Yeah it's an interesting little novelty but that's really all it is
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- Thread starter Snuggles
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Yeah it's an interesting little novelty but that's really all it is
distantmantra
Member
Tastes like root beer with a shot of base ethanol. No thank you.
That's very accurate. The ethanol makes up almost the entire aftertaste too.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Had a bottle of Off Color Brewing's Fierce today. The guy at the local store that loves sours recommended it, and I figured I should give one more sour a try.
Yeah, that style is not for me. And I never realized I had gone through 5 sour beers at this point to earn an Untappd badge. The only ones I rated well were Goses, which taste more like white wines than anything.
Well, I gave the style several tries, and I know not to go back. They were not terrible, but they just aren't my speed.
Thankfully, it is coming up on stout season. And I love me some stouts.
Yeah, that style is not for me. And I never realized I had gone through 5 sour beers at this point to earn an Untappd badge. The only ones I rated well were Goses, which taste more like white wines than anything.
Well, I gave the style several tries, and I know not to go back. They were not terrible, but they just aren't my speed.
Thankfully, it is coming up on stout season. And I love me some stouts.
distantmantra
Member
The nice thing about not liking sours is the money you'll save.
There is absolutely nothing in it that reminds me of any sort of top fermented ale (ie. Beer).
There is absolutely nothing in it that reminds me of any sort of top fermented ale (ie. Beer).
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Since i am not a home brewer (yet. I wanna try it someday), enlighten me as to why sours are so expensive. Is the brewing process that difficult and the yields are low? Or, is it them just gouging the prices to take advantage of it being the new "in" thing? My logical side of the brain goes with difficult brewing. The pessimist side goes with them taking advantage of it being the hip thing.
EDIT: A quick Google search later, and I found a NYT article from 5 years ago about them. And this choice quote: “Sour beers will never become the pale ales of craft brewing.” Well, they are now.
distantmantra
Member
Aside from kettle soured beers like Berlinerweisses and Goses, sour beers take a long time to make. They use more volatile yeast strains that can make a beer "sick" before getting better. They also sometimes utilize expensive brewery equipment like puncheons, foudres, coolschips and/or oak barrels. Want to use fruit in your sour beer? There's an additional cost. They're extremely sensitive to temperature. An IPA doesn't take very long to make and you turn around and make more that. That wild ale? It might sit and take up space in your brewery for a year before you see a return on investment. Those bacteria and wild yeast need to time develop. It also might go bad and you end up dumping it and losing everything. Or you do what Deschutes did and try to sell it under a bunch of hype...
There are some sour producers that don't gouge oh costs like de Garde and they're very vocal against breweries who like to charge more than fair prices (ie. Pizza Boy and Cascade).
And sours will never be the new "pale ale," they're still pretty niche. The new pale ale for the mass market craft drinker is session IPA.
There are some sour producers that don't gouge oh costs like de Garde and they're very vocal against breweries who like to charge more than fair prices (ie. Pizza Boy and Cascade).
And sours will never be the new "pale ale," they're still pretty niche. The new pale ale for the mass market craft drinker is session IPA.
MacGurcules
Member
I'm bummed, guys. The sour I was brewing up to enter into some upcoming competitions turned out terrible. Just awful. And it's a recipe I've brewed like a dozen times.
I think I'm just going to withdraw my entries.
I think I'm just going to withdraw my entries.
bumbillbee
Member
Sorry I should've specified, I'm still in Oakland right now so I found it at Trappist Provisions. Not thrilled with the price (9 dollars for a pretty damn small pour) but I guess that comes with the territory at places like that.
newdayrocks
Member
Pro-Tip
I'm definitely getting to this point. May just skip pumpkin beers altogether this year.
theSlacker
Member
Pro-Tip
Schlafly's pumpkin beer is pretty good. Before I tried it that picture represented my opinions on them as well.
distantmantra
Member
I'll be at Holy Mountain tonight with some friends playing board games. You in town yet?
ErnieMcCracken
Member
It's good, but not as good as Hunahpu's (if you've had that). Think I still have 2 bottles left...
I stick to Sam Adams Fat Jack and Cigar City Good Gourd (if I can get my hands on it) for Pumpkin Beers. I've tried at least 8-10 Pumpkin beers and I found most of them to be mediocre. Southern Tier Warlock, Southern Tier Pumking, Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, Cisco Pumple Drunkin, Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin, Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Punkin Ale.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
If Fat Jack is your go to and you recommend Cigar City I will look for that one. Thanks!
