No comment on the Assassin?

Breweries:
Crooked Stave
TRVE
Jagged Mountain
Ratio

Bars:
Hops & Pie
Falling Rock
First Draft
Euclid Hall

how about charlotte and raleigh NC? Going wednesday.

Also going to knoxville and asheville but taking beer tours in both so presumably got them covered unless anyone knows some under the radar places there.

Charlotte has some good spots. Birdsong Brewing and Olde Mecklenberg are my favs. If going to Asheville, you'll have an amazing amount of breweries there yo choose from. I definitely suggest Wicked Weed as a must do. Enjoy!

Having Alesmith IPA tonight. Probably pretty familiar to West Coasters, but new to me. Not bad. Very dry, which I like.

Whoa. Alesmith Speedway Stout is ridiculously smooth and delicious. Unbelievably so, considering the ABV. Highly recommended.

Is it pure chance you're also having an Alesmith beer? Weird if so considering I never heard of them before tonight.

Liking this more as I drink it. Resinous, piney, bitter, everything I like in an IPA. Pretty flawless stuff imo.

Had one last night. Wanted more, but had a couple others and had to drive.

Depends what you like and how mobile you are from wherever you're staying. Happy to offer some suggestions if you provide that info, Denver is an awesome place for beer.

Yeah speedway stout, and it's variants, do very well on ratebeer top 50. For whatever that's worth or indicates. The variants I've had have all been pretty good, though I liked the Vietnamese coffee less than most. Haven't had the barrel aged, I don't think.

Really good for both the abv and the price.

Speedway is super solid on its own, but BA Speedway is incredible. Definitely worth a try if you can have it.

FoBAB tonight! Also, assorted FoBAB related events around Chicago this weekend. (Local Option in particular looks good! Goose Island taproom looks good as usual.)

Stay safe Bros. Remember these beers are strong.

I think they're one of the more well-known CA craft breweries once you get past the Lagunitas/Ballast Point/Sierra/Stone/etc tier. Don't blame you for not knowing them in Australia but here they're a pretty common sight in bottle shops.

They're pretty well known in the UK too, albeit ****ing expensive. A bomber of speedway sets you back 15 quid at least here, usually more.

few beers recently:

Stillwater On Fleek (Imperial Stout.. 13%?) - uh.. did not like. much too much sweetness. Ended up drain pouring. have a couple cans left.

Castle Island TBD (Hoppy Stout, forget ABV but nothing crazy): I guess if a Black IPA is an IPA with some stout notes, this is like the opposite. Pretty close to a black IPA. I enjoyed it. Tastes like one of the C hops with some roasted malts and plenty of licorice. Overall haven't been super impressed with this brewery, but this is solid.

Proclamation Ale Company Derivative: Galaxy (RI, APA, 6.0%): I've reviewed before. A galaxy bomb. Super solid.

Proclamation Tendril (RI, IPA, 7.5%): They call this an east coast IPA with a west coast hop bill. I really, really like this. Not a juice bomb or anything. It is unfiltered, a little juicy, but a good dose of pine and bitterness. I've had this previously and I think this batch has maybe a little bit of fruity esters throwing this off just a tad. I just downed 3 watching UFC 205 tho so yeah, I like this.

Proclamation Stalk (DIPA, 8.0%): w/ Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado. This is more in the New England juice bomb style. It's very good but nothing earth shattering. Also got a bit of esters and a little alcohol. I like that the mosaic isn't dominating. Could use a little more mouthfeel at this abv level.

Spent some time last week driving around Oregon. Highlights for me were Crux Fermentation Project in Bend and Great Notion in Portland. Crux said they will be distributing down to the Bay Area soon which is exciting.

2 good ones, great notion making the best beer in the country imo along with monkish. Crux's setup in bend is awesome too, and one of my favorite cities.

anyone in the cali area want to swap some monkish for some other half?

ddh all citra everything
like woah
all of tomorrow's releases

thanks for the tips
Went to olde mecklenberg, it was a cool place and great beer. Didn't make it out to Birdsong, but looked for their beers on tap and like the IPA quite a bit and a couple others whose name escapes me.

Went on beer / sports/ bbq trip from Raleigh to Knoxville to Asheville to Charlotte. Went to about 20 breweries and numerous other craft beer focused places and 7 different BBQ spots, hockey, U of T football and thursday night carolina panthers game
Highlights were:
Raleigh Beer Garden with supposedly the world's largest number of taps - 366 - which is insane.
Crafty Bastard in knoxville - eclectic beer menu for a very small brewery but just incredible double IPAs and variety
Wicked Weed in asheville and their funkartorium location as well - this was the best brewery on the trip
Biscuithead in asheville which specializes in guess what - biscuits - and has a gravy flight you can get (!)
The oyster stout at oyster house brewing in asheville was the best I've ever had, their other beer was good but not memorable
Sierra Nevada outside asheville was the most incredible brewery I've ever seen - the physical structure is just insane to tour - I can't imagine how many millions of dollars it cost - and great restaurant for lunch - really didn't drink there as it was too early and I've never been a big fan of them tbh
Midwood Smokehouse in Charlotte had the best BBQ we had, was super disappointed with 12 Bones in asheville which is all the rage online

I have now been to >200 breweries and every major beer town and must say that Asheville might be the best beer destination in the US if you factor in proximity of the various breweries and variety. There were great sours / stouts/ IPAs / german / etc - just everything imaginable for such a small city.

And Wicked weed / funkatorium is a top 5 for me as far as breweries

that's awesome! I love visiting different breweries but not sure I'll ever hit 200. you should post more in here, especially with pics.

Going to Brussels in 2 weeks and have a beer tour scheduled there and will also go to cantillion, I'll try to post some pics from there.
Also going to Vienna cologne Amsterdam Budapest and looking forward to finding out what the craft scene is like if any in those cities, especially Budapest.

new england bros,

jack's abby kiwi rising now in cans. Bought two 4 packs but seems not quite as good as I remember. Still awesome but something seems a tad muted.

couple other solid beers recently:

The Tap Brewing Co, Solar Plexus, DIPA (MA, 9%): apparently this has been a brew pub for quite some time. Picked this up on a whim cuz I saw it was local. Pleasantly surprised. Tastes like some other DIPAs I've had recently. If I had to guess, mostly a mix of Citra and Mosaic in terms of hops. Fairly hazy, bit sweet with some candied citrus flavors. Not a world beater but very nice.

BLDG8 Brewing, IPA (western MA, 6.5%): not an east coast ipa. Copper-ish color, little hazy but not a ton. Can says the hops are a blend of simcoe, citra, and mosaic. This is bitter and cloying with more of a grapefruit citrus profile though there's some hints of tropical fruit. The mouthfeel is pretty slick for a beer that I don't think is doing anything "new england" with the malt bill. I actually really like this.

So there are some discount bombers at my local store. Southern Tier has a few. Most have bottled dates almost a year ago, would $5 for a bomber of choklat or back burner be a good purchase? I feel like those would be ok still, staying away from the ipas for sure.

Last time I was in I went in for some Breakfast stout and ended up with some backwoods bastard for the first time, did not disappoint.

My FIL knows I like to drink pretty cheap, and he also manages a grocery store, so every once in a while, he'll bring me a big box of beers that are either discontinued and they cant sell, or six packs where someone grabbed one and left the other five so they cant sell that either.

90% of the time its Milwaukees Best Ice, Natty Ice, Busch regular, etc. Don't get me wrong, these babies do the job. But this time, in the big box, there was a full six-pack of Centennial IPA from Founders. Apparently rated "world class" on beeradvocate.

Works for me!