Someone with better eye for these things can probably figure out what size these glasses are, here's a pic from last year from their facebook, they pour basically to the brim. I guess something between 4-6oz? They made special note that one of the beers was a half pint, so I assume it has to be less than 8oz, because that beer (Bell's Cherry Stout) seems like one they'd have a bigger pour for.

link to facebook

I believe my marriage has survived my drunkenness levels from Sunday, and I was happy to eat solid food again by Monday night. (Ate a ton of pizza and wings Sunday night, but didn't feel good!) So I guess mission accomplished? I think something about life with a small child makes me feel like because I don't get out a ton I have to go nuts when I do. Probably not healthy.

I'm all for a nice high end beer off, but I think if I were drinking that many high abv beers I'd have serious regrets the next day.

MA bros,

We're getting toppling Goliath this month. Not that mass needs more hop juice, but I look forward to trying it and then hardly ever buying it.

that's why you start early, go slowly, and drink water as often as possible. Granted, I've never left a Hopeleaf Super Bowl Sunday close to sober, so......(though I didn't go this year)

FTR, if I still lived in Chicago, cit's report would have motivated me to get to Hopleaf next year.

I also totally understand the, "I've got a kid, I'm going hard tonight" mentality.

I'm just standing here watching, not judging. Just like I do in the fast food thread.

Had a Rye Abyss tonight - pretty good.

People underrate getting completely ****ed up. I thought I’d get over it at some point in my life but at 35 I still feel like just letting go and getting proper hammered is great.

To be fair when I feel like **** the next day I don’t have kids bouncing around ruining my life.

That describes my plan perfectly.

I don't care much for getting very drunk, but sometimes the mood calls. It's usually a Saturday when I've barbecued, everything turned out well, and it's time to start cracking the stouts.

That said, I generally try to limit how many BA stouts I have in a sitting to just a few. Besides the alcohol content, I feel like the flavors tend to get pretty muddled.

SF Beer peeps,

SF Beer Week is upon us. It's just out of control now: https://sfbeerweek.org/schedule/

I don't really plan to go to any events anymore, I just check out what's happening close to me each day. For those of you super into Pliny the Younger, it's all over the place this year.

Willows and Sycamore both have half price beers every afternoon from the night before, that's always a great deal. And the last day at Willows is always fun, 50% off all the beers from the week.

Swung by Cellarmaker for this today. Very tasty! Tons of milk flavor, tons of vanilla, lighter on the coffee flavor - definitely a very latte vibe.

Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Latte Vastness of Space
Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout / 11.5% ABV / 45 IBU
After Aging In A Breckenridge Bourbon Barrel For Over A Year, We Conditioned Our Imperial Stout The Vastness Of Space On Espresso Beans From Sightglass Coffee, Whole Vanilla Beans And Lactose Sugar. The Result Is Like Whiskey Infused Hot Cocao And Mudslides. In Other Words, DAMN GOOD

Yes, yes, yes!

Was afraid I would have to be content with the 30 non-alcoholic beers found in stores here, the internet didn't offer my country shipping. I in fact probably was the guy helping to open the doors, looking forward to tasting another 50!

On a general point, the aroma from a newly poured beer will be one of my main attentions. Wheat beers have incredible fruity-citrus notes. Intense and short lived sensation.

Tried both of these today for the first time. Pretty exquisite stuff. Turns out it’s Tuesday is pretty great, but Black Tuesday really stands out ahead of it. Pretty wild barrel aged beer with a strange tartness to it. I really like it.

That sounds really good, do you know if it will be around for awhile? I went through the event list to jot down stuff that looked interesting (took quite a long time) and noted that Wednesday they're releasing an Evil Twin collab imperial stout called Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Evil Spread, which also sounds amazing.

Side note, but somehow Valentine's Day wound up being super stacked with events. There's the above Cellarmaker release, then Sycamore is doing imperial night w/ BCBS Rare and like 25 Eclipse vintages/varieties, Alvarado Street takeover at Crafty Fox, and Black Tuesday + variants event at City Beer Store. How do you choose?!

I'm not the biggest BBA guy out there but I know a lot of you are. Had this last night and it was absolutely fantastic. One of the best BA stouts I've ever had. Other Half Hypersleep with chocolate, peanuts (which were very noticeable in a good way), and vanilla

Goofy,

Vanilla latte vastness went on weds. Usually they last at least a week, but I just have no idea with beer week crowds.

As for the events, I just don’t worry about it anymore and just go wherever’s convenient and doesn’t sound likely to be too crowded. Check out the list at beer basement btw. I think they’re gonna have a lot of good stuff on this week.

Had this today. Tasty dipa collaboration from cellarmaker and moonraker. Mainly just posting because I like the can.

