in good news/bad news, Trillium says they can't guarantee a 5th pour for everyone at Zwanze on Saturday. But this means they're refunding everyone $15 (so total cost is now $85) and tossing in a 10 ounce Trillium pour as a make good. Feels more than fair.

They will have as choices

Zwanze
Kriek
Classic Gueuze
Mamouche
Iris Grand Cru (unblended 3 year old Iris)

and they said among other choices they'll have

Red Stonington (Wild Saison w/ raspberries)
Raspberry Soak (Sour wheat ale)
Bees (Wild ale w/ honey)

Ok, it's good, not amazing, for my tastes.

Definitely has that malty/nutty/caramel skewed flavor I don't prefer in my ipas. I definitely prefer the great notion/monkish/trillium style with very little of that flavor range.

It is very smooth of course, but I would never describe this as juicy, there's hardly any citrus flavor in it. Maybe the issue is a lot of people equate "juicy" to how smooth or drinkable it is, whereas I think of smoothness + citrus.

Anyways, splitting hairs and I know every beer need says this is goat, just not for my palette.

This was awesome though, really does taste like watermelon, super smooth at 10%.

Probably a top 5 ipa/iipa for me.

See, we must have different perceptions of what juicy entails as I think Trillium is a perfect comparison to TH in terms of juiciness and hop character. I personally find TH more juicy and also having a better mouth feel than Trillium. I also don't think I've had a great IPA from Tired Hands. A friend recently described a tired hands beer as a failed homebrew experiment (he has a very good palette, but we gave him the beer and told him it was something else). I would agree with that. I get many off flavors in like 90% of the Tired Hands I've had in my life.

I definitely agree on mouth feel, th is very creamy and supple, they nail that part.

As far as subjective taste goes, I prefer the less malty flavored trillium style. Just different strokes.

Tired hands main ipa, pineal, is ok. A strong honey taste that couldn't definitely be off putting to a lot of people. I didn't find the milkshake to taste anything like that one, but I think it's a collaboration with omnipollo.

haven't had tried tired hands myself but I've heard similar complaints. I did see quite a few cans being traded in line at tree house the other day. Also agree that tree house is "juicier" than trillium, as trillium can often be pretty bitter and spicy.

Trillium DDH Summer St - got better with an extra week of age. Phenomenal. Might eclipse DDH Fort Point and I def prefer it over congress.

Tree House Doppelganger - just had the 2nd growler. Better than the 1st, but really not a stand out beer from them. Nice hop character and a better treatment of mosaic than most, but it's quite sweet, overly so imo, and a lot of fruity esters and some ethanol definitely comes through. When it comes to TH hops, I really think sticking with the main offerings is the best bet. Green, Haze, and Julius are routinely better than or at least on par with their more hyped offerings.

I've noticed this happens with a bunch of trillium beers. When I drink them the day I buy them, they sometimes have that oniony flavor you have described, but after a week or two in my fridge, they are perfect. I noticed this most recently with the galaxy cutting tiles. I drank one right when I brought it home and it was ok, but i was a bit underwhelmed. I opened the next one maybe 2 weeks later and that onion flavor was gone and I was left with what I thought was an exceptionally good DIPA.

for the first time I noticed some bitterness/harshness in the Trillium Galaxy Fort Point Pale Ale I bought. beers are less than 1 week old.

the DDH Summer Street is great though, the dankness just rolls right through your mouth. can I'm drinking right now is 8 days old.

concur. I think they're canning them on a tad on the young side, the flavors aren't fully developed and they're under carbonated. With the amount of yeast in their beers they're still conditioning in the can, and they mature a bit and the carbonation and flavors are on point. DDH Summer St somehow still available cuz everybody is a newb. I might pick up some more tomorrow.

Drinking tonight: Stone Citracado, variously described by them as either an IPA or DIPA. It's brewed with Citra hops, obviously, plus avocado flower honey. 9% ABV.

The problem with adding sweet stuff to beer that isn't malt is that there ends up not being enough maltiness to support a big beer. That's what's going on here. Mid palate doesn't have enough weight, and so the beer is a bit disjointed and the alcohol pokes out on the finish. The avocado does come through subtly (or possibly I'm imagining it) and it's an interesting idea for a beer, but doesn't quite work. It's drinkable enough but I wouldn't buy it again.

at first i read that as just added avocado, and I was repulsed. I worry that Stone is trying to get way too out there to keep up with small brewers. I admire their ambition, but damn, just make some solid beer and it'll all be OK. I don't buy their hoppy stuff anymore cuz of all the great local options, but I think they do stouts and porters very well.

