Yup. I've gotta get there soon.

ok, trip report. I've had some free time lately so have gone to places I normally don't get to.

- Last week I went out to Treehouse on Wednesday afternoon, arriving around 2pm. I haven't been there in a while; last time was when they were serving in the small 'upstairs' room. On Wednesdays they serve only cans, and they don't serve anything on site at all, so the experience is very transactional. The brewery is in a nice setting overall, but honestly where the line curves around (about a 30 minute wait) isn't particularly nice imo. get up, get my cans (Julius and Haze) and I'm on my way. The beer is fantastic of course, but just really worth the trip out there when I can buy Trillium so much easier

- this week I did a short Vermont trip. Left Boston around 2pm Wednesday, drove straight to The Alchemist. They only had Focal Banger left, bought 2 4 packs. There was no line, we were able to get a couple tasters of Crusher and Heady. Focal is a 'single' IPA, it's nice, not thrilling, but nice.

From there went to Prohibition Pig in Waterbury for dinner and beers. Here is the beer menu. They also have a brewpub on site



Food is great here. We got Poutine for an app and I got a brisket sandwich for dinner. (they have a smoker on site). For beers I had an Edward, which was pretty nondescript. Sip of Sunshine I was happy to see, love that beer, had one of those. Then moved on to the house Double IPA which was also great.

Then we went to Craft Beer Cellar just around the corner, made a bet with my buddy, agreed that if they had Heady he would buy me a 4 pack. Walk in, some 4 packs left, boom free Heady for me.

Then we went to Blackback Pub.



this is more of a straight pub, nice low key place. then we went back to our place and drank from Focal and Heady.

Thursday we went back to The Alchemist, got there around 11am and they still had full allocations left (up to 8 heady, 8 Crusher, 8 Focal). Waited in line for about 40 minutes and bought the Crusher and Heady. Like Treehouse, very transactional. Only cans, no growlers, at least they let you try some some sample though.

I forgot to take a picture so I took a quick one while we were leaving. Brand new building right in town, this place is killing it.



from there drove to Hill Farmstead, which is about 50 minutes away. nice drive there. some pics





Leaving the beer aside, this is a fantastic place to visit. Gazebo outside, taco truck, indoor seating, outdoor seating, a great system for buying beer. You get your deli ticket for beer (we got there around 1pm, the wait was about 40 minutes). while you wait you can go to the retail store and buy to go bottles (they had 4 for purchase this week), and/or you can just buy drafts. They have a "2 beer limit" but that's not enforced at all, we just chilled outside and had 3 beers each / ate tacos. When it came time to fill growlers we just sauntered up to the bar and got them filled. So, the bar/growler station is one in the same:



and here is where you can drink:







I filled 8 growlers, they had a couple double IPA's, a handful on Single IPA, a pilsener, a golden ale, a nice selection of summer beers. but damn this is an awesome place to hang out. even if the beer wasn't awesome (which it is) it's a sweet trip. They let you sample whatever you want before buying growlers. though, yeah, far, it's in the middle of nowhere even by Vermont standards.

then we had to leave

Awesome report!

A lot of beer snobs seem to prefer focal > heady (I've only had heady so no opinion there), but sounds like you think heady is still better. What about crusher?

Hoping to do a similar trip in the future.

I ****ing love VT.

Zod, if you're ever near Portsmouth, NH holla at me.

Anyone going to the modern times beer fest? Our best brewery, Great Notion, is there.

thanks, yeah it was fun. HF was right up there with Cantillon as a brewery to visit. different beer and vibe obviously, but both are just awesome places to visit. (though Cantillon still takes the cake for me)

re: Focal and Heady, I dunno, they are different, hard for me to rank and I think at that level of quality it's subjective and it depends what you're in the mood for. I also think so many people have spent years drinking Heady and gotten used to it, so anything new has a novelty factor which bumps it up a few notches to people

yep
I'm actually going this week! but quick getaway with the wife, not much free time. we're going to dinner at Row 34, staying on the water somewhere. anywhere notable around there we should check out?

didn't know there was a row 34 in portsmouth. pretty awesome.

hit up deciduous in new market and report back.

No ****?! I live ~ a mile from downtown, holla if you can. What are you looking to do? As far as beer/food.....

Make sure to hit up Earth Eagle. It's right up the street from Row. They specialize in gruits and are not afraid to experiment. They brew all kinds of crazy **** and the lineup changes constantly. Good, original pub grub too.

Thirsty Moose on Congress St (not far from Row) has a serious tap list and solid food. I much prefer it to Portsmouth Brewery, which I find very overrated.

If you venture away from downtown just a bit (~5 miles away), WHYM is the craft beer spot. Always have great beers on tap, solid bottle/can list, and great food. Every employee knows their ****, esp Alex, the owner. Nice lil outdoor area too. I love it there.

