Beer

[Walker11]

I just made a last minute run to the nearest bodega and they were fully stocked with Sip of Sunshine. Amazing how much they have increased their distribution in the past months. Now it's not even the best IPA in stock anywhere.

 

[tdrink]

I had a double Burst from Fox Farms on tap last night. I had Burst in the past. Very fruity up front. Very drinkable. The double is similar but with a higher alcohol content.

Fox Farms is super impressive.

Anyone in this thread who is comparing nano breweries in other parts of the country solely against Treehouse and Trillium is overlooking that we have nano breweries here too.

 

[Caronimo]

It's probably been mentioned somewhere in this 107 page thread, but has anyone been to Fat Orange Cat in East Hampton? A friend of mine had a couple of their beers and said they were very good. Looks like it's a very small farm brewery with limited hours. Web site says they're not even open during the winter. What's it like at the brewery? Can you taste there? Just buy? A relative lives very close to there so I wanted to stop by after April 1 when they re-open.

Never been but I’ve had severe tire damage. Very good ipa

 

[Caronimo]

I just made a last minute run to the nearest bodega and they were fully stocked with Sip of Sunshine. Amazing how much they have increased their distribution in the past months. Now it's not even the best IPA in stock anywhere.

Max bev has 4 packs of it for 11.99 now. It’s very much mass produced and distributed now. I still like it but everyone is into the unfiltered, hazy stuff now. Still nothing better than a fresh captains daughter

 

[Chin Diesel]

OK. I'm assuming these are consumed in a social setting amongst friends and not just knocked down by a solo drinker? I'd have no use for it as I don't consume more than 24oz n a given night and usually only 12oz. I'll usually drink a 32oz growler over 3 days.

I just read a couple articles about it. Is it really all that hard for people to sanitize a growler bottle? Seems like more trash for the recycling stream. But that's just me. I'm old and well beyond hipster age.

It's not bigger than a Big Gulp and hardly anyone share those. Just get a decent sized brown bag and have at it.

 

[August_West]

So I went on another treehouse binge tonight.

Anyone have hurricane yet?
DIPA. It's a good beer but I wasn't overwhelmed by treehouse standards.
I actually have a theory about them and all the new releases. Hang on ...

 

[Chin Diesel]

Not sure how long it's been available up north North but stores down south are stocking Sam Adams' '76. Part lager, part ale. Comes in cans. Perfect for beaches, boats and golf.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yes the intent is really to serve as a shareable quantity of beer that would have a longer shelf life than a traditional growler fill. But once it's open, you've gotta drink it all as it's not resealable like a growler.

Agree that its not as enviro-friendly as growlers.

Growlers are super-easy to keep clean as long as you're not lazy about rinsing them out as soon as they're empty.

If you do happen to forget and they get funky, throw a tablespoon or so of Oxy-Clean into it, fill it up with hot water, and let it sit for a day or so. Rinse well and it'll be good as new.

I like the Crowlers. I think they are more environmentally friendly, since aluminum recycling is so efficient. I hate growlers because the big ones are too big, and in Massachusetts you have to have separate ones for each brewery. Carting those back and forth is ridiculous. The Crowlers help speed things too, as they can be pre-filled during slow times.

 

[WhaleEER]

Kaman's across the street from Whole Foods in Glastonbury has Fat Orange Cat cans available in their beer cave. Plenty of other good stuff as well.

 

[8893]

Was in in the Stowe/Waterbury/Waitsfield VT beer corridor for a tremendous weekend of skiing. As usual, the NEIPA scene continues to boom there with perhaps a half dozen or so new (to me) breweries, in addition to ol' reliables like Hill Farmstead, Lawson's and Alchemist. Most impressive and refreshing to me, however, were the number of Pilsners and other lagers now on offer all around the area.

Von Trapp's new brewery (right around the corner from the Alchemist, which makes for a convenient two-fer) is gorgeous and their beers--all traditional lagers--are excellent. Their Pilsner was my favorite, followed by their Weissbier and Helles. Food was very good, too.

Hill Farmstead had a bunch of non-IPAs, most notable being "Mary," their excellent Pilsner. Their Biere de Mars was also outstanding. I also loved their "Shirley Mae," a porter on nitro.

