What BEER are you drinking?

[Jim Stewart]

A bit raw today in southwest FL, so I turned to one of my favorites for cool and cold days back in MA . . .

[Chris A]

Thomas Hooker no filter IPA is outstanding.
Give Headway IPA from Counterweight a try. Great east coast style ipa's

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Pizza Port - "Over The Falls" DIPA
Pizza Port - "Pre face" IPA

The Pre face was excellent! Couldn't find any info online about it, though.

[Andrew Kotowski]

Flag, a beer from Senegal. Went well with spicy food, but not sure I'd go seek it out?

[JeromeHan]

A bit raw today in southwest FL, so I turned to one of my favorites for cool and cold days back in MA . . .


breakfast stout.JPG

Always felt that their breakfast stout needs a little bit of age to round off the edges.

[Rick Allen]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

[Jim Stewart]

Congratulations! Quite an honor . . . feel very good about it and enjoy the accomplishment . . . then back to work!

[Scott Tallman]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Awesome. Congrats!

[Andre B]

Got the Oakspire Belgian with Knobb Creek. Yummy.

[Andrew Kotowski]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Congratz!!! Love that you landed just above Lawson’s; no Sip o Sunshine for them!

[BRhoades]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Congrats Rick, from the limited HA beers I've been fortunate enough to drink I can easily see why.

Cheers,

Bud

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Congratulations, Rick! That's awesome!

[BRhoades]

PSA ALERT: Beachwood has re-released this again in cans. I know there are a few here that love this Mosaic Galaxy and Citra 6.8% IPA. This second batch seems hoppier juicier and softer. I know.......YUM

Cheers,

Bud

[Jorge Henriquez]

Congrats Rick!

[Terry H a r r i s]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Really cool - great job, Rick!!

[JeromeHan]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Congratulations!

[Ed Steinway]

For those of you in the East Bay, the Danville Draeger's is now carrying Pliny and the rest of the RRBC beer portfolio. Picked up a Pliny and a Blind Pig last night and had the Pliny while watching the Warriors-Lakers game.

Ed

[Rick Allen]

It will be interesting to see how well Russian River handles the production brewery situation. Once you have multiple shifts brewing the beer, is everyone trained well enough to keep quality high? Very few breweries have handled this very well. Some figured it out without damaging their brand too much, others didn't. In addition, once Pliny becomes readily available, will it still have the cache that it currently enjoys. I have my doubts.

[Vuk K]

Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru - exceeded expectations.

[JeromeHan]

Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru - exceeded expectations.

Had one a month or so ago and it was amazing. It had a few years of age on it and it changed into something closer to a port.

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

2014 Alesmith - "Speedway" Stout
Monkish - R.A.M.S. DIPA
Beachwood - 28 Haze Later NEIPA
2013 Bruery - "Smoking Wood"

[BRhoades]

2014 Alesmith - "Speedway" Stout
Monkish - R.A.M.S. DIPA
Beachwood - 28 Haze Later NEIPA
2013 Bruery - "Smoking Wood"

Brian, I loved this new canning of 28 Haze, IMHO it's more pronounced, the mouth seems fuller and the beer more hoppy/juicier over-all. What do you think of R.A.M.S ?

Cheers man,

Bud

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

I loved the 28 Haze, but I loved it for its white grapefruit presentation, along with a thinner mouthfeel than is typical for a NEIPA; so, it sounds like we may have read it differently. I can't really compare it to the previous times I've had it because it's been too long.

The R.A.M.S.: I liked it. I liked it more than another one we had there on Sat. night. Did not like it as much as Bomb Atomically, but Atomically wasn't on growler fills, so RAMS it was.

For my preferences, the 28 Haze was the hands-down winner, if I had to put them all in the same ring.

[Vuk K]

Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru - exceeded expectations.

Had one a month or so ago and it was amazing. It had a few years of age on it and it changed into something closer to a port.

Sounds wonderful! Belgian monastery brews do change with time.

[BRhoades]

I loved the 28 Haze, but I loved it for its white grapefruit presentation, along with a thinner mouthfeel than is typical for a NEIPA; so, it sounds like we may have read it differently. I can't really compare it to the previous times I've had it because it's been too long.

The R.A.M.S.: I liked it. I liked it more than another one we had there on Sat. night. Did not like it as much as Bomb Atomically, but Atomically wasn't on growler fills, so RAMS it was.

