2 Deep in Indy uses those cans also. I was told they were way more expensive than regular cans for some reason.

There's a brewery in NW Indiana that uses them too. Name escapes me, but family from there gave me an assortment of beers to try from that brewery a couple of years ago and I remember the odd cans.

I'm not sure they work that well with higher carbonation (foaming out in a much larger hole) but that's just me speculating. I love cans.

Sometimes demand is just far too great for supply to fulfill in the short term. Also, when you get the very best quality beer, sometimes the owner is more of an artist or creative type than a business person. Sometimes they are a fine business person but they are just very protective of the quality of their product so they dot every i and cross every t several times before they even consider expanding.

Restaurants have long waits though all the time, even some established for years. Beer is a little more straightforward, but there is a marketing angle to having people wait in line 1-6 hours for beers like Dark Lord once a year, so many non beer people would bring up Three Floyd's to me when I lived in Chicago after finding out I was a homebrewer. "That brewery where people wait in like 6 hours for a beer, that must be one hell of a beer!."

Personally though, it now has to be one of my favorite beers. Medianoche is the only thing I'm aware of that I'll wait an hour in line for and they are probably going to tickets for the fall release anyways, so I won't have to wait in a massive line.

I'd wait an hour for enough Treehouse or Trillium too, but would need to get an 8 pack I think minimum.

There are a few hundred guys out by me, a vocal minority of beer drinkers that mostly chase rare beers. They like the lines, because they are willing to sit in them and it means the value of their beer in national trades is going to be pretty high. So they will drink some of the beer they get in these lines and trade the rest for other line waiting type beers elseware in the country. It's an interesting dynamic, but having been to a number of tastings with these "ultra rare" beers, I think going the festival route is a much better way to access the "whales" without being frequently disappointed (rare beers and big beers are two fests with # of these "whale beers" from jester king, black project, side project, casey, weldwerks, kane, three floyd's and more). These are mostly sours and barrel aged beers, IPA lines are a thing but those don't usually trade for nearly the $oz that some of these sours and ba beers trade for.

I think I'm largely with you. However, I wouldn't queue an hour for 8 of the same beer, as I would rarely want to drink 8 of the same. 2 cans each of four beers, now we're talking.

Kinda disappointed that I couldn't get tickets for the Beavertown bash, but I imagine it's going to be unreasonably packed for a festival.

Urban Chestnut also uses them. Speaking of Two Deep. I have yet to have a better than average beer from them. Am I missing something?


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Probably not. Buddy of mine says their cream ale is the best he's had, but lolcreamales for the most part. Their Lake IPA is OK, and I haven't had any of their brewery only stuff.

Alcoholic soda fans,



Modern times rowing needles. They call it a Berliner weisse with blackberries and raspberries. Def taste the berries, huge berry flavor. But this doesn't taste like a beer at all. Tastes more like a tart Izze soda. $7.99/bomber. Could drink a ton of these. Will definitely buy again, a great refreshing summer soda that happens to be 4.8% abv.

that sounds awesome. Was pumped to go to a small beer fest that MT was coming to this weekend, but had to back out for a family trip.

The Bruery just announced they're opening a retail store in DC late this year, and will make it an option for members to be able to ship all their beer East and pick it up there. Now you all can enjoy some Black Tuesday!

Stone fans,



Grabbed that on a weekend trip. $15.99 for mixed 12-pack, felt like a pretty good deal.

Stone IPA - solid, straightforward west coast IPA. Always a reliable choice.

Ruination - another reliable standard. Nice hoppiness, a little bit of maltiness, but nicely balanced for a double IPA and not overly sweet at all.

Ghost hammer - refreshing, light, floral, fruity, bit of maltiness. Nice change of pace to drink, but overall I prefer the regular stone IPA.

Hop revolver mandarina Bavaria - did not like this at all. Very malty and sweet, very little hoppiness, not really any citrus/pine/etc ipa flavors I expect. Tasted more like a marzen or something than an IPA.

Great Taste of the Midwest last weekend, and then Mornin' Delight Release + Pulpit Rock anniversary this weekend. A lot of good beer. A brief write up of the beers I had at GTMW:

Katy - 2nd Shift (3.5 out of 5)
Katy w/ Apricot - 2nd Shift (4/5)
BA LSD - 2nd Shift (4.75/5)
Mocha Milk Stout - Dangerous Man (3.5/5)
Some cherry sour - Upland (3.25/5)
Madagascar - 4 Hands (4.75/5)
Funky Wit w/ Apricot - Perennial (4.5)
Fresh Coast - 3 Sheeps (4/5)
Passe - 515 Brewing (4/5)
Big OJ - 515 Brewing (4/5)
Barrel Aged Imperial Porter - Barley John’s (4.25/5)
Vanilla Bean Stout - Central Waters (3.5/5)
Black Gold - Central Waters (5/5)
Ibusive - Fat Heads (3.5)
BA Udder Madness - Imperial Oak Brewing (2/5)
Serendipity - New Glarus (4.25/5)
Some random barrel aged quad - New Glarus (3/5)
Supa Sumo - Toppling Goliath (4.75/5)
pseudoSue - Toppling Goliath (4/5)
Sosus - Toppling Goliath (4.5/5)
Holiday in Aronia - O’so (3/5)
Wild 19 - Penrose (don’t remember)
Merna - Perennial (don’t remember)
BA As You Wish - Pipeworks (4.25/5)
Really Dank Meme - Triptych Brewing (4/5)
Some BA Imperial Coffee Stout - Transient Artisan Ales (4.25/5)

Also had BA Abraxas the night before at a tap takeover. I don't care much for Abraxas, I think the cinnamon/spices blow any stout flavor out of the water. But BA was really nice. Still pretty cinnamony, but with deep dark chocolate flavor too. Also, they had Funky Wit on tap and I drank 3-4 of those, so good.

