Intoxicated:

[Dinosaursssssss]

in their continuing journey to be the Most Rhode Island Company Ever (they also make Coffee Milk and Del's lemonade beers), Narragansett has released their 2nd Lovecraft themed beer.

 

It's pretty solid as far as $4 7% abv tall boys go.

[jennegatron]

I drank a flight of ciders at the Beer Shoppe and now I can't stop talking about low stakes dramas like Gilmore Girls.

Also, I know there are people on this forum from Davis & Sacramento, and I keep plotting as to how I can make them become my friends.

[Cleinhun]

Hey, I'm one of those. Can I join your plot? Can we form a friendship conspiracy?

[Problem Machine]

I grew up there but I'm in Eugene Oregon now. It's kind of like Sacramento except more so.

[jennegatron]

Hey, I'm one of those. Can I join your plot? Can we form a friendship conspiracy?

 

Of course. it is the friendliest conspiracy of all.

[Dinosaursssssss]

 

A store around the corner just started stocking these. I could feel the alcohol a little but at 2% abv it seems like they're mostly a novelty. It was pretty good though!

[Dewar]

I would buy one of those, if for no other reason than burbon cream is so good.

 

Edit: looks like they have a whole run of them http://www.vinotreats.com/BuzzBar.html

 

Edit 2: Texas only

[Badfinger]

I bought a growler at a place in-between where I work and live! It was $7-8 for the half gallon size, and then their fills work out to like $3-4 a pint. They have 50 craft beers on tap.

 

I'm excited. Taking recommendations from their current tap list.

 

http://www.thedelawaregrowler.com/

[Dewar]

I don't recognize a ton on that list, but Dogfish 120 minute IPA will put you on the floor real fast.

[jennegatron]

My recommendations are going to skew very much toward lighter balanced beers. I love german beers & american and belgian wheats, as well as ciders.

1. I think Abita's purple haze is delicious

2. I've never heard anything but high praise for Oberon, but have not tried it

3. I very much enjoyed new belgium's snapshot. Very bright.

 

That black cherry looks dope as does River Dictator & Hoffeweizen. 

Now is the time of year for the beers I like, as the wheats come out in the summer and I'm in beer heaven for a while.

 

If you prefer the IPAs or Porter/Stouts, I'm the last person you should ask for recommendations though.

[Dewar]

Nice, I'll have to pocket those recommendations myself as it sounds like we have similar tastes.

[Badfinger]

I don't recognize a ton on that list, but Dogfish 120 minute IPA will put you on the floor real fast.

 

Oh yes, very familiar with Dogfish. Their brewery is about 90 minutes from where I'm sitting right now. I worked at a taproom that always had 8 Dogfish beers on tap. About half the beers on this list are brewed within 2 hours from where I am actually, so some of them probably don't have more than regional distribution. If you are into American Wheats, I really recommend Dogfishhead Namaste. I have had the Purple Haze, and the New Belgium Snapshot was actually the first fill up for the growler as The Lady I Was Sharing The Beer With liked it. It was very good.

 

Jen, you would probably like the Festina Peche? Worth a taste, Peach Weissebier.

 

If you like saisons, the Sorachi Ace is a little bit higher than usual ABV for saisons but relatively cleanly hopped.

 

There are some IPAs I can stand, but if I'm drinking anything that leans towards that style I'm way more a summer/pale/(no prefix) ale guy than IPA. I love porters and stouts, too.

 

Shout out to the Free Will Kragle for having a rad name.

[Cordeos]

I started doing infusions last year and am looking for more recipes/ideas. Anyone got any?

 

Here is what I have made/have recipes for so far:

 

Krupnik (Polish honey liquor): http://polishplate.com/recipes/honey-spice-liqueur-krupnik-staropolski,8.html

 

Apple Pie (booze with apple pie spices and cider): 

1 gallon of apple cider
2 cups sugar
1/2 liter spiced rum
1/2 liter Everclear

Heat up the spiced cider(trader joe's is my favorite) and a couple of cinnamon sticks but DO NOT BOIL. Add the booze and bottle. You can remove the cinnamon sticks or leave them go until your done bottling.

