Rare Barrel Founder's Society

[bdogg1]

The horizon lines on this photo annoy the **** outta me, but man that's a pretty photo. Beer makes me want to take up shooting again.

I'm going to assume the line you are referring to is the one in the back that is at an angle? NO photography classes here so I am asking, lol.

 

[johnnyramirez]

Arrows of Neon is super tasty imo. Like drinking Sprite.

 

[benbikes4beer]

ISO so hard. Wish I lived closer to the bay and or de Garde, then again I'd be far away from Alpine. Yeah I'm staying put need to visit though.

 

[johnnyramirez]

ISO so hard. Wish I lived closer to the bay and or de Garde, then again I'd be far away from Alpine. Yeah I'm staying put need to visit though.

Cellarmaker, SARA and TRB >>> Alpine. It's all about variety.

I do wish I lived closer to Societe though.

 

[benbikes4beer]

Yeah but Alpine is my families. Those feels. I live a 20 minute bike ride from Societe. Always happy to trade a fill from Societe for a favor from TRB/Cellarmaker/SARA

 

[bdogg1]

Yeah but Alpine is my families. Those feels. I live a 20 minute bike ride from Societe. Always happy to trade a fill from Societe for a favor from TRB/Cellarmaker/SARA

Let's talk. What does alpine have right now? Cellar maker has dank statement on.

 

[matedog]

How was the event last night? Any feedback on the Berliner and the new Ambassador release?

 

[bobsacamano1]

How was the event last night? Any feedback on the Berliner and the new Ambassador release?

it was good, lines moved fast, easy to get a beer. the 'berliner' is great. i think someone above described it as being like sprite. a sour, delicious sprite. soliloquy is really nice, too. looking forward to cracking one of the bottles this weekend.

 

[bdogg1]

it was good, lines moved fast, easy to get a beer. the 'berliner' is great. i think someone above described it as being like sprite. a sour, delicious sprite. soliloquy is really nice, too. looking forward to cracking one of the bottles this weekend.

Def will agree with this. i REALLY enjoyed the soliloquy.

 

[stupac2]

it was good, lines moved fast, easy to get a beer. the 'berliner' is great. i think someone above described it as being like sprite. a sour, delicious sprite. soliloquy is really nice, too. looking forward to cracking one of the bottles this weekend.

Lines moved fast? Which session did you go to? In the late session it took me a half hour to get beer, included ~10 minutes where no one at all was serving the main line. The Rare Barrel does a lot of things right, but their bar service is still terrible over a year on. It's amazing.

Anyway, I thought that Soliloquy was fine. I had that and Across the Sea side-by-side and couldn't tell the difference outside of Soliloquy being a little more acetic. None of the adjuncts came through for me at all. Glad I didn't get any extras.

Arrows of Neon did taste like Sprite, which is fine if you want that but it was kind of a disappointing first Berliner for me. Why not do friggin' raspberry? I swear they get too cute by half with their beers, instead of making the obvious ones that will taste great they get clever and makes something worse.

 

[johnnyramirez]

Late session lines were awful for the first hour or so. Took me 15 minutes to get a beer when I first got there. Got 2, did the barrel tour, picked up bottles, got my growler and left around 9:15. I did notice that the lines were better around 9 but I tried the beers I wanted to try. The berliner was nice imo and I hope they start making more fruited berliners. Lemon-lime was an interesting first choice but I liked it. Soliloquy was pretty good but not anything special.

 

[NRo]

I had that and Across the Sea side-by-side and couldn't tell the difference outside of Soliloquy being a little more acetic.

I had exactly the same experience and kept forgetting which was which. Not fair to Soliloquy as I think I would have enjoyed it much more on its own. It's possible that the saltiness/coriander of Across the Sea interfered with my pallet.

The lines were longer than I've ever seen them (8pm session), but the bottle line did move fast. There was an auxiliary bar set up in the back, but the line at the front bar was still slow as ever. Overall a good experience.

 

[RyanG1]

#newbarrel

I will be at Rare Barrel around opening today, if anyone else is say hola to the albino male.

 

[ghawk162002]

Late session lines were awful for the first hour or so. Took me 15 minutes to get a beer when I first got there. Got 2, did the barrel tour, picked up bottles, got my growler and left around 9:15. I did notice that the lines were better around 9 but I tried the beers I wanted to try. The berliner was nice imo and I hope they start making more fruited berliners. Lemon-lime was an interesting first choice but I liked it. Soliloquy was pretty good but not anything special.

Ohhh...you'll never be happy will you? I agree on Soliloquy. Had it at the last Founders event and I didn't get much orange peel. Looking forward to trying the Berliner as I got my growler filled and picked up. That and my growler of Egregious must wait till 2/1/15.

