Beer

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Diddy
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Re: Beer

Post by Diddy »

Freed Roger wrote:
Diddy wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:We have aThe Beer Thread ...which I have poured my heart soul and liver into.
Well I thought it deserved to be a rave!
I always had trouble finding it. Had to search with Dogfish Head
I did try to search, but it wasn’t an exhaustive one.

Freed Roger
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Re: Beer

Post by Freed Roger »

Diddy wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Diddy wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:We have aThe Beer Thread ...which I have poured my heart soul and liver into.
Well I thought it deserved to be a rave!
I always had trouble finding it. Had to search with Dogfish Head
I did try to search, but it wasn’t an exhaustive one.
For the amount of dues we pay GRB, Beer Thread should have a sticky!!!!! (or whatever it is called!)

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Re: Beer

Post by Freed Roger »

Like Homer Simpson, I am ready to go stock the fridge in case of Snowpocalypse, because the breweries are doing a hard sell on growlers with the forecast.
....only am trying to abstain & turn the corner on getting the holiday beer gut under control. whaaaa

tlombard
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Re: Beer

Post by tlombard »

I also decided to do a modified version of the dry January. I didn't decide to do it until January 3rd when I was actually at a bar so it started on the 4th and I haven't had a single beer since and I don't plan on it the rest of the month with one exception. We're playing in the Snowman softball tournament on the 19th at Wilmore Park and I will be drinking that day. Otherwise my plan is to stay dry. I will make it until the 19th with no problem since I won't want to venture out in the snow this weekend and I don't drink at home. After the trying to win another Beer Drinking Cup at the tournament, there is a better than 30% chance that I don't make it the rest of the month.

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33anda3rd
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Re: Beer

Post by 33anda3rd »

Freed Roger wrote:Like Homer Simpson, I am ready to go stock the fridge in case of Snowpocalypse, because the breweries are doing a hard sell on growlers with the forecast.
....only am trying to abstain & turn the corner on getting the holiday beer gut under control. whaaaa
Growlers: sell me on the concept?

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Re: Beer

Post by Freed Roger »

33anda3rd wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:Like Homer Simpson, I am ready to go stock the fridge in case of Snowpocalypse, because the breweries are doing a hard sell on growlers with the forecast.
....only am trying to abstain & turn the corner on getting the holiday beer gut under control. whaaaa
Growlers: sell me on the concept?
a big bottle of favorite a local beer to take home and drink while it is wintry outside. Survival

TBH, I rarely get a growler (the glass ones) but have enjoyed the ones I had. i.e. took back to a campground. I

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Re: Beer

Post by Freed Roger »

With a few exceptions, I've found mega-tap rooms to be not that great of place to drink beer. A restaurant, or a brew pub (obviously)have more care involved in a beer selection

Global Tap, I had hard time finding a beer there. Sours - scratch. Goose Islands - scratch. then the Arms War- 10 different super high ABV. Then they don't have a descriptive list so I have to ask bartender a bunch of questions before finding a beer that isnt one of those above.

Tap houses are kind of joyless.

I notice the same thing at the mega liquor stores - like Randall's and Total Wine and Beer. They mostly got it all, but you have to root thru a lot to get at it. Then you also have a lot of hard core boozers stocking up there.

Kind of goes against logic that places that have most and biggest selection arent that great.

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mikechamp
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Re: Beer

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33anda3rd
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Re: Beer

Post by 33anda3rd »

Freed Roger wrote:TBH, I rarely get a growler (the glass ones) but have enjoyed the ones I had. i.e. took back to a campground.
I can't finish one before it's flat. I'm not about to drink that much beer in one session. I'd rather have a bomber that's two beers and is gone or a 6-pack of 12oz cans/bottles.
With a few exceptions, I've found mega-tap rooms to be not that great of place to drink beer. A restaurant, or a brew pub (obviously)have more care involved in a beer selection

Global Tap, I had hard time finding a beer there. Sours - scratch. Goose Islands - scratch. then the Arms War- 10 different super high ABV. Then they don't have a descriptive list so I have to ask bartender a bunch of questions before finding a beer that isnt one of those above.

Tap houses are kind of joyless.
You, sir, are likely effed. The boom in taprooms is going to kill the craft beer bar. I sat on a panel discussion on this a couple years ago. It's bleak. I was talking to my friend Michael of Good Beer Hunting a few months ago (at a wine tasting of all things) and we were again discussing the way of the craft beer bar. He thinks in the future, since taprooms will kill craft beer bars but lack hospitality, that we'll all just drink beer at home. Or with food in a restaurant. Or just to pound in a sports bar. That's sad.