 

Limoncello: https://food52.com/recipes/14975-homemade-limoncello

 

Eierlikor (sort of like eggnog):

8 pasteurized egg yolks
Vanilla sugar (28g)*
18oz Evaporated milk**
8.8oz powdered sugar(a little more than a cup)
4.25oz Everclear(a little more than a half a cup)

 

Rumtopf (fruit and rum drink made over a long time): http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172009.asp

 

I am thinking about trying a grapefruit-cello next.

[Badfinger]

Drinking Bell's Oberon right now. Well selected, thank you.

[Dewar]

For a couple of yearly parties we have with friends with Mexican ancestry, my former roommate would buy a nice 100% agave silver tequila and soak a pepper in it for a week (usually tied in cheese cloth just in case it fell apart when he removed it.) He went for Habenjero and later Ghost Pepper, but he's also insane. Then we'd take it over and the hosts would use it to make Grapefruit Margaritas, ending in an amazing blend of cool and refreshing with just a hint of heat. 

[JonCole]

I'm not really a big alcohol guy, but I recently tried Rekorderlig Cider which is this Swedish Strawberry-Lime cider that is fucking delicious. It tastes like candy, but not in the grating way that screams "this is for teens". It actually reminds me vaguely of Japanese Chuhai, though less candy-ish. I wish I could drink it like water, but it's not super-duper widely available where I live so I'm constantly hunting it down. For context, I usually drink some of the aforementioned lighter fare like Purple Haze and Snapshot as well as ciders like Angry Orchard or Woodchuck.

[Dinosaursssssss]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-25/can-craft-beer-survive-ab-inbev-

 

Read this article this morning and thought it was really interesting; it's about how Anheuser-Busch InBev have an arm of their company dedicated to buying up craft breweries (for example Goose Island, which surprised me) and how the industry has reacted to that. From the article, it seems like so far the purchased breweries have actually been treated pretty well by their new masters, but regardless they're perceived as having sold out.

 

The bit I found most interesting was an anecdote about the "Brewed the hard way" ad that Budweiser ran during the Superbowl. The ad is basically saying that Real Men drink Budweiser and only hipsters with funny mustaches drink craft beer, and not surprisingly that sorta pissed off some of the craft brewers working for AB. Which is extra weird 'cause in addition to buying breweries, Budweiser also created Shock Top to try and tap the craft beer market.

 

“Seeing the ad solidified my unwillingness to ever work with Anheuser-Busch again. There’s a big difference between an independent craft brewery that makes its own decisions and an enormous company that has one arm devoted to what they consider to be craft beer. In the case of Anheuser-Busch, they are perfectly content to have the different arms of their company at war with each other.”

[Mangela Lansbury]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-25/can-craft-beer-survive-ab-inbev-

Read this article this morning and thought it was really interesting; it's about how Anheuser-Busch InBev have an arm of their company dedicated to buying up craft breweries (for example Goose Island, which surprised me) and how the industry has reacted to that. From the article, it seems like so far the purchased breweries have actually been treated pretty well by their new masters, but regardless they're perceived as having sold out.

The bit I found most interesting was an anecdote about the "Brewed the hard way" ad that Budweiser ran during the Superbowl. The ad is basically saying that Real Men drink Budweiser and only hipsters with funny mustaches drink craft beer, and not surprisingly that sorta pissed off some of the craft brewers working for AB. Which is extra weird 'cause in addition to buying breweries, Budweiser also created Shock Top to try and tap the craft beer market.

Brand engagement is awful, especially when multiple brands under a single corporate head decide to bicker.

[jennegatron]

I'm glad my recommendations have been popular!
I'm drinking angry orchard's green apple cider now!