Also...I'll take SD over NorCal any day. But it is nice to have TRB and SARA up here. Not close...but up here. Something to be said about the proximity of the breweries in SD (and the weather and womenz). Up here they are just all so spread out.

 

[drgarage1]

Ohhh...you'll never be happy will you? I agree on Soliloquy. Had it at the last Founders event and I didn't get much orange peel. Looking forward to trying the Berliner as I got my growler filled and picked up. That and my growler of Egregious must wait till 2/1/15.

Also...I'll take SD over NorCal any day. But it is nice to have TRB and SARA up here. Not close...but up here. Something to be said about the proximity of the breweries in SD (and the weather and womenz). Up here they are just all so spread out.

I don't know how to make a beer involving oranges that doesn't end up tasting like orange. Unlike some other non-traditional additions, orange cuts through just about anything else if it's added when you would normally dry hop -- provided you use enough.

 

[drgarage1]

Ohhh...you'll never be happy will you? I agree on Soliloquy. Had it at the last Founders event and I didn't get much orange peel. Looking forward to trying the Berliner as I got my growler filled and picked up. That and my growler of Egregious must wait till 2/1/15.

Also...I'll take SD over NorCal any day. But it is nice to have TRB and SARA up here. Not close...but up here. Something to be said about the proximity of the breweries in SD (and the weather and womenz). Up here they are just all so spread out.

That's why we need more world-class breweries to open in SF proper. So far...we have 1. Cellarmaker.

 

[matedog]

That's why we need more world-class breweries to open in SF proper. So far...we have 1. Cellarmaker.

What is in SD proper? Societe is in Kearney Mesa, Lost Abbey is in Escondido, Green Flash is in like Mira Mesa, Stone is in Escondido, Alesmith in Miramar. I suppose some of those technically have a SD address, but they are like 20-30 minutes from downtown proper.

 

[RyanG1]

That's why we need more world-class breweries to open in SF proper. So far...we have 1. Cellarmaker.

No love for Magnolia or Speakeasy?

While I rarely visit either of them in favor of the beers at Cellarmaker, the Haigh Street location of Magnolia is always a fun visit with some good food and good offering of cask beers.

 

[RyanG1]

What is in SD proper? Societe is in Kearney Mesa, Lost Abbey is in Escondido, Green Flash is in like Mira Mesa, Stone is in Escondido, Alesmith in Miramar. I suppose some of those technically have a SD address, but they are like 20-30 minutes from downtown proper.

I would happily stumble between Council and Societe.

And agree, the good spots in SD are spread out more so and require lots of driving. And lack of public transportation. We can hit many good spots via, BART, Caltrain, Muni, etc.

 

[johnnyramirez]

I would happily stumble between Council and Societe

Add in Alesmith and Modern Times and I'd be a happy man.

But SF has more variety, albeit farther away. But I'll happily drive from Capitola to SF for world class saisons, sours and IPA's. SD is lacking that farmhouse game

 

[drgarage1]

No love for Magnolia or Speakeasy?

While I rarely visit either of them in favor of the beers at Cellarmaker, the Haigh Street location of Magnolia is always a fun visit with some good food and good offering of cask beers.

I like visiting Speakeasy, I'm just not a big fan of their beers. Magnolia is a great brunch and hangout spot, but I don't love any of their beers.

 

[DougOLis]

What is in SD proper? Societe is in Kearney Mesa, Lost Abbey is in Escondido, Green Flash is in like Mira Mesa, Stone is in Escondido, Alesmith in Miramar. I suppose some of those technically have a SD address, but they are like 20-30 minutes from downtown proper.

You're right that most of the best places aren't downtown but there are definitely options:
Monkey Paw is downtown. I'm not sure about "world class" but they're underrated and make some really good beers. They just did a collab with Cellarmaker actually for that matter.

Stone Liberty Station is near the airport (not to mention the various tasting rooms around downtown). Modern Times is pretty close to the airport too.

Ballast Point Linda Vista isn't far from downtown and is public transport accessible. They've got their Little Italy tasting room too.

Plus the various places in the North Park area (Modern Times, Fall, Hess, Thorn St., Belching Beaver).

 

[ghawk162002]

I would say the only thing SD needs is a good sour brewery like TRB or someone like SARA. While most breweries listed above aren't in SD proper, all are less than 10-15min outside downtown, except those up in San Marcos. But North Park alone has more breweries (even if they are sub-tasting rooms) and beer bars in one area than SF or anywhere in the East Bay, North Bay, Peninsula, etc has. There is only ONE PAIR of breweries that I can think of in NorCal that are both very solid breweries that are in 15min driving time to each other...Russian River to Bear Republic. Cellarmaker you MIGHT be able to make it to TRB. Drakes to *????? SARA to *???? Altamont to *??? Faction to *??? And traffic in the Bay Area is FAR FAR worse than SD. Just sucks I got food poisoning when I was in SD last weekend. Couldn't even enjoy Tiger Tiger, Societe and didn't even get to Thorn St (one of the best breweries down there).

