I had this one this past weekend- was dericious


anyone know if saucer has it?

9/9/2010 2:21:53 PM

Quote :

"Also, has anyone had Avery's The Kaiser? The Marzen that is 10%? That seems awfully high for the kind of beer but I'm interested..."

I had it a couple years ago, and it was well made and everything but a high alcohol marzen is kind of a terrible idea. What's enjoyable about marzens to me is that they are smooth and sessionable (the kind of beer you could drink 3-4 of in a sitting), but the Kaiser had a very noticeable alcohol presence and was way too hoppy.

9/9/2010 2:21:56 PM

agreed. of their dictator series it is third of three in my book.

9/9/2010 2:32:14 PM

Ayinger Marzen on the other hand is my jam, it's the best marzen on the market as far as I'm concerned

9/9/2010 2:46:27 PM

I've never heard of this beer, but I saw it at Peace Street and decided to pick up a 6 pack.

9/9/2010 7:01:37 PM

^Wow didn't know it went beyond a side project

9/9/2010 7:31:14 PM

Warsteiner Oktoberfest was amazing out of a one-liter boot, naturally.

9/9/2010 7:38:24 PM

I was looking for beer on the cheap and found an 18 pack of Rolling Rock for $8.99 I was surprised.

9/9/2010 9:01:04 PM

a bottle of Bitches Brew for me? why thank you!

9/10/2010 11:54:46 AM

tonight I shall be drinking economical beer...

9/10/2010 11:56:01 AM

game time

just opened up a ballast point sculpin

mmm, hops

9/11/2010 7:37:22 PM

got a growler from Bullfrog up in PA to go with football - great place

9/11/2010 9:01:59 PM

i had some arrogant bastard last night. it wasn't as awesome as i remembered.

9/11/2010 9:37:40 PM

for some reason that beer is hit or miss with the batches


I've had it 10+ times, and most of the time it is good, but sometimes it just isn't there

9/11/2010 9:41:02 PM

Slamming Rolling rocks like the water they are. 9 in since kickoff

9/11/2010 9:41:18 PM

well, I am definitely a hops lover, but there's still a balance to be struck between floral and bitter notes and it just wasn't there.

9/11/2010 9:46:23 PM

Noticed Sam Adams has a Pumkpin Ale in their Harvest pack this year. It's pretty much basically aight.

[Edited on September 11, 2010 at 9:54 PM. Reason : ]

9/11/2010 9:53:58 PM

Got my hands on some Southern Tier Pumking today. Life complete.

9/11/2010 10:23:10 PM

^From somewhere in NC?

9/12/2010 12:44:08 AM

Nope, I live in NoVA, it's just usually sold out by now here.

9/12/2010 9:01:44 AM

2 bottles of Bitches Brew in my fridge!!

9/16/2010 11:03:05 AM

Had sierra's "tumbler" and New Belgium's Hoptober fest at draft house last night


honestly, I was more impressed by the pilsen burger i had (Cheddar, thick bacon, bbq sauce, and fire jalepenos)



neither of the beers were bad, but neither of them made me think "oh wow, I need to find this in a store and get some!"

9/16/2010 11:06:10 AM

Tumbler is a good brown ale, definitely one of the more sessional fall beers (you can drink multiple in one sitting).

NB Hoptober is kind of like a "tweener" beer in my opinion. It can't really stand in the Oktoberfest catergory as it is more like a summer beer compared to most fall seasonals, but is more like a fall beer compared with most summer seasonals. Definitely a sessional beer though, as most NB offerings are.

9/16/2010 11:20:04 AM

when the waitress brought the tumbler to me, the look and smell made me think that sierra had finally learned to calm down their hop-frenzy, but alas, it is one of the hoppier brown ales I've had in a while... like i said, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't something to write home about either. It did get better as I drank it though (hops probably started numbing my tongue at that point)

9/16/2010 11:24:34 AM

i was back in raleigh over labor day weekend and had a couple of the foothills double ipa on draft at a few places -- i enjoyed it quite a bit (this coming from a total west coast hophead)

was also impressed with all the beer offerings and bars downtown (i hadn't been back in several years) -- lagunitas hop stoopid on cask, for example -- i think i'd survive if i move back east...

9/16/2010 2:22:34 PM

Went to GABF last weekend. For those who haven't heard of it, it's the biggest beer festival in the states.

Here's my list of beers tried.  Beers that are in bold are one's I liked.  I had probably twice as many, but these are the one's I remembered and the one's in bold I wrote down and worth remembering.