Blackback Pub in Waterbury also had Rothaus Pils from Germany on tap and it was fantastic.

Queen City Brewery from Burlington was a new one to me, and their Hefewiezen was also terrific.

As for new APAs/IPAs, Upper Pass's First Drop was very popular and tasted like the most grapefruity beer I've had in a while; and River Roost out of White River Junction was another popular new one with a lot of offerings throughout the area. Foley Brothers Grumpy Wench was probably the best one I tasted on this trip, but I didn't drink a ton of them and mostly sampled.

 

[outlaw]

If you have not tried Boondoggle Brewing (Wethersfield, CT) yet - GET IN THERE

- Boondoggle Beers

 

[August_West]

2 excellent Beers............. The Trail Magic is very interesting because it is a foray into Pilsner. I didnt get a full on take of it because I tried it AFTER the In perp and Hurricane (Mistake!) but it is a nice coiffable Pilsner that I could see going down easy in summer months out of a cooler.

So my Treehouse theory.... So many new labels after the move!!! And they are all good. But there isnt a huge variation in them. I think they Brew for their flagships while tweaking out the new setup and if something becomes a little different than the original beer they are intending to brew, that they just make up a new name and label and the custies go nuts buying up!
Brilliant.

 

[8893]

NEIPAs out; Pilsners in.

This will be the ultimate irony for my Sam-Adams-Aping-Your-Style-Means-Death-Knell theory. After heralding the jumping of the shark for West Coast and New England IPAs, Sam Adams appears to have forced the making of lagers that are far superior to the example that first put Sam Adams on the map.

 

[UConnDad]

Had some Dogfish 120 min. yesterday. Really good and packed a punch!

 

[Dave]

2 excellent Beers... The Trail Magic is very interesting because it is a foray into Pilsner. I didnt get a full on take of it because I tried it AFTER the In perp and Hurricane (Mistake!) but it is a nice coiffable Pilsner that I could see going down easy in summer months out of a cooler.

So my Treehouse theory.... So many new labels after the move!!! And they are all good. But there isnt a huge variation in them. I think they Brew for their flagships while tweaking out the new setup and if something becomes a little different than the original beer they are intending to brew, that they just make up a new name and label and the custies go nuts buying up!
Brilliant.

i figured that's why there have 44 or so 'Curiosity'

 

[storrsroars]

Was in in the Stowe/Waterbury/Waitsfield VT beer corridor for a tremendous weekend of skiing. As usual, the NEIPA scene continues to boom there with perhaps a half dozen or so new (to me) breweries, in addition to ol' reliables like Hill Farmstead, Lawson's and Alchemist. Most impressive and refreshing to me, however, were the number of Pilsners and other lagers now on offer all around the area.

Von Trapp's new brewery (right around the corner from the Alchemist, which makes for a convenient two-fer) is gorgeous and their beers--all traditional lagers--are excellent. Their Pilsner was my favorite, followed by their Weissbier and Helles. Food was very good, too.

Hill Farmstead had a bunch of non-IPAs, most notable being "Mary," their excellent Pilsner. Their Biere de Mars was also outstanding. I also loved their "Shirley Mae," a porter on nitro.

Blackback Pub in Waterbury also had Rothaus Pils from Germany on tap and it was fantastic.

Queen City Brewery from Burlington was a new one to me, and their Hefewiezen was also terrific.

As for new APAs/IPAs, Upper Pass's First Drop was very popular and tasted like the most grapefruity beer I've had in a while; and River Roost out of White River Junction was another popular new one with a lot of offerings throughout the area. Foley Brothers Grumpy Wench was probably the best one I tasted on this trip, but I didn't drink a ton of them and mostly sampled.

Did you even ski?

I used to be able to pound beers, but damn, dude.

 

[storrsroars]

NEIPAs out; Pilsners in.

This will be the ultimate irony for my Sam-Adams-Aping-Your-Style-Means-Death-Knell theory. After heralding the jumping of the shark for West Coast and New England IPAs, Sam Adams appears to have forced the making of lagers that are far superior to the example that first put Sam Adams on the map.

