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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Beer Thread

I found my new favorite imperial stout last night. It is Olde Hickory Brewery's Photon Sphere. It's a very tasty bourbon barrel aged stout, with honey, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa, and habanero pepper. Ordinary, I stay away from beer with peppers and I would have probably would have passed on it had I known. It's very drinkable for 11.91%.
 
My favorite beer (name) of 2020:

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I had a beer delivery from a local brewery last night and then I've got another beer delivery inbound next Tuesday from a new brewery on the other side of the state. The ability to more easily get beer delivered to your house is something that I hope sticks around long after COVID.
 
When I was a kid, my mom would have a case of returnable Horlacher beer delivered to the house for my dad. Mom didn't drive and certainly would not have schlepped a case of returnable bottles home for dad, so delivery was the only way the old man was getting his fix.
 
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Sycamore Brewery made this hard seltzer, ALE said they were not allowed to sell it due to the label. The local taproom got a few & are not opening them.
The contents of the glass next to it are not this seltzer.
 
Stopped at the local co-op on the way home from dinner out, saw this, and thought of @Maister.

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On another note, a couple of questions. Why do so many supermarkets put beers by Collective Arts (Hamilton, Ontario) in the American or East Coast micro section, while beers by other Canadian craft breweries like Flying Monkeys are alongside the Molson Golden and Labatt Blue? Why do so many stock beers by Ommegang (Cooperstown, New York) in the Belgian section, with the Duvel and Chimay?
 
Dan said:
Stopped at the local co-op on the way home from dinner out, saw this, and thought of @Maister.

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On another note, a couple of questions. Why do so many supermarkets put beers by Collective Arts (Hamilton, Ontario) in the American or East Coast micro section, while beers by other Canadian craft breweries like Flying Monkeys are alongside the Molson Golden and Labatt Blue? Why do so many stock beers by Ommegang (Cooperstown, New York) in the Belgian section, with the Duvel and Chimay?
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"regular" (helles and marzen) Aecht schlenkerla is unavailable in west Michigan. I cant imagine love or money would get the doppelbock here. Consider yourself fortunate.
 
My mom got me a case of Left Hand Brewing for Christmas. It's basically a six pack each of the following:

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We both don't like IPAs, so I put it in the pantry for now. The others are in the fridge!
 
2020 seems to be the year that craft breweries in the Buffalo area let go of their "by us, for us" mentality, and began distribution outside the 716 area code. Here's what I saw yesterday at a supermarket here in town.

Hamburg Brewing. I started to see their beers here this summer.

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Like, a LOT of beer from Hamburg Brewing.

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Thin Man Brewery. They were one of the first to distribute outside Erie County, along with Pressure Drop.

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Most surprising of all, beers by Community Beer Works, which started off with the intent of being forever small and hyperlocal.

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'

Beer from Big Ditch Brewing also started to appear at the local beer store a few months ago.

I still haven't seen anything from other prominent Buffalo-area locals like Resurgence Brewing, Flying Bison, or 12 Gates.

One could consider Southern Tier and Ellicottville "Buffalo area", but it's a bit of a stretch; Chautauqua Coounty isn't considered part of the Buffalo MSA.
 
Southern Range brewery new hazy IPA is out. It's called "The Viper Room Dance Floor" and its mighty good.

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I went to a highly recommended bottle shop while I was home to bring back a couple cases of local/regional brews. There was not a mainstream beer in there. Several from small local breweries and some that, besides this place, can only be purchased at the respective breweries.

I got there just as it opened, took my selections to the counter and cashier complimented me on my selection & I paid the bill. Told her I was taking these back to NC, which started another conversation about Asheville (she had been there) and the NC beer scene. She then handed me a pint and said I'd like it since I like IPAs (yes, it was good), which lead to her suggesting several places (which I unfortunately could not go on this trip). Asked her how much I owed for the pint, she said nothing, handed me a can from one of the places she suggested and told me to enjoy it when I got off the road. I will definitely be back there in August when I go back!

The place was funky, cool with a great vibe...and great customer service!
 
Weird thing. I recently returned nearly a year's worth of beer bottles for deposit. Only when I sorted the bottles did it become clear to me that during the pandemic I have purchased and consumed almost exclusively crap macrobeer. I never noticed it before. I'm sure there's some deep psychological insight to be drawn from this unusual fact.

