Well, will be drinking in an hour or so …
The venerable Horse Brass Pub in Portland has a tap that usually alternates between Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig. When they get a keg of Pliny the Younger, they just put it in the rotation. No warning and no tickets. This gives the regulars a better chance at the beer and keeps down the craziness.
This place has PtE and blind pig most of the time (every time I’ve been there) and while this was more of an “event” it was pretty mellow but a fair amount of time spent standing in various lines
As it should be, and as it used to be not really that long ago.
Cheers,
Bud
Check out Eulogy in Philadelphia tonight. St Bernardus 12 and La Trappe Quad on draft. 
It’s settled down somewhat.
I lived at 32nd and Flanders for a year. Spent quite a bit of time there 
I figured as such. One of my cans of Overrated was punctured in suitcase on my way back to CA … 
Tried three new-to-me IPAs during my stay in MN:
Insight - “Trollway” ---- was very good … excellent, actually; brought a couple cans back with me.
Tin Whiskers - “Flip-Switch” ---- good, but wouldn’t buy again.
Mankato Brewing - “Haymaker” ---- very good.
Went to Monk’s Cafe last night…
Had 2 excellent bottled Belgians from De Dolle.
Stille Nacht (really good) and Oerbier (even better).
Will be looking for these in Portland.
-S
God bless Vermont!
Weds was Cuvee Van de Keizer day!!! We had a nice lineup of Het Anker biers.
Cuvee van de Keizer 2016
Gouden Carolus Easter
Gouden Carolus Classic
Gouden Carolus Triple
Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor
Lucifer
for good measure added De Dolle boskeun
What a tasting.
The Abbey in PDX
What? In the same night? YES!!!
Third time is a charm? Has been a crappy day, but man, beer is making it better.
Thoughts, after spending some time with each of these.
Heady Topper - Great beer. Strikes me a lot like Pliny - I would drink this until my face turns purple and still be happy. That said, holy hype machine. I expected Jesus to whiz IPA in a can and this, while great, didn’t blow my mind.
Sip of Sunshine. Nothing short of mind blowing. In all sincerity, the greatest beer I have ever had. Citrus, melon, just spectacular. It’s like somebody put all that is Kanye into a can and then added sunshine.
Lawson’s Super Session 2. I’m generally not a session ale fan. It’s more than wanting to get jacked when I drink; I want that malt backbone in my session IPA or ale. This has enough juice to hold its own. That said, I’d generally prefer a top tier IPA over a session. This is as close of a substitute as I could find at 4.8% beer.
MAYBE…….the best hoppy beer I have ever had was a two day old bottle of Double Sunshine. I agree completely with your Heady observation, these days I would happily take anything from Tree House and Trillium over Heady.
Cheers,
Bud
After putting my wine and beer consumption on the back burner while fighting a series of dry heat,read, Santa Ana Wind related allergies and head colds I get to pop a bottle of one of my favorite DIPAs. Super fresh, I picked up bottles at Noble Friday, this batch is just spot on. Big dank resinous nose. The flavors show over ripe tropical fruits, pineapple, mango and very ripe papaya. There is the onion garlic notes from the Simcoe but they appear mid pallet to really just accentuate the hop bill and balance the hop attack. There is no real malt to speak of, just pure fresh squeezed hop juice that coats the tongue and leaves a wonderful dry citrus bite. West Coast hoppiness at its best.
Highly Recommended,
Cheers,
Bud
Good notes. I actually think Heady has batch variation. At times I’ve had it and it’s been truly great. Other times I totally agree with your TN above.
Agree Sip is a special beer, I’d love to find Double Sip. Some of the Hill Farmsteads are in it’s league but they’re very hard to find outside of bars in VT (or at the brewery, which I haven’t visited yet).
Some from my recent Oregon trip
Buoy Pilsner - had read many superlatives for this new brewery, but found this to be a middling Pilsner
Commons Cerise Noir - Dark farmhouse ale w/ sweet & tart cherries; loved the way they use fruit for accent notes, not to dominate; plus their base dark farmhouse is so good (see also Boysen)
Commons No Filter - 100% Brett beer with apricots & peppers; unique and easy to drink with just a hint of heat from the peppers
Commons Pils - way better than the Buoy, but still two steps below the next beer
Heater Allen Pils - still the gold standard for me
Heater Allen/DeGarde Eichenbock - barrel aged Doppelbock; once it warmed up and had time to open up, really outstanding
Heater Allen Schwarz - great smokiness and espresso notes; could drink this all winter and fall!
Heater Allen Abzug - a true session beer whose maltiness belies its low Abv; great spring beer
Heater Allen Sterk en Donker - Rick’s take on a Belgian dark ale and a damn good one
Heater Allen 2015 Sandy Paws - while the '14 will always be my favorite beer for sentimental reasons, I may like the '15 beer even more
Also visited Cascade during Fruit Fest. Was hoping to drink some Kriek, but none on tap. Did not care for many of the one off fruit sours I tried, but did enjoy the Apricot, Strawberry, Noyaux and Sang Royal.
Modern Times Hooloomooloo DIPA 10 ABV, numerous hops not listed but I do know they are using more experimental hops as they did with Floating World.
Its only two months into the new year and I am now officially on record saying that two of the best beers I have had so far in this young year are from Modern Times. Those who know me and my usual MEH attitude for most of their beers are probably wondering if I have taken up drugs, nope, these latest beers are just down right fantastic creative well made brews. Modern Times seems to be focusing on the current obsession with juicy, tropical, less bitter hoppy ales that are the darling of the craft beer scene, think mid atlantic, Trillium, Tree House etc. Hooloomooloo is quite representative of that style, it begins with a beautiful juicy dank tropical fruit salad nose. A pop of semi bitter hops on the front of the tongue gets washed away in a flood of over ripe juicy tropical fruit, loads of papaya and guava followed by sweet pineapple, peach and ripe mandarine orange before pivoting to a finish that tastes like pine needle injected citrus. For a DIPA at 10% this finishes bone dry, notes of citrus hang on at the refreshing dry finish.
Highly recommended,
Cheers,
Bud
Modern Times Booming Rollers IPA 6.8 % ABV, Citra, Mutueka and Centennial hopped.
Just released fresh cans, less than 10 days old, great job getting this out to stores so quickly. This was the first IPA from Modern Times that really caught my attention and I drank a couple four packs when it made its debut last year. Seeing that I really enjoyed both Floating World and Hooloomooloo so much I was looking forward to this one again. Its a great looking and smelling beer. The Citra and Mutueka really are fragrant. The flavor profile benefits from the orange and other citrus fruits from the Citra and the wonderful sweet tropical notes from the Mutueka, Centennial adds more citrus as well as earthy stone fruit notes. It all adds up to one really balanced delicious easy to drink beer.
Highly recommended,
Cheers,
Bud