All beer is becoming joyless. Like all things that people geek out on, it becomes cold and gross when the nerds take over. Beer culture has become this snobby, nerdy, elitist BS thing. That thing that was fun got cool and then a bunch of people got into it because it was cool and now, like bourbon culture, it's at risk of being ruined. There's a great beer shop here called The Beer Temple, they opened an adjoining bar and it's awful. Awful. I want to fight every neckless bearded inked flannel shirt in that place. Just people talking about beer. Oh, you had that beer, I had that beer too I traded this beer for it, but have you had this beer? Because I had this beer and still have some in my house that's like 2 years old that my friend brought me and oh you didn't go to Dark Lord Day last year my god I'd never miss it it's the best you stand in line for hours for two bottles of beer it's the best. Oooohhhh lemme nose this glass and talk out my ass about which hops I detect and.....god just STFU and let's [expletive] about Trump or the Bulls for crissakes while we, heaven forbid, drink and enjoy the goddamn [expletive] beer the way the brewer and our lord and savior John Hall intended.

Last month the Middlebrow taproom opened. There will be a Solemn Oath taproom across the street soon. There's a Revolution brewpub about 2/3 of a mile away. The Hopewell taproom is 1 mile north, and it's just 1/2 mile west of the upcoming Pipeworks taproom, which is just like 6-7 blocks west of the Maplewood taproom, conveniently located 1/2 mile south of the Metropolitan taproom. That Hopewell taproom that's 2/3 mile north of the Revolution brewpub? It is also about a mile south of the other Revolution spot, the taproom, which is different than the brewpub because it serves no food. Hopewell does not serve food but there's pizza across the street at Dante's you can bring in, but if you really insist on pizza and beer in the same place, this is rough, you have to go like a 7-minute cab ride or take the Blue Line 3 stops to Piece brewpub where they have decent pizza and brew their own beer of course. Which is about 1 mile west of the Goose Island Clybourn brewpub, located practically across the street from the Off Color taproom, which opened recently because their brewery and bottle shop (located like 4 minutes from where this paragraph started) wasn't a good spot for a taproom. And so on.

But guess how many craft beer bars are left in my neighborhood.

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Re: Beer

Post by Freed Roger »

33anda3rd wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:TBH, I rarely get a growler (the glass ones) but have enjoyed the ones I had. i.e. took back to a campground.
I can't finish one before it's flat. I'm not about to drink that much beer in one session. I'd rather have a bomber that's two beers and is gone or a 6-pack of 12oz cans/bottles.
With a few exceptions, I've found mega-tap rooms to be not that great of place to drink beer. A restaurant, or a brew pub (obviously)have more care involved in a beer selection

Global Tap, I had hard time finding a beer there. Sours - scratch. Goose Islands - scratch. then the Arms War- 10 different super high ABV. Then they don't have a descriptive list so I have to ask bartender a bunch of questions before finding a beer that isnt one of those above.

Tap houses are kind of joyless.
You, sir, are likely effed. The boom in taprooms is going to kill the craft beer bar. I sat on a panel discussion on this a couple years ago.
........
But guess how many craft beer bars are left in my neighborhood.
How many? I do not have a guess?

The whole post was great 33rd. Though it is not a world I relate to entirely, as I am in more of the suburban, Semi-urban tap room landscape. Still, I believe it does relate. Kind of a Wal-Martization of craft beer. (oversimplification, I realize.)

Thirsty Monk in Asheville is my ideal for a tap room. They brew a few of their own, so they are not likely to sell out to distributor picking 2/3 the taps even if they could in an area with so many breweries (my theory, I don't know for sure) . Though they do have a location at a fancy mall sort of place - which gave me something to do while my wife looked around the shops.

Trying to put my finger on what is lacking in these tap rooms....Maybe its that distributor influence. they have 30-40 beers on tap (or more. here's an RFID band, pour your own!).
But it inevitably boils down to only a few that I am interested in drinking. Which is same # as if I went to a good bar/restaurant with 7 Taps. A 3 out of 7 is a helluva a lot less headache than 4 out of 40. Plus I get decent food, don't pour my own, and the soundsystem oversaturation of big screens isn't frying me.

I like Itap here ok, but no food, and not close to home. It is still a great era for being a beer drinker...but trends. And your friend Mike Beer Hunter is right, I do like a good beer at home...as if that weren't obvious already.

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