I will be there in a week and a half! Can't wait to try Focal and Crusher!!!

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-- source

I recently tried some Oskar Blues IPA and was quite impressed. At about 10 bucks for a sixer, this beer is quite a steal.

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Good stuff.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Someone tell Goose to chill with the maple syrup/pepper combo in the Bourbon County variants. Though I guess maybe this year's version won't also have wild yeast to go with those additions

We cracked one open this weekend. I thought it was great.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

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Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I just don't like how they're bringing a version of that combo back already when I feel like Prop 13 is pretty much the consensus best new one they've done in the last few years.

We cracked a '13 as well. That one is phenomenal.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

This DIPA has gotten a lot of hype in New England and has a 92 rating on Beer Advocate, but I wasn't impressed. Too sweet--almost syrupy--and boozy. Maybe a half-step above a drain pour.

I'm beginning to believe that MANY New England craft beers--especially those from Vermont and Maine--benefit from an East Coast bias. The beer (and food) here simply isn't as good as New Englanders like to tell themselves it is.

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Had this golfing on Saturday. Pretty good, and I'm not really a fan of fruit beers.

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@audioidkid

I like it, but as far as West Coast brews go, I still prefer Alesmith IPA to anything Ballast Point produces.

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I haven't had that Long Trail but I've heard good things. I've passed it up a few times but that's more because I'm not really a fan of much that they do. I do try to not be too hard on distributed shelf beers in comparing them to brewery exclusives that you can literally purchase the day they're packaged, but it sounds like this wasn't very good no matter what standard was used.

My bigger worry is less about regional bias and more about the visual kind. A large segment of the beer drinking population seems to believe haze automatically makes for a good IPA and this in turn has led to a lot of lesser breweries appearing to pursue haze or turbidity as an end in itself. Some of the best IPAs in Vermont and Massachusetts have cloudy appearances but I've always gotten the sense that it was largely a byproduct of the brewers getting the taste where they wanted it. They weren't adding flour to their beer or simply putting it out on the market without cold crashing it.

Now however, you'll have lots of beer fans who think the more turbid the better, and I tend to think this biases their thoughts on a beer beyond its mere appearance. This has led to some IMO rather gross looking and mediocre tasting beers by breweries like Hoof Hearted and Pioneer being praised for their appearances and also receiving ridiculously inflated ratings across the board (Exhibit A and Exhibit B). I hate the stodgy old craft beer people who complain about any degree of cloudiness in an IPA as indicating it's unfinished or too yeasty or whatever, but I also strongly dislike the new breed of IPA drinkers who whine about less hazy beers lacking body or flavor. Personally I doubt either group would be very consistent at identifying their professed visual preferences in a blind tasting.

I can't stand most Ballast Point, especially Sculpin.

People in Southern California love it though.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Completely disagree with you, TM. I just got back from my NE excursion. Had so many great beers and delicious food, to boot.

Best beer were basically a toss-up between these two:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39297/204942/

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45496/239568/

Ended up bringing four cases back (two in my suitcase, other two arriving tomorrow). I have some work to do!

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-- source

There's plenty of good beer in New England. But it certainly doesn't match the hype in most cases. In fact, I would say that the enthusiasm for many beers here is directly proportional to its lack of availability beyond a very limited area.

Food is another story. Most people here have no idea what Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Persian, or German food should taste like. Don't even get me started on NE barbecue.

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Sorry. My vacation sucked then.

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-- source

For someone who lives in Illinois, you seem to be taking my view of New England very personally.

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I was kidding. We skipped Trillium, since that would have added too much time. My buddy muled up three cases from there, so I have my fill. We ended up driving up to Burlington that first night. We were welcomed with a very large, soaking wet, goatee-sporting women crawling out of a fountain (in the middle of Burlington...at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, mind you) as her husband shouted "YOU'RE STAYING IN THERE UNTIL YOU SOBER UP!" We then watched her walk into oncoming traffic. Quite a sight!

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-- source

Precisely. It's why Fat Tire was, and New Glarus is completely overrated and over-loved. I have heard MANY try to tell me that Spotted Cow is a great beer. It's average at best.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I like the vibe in Burlington quite a bit. Did you make it to Hill Farmstead?

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I completely agree.

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We did. Might be missing one or two, but we hit up Foam, Fiddlehead, Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Lost Nation, Bissell Brothers, River Roost, and Prohibition Pig (if you consider that to be a brewery).

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-- source

100% right on. After getting a taste of some "whales" I'm done. Just drink what's around. There's a lot of good stuff easily accessible these days. Let the wackos go chase

Been drinking a lot of Spiteful IPA lately. Have a 6 pack of Citra Hero getting cold.

Also been going to Only Child Brewing up here in Gurnee. They have a sour that was terrific. Their double IPA is really good, as is their wheat IPA and their No Way Jose Pale Ale (agave)

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So good.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I had it on tap at O'Tooles a couple of months ago and loved it. Grabbed some at the Jewels the other day to add to the stash.

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Some industry news/opinion.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... risis.html

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Elections have consequences.

You're going to continue seeing what we are already. The big boys will be swooping up the microbreweries. And, yeah, it makes complete sense that some of the smaller ones will just go away. There's only so much room in the market. Could have seen that coming for a long time.

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-- source

I've decided that if the beer isn't made with Great Lakes water or mountain runoff, it's generally not very good.

Beer in which the water comes from an aquifer (New Glarus) tends to have increased viscosity and a "sliminess" associated with well water. I'm pretty much done with Spotted Cow, Moon Man, Two Women. "Average" is a good description.

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@audioidkid

Moon Man is fine. Though we have way too many options here to bother with tracking down New Glarus, unless you're in WI, of course. I always pick up a sixer if I'm headed up I-94. Consider it a toll.

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-- source

I generally don't enjoy articles about the cliched craft bubble, but this one was especially annoying to me. I think it was mainly because aside from the utterly banal point that craft growth can't continue at the same rate forever, he actually mentions but then simply waves away the shift to brewery tasting rooms as a source of revenue because it doesn't fit the story he wants to tell. Most doomsayers aren't even aware of this trend, but the author of this piece apparently is but then simply dismisses it without much of an argument.