54 minutes ago, QBhunter58 said:

Born and bred in NC: grew up in charlotte, in the Triangle for grad school + after... I can attest to the amazing brewery scene that has really grown recently in carolina. I already have a trip to asheville planned for the fall. Great coffee  shops in the morning for the mrs, hiking/exploring in the afternoon, and some nice cold brews at night (just added wicked weed to the list, thanks). 

Very cool.  It's rare that I meet people that are ever from Charlotte.  Everyone is a transplant here nowadays. A couple other really awesome spots in Asheville if you have the time:

-The Grove Park Inn.  My wife and I stayed there a few years back for Valentine's Day.  It's up in the Blue Ridge mountains, and it has 5-6 amazing restaurants and one of the coolest spas in NC.  Even if you don't stay there, it's worth a visit to sit in one of the rocking chairs in front of their gigantic fireplaces, and sip on some bourbon.

-Posana - My wife have celiacs, and the owner of Posana does too.  Every single item on the menu is gluten-free.  The food is as good as it gets.  I had a gnocchi dish, and I couldn't tell the difference.  

So last page I posted about a new beer from local brewery Double Nickel called Ripe, an IPA made with blood orange and tangerine and it was really good.  Well, seems it's actually a series and the next one they're coming out with is a Key Lime flavour.  The rep stopped by for the first time since all this crazy ish started and gave me a sample to try.  Now I like Key Lime so was really looking forward to trying this beer.  And it's good.  Very pronounced lime flavour, but not overly tart.  Took me a couple sips to get used to it and it's getting better the more I drink it.  I still like the blood orange-tangerine one better.  They also have a pineapple one they've done for brewery only release.  The rep also said they got one of those machines to make frozen beer slushies and the frozen version of the Key Lime Ripe is really good.  

 

I love these fruit beer series that all these breweries are coming out with.  I have yet to try any of the JREAM series from Burley Oak.  They were the ones that started it all, maybe 10 years ago.

14 minutes ago, xzmattzx said:

I love these fruit beer series that all these breweries are coming out with.  I have yet to try any of the JREAM series from Burley Oak.  They were the ones that started it all, maybe 10 years ago.

I've had a few of them.  They are very good.  Didn't know they started it 10 years ago, thought they were fairly new.  Hadn't heard of Burley Oak until a year or two ago when my colleague from the other store went down to Berlin, MD area to visit a friend and she came across the brewery and brought back some of the JREAMs.  

15 hours ago, Green_Guinness said:

I've had a few of them.  They are very good.  Didn't know they started it 10 years ago, thought they were fairly new.  Hadn't heard of Burley Oak until a year or two ago when my colleague from the other store went down to Berlin, MD area to visit a friend and she came across the brewery and brought back some of the JREAMs.  

I looked it up, and it looks like they started it about 5 years ago.  It still predates the kettle sour trend by a few years, though.

Enjoying this while watching the Flyers trying to clinch the #1 seed, Trillium Peach Super Soak.  A damn fine Sour.

 

Did you get that from me? I cant recall

18 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Did you get that from me? I cant recall

Yes.  Thanks.

Ah cool i knew i had a few. Now i have one left 😞

guess the four Dark Lords will have to make up for it

What a tough consolation for you.  How will you survive such an endeavour?

Just got this Stout in today from a brewery in Ireland called Lough Gill.  I had brought in a couple of their Stouts before and they were quite good.  This one, Sometimes You're A Nut, is an Imperial Stout at 10% ABV made with chocolate, coconut and almonds.  So basically an Almond Joy flavoured Stout.  While pouring it I thought it looked a bit thin, but it's does have a bit of a viscous and creamy mouthfeel (yeah, have at it with that line, you F'ing pervs).  Flavour-wise it's tasty with the milk chocolate dominating with just a hint of coconut and I don't really get any almond flavour.  Kind of a bummer.  It's still a very good Stout, just not exactly what was promised.  If it had a bit more coconut and just a touch of almond flavour then this would be banging.  And the ABV is too well hidden here.  A couple of these and you'll sway a bit when you try to get up off your arse.  I also got a Nitro Milk Stout from them called Arethusa.  Amazingly, both these Stouts came in rather cheap.  The previous ones were not.  Not really expensive, but more in the ballpark for what higher ABV Stouts should be.

 

Looks good! The imagery on the can is too hipster American for me, though.

 

I just had a barrel-aged quad from Pumphouse Brewery in Longmont, Colorado today. The brewery itself was nothing special, whether from there or just tasting around on a vacation like (I was).  But the quad was pretty good and went down smooth.

 

I also had a NEIPA from Resurgence Brewery in Buffalo today, since the Phillies were playing there for the first time since 1885.  This was the best of their "pandemic IPA series", according to the bartender.  Social Distancing IPA was pretty good.

Decided that once a week I'm going to treat myself to some good unusual/limited beers as I have a whole stash I've accumulated over months that I haven't brought any home yet.  Since it's still warm out I started off with a couple fruited Sours.  

First is Dogfish Head's Festina Lente, made with a generous amount of peaches and aged in Chardonnay barrels.  Definitely got the peach flavour and it's more of a traditional Sour Ale than the current trend of fruited Berliners and Goses.  Nice soft funky tartness to balance the fruit.  

Then I had Allagash's Fox Leap, a Sour aged in Bourbon barrels and aged on fresh cherries.  Allagash only does traditional Belgian-style Sours so this one was very well balanced between the sweetness of the cherries and Bourbon and the wild funk that Allagash likes to bring to their beers.  I liked this one a bit better than the Festina.

Both were really good and represented the style well.  I still have other Sours, Meads, and Stouts in the stash.  Probably finish off the Sours/Meads first and then move to the Stouts when it gets cooler/colder.  There's some big boy Stouts in there.