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Lagunita's Waldo is out.

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Waldos'

This is the one. The dankest and hoppiest beer ever brewed by Lagunitas. Made in honor of the origins of 420, a triple IPA, with the help of the Waldos themselves…
lagunitas.com lagunitas.com
 
Maister said:
Weird thing. I recently returned nearly a year's worth of beer bottles for deposit. Only when I sorted the bottles did it become clear to me that during the pandemic I have purchased and consumed almost exclusively crap macrobeer. I never noticed it before. I'm sure there's some deep psychological insight to be drawn from this unusual fact.

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Perhaps there was in innate hording mentality associated with it since trips to the store would be limited and you needed to capitalize on resources with limited funds.

I.E. you knew you would not be going to the store as much, and you can get two 30 packs of Bush Light for the same price as one Bells Two Hearted Ale 12 pack.

Personally, I gave up drinking during that time because I knew it was going to lead to a dark place. I am back to appropriate consumption.
 
tl;dr: fcuk IPAs.

On Saturday afternoon, I stopped by the local beer store.

I've ranted about this before, but things seem to be getting worse. At least 80% of the American micros on the shelves are IPAs. Bitter hipster piss. The Freebird of beers. Sure, I drink an IPA now and then, but now it proliferates the craft brewing scene like American light lagers among macros in the 1980s. I'm really turned off by IPAs now.

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Of the remaining 20%, about three-quarters are pale and brown ales, and porters, stouts, goses, and crazy fruit, berry, and citrus-flavored beers. Porters and stouts are great during the winter, but with warmer weather coming, they don't have as much appeal. I have to be in the right state of mind for a gose. That remaining one-quarter -- 5% of the total -- are lagers, pilseners, Kolschs, session beers, Belgian whites, and wheat beers -- good summertime beers.

I feel like I increasingly go through the shelves, look at fun labels, see IPA after IPA after IPA, and just end up buying something from Bell's or New Belgium in the end.
 
Dan said:
tl;dr: fcuk IPAs.

On Saturday afternoon, I stopped by the local beer store.

I've ranted about this before, but things seem to be getting worse. At least 80% of the American micros on the shelves are IPAs. Bitter hipster piss. The Freebird of beers. Sure, I drink an IPA now and then, but now it proliferates the craft brewing scene like American light lagers among macros in the 1980s. I'm really turned off by IPAs now.

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Of the remaining 20%, about three-quarters are pale and brown ales, and porters, stouts, goses, and crazy fruit, berry, and citrus-flavored beers. Porters and stouts are great during the winter, but with warmer weather coming, they don't have as much appeal. I have to be in the right state of mind for a gose. That remaining one-quarter -- 5% of the total -- are lagers, pilseners, Kolschs, session beers, Belgian whites, and wheat beers -- good summertime beers.

I feel like I increasingly go through the shelves, look at fun labels, see IPA after IPA after IPA, and just end up buying something from Bell's or New Belgium in the end.
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Word. You're preaching to the choir. I too will enjoy the occasional IPA but ENOUGH ALREADY. Nowhere else on earth do we find this obsessive fascination with this one particular style but here in the US. Maybe this is the natural consequence of a nation that for a lifetime following Prohibition grew up imbued with the notion that one style - American light lager - should dominate the domestic beer market. During the 1990's and early 00's the world opened up and new possibilities were born as an explosion of new styles never before available to consumers: Kolschs, lambics, barley wines, wheat beers suddenly became available. Variety for a time appeared to be back on the menu, but the party was short lived and once again we find that awful market contraction going on and American craft brew consumers now increasingly consolidating the market share of a single dominant style once again.
Damn you IPA's!
 
I understand completely and as a fan of IPAs, there's alot of lazy breweries out there putting out some trash IPAs. I getting more and more wary of hazy IPAs as they are unfiltered (which means cheaper and lazy) and can be really bad. Recently I tried a new brewery and bought their 'flagship' IPA to try. It was barely drinkable with heavy sediment in the bottom of the can. I wish we had gone to the taproom and tried a pint or a tasting before I wasted $ on a 4-pk. On another one, I had a juicy hazy IPA that ended up just being a fruit bomb, pure disappointment.

However I have also been treated to some very good ones, so it depends on brewery and such. BUT IPAs are overbranded/overproduced and breweries still need to produce a couple for the market.