Yesterday was fun. I'm moving a couple of the Mornin' Delight bottles I got, though. First trade with a stranger (on reddit). It's a really good beer, but I think it's trade value is higher than the quality.

HEATHEN

(still never been able to get my hands on BA tho, I'm jelly)

That's a lot of beer.

One beer I purchased recently that I'm really digging despite the awful name is Wicked Weed's Lieutenant Dank. Very old schooly west coast ipa. If I had to guess, there's a fair bit of mosaic in this which I normally hate but it seems to play well here with the caramel malts.

Or maybe it's just not mosaic and a bunch of standard west coast ipa hops. Either way. Nice.

I've been out of the beer game for a minute due to the birth of a little one who is fantastic.

Returned to the game with the below. I've had Rare plenty of times and I still don't quite love it.

First time having a VR. It is an absolute must try for any "beer connoisseur". Straight vanilla smell with that BCBS feel with vanilla, cocoa, caramel tastes. Barely any heat on this 2014 bottled beer. Waited a long time to try and my best friend happily provided it for us.


Separately. Wife and I made a day trip to Stoney Creek Brewery a couple weekends ago. If you're passing through on 95 I recommend checking it out. Skip the tour. Just grab some pints or a tasting offering and chill on the "beach" area near the water. It's a bring your own food but has food trucks.

If we were closer I'd imagine I'd be a regular to chill and drink their okay beers. They had 10 on tap when I was there. No misses. No outstanding ones. Wife loves their Stoney Joe which is a blonde Stout. I think it's sorta gimmicky but it is a solid okay tasting beer.

Also a PSA if you're in New England. Prolly my all time favorite beer is being released on next Saturday by Allagash. Coolship Red.

I def posted a review here in the past but here's a pic from a private tour we got and opened and drank a couple in the actual coolship itself.

Vanilla Rye is in the discussion for my favorite beer ever. It's just perfect. I mean, how you compare the best barrel aged stout to the best sour to the best IPA is kind of irrelevant, it's not a fair comparison. But it's a beer literally without flaws.

I only had it once. It was actually at a New Glarus R&D sour release the day of Great Taste last year. It was actually a fairly entertaining situation - I barely knew the folks. I met them the day before - the woman played basketball with my wife in junior high like 20 years ago in a small town in Canada. They didn't really keep in touch but between Facebook and random beer checkins they hooked back up and then I got to join their bottle share. He pulled that out, she got mad because she thought they were saving it for a special occasion, then he proposed. It was entertaining for me, especially because I got like 3-4 ounces of that Vanilla Rye.

Cooler,

Anything here that you think is especially good?

So IMHO that is one of the saddest lineups of Allagash I've seen. I do have another bottle of the Uncommon Crow waiting to be drunk. I believe it use to be brewery only but they distributed this year. Get that.

The rest in that picture are all sorta meh, especially for the price you pay for them. Depending on the time of year they do distribute some killer 375ml bottles. What comes to mind: Needles, Matina Rossa, James&JULIE.

Also Nancy, Farm to Face, and Pick Your Own are incredible. I believe brewery only release though a couple times maybe once a year. If you ever see those buy as many as you can. Or order it from whatever beer bar you are at.

I may sound like an Allagash fanboy but they do have a whole team of microbiologists on staff. which I was in a past life, so I appreciate the dedication to science.

Cooler,

Lol, thanks, exactly what I wanted to know. That's at the Target here, which occasionally gets some real gems in at crazy prices, but yeah, it's target...

Founders DKML is superb. Smooth and delicious, you'd never guess it was 14% imo. Highly recommended.

Had this recently and really liked it. Great west coast IPA profile.

Man, after seeing nothing but terrible reviews on this after release, you're the second person this week I've seen say it's good. Just can't imagine what is good about a BA malt liquor, but maybe I'll have to give it a try.

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled about it after reading the description but had a taste and insta ordered one. Very well balanced imo.

West coast IPA fans,

Kern river Just Outstanding IPA



I love Citra from them, have enjoyed some other beers, and this one had great reviews so decided to give it a shot.

It's fine. More piney and bitter than I prefer, and not really any citrus element to it. Simcoe and Amarillo hops. Maybe I don't love them as much as some others. Blech, too much to keep track of!

Beer peeps,

Sigh, having some amazing beers at recent fieldwork and cellarmaker visits. But not getting lucky expanding my horizons with beer for the house.

After the just ok just outstanding, next up is half acre daisy cutter, another one with really great reviews.



Again, fine. More toasty malt flavor than I like, a little dankness, very light floral and citrus hints. Overall kinda light on the flavor scale. I dunno, it's fine, but nothing exciting at all.