New Flip Top Beers from Trader Joe's, under 4 bucks a piece.

Trader Joe's has these two Italian Beers from the brewery Birra Amacord for $3.79 for a 1 pint 9ounce flip top bottle.



The beers are-Nero's Apecchio Red Ale, and 1st Century Double Dark Malt Ale. I'm chilling them, so I can't really tell you about them yet. But I though you'd like to see the bottle. They feel really nice and thick.

Those bottles look awesome. Can't wait to hear how the beer tastes.

Hmmmm I like. The mission street pale ale isnt half bad for 6.99 a sixer ..I gotta see if mine has these

I saw these in Jersey. They were a little more expensive than 4 bucks. The bottle did look nice, but I'd like good beer for the price. Please report your findings.

I have had the red and it is ok but nothing great. I do like the bottles though!

This was my entire beer haul from TJs.



The two Boatswain bombers were under 2 bucks each.

I have had some of the Boatswain beers too. So far not very impressed...

Would be interesting if the beer inside is any good.

I've heard that firestone walker makes beer for tjs, being in pa, i have no idea.

That is one sexy flip top! Very jealous

Caucasian said:

I've heard that firestone walker makes beer for tjs, being in pa, i have no idea.

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Firestone does make some of the beer for TJ's but not all. All of their Mission St. beers are made by FW though and they are fantastic...especially for the price. Their Vintage Ale is made by Unibroue and is also great. I also believe that Gordon Biersch makes some TJ's beers.

Yes, GB makes many of their TJ label beers, such as the fantastic vienna lager. In fact years ago I emailed the Brewer at Gordon Biersch, he told me that ALL their beers, both the TJ's line and their own follow the Reinheitsgebot.

The red ale is very good.

Had both of those at Tj's about 2 months ago. I'm friendly with the beer, wine and cheese guy there, and he saved 6 of the bottles that he used for weekend tastings for me.

Last week I scored a sixpack each of FW Velvet Merlin and SN Ruthless Rye.

They've also got really good wines too. :fro:

Caucasian said:

I've heard that firestone walker makes beer for tjs, being in pa, i have no idea.

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Does firestone make flat tire also?

Phunhog said:

I have had some of the Boatswain beers too. So far not very impressed...

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I wasn't too impressed with them either, but for the price I wasn't all that upset either. Pretty decent for a bomber in the $2 range!

Phunhog said:

Firestone does make some of the beer for TJ's but not all. All of their Mission St. beers are made by FW though and they are fantastic...especially for the price. Their Vintage Ale is made by Unibroue and is also great. I also believe that Gordon Biersch makes some TJ's beers.

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Thanks to PA's antiquated beer laws you can't buy beer at Trader Joe's, or almost anywhere besides distributors and a handful of other stores.

I love me some flip tops!

Here in Ontario, Canada, Hacker Pschorr Hefeweisen changed from 500ml crown caps to 500ml flip caps. Price went up accordingly and we lost the case lot discount. Was I ever pissed at that. However, I like the beer, especially in the summer on the deck. Long story short, started saving the bottles and lo and behold soon rediscovered homebrew after 20 years away. I'll soon have enough bottles in the pipeline to not have to pay retail prices ever again. Hoppy days.

I bought a six pack of Fuller's ESB... was honestly unimpressed. To me, it was a Miller Light version of a brown ale - light on both flavor and mouthfeel.

There could be a couple of reasons - I might have had too high an expectation for the style, or the beer may have been on the shelf for ages, thus losing quality.

I'm drinking the Apecchio Red Ale now, and I'm liking it immensely. It's really "fruity" I picked up on the subtle hint of peaches. And a nice malty and "beery" undertone. I'm definitely picking up a few more of these. To me it's a drinkable beer to collect the bottles for ciders and meads.

I have not had a beer from Trader Joe's I've cared for yet.

May need to try a few different ones. But so far my luck has not been with me.

Well, I'm not sure I'm keen on "Nero's 1st Century." It's sorta like a Belgian Dark Strong. Kinda thin in body, but highly alcoholic burning, with a sweet taste. Kinda cidery. It's an odd beer. But yeah, it reminds be of a Belgian Dark Strong.

It's iffy if I would buy this one again.....

Angry Cedar just put out some quart sized flip top bottles and they are heavy and thick for two pints(about a quart size bottle) it may have been overpriced but i think the bottles is the seller.Its a beer put out from the 2008 floods that devasted some towns around the Missisippi which i live next too but my town has good flood protection.Kinda a redemtion thing,the bottles definatly caught my attention,now i got some showy bottles.Although the pale ale sucked after recapping 1/3 of it the next day sorta, next one i will drink the two pints and empty it.

Those flip tops are nice looking bottles, I'll have to check them out next time I am at TJ's. I've tried the 2 boatswain beers, the IPA left me unimpressed (and IPAs are usually my favorites), but the HLV was decent enough for $1.99/22oz bottle.

I am trying to collect lots of 22oz bottles to shorten my bottling days, so I buy this one a lot to throw in the mix with whatever homebrew I am drinking at the moment. 7% alcohol means it only takes a bottle or 2 to start feeling bubbly. As others have said, none of the TJ's beers have really wowed me, but some are a good value, especially if you find one that fit's your tastes closely enough.

On a slight side note, how many refills can you typically get out of a flip top bottle (like the ones in the OP) before the rubber gaskets start to lose their seal? Do they wear more due to time, or is it something else (sanatizer?) that will cause it to decay?

If you want to impressed by some TJ's beers you have to try the Mission St. lineup. I don't know if you can find them though outside of CA/West Coast. Their Pale Ale was good enough that I believe CYBI did a show on it and it is only 5.99 for a sixer. Of course it is brewed by Firestone Walker so I would expect it to be great.

LowNotes said:

On a slight side note, how many refills can you typically get out of a flip top bottle (like the ones in the OP) before the rubber gaskets start to lose their seal? Do they wear more due to time, or is it something else (sanatizer?) that will cause it to decay?

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the issue with flips is compression of the gasket. Repeated sealing causes compression in the gasket and eventually you'll not be able to hold pressure in the bottle. This happens slowly so you don't notice until you start getting fewer and fewer ripe beers that don't "pop" when you open them.
That being said, I love them and I have 6 cases of 16oZ and a couple of 1L bombers. Replacement gaskets are out there but the onlines only carry the cheap red rubber lathe-cut gaskets. I figure I've used my bottles around 6 or 7 times before I started noticing some leakers.

If you hate the rubber smell as I do, you can get new bails which have the new OEM EZ cap gaskets included on them for~ $0.75 each

landshark said:

I have not had a beer from Trader Joe's I've cared for yet.

May need to try a few different ones. But so far my luck has not been with me.

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some are good, some ok, some BMC.

trader joes is my Bottle store.
I picked up 2 cases of Trader Jose mexican dark this week. not because it is a fine brew, but because it was cheaper than buying two cases of brown longnecks
at the LHBS or mailorder
They aren't as heavy as old returnables but every bit as good as whats available today as commercial empties.

I'm off to pick up a dozen just for the bottles! 25 oz growlers essentially. Those along are worth twice the price.... Now if the beer inside them sucks - then it gets dumped....

I like quite a few of the Trader Joe's beers. Lucky for me, my wife works at Trader Joe's so she lets me know when they get something new in or brings some home for me! The Mission Street beers are pretty darn tasty, and you really can't beat the price on a lot of their beers.

Nevermind - found a much better source of Growlers (1 liter for $4.00 each) at www.labelpeelers.com

Funny enough that site has never come up on my searches for beer equipment....