I used to live in Chicago, but I've been in Ohio since 2010. No Pipeworks here.

Nope to 18th Street, too. They didn't exist when I lived in Chicago.

Spider,

Can't remember where you are in OH, but Hoof Hearted should scratch that big fruity DIPA itch pretty easily. I kinda feel like i've seen you post that you don't really like HHB though.

I live outside of Columbus. And unfortunately, I am lukewarm on the 2 OH breweries that seem to get the most national attention - Hoof Hearted and Jackie O's.

Fat Heads is A+ though. Which reminds me that their Hop Juju might be my favorite 12 oz DIPA.

The hoof hearted stuf I’ve got has been a little hit or miss for the amount of hype. Key Bump and clipboard are pretty damn great though.

The Jackie Os stuff I've had has been really good.

Also, this Relax IPA is pretty great.

My educated guess is that the cost for a brewery packaging in bottle switching to cans is so high the payback would be roughly eternity. Not just the cost of the equipment, but also the (presumed) shut down time, since that doesn't happen overnight. Almost all my experience is with glass so I can't talk too much about the margins, but given how tight they are in general I'd be surprised if anybody thought a 100% change is worth it. More likely is an established brewery that had been all glass getting to the point where they needed another line and decided on putting in cans instead of glass. Even more likely is that brewery just taking a further margin hit and calling in a mobile canner when they wanted to do a can run, until they're running enough cans that they can justify adding their own line.

The supplier-side for cans has changed a ton in just the past few years. As recently as 10 years ago, cans had to be ordered in container-sized lots and there wasn't a great option for anything other than painted cans. So if you wanted to go that route and can, say, three brands, all of a sudden you had to order three containers worth of empty cans, have space to store them, etc. Then there weren't a ton of great options for smaller size canning lines - and the ancillary equipment, like de-palletizers, etc. So now you're looking at sinking a bunch of money into a line that's way bigger than you need, and empty cans it'll take you forever to use up. In today's market, there are sophisticated mobile canners, plenty of options for either shrink-wrapping or applying labels to cans, etc, and that's the biggest reason you're seeing more cans as opposed to glass. If I was starting a brewery there's no way I'd go glass, mainly for the current perception but also for the real benefit of being able to get into stadiums, pools, etc.

Anywho I've rambled enough.

Thanks, RDH!

CA people, new Offshoot hazy DIPA with 100% Nelson hops:

- from BeerAdvocate. You can buy a 16-pack shipped cold to your door (in CA) for $90 (or just a 4-pack or two for less $$ but more shipping per can) if that post suckers you into buying one like it did for me. https://www.offshootbeer.com/

Oh cool, I live in Rochester. There's 4, soon to be 5, breweries in town. Forager is the place to go for sour beers imo. It's a cool place but i like LTS the best (the current batch of Hazy Shade of Summer is sooo good)

I really like Pulpit Rock too. Last year RAGBRAI rolled through Decorah and it was really, really hard to leave those taprooms, especially with like 60 miles of hills left. Easter egg: if you ever look at a can of Pseudo Sue, that dinosaur is really a giant hill imo. Makes me think there's a cyclist behind the design.

Nelson is the woat though

RDH,

By all means, please ramble more. I love hearing about the producer side of things and you have always given a ton of great insight.

Went by Modern Times Point Loma tonight. Really chill spot. Annoying tables/seating combo (there's some couches or whatever but everything else is backless stools, there's a couple of actual tables but mostly there's just barrels around). Not too crowded (early on a Thursday), not too loud, customers mostly very relaxed people.

Tried 6 hazy IPAs, a couple sours, and a couple stouts. The IPAs were interesting as it was really hard doing side by side tasting, really only able to discern (personally) on the finish when taking small sips, rinsing, and sort of squinting. Asked bartender and he says that the IPAs are basically identical and the DIPAs are identical, except for the hop mixes, so unless you are very sensitive to telling difference between hop mix, they're going to taste very very similar/same. He personally says he couldn't really tell difference between things of equal freshness but always prefers whatever is freshest in IPA land. Good thing that's frequent?