For my preferences, the 28 Haze was the hands-down winner, if I had to put them all in the same ring.

Interesting take's Brian. I got more juicy tropical and citrus notes from 28 B2 as well as a fuller mouth feel, I thought R.A.M.S was disjointed and was in need of a few weeks for that hop bill to co-habitate and mingle together better.

Cheers,

Bud

[ERPark]

Oy!!! A bit fuzzy this morning after a night of more Pliny the Younger than expected. Turns out Russian River’s new Windsor location (huge, nice, but sterile) closes at 10PM. Since my buddies and I were going to drive thru Santa Rosa back to the Bay Area, and one of them hadn’t been to the original SR location, then of course we had to stop in at Santa Rosa.

RRBC added more Citra hops to the blend this year, so it’s toned down somewhat from the turbocharged version that was last year’s edition. I still long for the fragrant and floral PtY, with a beautifully long and delicate finish, from 4+ years ago.

[BRhoades]

Oy!!! A bit fuzzy this morning after a night of more Pliny the Younger than expected. Turns out Russian River’s new Windsor location (huge, nice, but sterile) closes at 10PM. Since my buddies and I were going to drive thru Santa Rosa back to the Bay Area, and one of them hadn’t been to the original SR location, then of course we had to stop in at Santa Rosa.

RRBC added more Citra hops to the blend this year, so it’s toned down somewhat from the turbocharged version that was last year’s edition. I still long for the fragrant and floral PtY, with a beautifully long and delicate finish, from 4+ years ago.


DFB83AF3-9814-4BDC-BB7A-E7A2F7886950.jpeg

The Younger actually has two different versions this year. The Windsor location used open top kettle fermentation with added whole cones while Santa Rosa was brewed basically the same as always with the only difference this year being the small additions of citra in the kettle and dry hop.

Cheers,

Bud

[ERPark]

Agreed. There were some stylistic differences between the two. But when you’re 5 PtYs in, coupled with whether you got pours from a fresh cask or later in one, it’s not as easy to differentiate between the two.

Regardless, neither were anything like the versions RRBC were pushing out years ago.

[BRhoades]

Agreed. There were some stylistic differences between the two. But when you’re 5 PtYs in, coupled with whether you got pours from a fresh cask or later in one, it’s not as easy to differentiate between the two.

Regardless, neither were anything like the versions RRBC were pushing out years ago.

You won when you said 5 PtYs IN ! That's ballin buddy ! But what a lot of people don't know is Vinnie does tweak the Younger every year, the only main stay is that Simcoe and Amarillo are the dominate hop's. Hope your feeling better today !

Cheers,

Bud

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Getting immense enjoyment out of my last 28 Haze Later can right now. Reminds me a lot of BW's "Ask the Dust", which must be about due for another release.

[ERPark]

Agreed. There were some stylistic differences between the two. But when you’re 5 PtYs in, coupled with whether you got pours from a fresh cask or later in one, it’s not as easy to differentiate between the two.

Regardless, neither were anything like the versions RRBC were pushing out years ago.

You won when you said 5 PtYs IN ! That's ballin buddy ! But what a lot of people don't know is Vinnie does tweak the Younger every year, the only main stay is that Simcoe and Amarillo are the dominate hop's. Hope your feeling better today !

Cheers,

Bud

Thought the 3 missing tabs on the Windsor (WN bracelet), and 1 tab gone on the Santa Rosa (SR) bracelet, was a big hint about last night’s silliness.....

Agree that Vinnie & crew tweak the recipe every year. But when they went the route of adding additional hops to the blend a couple years ago, PtY went from the WB equivalent of a grand cru burgundy to something more akin to the latest iterations of Kosta Browne PN. While that characterization is a bit hyperbolic, the change has been dramatic IMO.

[BRhoades]

Agreed. There were some stylistic differences between the two. But when you’re 5 PtYs in, coupled with whether you got pours from a fresh cask or later in one, it’s not as easy to differentiate between the two.

Regardless, neither were anything like the versions RRBC were pushing out years ago.

You won when you said 5 PtYs IN ! That's ballin buddy ! But what a lot of people don't know is Vinnie does tweak the Younger every year, the only main stay is that Simcoe and Amarillo are the dominate hop's. Hope your feeling better today !

Cheers,

Bud

Thought the 3 missing tabs on the Windsor (WN bracelet), and 1 tab gone on the Santa Rosa (SR) bracelet, was a big hint about last night’s silliness.....