Problem I have with a lot of the pilseners/lagers made by micros is that they're simply not good enough to justify the price difference between them and the macros or regionals.

I sing their praises often, but for lagers/pilseners, Great Lakes is still my go-to. Easily accessible here, not sure about CT. But their Dortmunder Gold (Helles) and Elliot Ness (Vienna Amber) are excellent examples of micro lagers and more fairly priced than the Stone/Lagunitas lagers out there, at least in Pgh.

 

[8893]

Did you even ski?

I used to be able to pound beers, but damn, dude.

Friday of this trip is always a beer adventure day. Skied Saturday and Sunday.

But funny you mention that; I commented several times this weekend how much I love ski days because it is such great exercise that it gives me license to eat and drink whatever I want with impunity. But after I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in four days and observed a five-pound gain, I was reminded that I often misjudge just how much license I have to overdo it. And I ate a ton of great meats all weekend as well, which is not usual for me. Oh, and I didn't mention the ciders, either...

Problem I have with a lot of the pilseners/lagers made by micros is that they're simply not good enough to justify the price difference between them and the macros or regionals.

I sing their praises often, but for lagers/pilseners, Great Lakes is still my go-to. Easily accessible here, not sure about CT. But their Dortmunder Gold (Helles) and Elliot Ness (Vienna Amber) are excellent examples of micro lagers and more fairly priced than the Stone/Lagunitas lagers out there, at least in Pgh.

I don't drink enough of any beer any more for it to make a significant difference for me, but I recall liking Penn Pilsner a lot, and they have been doing it for longer than craft beer has been a thing. As a Yinzer I would have expected Penn to be on your go-to list for lagers.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Problem I have with a lot of the pilseners/lagers made by micros is that they're simply not good enough to justify the price difference between them and the macros or regionals.

I sing their praises often, but for lagers/pilseners, Great Lakes is still my go-to. Easily accessible here, not sure about CT. But their Dortmunder Gold (Helles) and Elliot Ness (Vienna Amber) are excellent examples of micro lagers and more fairly priced than the Stone/Lagunitas lagers out there, at least in Pgh.

In my opinion there’s a big difference between a great stout and IPA to justify the cost difference.

But lagers, pilsners, porters, etc show much less of variance in quality.

 

[August_West]

In my opinion there’s a big difference between a great stout and IPA to justify the cost difference.

But lagers, pilsners, porters, etc shoe much less of variance in quality.

Agreed. I liked that Treehouse Pilsner a lot, but not enough to put 8 cans of it at 4 dollars a can in my cooler while Im sitting at the beach watching my daughter surf when I can put a twelve pack in there for 1/2 the price.

 

[Rico444]

In my opinion there’s a big difference between a great stout and IPA to justify the cost difference.

But lagers, pilsners, porters, etc show much less of variance in quality.

I agree. I would also probably say the same thing about session IPAs. Super Session #2 from Lawson's is very good for a session, but it's not worth $15 for a 6 pack when I can get a 15-pack of All Day IPA for almost the same price.

 

[dtrumpet]

Problem I have with a lot of the pilseners/lagers made by micros is that they're simply not good enough to justify the price difference between them and the macros or regionals.

I sing their praises often, but for lagers/pilseners, Great Lakes is still my go-to. Easily accessible here, not sure about CT. But their Dortmunder Gold (Helles) and Elliot Ness (Vienna Amber) are excellent examples of micro lagers and more fairly priced than the Stone/Lagunitas lagers out there, at least in Pgh.

Those Great Lakes offerings are tasty, but sadly not available in CT, I've looked everywhere.

 

[Chuck]

Friday of this trip is always a beer adventure day. Skied Saturday and Sunday.

But funny you mention that; I commented several times this weekend how much I love ski days because it is such great exercise that it gives me license to eat and drink whatever I want with impunity. But after I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in four days and observed a five-pound gain, I was reminded that I often misjudge just how much license I have to overdo it. And I ate a ton of great meats all weekend as well, which is not usual for me. Oh, and I didn't mention the ciders, either...



I don't drink enough of any beer any more for it to make a significant difference for me, but I recall liking Penn Pilsner a lot, and they have been doing it for longer than craft beer has been a thing. As a Yinzer I would have expected Penn to be on your go-to list for lagers.