Made my first trip to Proclamation Ale Company just now. Picked up cans of 2 beers: Derivate: Citra, a pale ale dry-hopped with citra, and Tendril, their IPA. I've had derivative: galaxy and enjoyed it but wasn't blown away. I think Citra is better. Only real knock on this beer is it's extremely thin. Reminds me a bit of trillium in terms of just being a dry-hop vehicle. Not world class but quite tasty and insanely crushable. I got through 1 can in no time. Also it tastes better from the can.

Tendril I am pleasantly surprised by. Wish I bought more. Still a tad on the thin side, but the flavor is just on point. Not overly fruity, but some tropical notes are there, but a lot of the west coast IPA flavors like pine and grapefruit with an adequate amount of bitterness. Nice finish. I really loved this. Kind up there with Wormtown Be Hoppy as a well done west coast IPA by an east coast brewer. I will def buy this again.

Need some Zwanze updates from people.

Zwanze trip report from Trillium:

Showed up around 1:30pm, a bit late. But that was fine bc there was no line to get in. This was a ticketed event, I think they sold around 150, so it wasn't too mobbed or anything like that, but I'm sure for kickoff the line to check tickets would have been a pain.

So Trillium had 2 bars open, here were the selections at each:



There was a huge line for the main bar, as it turns out bc the Cantillon Kriek keg was pouring slow and thats the one everyone wanted. but no line at the front bar.

I used my 3 Cantillon pours for

- Classic (excellent)
- Kriek (I actually don't love it, drank it anyways)
- Iris Grand Cru (tasted like our Iris I have had)

my buddy had a Mamouche so I had some of that, I like that one, subtly different than the classic

For Trillium beers I had

Double Red Stonington (super tart raspberry)
Peach Soak (nice and a bit sweet, enjoyable)
Blueberry Soak (ditto to the above)
Mettle
Night and Day (coffee stout to end the day)

What was nice was they has 5 and 10 ounce pours of everything so you sample a lot. and once the Kriek was gone there was no lines.

here was the salami pizza I got which was 10/10, excellent from Brewers Fork. They had a truck there with wood fired oven. next to the pizza is the Blueberry Soak



Ice cream was themed for the day



I got the framboise, was awesome, Parlor is a 1 woman company so it was cool to support them

and last but not least, the Zwanze (here are a bunch of pours in the flute glasses)



This was great, but I didn't get a ton of blueberry, more like a Framboise w/ bourbon vanilla beans.

we were there for last call, I think the last 2 people to leave and they just gave us our last beers for the effort

man oh man, this Hop Nosh Tangerine from Uinta is hitting me really nicely. At $8.99 for a six pack, I think this might be my new favorite "any time" type of beer.

NE peeps,

Had a crowler of that from http://fieldworkbrewing.com

If that's what NE IPA's taste like, I'm jealous. Just super juicy and a whole ton of fruit and citrus flavors with some tartness to it. Very little bitter hoppiness compared to most IPAs here. Overall delicious.



Here's a pic from their site, this is pretty much what it looked like:

That sounds pretty great.

yup, sounds like a NE ipa.

If anyone is interested in a trade I have 3 Other Half All Green Everything that I'm not interested in drinking (10.5% is just too much for me).

Given it's a US beer I thought I'd post ITT... Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura is probably the best dark sour I've had to date... The fundamental difference from others is that the roasted malts come through throughout rather than just bittering the end. It's also complex, with a slightly piney aroma and funk on the sides of the tongue.

Given I paid £6.20 for a third of a pint, I'm bloody glad!

Oh, and I should say, it's the 2015 edition.

Avery fans,

Man I love my neighborhood target!



Grabbed the two vanilla stout they had and a couple of raspberry sours.

Tried two sips of a Guiness Nitro IPA. Yuck. No wonder they don't make this any more.

Heard that was absolutely awful.

I'm at armsby abbey. A few beers:

Foundation Epiphany, DIPA (ME) - very good, but also a little let down. Tad sweeter than expected, and also quite piney especially towards the end.

Kent Falls Fingerprint, Farmhouse (CT) - I only know a little about it. Think it's a saison aged with some fruit or something. Very enjoyable. Bit of a muted finish.

Hill Farmstead Susan, IPA (vt) - one of the best. I've reviewed it before.

Hill Farmstead Elaborative #4, saison - it's only 3.2%. Maybe a tad heavy on the Brett, but I'm nitpicking. Refreshing and tart.

$6.99 for 22 oz Avery bombers?! I hate you.

Mullen: they are $12.99 at the liquor store and grocery store. This target just has randomly weird beer pricing. I love it!

Hbe: looooool that stuff is so terrible!

Yeah that's amazing. I would just stock up. Their raspberry sour is one of my favorite beers, I'd happily pay $15 for that in NY. Vanilla stout I'm not as high on but it's obviously a huge bargain at that price.

Recently moved to CT and sadly they don't come at all. I can personally guarantee that if/when they come back to CT I will buy up all the Avery's.