I'm taking In Perp and Haze over anything on at Trillium right now other than DDH Congress, which might be my favorite IPA, though I haven't had DDH Summer in a while. Mostly because I think they taste better, partly because they won't look like snowglobes in a couple weeks.

Trillium also just announced they are opening up a summertime beer garden in Boston (on the greenway). open weekdays, serving pints. that place is going to kill it.

they also have a real brewpub opening up in Fort Point. also going to kill it.

yeah Trill is absolutely killing it.

i haven't had trill in a while, thought about going for DDH Congress but passed, and thinking about picking up some raspberry soak tomorrow but will probably also pass.

I like Summer more than DDH Summer. Simcoe is awesome but can be a bit much with the DDH treatment.

I'm taking pretty much any of the main Tree House IPAs over any of the Trill IPAs. Bright is the exception. Just not a mosaic fan and that beer is fairly boring overall. Like if galaxy bombs are your thing, Green > Congress or any other galaxy concoction from Trill. Hill Farmstead's Double Galaxy prob the best galaxy bomb, though. It's close with green. would love to side-by-side that. Only real challenger from Trill is DDH Fort Point, imo.


New Tree House joint should be opening within a few months I assume. Hope they brew TORNADO with a little more regularity at the new place.

Made a mistake tonight and picked up a couple cans of Two Roads Two Juicy, their new england DIPA. I heard good things. It's OK. Gotta say, other than a few of the really good ones, the NE IPAs, especially the DIPAs, kinda don't do it for me. The ones that miss all miss the same. Bit too boozy, generic fake candied taste, not really quaffable. I'd rather have an old-school Ruination or something. Think I'm gonna pour it, not cuz it's bad, but more like, why bother.

Avery Vanilla Stout



confirmed terrible.

I'd take in Perp and most TH beers over anything Trill except DDH Summer or DDH Congress, which I'd take over Green and Bright.

HF Double Galaxy is the real though. Their SaS9 was very Treehouse-like in taste, but Double Galaxy is their most uniquely awesome HF IPA. I don't think another galaxy IPA comes near it.

My favorite great notion, space invaders, is 100% Galaxy and amazing. Haven't had any HF yet unfortunately.

Whole Foods shoppers,

Not sure how widespread this promotion is, but:



Good excuse to order unnecessary amounts of beer in advance.

IMO on the Trillium vs. Treehouse game... I've only had a few of each and the Trillium were like 1.5 months old, which is not ideal. But I thought Haze was hands down better than the Trillium ones which included non-DDH Congress and DDH Summer. I thought Julius was very good, but a bit over the top in the orange flavor. I don't know if it's familiarity, regional bias, or freshness but I think Toppling Goliath's best IPAs are on the level of these guys. I had a Carton 07x Mosaic IPA I thought was on this level as well.

I agree with goofy on Parabola. I liked it, but I was pretty let down. Granted, it was just one bottle I've had but it was at a bottle share I hosted and was being poured side by side with Central Waters Black Gold, and IMO Black Gold absolutely blew it out of the water. I think I agree with the review that paste had, which was pretty heavy dark fruit flavor. I'd like to try it again and see if I feel the same way, I was starting to get a bit buzzed when I had it. Tragically FW doesn't distribute here in Wisconsin, so it requires trading which I only do a bit of.

Abyss and Black Butte anniversary beers have come up a bit. Those are tricky for me, especially Abyss. I think they're generally good, but the red wine barrel aging I think is fairly polarizing. I don't love wine, so those beers are ones I have to be in the right mood for. Also, they change the barrel aging and ingredients in those beers a lot. I remember liking XXVII a lot, but I thought XXVIII was too peaty (because it had Scotch barrel aging, which I don't care for). I think I have another bottle, so I'll give it a go in the next year or so.

on the Trillium vs Treehouse debate, I go with "it doesn't matter" since I can buy one of them but not the other. availability needs to matter

Stout fans,


Quick jolly Rodger review: very tasty, super smooth, not hot at all, HUGE coffee flavor, but not nearly as complex/rich/intense flavor as most top BA stuff. This was v good and a nice easy drinking flavor profile with great coffee flavor, but I don't think it really holds its own vs the other top 25 stuff on that ranking.

Had my first Jai Alai tonight and was thoroughly impressed - very citrus/tropical-infused aroma and also got hints of pine. Psyched it's now in the rotation by me.

Also tried the Ballast Point Red Velvet Nitro - what a mess. Classified as an oatmeal stout, it was instead a slightly sweet medium bodied beer without any complexity. Stay away.

A couple things.

That review of Speedway stout is objectively wrong. Speedway may be my all time pick one favorite beer last meal beer. The variants of it are kinda indistinguishable but awesome. The BA versions are orgasmic. So excited they are in cans now.

Recently had more Jack's Abbey for those CT and MA peoples. I am not normally a fan of the IPL but their Excess and Mass Rising kill it. I always thought of an IPL as a gimmick beer and a terrible beer. These guys crush that perception. Also, not sure if I posted this before but their Cranberry Berliner that my local shop sells for $4 a bottle is perfect for the price.

Now on to the main event of the evening. A 2016 Allagash Pick Your Own. Just absolutely perfect. Even the head is a champagne-reddish. This beer I drive the hours to Portland to grab.