I was at Stowe this weekend. You missed a great ski day on Friday. Better conditions and the slopes were so empty. I absolutely ate more than my skiing calorie burn, but oh well.

I took a look at this thread because we hit Alchemist as we were driving for dinner. Picked up some Heady, Focal Banger, and a 4 pack of Skadoosh. I mostly pick it up for friends in NJ that are big beer fans. I'm not a big hops fan, but I like the novelty of getting something that we can't get locally. It was cooler a few years ago when I went to a few stores to find Heady for a friend. I failed miserably, but then I struck up a conversation with a package store owner who explained that people drive from hours away and then get pissed at her when she runs out or limits purchases. Then they leave and don't buy anything else. I told my daughter to get some snacks (which we wanted anyway). When we were checking out she slipped a four pack into our bag and asked us not to tell anyone. She would hold back a case for people that were nice. She asked me not to tell anyone because she could lose her distribution. I assume access isn't as big of a deal now, but I still won't say which store she was at!

I also liked the Citizen Ginger cider we had (can't remember the formal name).

 

[8893]

I was at Stowe this weekend. You missed a great ski day on Friday. Better conditions and the slopes were so empty. I absolutely ate more than my skiing calorie burn, but oh well.

I took a look at this thread because we hit Alchemist as we were driving for dinner. Picked up some Heady, Focal Banger, and a 4 pack of Skadoosh. I mostly pick it up for friends in NJ that are big beer fans. I'm not a big hops fan, but I like the novelty of getting something that we can't get locally. It was cooler a few years ago when I went to a few stores to find Heady for a friend. I failed miserably, but then I struck up a conversation with a package store owner who explained that people drive from hours away and then get pissed at her when she runs out or limits purchases. Then they leave and don't buy anything else. I told my daughter to get some snacks (which we wanted anyway). When we were checking out she slipped a four pack into our bag and asked us not to tell anyone. She would hold back a case for people that were nice. She asked me not to tell anyone because she could lose her distribution. I assume access isn't as big of a deal now, but I still won't say which store she was at!

I also liked the Citizen Ginger cider we had (can't remember the formal name).

Skiing Friday is not an option for this trip because we leave that morning and get there around 1:00 p.m. We had pretty good luck with the crowds at Stowe on Saturday because we skied through lunch and didn't break until around 1:40, so we had pretty empty lift lines and slopes from around noon until then; Midway Lodge (where we set up) was empty by then, and when we went back out from 2:30 to 4:30 we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves, with fresh snow falling the entire time. Our last run on Saturday was probably the best run of the day because there were already a few inches of new snow to cover what had been skied off and there was no one else there.

Because the conditions were so good we decided to ski Sunday as well, something we usually don't do. We stay closer to Sugarbush so we skied there on Sunday and conditions were incredible with the new snow overnight; our friends who skied Stowe all three days thought Sunday was the best day there. I only skied 9:00 to 1:00 on Sunday but probably got in even more runs than Saturday because there were no lift lines at all the entire time and I skied straight through lunch again.

The Citizen ginger cider is Dirty Mayor, which is a favorite of mine, although less so than it used to be because they lowered the ABV (used to be 6.9% and now is something like 5.2%) and it has less of a bite as a result. The ginger cider from Nine Pin out of New York is currently my favorite ginger cider.

 

[Jay-Bone]

Because you don't know that you are drinking dreck now.

It's like when I go to Grand rapids all the time which is known as an incredible beer city and it was 10 years ago. Hell even 5 years ago.. now it is like the dark ages.

I'm with Rocktheworld. Alesmith and Firestone Walker are awesome. But I don't drink pine cones and weed. However, Russian River made NE IPA's what they are today way before Hill Farmstead and Heady. Try some Sucaba, Old Numbskull, Speedway Stout, Parabola, Wee Heavy, Stickee Monkey. Breweries that were born before the Treehouse / Trillium fad.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Agreed. I liked that Treehouse Pilsner a lot, but not enough to put 8 cans of it at 4 dollars a can in my cooler while Im sitting at the beach watching my daughter surf when I can put a twelve pack in there for 1/2 the price.

