Oh come on, you have to do better than that, how was it?? That sounds awesome. I thought their normal BA Vastness of Space was great.

The Bruery was selling a "beadless, crystal snifter from Waterford" this week (it sold out):



Oh and its capacity is 28.5 ounces. WHAT??? Does your beer really need that much room to breathe?

Outside the Lines was absolutely delicious to me. I loved it, but I'm an adjunct whore. It had a perfect viscosity for what I look for in a stout, and I must love cardamom because it was off the chain imo.

Makes sense. Completely agree on the viscosity. Like I said, clearly well made, and probably nailed what they were going for. Just different strokes.

I have a bottle of from dusk trill that maybe I'll pop open tonight.

Crushing some Congress St pre-family dinner I'm kinda dreading. This is still really good. Trillium remains a mystery to me.

Goofy,

It's exactly what you would think. Delicious rich vastness of space stout with an extra layer of sweetness and complexity.

Probably already discussed to death and we'll known, but tonight I had a bottle of Maine Beer Co: Mo. It was really good, I thought.

Refreshing, without anything super aggressive going on. While it has hoppiness, citrus, some tropical notes,and even some pine, it was pretty nicely balanced and had a very quick finish. Very nice in hot weather, very nice with food.

So yeah, if you're looking for a good APA, one that features a lot of the things people like in APAs and IPAs, but that doesn't punch you in the face with a single one of them, strongly recommend Mo.

I love Mo, and most of MBC's lineup but the $7/16.9oz bottle is tough to stomach.

MBC is a non starter for me now due to price. Even Lunch on the shelf I wouldn't buy, not when Trillium cans and great Jacks Abbey cans are $4.50/16 ounce (and that is a super premium price!).

scale is starting to come to some of the more succesfull beer brands which is great for the consumer.

MBC was always expensive but they'll need to grow or die

I mean sure, if you have unlimited access to Trillium or Treehouse or whatever, sure, I can see that line of thinking. Even if it were true that I had access to "the best" of each variant of beer and that option were marginally cheaper than than the second-tenth best beers, I think I'd frequently buy the more expensive & worse beer for variety's sake if nothing else.

I figure that outside of beers that I'm drinking "normally" at ~$10/6 pack I probably drink 1 or 2 fancy beers a week at home, and if I over spend on those vs my theoretically optimal decisions by $2 a beer I'm out $100-$200 a year. IE, an amount of money I can't make myself care about given what I spend on things like alcohol at bars and restaurants outside of my home beer hobby.

All that rationalizing said, I'm more than happy to get caught up on excellent IPAs/etc I can get locally (Chicago) at better prices. I go through a reasonable amount of Daisy Cutter, Zombie Dust, yadda yadda, but I don't go through enough stuff to know what else I'm missing out on honestly.

I hear you - I was more pointing out that when MBC is playing in the same major market as Trillium, their packaging/pricing strategy starts to look pretty uncompetitive. I think a full comparison is still not quite there (Trillium AFAIK isn't selling cans in stores yet, but I'm assuming they will be soon as they were shipping out bottles to stores before their format change)

and yes the pricing in totality is not a huge deal for most folks, it's more of a mental accounting problem.

same, except for on-tap for me. And if I see MO on tap, I'm usually getting it, unless I'm at like armsby or something and hill farmstead is on tap. MO is one of my 3 or 4 favorite APAs. It's just about perfect.

eta: MBC also runs into freshness issues, in part due to the pricing issue. It's not uncommon to see their stuff on shelves for months on end. And it's very rarely refrigerated I find, as well.

Kbz,

Thumbs up. I think we totally agree then.

Any advice on what I should try next from my store of choice appreciated. They are basically uniformly overpriced, but are super convenient to my house and selection is kind of insane for a bodega.

https://www.beermenus.com/places/551...rts-craft-beer

I'm in the same pricing boat with Jolly Pumpkin for the most part in Seattle. A lot of their stuff is good, but it gets sold at a super premium price here. Unfortunately it really isn't worth that super premium. There are a few beers i think are expensive but worth the $$ relative to other beers, and many others that get that pricing premium and just aren't.

I only made it to L in the bottles, and these are almost all overpriced, but if you haven't had any of these they are worth getting:

Bruery Oude tart
Bruery Rueuze
Cascade ang Noir
Any of the Fifty Fifty eclipse (Evan Williams, Old Fitzgerald, High West Rye)

I'd probably also get the central waters, but that is mostly because I can't source them here at all.

My favorite local beer bar (WHYM, for those interested) hosted a Stone Brewing event the other night. Wow. Every single beer was really, really good. These guys know what they're doing. Ruination Nation. I'm on board.

While these are largely specific to my tastes and you'll see a general theme here...

Bruery Share This: Coffee is awesome, think El D posted a positive review ITT as well
Bruery Cuivre is last year's anniversary ale, you could do a mini-vertical next to a bottle of Poterie and see how it's aged. Their anniversary ales are super solid if you're into rich, barrel-aged old ales
Deschutes Super Jubel 2015 is probably pretty good, I think the last one I had may have been 2014 but it was tasty
Deschutes Black Butte Anniversary beers are great and I've generally liked them more than The Abyss
Port Santa's Little Helper barrel-aged imperial stout is pretty overpriced ($18 for 12oz bottle lol), but with the disclaimer that it isn't quite worth that price, it is a very good beer
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy is the GOAT non-barrel-aged imperial stout

I love Bruery Tart of Darkness too.

Ten Fidy is excellent. Evil Twin Imp Biscotti at $16/4pk pint cans is nice value too.

