Agree. I can't wait to try their IPA.

Very cool, thanks loogs.

this is kind of cool. i wonder if the beer is any good?

Hey Squirg:

I thought you might be interested in this:

http://www.oldbeers.com/

Two new release historical English Mild Ales from Pretty Things

I haven't tried them but noticed that the 1945 one just came into stock at my wine shop.

page 110.

Huh...Squirg said that he wasn't familiar with Mild Ales when I recommended it as a future homebrew style. Guess he didn't realize that these were Mild Ales. I've never had either to know whether they are good representations of it or not. I ordered the 1945 so I'll report back when I get a chance to try it.

I've been attending an American Craft Beer Week event almost every night this week for local breweries.
Last night I had a blended sour tapping party for Modern Monks. The blend came from some funky beers that have been aging in my friend's cellar for about three years. It was two parts Baltic Porter that has lots of Bretts and a bit of lactobacillus in it and one part Bad Behavior, A rye winter ale that was naturally soured with all sorts of random bugs.
The final event of the week is tonight, and features a Chai Rye Saison.

It's getting more rare that I try new beers lately, but I really enjoyed this one:

I got a growler each of two of the best named beers in the world on Saturday in Bham:



and



Both were outstanding.

Yeah, Maharaja is a great beer.

This is the best named beer though.

Terrapin Beer Co. - Easy Rider

This is their foray into the dicey arena of high flavor/low ABV session beers. Comes in just above Bud Light levels at 4.5% so it's definitely poundable. The smell is immediately citrusy hops and the flavor is about the same but fades pretty quickly in the aftertaste. I don't expect anything mind blowing with a beer like this but I thought it was solid as a light summertime option. One of the better offerings of theirs, considering the parameters.

It seems the thing with these kinds of beers is that in order to get that flavor you still have to use good ingredients. In this case I think it's Galaxy hops nad Maris Otter malts (or Otter Maris?). Which leads me to the main beef with this beer........the price. They are currently asking about $9 for a 4 pack of this stuff. It's ludicrous considering I can get a sixer of Stone's Levitation for $10 (another flavorful, low ABV option I like). Also, it's a SESSION beer. The idea being you drink several in a sitting. And you're selling them in 4 packs??

They must REALLY be proud of this beer and that's one of my biggest issues with Terrapin. They want to be priced competitively with world class American brews without actually having, you know, world class product. I get it from a business stand point, but, from a consumer stand point, there is a reason why Terrapin is rarely in my fridge.

I haven't had that beer, but I completely agree with your assessment of Terrapin, Derris.

It has been a big week for Belgian or Belgian style beers for me.
I consumed a New Belgium Lips of Faith Biere de Mars last night before the Lee "Scratch" Perry show and tried the Dupont La Biere de Beloeil and Liefmans Fruitesse tonight. I also consumed a Rare Vos from Ommegang before I called it an early night.

Squirg's decision to only drink his homebrew has put a real damper on this thread.

Thought I'd pass along this poll on America's Best Sour beer:

http://thefullpint.com/polls/best-american-made-sour/

Russian River's Supplication is currently leading. I had that for the first time just last night. It's pretty damn great. I still prefer their Consecration Ale and think that Supplication might be leading it only because its more widely distributed. Anyone had any of the other beers on that list? I've only had the two Russian Rivers and Ballast Point Sour Wench (which wasn't bad just not in the same league as the Russian Rivers). I think I might have Red Poppy in my fridge but I haven't tried it yet.

Hoo lawd, California wore me out. You're right about the milds, BG, I totally forgot about those Pretty Things beers. One was really good, btw, from I recall, and the other was just ok. I wanna say the older recipe was bigger and richer, and the newer one had been adjunct'ed down (it's my post and I'll make up words if I wanna) to be a little thinner and less exciting, but still enjoyable and different.

So, updates... The Hoppy Tripel at home in the closet. I cooled one down (it's been 3 weeks) and tried it Tuesday, and I reeeeally hope I got an off bottle because it was BARELY carbonated. Flavor was fine, but it tasted too sweet still for my liking, which makes me wonder if it's just taking too long to carbonate. Fingers crossed, but don't have too too high hopes for it, Loog et al. Also could've been uneven bottling sugar in the bottling bucket, so some got more than others... fucking hope so.

Oh and then the California beers, lemme upload.

It's a lot of pics, but this thread needs some content. I'll keep the wordage short. So I went to California for 10 days and managed to have some good beer experiences.

Green Flash's double IPA on tap, fucking delicious.



Double Take Amber, at a friend's dad's house. I liked it, actually, it was tasty. Nice little roasty note hidden in there.