Enjoy, Portsmouth rules and lmk if you have any questions.

Didn't make it out of hill with any saisons? Nordic and Vera Mae on last week....both are stellar.

Went to strong beer fest at Aces and Ales in Vegas this weekend, awesome beer menu, got to try the following, some of which I've had before:

Les Trois Mousequetaires - Grand Cuvee (nice surprise)
Firestone Walker Stickee Monkee
Anderson Valley Thribble Currant
Goose Island Gillian
New Belgium La Folie
Alesmith Ethiopain Coffee BBA Speedway (incredible)
Firestone Walker Parabola (one of my favorites)

Wish I would have been able to try more but we got tired of waiting 40 minutes for every beer and water refill with it being so busy.


This was half the menu, the other half was IPA's and stuff but I came for the stouts/sours/strong ales:

Kondo: aunt Sally is $10/6-pack here and I thought it was great for the price. Nothing mind-blowing, but a nice refreshing beer with a little fruity tartness that I enjoyed.

Wj: pretty awesome lineup of stuff you did get to taste, I'm totally with you on not dealing with lines. I skip most Bay Area beer events for that reason.

x2 on the Aunt Sally, I'm a big fan of that one for the price. The beerfest was sit-down but ordering beers and getting refills just took forever because so many people were there. Our waitress kind of sucked too so that didn't help. Still worth it.

Beer peeps,

Did a lot of beer drinking this weekend:



Tried a bunch of stuff at Cellarmaker:
Coffee & cigarettes: one of my faves of their regular beers, big smoky coffee flavor, delicious.

Batch 400: wow, awesome. Favorite of this visit. Rich chocolate and vanilla stout with 1/3 of the volume barrel aged. That added a little bit of that heat and sticky sweetness, but not to the point of it being overly desserty or hot. Loved this one.

New beer smell: refreshing, crisp, hoppy, citrusy pale ale. This was great. Second favorite beer of the visit.

Mt Nelson: straightforward, tasty Ipa.

Apricos: whoa. Very divided opinions here. I loved it, others hated it. Very tart, and very "thick" sorta like drinking beer blended with sour pulpy apricot juice.

Dobis plus: I liked but didn't love this. A little more dank hoppiness compared to the others and a little bit more DIPA maltiness. I liked it but thought the flavors didn't all come together in a super balanced way. Also was kinda buzzed tho.

Als in chains: super boring, wasn't into it. Flavorless compared to much of the other stuff, but maybe would have had better opinion if trying in round one.

Funk juice: whoa. Very divided opinions over whether the main smell of this was urine or manure. VERY strong funk on the nose. Flavor was much less funky and actually not bad at all. Hard to get over the smell, though, and I'm generally a fan of funky/earthy beers and wines. Only two of us in the group could even drink this.

Then checked out rare barrel:


Ensorcelled: one of their first beers, dark sour with raspberries. Just excellent and still my favorite.

Stone Age love: golden with cherries added. Very interesting. Like their golden sours with added fruity flavor. More juice/fruit flavor from the cherry than dark tart notes.

Wise guise: ensorcelled and golden blend. Very good, and a little less intense than the Ensorcelled. Definitely recommend this one too.

Forces unseen: golden blend, v tasty beer, but I like the red sours better

Keen observation: the golden aged in some other barrels, also tasted good, but can't say I noticed much difference from the regular golden

Another world: red sour blend. Very good, but not as good or intense flavor as Ensorcelled.

Rare barrel summary is that everything is very sour and very good, but IMO Ensorcelled is clearly the best.

Then went to drakes dealership and had some other stuff.

rare barrel looks awesome.

Some recents:

Bought a mixed case at Trillium the other day. Mixed results. Congress and DDH Fort Point are still banging. Other 3 beers were:

Pier, American Wheat Ale, 6.7%: super meh imo. Oddly enough, body was quite thin. Def disappointed in this one. Have 2 more cans that I'm gonna let sit for a while, cuz I've noticed a few trill beers are too "green" when released.

Skimpy Sparrow, 5.4% APA: I typically love this beer. First time out of a can. Kinda oniony? Trill still got issues. Gonna let this sit for a 3-4 weeks. I noticed when I bought the case of bottles a couple months ago, they got better after a few weeks.

Scaled Up, DIPA: thought this was great. Very tropical with some good bitterness to back it up. Cracked a can I dropped walking into my apt and salvaged a fairly warm 12oz and that was my first tasting. It was quite good.

Hit up craft beer cellar in framingham today just to check things out. Got a random mix. Had two tonight while working.

