Good lord, I did NOT need to find that.

Yep, that is awesome.

Couple new ones:



Boulevard - 80 Acre

It was bound to happen. The hoppy wheat hybrid. Good news, this is great. At 5.5% ABV it's going to make for a nice Summer brew. It just hits a nice balance. Great aroma but drinks like a wheat beer. Like an IPA-Lite. The big breakthrough though, for me, was that FemDerris doesn't like hoppy beers and I gave her this and she really liked it. Could be the beer to get her to try more.



Terrapin - Tree Hugger Ale

Couldn't find a good beer pic. Classified as an "Altcentric" beer. It's some sort of altbier. Pours a light amber color and has a pretty great herbal spice aroma with a caramel-y and roasty flavor. Not too bad. A good change of pace beer. It's also going to be added to their year round roster. For the home brewers, here the ingredients:

Malts: 2-Row Pale, Munich, CaraMunich III, Melanoidin, DH Carafa II

Hops: Mt. Hood, Vanguard

ABV: 5.1%

IBU: 30

Bonus points for part of the proceeds benefiting The Dogwood Alliance (Asheville) that protects Southern forests from unsustainable logging practices.

I've been out of town and didn't have a chance to respond to this or the other posts from the past couple of days. I don't disagree at all with the idea that there's growth in the availablity of and interest in sours, especially in Brett Beers. What I disagreed with was that it was something new or coming versus a trend that has been going on for several years. As I pointed out, I have sours from all around the country in my frig. Most of those are ones that I couldn't buy 3-5 years ago. Secondly, I disagreed with cap'n's comparison to DIPAs and barrel aged beers because those are beers that are everywhere with big markets. Sours is always going to be a fringe beer, even if grows alot from a small base. I think Capn would probably actually agree with this and the DIPA/barrel aged comparison was probably just a poorly chosen one.

As far as trends go, I think session beers is the biggest one right now. Also, if Capn were to change and broaden his statement to something like the last decade was about hops but the next decade will be more about yeast, I might agree with that and the greater interest in sours would fit into that trend. BTW, The interest in sour beers is also part of a growing interest in sour in general....in the food world, fermented foods is a bit of trend...in the cocktail world, drinking vinegars is something some people are playing around with.

Like, volume and sales-wise, you are 100% correct. But for buzzword beer styles, Sour is the new Oak is the new Hops. Buzz is a limited, but very powerful, thing.

We probably aren't that far apart in thinking but I just can't get behind saying it's the new oak or the new hops precisely because of the sales volume and market dominance of those categories. Call it the new barrel aged barley wine, the new coffee porter, the new smoked beer, the new spiced beer, the new milk stout or any other beer that has or had buzz about it but a limited potential market and I'm fine with the comparison.

agreed - Black IPA was what i had in mind as the last "IT" beer

^ true - Black IPA was totally IT about a year or two ago.

it's like you guys are trying to make me hate beer.

More for me...

actually last night I had a Black Racer, which I loved:

They can be done very well.

I attended my first tapping party for an event that I had to promote for Nebraska Beer Blog last night. It was a cask tapping for Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout at a mixology bar that only has four taps besides the cask. It turned out quite well, and they had a formidable tap list for only four beers. They has Lagunitas IPA. Boulevard Tank 7, New Belgium Rampant and local brewery, Zipline Oatmeal Porter.

smuggled these across state lines. I now have a 12 bottle deep stockpile of these pint bottles from different breweries just waiting to be opened and enjoyed.

I'm not a huge fan of the quad, but then I'm not really a huge fan of quads in general.

I think you are going to see a Wheat Hybrid or IPA Hybrid category added to the BJCP classifications in future years due to the White and Black IPAs.
I'm more fond of the hoppy wheats than I am the Cascadian IPA's. but they both deserve to be a classification if California Common and Dortmunder Exports are to remain one as well.

I tried Great Divide Heyday, New Belgium Rolle Bolle today and consumed another Odell Tree Shaker Peach Imperial IPA today while attending the awards ceremony for the Nebraska Shootout, the club only competition that determines the best homebrew club in the Cornhusker State. The Lincoln Lagers won once again. There has only been one year where we failed to win it, but last year's competition was a lot closer than it was this year.

That's a great name... (Lincoln Lagers)

Picked one of these up in a mix n match sixer over the weekend and was underwhelmed. Maybe this style just isn't for me but I didn't really enjoy it. Just way too bitter for my taste.



Lakefront Brewery - IPA

2nd time I've had this beer and it will be the last. Some rave about this beer (it made pretty far in that Paste IPA Challenge if I recall) but I just don't see it. Pretty run of the mill and unbalanced from where I'm standing. Much like Smuttynose's Finest Kind IPA, I'm just confused as to what they are really going for.

Smutty is a weird bird. Not many IPAs are so dry and astringent, so devoid of the citrusy and piney (read: sweeter) varieties of hop beta acids, so it always stands out for me. And I like that - I like having a local choice that's well made and different, but I could not live on it alone. When you've had a lot of californians in a row, it's nice to contrast them with Smutty. But it's not a stand-alone wunderkind.

I like Smutty a lot as well. Their APA is also really good.

my wonderful wife smuggled home some Daisy Cutter from her trip to Chicago this past weekend. THIS would be my summer beer if i lived there. excellent stuff.



oh and other recents:

this was ok...my least favorite of the Smokestack Series thus far...a little too sweet for me (forgive me my Instagram experimentation)



this dude was brewing out of his garage a little over a year ago. he only has three beers so far, but this one was pretty damn tasty. he's opening a little tap-room near my office so i will support (often)

I have Pale Version 1.1 finishing up in the closet, and a 7% ish double IPA finishing carbonation in bottles. It's fucking HOP TIME motherfuckers. Spring has sprung, and I am prepared.

That Bru guy sounds cool. Dig the labels.

Any thoughts on O'Dempsey's in Atlanta? They are starting to distribute their products up here. I'm trying their RIS tonight, which is called Your Black Heart, and I believe I had their IPA a while back in a mix and match sixpack.
They get mostly 80's from beer advocate, and the RIS got a 98 from ratebeer.

edit: I just noticed that Thomas Creek in South Carolina actually does all of the brewing, and they are contract brewing it for O'Dempsey's.