And then you gots Imperials, Doubles and Triples.
 
Did the price of beer suddenly shoot up? I bought 6-packs of 3 Floyds Alpha King and Gumball Head, and an 8-pack of Southern Tier 8 Days A Week last night, and the total was just shy of $40. A six-pack of Ithaca Brewing Lakeside Lager was in the $9 range about a month ago, but it's now going for around $14.

Planit said:
Yes, I drink "plant based beer"
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I'll miss those great meat-based beers like New Belgium Charcuterie, and the Lagunitas/In-N-Out Burger Unfiltered Monster Style collab. :r:
 
Dan said:
Did the price of beer suddenly shoot up? I bought 6-packs of 3 Floyds Alpha King and Gumball Head, and an 8-pack of Southern Tier 8 Days A Week last night, and the total was just shy of $40. A six-pack of Ithaca Brewing Lakeside Lager was in the $9 range about a month ago, but it's now going for around $14.


I'll miss those great meat-based beers like New Belgium Charcuterie, and the Lagunitas/In-N-Out Burger Unfiltered Monster Style collab. :r:
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Dude, the price of ALL food and drink went up due in large part to covid. That's what happens when agricultural production (among other sectors) gets disrupted for an entire growing season. Safe bet, though, you won't EVER see those prices go down again. Kinda like how when there was a sudden big spike in oil price after W invaded Iraq and the garbage hauler sent a heartfelt letter to their customers announcing that due to the recent increases in fuel prices, they were increasing the price for their services with a 'fuel surcharge' You'll notice the price of your garbage bill never went down either, even after gas was $1.79 a decade later. :mad:
 
JNA said:
Saw a billboard for Hamm's - is it any good or are they desperate ?
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Comparable to any American light lager macrobrew you care to name. Plus they've got a cool cartoon bear for their mascot and a nifty ad jingle years ago......from the land of sky blue waters (waters) Hamm's the beer refreshing Hamms the beer refreshing... :music:
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JNA said:
Saw a billboard for Hamm's - is it any good or are they desperate ?
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Hamm's is still around? It was in the second lowest tier of beer that you'd buy in high school when the only cash you had was change scavenged from couch cushions and junk drawers. Other beers I "enjoyed" in that category included Piel's, Milwaukee's Best ("The Beast"), Red White and Blue, Goebel, Meister Brau, Black Label, and Koch's Golden Anniversary. In the early 1980s, you could get six-packs of any of those brands for under $3. I remember seeing Koch's for $1.99 / six-pack at beverage stores.

The lowest tier of beer, by the way, was BEER. I don't know if you can get any lower than BEER, except maybe this.

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Dan said:
The lowest tier of beer, by the way, was BEER. I don't know if you can get any lower than BEER, except maybe this.
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In a white can with black lettering.
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One does have to give props to that Japanese brewery for their sheer honesty, though. it's not actually beer, just sort of a beerish taste. You know, reminiscent of beer somewhat.
 
Dan said:
Other beers I "enjoyed" in that category included Piel's, Milwaukee's Best ("The Beast"), Red White and Blue, Goebel, Meister Brau, Black Label, and Koch's Golden Anniversary.
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One Saturday afternoon during my junior year of college, I was chilling out in the common room of a buddy's dorm room (the rooms on this quad were two bedroom suites with a common room and private bathrooms). After a while his roommate came walking in with case of the aforementioned Piel's, and proceeded to disappear into his bedroom. A few minutes later we heard him crack one open...and five seconds later the still mostly full can went flying out his window, followed by him emerging from his bedroom to ask if anyone wanted 23 free beers.
 
Maister said:
In a white can with black lettering.
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One does have to give props to that Japanese brewery for their sheer honesty, though. it's not actually beer, just sort of a beerish taste. You know, reminiscent of beer somewhat.
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One of the worst hangovers. Shorten version of story. A group of us had been drinking Bud and ran out. We pooled our money and sent someone to the store to restock our supply. Dude comes back with 5 cases of BEER. Said it was this or 3 cases of Bud so he thought quantity was better. It was not.
 
Dan said:
Hamm's is still around? It was in the second lowest tier of beer that you'd buy in high school when the only cash you had was change scavenged from couch cushions and junk drawers. Other beers I "enjoyed" in that category included Piel's, Milwaukee's Best ("The Beast"), Red White and Blue, Goebel, Meister Brau, Black Label, and Koch's Golden Anniversary. In the early 1980s, you could get six-packs of any of those brands for under $3. I remember seeing Koch's for $1.99 / six-pack at beverage stores.

