Courtyard by Mariott Downtown/Waterfront

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...b-83b6a417f6fe

It's not just Madagascar beans either - the price spikes there are affecting vanilla bean prices from other regions too.

We had a vanilla supplier try a 38% price hike from a quote given to us just before Christmas. His gambit failed and he will get zero dollars from us, but that's what is going on out there. Expect to see higher prices on vanilla heavy beers, or the use of more vanilla extract, unless the market corrects pretty soon. I know one brewery friend who is going to stop producing his vanilla beer for 2018.

Current pricing is between $350-$420 per pound depending on region and grade - 5 years ago it was closer to $15. We paid $11 for some mid grade beans in early trials in 2012.

It's not all bad news - while Tahitian beans have gone up almost as much, this year's crop is some of the best I have ever tasted. Several other regions are increasing crop size in response to the price spike, so there might be hope down the line.

So much elite beer in this thread I feel a little sheepish posting this, but Voodoo Ranger Imperial is a great 9% cheap beer.

Accepted! I'm building a collection of very cheap beers (non-alcoholic, that will be my thing). Generally buying two of the same, drinking one, the other kept for reference.

Found a nice link: https://mindfuldrinkingfestival.com/...coholic-beers/

So will know where to go after trying them available around here, think they will be about 30, the number is increasing, have made some space in the fridge

So say three different beers a day, like that. No need to be careful. And they taste very differently, will like this journey! Only one badly tasting so far.

Interesting link - thanks. Incidentally, I've had the St Peters Without recently. I have a soft spot for that brewery but absolutely hated it. It's all sickly malt and nothing else. Really odd. Let me know what you think...

I'm a bit lucky, have had some years of break from beer, because was totally into whisky before getting sober in late November. So the non-alcoholic ones taste like heaven.

Doesn't sound lucky to me imo

Value beer fans,



Sierra Nevada hazy little thing. Nothing amazing here, but a pretty good hoppy crisp ipa with a tropical citrus nose and more of a sour citrus finish. Not something that really stands out, but no complaints at $7.99/6-pack. But for that price or maybe $8.99, I’ll go with 21a brew free or die over this one.

And Bay Area peeps: cellarmaker imperial coffee and cigs (they’ve had that a bunch) and bourbon barrel vastness of space (I haven’t seen this version before) are currently on tap and very delicious.

Actually taking the car for getting a big load home today. Let's put it this way: things are relative.

Play,

Happy to having you participating in this thread and posting non-alcoholic beer reviews, but no need to keep us updated on every little step in your journey.

Don’t reply to this post, just post when you have some beer reviews to share from your latest haul. Thanks!

Sour fans,



I’m pretty sure consecration and supplication were the first two great sours I tasted. But since then, the sour beer market has really exploded.

These are around the same price or just slightly higher than various almanac bottles, and I think a little cheaper than most cascade, rare barrel, lost abbey. And of course there are now so many other great sours from all over the country.

So I’m just curious, where do you guys think these RRBC sours stack up in today’s market? I love them and think they are still way up there, but also know I have a soft spot for them.

Did I post about this already? Don’t think so.

I tried a beer called Disco Godfather from Platform brewing co. in Cleveland. It was apparently a gose, but it reminded me of the time I tried a blackberry steel reserve, except with a bunch of salt.

Yuck.

I mean, the can described it as “Berry. Tart. Salty.” So I guess at least they described it right.

Salt is the key characteristic of gose. And good goses are great. Or are you just saying they overdid the salt?

for me, they are classics for very good reasons: that they are still top notch sours. Whenever I make my way out to SF and get a chance to pop up to Santa Rosa, these are what I buy as opposed to PtE or other RRVB offerings. I love aging them and have several bottles of each hanging around my cellar.

Cost-wise, they actually are pretty comparable to Cascade IMO. Cascade releases in 750mLs while these come in 375s.

I haven't had enough Rare Barrel to fully compare (though I have loved the brews I've had from them) and I haven't had any of the major Lost Abbey Sours (anyone want to help a brother out on getting some Duck Duck or Cable Car within the next year), but all of these are top notch sours. I've dug them more than the general offerings from Jester King and they certainly stack up to Crooked Stave from my experience as well.

Just my thoughts on it all and I certainly wish I had a great sour brewery doing RRVB quality on a consistent basis (though Une Annee could well get there in a few years) in Chicago.

KD,

Yeah, there are definitely some cascade in the same price range, but lately it seems like I’m seeing a lot more of their stuff here priced in the $30ish range.

I had BBA Vastness ~1.5 years ago:

"tasty" - wow do I crush beer reviews. Love coffee & cigs too. SOMA always feels like it's so out of the way for me though so I don't visit anywhere near as much as I should.

Why do you dislike Brewdog? I had 6-8 of their beers and Kingpin was the only one that fell flat.

Had two new beers (to me) tonight.
Prairie/Evil Twin Bible Belt Even More

It came in a 4 pack. Had one to my face at 13%. I liked it but will wait to share the others. Maybe because I drank so many good stouts over the holidays that this one just didn’t stand out. Very chocolatey though. The artwork on this is hilarious.

