Their Moon Man is pretty good. Most of their beer I've had ranged from OK to really good, with nothing being flawed or poorly executed. Spotted Cow isn't my thing, and I'm surprised it's so popular, but different strokes and all. Their brewery, though... I've never seen a production brewery so spotlessly clean. I was honestly amazed.

Really enjoy their fruit beers. Cherry, Apple Ale and strawberry rhubarb are fantastic

Kind of ducking in here without having read any of the thread

I'm not a big IPA person, but I'm a big fan of everything in the general wheat beer area: hefeweizens and witbeers and etc. Probably the best Hefe I've ever had is Weihenstephaner. Super cloudy and really, really good fragrance coming off the head. Great mix of that malty/earthy/wheatiness with fruit and spice flavor undertones. Seems to be a relatively well known beer, anybody here had it before?

I manage a bottle shop and we sell a ton of weihenstephaner hefe and it does very well on draft next door which is no small feat considering most people want ipa or bourbon barrel chocolate something or other.

Weihenstephaner makes fantastic beer. It's funny, for some reason on ratebeer some of their stuff scores terribly, but on beeradvocate it's all scored mid eighties and up.

So yeah ratebeer is awful. You should also try Andechs hefe if you see it.

Kbz: yeah I thought Blazing world was really good.

Sk: the silva stout bottles look pretty cool though!

Bros,

Got a few beers tonight including Stone Delicious which I'm looking forward to. This is the first time I have seen Stone beers on sale in Australia. Edinburgh Cellars, Adelaide's best liquor store, have become an official retailer. Apparently Stone track throughput of stock etc. If you don't sell it quickly enough, you get cut. Not because Stone have a problem selling beer, but because IPAs have to be drunk within a reasonable time.

But anyway. First cab off the rank: To Øl - Passion Of The Weisst.



As you might expect, a Berliner Weiss brewed with the addition of passionfruit. I like both passionfruit and To Øl, so was keen to try this.

Refreshingly sour, passionfruit flavour apparent but not overwhelming, acid persists on the finish. Not a lot going on otherwise. I wouldn't have known it was a weiss if it wasn't on the label. Kind of tastes like a sour lager with passionfruit. It's only 4.5% ABV and I can imagine drinking it on a hot day, sort of like people smash down Coronas. Pleasant beer, but unremarkable.

Stone Delicious

Yup, this. I mean, a fair bit of citrus, but nothing too outrageous.

Very monolithic sort of bitterness. The contrast for me is with Tuatara's "Double Trouble" that I reviewed ITT a while back. The bitterness in that has flavour. This is a bit one note. All the flavour is in the light citrusy stuff. It reminds me of cheap speakers where the treble sounds fine but the bass has two modes, on or off. No definition to it.

Probably sounds like I hate this, but nope. It's a fine IPA, just nothing special. Pretty questionable for this to get 7th in that tasting, imo. Like El Diablo said, and like my experience is in wine shows, stuff that sticks out gets rated higher.

Third, Epic Lupulingus Imperial IPA



Straight outta NZ.

Didn't rate this. Not a big fan of Epic beers in general. It was alright, but felt like a below average IIPA.

Last up, Prairie Birra



Farmhouse ale. I have really loved their Saison a couple times (review here) and also enjoyed a collaboration saison/ale/ish/thing they did with another brewery.

This was nice, but a bit vanilla. A slightly sour rustic ale, fairly light as these things go. Nice, but not distinctive.

-----

Even though I wasn't huge on it, beer of the night was clearly Stone Delicious. A good IPA, perhaps just built up too much in expectation for me.

Need to brag. My fridge currently contains 4 heady toppers, 4 sip of sunshines, 7 second fiddles, 10 julius, 9 hill farmstead growlers, and two growlers of double shot (Sumatra and 3rd anniversary).

Sharing & shipping to multiple people.

That's a beautiful line up.

I have been equally spoiled. For months I've basically had nothing but Heady, SoS, Hill Farmstead, and many Tree House brews. Other beer has been ruined for me. I went out and had some Enjoy By the other night and felt really let down.

This is a Tree House weekend, as I'll be working through Eureka (citra), Alter Ego (Julius hopped with Amarillo & Mosaic), & the 3rd anniversary Double Shot blend. Woot!

Hey all. I'm off to this place tonight, anybody got any recommendations from the bottle list?

http://www.junkbars.com/bottle-shop/

I like all styles, though it's unlikely i'll be venturing into cider territory

Knee Deep's Simtra is really great, but given your location I' be a little worried about freshness.