Let me add an edit...went to Rough Draft...REALLY enjoyed their beer.

 

[matedog]

So one of the advantages of goses and berliner weisses is that they are generally cheaper than lambic and barrel aged sours. This is an oversimplification, but my understanding is that it is largely due to the fact that they are non-barrel aged. So why does Rare Barrel (and to a lesser extent, De Garde since they are a lot less expensive than TRB) basically take a much more expensive route to emulate a flavor that can be obtained more cheaply?

 

[drgarage1]

So one of the advantages of goses and berliner weisses is that they are generally cheaper than lambic and barrel aged sours. This is an oversimplification, but my understanding is that it is largely due to the fact that they are non-barrel aged. So why does Rare Barrel (and to a lesser extent, De Garde since they are a lot less expensive than TRB) basically take a much more expensive route to emulate a flavor that can be obtained more cheaply?

 

[falc0n26001]

I would say the only thing SD needs is a good sour brewery like TRB or someone like SARA. While most breweries listed above aren't in SD proper, all are less than 10-15min outside downtown, except those up in San Marcos. But North Park alone has more breweries (even if they are sub-tasting rooms) and beer bars in one area than SF or anywhere in the East Bay, North Bay, Peninsula, etc has. There is only ONE PAIR of breweries that I can think of in NorCal that are both very solid breweries that are in 15min driving time to each other...Russian River to Bear Republic. Cellarmaker you MIGHT be able to make it to TRB. Drakes to *????? SARA to *???? Altamont to *??? Faction to *??? And traffic in the Bay Area is FAR FAR worse than SD. Just sucks I got food poisoning when I was in SD last weekend. Couldn't even enjoy Tiger Tiger, Societe and didn't even get to Thorn St (one of the best breweries down there).

Let me add an edit...went to Rough Draft...REALLY enjoyed their beer.

Lagunitas too! And it's about 20 min from Faction to Drake's.

 

[rrryanc]

I would say the only thing SD needs is a good sour brewery like TRB or someone like SARA. While most breweries listed above aren't in SD proper, all are less than 10-15min outside downtown, except those up in San Marcos. But North Park alone has more breweries (even if they are sub-tasting rooms) and beer bars in one area than SF or anywhere in the East Bay, North Bay, Peninsula, etc has. There is only ONE PAIR of breweries that I can think of in NorCal that are both very solid breweries that are in 15min driving time to each other...Russian River to Bear Republic. Cellarmaker you MIGHT be able to make it to TRB. Drakes to *????? SARA to *???? Altamont to *??? Faction to *??? And traffic in the Bay Area is FAR FAR worse than SD. Just sucks I got food poisoning when I was in SD last weekend. Couldn't even enjoy Tiger Tiger, Societe and didn't even get to Thorn St (one of the best breweries down there).

Let me add an edit...went to Rough Draft...REALLY enjoyed their beer.

Drakes to Faction to The Rare Barrel is only around 15 minutes each with no traffic. I pretty much always skip Drakes though.

The plus side to the Bay is that I can walk to Caltrain from Cellarmaker, and then easily hit up City Beer store, Grape and Grain, Ale Arsenal, Gourmet Haus and Harry's before a long walk/short cab or bike ride home. Living near 30th is the only place in San Diego that's even remotely convenient with driving.

 

[Sage1]

Living near 30th is the only place in San Diego that's even remotely convenient with driving.

You mean “without”, right? Because I have about a 7 mile commute (Kearny Mesa to UTC), and I can hit up 3 great beer bars and like 15 or 16 breweries on the way home – including several world-reknown ones like Societe and Alesmith.

 

[rrryanc]

You mean “without”, right? Because I have about a 7 mile commute (Kearny Mesa to UTC), and I can hit up 3 great beer bars and like 15 or 16 breweries on the way home – including several world-reknown ones like Societe and Alesmith.

Uhh ya, that's what I meant. There are certainly great beer pockets elsewhere that you can hit, but require a drive.

I used to live in UTC, but holy hell is it a boring place to be.

 

[stupac2]

Oh, I found this amusing and should share. The old growler was labeled as 32oz, the new one is labeled as 36, so I got curious about how big of a difference there was and whether it was worth using one of the other. So I filled the new one with water to the brim, then poured it into the old one. It didn't come close to filling it, there was probably 4oz of space or so. I then measured it and it looked like it's close to 36, so I think the old growler, despite being labeled as 32oz, fits closer to 40.

Anyway, if you have both growlers definitely use the Founders one to get fills. More beer for the same price. (Though you may want to check your growlers, it's possible that they're all different, though I doubt they're very different.)