The Beer Thread

[i am gay and i like cats]

http://www.today.com/food/jelly-belly-debuts-first-beer-flavored-jelly-bean-2D11967843

[stevewizzle]

so i spent the weekend drinking throughout the bay area. SF friday, wine tasting in napa saturday, and russian river brewery on sunday.  it was tough, you guys, but someone had to do it.

on friday, went over to tornado in the mission for a beer or two.  appreciated the juke box, enjoyed the "i dont give a shit about you" attitude displayed by the bartenders, but ultimately thought their draft list was just okay.  probably an off night, but i had a good time regardless.

saturday was spent tasting at two different vineyards.  since i don't know shit about wine, i'll leave my wine talk to the very miminum, which is: i really enjoy the fact that people make wine in barrels so eventually russian river can age their sour ales in them.

sunday was christmas. we got to russian river early (1130am), and the place was a zoo already.  we managed to score two of the last seats at the bar right infront of the TV for the pats game.  sours mainly ruled the day, with beatification, supplication, and consecration all tasting great, but blind pig and pliny were $3.25 so plenty of those were enjoyed as well   thought beat was the best sour, i could drink that all day.  ended up walking away with two sixers of the pig and pliny, and 3 bottles of supplication. 

[Unsanity]

That sounds like a great time. I love a good sour beer.

[James Ford]

Definitely sounds like you had a great trip. That's one I hope to make myself at some point. Well, except for the wine tasting.

How did Blind Pig and PTE compare for you?

[i am gay and i like cats]

you "enjoyed the shitty attitude exuded by the bartenders" of that one place?  why would you do that?  is that the new cool and hip thing to do;  savor the tastes of bad service from paid employees?

[James Ford]

Seems about right for a city ruled by homeless degenerates.

you "enjoyed the shitty attitude exuded by the bartenders" of that one place?  why would you do that?  is that the new cool and hip thing to do;  savor the tastes of bad service from paid employees?

[stevewizzle]

Seems about right for a city ruled by homeless degenerates.

you "enjoyed the shitty attitude exuded by the bartenders" of that one place?  why would you do that?  is that the new cool and hip thing to do;  savor the tastes of bad service from paid employees?

i almost spit out my breakfast.

it was somewhat TIC, i was told going in that the place was run by a bunch of assholes, so i didn't expect much.  service was fine, i got my beers quick and they were friendly enough. but there was a feeling of "i'm better than you" type in the air... i don't know, i'm having a hard time explaining.  it's not the cool, hip thing to do, i just heard that place does beer fantastically well so i was going to go regardless.

[stevewizzle]

Definitely sounds like you had a great trip. That's one I hope to make myself at some point. Well, except for the wine tasting.

How did Blind Pig and PTE compare for you?

pig >>> PTE

and i'm still not sure if it's because i realllly like the pig, or if PTE just doesn't do it for me. 

[James Ford]

You should have told them you were from Seattle. Where the Seahawks play.

Seems about right for a city ruled by homeless degenerates.

you "enjoyed the shitty attitude exuded by the bartenders" of that one place?  why would you do that?  is that the new cool and hip thing to do;  savor the tastes of bad service from paid employees?

i almost spit out my breakfast.

it was somewhat TIC, i was told going in that the place was run by a bunch of assholes, so i didn't expect much.  service was fine, i got my beers quick and they were friendly enough. but there was a feeling of "i'm better than you" type in the air... i don't know, i'm having a hard time explaining.  it's not the cool, hip thing to do, i just heard that place does beer fantastically well so i was going to go regardless.

[James Ford]

Same for me. I think it's a little bit of both reasons for me.

Definitely sounds like you had a great trip. That's one I hope to make myself at some point. Well, except for the wine tasting.

How did Blind Pig and PTE compare for you?

pig >>> PTE

and i'm still not sure if it's because i realllly like the pig, or if PTE just doesn't do it for me. 

[sweetcell]

the toronado is renown for its staff's surly attitude.  you need to go in there knowing that.  sorta like dick's last resort.  it's part of the schtick.  it's been that way since it first opened.

steve, sounds like an awesome weekend (well, minus the Pats' loss, obvs).  did you have the RR pizza?  it's supposed to be good, too.  how much is a bottle of supplication when bought on site?  need anything from this side of the country?   (WWS is now out... just sayin')

speaking of sours: over thanksgiving i bought a Lindmans Cuvee Rene.  i recently opened it, and wow.  strong citrus, like an tart & mildly alcoholic lemonade.  closer to a wine in taste but quaffable like a beer.  it was really, really nice.  my in-laws who had never had a sour before both loved it and asked for more. the misses, who is slowly coming around to some sours, also liked it.  if you've been wanting to find out what this sour beer thing is all about, Cuvee Rene is a great "intro to sours" beer.  it's probably not sour enough for hardcore sour-heads tho.  it's soooooo drinkable.  can't wait to try one on a hot summer day.