I love all things Pipeworks but I assume as a local you've had it all.

Also, that would be the cheapest bottle shop in my area by 10-15%. I would say 20%+ cheaper than the average bodega

Example

https://www.beermenus.com/places/199...ce-convenience

Going to be in St. Paul for two weeks at the end of September. Recommendations appreciated.

Citanul,

That bottle shop is awesome. Fantastic selection and a lot of it is vvvvvvv reasonably priced. Pretty sure I paid similar pricing on the Bruery stuff and I supposedly get a discount. Also I think that is the pricing I paid for the Upland lambics at the brewery. Either way, the selection is fantastic and pricing is good for most things. Avery pricing is almost completely in line w brewery pricing too.

The St. Paul light rail has a few breweries nearby stops so I would look there first, I haven't been to many of those.

Gotta go to Surly, it's kinda of a Mecca of a tap room, two stories, restaurant, etc so not everyone's cup of tea but at least should stop there and check it out, great beer.

Dangerous Man is in Minneapolis but not terribly far from St. Paul (and Surly). Chocolate milk stout is A+.

Indeed(in the Surly, DM area) and Summit would be the others I would try to get to.

just drank a bunch of beer on a tuesday cuz #yolo

Building 8 Brewing, the IPA: yet another new western mass brewer. Pretty damn solid. Simcoe, Citra, and Mosaic hops. I'm kinda over mosaic. Not a huge fan most of the time. Kinda reminds me a bit of Aeronaut's IPA. Smooth, good dose of bitterness, mosaic-y finish a tad overwhelming as the drink continues. Would kinda love to see this as just a simcoe and citra ipa. Regardless, super solid. Wouldn't go out of my way for but would be pleased to see this in stores or on tap.

Trillium Summer St: simcoe and columbus. Maybe my favorite trill IPA to date? Reminds me a bit of treehouse's sap, which is a chinook bomb but still manages to be tropical, which I guess makes sense. Avoids the overly oniony character I've been getting from some trill jams. Really enjoyed this.

Jack's Abbey and NeBCo collab, Beer Geek Helles, 4.9%: Helles with Nelson and Hallertau Blanc hops. I had this after a spicy meal but I really enjoyed this. Crisp refreshing lager with some white grape characteristics. Bit of banana-y flavor in it which holds it back a touch for me. Glad I have a couple more of these.

Finback Matter & Memory, dry-hopped Saison: My first finback. Wasn't a huge fan. Not sure what was used in the dry hop. Some nice funk to it, but a lot of belgium esthers and banana flavors. Not really too dry which I look for in a saison. Definitely fine, but pretty mediocre.

Finback The Known Universe, Passionfruit Gose: This, on the other hand, was pretty great. Prob not worth the premium over anderson valley's goses, but awesome flavor, nice feel. Maybe a tad undercarbonated.

Cit, local take on that list:
I'm impressed by the Une Année sours and I plan on joining their barrel-aged club (~$10/bottle, seems like a no brainer if it's any good, small gamble I guess). I think the brewer knows what he's doing afaict. They are gonna be located in Niles. Check one of the Le Seul series out and lmk what you think.

Marz Bubbly Creek - Yuzu is refreshing and interesting, I like it but I usually pass bc of the format ($8 or whatever seems like too much for 500ml of berliner weisse imo).

Hailstorm Sour Farmhouse With Apricots - haven't had, but this sounds delicious!

But tbh if I'm you, I'm probably just buying 6 cans of citra hero, or 4 Pipeworks Lizard King (my standby this summer), canned in the last week, preferably... Until I can get over to Binny's.

I got a bottle of that sour apricot from hailstorm as an extra in a trade about a year ago and I thought it was really delicious. I'd definitely give it a shot.

I was in Minneapolis for a couple of days earlier this year. Didn't get to any breweries but enjoyed drinking Surly beer.

Didn't see too many bars, either, but I enjoyed the Devil's Advocate on S 10th (again in Minneapolis). Not sure I'd go far out of my way for it but if you're in the area you might want to grab a beer there.

Went out to Night Shift and snagged a couple of bottles of their apple brandy barrel-aged el lechedor. I was out of town for the initial release a couple of weeks ago and got some on tap at the brewery but there were no bottles left (I was there on Tuesday night after a Sunday release and it was gone), but they held some back for other events. They were doing a charity thing today and had 60 bottles for sale with a 1/person max. Got there in time to snag bottles 57 and 58. Quite stoked. Lechedor is my favorite beer from NSB and when I had it on tap, I thought that the apple brandy aging was a nice upgrade on the base beer.

Picked up a mixed case from Trill the other day, cuz I'm a glutton for punishment. Got 1 4-pack of Summer St, 1 of Pocket Pigeon, 2 of Cutting Tiles (formerly Artaic), and 2 of DDH Fort Point.

Summer I've reviewed already. I really like it.

Pocket Pigeon (apa) - solid. Not as good as skimpy, much better than little rooster which I haven't cared for.

Cutting Tiles - much cleaner than most trill swill. It's all mosaic and brewed with honey. The honey is a nice touch. Cuts the bitterness and smooths the beer out. Very solid. I look forward to other hop varieties of this as mosaic is not my favorite.

DDH Fort Point - best trill ipa I've had to date. This is killer. Maybe something was off with the batch of Fort Point I first tried, because I didn't really care for it, but I liked the Galaxy and Enigma hopped versions I tried later, and I really like this. This is one of the better hoppy beers I've had this summer.