Off color Dinosmores.

Idk how I’ve never had this before but I love good RIS. This is that. I wish it was a little more thick and sugary but you can definitely get the marshmallow which I think is really rare in a beer.

So, happened to buy four of this yesterday instead of two, so get to taste it properly!
Störtebeker Frei-Bier 0.5%



I put the "commercial description" in German through google translate:
"Strong hopping with the varieties tradition, select and emerald gives fresh scent of grass and flowers as well as the strong tartness. Light and Pilsner brewing salts create the straw-yellow color and full mouthfeel when brewing. Cold fermentation with bottom-fermented yeast ensures the fine carbon dioxide, the dry drink and the solid white foam"

Maybe I'll find more of the herbs when being more experienced, but I'd say the long lingering bitterness in a pleasant way gets my special attention.

Ordered some beer glasses, the wine ones make great stand-ins, imo!

Less about the beer (although most of them are average at best) and much more about their bullying approach to others in the trade. They like people to think they're an indie start-up when they have a huge amount of private equity invested in them, and have overreached massively against smaller businesses (hypocritically so given their "punk" ethos).

For example here and here.

A few more that I had in the last week or so.



2011 3F Golden Blend. There are so many different versions of 3F geuze floating around that it's hard to keep track. From what I know, there are at least:

- Regular geuze
- Vintage geuze, which I believe is the brewer hand-picking the best barrels from a particular vintage and setting those aside to bottle separately
- Golden Blend, which includes 4-year old lambic, where traditional geuzes just blend 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year lambics
- Cuvee Armand & Gaston (A&G), which is made up of solely of lambic brewed at 3F. (About 10 years ago, there was some kind of thermostat malfunction that ruined all their already-brewed beer and maybe some of their equipment(?), so that for a number of years 3F was simply blending lambic brewed by others. But a few years ago, they started brewing again with new equipment, and the first A&G batch was the first 3F geuze featuring nothing but 3F-blended lambic.)

I've never had any vintage bottles, but I've had many bottles of the other 3 varieties. Because I've never tried to do side-by-sides, I don't have any good basis for comparing them. That being said, I feel like I've liked the A&G bottles I've had a lot, while some of the regular bottles I've opened recently have been mediocre. The 2011 Golden Blends that I've had have generally been great, but this one was a little bit of a let down. Perfectly carbonated, but I wasn't as wowed by it as I have been in the past. I don't know if that's a matter of time passing or bottle variation. Hopefully bottle variation, since I've got a few more sitting around. The A&G bottles cost about twice as much as (similarly-dated) regular geuze, so it's clearly in my interest to do a blind side-by-side to figure out if the premium is worth it.

Founders CBS:



I use Google photos, and it periodically sends me notifications of pictures I took on this date X years ago. On New Year's Eve, the notification showed me that I drank a bottle of Founders CBS on 12/31/2015. So that prompted me to open a bottle of (this year's) CBS for NYE. It was good. Worth the price ($25 or so)? I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if it was obviously better than KBS. But still good. What's interesting to me is how much easier it was to get this beer this year compared to 2011. They must have made an absolute ****-ton of it this year.

And now to the biggest disappointment of my winter break: Trappist Westvleteren 8.





The cap was stamped 2018, which I think means it was brewed 3 years ago. This beer was just flat tasting - not uncarbonated, but as if a lot of the flavor had just been sucked out. I see the term oxadized a lot, and I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I wouldn't be surprised if this qualified. I was especially disappointed because I've had bottles of Westy 12 of various ages, and I definitely think those get better with time. This was just a waste, and I didn't come close to finishing it.

If this was a “good gose,” then I guess I don’t like goses. But I’ve never really been into the “salted caramel” thing like the rest of society has been, so maybe I’m not their ideal customer. I don’t think drinking something salty is ever going to work for me.

Am I doing this right? Went off memory and just grabbed what I distinctly remembered since I didn't save the list to Turtl.

Alesmith Speedway Stout
Drew Curtis / Wil Wheaton / Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton W00tstout (wtf)
Long Trail Barrel Aged Unearthed
Ballast Point Barrel Aged Victory At Sea

They had a few Founder's beers too, but Breakfast Stout is always in stock so I figured it could wait.

This will take a while to get through, but the Speedway is first on the block. Apparently this has coffee added, which I never would have bought if I knew that, just not a fan of coffee but it's not overwhelmingly coffee like many others that wind up just tasting like fizzy iced coffee. It's really good. The chocolate is there, but also not overly so. Deceptively strong, doesn't scream high ABV which is fine by me.

Excited to add Prairie/Evil Twin Bible Belt Even More to my list

K,

You’re definitely not doing it wrong!

Speedway is great.

I’ve reviewed wootstout itt. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I found it fine/unremarkable.

Don’t know the third one.

Victory sea is delicious and big vanilla flavor. Don’t think I’ve have the barrel aged version before, sounds great.

If you prefer the sweeter stouts to the coffee flavors, you should try some “milk stouts” - they tend to be on the sweeter, more chocolatey side. Though pretty much all of the high ABV barrel aged stouts will have quite a bit of sweetness.