Have a beer primed for this weekend, but in the meantime:
Spanish Granacha. Very enjoyable, and easy to recommend. It is fine with or without food. Rather unbelievable quality from an $8 wine. Will pick up a few more of these for that reason.
Sam Smith makes some the best damn beers. That head was out of control at the top of the glass before I even took the picture of it, beautiful.
Finally got up to Suarez Family Brewery the other weekend. We got three bombers to take home: Homespun, Look No Further, and Crispy Little. We drank the Homespun with friends so I didn't get a picture. Out of the three, Look No Further was my favorite by far.
Also snagged a 6 pack of Mosaic Promise from the Whole Foods near one of my offices, but it isn't quite as good as the batch a few years ago. Not sure if it's the brew or if they had it in storage for too long. Says it was packed in July, but didn't say a day. They also had KBS out which confused me as I had bought some in March when it's normally seen. Looked at the bottles and says it was packed in February. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHOLE FOODS?
Since my wife is pregnant I got to enjoy those two to myself. Definitely have to go back up and see what else they offer. Nice thing is the bottles are refillable too. Wish they were normal-sized growlers, though.
For the price KBS is not worth it anymore. Way too many better options for the price in my opinion.
I prefer their breakfast stout to KBS anyways tbh
Their breakfast stout is always great. I can second you on that. I don't go out of my way to find KBS anymore. The past two years or so I've happen to come across it so I've bought some. I used to check several distributors and tried to talk to people about getting some.
Some I'd put above KBS stout wise would be:
Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout
Rochester Mills Imperial Bourbon Barrel Milkshake Stout
Dogfish Head Bitches Brew
Goose Island Bourbon County
Dark Horse Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th
I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting and of course everyone has a local that's always a great one. The one thing I had recently by Founders that was a really nice surprise was Curmudgeon's Better Half. Absolutely a dessert beer but very very good.
Suarez is great. All their stuff is such low ABV that I ran their entire menu last time I was there. I really enjoyed Homespun and Backroads.
There was a ton of KBS made this year, so it's entirely possible that it's just been sitting out since February and nobody has been buying it. I'd also add DFH World Wide Stout to that list Kalmado posted. I haven't seen Bitch's Brew on shelves around my area in a long time.
Homespun was good, but I liked Look No Further more. They're about 40 minutes from my place so I want to go back in the near future. We put it off for a while because our friends are building a house 10 mins from the brewery and wanted to take us there. Finally caught them up there two weeks ago.
Oh shit I forgot about World Wide Stout. That's the most expensive bottled stout I've bought. Yeah that was pretty damn good. Bitches Brew just hit the shelf at my normal spot I go to. They sell it for $21/6pk. We were at a specialty mart which has a huge beer and wine area and they sold it for $15 so I bought it and thought it was very good.
I'd love to try some of Avery's higher ABV expensive stouts but I have a hard time spending more than $5 on a bottle because I'm cheap/frugal. I did buy their Rumpkin, a rum barrel aged Pumpkin ale clocking in at 16.3%. I want to say that one was $13 for 12 ounce. Was fantastic. Nothing to have on the regular though.
I could go on about "value" beers but the one I'd grab if you so happen to see it is Devil Dog Oatmeal Stout by ROAK.
Haha I don't think drinking BA stouts on a regular basis is sustainable. Both for your liver and for your wallet. I haven't had too much of Avery's stuff, but I did have Tweak last year and thought it was very solid.
I used to be like you and be pretty frugal when it comes to beer, but that changed as beer became more integrated into my life. It's probably my most active hobby now over gaming and MTG. I just picked up 2 bottles of Kane's ANTEAD for $57 and was like "Yeah this is fine". A year ago I would have thought that was insane.
Snagged two bottles of Lunch at the same Whole Foods. Checked the dates this time and confirmed they were recent. Forgot them at work, though. Wanted one tonight with dinner. Oh well.
Got all my gear for heading back to the gym come Monday so tonight is last craft beer night for a long time. Not sure if I can plow through everything. Or, I drink the Rumpkin and pass out immediately.
Beer dump:
So my birthday was the 2nd. This weekend we went out with friends to celebrate because last weekend was already booked for us and friends with a wedding, xmas party, and some family birthdays. One of my best friends was visiting his wife's family in MA and they stopped at Tree House on the way back. They saved 6 for me out of the case they bought.
I've only tried the Baby Bright so far, but it was really good. Not bitter at all, but also didn't have the citrus I was expecting. Definitely something I could drink indefinitely. Going to try one of the Haze tonight. My friend said that was his favorite of the variety they got.
Left to right: Alter Ego, Baby Bright, Haze, Julius, Trail Magic.
Nice. Haze is my close second favorite of the 5 core offerings. Im sure you'll enjoy it That can all the way on the left is actually AAAlter Ego btw. It's a more heavily dry hopped version of Alter Ego. Happy Birthday!
http://www.citypages.com/restaurants...land/504046211
Developer BevSource will be opening a public test lab in St Paul, MN to test a number of new beers, malts, spiked fruity drinks, & non-alcoholics made by independent & national brands.
Should be open by the end of April.They helped Crispin Hard Cider, Not Your Father's Root Beer, Spiked Seltzer, and dozens of other brands get off the ground.
But all that happens sort of behind the scenes. So this spring, BevSource is bringing the first drinker-focused arm of its brand to St. Paul: The Lab.
The pilot production facility and "playground" at 767 Eustis St. will give Twin Cities tipplers a first-of-its-kind opportunity to try popular drinks—alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike—providing feedback that could ultimately get those drinks on the market. (Or not.)
"We're making all this cool stuff," Johansen explains, "and we're like, it'd be really cool if customers could give us feedback before we actually go run 10,000 cases."
She admits that somewhat selfishly, they need a facility to do these test brews. It'll certainly be appreciated by their head brewer, former Lift Bridge brewmaster and Great American Beer Festival World Beer Cup medal winner Matt Hall.
But it should be a fun new experience for the community, too, with an ever-changing roster of 12 beers, malt beverages, and spiked drinks on tap, plus 12 or more NA products to sample.
I haven't done any type of search or what not but just curious, is there anything non-alcoholic other than pilsner? I'd just assume a stout could never get that same flavor non-alcoholic but I'm curious. Side note, I forget the brand off hand but they do an IPA, a raspberry ale, and a pilsner and it's gluten free. The IPA is I think 7.2% and wonderful. Nice to have something like that w/out gluten if you choose.