The lowest tier of beer, by the way, was BEER. I don't know if you can get any lower than BEER, except maybe this.

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Hamm's is still around. I suffered through one at my uncle's house. My cheap beer of choice in college was Stroh's. We would drive just across the state border into South Carolina to Frugal MacDoogals, where it was $6.99 a case. We could buy up to 9 cases without having to get a permit to transport that much beer.
 
Big Owl said:
Hamm's is still around. I suffered through one at my uncle's house. My cheap beer of choice in college was Stroh's. We would drive just across the state border into South Carolina to Frugal MacDoogals, where it was $6.99 a case. We could buy up to 9 cases without having to get a permit to transport that much beer.
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I know I've posted this before, but unpasteurized versions of the macro-swill everyone loves to hate is actually quite good. I don't know if you can still do it, but go to an AB factory tour and try the free beers at the end. You'll find it bears little resemblance to the pasteurized stuff you buy at the grocery store.
 
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JNA said:
Saw a billboard for Hamm's - is it any good or are they desperate ?
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Well I got a request to pick some up in Wisconsin to take to my brother near Rochester (NY). He must of developed a taste for it in Michigan since I don't think they sell it in New York. Also picked him up some Blatz...
 
jsk1983 said:
Well I got a request to pick some up in Wisconsin to take to my brother near Rochester (NY). He must of developed a taste for it in Michigan since I don't think they sell it in New York. Also picked him up some Blatz...
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Hamm's is in many ways emblematic of what we've seen in broader trends among the brewing industry the past few decades. Here's what wiki has to say about Hamms

In 1965, the company was acquired by Heublein. In 1973, Hamm's was sold to a group of Hamm's distributors which in turn sold it to Olympia Brewing Company in 1975. In 1983, Pabst purchased Olympia—along with Hamm's. It was at this time that the St. Paul flagship brewery was traded to the Stroh Brewing Company; Stroh's continued to operate the brewery until 1997. When it closed, the operation ended a 137-year brewing tradition on the site. Its buildings were shuttered, and subsequently vandalized, demolished, or left to decay. Miller Brewing acquired the brand from Pabst in 1999. Miller was later purchased by South African Breweries and the name was changed to SABMiller. Subsequently, SABMiller formed a joint venture combining their US and Puerto Rican assets with those of Molson Coors to form MillerCoors. In 2016, SABMiller sold its interests in MillerCoors to Molson Coors, who had been its partner in the joint venture, for around US$12 billion. Molson Coors gained full ownership of the Miller brand portfolio outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and retained the rights to all of the brands that were in the MillerCoors portfolio for the U.S. and Puerto Rico.[3] Molson Coors now produces Hamm's beers:[4] Premium, Golden Draft, and Special Light.
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Maister said:
I know I've posted this before, but unpasteurized versions of the macro-swill everyone loves to hate is actually quite good. I don't know if you can still do it, but go to an AB factory tour and try the free beers at the end. You'll find it bears little resemblance to the pasteurized stuff you buy at the grocery store.
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In the last 10-15 years, I have shied away from American lagers in general because I felt that they lacked the flavor that I could get from other beers. I was always told that the Budweiser in the 50's and 60's was way different than the Budweiser of today. A year or so ago, Budweiser released it's "Discovery Reserve" which was allegedly their recipe that was used in regular Budweiser at the time of the Apollo missions. I tried it out of curiosity and it was decent. You could tasted the toasted barley. It was similar to some of the Oktoberfest beers that I have had in the past. I discovered that I shouldn't write off all lagers; just the lagers brewed with "dirty" adjuncts, such as corn and rice.
 
Dan said:
Hamm's is still around? It was in the second lowest tier of beer that you'd buy in high school when the only cash you had was change scavenged from couch cushions and junk drawers. Other beers I "enjoyed" in that category included Piel's, Milwaukee's Best ("The Beast"), Red White and Blue, Goebel, Meister Brau, Black Label...
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When I was in grad school the bar across the street from the building that had most of my classes had $1 Black Labels most days but $0.50 Black Labels between 4:00 and 5:00 a couple days a week. Perfect for somebody like me who worked in the area and would get off around 3:30 and classes started at 5:30! My buddy and I would get some great food and sh!tty beer and go to class quite happy.

