GIVE ME YOUR BEER SUGGESTIONS!!

[Kraftster]

The local Portland scene seems incredible with cascade, logsdon farms, upright, double mountain, new old lompoc, deschutes. Is pelican out there? That's just stuff I've tried (other than upright). My god. Don't know what their distribution is like though as compared with philly.

[JS©]

Heading home tomorrow morning, have a growler of East End that will definitely be flat by the time I get back on Sunday.

Guess it's time to put in work.

[UVM2003]

I said arguably - and personally it's EASILY the best craft city.

But since you questioned my logic: its the Only place outside of NorCal that gets Pliny the younger on release as well as constant barrels of Elder. Cantillon? Yep, all the time. Only place outside of Greensboro Bend that gets Hill Farmstead. Heady topper too. Good luck finding that outside of the cannery.

San Fran is probably the only city in the country that could compete with the distribution that Philly sees.

http://www.seekabrew.com/distro/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Asheville, Austin, and Portland all have craft scenes that blow Philly out of the water. Asheville alone has at least a dozen breweries in town.

Portland, perhaps. But to say Asheville and Austin blow Philly out if the water is a bit much. as I said this is arguable. Philly sees distribution that no other city does. Their craft beer week brings places like funky Buddha with beer unavailable at its tap room. If we are talking number local breweries I'd agree with you, but it's much more than that. Hell, Pittsburgh may have more local craft breweries than Philly but its craft scene is dwarfed.

Speaking of Austin - jester king is interesting if not overrated. I haven't had anything that I'd buy again (black metal, thrash metal, and Mad meg)

[JoseCuervo]

I said arguably - and personally it's EASILY the best craft city.

It's a stupid thing to argue and even try to crown a "best place to get craft beer."

There is really no point to argue on this.

[legame]

You may be right as far as sheer distribution goes. I do believe DC gets just as much in as Philly, though... with an additional arm into the growing southern microbrew market that Philly hasn't quite reached yet.

[Kraftster]

Pumking glass tonight at Ho1kB. Boom.

[MWB]

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome..... Good. Very smooth and drinkable, but not a whole lot of character to it. Kind of surprising for a winter beer.

[MWB]

Picked up Southern Tier Xmas and Chimay Ale. Maybe have the Chimay tomorrow.

[MRandall25]

Picked up Southern Tier Xmas and Chimay Ale. Maybe have the Chimay tomorrow.

Which Chimay?

[Eismann]

Dogfish Head ******** Brew. Pretty good. Unusual sweetness from the honey and gesho.

[MWB]

Picked up Southern Tier Xmas and Chimay Ale. Maybe have the Chimay tomorrow.

Which Chimay?

Grande Reserve (blue), I believe the same you posted about.

[Eismann]

Magic Hat Heart of Darkness stout. Meh. More IPA than stout. Too bitter.

[Froggy]

i've said it before, and i'll say it again...

Aventinus is aven-tastic!

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve is awesome.

[Kraftster]

Good night tonight. Went to The House and tried the following:

Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon Russian Imperial Stout
Summit Oatmeal Stout
Elysian Peste Chocolate Chili Ale
Draai Laag Aureus

The Clown Shoes was a great balance of malts and hops. You can taste every bit of the 12.5% alcohol in the finish on this one. Warms you up quite a bit. Only thing that seemed a little strange to me was I thought it was less full-bodied than I expected.

Summit Oatmeal Stout was also good. Again thinner on the tongue than I would have thought. Pretty good milk flavor but wasn't crazy about the caramel notes that I picked up.

Elysian - whoa. This is the spiciest beer that I've ever had (haven't had many capsaicin beers). Really pretty spicy on your throat, almost lose the chocolate in the spice.

Draai Laag Aureus, I've been wanting to try for a while. I thought it was delicious - sweeter and frutier than I expected.

I also picked up these two bottles.





Really excited about the Mo Betta Bretta - surprised to have found it. Collab between Lost Abbey and New Belgium brewed with 100% brett yeast.

[Troy Loney]

What style was the Draii Laag? That sour I had from them at H1K was pretty gross.

[Kraftster]

What style was the Draii Laag? That sour I had from them at H1K was pretty gross.

I think its a Belgian Strong? That sour was weird, it was a nitro pour wasn't it?

[the wicked child]

Aureus is one of the beers I had at the Millvale brewfest... it was the best of the day, IMO. IIRC, Beer Advocate lists it as a "Belgian Strong Ale". The flavor profile somewhat reminded me of Golden Monkey which is always a good thing. I also had the Goldenaacht which was similar though not quite as good. Those are the only 2 I've had, so the rest of their beers could suck for all I know... but those 2 are great, IMO.

[eddysnake]

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, what a refreshing IPA, pretty incredible

[Troy Loney]

What style was the Draii Laag? That sour I had from them at H1K was pretty gross.

I think its a Belgian Strong? That sour was weird, it was a nitro pour wasn't it?

I think so, i can't remember with certainty though.

[MWB]

Southern Tier 2XXMAS was no joke, good stuff. Also had an Old Petrus X-Mas, that was also of the sort I like. I like the thicker spicier x-mas beers as opposed to the Mad Elf sort.

Wish I ha paid more attention to this post before I picked up a sixer of the ST Xmas. Way too spicy for me.

[Pitt87]

I think if I go back far enough I'll find at least one other post from myself about St. Nick Bock, but its worth repeating... among my favorite beers of all time.

I also picked up a Church Millennium Trippel at GEMD... I had this ONCE before, in college, at the Church. Beer Advocate ratings are all over the place, but looking forward to a reunion... any find memories of this brew?

[the wicked child]

The CBW trippel is ok... It's no Golden Monkey or Delirium Tremens.

[the wicked child]

Since I can't get a case of Weihenstephaner, I "settled" for a case of Franziskaner.

Beer thirty cannot get here fast enough.

[UVM2003]

I said arguably - and personally it's EASILY the best craft city.

It's a stupid thing to argue and even try to crown a "best place to get craft beer."

There is really no point to argue on this.

Forgive me having a discussion on a message board.


Today at Ho1KB we had a pretty massive sampling. Highlights included a '08 barrel aged decadence from alesmith and a '12 dissident from deschutes. Awesome.