Other than Dale's, I can't think of another canned beer sold here in a 12 pack that I'd buy. I haven't seen Brooklyn or Harpoon cans down here at all and the only Sierra we've gotten is the big boys of Torpedo.

Speaking of, I picked up, but haven't tried yet, a 4 pack of the OB Deviant Dale's DIPA tall boys. Maybe crack one for the pod tonight.

Is Dale's even available in a 12 pack? I know either 4 packs or 6 packs. I don't think I've ever seen a 12 pack. Can't think of any 12 packs.

Only other cans other than the Oskar Blues ones (Dale's, Old Chubb, ten fidy) here are from Golden Road which is a new LA brewery that sells in 6 packs of 16 oz cans. They have a bunch of things in kegs but only the IPA and Hefeweizen in cans. I like the Hefe quite a bit.

Yeah I've seen, and bought, a 12 pack of Dale's before. They're a little more expensive than the other ones Cap'n listed though.

Ditto. I think its somewhere in the $15 range for a 12.

Oskar Blues is expensive.

I guess I got suckered the one time I bought it then cause it was around $18.

Don't feel bad--I bought it at Total Wine; their prices always make me mad I payed more at my local store.

Edit: It should be like $26 a case for Dale's Pale amirite?

fuh



Had this tonight and it was amazing. I'm gonna have to get another bottle or two of this.

It was a couple of years ago when I was just blowing money left and right so I don't feel that bad.

I think? I'm gonna have to stop at this place near me that lists the prices by the case so I can check out what's good and preferably cheap.

I've seen those Torpedo 4-pack tallboy cans. Haven't pulled the trigger - I can't remember if Torp is good enough to justify the high-ish price?

I actually like a lot of the non-Pale Ale stuff from Sierra, particularly the Torpedo and the Kellerweiss. I keep some of the Kellerweiss in the fridge at all times in the summer. FemDerris is a big fan. A solid option in the dog days of an Atlanta summer.

As for a 12 pack cans (at least what we can get here), I'd go with aforementioned Dale's and New Belgium is rolling out their Fat Tire cans in the next couple of weeks.

My favorite may be Brooklyn's Summer Ale seasonal that comes in the pale blue and light yellow cans. The beer isn't mind blowing but it's good enough for a day by the lake. Certainly wouldn't hesitate to rip open a 12er and dump it into a cooler, throw ice on it, and head out.

Oh yeah. Brooklyn Summer. I think I had that in the Boys Of Summer can spread from last year.

Yeah, these.

i gots some catchin' up to do with this thread.

as far as 12 packs here: new belgium (fat tire, sunshine wheat and ranger); oskar blues (dales, mama's little yella pils and old chubb - just confirmed at $16/12 here...if you are getting a case for $26 you are getting a helluva deal) and new-ish local startup - upslope brewing.

upslope will actually be moving into avery's old digs (just behind my office!) after avery moves into their new 5.6 acre campus.

I wasn't being serious about $26/case for Dale's...more wishful thinking than anything.

Speaking of, I enjoyed the Deviant Dale's--tastes A LOT like Dale's with just a bit more alcohol and hoppiness.

I consider a four pack of tall cans of Torpedo to be a bargain at $7 compared to what I paid for the same of the Deviant Dale's ($12!)

Yeah I just looked while I was at the liquor store on the way home and they didn't have a 12 pack of Dale's but Old Chub was $17.98.

I went to a tapping party for Upstream Brewing Company Barrel Aged Snow Blind Oatmeal Imperial Stout tonight. It was a bit too hot/boozy, and the chocolate and barrel flavors masked the vanilla and oatmeal flavors.
The highlight of the night was trying the Chatoe Rogue Good Chit Plisner on tap afterward. It gets high marks from Rate Beer and was a perfect beer for a moderately warm Spring evening.

Y'all called them out on this name right?

No members of the brewery staff were present, so I couldn't really address that issue.
I should also correct my own mistake here. It should be Imperial Oatmeal Stout, not the other way around.