[Dewar]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-25/can-craft-beer-survive-ab-inbev-

 

Read this article this morning and thought it was really interesting; it's about how Anheuser-Busch InBev have an arm of their company dedicated to buying up craft breweries (for example Goose Island, which surprised me) and how the industry has reacted to that. From the article, it seems like so far the purchased breweries have actually been treated pretty well by their new masters, but regardless they're perceived as having sold out.

 

The bit I found most interesting was an anecdote about the "Brewed the hard way" ad that Budweiser ran during the Superbowl. The ad is basically saying that Real Men drink Budweiser and only hipsters with funny mustaches drink craft beer, and not surprisingly that sorta pissed off some of the craft brewers working for AB. Which is extra weird 'cause in addition to buying breweries, Budweiser also created Shock Top to try and tap the craft beer market.

 

Interesting, my friends are big into Elysian brewing and we haven't gone there recently. I wonder if that's why. I never heard about their sale, I love Shock Top, and never really paid attention where my beer is coming from. I guess I'm not quite that much of a beer snob.

[undermind9]

Great Lakes Brewery (Cleveland OH) changed art styles for all their beers recently.  This is my first 6pack i've seen of Edmund since the change, it tastes the same but feels different.  My once favorite freighter battered by a Lake Erie storm now looks like a tug boat splashing in a bubble bath at night. 

 

[Dewar]

I'd say I like the old style better as well, but the new isn't bad at least.

[Spenny]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-25/can-craft-beer-survive-ab-inbev-

 

Read this article this morning and thought it was really interesting; it's about how Anheuser-Busch InBev have an arm of their company dedicated to buying up craft breweries (for example Goose Island, which surprised me) and how the industry has reacted to that. From the article, it seems like so far the purchased breweries have actually been treated pretty well by their new masters, but regardless they're perceived as having sold out.

 

That was a real great read, really does a good job characterizing all the different players in this weird intersection of the old and new schools of the brewing industry. A friend of mine who works in the industry once told me that a brewery can't be considered large until they're managing a fleet of trucks, which I take to mean that distribution is largest inhibitor to growth. In Canada there are lots of laws that inhibit distributing beer between provinces, never mind international trade. It's very uncommon for me to see beer from other provinces, so, I have to figure that as the small breweries are being bought out, the biggest benefit to them is the distribution, and in the end as the consumer, I'm benefitted by this.

 

I also have trouble accepting the idea that this is AB Inbev trying to kill the craft industry and regain total control, sounds way to much like a conspiracy theory. I feel like every month I see a new Ontario brewery stocked in the liquor store, which makes me think that there is easily enough demand for more beer. I'm certainly in the market for more beers, I have tried about 200 different beers each year for the last 3 years, and that would be considered pretty weak by the Ratebeer elite. 

 

Ultimately it would be nice to see an entity who isn't a giant multinational corporation be able to figure this out themselves, and get the distribution figured out for the small guys, like a Devolver Digital for beers. As for myself, I'll try to keep the local small brews as my go to brews, but I'm going to keep trying beers regardless of who makes them.

 

Great Lakes Brewery (Cleveland OH) changed art styles for all their beers recently.  This is my first 6pack i've seen of Edmund since the change, it tastes the same but feels different.  My once favorite freighter battered by a Lake Erie storm now looks like a tug boat splashing in a bubble bath at night. 

 

I think those redesigns are all huge improvements, with the exception of the Edmund, which makes an epic painting unepic. One of my favourites breweries, Musoka, is redesigning all their labels, keeping most of the illustrations, but just changing the bottles and label material. I wonder if it's something they view as keeping the product alive, simply redesigning for the sake of redesign. 

 

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[miffy495]

Mmmm... Mad Tom. Hard to get out here in Alberta, but always worth it.

[jennegatron]

I am drinking a blonde that my college roommate brought for me from Eugene, Oregon.

It is so good and it makes me so happy. Also my favorite Dota 2 player is in the town I live in right now. I'm tipsy enough to think it's a good idea to go find him, but am sober enough to know that it's a bad idea.