Alpine Brewing Thread

Def label bias if that's the case. Or maybe the drive out to alpine just makes people delirious. That 30feet of elevation is rough

 

Shawn Mcilhenney on GF versions showing up at Alpine recently (from Instagram):

"We started bottling more, we tend to run out of draft faster because of it. At that time we pull kegs from green flash for growler fills. We are still making Nelson, there will be a fresh batch next week. Yes it was made at our brewery. As for last week, the only product from green flash was Nelson, same as this week." ...

"We're never going to stop making Nelson or any of the alpine line. Green flash will also continue to make our beer and continue to dial in our recipes until we get it right. Have faith, we'll get there soon. Until then please continue to visit us in the "pine" for some tasty beverages."

Hope this clears up some of the confusion above. I asked him if bottles would start coming out of GF and will update if and when I get an answer.

 

So, fresh nelson next week. Yay, my fridge and tummy will be happy

 

Bottles are spot on, filled up with the trilogy this week. If you are concerned what is being used for growler fills just ask, then make your decision. I am confident that they will dial in the recipes over time, to much at stake not to, I personally like the drive up the hill to fill up and fill up on good bbq, I will continue this regardless of what GF does because I like the Pine experience.

Cheers…...

 

Hmm, that's interesting. I've never had a bad beer there. I've seen them change taps before and they always seem meticulous about clearing and cleaning the line after a keg. I hear you on the snifter bit being a bit unconventional but being honest, it's never detracted from the experience of that beer for me.

For my money, they have the best variety and craziest beer selection in the LA area. Can't beat the food either.

 

Unfortunately, going to 38 Degrees requires a lot of your money. They have Venice prices in Alhambra.

 

The guys in Jersey, NYC, Brooklyn, etc are in a whole different world these day. They may be getting Alpine IPA's. But they have a much better DIPA to talk about than the subpar GF/ABC they are getting. And I can vouch for that. Other Half Brewing "Green Diamonds" DIPA out of Brooklyn is the talk of the town & east coast. First batch of 300+ cases sold out in a day n half in 10F weather at the brewery a couple of weeks ago. Batch 2 goes on sale tomorrow. I got me a 4 pack on a trade. This is the new west coast ipa from the east coast. Guarantee it.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/other-half-brewing.185637/

 

Nice humble brag. Besides the people I am referring to have not had the all mighty life changing green diamonds so your cool story is irrelevant.

 

so be it.

 

I thought the proper response was "Zzzzzzzzzzz..."

 

I wouldn't fo that to GetMeAnIPA. Cool dude. Oh what the hell.........
Zzzzzzzzzzzz........

 

hm.. what has a similar selection that's significantly cheaper? I typically see a $1 difference or so on their tap list from other places. Not enough of a discrepancy where I have to start pulling out of my 401k ;D

 

Mohawk Bend comes to mind as well as Glendale Tap. I think 38degrees taplist is generally the best in LA top to bottom, but without a menu in front of me its hard to compare prices accurately(factoring in pour size as well). I do recall some crazy markups on the bottle list.

 

San Diego Surprise Pale Ale just went up @ Alpine

 

Damn I'm gonna miss Alpine brewpub.

 

bad boy is back on tap.

 

Just tried Keene the other night at O'briens.

Omg, it's amazing!

 

I've had a few run ins with up and down alpine kegs the last month or two. First was a poor duet (on draft at Stone gardens) that seemed really malty and darker than normal. Still a decent IPA but I don't drink alpine for decent IPAs, I am expecting to be punched in the face with hops. The next was two weeks later at my local whole foods and I was shocked/excited to see Hoppy Birthday on the taplist. This WF doesn't normally get anything all that great all that often so it was a nice surprise. I haven't had too many batches of Hoppy Birthday so I couldn't say if it was poor or not but still not a knockout Alpine IPA. This past Friday that same WF had Duet on tap however this keg seemed a touch lighter and a little more hop forward. It may have simply been fresher but I doubt Stone gardens has old kegs of alpine on, so that makes me think simple batch variation or a quality issue somewhere along the production line.

All in all, I am happy to see Alpine popping up more regularly and even more so because if I time it right I get $4 pints at happy hour : ) Hopefully they figure out how to get the quality back up to par and really reclaim their title but for the time being I'll take what I can get.

 

Those were all Green Flash kegs. Nelson is still the only one where they're in the same ballpark, but even that is still markedly different. Three of us did a blind tasting last night of a fresh bottle from up the hill vs. a fresh growler fill from GF and it was obvious which was which based on both aroma and taste.

 

It's more of quality control with Green Flash