Octopus Overlords

mori wrote: ↑Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:36 pm Nugmo by Toppling Goliath Brewing out of Decorah, IA. This new IPA is somewhere between NEIPA and American IPA. Leans a little to much to the NE side for my liking. Interesting intense tangerine, with lesser dank and mint flavors. No stated ABV but I would guess around 7%.

Topping Goliath's fondness for dank has made me adverse to trying any of their newer offerings.

Stella Artois. Taking it easy today. Disney Infinity with the kids, popcorn action movies, and Stella.

Urayuli Dry-hopped Pale Ale by Abomination Brewing Co., North Haven, CT. Aside from a touch of dust, this beer really doesn't have much flavor. And at 6.3% ABV, not much booze, either. The can is nice, but it will be in the recycle bin about 2 minutes from now.

Arnie's Ale by Oswego Brewing Co., Oswego, IL. Everyone tells me I must visit this brewery, and this beer does attest to their skill. A slightly sweet Scotch ale, it won't lift your kilt at a mere 7.8% but it's more drinkable than other's in it's class (I'm looking at you Sun King!)

Prouder Fox Hazy DIPA by Riverlands Brewing, St. Charles, IL. Opaque, urine (with UTI) colored, this Citra beer tastes strong of grapefruit, just less acidic. A little gritty from the yeasty beasties swimming freely. 8% ABV is on the weak side of DIPA, but all and all a decent effort. Might get again sometime.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:16 pm Prouder Fox Hazy DIPA by Riverlands Brewing, St. Charles, IL. Opaque, urine (with UTI) colored, this Citra beer tastes strong of grapefruit, just less acidic. A little gritty from the yeasty beasties swimming freely. 8% ABV is on the weak side of DIPA, but all and all a decent effort. Might get again sometime.

Even I would agree with you that 8% is weak for a DIPA.

Vanilla Milkshake Space Crystals Hazy Triple-Hopped DIPA with Vanilla and Milk Sugar by Lil' Beaver Brewing, Bloomington, IL. Once in a while I get a beer that's more suited to cordial portions. This pounder could probably serve 6 of this syrupy-sweet beer. I'm quite certain my pancreas will flee my body before I finish. 10.5% ABV makes for a good dessert beer too, but the sweetness is too overwhelming to enjoy it in quantity.

Imperial Pain Imperial Imperial IPA (yes, that's what the can says) by Imperial Oak Brewing, Willow Springs, IL. If all Pain was this pleasant, I'd be more of a masochist. A filtered beer that doesn't try to be too cute with flavoring, the 12% ABV is at least regal, if not Imperial Imperial. Nice way to start the weekend after stressful week at work.

Having a pre-brunch Peanuts & Crackerjack Porter from The Mitten Brewing Co.

Doing our part to support local restaurants we picked up two pizzas and two 4-packs of this beer last night. My wife used to babysit the guy who owns the brewery and he is a good dude so we like to support him. They ran into each other when she was doing the contactless pickup and she said it was weird for them both not to hug in greeting.

I really like this beer. Sweet but not too much, great peanut flavor that comes through very natural in flavor. They use a bunch of peanuts and peanut butter in the recipe.

mori wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:27 pm Lagunitas Waldo's Special Ale. This a beer that should be truly appreciated. Big, bold, creamy body, bitter, and piney makes this IPAish beer, well special. Beer geeks now get excited about the next cloudy, sweet, fruity beer. But this beer harkens back to the grand ole days.

I thought I was going to have to settle for the carton again today, but I finally spied a lone bottle on the bottom shelf. I got home, popped it in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill it to a nice drinking temperature and...

This would be a nice dessert beer. The sweetness is almost cloying, and the 10.8% ABV is almost what you'd find in beer characterized as such. Unlike many dessert beers (and wines, for that matter), it's not an effort to finish a whole bottle. Not sure if I'd buy this again...price would have to be right. If I did, I definitely wouldn't be the appetizer course this was today.

