpine Spring yet. I wanted to see how much they changed the recipe from the Noble pils that it replaced in the rotation.
The Whitewater IPA is a Wheat IPA brewed with Apricot and Spices. I thought it was terribly piney with a hint of citrus. I couldn't really taste Apricot, which is a rather subtle flavor in less hoppy beers and the zest from the citrusy hops could have easily masked whatever spices were added to the mix. It was however a much better Wheat IPA than the one that Shocktop came out with recently.

SO interesting. First, because they also find Green's to be far and above almost everything else, and second because someone I've never heard of has a process for brewing with barley and then extracting the gluten out afterwards. That's like cheating... the good kind of cheating. Well fuck, how do you do that?

I was digging around the refrig Friday night and found this (stolen picture):



that I totally forgot I still had

Stone Vertical Epic 11.11.11

It's a Belgian Strong Pale Ale with Cinnamon and Mild Green Chilis thrown in during the boil. You can definitely taste the cinnamon and green chili and it has a little heat to it but not overpoweringly so. Pretty good but I'm not sure I'd buy it again.

I've drank my share of Cusquena. It's actually one of the better Peruvian beers you can get, not that it's saying much. I wouldn't seek it out.

Should be cheaper since it's "out" now. Not in Georgia, however, no ABV's above 15% allowed...

Tried that Lagunitas Red over the weekend. I like it. Has the same "nose" and basic flavor as a lot of their beers. I thought it was fairly hoppy but my wife (who as Ive mentioned before doesn't really like hoppy beers) thought it was really well balanced and actually 4/6 of the sixer I bought.

Also got another six of Hopslam, this batch bottled about a month after the initial batch and I swear it tastes different, less sweet, more like (an imperial) Two Hearted. Could be my cold/allergies fucking with my taste though so who the fuck knows? I like both batches a lot.