Moonraker is awesome, their crush series is one of my favorites, since they seem to be one of the few making great tasting, full body hazy stuff at 5-6%

I had Treehouse Julius and Green tonight for the 1st time. Loved them both! I think I prefer Green over Julius though. I have a Haze and Bright with S/A waiting for me this weekend. I wish I could get NEIPAs that were half this good here in Indy.

Beer peeps,

Had some beers...

A couple of sours:


Allagash Uncommon Crow was recommended by 00cooler. Pretty good stuff. I thought it was a little one-dimensional, though. Good berry flavor and nice sourness level, but not a ton more going on. Liked it, but didn't love it. $10.99 or $11.99/375 @ Target.

Hermitage Cherry Almond. Holy cow was this great. The cherry is a relatively light cherry flavor as opposed to a really strong, sweet fruit flavor. The almond is a background nutty taste that adds some great body to the flavor. And it's got a great level of funkiness to it, just a fantastic beer. $8.99/375 @ Target. These guys down in San Jose are making some great sours. I think I reviewed their Strawberry Rhubarb sour before, another excellent one.

Also visited a local place Triple Voodoo for an SF beer week release they were doing.

That description from them is right on. Delicious stuff. They were also making floats with brown butter ice cream. Had to try one of those too! In general I’m kinda whatever re: beer floats, but this was amazing.

Also tried this crazy beer.

This was crazy. It was like drinking a beer while smoking a joint. Intense weed aroma and flavor. I drank a small 8oz just to try it, but not something I want to drink much of.

Edit: Gonna have to swing by Cellarmaker sometime to try this:

Stopped by Cellarmaker last night, they still had Vanilla Latte which was super delicious as promised, and also Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Evil Spread. It was pretty good but there was a very dominating nutty flavor (I didn't know ahead of time it had hazelnuts, so it's nice to have occasional confirmation of my ability to taste basic things) which I think might be a little polarizing. I've been drinking Grey Monday for years and found the hazelnut addition to Black Tuesday to be more subtle and rich in that beer, but here it's nutty like Rocky Road. So, if you're into that, I'd expect you'd like this beer a lot. I didn't get a lot of maple flavor, not sure in what form that was supposed to be imparted ("maple bourbon barrel aged" is kind of ambiguous).

That was only my second night of partaking in beer week festivities - on Tuesday I stopped by Monk's Kettle with my gf to have a couple quick drinks at a Bruery event there (had One Way Or Another, sour with meyer lemons and marionberries, and Grey Monday) before going to a beer pairing dinner with Fort Point at 18 Reasons, a nearby cooking school nonprofit. Food was really good and while Fort Point doesn't do anything crazy style-wise, their beer is always solid and went well with the food. Good meal

Also last night, went to City Beer Store for a Bruery event and was surprised to see they also had a Moonraker event at the same time. They had just run out of the IPA that my brother in law said was the best he ever had (he was also a bit boozed up so I think most beers he had last night were the best he ever had), but we tried a couple others that were also amazing and super juicy. Had a couple Bruery beers too but it's always a little weird to go to their events and drink stuff that I have bottles of at home anyway, even if it's really good. They had Vindictive on draft (2016 Black Tuesday with grenache/syrah/mourvedre grapes) which is still drinking very nicely.

Nice, I'm thinking of going there for their anniversary party on Friday which advertises a few barrel aged releases (and hopefully imperial mocha shake will still be around), including Shadow Boxing which I think is a realllllllly good under the radar BA stout.

goofy,

If they have ice cream floats Friday, get one! And yeah, Shadow Boxing is really good.

There are some decent options here in town now! Most recently, Juiced in Time from Upland. Great beer that holds up to the best nationally. Should still be some around.

450 North in Columbus, IN has stepped their game up also. The Nuggets series is legit and their Fresh Froot milkshakes are great.

In addition to that, black circle has had a few, and the head brewer at Rock Bottom downtown has had a few killer NEIPAs. Maui Wowie the most recent.

Bare Hands from Granger distributes here are their Joe England and Mom and Dad have both been good.

snaps bros

those look goooooood. and I need to find the "drinking a beer + smoking a joint" mixed beer

Yeah I see the 450 North stuff being traded for Tree House all the time so I assume it's solid.

Made my first trip up to Hill Farmstead yesterday. Great spot, though for being not too far off the highway it's really in the middle of nowhere.

What CANS did they have?

Those pours above tilt the **** out of me.

Why KC? No head?

No head, not optimal for aroma, pain in the ass to drink.

Pretty solid lineup. Double Galaxy, Difference and Repetition (Citra+Nelson IPA), Society and Society #6 (Mosaic DIPA) and their brown ale George. They all started the day w/no quantity limits but by the time I got there @3 Double Galaxy was down to 2 6'ers pp, and there were only 4 of the D+R's left. Had been waiting for some good bottles(annual Juicy release + Flora blueberry/black currant /raspberry/cherry)+cans to finally visit and was definitely happy with my haul.

Apparently they were swamped at open but barely anybody was there while I was.