At a roadside place on the PCH, lo and fuckme behold, they have Pliny bottles. Shit is just very, very good. If you've had fresh maharaja and some of the other excellent big doubles, it's not THAT much different, but still, for those who can't get it, it tastes like the special treat it is.



And just because I know Bloor and Derris and Loog will enjoy this shot like I did, this is what it looks like when a place has a ROW of Pliny, just sitting there for you to buy, whenever you want, at uninflated prices. Fapfapfap.



Anderson Valley Brewing Company, here a passable Witt. Beautiful little tiny town, gorgeous brewery grounds, mostly meh beer. They sold me a sixpack of summer beer that had one empty motherfucking can, and the full ones tasted like ginger caramel cookies. Wtf? No one wants that flavor in a summer beer. Was pretty let down. Shoulde've just gotten that IPA they have - I had one at lunch and it was pretty good. I tried to branch out and got a branch in the face.



Hot dog joint in Monte Rio, just included this pic for the cook. Like half the cars going by honked and waved at him... must be a popular dude.



This poor bottle... put it in my saddle bag while biking, caught a ride up a 4 mile long STEEP hill, left bag by the roadside, had to drink the beer 3 hours later when it was warm. And it was STILL good.



Graceland, Santa Rosa. Line out the door, so we couldn't eat here, but I had a porter quick (deeelicious one too) then had dinner elsewhere.


Spectacular tap list inside Russian River. Literally too many choices for one little man's liver. What would you get?



Salvation (strong dark, 9%)



Damnation (strong blonde, 7%). Sweet jesus I was happy.



This was over the bar. I asked who / why. "Oh that's (name), he works here." Ok, so what's with the portrait? "We had no choice... he's just THAT damned handsome."



4.5 beers' worth of one of the best in the world, for $18. Are you fucking kidding me? Amazing how strongly they resist gouging. God bless 'em. Oh and as they were filling mine, a bartender forgot about another one. I sat there and watched as Pliny dribbled over the outside of the growler for a good 30 seconds, crying softly. Eventually I yelled and the bartender remembered.



Started here, wound up on my finger, biking one-handed back to the hotel.



This is a winery built into an old hop kiln ("Hop Kiln Winery") from 1905. Again, something I thought folks would find interesting. We stopped in while biking. This was a massive hop farm and processing operation for a long time.



What hop growing and picking looked like a hundred years ago.



There were 3 large ovens for drying and a huge wooden press for bailing.



Tourist Club - Quite possibly the coolest beer garden ever, up in the Muir Woods. 4.5 mile round trip hike, can only be reached on foot. It's in the center there.


Tourist Club - german beer on tap and landjaeger to eat. Can't beat the scenery either.



After hiking, a glass of Lagunitas Pale Ale at an awesome english pub, the Pelican Inn.



Met up with my buddy in San Fran and made a dent in the Pliny growler over lunch, discreetly. Just kept it behind us under a coat. He took the rest home.

Wow, awesome looking trip.

So if I'm reading the thread correctly, you had a glass each of Salvation and Damnation in the bar and got a growler of Piny and a bottle of Blind Pig to go? I made my first pilgrimage over easter but unfortunately there was a 2 hour wait for a table and the bar was packed 3 deep. I got a salvation to drink there and ten bottles split between Supplication and Consecration to go. Did you either one of those? Consecration is probably the best beer I've ever had.

I saw the Deadstring Brothers last weekend at a venue that sold Damnation by the bottle. Pretty nice surprise. Sounds like a great trip. Too bad you couldn't hit up Lagunitas too, which is located in Petaluma not too far from Russian River.

I had a porter at the bar before dinner, then one each of Damnation and Salvation later at the bar after dinner. I got the growler of Pliny to go. Later in the trip I had a bottle each of Pliny and Blind Pig. That was all the RR I got to try.

The two locals next to me at the bar were great.

"You understand what you have here, right?"
Yeah man - at work we call that corner over there "Conference Room B" for beer... we have meetings here every week.
"Ok good. There are a dozen people I know who would kill to teleport onto my bar stool right now."

Great, great stuff, Ky.

I've been too fucking busy with work and other shit to update this thread, but I will say that I bought four packs of Palate Wrecker and Boulevard's The Sixth Glass while I was in Birmingham a couple weeks back as well as a couple of pints at a brewpub there.

i've been hitting the brooklyn summer ale because it's fucking SUMMER here already.

Squirg, please tell me you went to the French Bistro in Santa Rosa and had some Moonlight beers...

my packie's been selling the green flash IPA 4-bottle pack for 4 bucks since the brewery's killing glass inventory & switching to cans. after my first bottle i went back & bought the remaining few packs. most delicious bargain in town.