Tonight we had a couple over so we had:

1. Stella Artois cidre
2. BCBS 2016
3. BCBS 2015 confirmed good date
4. BCBS 2015 confirmed bad date
5. BCBS 2016 Barleywine
6. KBS 2015
7. Mikkeller Brunch Weasel

I continue to run good and my infected bottles so far have only had a slightly funky finish / sourness. Would not have been super happy drinking a pint of this, but 4oz each for something adjacent to fun was fine. Everything else was tasty. Cidre was brought by other couple. Would drink again, if outdoors in the sun. Who am I kidding, I'm not exactly picky. Would drink again.

Nothing else really to add. Confirmed good time / drunk. Expect non-elite posting later this evening. Did not get to open all the stuff I'd brought out for tonight before people had to depart. Might drink more.

Cit,

Nice! Blind tasting in progress:

El Diablo,

Very nice! Thought about suggesting blind tasting, but chickened out. Don't know other couple that well. Other dude is an accountant, he would have loved that. Mixing drinking and spreadsheets? Totally his best life.

High Westified was one of the leftovers. Still can't believe you just pull parabola off the whole foods or Target shelf. Ridiculous.

Are you doing simple ranking best to worst, or taking notes, or rating on several factors?

So had my first bad experience with a crowler recently. I bought 4 of them from a local brewery and the first 3 were very good. But when I opened I the last one 2 days later it was noticeably under filled. The beer was pretty awful, which I'm guessing was from the oxidation? When they filled it the beer was pouring with a ton a foam so that might have been the issue.

I emailed the brewery and they were very quick to offer a refund, so I'm happy with the outcome and I'll go back there. But I'm curious has anyone else had issues with crowlers?

Did a beer & cheese tasting tonight with a large group, featuring a number of Bruery beers I had on hand:
- barleywines: Mash & Coconut, Mash & Vanilla
- Quadrupel Tonnellerie
- Flemish reds: Oude Tart, Oude Tart w/ Boysenberries
- Rueminator (BA doppelbock)
- So Happens It's Tuesday (BA imperial stout)
- Bourgogne Blanc (BA sour w/ white wine grapes)

None of these beers are super crazy or anything and I've had most of them before, so nothing too notable to report, other than...
- I should have guessed this from having a Bruery Terreux label, but Quadrupel Tonnellerie was a bit more sour than I expected given that the label didn't refer to it as a sour in any capacity
- most of our guests, who weren't necessarily big beer drinkers, tended to really enjoy the sours, which surprised me a bit since sours can be so polarizing
- Mash & Coconut was a pretty big hit!
- my first time having Bourgogne Blanc - like Confession (another sour blonde they do w/ white whine grapes, that one is with Riesling), just a super light, refreshing, fruity, drinkable and enjoyable style

I liked them all, obviously

BA stout fans,



General thoughts. Everyone enjoyed all of them, and high westified held its own in the group and is a steal at its price. It was very obvious to group them into kbs/high west (big coffee, not as sweet/hot, not as complex flavor) vs parabola/bcbs. I flipped both pairs in the predictions. Kbs and parabola were clear winners, and bcbs at the bottom in this lineup - especially with the big coffee ones in the mix, the bcbs by comparison tasted overwhelmingly sweet.

Blind tasting results:

C 2 1 2 kbs (2017)
B 3 2 1 parabola (2017)
A 1 3 4 high westified (2016)
D 4 4 3 BCBS (2016)

My notes/ranking/guesses

Really loved these two:
B richer, sweeter, less coffee, little hotter, most complex flavor - favorite BCBS? (Parabola)
C lot of coffee, more flavor and little hotter than A - high westified? (Kbs)

Less into these two:
D sweetest richest syrupy, more complex flavor but too sweet - parabola? (Bcbs)
A coffee not hot, not too sweet - least interesting very easy to drink kbs? (High west)

interesting. Not to up the douche factor, but what did you do for palate cleansing? With beers this big I never know how people compare when drinking side-by-side. One will really affect the next. One sip of BCBS would mute anything I drink after that. Same is true with all beers really.

cooler,

hmm, I kinda like IPLs. Not a lot are made but the concept seems fine to me. Smoother than an ale with the same hop saturation. Mass Rising, Kiwi Rising, Hoponius Union, and the other one I really liked but I haven't had it in a couple years.. Grey Sail Brewing, mainly known for their DIPA, Captain's Daughter (very solid).. I think their Great Ketch IPL is their best beer I've had.

all,

went with sculpin for a day drinker on a lazy sunday of lots of sports. What a beer.

kc,

Water and chocolate chip cookies.

Sure, if you LOVE DONALD TRUMP. Also those Sculpin will really sneak up on you on a sunny day!

Sounds like I need to try Parabola again! Cool tasting.

Yeah 7% is no joke. Nice slow pace.

Lagunitas Born Again Yesterday 12pk at the grocery store for $20.99 basically the steal of the century. Like $2 more than Heineken. Lol.

Had a few Mast Landing: Gunners Daughter PB stouts yesterday. Delicious. Perfect balance, not too sweet, smooth....highly recommended if you're into that sort of thing.

I tried the Bruery's So Happens It's Tuesday this weekend and was a little disappointed. It's apparently the little brother of Black Tuesday (~15%). I only had about 8 ounces of it, and the rest is still capped in the bottle, but I'm not crazy about revisiting it. It had a nice smell, with what seemed like a strong coffee component. But the taste and mouthfeel were weak. I thought the alcohol was very noticeable (ldo at 15%, but I'd read that it was pretty well hidden). Bigger issue is that it felt really thin, and I had imagined a boozy, syrupy dessert type drink. This was a little more like drinking straight liquor.

Looking at Diablo's blind ratings, I wonder if I just have a massive sweet tooth and prefer the big sweet boozy stuff like BCBS.