SWTFYW Hints and Hauls!!!

MF.

 

That Brick Kiln is my favorite barley wine. The BA Dark Apparition is so legit!

 

That is so effin uncool on every level. Uncool

 

In the case that anyone REALLY wants to send more than 4 beers in the 4th BIF and doesn't wanna get yelled at , I'll offer up my services to take any extra bottles you really wanted to send. You're all welcome.

 

The wife brought me back a surprise from her trip to Chicago

 

444thBIF Hint No. 5
My target and I were both underwhelmed by Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale.

 

Alright, so I promised you guys highlights and hauls from Beercation 2014 this past weekend. I left from Pittsburgh on Thursday morning, met up with 4 friends, and we went to New York, Vermont, Portland, Boston, and back to Philly before I made my way back to Pittsburgh on Monday. My phone was dead and I don't have pictures from New York, so this highlight reel will start on Friday morning.

This is where we were staying. Middle of nowhere, VT with absolutely zero cell service, but damn was it beautiful.




Started off right with a little breakfast: Barrel-Aged Bona Fide Imperial Coffee Stout from 4 Hands.


This guy decided to show up at our porch as we were getting ready before heading to Hill Farmstead, so we gave him some breakfast (oatmeal with bananas, non of us had really thought far enough ahead to bring much else food-wise).


First stop: Hill Farmstead. Absolutely gorgeous day out, too. We were the second group of people in line. Unfortunately, no magnums of Anna


Mary, Anna, Walden, and Double Citra on tap. Also, this glass is the tits.





This was one of our trunks after Hill Farmstead. We had a second car that looked the exact same, not to mention stuff on the back seats from previous stops and such.


After HF, we made our way to Montpelier and went to the Hunger Mountain Food Coop for their Heady and Double Sunshine release. 5 cases of Heady and 5 bottles of DS were added to the cars.


Went from Montpelier to Waterbury to hit up some of the local craft places. First we went to The Reservoir and got a few flights.


Left to Right: Heady Topper, Everett, Lawson's Sip of Sunshine, Fiddlehead IPA.

Next up, Blackback Pub.



Edward on tap, possibly my favourite picture of the weekend.

Finally, we went to Prohibition Pig for dinner. This Charcuterie Plate was the tits, and some of the guys splurged on a bottle of Elaborative One for the table.

 

Before heading back to our place for the night, we opened a 2013 Fou' Foune while it was still nice outside.


I wanted to buy this so bad, but the Bed & Breakfast owners said it wasn't for sale.


Back at our house, we christened the table and began the bottle share with this fantastic beer. Most of us thought it was better than the Fou' we had just opened an hour or two before.


A few other highlights from the bottle share and a graveyard shot:







Saturday morning, we got up early and drove to Portland, Maine to see Allagash. One of our buddies knew someone there and got us hooked up all nice like. We got to take a private tour of the brewery, see the barrel room, and drink some coolship for free.







After the tour, we got set up with a tasting of some of their more standard offerings. Left to Right: House Beer, Saison, Victor, Confluence. I really wanted one of these wooden tasting stands, but they weren't for sale either. I'm sensing a trend.

 

While we were still in Maine, we decided to go to a few other places (including Bissell Brothers, Foundation Brewing, and New England Distillery) before finally stopping here for lunch: Fort Williams Park. Such a fantastic view. We also opened some of the Substance cans we got from Bissell Brothers (canned 6/19, consumed 6/21 - fantastic IPA).






From Portland we headed to Boston for another bottle share with some friends. Highlights:











And the overall killshot (minus 5 or 6 bottles of homebrew and maybe a few others):


Sunday morning we went to Night Shift for some more VIP treatment: tour of the new brewery and barrel room and a few tastings (Art #21 and Whirlpool Pale Ale).

 

After getting back to Pittsburgh on Monday, I cracked a few Hill Farmstead growlers with a friend who had never had anything from them. Abner > Double Citra in my opinion, but I'd never turn down either. Fantastic beers all around.



And now, here's my haul from Beercation 2014:


Anna x12
Brother Soigne x12
Le Sarrasin x2
Heady Topper x24
The Substance x4
750 ml growler of Edward
750 ml growler of Double Citra
750 ml growler of Abner
Double Sunshine x1

And I can't forget the tits:

Night Shift Barrel Society 2014 teku
Hill Farmstead grey/etched wine glass x3
Drie Fonteinen "3" wine glass
Bissell Brothers stemless wine glass
Hill Farmstead white taster

Finally, these gems were waiting for me when I got back.

BA Abraxas
Mexican Cake x2
Gose Gone Wild
Cantillon Balloon glass

All in all, an extremely fun (albeit exhausting) time. Can't wait until next year!

 

holy god. take me with you next year.

 

I'm feeling hungover from just looking at the pictures.

Aren't you supposed to be a poor college student?

 

ISO.......All of that.

 

I hope you gave her hell there are 5 bottles in that pic.

 

My liver hurts based on what my eyes saw in those pics. Congrats to a great time. Looks like there were a lot of tasty treats consumed. Cheers for sharing (and making 1 or 2 of us a tad jealous)

 

Big week. Seven boxes landing today or tomorrow to or from members of this group. Dis gon be fun!

 

I was at HF on Saturday and stayed at the same B&B on Monday. We hit up Prohibition Pig for dinner and based on the draft lists for the other two places, I REALLY wish we had stopped in. But we spend Sunday and Monday hiking all over Mt. Washington in NH so we were pretty beat. Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!

 

444thBIF Hint 1: My target is in a state that does not touch my state. My target will also not be getting MY locals, but will instead will mostly benefit from a trip I'm taking next weekend to my brother's wedding in VT.
444thBIF Hint 2: This ain't the first ro-day-oh for my target and I. Which is to say, we've BIF'd together before.
444thBIF Hint 3: From what I have seen in hints/hauls threads and social media, my target is both extremely generous and regularly enjoys many more .rar beers than I do.
444thBIF Hint 4: While hiking in the White Mountains of NH this weekend, I met a guy from my target's state who was section hiking the Appalachian Trail. That guy had an altimeter on his watch that was impossible for him to calibrate at home because he lives below sea level.
444thBIF Hint 5: My target is getting 92 oz of 96.75 average beer that they should post about in the hauls thread.
444thBIF Hint 6: According to the list with everybody's state included, my target is the only person in this BIF from their state.

 

I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but yes it did cross my mind that there was probably a discount for 6 bottles. Oh well, I'll just have to increase her daily beatings until she gets it right...

 

I said 4 bottles max! Get it right woman!