All,

I know people are generally down on session IPAs but you might find this interesting anyway. My wife and I went through 3 of the last night (blind for her) and we were in agreement that it went

1) All Day
2) Easy Jack
3) Pinner

With All Day being much the best and the other 2 still very good and close to each other.

FWIW, it says that list's last update was back in January.

Kind of funny to see Jack's Abby being offered in Nottingham, England considering up until a couple months ago you couldn't get it in Rhode Island, and still can't in New Hampshire and Maine.

They're a great brewery, definitely recommend their beers.

Modern Times fans,

Picked a 4-pack of Blazing World up for $10.99. 16oz cans.



This stuff was great. Much hoppier and less malty than I expect from an amber. It's like a hoppier, richer IPA. Really good stuff, highly recommend.

All,

Some random beer stuff...

Anyone had Or Xata from The Bruery? Horchata inspired flavor profile ale, hmmm... "blonde ale brewed with rice, with cinnamon and vanilla beans added"

Took a few bottles to a friend's party:
2014 La Folie - solid, nothing special, maybe a little sweeter than I prefer but v tasty
Mikkeller Beer Geek Vanilla Shake - love this beer, one of my fave stouts. Rich chocolate coffee vanilla deliciousness. 13% but doesn't taste very hot at all.
Lagunitas BA Imperial Stout - didn't drink this, but wrote about it above, love it

Then took these two to a dinner:
Black Butte XXVI - this was great. Rich, delicious stout flavor, with a nice but not overpowering barrel-aged sweetness and intensity.
Abyss 2014 - wasn't very into this. The molasses sweetness was a little on the cloying side, but my main problem was an overpowering amount of licorice flavor I just wasn't into here.

Tried this tonight accompanied by a grilled all-American burger (homemade of course). This brew by Sierra Nevada is billed as a single hop IPA and part of a series that is coming out for 2015. Time limited on production and drinkability according to the propaganda on the label (100-day IPA). I didn’t know if the Idaho Seven referred to on the bottle label was to a former 60’s weatherman group or a current terrorist organization but apparently it is a reference to the specific hop used.

The color is a pleasant light golden brown and the head is light and frothy like the delicate tongue swirl of a high-class Thai hooker. The aroma is pungent and pleasant and the taste is initially crisp and light. This is not an overpowering IPA; I was surprised at the more or less delicate nature of the brew - Many great herbal and citrus hints to the flavor but nothing to bowl you over. Just a great pleasant flavor from the first sip over the tongue to the last flowing flavors absorbed in the throat. I think this would be a superb brew to go with light fair also, like shrimp or clams if that is to your liking. I give this brew a high recommendation and don’t think anyone would be disappointed in its drinkability, especially hop head lovers.

i had this last week and meant to post about it ITT. While it was definitely drinkable and a decent IPA, the hop profile tasted like a Heineken. I haven't had one in ~10 years, but the lingering aftertaste reminded my of that.

I've had Or Xata a few times and really enjoyed it. The description you quoted is actually pretty accurate, except for me it definitely hit a lot harder on the vanilla than the cinnamon. It's not a beer that I could drink more than one of at a time, but you could maybe call it a dessert beer (if there is such a thing).

Funny thing about your Black Butte and Abyss notes - I literally feel the exact same way about them both. We had a couple bottles of each so we ended up pouring equal parts of each into a few glasses and the result was quite tasty (we were also pretty bombed by that point though, so who knows).

Or Xata definitely a bottle you want to share. Grabbed it out of curiosity since I had just had horchata for the first time in Houston, definitely enjoyed it. Pretty much a milder tasting alcoholic horchata. A little steep $$ wise as I got it for $16/bomber though.

yep, I remember writing the same last year. I don't like black licorice, so there you go.

I also don't like Coconut, which is why I ended up pouring out my portion of BCBS Proprieters last year. with these massive beers so much ends up being subjective.

KBZ,

But you still gave it a "very enjoyable" rating! I have one more and want my money back!!! Actually I want to see what it tastes like after a while with the flavors maybe muted a bit. FWIW, both were well before their "best after" dates.

I went to the store for some Cocci Americano, they were out so I didn't want to leave empty handed. Went over to the beer section and found some Alesmith. They didn't have the Wee Heavy (an amazing beer) so I grabbed an Old Ale.

Only the Old Ale was made by someone called Upright from Oregon. Didn't realize that until after I had left. We'll see if it's any good, but damn, I wouldn't have spent $14 on a 750/22 from an unknown, such a gamble!


All Day!!! So good.

whoops

I drank a lot of Evil Twin Citra Sunshine Slacker at the lake the past two days. It's one of the best session IPAs I've had and runs about $9-10 for a four pack of 16 oz cans.