14th Star Brewing (VT), Tribute DIPA, 8.1%: Canned 3-4 weeks ago. Pours a beautiful, slightly hazy orange. Not much of a nose, actually kinda smelled belgiumy, with a little banana. A little concerning. Taste is pretty OK. Malt backbone is pretty nice bready/crackery thing going on, medium bitterness, mix of some slight citrus notes and more grassy/floral imo. Pretty detectable alcohol presence. Pretty astringent on some swallows, especially as it warms. This was rated pretty highly on BA (I checked after I finished), but I'd have it like a solid B. Some reviews did indicate that a really fresh batch was killer but next batch they tried was a 3 weeks old and was meh. Maybe this beer just falls apart too quick. Maybe I'll revisit later. Not stoked I bought two cans of this.

BOOM SAUCE, lord hobo brewing (MA), IPA, 7.8%: I've basically avoided this beer and brewery since I first tried this last fall or winter and it was a bad sugary sweet malt bomb with no redeeming hop character. Plus they were cocky and talked a big game to boot. Anyway, had heard rumblings it had improved a lot and couldn't decide on a final beer for my mixed 6, so just gave it a whirl. Didn't even check canning date, which turned out to be a little old (middle of May).

Pours a nearly clear golden color, slight chill haze. Almost totally clear as I near the end of it. Way different than my first go round. Smell was nothing to write home about, but fine. Initial taste was quite pleasant. Not necessarily my favorite taste in these fruity IPAs, but this beer has a big pineapple flavor to it. "Fruity esters" I guess. Pretty good. Malt is barely present, just enough to give it a fairly light body for a nearly 8% beer. I'd argue they overcorrected their malt problem. Now it's pretty lacking. My last few sips now are near room temp and a bit of alcohol coming through, and those fruity esters are losing their appeal a bit.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised and would have this at a solid B/B+. Big improvement over their initial release. Maybe their mission to have nearly top quality new england IPAs ready on any shelf anywhere isn't such a stretch after all.

Yeah I bought those + elaborative 4 but haven't tried any yet. I needed to empty out the growlers first.

adding a 3rd brew to the night cuz #alcoholism but really BRASIL France elimination match in men's volleyball is lit af.

Mayflower Evolupulin, DIPA, 8% (MA): dumb name, awesome beer. Mayflower doesn't have the biggest rep but I mostly like them. I especially like their porter and I quite enjoyed a wild ale from them, and their thanksgiving beer. Their golden is solid but it's just a golden, and their IPA is not great. Anyway. Super pleasant surprise. I guess they rotate hops on this and always use a pilsner malt backbone. I looked it after I got mostly through it. This batch has an experimental hop, citra, and el dorado. Quite hazy golden yellow/orange look. Smell is citrusy but not overpowering. Taste is real nice. Fruity, bit towards the rich melony side, some citrus, the pilsner malt is awesome. Only as it warms near room temp (I got like 3 sips left) does some alcohol show up. Guessing a 6 pack of 12oz cans runs you around $12-13, so I will definitely buy this again and again.

The fact this is this good in this style, despite Mayflower being kind of an "old fashioned" brewery, shows they prob know what they're doing.

a local shop had 25% off on draft beers so i took a shot.
half of them i never tried before.

Whiskey,

I think they tricked you.

why?
I paid €2,37 on average,u think that was too expansive?

They put your draft beers in bottles for some reason.

oops should be craft beer

Got my hands on some of the best regarded veil brews, and wow are they disappointing.

I had crucial taunt, idonteverwanttobu, and step dad chaperone, and all 3 are unbalanced sweet malt bombs, despite all being 2-3 weeks old.

No idea why these are regarded as highly as other good NE breweries.

We had some trillium vicinity alongside and that was far far better than all 3.

I've had some interesting things lately, I'll have to copy some from untapped.

Heading to de garde tomorrow and hopefully getting a max bottle allotment of their special release stuff, The Purple, Dame Rogue, and Special Violet.

If any of you NE hops guys are interested in those or great notion stuff, feel free to PM me.

Thought the people ITT might appreciate this, sharing from Facebook:

looks like pretty grate trolling by sea.n wh.all.ey.

Made my first tree house run in ages tonight. Pretty good haul. Actually wasn't too crazy despite Very Hazy being released, prob due to low allotment (3). ~30 min wait in line. I even filled 3 growlers which is usually a ****show, but so many people skip growler fills these days that it wasn't really a problem. The staff told me it'd likely be ready around the time I got cans. Handed in my card when I was halfway through the line. When I got in the door they called me to hand in my growlers. 5 mins after I got my cans the growlers were ready. Awesome.

Pounding Eureka w/citra. Blond 4.1% while watching volleyball. When they get the new brewery and bigger output, this is probably the beer I'd buy the most of. Just so crushable and flavorful at such a low abv. I mostly like that it isn't a session IPA. The hops aren't the whole deal. They just accent a nice blond ale.

La Chouffe is the **** Whisky. Let us know how you like all those beers.