Maister said:
I know I've posted this before, but unpasteurized versions of the macro-swill everyone loves to hate is actually quite good. I don't know if you can still do it, but go to an AB factory tour and try the free beers at the end. You'll find it bears little resemblance to the pasteurized stuff you buy at the grocery store.
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I remember going on the factour tour at Busch Gardens in VA back in '03 or '04 and getting a samples of a couple different varieties of Michelob and Busch and thinking, "Wow! These are a lot better than I remember them being!" and happily buying a 6-pack of Mich Ultra the next weekend. Absolutely awful.

I'd probably be perfectly happy drinking only Mich Ultra for the rest of my life if it came directly from the tanks at the factory before it was pasteurized.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I remember going on the factour tour at Busch Gardens in VA back in '03 or '04 and getting a samples of a couple different varieties of Michelob and Busch and thinking, "Wow! These are a lot better than I remember them being!" and happily buying a 6-pack of Mich Ultra the next weekend. Absolutely awful.

I'd probably be perfectly happy drinking only Mich Ultra for the rest of my life if it came directly from the tanks at the factory before it was pasteurized.
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All joking aside, regular plain ol' Michelob (before they had Ultra) unpasteurized stands out in my mind as one of the best lagers I've ever had. I'd put it in the same league as Pilsner Urquell or Grolsch (from a non-green bottle).
 
Would you drink this? What do you think about "cute" beers in general? I've had some good ones, but when the fruit flavors overpower traditional beer flavors, it's a turnoff for me.

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A few of Buffalo's smaller breweries started to distribute outside the area in 2019. That's when I started seeing beers by Thin Man and Pressure Drop for sale outside of 716. Many of the Buffalo-area breweries that had a "by us, for us" hyperlocal model before the pandemic are now available in Ithaca -- Big Ditch, Resurgence, 42 North, and the biggest surprise to me, Community Beer Works. I'm surprised at how many beers from Hamburg Brewing are on the shelves here, too.

What I haven't seen here is anything from Flying Bison. Ten years ago, they were the big craft brewing kid on the block. Also, nothing from 12 Gates. There's about 15 or so smaller breweries whose products I don't expect to see here.

Maister said:
I know I've posted this before, but unpasteurized versions of the macro-swill everyone loves to hate is actually quite good. I don't know if you can still do it, but go to an AB factory tour and try the free beers at the end. You'll find it bears little resemblance to the pasteurized stuff you buy at the grocery store.
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About 20 years ago, I took a VIP tour of the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado. The VIP tour takes you to all the behind-the-scenes ADA-inaccessible parts of the brewery complex that most people won't see. One of the stops was in a room behind a kind of door that you would see on a Navy vessel. In the basement-like room was a long series of parallel copper pipes. This was the cold filtering room, where as you expect, the "cold filtering" takes place. At the end of one long back-and-forth stretch of pipes was a tiny spigot. The tour guide turns the spigot's handle, and some kind of beer drips out at a Keurig-like pace. She pours several glasses, and passes them around. The beer tasted wonderful; probably one of the most flavorful but drinkable beers I've had, reminding me of a good German reinheitsgebot lager but somehow fresher. I asked her what kind of beer it was. Her response? Coors Light.
 
Purple Pineapple Eaters would probably fall under the category of 'malt beverage' imho. Not unlike Zima.
 
I consider flavored beers to be not beer. It's a raspberry drink of some kind and that's okay, but it's not beer. Beer is only water, yeast, grains, and hops and I barely consider rice a grain.
 
Mrs. P & I went to Wise Man Brewery Taproom in Winston Salem this weekend. I had an excellent IPA called Mountain Calling, very refreshing. Mrs. P first had a frozen rose with watermelon & lemonade slushie. She said the only good thing about it was that is was cold.
 
Planit said:
Champion (Charlottesville, Va) has produced some good brews, but this is a hard NOPE.

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I like vienna style lagers and I like duke's mayo but the mere thought of this concoction turns my stomach.

I had Bell's Expedition Stout last night. It was tasty and worthy of all the good reviews. I followed it with a blonde ale and a hazy, which begs the question, when drinking multiple styles what order do you go? Personally, I just order whatever strikes my fancy; but I know some people go by IBU or color.
 
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