Let's Remember Some Beers (In Memoriam: Old Whales)

[trickytunadicky]

Now you made me think about Cashew Mountain Brown.

Wasn't a fan. I did get one of the first pours at GTMW. Tasted like a whole lot of nothing.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

A bit off topic, but out of morbid curiosity, what do you guys think of the pastry stout craze?

To me, it makes sense. The history of craft beer in the internet age is intense, one-dimensional flavors. in the late '00's it was IBU Wars (Moylan's Hopsickle vs Mikkeller 1000 IBU), then very sour beer (Upland Lambics, Trinity Old Growth), then super-fruity kettle sours and now it's syrupy, fizzy juice and syrupy sweet stouts.

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

 

[trickytunadicky]

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

And yet, Barleywine is back

 

[yeahnatenelson]

And yet, Barleywine is back

I won't do the sorry-ass #BiL thing and say something like "Barleywine never left," but tbh Barleywine as a style was really only modestly popular (compared to RIS/DIPA/sour) until Rollerblader69 created the group dedicated to sticky fuggle juice.

 

[Padraig]

in the late '00's it was IBU Wars (Moylan's Hopsickle vs Mikkeller 1000 IBU).

I could never tell if 1000 IBU was an elaborate troll job or he actually expected people to drink that beer.

 

[lb304854]

Rollerblader69

 

[FTowne1]

To me, it makes sense. The history of craft beer in the internet age is intense, one-dimensional flavors. in the late '00's it was IBU Wars (Moylan's Hopsickle vs Mikkeller 1000 IBU), then very sour beer (Upland Lambics, Trinity Old Growth), then super-fruity kettle sours and now it's syrupy, fizzy juice and syrupy sweet stouts.

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

I remember back when I first got in to super hoppy beers. I drank a ton of Maharaja and Hopslam. Looking for something more “aggressive”, I picked up a bomber of Hopsickle. That was like rubbing Warrior hop cones on your tongue. Nope, never again.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I'm gonna take a moment to remember a few breweries who went from white hot to "yeah, you know...they're good".

Upright
Block15
The Livery
White Birch (lel)
Crooked Stave
Midnight Sun
Upland
Jackie O's
The Bruery
Kern River


[waits patiently to get lit up]

 

[dimensionx]

I'm gonna take a moment to remember a few breweries who went from white hot to "yeah, you know...they're good".

Upright
Block15
Jackie O's

[waits patiently to get lit up]

Still doing alright!

 

[jbuddle]

Did someone mention this yet? Also: was there something special about this beer, or should I chalk this down as being of the age when a really well crafted, no frills RIS was enough to get geeks torqued?

Sixpoint Bolshoi. This waxed one was like 2005 and I think the head Brewer (Shane?) signed all the bottles or something dumb like that.


Actually had a bottle a couple years ago and it was like solid meh but not terrible for its age.

 

[Stewmeister91]

I'm gonna take a moment to remember a few breweries who went from white hot to "yeah, you know...they're good".

Upright
Block15
The Livery
White Birch (lel)
Crooked Stave
Midnight Sun
Upland
Jackie O's
The Bruery
Kern River


[waits patiently to get lit up]

I tried and got denied for several offers for Upland fruits. It's probably still in Wants list on BA

 

[JulianB1]

I drank an OG (2005?) Upland Raspberry a couple of years ago and it was insanely good, nowhere near as sour as most of their *fresh* beer has been over the past 5 years, and a ton of tart unripe raspberry flavor. Blew my expectations away, I was expecting something acidic enough to dissolve a corpse.

 

[stupac2]

A bit off topic, but out of morbid curiosity, what do you guys think of the pastry stout craze? The new money whalez of our day.

Seeing that this is largely a group of old money OGs, I'm wondering if anybody has any feelings about this new style?

I'm not that old money but I think the fact that these things are approximately as valuable on the secondary market as the still-relevant old whales is just absurd. First, they all taste the same. Second, they don't seem to take any particular special talent to brew well (see first point). Third, they're just going to keep getting made over and over, who cares if you're getting "Maple bacon chocolate ice cream banana smoothie latte" b1 vs b2? Finally, with the old whales there was some sense that the value was based on something. Sure, Framboos '99 probably wasn't any better than a recent RdG (never tried it so I dunno) but it was going to be different and it was objectively hard to find. The old gueuzes, at least a lot of the ones I've had, really were pretty different from comparable beers, and most tasted fantastic. Was Blauw really, like, 100X better than some 10 euro gueuze? No, of course not. But you couldn't find something that tasted like Blauw in a store, and I don't believe that's true of the pastry craze.

"You like what you like" and all that. If people like these, great! You do you. Based on what I've stumbled across I think they're fine and don't seek them out (unless it's like, "show up to a not-very-crowded bar" or something), to each their own. What I don't get is going completely batshit insane over them when they're just so... experientially fungible.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I tried and got denied for several offers for Upland fruits. It's probably still in Wants list on BA

Gonzoillini's got you.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I drank an OG (2005?) Upland Raspberry a couple of years ago and it was insanely good, nowhere near as sour as most of their *fresh* beer has been over the past 5 years, and a ton of tart unripe raspberry flavor. Blew my expectations away, I was expecting something acidic enough to dissolve a corpse.

That's encouraging to hear. And FWIW, I still really like Sour Reserve. I think it's better than most "lambic-style" beers brewed on this side of the Atlantic.

 

[stupac2]

I'm gonna take a moment to remember a few breweries who went from white hot to "yeah, you know...they're good".