Agree that Vinnie & crew tweak the recipe every year. But when they went the route of adding additional hops to the blend a couple years ago, PtY went from the WB equivalent of a grand cru burgundy to something more akin to the latest iterations of Kosta Browne PN. While that characterization is a bit hyperbolic, the change has been dramatic IMO.

Damn, I just coughed up my coffee at the shear mention of Koste Browne.

Cheers,

Bud

[Scott Tallman]

Gueze Tilquin - not on the level of 3F or Cantillon, but a really nice lambic

Floodland Brewing/Kobayashi Wine 2017 Marsanne - my favorite Floodland beer and my favorite domestic beer of 2018. Very fortunate to taste this again as I drank my 2 bottles quickly. Has not dropped off at all. Soooo good.

[ERPark]

Made a quick trip to Rare Barrel after dinner last night, as their blog stated Hill Farmstead was in the lineup of guest beers. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. But plenty of other guest beers were available, as well as the first ever can release by TRB.

[BRhoades]

Made a quick trip to Rare Barrel after dinner last night, as their blog stated Hill Farmstead was in the lineup of guest beers. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. But plenty of other guest beers were available, as well as the first ever can release by TRB.



CA7D2517-06A9-4013-BC2F-1F1919E37157.jpeg



AF90EFD4-9A9D-4853-80B1-10B2F5B0CF61.jpeg

Thats quite a tap list. I love that the list includes Social Kitchen/Brewery Puttin On The Spritz, the OG Brut IPA, no-one has come close to capturing what they created with that beer, I've tried several and they all fell short.

Cheers,

Bud

[Cris Whetstone]

I just found out that we were named in RateBeer's 100 Best Breweries in the World!

Well done Rick! One day I hope to try some of your beer.

[Cris Whetstone]

It will be interesting to see how well Russian River handles the production brewery situation. Once you have multiple shifts brewing the beer, is everyone trained well enough to keep quality high? Very few breweries have handled this very well. Some figured it out without damaging their brand too much, others didn't. In addition, once Pliny becomes readily available, will it still have the cache that it currently enjoys. I have my doubts.

Of course not. There are tons of IPA's that would sell out the moment they hit a local liquor store ~8 years ago that no one even talks about today. Because you can buy them anytime you want. The worst part of that is that these sorts of beers that really should be drank within a month of release are not even getting to a local shelf until they are that old. I can't begrudge a local brewery cashing in but when the primo products so easily get turned into industrial cash cows it's difficult not to be cynical.

Personally, I've never really thought Pliny was somewhere above any of the other west coast IPA's. It's certainly refreshing in certain particular contexts but I never understood why it got the attention it did over beers of the exact same model. I've always attributed it to the built in scarcity. We see that in the wine world a lot. I'll be shocked if the Pliny availability goes up and the desirability of it doesn't go down.

[Andrew Kotowski]

Thoughts across a ton of posts -
* @Rick - I've always enjoyed PtE and thought it was heads and tails above the rest, and that's going back at least a decade, maybe more. When they pulled out of WA (six years ago?), I stopped drinking it. That said, nirvana for me was starting at Bear Republic with Racer 5 and Racer X, driving back to the hotel and napping, and finishing off with a RRB fest... especially given how good their pizza is. I've never been a big fan of PtY, and thought it was about as close to blowing a pine tree as somebody could get (or so I imagined). For triple IPAs, I've enjoyed Boneyard Notorious much, much more.
* @Brian - thoughts on the 2014 Alesmith Speedway? I'm drinking a Perennial Sump bottled in Jan 2016 and I'm not a fan... and this is usually one of my favorite beers. Could be heat damaged (although the rest of the beers stored with it were not), but the coffee has gone incredibly bitter and the beer has a soy sauce taste to it, with a little iron on the back-end. Just noticed that the bottle says "Coffee is delicate. Please store cold and enjoy with 60 days for ideal flavor and aroma."
* Had a 2018 Fremont KDS Spice Wars a couple of days back. Just not a fan of nutmeg and cinnamon in my beer, especially when it has the consistency of gravy.

I might need to lighten up and start drinking pils for a bit :O

[Rick Allen]

Andrew - Well, you can get the good stuff in Washington now...

Bud - Eric from Monkish stopped by the Brewery today and mentioned your name. I gave him a little care package for you...

