The Locals HINTS AND HAULS THREAD

Ack!!!!!!

 

While waiting for @Lehighace06 to finish getting the kids to bed and posting pr0n, my "virtual bottle share" for today (no pic since my phone is upstairs charging) is a Shipyard Pumpkinhead that I got 3 of for free (they were left behind at that party saturday, so I got 3 of them, a warlock, a FSW opal, and a DFH Punk'n) -- after seeing the reviews here, and hearing about it from a friend, I feared the worst. It's not great. But it's also, IMO, not nearly as bad as I expected (ESPECIALLY after the nose -- it legitimately smelled like coors light). Definitely not going out of my way to ever pick this up on my own dime though.

 

Do you tuck your children in with those filthy hands?

 

Anyway, where I expect to find another handful of 12oz bottles, hoping against hope that there's maybe another seasonal Crooked Stave mixed in, my hand comes upon a large format bottle.... and it's a St Arnold's Divine Reserve 14! I'm actually sitting on one of these but haven't had it yet, so unbeknownst to @Kramerbarthomer, he has given me the chance to open one while still saving one for the vertical I'm chasing but will probably never land (I've also got a 13, but being out of market and a couple years old, the rest are unlikely and I'll probably just drink these two in a few months when I give up). Well, he did tell me he was gonna represent his home town, so this fits in well among some other locals, maybe there'll be some Real Ale in there instead of more Denver locals....
(Ok, I lied, they weren't going down just yet, but now they are)

 

It's the worst of the pumpkin beers you ended up with, but I've drank it within the last month. For free, it ain't half bad.

 

Try their Smashed Pumpkin, SIGNIFICANTLY better.

 

Yeah, I've had the other two before (funny enough a friend of mine gifted me a bottle of warlock back in september which I've already drank, so it's nice to have another to have next to my remaining pumking). I liked both, Punk'n I had for the first time at the party Saturday.

 

By the way, I might as well post a striptease pic of the last box with the bottles I've mentioned so far...

 

So anyway, I reach back in to see what else is in this box, knowing that with some Modus Hoperandi, a ton of Odells, and the Crooked Stave and Avery, this is a killer haul even if the rest is Colorado-made Coors Banquet Beer... and I find a Gozu! Big Want!


So, I'm a bit confused at this point, but very happy that another want is in here, and even happier that I still have a regular Westbrook Gose to side-by-side with, and I go back in... completing the Odells portion of the evening is another awesome snifter! Hinted at when I was told there would be no treat (I guess a Denver omelette is kinda hard to ship...)


So the next bottle comes out, another large format, and I am reminded that @Kramerbarthomer thinks Houston is also "Local" with the third of the bottles he was sending from that photo:


So, I'm now thoroughly confused, this is no longer the "just some stuff from around the way" box.... does that mean that the FIRST box somehow was that? Nah, can't be, he just ran out of room and put the last couple awesome bottles in this box.....

 

Dat Gozu!

 

That is, until I get to the next one, which cannot be considered "local" to either Denver nor Houston, but I do remember @Kramerbarthomer teasing me with this one, I just didn't think it would really make it into the box...


Don't finish yet, there's still one more bottle.....Speaking of things I didn't think would actually make it into the box, I was also teased with "a 1st batch" bottle.........

 

Casey?!

 

Yes, that's right.... in fact THIS is definitely the "GOOD" box, with that crappy Crooked Stave one-off and all the other stupid beer being the "everything else" box.....

I know now this to be true, because not only was there a Gozu, Passion Abduction, St Arnold's Divine Reserve 14, El Cedro, and Modus Hoperandi, there was also......

A FUCKING BATCH ONE CASEY SAISON!


The final box in its entirety:


Odells Cutthroat Porter - #2, will be 'pawned off' of a buddy who also loves Odells
Odells 90 Schilling - Top want from them
Odells 5 Barrel Pale Ale - See previous point about all Odells beers
St Arnold's Divine Reserve 14 - Great to have one to sit on and one to have now
Westbrook Gozu - @EA728 said it well with a simple ""
Pipeworks Passion Abduction - Holy crap. Now I've got 2 of the Abduction set, so no matter what I've got a base and a variant, but I'll probably start chasing these now
Jester King El Cedro - Love me some Jester King, and this one looks awesome
Casey Brewing Saison Batch 1 - Holy Mother. You beast.
Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi - Love me some top tier canned IPAs
Prost Weissbier - Obligatory "never heard of it" local, I'm sure I'll enjoy it
Odell tulip - Awesome

And, so you all can finally finish, the group shot:


Can't thank you enough man, what a ridiculous haul.

