The Beer Thread • Page 185

Picked up some Half Acre Daisy Capra and Revolution DDH Galaxy Hero for the weekend. Only 3 more hours until I'm out of the office...

 

Good haul today. Traded for Tired Hands Daily Personal Best and Place to Be Pizza IPA. Store had Stillwater The Cloud and a few new Evil Twin IPAs

 

Daisy cutter is top notch but I haven’t had it in a couple of years.

 

Aimlessly wandering through the city today so at Off Color’s new place first. Great space and their draft list is tops. So many interesting styles

 

Love someone saying “I love IPAs” when figuring out what to get and Off Color doesn’t have IPAs lol

 

Would you say Dino S’mores is their most popular? I’ve also enjoyed their many weird takes on sours. All in all they really do try to brew less established styles, which I really respect.

 

Well they have their three flagships, but I see Dino Smores out a fair amount. Apex Predator is def their most popular.

 

I love Tired Hands. Always good to stop by whenever I’m in the Villanova area

 

I feel bad for anyone who sleeps on Alien Church

 

Went BACK to Off Color tonight lol. Wari is great.

 

Gonna be honest. Dino Smores is kinda overrated locally around here. While it's an OG local "pastry stout", it's kinda mediocre to me. Off Color really shines with their sours and other non-traditional offerings. Tooth and Claw and Apex Predator are amazing flagships.

 

I can honestly say after having it I absolutely love it.

 

had a lot of forgettable beers at the bars last weekend

its starting to feel like weve got alot of people making beer that dont know what theyre doing. nestled alongside the ones that do. the markets getting expensive and way over saturated.

 

I have that problem in LA really badly right now, I honestly can't count how many new breweries have opened in the last year that are faceless and being nothing new to the table

 

Came in to ask about Maine/New England breweries and just found a bunch of talk hating on 120 minute...tsk tsk.

So we’re doing a mini New England trip up through Connecticut to Newport, boston, and all the way up the coast of Maine hitting Acadia National Park on the way, then up through the heart of Maine over to NH, Vermont, and eventually Nigagra Falls.

Given the general sense of the route, what breweries would you guys recommend in those parts of CT, RI, Boston, and Maine? Also any suggestions for the Lake Champlain /Burlington area of Vermont...

 

So many places. In Boston area is Trillium, Nightshift, Aeronaut, Treehouse if you want to go out of the way a bit. Go to Portland in Maine and there you have Bissel Brothers, Allagash, Rising Tide, Oxbow, Maine Beer in Freport plus a ton more. Then in Vermont you have Alchemist and Hill Farmstead (that might be out of the way, I know it's kind of in the middle of nowhere), Lawson's Finest and a million more. Then in NH depending on where you're going I can give some suggestions there too.

 

Have you been to Acadia before? It's an incredible place.

 

We go to NH every summer so we're prob not stopping at a brewery there, we just did Harpoon Brewery this summer and it was cool. We were thinking of doing Magic Hat near Burlington, but Alchemist might be on our way...

Maine was my toughest decision because as you pointed out, Portland has a ton of them. I was leaning towards Allagash because my fiance likes them, but there are soooo many that seem to be in town closer to the water that I feel like would be cool atmospheres to visit. I think we're gonna try and hit Bangor too just because I like the name of the city lol, so I'm sure there's some up there. AND there seems to be at least one in/around Acadia.

We haven't! We both really wanna vist, unfortunately with Spring Break ebing the first week of April, the weather is probably not gonna be too cooperative :(. Some of it's gonna be shut down, like park loop road won't be completely open, etc. So that's gonna suck. We wanted to do it last year while spring break was in late april which would have been perfect, but unfortunately decided to do all the road tripping this year instead.

 

The blueberry ale from Atlantic Brewing Company is my preferred blueberry beer if you're into that. Get it on tap and some places put fresh blueberries right in your beer. I always buy a case or six pack when I'm in the area. Where are you staying? I can definitely recommend some places if you'd like. The Burning Tree is probably the best restaurant on Mount Desert Island. It's superb. Check out the Jordan Pond House for their lobster stew and popovers (the best of both I've ever had and it's not even close). The Bubbles are a great, easy hike. If you're in Northeast Harbor, check out the Docksider for a great, but affordable lobster dinner. 123 Main Street is a great place for breakfast and lunch on the go in NE Harbor. Really good coffee and sandwiches. If you want really good blueberry pancakes, and trust me--you should, stop at Jordan's in Bar Harbor. Take as much of park loop drive as you can. Sand Beach is really neat and so are the Otter Cliffs, especially around sunrise/sunset. There's also a really neat Japanese garden on the island called Asticou Azalea Garden.

 

It's weird watching my parents getting into craft beer over the last year or 2(particularly porters and stouts). For years, if my dad drank beer it was always Coors Light and my mom was all about her wine. Such a 180, but hey, I'm not mad about it. My dad loves Evil Genius Purple Monkey, and my mom loves Dragon's Milk by New Holland Brewing. Still can't get them into Pale Ale's or IPA's though.
Every time I drink Sour Monkey by Victory, I keep having to remind myself that it's 9.5% even though it doesn't taste like it hah

 

We're kind of winging it right now, which we kind of have some freedom to do considering it's still the off season and we'll be there on a Monday/Tuesdayish, so not a lot of vacationers. Really just gonna be looking for an affordable hotel that doesn't ahve bed bugs/is clean lol, if you know any places like that. Had the weather been nicer we would just camp for the night in the park or something. Gonna do serious planning in the coming weeks to pick out hikes and such. Might even try to bike the parts of Park Loop Road that are closed, weather permitting. Food is also up in the air, definitely want to eat at a restaurant somewhere in the region for dinner, at a minimum. I'm not a fish guy, and crabs could go either way, but the few times i've had lobster I've loved it, and if there's any bacon wrapped scallops around...lol

 

Well, I hope my first round of suggestions help, especially for food. I'm not sure about their seasonal hours though. It's gonna be tough to find places to stay in the off-season. The couple of places I've stayed at all seem to open May 4th. Your best bet is gonna be to find somewhere in Bar Harbor as that will have the most places open during April. It seems as if most of my recommendations won't be open until May. Hmm. I wish I could be of more help. It's one of my favorite places on earth. There's a lot of good hikes in Acadia. You definitely won't have a problem finding something that suits what you're looking for.

Also, if you stop in Portland--check out Eventide Oyster Bar.

 

I enjoyed allagash when I went last year. For drinks, they just give you a token for one free flight and that’s all you get, so they don’t do any full pours or anything. I’ve heard nothing but good things from people that have been to bissel brothers. They beer is great and my friends have all said the vibe is one of the best around. It’s in an old warehouse district a little outside of the main downtown area and old port but still near the water. If you like Shipyard stuff they have a tasting room that’s closer to the downtown part and all the samples are free.

As far as food, Eventide as mentioned is tops for raw bar. Duck fat is like a block down from there and is delicious, especially the poutine. Fore Street is a nice bit more upscale place that has a constant rotating menu based on the season. There’s a brewery/distillery that’s right on the water downtown that I always forget the name of but it was a pretty cool spot. I’ve also been to Nosh for burgers and Otto for pizza and both were really good.

 

I'm pretty bummed I can't get to Other Half this weekend for their release. They did another version of a tropical IPA with J Wakefield called Florida Plates 2. All they did was swap the pineapple for passionfruit. Not a fan of that switch, but the first one was so good I would think this would follow as well.

 

My buddy picked up some other half cans last week so I’m stoked to give them a try.