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

...
* @Brian - thoughts on the 2014 Alesmith Speedway? I'm drinking a Perennial Sump bottled in Jan 2016 and I'm not a fan... and this is usually one of my favorite beers. Could be heat damaged (although the rest of the beers stored with it were not), but the coffee has gone incredibly bitter and the beer has a soy sauce taste to it, with a little iron on the back-end. Just noticed that the bottle says "Coffee is delicate. Please store cold and enjoy with 60 days for ideal flavor and aroma."
...

Ha! I just commented in the Old Beer thread.

The 2014 was good. Probably a year or two off-peak for my preferences, but nonetheless damn tasty. Alesmith's Speedway is certainly in the conversation, if not the winner, for best-aging Stout, for my preferences, I've had. It seems to handle age, and resist going too sweet and/or iron-y, better than (most of) the rest.

The 2013 Bruery Smokingwood, on the other hand, although drinkable, was also somewhat off-putting (a touch sour; way too alcoholic).

[BRhoades]

Andrew - Well, you can get the good stuff in Washington now...

Bud - Eric from Monkish stopped by the Brewery today and mentioned your name. I gave him a little care package for you...

That's awfully generous of you Rick, glad Eric dropped by, he's one of the good guys. Told him we hang out a lot together virtually

Cheers,

Bud

[BRhoades]

RiiP Brewing and HumbleSea Brewing, Lords Of Fogtown IPA. 6.8% ABV. Hopped with Cashmere, Citra, Idaho Gem and Strata hops. I have always respected Ian McCall as one of the better west coast brew masters, his work under Julian Shrago at Beachwood often went unnoticed. He got a chance to take over the helm at Huntington Beach cult fave RiiP Brewing over a year ago and righted the ship churning out classic west coast IPAs, red and brown ales, wonderful stouts and then finally he dove into the deep end of the NEIPA pool. Admittedly his first attempts were decent but lacked the over-all flavor complexities and the tell tale creamy soft body often associated with the best example's of the style. With Lords Of Fogtown RiiP and Ian have put themselves in the mix with this amazingly aromatic complexly flavored beer. The beer opens with overwhelming sweet dank tropical fruit aromatic's,it's just an incredibly delicious smelling beer. On the palate there's lot's of passion fruit,there's sweet tangerine and a massive wallop of ripe sweet guava. The mouth is pillowy soft and creamy but finishes as a traditional west coast IPA would, long crisp and clean. This is on for crowler and growler fills at the brewery only. Side Note : HumbleSea is getting a lot of hype moving into 2019 and deservedly so, combine the two houses and this one will be gone fast, worth the trip down PCH for sure, great view and amazing beers across the board.

Highly Recommended,

Cheers,

Bud

[Dennis Atick]

Does not get much better.

[Andrew Kotowski]

New Holland Dragon’s Milk - meh, little thin. Used to my gravy-consistency, chocolate sundae bombs.

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Had a 2016 Parabola today. Flipping. Fantastic!!

[Scott Tallman]

New Holland Dragon’s Milk - meh, little thin. Used to my gravy-consistency, chocolate sundae bombs.

Love your description!

[Andrew Kotowski]

New Holland Dragon’s Milk - meh, little thin. Used to my gravy-consistency, chocolate sundae bombs.

Love your description!

Don’t hate the player; hate the game

If it’s any consolation, I’m grilling in the rain (on a snow-covered deck) and drinking a 2016 Giraud CdP. There is SOME hope for me

[Scott Tallman]

New Holland Dragon’s Milk - meh, little thin. Used to my gravy-consistency, chocolate sundae bombs.

Love your description!

Don’t hate the player; hate the game

If it’s any consolation, I’m grilling in the rain (on a snow-covered deck) and drinking a 2016 Giraud CdP. There is SOME hope for me

I’ve plowed thru all my BBA stouts, but still have one can of Anchorage Coffeee Darkest Hour from latest batch. Don’t think it’s gravy-like, but may float your boat

[JeromeHan]

Used to my gravy-consistency, chocolate sundae bombs.

Sounds basically like anything Prairie makes.

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Pizza Port - Swami's IPA (this 01/21/19 canning is the best Swami's I've had in recent memory)
Firestone - "Mind Haze" NEIPA (excellent QPR)
Beachwood - 28 Haze Later NEIPA (soooooo good!)
Avery - "Hazyish" IPA (good, but not as good as the Mind Haze, which is cheaper.)