It's got a stronger spice taste to it then pumpkin. It's also got a real warmth to it, nice beer for the fall if you live somwhere where the weather gets nice.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
Drinking a Steven's Point Whole Hog pumpkin brew and it's really solid. Tastes like pumpkin pie and not just a spice bomb or Yankee Candle (Pumking). I enjoy pumpkin ales but it's hard to find a good one I really enjoy. For the spice forward ones I think Weyerbacher and Sam Adams are solid. Schlafly is good but still doesn't nail it for me. Enough pumpkin beer talk, I'm ready for the fresh-hop stuff to start coming in.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
It's amazing but I gave up trying to trade for it anymore due to insane hype. Maybe I'll have it again someday. My friend just come back from FL with some Cigar City Jai Alai IPA which is fantastic. Had too much of that when I was in FL last year. Would love to them expand up to here but I don't think that will be anytime soon (if ever).
matt360
Member
I'm glad to see the hype for pumpkin beer dying down on this board. That way if the demand goes down enough, maybe Southern Tier and some of these other places will start exporting to Japan again! No Pumking for the last two years due to popular domestic demand. But I heard it's been getting worse every year.
I still think the demand is very high for it in the states. As I mentioned earlier, my Whole Foods just got a gigantic shipment of all kinds of pumpkin beer last week. Shit is flying off the shelves too.
Hunahpu is crazy expensive these days. I'm sure the event is fun but it's a lot of money for me with the expense of the ticket plus hotel.
I did get to try their Zhukov which was good but major overrated, especially when something like Old Rasputin is so easy to get.
MacGurcules
Member
There's some diehards for it, but I think they're a fairly shallow pool. One of my local stores, seeing their Pumking supplies regularly snatched up with a quickness, decided to order a pallet of it last year. Those people buying it up definitely bought everything they wanted, but there was precious little interest otherwise. He was sitting on cases of the stuff for months.
I don't know if he finally sold it all, but it eventually disappeared around June when it was marked down to like $3/bomber. I'd say it's even odds that he just pulled it for a couple of months before bringing it back out for the regular season.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
Probably better chances of tasting it at a major event ala DLD or the like. When I was at GABF in 2012 I got to try Apple Brandy Barrel-aged Hunahpu's (at Falling Rock) and it was one of the best beers I've had. Simply amazing. I bought 4 glasses of it as there were supposed to be some other co-workers on the way. They didn't show up and I had/shared 3 and gave one away to someone who missed out. Falling Rock was killing it that week:
http://www.fermentedlychallenged.com/2012/09/falling-rock-announces-2012-gabf-events.html
The bars out there are better to visit than the festival itself.
CrazyDogg77
Member
How can you store a bomber if you don't finish the whole thing in one sitting?
Send me the damn bombers and I'll finish them in one sitting.
MacGurcules
Member
There are a few options for caps that you can use to reseal them. None of them is really a perfect option, though.
If you drink half a bottle and then recap it, what's left will lose carbonation into the headspace and the oxygen in there will start doing bad things to your beer. For something you hate to waste and that you're going to drink the next day, it's better than pouring it out, but far from ideal.
newdayrocks
Member
I'll usually pour the rest into one of my growlers/grunts, which isn't perfect, but will hold it for a day or two. But I generally drink entire bombers, so rarely have that problem.
It's not worth it. Intend to finish it if you open it. The bottle capper things that are sold never work
Where do you live? They are usually on the shelf for quite a while out here (Buffalo, NY) after release. According to google looks like December-ish release usually.
Edit: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/357/34484/
Have they really not released it since 2013? Ive definitely seen it on the shelves since then.
Florida. Thanks for the info though, probably be more activity around the holidays to find a bottle online.
Edit: They definitely have because 2014 was the first year they put the sunglasses on the helmet I believe.
ErnieMcCracken
Member
That's incorrect. It was well before that as I traded for a bottle years ago and it had the glasses on it. It may have been the second (2010?) release that they were forced to do it for.
Last bottle I drank was 2013 release, and it had sunglasses, *nose and mustache.
yeah i recently did a vertical of Imperial Stout Trooper
the beer is made once a year (around december), doesnt leave connecticut and sells out very quickly (a day or two)
if you have access to older ones, id buy them, the beer holds up well and has a trade value in the instance you dont like it, you can trade up to a fresher one,
Awesome pics!
Are you saying the Barrel aged doesnt leave connecticut, or the normal? Because I've bought the normal one off the shelf here in NY. On the Ive never even heard about the barrel aged until right now, so you must be talking about that one?
Intheflorsh
Banned
Just tried a bottle of Reissdorf Kolsch, it was wunderbar.
fuck yeah dude, fuck yeah.
Intersting. They must hook up our distributor, because it's a shelf turd at a couple locations around here haha. Might need to start snatching it up for trades when it releases this year.
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