I did have a pint of BA Sea Monster a few years ago at Hamilton's I thought was pretty good but the base beer just doesn't do it for me. I love Sculpin and Victory at Sea but that's basically it from Ballast.

Is it easier to get Remy these days? I had an email correspondence with one of the brewers at TAPS and he said he was going to ship me a bottle and then just fell off the face of the earth. I traded for a bottle (my last ever trade in 2012) and really liked it. It was the first release.

Do you live in San Diego?

I've always been a big fan of Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yet when it came to stouts. I think KBS is currently better than BCS, but I generally think BCS ages much better than KBS. I'm also a fan of Black Betty from Nebraska Brewing Company and Marshal Zhukov from Cigar City.

I didn't even realize that TAPS bottled. I've only had their beer on tap. And no, I wouldn't say its easier but I'm not the right person to ask. I find myself in the sort of places one could even hope to ever find it on tap less than 10 times a year. I'd guess it makes its way up to LA some but I only remember seeing it once last year and that was at a big craft bar anniversary party where they had about 100 different beers tapping during the day with a lot of rare and cult beers.

Chicago. Was visiting family for the holidays.

I think they've had two bottle releases for Remy. Not sure if they've ever bottled anything else.

This new batch of Abrasive is fantastic! I think it's moved up the list and past Heady for me.

Never heard of it.

I didn't really drink anything stellar or outrageous while I was in KC, but I did enjoy a decent selection of local craft beers while I was at the home brew contest and I came back with these beers.

Bell's Smitten Golden Rye Ale, Prairie Artisan Ales Eliza5beth Saison, Local Option Blood ov the Kings Wheat Ale, The Trooper Premium Bitter, Evil Twin/Westbrook/Local Option collaboration Plastic Man Saison.

my sunday = late morning Blind Pig, followed by Pliny the Elder, followed by Pliny the Younger, and capped off with another Elder.

then i made my way to Avery for the Opuntia bottle release - a sour ale barrel aged in tequila barrels with prickly pear added (bought 2 bottles) and drank a Khodynka - their Out of Bounds Stout blended with The Reverend, and then barrel aged with Vanilla beans added and jesuschrist i'm purty drunk right now is it too early to put the kids to bed?

oh and this after a night spent at Crooked Stave at The Source drinking all sorts of wild ale goodness. God bless Colorado.

oh yeah, hey y'all it's been a while

JASON.

Glad you're still breathing air, brother.

It's so nice to see some old, familiar names coming back.
Good to see you, Jason.

Fucking hell, Jason. That's a full goddam day right there. Jealous doesn't capture it.

Also, this:


DSCF8345 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Sketchy lives!

I just read that the latest batch of Remy (aged in Pappy Van Winkle Barrels) came out last week. They did bottle it but I think it was sold exclusively through one liquor store in Corona for $35/bottle. They were giving out wristbands the morning of release so I imagine its all gone now.



Hey Jason...good to see you stop by. The Younger was on tap at a small handful of bars in LA this weekend. I couldn't bring myself to lineup early for the right to a 7 oz pour of it. Cool though that you got to try it side by side with the Elder. I had it last year but didn't have the Elder with it, and I didn't think it was that different but I would have liked to have been able to compare it side by side.

Instead of chasing the Younger, I went to my bottle shop that had Prairie's Pirate Bomb and TAPs Schwarzbier on tap. Both excellent. I would put Prairie Bomb in the top tier of stouts.