21st Amendement - Mo'TCHO Risin
AC Golden - Dunkel (top 5)
Altitude Saison
Bell's The Oracle
Bell's Lager
Ommegang BPA
Bull & Bush Big Brown Ale
Capitol City Blackout Stout
Dogfish Head Midas Touch (top 10)
Dogfish Head Bitches Brew
Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout (top 5)
Evolution Lot No. 3 IPA
FireHouse Hops on Rye
Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin
Foothills Oktoberfest
Founders Dirty Bastard
Freetail Rye Wit (top 10)
Great Adirondack Belgian Summer Ale
Great Divide Rumble (top 5)
Great Lakes Rye of the Tiger (top 10)
Highland Oatmeal Porter
Ithaca Ground Break
Live Oak Liberation
Lost Abbey Red Poppy
Odell Bourbon Barrel Stout (#1 pick, best beer)
Odell Deconstruction
Ohio Alt-ernative Amber
Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale
Ouray Brewery Box Car Brown (top 10)
Pagosa Brewing Powder Day IPA
Pizza Port San Diego Coffee Porter
Redhook Live Free or Rye (top 5)
Rogue OREgasmic Ale
Russian River Salvation (top 5)
Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen (top 10)
Sullivans Black Forest Wally's Weizen Bock
Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas
Three Floyds Infinitas Attero
Tommyknocker Golden Saison (top 10)
Tommyknocker Butthead Bock (top 10)
Upslope American Brown
Victory Festbier

I had a lot of bocks, doppelbocks, double IPAs, oatmeal stouts, seasonals, and rye beers.  A lot of good beers, I only beers I poured out were 1 or 2 sour ales.

Best of the evening:
Sam Adam's Utopia (not listed (had to ask about it), 1/2oz. sample, $100 per bottle, most potent beer ever made, i think 24% ABV?) *awesome*

Worst of the evening:
There were a lot of beers out... some pretty good ones I was disappointed about. (Allagash, Cigar City, Russian River, Ommegang, Lost Abbey...) I went on Sat. night the last session of 4.

Best name:
What'd You Say Son? (a Saison-style beer)

The winners:
http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 3:35 PM. Reason : .]

9/20/2010 3:34:07 PM

Restricted - try Odell's Bourbon Barrel Stout, I typically don't like BBS's, but this one was one of the best I had at GABF! I can testify the Anchor Steam Christmas and Delirious Noel are awesome! Had Midas Touch & Bitches brew at GABF, I would rank them both 10/10 as well.

Dammit100 - great choices in beer, the Hoppin' Frog DIPA is good!

NyM410 - welcome to BA!

armorfrsleep - went to Great Divide tap room last weekend and had the Cask Rumble and was my favorite of the night. GD's Belgica surprised me as well, probably second on my list, a great Belgian IPA. If you get the Yeti again, get the Espresso Yeti, it's better than the Chocolate Yeti IMHO.

In my fridge right now:
Russian River Pliny The Elder
Dupont Saisson
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Stone Levitation Ale
Moose Drool Brown Ale
Breckenridge Pandora's Bock
Homebrew Saison

Damn it's good to see some good beer connoisseurs in here.

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 3:53 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 3:54 PM. Reason : .]

9/20/2010 3:43:46 PM

Brewgrass this weekend was pretty cool, but the whole bourbon barrel deal is getting tired - seemed like every "special" beer there followed the same format, there was precious little shade, and lines became a bitch towards the end

actually, had a better time drinking around town the night before

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 4:15 PM. Reason : ;]

9/20/2010 4:14:42 PM

you gotta understand it was a new category of beers judged this year at GABF, hence all the new entries.... hence why you see it everywhere. everybody wants to be the new Yeti.

the four new categories were:
-American Style India Black Ale
-Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Stout
-Pumpkin Beer
-Field Beer


[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 4:26 PM. Reason : ,]

9/20/2010 4:21:30 PM

Gotta say I'm disappointed with the Terrapin pumpkinfest. It's not as good (to me) as the side project one they had last year. I think the same is true with the Heavy Seas Great Pumpkin... not as solid as last year's effort. Neither are as pumpkin-y as they were last year.

9/20/2010 4:25:01 PM

^^I hesitate to believe that we're seeing more of these brewed simply for the sake of competition - they're just a marketable product (if that's even what you meant)

in any case, it's just getting kinda old

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 4:31 PM. Reason : a]

9/20/2010 4:30:47 PM

#1 purpose = sell beer = make money
how do you get your name out and earn a reputation for being a good brewery? win awards.
how do you win awards in categories that are dominated by history & experience? difficult.
the easiest way to win awards is to go after the new styles of beer.
imho, i'd just brew what i know i'm good at, but whatever.

case in point: 134 American-style India Pale Ales entered this year, barrel-aged strong stout only had 34.

not sure if anybody even looked, but guess who won gold in the barrel-aged strong stout category:
Category: 19 Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout - 34 Entries
Gold: Bourbon Barrel Aged Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout, Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 5:20 PM. Reason : .]