I tried Hop Sutra Double IPA from Peace Tree Brewing Company and Regal Double Pilsner from Breckenridge last night. I enjoyed the Hop Sutra despite it lacking in carbonation/head retention. The double pilsner was pretty meh. It certainly didn't come anywhere close to being as good as the O'Dell Double Pilsner.

Was up in Milwaukee on Saturday, so I had to pick up some of this:


It's really the ONLY highly-hopped beer that I find to be very drinkable. Despite the huge hop flavor, there is also a lot more going on, making it interesting and just goddamn good. So, as long as I could pick it up, I did. I really like this beer.

Bottling Time

I guessed exactly the right number of bottles, somehow. [Clark Griswold]"Fifty yards... heh"[/CG] Went for all the swing tops I had, then a growler, then made up the balance with some 12's and 22's. Literally had about 6 ounces left after the last bottle. Perfect.



Sanitaization is a big deal. I hear about it all day long at work with problems in the manufacturing suites... then I come home and all I can think of are how many gram-positive cocci are raining off of me into the beer.


Boiled up 3/4 cup of organic raw sugar / water, cooled it, poured it into the bottling bucket, then siphoned the beer out of the secondary fermentor, keeping the cane up near the top but not in the "hop belt." ...trying to pull the clearest beer I can. And it really, really did clear out well. There's stilll some cloudiness to it but NOTHING like when it was in the primary the first week. I never used to do that... I was dumb.



All the whole-leaf Amarillo started off at the top, and over the course of 9 days some of it drifted down. Every time I'd move the bucket a little, more would drift down. That shit smelled heavenly, too. I instantly wished I'd used more of everything... the guy at the store looked at me like I was a little nuts when I got this many hops. What if I'd gotten 2x that many...



Final color / clarity. Got a nice ruddy color to it. So this is what I had leftover after the last bottle. And I was all "oh cool I'll go sip it on the couch before I clean everything up" and went over by the wife on the couch. Took a sip, grimaced, and instantly thought I had fucked everything up. "What's wrong" she says. "It's WAY too sweet. Oh fuck. I think I'm going to have to dump it all, unless it improves a LOT in the bottles. It's good but it's so goddamn SWEET." She took a tiny sip and her face melted. "Yeah that's... that's uh..." You don't have to say it.

...and then I remembered that I'd just poured 3/4 cup of fucking sugar into it to carbonate the bottles. Ie, about a pack of sugar per bottle. SO relieved. Holy fuck am I stupid. So it will sit in these for 3 or 4 weeks I guess, and then I'll delve in.



Shiv - C'mon over whenever and swap me out some empties for fulls.

Todd - You find Spotted Cow hoppy? Interesting, I would never have thought of it as a hoppy beer. I just drank the last 2 Lake Louie Warped Speed Scotch Ales I brought back last time this weekend.

I do. There is a serious floral bitterness to it that is the dominant flavor. But it is complex enough that I don't mind it so much... a lot going on there. Maybe they use a bunch of different kinds of hops? At any rate, it's a really good beer.

I haven't found the IBU's in Spotted Cow, but I doubt it is very high. Rate Beer and Beer Advocate list it as a Cream Ale, and the brewery itself calls it a Farmhouse Ale. Neither beer style are considered high in hop bitterness. All the clone recipes for the beer have 15-20 IBU's.

Had Terrapin's Hopzilla DIPA over the weekend. I have to admit, I didn't really like the first one I had, my thought was basically "it's all hops and booze, no balance, just something to kill your tastebuds and get you really fucked up" Had another yesterday and enjoyed it a lot more, got the malt balance and taste (i swear, the fucking pollen really fucks up my taste sometimes. frustrating.): It's not in the tip top DIPA tier, but its a really nice, borderline extreme beer.

Also had Smuttynose's Finest Kind IPA and man, it's a winner. I had never had anything Smuttynose before trying a Big A a few weeks ago, but I'm impressed. Well balanced, appropriately hoppy, delicious.

Finally, I'll settle the tall can debate: Sierra Torpedo wins over Deviant Dale's especially when you factor in the (significant) cost difference.

Count me in with the camp that's absolutely baffled about Spotted Cow being considered hoppy. If that's the case you should run away from Double Trouble.