[James Ford]

Haven't been to Toronado SF, but I did go to the one in San Diego. Totally different than what I've heard about the one in SF. Local neighborhood bar with family friendly-ish (people were there with kids, I was not...was part of a business trip) atmosphere in a hip neighborhood, good food and friendly enough service. Not divey at all, yet not pretentious either. Plus, Pliny, fresh Sculpin, and much other good stuff I can't remember.

[sweetcell]

update from The Alchemist:

We have looked at dozens of spaces for a retail shop in the Waterbury area, yet none have met our criteria. We finally realized that we needed to switch gears once again. Instead of depleting resources?both time and money?on a retail shop, we are focused on finding a property where we can build a second small brewery with a retail shop/tasting room.

Although we loved having the public visit us at the existing brewery, it simply wasn?t big enough and we certainly did not produce enough beer to be open to the public. Having no beer to sell four days out of the week is not an ideal situation for anyone. Over the past month, we have had plenty of time to discuss and plan our next brewery. It may evolve a bit over time, but here it is in a nutshell.

We are looking for a piece of property to build a second brewery. Our current brewery will continue to make 9000 barrels of Heady Topper per year. Our distribution company (Alchemy Distributing) will continue to run from this brewery.

Our new brewery will make beer for on premise sales. We will build a large tasting room and retail shop?much like our old shop but bigger and better designed to sustain our customer base and traffic. John has all sorts of exciting things planned in regards to the beer. I will leave the brewery update to him.

full post: http://alchemistbeer.com/blog/#2765

[James Ford]

They are doing this because one woman was complaining about how disturbing it was to have them as neighbors, right? I'm not sure why they just don't give her a tidy sum for her land and trailer and be done with the problem.

update from The Alchemist:

We have looked at dozens of spaces for a retail shop in the Waterbury area, yet none have met our criteria. We finally realized that we needed to switch gears once again. Instead of depleting resources?both time and money?on a retail shop, we are focused on finding a property where we can build a second small brewery with a retail shop/tasting room.

Although we loved having the public visit us at the existing brewery, it simply wasn?t big enough and we certainly did not produce enough beer to be open to the public. Having no beer to sell four days out of the week is not an ideal situation for anyone. Over the past month, we have had plenty of time to discuss and plan our next brewery. It may evolve a bit over time, but here it is in a nutshell.

We are looking for a piece of property to build a second brewery. Our current brewery will continue to make 9000 barrels of Heady Topper per year. Our distribution company (Alchemy Distributing) will continue to run from this brewery.

Our new brewery will make beer for on premise sales. We will build a large tasting room and retail shop?much like our old shop but bigger and better designed to sustain our customer base and traffic. John has all sorts of exciting things planned in regards to the beer. I will leave the brewery update to him.

full post: http://alchemistbeer.com/blog/#2765

[brennser]

rough translation - obtaining HT is going to be WAY more hassle than it should be for the forseeable future

update from The Alchemist:

We have looked at dozens of spaces for a retail shop in the Waterbury area, yet none have met our criteria. We finally realized that we needed to switch gears once again. Instead of depleting resources?both time and money?on a retail shop, we are focused on finding a property where we can build a second small brewery with a retail shop/tasting room.

Although we loved having the public visit us at the existing brewery, it simply wasn?t big enough and we certainly did not produce enough beer to be open to the public. Having no beer to sell four days out of the week is not an ideal situation for anyone. Over the past month, we have had plenty of time to discuss and plan our next brewery. It may evolve a bit over time, but here it is in a nutshell.

We are looking for a piece of property to build a second brewery. Our current brewery will continue to make 9000 barrels of Heady Topper per year. Our distribution company (Alchemy Distributing) will continue to run from this brewery.

Our new brewery will make beer for on premise sales. We will build a large tasting room and retail shop?much like our old shop but bigger and better designed to sustain our customer base and traffic. John has all sorts of exciting things planned in regards to the beer. I will leave the brewery update to him.

full post: http://alchemistbeer.com/blog/#2765