Wife was able to tell a distinct difference between the beer made with Portland water and beer made in SD.

Sours were really nice, as were stouts. Excited about the stuff we bought to take home.

Probable Ballast Point/Pizza Port/Mikkeller afternoon tomorrow. We'll see how long I wind up sailing and doing random beach stuff.

Portland has goat water. The great notion guys are convinced it makes a difference, I have no idea.

I think hop bills can affect the flavor a lot, but Citra/mosaic/galaxy dominate the better ones usually so it can be tough when there's a lot of overlap.

Man, if I had to name one GOAT water I'd be hard-pressed to say anything other than Plzen, Czech, given something like 95% of the beer made is a pilsner and that style was made possible due to the water there. Water does have a huge flavor impact on beer but it's one of the most understood factors in beer flavor, so any brewery that cares enough can have any water they want. When I was doing new recipe development, I'd do bench blends with our beer but with a water adjustment, to dial in exactly the water I wanted. I just packaged the first production batch of our hazy/NE IPA, and as soon as I get time I'm going to do the same to see if I can figure out how to get that super-soft mouthfeel, whether it's a water thing or what (I'm pretty sure it's a water thing).

Hops are also really distinctive, at least in certain combinations. To my palate, I can really pick out a few varietals like cascade, centennial, and citra. But when a beer has four American C-hops, or 3 hops in the kettle but 2 different ones dry-hopped, it can be tough. I'm a little bit of an old curmudgeon, I think, so if I showed up at a place that had 6 IPAs that all tasted the same, I'd ask: what's the point? and be a little disappointed.

Simcoe is the easiest for me, always a little dank/piney.

Amarillo always adds a really fresh/grassiness to me, too.

Headed to Nashville this weekend. Any food/beer recommendations besides Bearded Iris?


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Arnold's, Husk, Catbird Seat.

None of those have anything to do with beer, though.

Yazoo for beer (disclosure, I worked there). They have solid "standard" offerings but also the Embrace the Funk line of beers for sour/funky stuff. They can get crowded - everywhere in Nashville gets crowded it seems - so keep that in mind. Sue is a big smoked porter that is delicious, GABF-medal winning, and extremely affordable.

Nearby are Jackalope and Tennessee Brew Works. They're close enough to walk, actually, so you could do all three in one day very easily. Also right there is Frugal MacDoogal's liquor store, which should have anything local you'd want to find but not necessarily be able to visit. They have a pathetic cold storage section, though, so you'll find most stuff sitting on room-temp shelves. Check dates.

For food, Arnold's is right there in the same area and is a classic, venerated meat-and-three, with good reason. As a bonus, there's a picture on the wall opposite you when you walk in that's kind of creepy of a young boy, shirtless, maybe 13, staring directly into the camera. That's the owner's son, and he may be working! Food's worth it though.

Directly between Yazoo and Jackalope is Peg Leg Porker, IMO the best barbecue in the city and (ribs division) maybe the country. The ribs are the specialty and for my money the best thing there. They will sell out, generally, so don't wait until just before closing to go. The sides are also terrific, I recommend the smoked green beans. He's also got some private label bourbons that keep winning awards, although I know nothing about spirit awards.

There are lots of cool spots on the other side of the river, East Nashville. The Pharmacy has great burgers and a cool little beer garden. Smith and Lentz does... OK beers, they can be hit or miss, but they're over there as well.

For hot chicken, which has metastasized along with Nashville, Hattie B's is a popular option, although I think that has a lot to do with its... "safe" location being friendly for tourists. The OG spots in East Nashville have a very different vibe, and generally better hot chicken. Prince's is the ur-Hot Chicken spot, which anyone looking into it will be able to find, but my favorite was Pepperfire: better flavor along with the heat. For reference, I'm not a big spicy guy, and would never go above the mildest one or two offerings at any of these places. Here in Cincy, my wife got me some chicken from a place that opened and got their hot, like two levels below their hottest, and it was nothing. Go gently with true Nashville hot chicken.