Upright
Block15
The Livery
White Birch (lel)
Crooked Stave
Midnight Sun
Upland
Jackie O's
The Bruery
Kern River


[waits patiently to get lit up]

I never ever got the love for Block15. When did they make an exception beer? I had stuff from them pretty early and it was all "fine". Was that just a locals hypejob? Ditto Jackie O's, half the stuff I had from them was infected. The fact that Adair is marrying their brewer makes me think they must be doing good stuff now, I just haven't really tried them in ages because, seriously, everything was infected.

Kern is interesting because they were only known for one thing, and Citra's notoriety faded once everyone and their brother was making a citra beer. But they were legit, their Class X BA Stout was phenomenal, but DONG. They distribute up here now and some of their stuff is pretty good, but yeah, nothing worth going nuts over.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

Kern is interesting because they were only known for one thing, and Citra's notoriety faded once everyone and their brother was making a citra beer. But they were legit, their Class X BA Stout was phenomenal, but DONG. They distribute up here now and some of their stuff is pretty good, but yeah, nothing worth going nuts over.

Their standard-issue IPA and American stout were really solid. But yeah, lining up in the desert for maybe two bottles of an all-citra IPA is a big ask when every small brewpub could get enough Citra to make a Citra beer every once in a while.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I never ever got the love for Block15. When did they make an exception beer? I had stuff from them pretty early and it was all "fine". Was that just a locals hypejob? Ditto Jackie O's, half the stuff I had from them was infected. The fact that Adair is marrying their brewer makes me think they must be doing good stuff now, I just haven't really tried them in ages because, seriously, everything was infected.

Jackie O's made some fun beers, but because all of the barrels were in one place the strongs tended to go funny...coincidentally after all the locals reviewed the draft version and traded their bottles.

Block15 had cool beer names and labels: Super Nebula, Golden Canary, Figgy Pudding (which also had the Jackie O's style infection issue...).

 

[jmgrub]

Was never a whale, but one that I believe was on the BA Top 250/100 whatever the **** list for a while that was phenomenal was Olfabrikken Porter. Don't think it's being produced anymore, but ******* was that a great beer. I hope (against all odds) that Baltic Porter is the next hype style.

A bit off topic, but out of morbid curiosity, what do you guys think of the pastry stout craze? The new money whalez of our day.

Seeing that this is largely a group of old money OGs, I'm wondering if anybody has any feelings about this new style?

Some are well-executed if still too sweet (lots of Bottle Logic), some are atrociously sweet (most of the Angry Chair stuff that I've tried). But I'm a new money ticker compared to some of these dudes, so maybe not the best person to render an old money opinion.

 

[sliverx]

Damn, I forgot about those. I think they also did The Big Hop and Homewood Reserve in those swing tops

Have one of those in my disaster of old beer cellar.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

Was never a whale, but one that I believe was on the BA Top 250/100 whatever the **** list for a while that was phenomenal was Olfabrikken Porter. Don't think it's being produced anymore, but ******* was that a great beer. I hope (against all odds) that Baltic Porter is the next hype style.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

That beer was great. And yes, it's no longer made. I did a lot of research a few years back to try and find more. In the early 2010's the brewery was absorbed by a local macro and their portfolio was completely changed.

 

[mjohnson171]

Speaking of Block 15, some of their Cellar Stash series beers were real nice gems. Anyone remember how great Tropical Storm was fresh?!?! That beer did not hold up with age though.

 

[sherm10161]

Olfabrikken Porter

This beer was fantastic. I think I only got to try it once before it disappeared.

 

[stupac2]

Their standard-issue IPA and American stout were really solid. But yeah, lining up in the desert for maybe two bottles of an all-citra IPA is a big ask when every small brewpub could get enough Citra to make a Citra beer every once in a while.

The one release I went to was sooooo chill. We stayed at a hotel a 2-min walk away, and were like 3rd in line. The people in front of us even let us skip because we had rafting reservations. Later that day the pub wasn't crowded at all and it was a great time.

Also, it's not really a desert, it's in the mountains.

 

[jmgrub]

Speaking of Block 15, some of their Cellar Stash series beers were real nice gems. Anyone remember how great Tropical Storm was fresh?!?! That beer did not hold up with age though.

They are still making lots of great beer.

Yes, Tropical Storm was fantastic when I tried it in 2014.

 

[jmgrub]

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

That beer was great. And yes, it's no longer made. I did a lot of research a few years back to try and find more. In the early 2010's the brewery was absorbed by a local macro and their portfolio was completely changed.

This beer was fantastic. I think I only got to try it once before it disappeared.

I recall that Foothills Baltic Porter was a reasonable substitute, if that's even still being produced.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I recall that Foothills Baltic Porter was a reasonable substitute, if that's even still being produced.

...or Carnegie Porter.

 

[jmgrub]

...or Carnegie Porter.

Yep, and pretty cheap too. Duck Rabbit also made a good one.

 

[sherm10161]

Yep, and pretty cheap too. Duck Rabbit also made a good one.

I traded for a six pack of Duck Rabbit Porter once. I was super pumped. Turned out it was all infected.

I think the trade was with ASUBeer but could be misremembering.

 

[user 306349]

I'm gonna take a moment to remember a few breweries who went from white hot to "yeah, you know...they're good".

Upright
Block15
The Livery
White Birch (lel)
Crooked Stave
Midnight Sun
Upland
Jackie O's
The Bruery
Kern River


[waits patiently to get lit up]

Upright and Block 15 still make great beers that are desirable, they just aren't hyped up outside of the region which is a-ok with me.