 

This reminds me of some of what I've seen of Dark Horse on Dark Horse Nation. Their facility seems fairly tiny and extremely antiquated. Amazing to me these breweries can produce fantastic beers on tanks/bottling lines/etc that are as old as some of their customers.

 

Don't put away your tissues and lotion ... there is more!


Alaska is bigger and better!

Midnight Sun - Bar Fly ... YES PLEASE!
Deschutes - Black Butte 26 ... NEED
Deschutes - Black Butte Porter ... never had!
Alaskan - Hop Thermia ... you know my styles!
Kassik's - Smoked RIS ... these are the types of gems I dreamed (not this beer specifically) getting if @blackcloud was my sender
Midnight Sun - BrewTality ... Im obsessed with coffee stouts. I feel like this is a new permawant!
Alaskan - Smoked Porter ... Enough said. Gold Medal winner!
Anchorage - Love Buzz Saison ... Y'all know Im obsessed with farmhouse brews, right?
No-Li - Winter Warmer ... Starting to get cold here, but not AK cold!
Baranof - Medvejie Stout ... you've never heard of it, Ive never heard of it, and now I am going to drink it! I love AK!
Midinight Sun - Frickster ... Pumpkin me up!
Ninkasi - Tricerahops ... the only brew in here Ive sampled. But its one I loved!!!

Killer box @blackcloud ... This is why I love this BIF! Hosting a share this Sunday and I can't wait to bust some of these out! Also I am so willing to trade with you at some point if there is ever anything you're ISO from the MD/VA/DC area.

 

@PA-Michigander came through and help me fulfill my quest to get to try one HF brew. Thank you so very much for making this happen. To be completely honest, I held and looked at that bottle of Florence for a while still not believing that I had a bottle of Hill Farmstead to try.
Of course, as if the HF wasn't enough, @PA-Michigander threw in a bottle Pizza Boy Bean Dream. Woah!

I am still amazed by the generosity of this group. Over the last 2 days, I got a set of Alpine brews and a Hill Farmstead just because two wonderful BAs wanted me to try them.
Thank you..
I will do my best to do the same whenever I can.

 

Glad you liked everything. And don't sleep on that Avery... They've been killing it this year with their small batch sours this year (opuntia, Rufus Corvus, Antonius' Carmen..these beers usually don't make it out of CO...) but the Obscuro is one of the more interesting sours I've had.... Key like & ginger aged in rum barrels. Hope you like it (as well as everything else in the haul!

 

Let me know if you can (and you're actually interested in something from out here, Barrelworks releases are also an option). I'm too lazy to post a real ISO for my friend but I figure if I can meet the wants of someone in the group and also my friends then its win win.

Definitely will keep you in mind.

 

I absolutely did man, a Ska can is already in the fridge and I haven't even inventoried everything yet.

How about Avery's 5 Monks? I've passed by it a bunch of times due to cost, but a couple strong recommendations might put me over the edge (I usually reserve $1.50/oz for Cantillon and the like, but I can make an exception once in a while)

Thanks man, would love to try some Speedway variants, particularly the barrel ones, so this would be great for me. I got 2 cans of each of the regular and Vanilla in the Stouts BIF and enjoyed the hell out of both, but for a Speedway variant I'd be more than happy to let the other two go.

 

5 monks is outstanding. Absolutely outstanding. $1.50/oz???? Those bottles are $12-13 in CO. You're getting ripped off if it's $18. Weak. I would've dropped one in your box, but I knew it was available across Avery's distro (they made 700+ cases of that one) Black Eye is also outstanding if it makes it to PA. And BA Tweak will be released for the first time in 2 weeks. I will be buying all of the bottles of that I can find. Cannot wait.