I took my first drive up to Tree House. Jesus Christ their beers are all amazing.
nice! treehouse is the real deal, i haven't had a beer from them i don't love. i still need to make it out there, really no excuse not to go as i'm not far from monson, i'm just lazy lol.
i just made my first trip up to the alchemist on thursday. got to fly up with a friend of mine, the weather was absolutely perfect and prime foliage once you're that far up north. we went to the new facility in stowe, we each maxed out and got a case of focal banger, 8 headies and 8 crushers. no special/limited stuff on sale unfortunately, but we should have another trip up there in november. stopped off at a liquor store for some extra heady topper, plus 8 14th star tribue DIPA, and a couple rock art brews we don't get around here. my fridge is fucking incredible right now
It's totally worth the trip to Monson. Aren't you in Boston?
And yeah Vermont is great. I can't wait to go back.
One of my favorite local breweries, Karbach got bought out by AB today. Very, very sad day for a number of reasons, not the least of which are my friends who work on the community outreach team which will probably end up getting canned over this.
Made it up to The Alchemist on New Years Eve. They opened early, I got there at 10:20, so I was in and out in 3 minutes. Got the max, but didn't take a picture until I got home Sunday. Had already drank a few Focal Banger on NYE, and gave my Dad a 4 pack of them as well as a Crusher and a Heady Topper for watching the dog. The picture makes me sad that I don't have more.
I also learned it's not easy to tell them apart when they're laying down like that. All the tops are the same, need to look at the side for black/silver/no lettering.
Nice. Hope you had a good time in Stowe. Did you hit up any other breweries?
Just a heads up to drink those beers sooner rather than later. I actually popped a four month old focal banger last night that was somehow hiding in our main fridge instead of my beer fridge. It drank okay, but it was not pretty to look at.
Link to untappd since I deleted the picture off my phone already and untappd won't let you save pictures off of it. https://untappd.com/user/Xerlic/checkin/402304456
I didn't stop at any other breweries. We were staying near Killington, about 1hr 45min from The Alchemist. I couldn't convince the wife or any of our friends to come up with me so I didn't have the motivation to go to a few different places. If at least the wifey came with me I'd try to hit up a few more. Not really as fun alone.
Yeah, I plan on drinking them all asap, really. I usually have a beer or two when I get home from work so I may as well just go big.
That's the usual hop floaties in the can and doesn't really have anything to do with age. I've had them from day old Trillium and from 3 week old Trillium.
Also 2 weeks on a 'Heady is usually the sweet spot I find. Takes the "green" bite off the hops I find and balances a bit more with the body. There used to be a video of Kimmich explaining why he prefers em like this but lazy.
Good lord am I going to get a mountain of shit for this but the last and only time I've had Heady was 2-3 years back and it was an undrinkable mess. It tasted like I was drinking a can of used hop pellets soaked in water.
Found it.
My 4 month old Focal Banger was the exact same as that last can he poured. The first 75% of the can was completely clear. The last 25% had all the protein and sediment. Like I said, it didn't taste like anything bad, but that shit was not pleasant to look at as I drank it lol.
Haha, you're not alone. I have a friend who thinks all new england IPAs are complete garbage.
Xerlic, I saw your Hopslam check in on Untapped. Is this year's batch just getting more mediocre? Place near me stocks it, but I'm wary to spend the money on it when it's been so average.
Over the last two weeks I've been laying off beer to try and lose some weight (lol). However, was lucky enough to partake in Founder's "Cellar Raid". Had KBS for the very first time, and it was 2014 Bourbon Barrel. I don't think I've had a better beer in my life.
On a sad note, Hopcat has changed things and not for the better. Happy hour used to be $3.50 for Local 30. Now, it's $1.50 off. They used to give samples of anything. Now, if it's listed as a "mini snifter" you can't get a sample. Prices have gotten worse as well. It's really too bad.
yeah i've been trying to stay off beer for the very same reason, but it's tough. we just started getting really limited allotments of lawson's distributed here and my brother scored me a bunch of sip of sunshine... and weyerbacher's sunday morning stout is back in season...
i have no self-control, lol
Yeah that Sunday Morning Stout is crazy good. Since moving to a smaller city I don't see beers of that caliber anymore. Can't even get Roak Devil Dog anymore even though it's made only an hour and thirty away. Requested it by many stores but nope. However, on the bright side Dark Horse has come out with a new 8.5% stout called Rail La Spar which is close to Devil Dog. At $8.99 a 4 pack it's a great value. And Dark Horse's compilation with Old Nation called German Hobo Malt Liquor is pretty good too.
I'm not sure if Hopslam is getting worse or it's just the craft beer game has really stepped up in the years since Bell's first released Hopslam. Nowadays, every brewery under the sun has a DIPA and the bar for what is considered good is set higher and higher. To answer your question, I'd get a can just for FOMO, but you're probably going to find it very mediocre especially considering you just came back from VT.
I've definitely gained some weight this year, and I'm sure drinking 1-2 beers a night is partly to blame. I have a lot of dress shirts where it's getting really hard to button that top button. Thankfully I don't wear a tie most days to work lol.
I know a bunch of you guys are in the Northeast.
Equilibrium is a fairly newish brewery out of Middletown, NY and their beers are quite good if you're into the NE hazy style IPAs. I've had Photon, MC^2 and There and Back Again (sour) and thought each were phenomenal. They're not quite at the level of Tree House/Trillium, but I wouldn't be surprised if they get to that point in a year or two.
If you guys ever see their stuff on tap, I highly recommend trying them out. A buddy of mine and I drank so many glasses of MC^2 the other day that the bartender comped us both a glass. Never had that happen before lol.
Bought a mixed six at the only place in town that sells almost exclusively singles. Was offered a KBS when checking out. Was only $5.75 but I turned it down (been into Trips lately). The woman said, "I turned it down too. Just like Hopslam this year, I've been told by almost all of our customers KBS tastes watered down." I thought that was very interesting.
I've been drinking hopslam every year since 2010 and there is definitely an aspect of novelty that made it good, and although my tastes have greatly changed, the last 2 years seem to have substantially changed in their hop balance, and not for the better. I don't know, maybe I'm as jaded as you lol.
My personal beer collection has gained substantially because I've been drinking a lot less but still buying, lol. Fortunately, I have been buying with that knowledge, so it's mostly been stuff that I think will age well. Doing a beer exchange with a couple friends; one in Maine and one in New Mexico, and I'm in North Carolina. Trying to rope another friend in from Oregon so we can get a 4-corners thing going on
Scored the last KBS at the store from two posts up. Figured why not. Also am trying New Holland's Pilgrim's Dole for the first time.
Edit: I had the Pilgrim's Dole first. I'm barely a quarter into the KBS and I feel like I've already eaten three meals. I can't imagine having anymore.