 

So my treat for this week I went in a different direction:  Mead.  

There's a local winery called Valenzano (though they also started a brewery called Brotherton, no taproom yet, but heard they just found a property they're going to build one on soon) that came out with 3 Meads last year.  Two of them were quite good, the 3rd which was a coffee flavoured one was meh.  They just came out with this new one called Yellowjacket that's made with blackberries and aged in Brandy barrels.  Sounded intriguing so I brought a bottle home to try it.  Feel like even for a Mead it's on the sweet side, tasty with ample blackberry flavour, but a touch sweeter than I'd like.  And not getting as much of the Brandy barrel as I was hoping for.  It's OK, but this is one and done for me.

 

Do you get Liquid Alchemy Meadery in your area?  They are based out of Newport, DE.

On 9/1/2020 at 12:28 AM, xzmattzx said:

Do you get Liquid Alchemy Meadery in your area?  They are based out of Newport, DE.

Have not heard of them before, but will check them out.  

450 release coming up the 11th

Concrete Beach in Miami is closing (it was owned by a Samuel Adams subsidiary) and the space is being bought by Dogfish Head to be a new Miami brewpub.

 

https://amp.miamiherald.com/miami-com/nightlife/article245322945.html

Abomination is doing single hop varietals of their Wandering Into The Fog IPA.  I had previously got a mixed case of Sabro and Vic Secret and recently got the El Dorado, but didn't get the Citra which was disappointing.  Today I got 1cs each of Cashmere and Strata so I made 2cs of mixed 4pks out of them.  Brought home a 4pk tonight to try out, plus one of my best craft customers (owns the Chik-Fil-A across the parking lot) gifted me the Citra one he got a 4pk of at another store.  I tried the Cashmere tonight and it's really good.  Waiting on trying the other 2 as I want to try them when they're the 'first' beer I have on the night instead of having them after another beer/s.  

I did follow up the Cashmere with another Abomination offering, The Harvester, a Sour with gooseberry, mango and red raspberry.  This was also very tasty.  Check out the pic.  Isn't she pretty?  

For the Flyers Game 7 on Saturday night, after work I'm going over my former colleague's to watch the game and I'm bring these 3 Stouts with me.  She loves Stouts so if we have another OT game I might not be as tense after indulging in these big boys.

 

5 minutes ago, xzmattzx said:

Concrete Beach in Miami is closing (it was owned by a Samuel Adams subsidiary) and the space is being bought by Dogfish Head to be a new Miami brewpub.

 

https://amp.miamiherald.com/miami-com/nightlife/article245322945.html

As long as they don't start making  seltzers.

 

17 hours ago, Green_Guinness said:

Abomination is doing single hop varietals of their Wandering Into The Fog IPA.  I had previously got a mixed case of Sabro and Vic Secret and recently got the El Dorado, but didn't get the Citra which was disappointing.  Today I got 1cs each of Cashmere and Strata so I made 2cs of mixed 4pks out of them.  Brought home a 4pk tonight to try out, plus one of my best craft customers (owns the Chik-Fil-A across the parking lot) gifted me the Citra one he got a 4pk of at another store.  I tried the Cashmere tonight and it's really good.  Waiting on trying the other 2 as I want to try them when they're the 'first' beer I have on the night instead of having them after another beer/s.  

I did follow up the Cashmere with another Abomination offering, The Harvester, a Sour with gooseberry, mango and red raspberry.  This was also very tasty.  Check out the pic.  Isn't she pretty?  

For the Flyers Game 7 on Saturday night, after work I'm going over my former colleague's to watch the game and I'm bring these 3 Stouts with me.  She loves Stouts so if we have another OT game I might not be as tense after indulging in these big boys.

 

As long as they don't start making  seltzers.

 

Too late DFH started a guava and hop seltzer

2 hours ago, ToastJenkins said:

Too late DFH started a guava and hop seltzer

Figures.  FFS, Coors has a seltzer now as does Bud Light Platinum.  It wasn't enough that Bud Light had a line of seltzers, but now Platinum needs one, too?  And a lot of craft breweries, national/regional/local, are making seltzers as well.  Between all the seltzers (mainly White Claw) and the friggin High Noon that's more out of stock from the distributor than in stock yet people are always asking about it, even calling to see if we got any in (normally we get 10cs of ONE flavour once/week or every other week and it sells out in 2 days, today we got 20cs of the variety 8pks and that won't last the holiday weekend).  

I'm really thinking I need to invent a pumpkin spice White Claw flavoured edible body lotion so I get blowies everyday til I die.

 

discovered Orpheus brewing out of ATL - their Dipa is solid at 10%

Too bad the Flyers didn't show up last night, but at least I was drinking good beers with a friend.  The 3 Stouts pictured a handful of posts above.

Windmill's Mile High Squares had a strong aroma of PB, but didn't really get it in the taste.  Did get the marshmallow, chocolate and black licorice.  Nice mix that made for a tasty treat.

The Dogfish Utopias Barrel Aged World Wide Stout (17.3% ABV) was really good.  Definitely got the Brandy-like flavour of the Utopia barrel that blended well with the bold richness of WWS.

Toppling Goliath's Mornin' Delight was outstanding.  I don't think I've ever had a Stout where the maple flavour was so on point and it blended very nicely with the coffee and base flavour of the Stout.  You could smell the maple jump out of the glass and the flavour coated your tongue.  Not overpowering at all, in fact, damn near perfect.

 

Untitled Art in WI putting out some quality stuff

sweet and sour orange ipa is excellent

I had a milkshake IPA from Southern Tier out of NY called Vanilla Whipp - restaurant I was at had it on tap.  It was f'in delicious.