9/20/2010 5:16:03 PM

9/20/2010 5:20:37 PM

Quote :

"Gotta say I'm disappointed with the Terrapin pumpkinfest. It's not as good (to me) as the side project one they had last year"

bottle or draught? i've had several of each and i can say it's still one of the better pumpkin beers out there. But i will say the last one i had on draft was noticeably weaker than the previous couple from a week or so ago. So there's probably still some consistency issues they are dealing with with this new seasonal.

9/20/2010 5:25:04 PM

its about to be full blown pumpkin beer time in this mofo

9/20/2010 5:28:58 PM

I had the pumpkinfest as a side project and again when it came out this year and it was pretty much exactly the same beer.

Hoping to pick up some of this later this week:

9/20/2010 5:30:56 PM

had some kirin ichiban for the first time in a looong time (especially when not doing sake bombs) - it really is not that good IMO- has a weird "texture" going down... not exactly the right term, but it just wasn't smooth I guess

9/20/2010 5:59:15 PM

Quote :

"#1 purpose = sell beer = make money how do you get your name out and earn a reputation for being a good brewery? win awards. "

completely disagree, you make good beer, and the rest will take care of itself

As an individual consumer, the glaring inferiority of some of the "winners" causes me not to give a shit who wins what at the GABF. I'm sure it's satisfying to the brewers who win medals, but I just can't see it making any appreciable difference to their reputation and sales.

anyway, probably going off track here...




[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 7:43 PM. Reason : l]

9/20/2010 7:37:43 PM

Quote :

"completely disagree, you make good beer, and the rest will take care of itself"

ah... i agree with you, but from a business stand-point, if you knew people wanted barrel-aged strong stout, it was a new category (or rather renewal), and you wanted to try something new, why wouldn't you want to brew it? there's no way it can be overdone, it's a new style (or rather renewal). IPA's, THOSE are overdone. homebrew = hobbyist, brewery = business. you can be passionate about making good beer and do both, but one of them requires you make money.

Quote :

"glaring inferiority of some of the "winners" causes me not to give a shit who wins what at the GABF"

i lost all respect for you. sorry, you might have different tastes than the judges, and you should know not all consumers tastes are the same, but all the judges are highly educated to make the decisions at GABF, they are not "people's choice" awards.

Quote :

"but I just can't see it making any appreciable difference to their reputation and sales."

Stone silk-screens their GABF awards on their bottles.
Nearly ALL the breweries in the Colorado micro-brewery area proudly display their medals in their tasterooms and you BETCHA it makes a difference on which breweries people want to visit, the popularity of a beer. Hell Great Divide alone because of their awards (in part to their Gold for the Yeti) and growing popularity is increasing distribution 20% next year alone!

Front page of Great Divide:
http://www.greatdivide.com/

Quote :

"These beers have landed an impressive amount of acclaim: Great Divide beers have earned 16 Great American Beer Festival medals and 5 World Beer Cup awards. Great Divide was also ranked 8th in Ratebeer.com’s 2010 “The Best Brewers in the World” and was ranked 7th in Beer Advocate’s 2009 “All-Time Top Breweries on Planet Earth.”"

make good beer = people like it = people buy it
awards, acclaim, reviews, whatever you want to call it, it's how you earn reputation. i'm pretty sure though to win an award you have to enter it yourself, other people just aren't going to enter it for you.

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 7:57 PM. Reason : .]

9/20/2010 7:46:25 PM

Not sure if this is valid at all Harris Teeter's, but Duvel has a gift pack (4 Duvel's and a glass) for $13.99. Their normal 4-pack is still listed as $14.99.

9/20/2010 8:18:07 PM

Quote :

"i lost all respect for you"

the key phrase there was "as an individual consumer", of course tastes are different - I just personally do not give a shit

New Glarus Raspberry Tart is a better fruit beer than Pyramid Apricot Ale, and I'm sure the judges are fine professional folks, but that's not the damn point - nobody expects the results to be perfect, and this is acceptable because the competition is about bragging rights

Quote :

"you BETCHA it makes a difference on which breweries people want to visit, the popularity of a beer. Hell Great Divide alone because of their awards (in part to their Gold for the Yeti) and growing popularity is increasing distribution 20% next year alone"

You're making big statements here - medals on the wall can do all this? Just not buying it. I'm sure it will sway a few buyers here and there, but you're vastly overstating the importance of this.

Also, when the hell did Yeti win a Gold?

Quote :

"Stone silk-screens their GABF awards on their bottles."