I have seen that label somewhere here in town.

Let me back up to the next ZIP Code so I can read it.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:09 pm Let me back up to the next ZIP Code so I can read it.

It didn't blow the margins, so no bigimg tag for you.

Plungerhead is a very good pizza/red sauce wine.

Megapixel IPA by Begyle Brewing, Chicago. Heretofore I loved everything I had from this brewery. The love affair is over. This urine-colored beer wants to be fruity, but is too thin and too tart to discern any flavors. But it's not hazy. It's also not very alcoholic, at only 6%. The worst thing about it was it came in a pounder, so 50% more to choke down.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:58 pm Megapixel IPA by Begyle Brewing, Chicago. Heretofore I loved everything I had from this brewery. The love affair is over. This urine-colored beer wants to be fruity, but is too thin and too tart to discern any flavors. But it's not hazy. It's also not very alcoholic, at only 6%. The worst thing about it was it came in a pounder, so 50% more to choke down.

Since when is 16 ounces 50% more than 12?

pr0ner wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:31 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:58 pm Megapixel IPA by Begyle Brewing, Chicago. Heretofore I loved everything I had from this brewery. The love affair is over. This urine-colored beer wants to be fruity, but is too thin and too tart to discern any flavors. But it's not hazy. It's also not very alcoholic, at only 6%. The worst thing about it was it came in a pounder, so 50% more to choke down.

Since when is 16 ounces 50% more than 12?

Ooops, should be 33%. Have I mentioned lately how much I suck at math? (especially when rage posting about a sucky beer)

Going with a solid Chicago offering tonight... Ninja vs Unicorn from Pipeworks Brewing. Super easy-drinking DIPA!

Wigsplitter Coffee Stout from Three Floyds Brewing, Munster, IN. This highly rated beer from this highly rated brewery is terribly disappointing. Something wrong with the coffee they used. It has a strange tinny aroma and flavor. I got 5 more bottles of this to look forward to.

Marshal Zhukov's Russian Imperial Stout, Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL. If it wasn't for the pandemic I doubt this sought after beer would of been available for me during my last beer haul. I had this beer about 10 years ago and absolutely loved it and now that Cigar City is available in my market, and people are not going to stores anymore, I came across a bottle. Thick and rich. Very hoppy for a big stout. As good as I remembered.

I just discovered that one of the better breweries in my area, Threes Brewing, is now making local deliveries. So I should order as much as possible to support a local business, right?

AWS260 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 3:36 pm I just discovered that one of the better breweries in my area, Threes Brewing, is now making local deliveries. So I should order as much as possible to support a local business, right?

Heh.

A lot of the local Northern Virginia and DC breweries have been doing delivery, and some of the more pouplar craft breweries in the state (like Aslin or The Veil) have been doing UPS shipping to VA and DC.

Having beer show up at your front door is very nice indeed.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 3:36 pm I just discovered that one of the better breweries in my area, Threes Brewing, is now making local deliveries. So I should order as much as possible to support a local business, right?

We have several here who will have beer ready to pick up, in several packaging options. I don't know of any that deliver though.

My local brewery will deliver to my door.

mori wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:48 pm My local brewery will deliver to my door.

Even with an inexplicable beer ban in place?

mori wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:48 pm My local brewery will deliver to my door.

Even with an inexplicable beer ban in place?

Even chains like Red Robin are including alcohol in the items you can buy from them and have delivered. Of course their beer selection is crap.

Single by Choice Chunky Hazy Urine by New Image Brewing, Arvada, CO. Colorado sure does love their low-to-no alcohol beers, and at 5%, this be one of them. This beer doesn't have much developed flavor and doesn't taste much like anything, except yeast crumbs if you drain the glass and get a mouthful of the little beasties that settled to the bottom.