I won’t buy anything but IPA’s and DIPA’s from Treehouse ever again. I tried their stout (That’s What She Said), Lights On, and Old Man. They were ok, but it was nothing you couldn’t pull off the shelf at a package store.

If you like stouts Counterweight makes a great one called Void.

 

[Jay-Bone]

You arent going to try to defend CA Pizza now, are you?

However Pizza Port is the best place that makes pizza and beer. Combine Port with Lost Abbey and you get relics like Angel's Share.

 

[HuskyHawk]

2 excellent Beers... The Trail Magic is very interesting because it is a foray into Pilsner. I didnt get a full on take of it because I tried it AFTER the In perp and Hurricane (Mistake!) but it is a nice coiffable Pilsner that I could see going down easy in summer months out of a cooler.

So my Treehouse theory.... So many new labels after the move!!! And they are all good. But there isnt a huge variation in them. I think they Brew for their flagships while tweaking out the new setup and if something becomes a little different than the original beer they are intending to brew, that they just make up a new name and label and the custies go nuts buying up!
Brilliant.

Honestly, any maturing brewery needs to figure out what they do well and cut back. Experiment, sure, but they should be cranking out way more Julius, Green and Haze. Honestly, I loved "Old Man' and would love to see more of that, but I doubt it's a core beer for them.

Shawn Hill announced a couple years ago he was going to be doing that at Hill Farmstead as well. It makes no sense for a small brewery to have 50+ beers in its lineup. Keep the winners, ditch the losers. Trillium is slowly getting there. DDH Melcher is nearly always brewed now, as if Fort Point and Congress Street. The first two "Street" beers were Congress and Melcher, and those are still the best two.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Holy crap is So Cal boy still gloating about having the best beer?

“West Coast” IPAs were HUGE. Like ten-plus years ago.

“New England style” IPAs have dominated the landscape since then.

If you want to know when each jumped the shark, just look at when Sam Adams felt the need to put out its own “West Coast style,” i.e., “Rebel,” and now its own “New England style,” which means that style is on its way out soon, too.

Try again. I’m not arguing which style is better. I explicitly state that I prefer the East Coast hoppy and especially NE hazy styles.

I’m arguing they do those styles at least as well out here. I think it’s dumb to judge a region based on a single style. Really just about how they make beer, period.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Was in in the Stowe/Waterbury/Waitsfield VT beer corridor for a tremendous weekend of skiing. As usual, the NEIPA scene continues to boom there with perhaps a half dozen or so new (to me) breweries, in addition to ol' reliables like Hill Farmstead, Lawson's and Alchemist. Most impressive and refreshing to me, however, were the number of Pilsners and other lagers now on offer all around the area.

Von Trapp's new brewery (right around the corner from the Alchemist, which makes for a convenient two-fer) is gorgeous and their beers--all traditional lagers--are excellent. Their Pilsner was my favorite, followed by their Weissbier and Helles. Food was very good, too.

Hill Farmstead had a bunch of non-IPAs, most notable being "Mary," their excellent Pilsner. Their Biere de Mars was also outstanding. I also loved their "Shirley Mae," a porter on nitro.

Blackback Pub in Waterbury also had Rothaus Pils from Germany on tap and it was fantastic.

Queen City Brewery from Burlington was a new one to me, and their Hefewiezen was also terrific.

As for new APAs/IPAs, Upper Pass's First Drop was very popular and tasted like the most grapefruity beer I've had in a while; and River Roost out of White River Junction was another popular new one with a lot of offerings throughout the area. Foley Brothers Grumpy Wench was probably the best one I tasted on this trip, but I didn't drink a ton of them and mostly sampled.

Von Trapp does German styles well. I'm not a Pilsner fan, but like their Vienna Lager and some others.

Upper Pass First Drop is good stuff. They also have a very good barrel aged stout.

Foley Brothers is the best producer of IPAs and DIPAs in Vermont. Straight up. Love those guys, and that they are 20 minutes from our house. I've been there a dozen times.

Hill Farmstead Mary is a great Pilsner, even if I don't like them. They do a lot more than IPAs. IPAs aren't really their best beers aside from Abner.

Too bad you missed Foam. Great beers.