Went to Nashville for a Bach party recently.

Bearded Iris and Yazoo for beer. Nothing else worth visiting imo.

Prince’s and Pepperfire both great for hot chicken.

They just put a new edition (their second) of the Hoarders Small Batch Box on sale, and given how good the first one was I'm pretty excited that this is looking to become a regular thing.

Beers in the second one will be:

Bruery:
Pie Happy: inspired by apple pie, their anniversary ale (bourbon barrel-aged old ale) with McIntosh apples, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg
Raspberry Valley: Black Tuesday aged in Napa cabernet sauvignon barrels with raspberries and vanilla (everything sounds good but this in particular sounds phenomenal)
Coconut Macadoom: Black Tuesday aged with coconut, lactose, and vanilla

Terreux (sours):
RBA Sour in the Rye with Pineapple and Coconut: title covers it, SitR aged in rum barrels w/ that stuff
Grape Escape: tart wheat beer aged in white wine barrels including chardonnay, semillon, and sauvignon blanc
Horse in the Orchard: blend of The Orchard Project (sour witbier with nectarines, apricots, plumcots) and Saison Ardennes (funky Belgian-style farmhouse ale)

Southern Grist is definitely worth visiting in Nashville. Have had some solid beers from them.

Great recommendation. Southern Grist blew my mind. My wife, friend and I ended up getting flights of all 15 beers. Majority of those were fantastic and creative. Bearded Iris was also obviously fantastic. Picked up some cans of V. Latte which was super tasty. Yazoo was alright. Nashville as a whole was kind of disappointing. It felt too crowded with people that were trying too hard to have fun. Can’t really put my finger on it, but the city felt like it was in the middle of an identity crisis.


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Anyone have any good recommendations for restaurants/towns/breweries/bars between Boston and Portland? Have a night to go in between. Wife and I did Portsmouth, which was solid enough but want to know if there's any hidden gems out there.

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Re: Pipeworks. They just started distribution to Madison in the last couple of months. I've picked up 3 different 4 packs (Ninja vs Unicorn, Hop Squishee, and Lizard King) and they're all solid but none blew me away. The price-point is reasonable for hops these days ($10-11/4pack) but that's the same price point as TG and we always have fresh-ish TG now, and the TG stuff is just way better. I did have an imperial coffee stout from them that was really nice, and I've heard their dark and barrel aged stuff is pretty on point.

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Probably the best under-the-radar barrel aged beer around these parts is The Wolf from 3 Sheeps. I love the brewery but their beer is only good vs. great, but The Wolf is on BCBS/Revolution levels. My wife and I each joined their Barrel Society and it's been pretty good. I feel like I'm becoming a bit of a curmudgeon with adjuncts as a lot of the times I just prefer a barrel-aged stout with no adjuncts vs. the ones these days that often have like 5 different things that make them taste all like metallic coconut or absolutely sweet as ****.

I second that assessment of pipeworks, didn't really get the hype on them. I've only had one TG beer but it was miles better.

Not sure exactly when/what you are looking for travel but Marblehead is only about 15 miles north of Boston and has their annual art festival next week (Jun30-Jul4) with free concerts. I will be there sat night for Barry Goudreau (he was the guitarist for the band Boston). Krewe de Groove is playing Tuesday if you are into funk/soul. Kind of a weird town as it really has no hotels or gas stations but everything is easy to walk to.

Salem, Mass I hear good things about Notch brewery but I have never been. Decent sized town with touristy things to do.

Newburyport, Mass is a neat little town from 1700s to walk. Several cool restaurants and bars downtown, a couple of breweries that are 'decent' rated.

Once you get north of Portsmouth you might as well keep driving to Portland, Cant think of anything that is worth detouring for.