Sure they do, but plenty of breweries don't, which wouldn't make much sense if it's such a great commercial benefit.

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 8:59 PM. Reason : ']

9/20/2010 8:59:17 PM

9/20/2010 9:42:51 PM

still working through some stuff I picked up in the Midwest



as for pumpkins, I've been especially impressed with the Williamsburg and Schlafly versions, but don't think either makes it to NC

[Edited on September 20, 2010 at 10:22 PM. Reason : ;]

9/20/2010 10:21:45 PM

you are completely entitled to your own opinion, but you have to realize you are in the minority these beers are judged not by one or two judges, we're talking about 150 judges from 9 countries. it's the largest commercial beer festival in the world. the opinion of industry professionals, brewing school faculty, BJCP judges, it's a professionally judged competition, not your local home-brewers guild. show some respect for people who know what the hell they're judging. they aren't judging based on some arbitrary determination of drink-ability, they are judging the beers on standards.

with that said, i don't care if you don't give a shit, drink what you like, just don't come in here all high-and-mighty just because some fruity beer isn't as good as what you think it is and proclaim an entire beer festival bunk. if you're a good taster, get in there and judge!

9/20/2010 11:34:19 PM

I certainly did not proclaim the festival bunk - it's just not, in any way, a significant determinant of the success of a brewery. That was my single point from the beginning. I would tend to assume that brewers treat it as a way to garner feedback or enter into some friendly competition, not as a stepping stone to success.

The judges are obviously highly qualified, but they're people first, and the situation of a festival judge is different from that of a consumer setting.

To those points:

Quote :

"I value an award like a pat on the back. I'm fine without, but it's nice to get from time to time nonetheless. I've judged in enough professional (and homebrewing) competitions --- including the GABF --- to know that the judging process itself is tough. You gotta make a call based upon only a few ounces of beer. I believe that the judging methods and practices in such competitions are generally as good as they can be. When I have given awards in competitions, the recipients have deserved their awards as they were the best when judging side-by-side, an ounce or two at a time when sitting at a table in a judging atmosphere. But would I make the same decision when experiencing the same beers in under different circumstances? Very hard to say, but I doubt it strongly. Why "strongly?" Because I have sampled many, many beers that were wonderful in the first two or three ounces, but started to show flaws further into the pint glass. As you work through a full serving of a beer, negative aspects such as cloying characters can surface. Conversely, a beer that seems unimpressive in a one or two ounce format can sometimes shine after a full serving so much that it calls loudly for a second pint. Greg Koch, CEO & Co-Founder Stone Brewing Company"

[quote]

The interview is a little dated, but one can only assume the sentiment remains the same.

Anyway, not really interested in arguing this further...so, agree to disagree, or something

[Edited on September 21, 2010 at 12:16 AM. Reason : l]

9/20/2010 11:56:09 PM

Quote :

"the opinion of industry professionals, brewing school faculty, BJCP judges, it's a professionally judged competition, not your local home-brewers guild. show some respect for people who know what the hell they're judging."

This whole tirade about being reverent toward some beer judges is silly and comes off as you being a douche.

Quote :

"just don't come in here all high-and-mighty just because some fruity beer isn't as good as what you think it is and proclaim an entire beer festival bunk. if you're a good taster, get in there and judge!"

Dude you are the one who comes off as high-and-mighty in this thread, coming in here on page 16 and acting like you run shit and are more knowledgeable than everyone else. Nobody said it was a bunk festival, just that they disagreed with the winning beers.

9/20/2010 11:58:57 PM

Quote :

"This whole tirade about being reverent toward some beer judges is silly and comes off as you being a douche."

that's not how i wanted to come across... sorry. here's my problem, someone who obviously cares about beer, not caring about what professionals (the most educated) think about it. that comes across as arrogant and brash.

i'll agree to disagree that the awards do in fact influence sales, but maybe it's a locale thing.

time to grab a beer and chill out, i'm cranky today for some reason.

[Edited on September 21, 2010 at 12:41 AM. Reason : .]

9/21/2010 12:38:58 AM

Had a really good collaboration beer at Saucer tonight. Stone, Ballast Point and a homebrewer whose name escapes me. It smelled like a double IPA but it wasn't nearly as hoppy or high alcohol content. The after taste was fantastic and it was really well done.



[Edited on September 22, 2010 at 11:53 PM. Reason : here it is. San Diego County Session Ale]

9/22/2010 11:51:49 PM

i like the bottle!

i still don't 100% understand beer besides the basics and what it tastes like to me. i need to become a connoisseur but i'm already fat enough so...no go on that hobby right now.

9/22/2010 11:59:45 PM

Is Big Boss Harvest Time in stores yet?

9/23/2010 4:25:02 AM