The IPA by BLDG 8 Brewing out of Florence, MA. I made a quick run into a small packy for some wine and grabbed a couple of 4-packs from their very small craft beer section; never heard of this brewery, but I liked the can. I haven't decided yet whether I like the beer. It's bitter and astringent, a piney old-style West Coast IPA with grapefruit overtones, the kind of hop bomb that mori might like. I've only had one so far, so it remains to be seen if it will grow on me. The second one is going down easier than the first one did.

Dominatrix Triple IPA by Hailstorm Brewing, Tinley Park, IL. Not often I find a triple in a can selling for under $5...typically they only sell in expensive bombers. So it has that going for it. A rich, slightly sweet and slightly bitter flavor combined with an 11% ABV makes this a very nice find indeed. I bought two cans, one I gave to the Easter Bunny, I imagine he'll enjoy it.

The Veil's 4th anniversary beer is a quintuple dry-hopped quadruple IPA. I'm bummed I wasn't able to get any. I did get a few different beers from WeldWerks to sample over the coming days at least.

On the one hand, it's Coors Light. On the other, she's 93 so she must be doing something right.

The woman, identified as 93-year-old Olive Veronesi by local television station KDKA-TV, was shown in a picture holding up a dry erase board inside her home with the message "I need more beer!" written on it. She was holding a Coors Light.

Molson Coors obliged. KDKA reported the beverage company delivered 150 Coors Light beers to Veronesi's home on Monday, and Molson Coors confirmed the gift in a statement to USA TODAY.

She must have run out of water...

Dumblegore IPA by Soundgrowler Brewing Co., Tinley Park, IL. This is a very fizzy beer, thanks to living, swimming yeasty beasties. The citra hops give a brief grapefruity bite before the yeast becomes the predominant flavor. The 6.9% ABV is okay, but I really don't care for fizzy beers so I'll not be buying this again.

Tomorrow Rye IPA by Forge Brewhouse, DeKalb, IL. Rather smooth for a RIPA, doesn't have the harsh bite that normally comes with the rye. That might be low 6.3% ABV though, undoubtedly aimed at the weak constitution of today's kids as DeKalb is a college town. A pleasant enough beer, but nothing that gets the weekend off to a rocking start.

One of my favourite Stouts is the Mackeson Tripple Milk Stout. Sure, it's technically brewed by Annheiser-Busch, but there's something I just find so appealing about the taste of this beer. I picked up a 6-pack earlier this week and finding it quite comforting.

Brenne, a French single malt whisky. More sweetness and vanilla than any whisky I've ever had, by a country mile.

It's not for me, or for anyone who already has a taste for decent whisky. It could be a decent introduction to whisky for someone looking to move beyond Baileys.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 19, 2020 12:27 am Brenne, a French single malt whisky. More sweetness and vanilla than any whisky I've ever had, by a country mile.

It's not for me, or for anyone who already has a taste for decent whisky. It could be a decent introduction to whisky for someone looking to move beyond Baileys.

Ouch.

Many moons ago I bought a bottle of cognac. I'd never had it and didn't know that it's whisky distilled from chardonnay grapes. The distiller was handing out samples and insisted on signing my bottle's label, as if I'm going to pass that down to my grandkids.

I learned that I like cognac, but IDK if I would ever seek it out in a world where scotch and bourbon exist. It skirts the too-sweet line.

With the closing of bars and state liquor stores, the only place to buy alcohol in my neighborhood is at beer (-only) distributors and at the groceries who've set themselves up with interior beer/wine shops. I honestly don't know where you'd go to buy liquor.

On weekend nights, the (socially-distant) line at my closest grocery is out into the parking lot.

Holman wrote: ↑Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:55 am With the closing of bars and state liquor stores, the only place to buy alcohol in my neighborhood is at beer (-only) distributors and at the groceries who've set themselves up with interior beer/wine shops. I honestly don't know where you'd go to buy liquor.

On weekend nights, the (socially-distant) line at my closest grocery is out into the parking lot.

Your liquor stores weren't deemed essential business?

Here in WA our weed stores were.