The Beer Thread • Page 195

Fuck. I wanted to go to CBC so damn bad.

 

dude, just a couple things i've stumbled upon while here. None of this was planned.

 

Have you found anything from Aslin exceptional? I've had quite a few of their beers and my friends up in NOVA always jock their shit but I've found most of it to be underwhelming. I did enjoy Chirp though.

 

Jealous. My boss was supposed to take us all down then I never heard anything else of it and just thought we’d skip it since we are such a small brewery. Then he sent an email on Sunday “I’m going to be in Nashville for CBC so if you need me text is best.”

Fuck.

 

hahahaha cold blooded.

 

I was livid haha. We didn’t go to the Michigan brewers guild conference an hour away but he went to CBC. Fuck, man. He still says we’ll push to go to GABF but I’ll believe it when I’m in Colorado.

 

Sorbet was okay. I've had two variants of Orange Starfish (double and triple), and both were excellent (double was better). Grovestand is solid, too.

 

I need to make a trip to Richmond this summer. Veil's releases always look so good.

 

Their pours with zero head on them infuriate me to no end.

 

I hate how pretty they look hahaha. It's also really stupid to pour a glass of ANYTHING that full, so hard to actually drink it

 

Drives me absolutely insane. It's one thing for random social media posts by breweries but I now see people doing it on random beer FB groups. Like, cool, you spent some stupid amount of money to get this beer on the secondary market only to hurt your enjoyment of it for a "cool" picture.

 

Absolutely. Man I hate the craft beer consumer.

 

Yes brimjobs are so dumb.

 

Interesting note on the fruit sour that they have to stay cold at all times. I'm assuming they didn't let the fruit ferment out before packaging? Never seen a beer with that stipulation before.

 

The Answer (down in Richmond as well) is the same way. read online that the Answer crowlers will actually burst if you let it warm up, I don't understand how that works, but multiple people have said that and even the Answer has hinted at it too.

 

Very strange from a business perspective to me. Definitely sounds like they add the fruit while cold and keep it there so the yeast never ferments out the sugar, until it warms up and the yeast wake up and start eating. Don't really understand why they wouldn't either let it ferment or kill the yeast before adding the fruit. At least they're in cans and not bottles, not nearly as dangerous.

 

I don't mind it. I assume places are only doing it on things that they feel they wouldn't be able to package otherwise and should be enjoyed as fresh as possible anyway.

The Answer is a slightly different situation as the crowlers are just what's coming off their "Andall". Those are like half beer half fruit, so there would be a ton of fermentation if they weren't kept cold. They don't exactly hide it either, the crowler labels are literally sticks of dynamite.

 

Yeah fruit is all added post ferm. But debate on it from some people in Michigan too. To be honest, I haven’t had any of those sweet fruit sours that have done much for me.

 

The Bruery has the same stipulations for their Bruesicles, where the juice is added after the fermentation. They have the same warning when they fill crowlers, that they will burst if they get too hot.

 

I guess I'm out of the loop. I still think it seems like it would be better as a taproom only thing so that the brewery can control it.

 

@BlueEyesBrewing while that would make some sense, it doesn't make business sense. I can speak for The Bruery and their new bruesicles, the are selling EXTREMELY well. It would be stupid not to sell crowlers. They sell so many crowlers of the (two per week) beers that they have to limit people to 2 crowlers each of the bruesicles. I've bought crowlers to bring to family gatherings a few time as well, and they are hits.

 

Yeah, that all makes sense. It just boggled my mind when I first heard of selling potential gushers but you can't argue with them selling so well.

Does having the unfermented fruit make a big difference from having it fermented out? Is it just an added sweetness that you get or does the fruit character really pop?

 

They seriously just taste like straight up juice. Not for everyone, for sure, but I love them. Perfect for summer.

Definitely a different character than you would get if it was fermenting out.

 

It honestly turns it into something new, not sure the best way to explain. So think about like, sour beer and how it's still the consistency of beer... well these (speaking again, only of what I know with bruesicles) are creamier, they are kinda like how a mimosa is to champagne, or other mixed drinks. It's really like a mixed drink with beer and juice

 

Definitely need to try those. The pictures look like a smoothie, not even a beer. I'm also now tempted to throw some lactose, vanilla, and some blueberry or strawberry puree that I have into the blackberry sour that's finishing up fermenting now haha