Also, hit up a few more stores and bought all of these:

Pliny the Elder
Hair of the Dog Blue Dot
Anchor IPA (they just started brewing this IPA, it's six pack beer but I've heard its pretty good)
Alesmith Speedway Stout
Alpine Ale
Beachwood Brewing Still Life Smoked Stout
Midnight Sun Artic Rhino Coffee Porter
Great Divide Oak Aged Expresso Yeti Stout
Coronado/Cigar City Collaboration Jurata Baltic Porter
Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam DIPA (This is a new label under which Stone is doing special releases, I'm not a huge fan but have heard good things about this one...it's a DIPA with tons of fresh grapefruit peel added)
Highwater Brewing Campfire Stout


A bar here is having a Logsdon night on Thursday. Really hoping to be able to make it as they're going to have a bunch of their beers on tap including the new release of Peche N' Brett which I've been dying to try. Had already been planning to go to a whiskey tasting that night though and am trying to decide whether I can do both or if not which one I go to...

I had that Grapefruit Stone (and a lot of other things) during my trip to New Orleans last week: I liked it more than I like most Stone offerings.

Who got PtY in Colorado? Come to think of it, I haven't seen PtE anywhere lately either.

http://brewtallyinsane.com/2014/02/10/pliny-the-younger-2014-colorado-tappings/

still a few tappings coming up this weekend....

i agree with you bg that it's really not worth any huge hassle. fortunately it has been run pretty well around these parts thus far. the ticket system seems to be working out well. though i only waited 5 minutes in line 2 years ago vs. 30 minutes this year.

side by side comparison was cool, and you're right...it's really not all that different. PtY is a little sweeter and maybe even more balanced. that said (and i think we even agreed on this once before), i enjoy Blind Pig the most out of all of them.

We do agree on Blind Pig being the best. Interesting. I told someone last year that I didn't think PtY was that different from PtE and they completely disagreed with me which had me wondering.

I just received an email with this:

http://www.kegworks.com/brew-cave-walk- ... uysprodrec

as a "personalized recommendation." Maybe I need to cut back a bit. They also recommended a few months ago that I buy an icemaker with 400 lb daily capacity. WTF.

Oh man, I NEED THAT BREW CAVE.

I need a house that I'm not renting.

So I skipped the whiskey tasting and went to the Logsdon night. Unfortunately though, I worked late and then decided to go home and change clothes and eat first. By the time I got there, the Peche N' Brett keg had already kicked. Damn, damn, damn. I've been wanting to try this for a long time. They did have a full lineup of Logsdon beers but only one that I hadn't tried yet which was a colloboration with Widmer, Ensemble Pale Ale so I tried that. It wasn't bad but was really nothing special. I could kick myself for not getting there earlier but I really didn't expect it to kick. This is mostly a bottle shop, not a bar. The last big beer they had on tap, Prairie Bomb, lasted into a second day and that was tapped on Friday night. Also, there was a Russian River night at another beer bar that included Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder, Row 2, Hill 56, Temptation, etc. that I thought would draw a bigger crowd. Oh well.

I went home after the one beer sulking and decided to open a different Logsdon beer that I'd never had before -- the Hopped Seizon Bretta. It was delicious. Not sure if its better than the regular Seizon Bretta but I definitely like it more than the Oaked version.

Other recents:

Anchor IPA - I can't think of that many six pack IPA's that beat this. A really solid IPA and better than I was expecting.

Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball - I'd read a lot of bad reviews of this since I bought it so I wasn't really expecting much but I liked it. Definitely one of the better beers I've had from them in recent memory.

Alesmith Yulesmith - I snagged one of these on sale after the christmas season ended. Above average winter warmer but not great. Then again, it's an imperial red ale and I'm not a huge red ale fan so I'm probably not the best judge of it.

Avery Mahajara - A pretty good DIPA but a little too bitter with not enough bright citrus or floral notes for me to really love it. Don't think I'd buy it again.

Eagle Rock Yearling - a really great Flanders ale. I'm not sure I can think of a domestic one that I like better, not that I can think of a ton of domestic ones. I like it better than Logsdon's Far West Vlaming and probably more than the Bruery's Oude Tart.

Avery Maharaja - I remember it being a little rough. Like, dry and bitter compared to a lot of those.

Holy shit, yeah.

Bell's Black Note for lunch, x3.