Alpine Brewing Thread

Grabbed a Hoppy Birthday couple days ago with a best by date of June 2016... Orly?!

 

Bizarre Green Flash bottle dating.

 

drank a bottle of the first GF Nelson release the other , was freaking horrible! does not hold up , if someone from green flash is reading this , please take off the 6 month best by date it should be more like 6 weeks if that. it was completely oxidized and not hoppy any more just a sweet malty mess

 

Dunno if I missed this in the thread, picked up a Nelson at ABC and it was labeled Alpine Beer instead of green flash on the bottle. THe duet/PH were GF. Thought it was interesting. Was decent. The singled out Galaxy was pretty tasty if you're a fan of Toppling Goliath IPAs

 

This last round of bottles I saw in L.A. had Alpine embossed into the glass also...first ones I have seen.

 

The last bottles I've seen in stores have "Alpine" etched on the bottles.
Also, HFS is available at Green Flash now. Is this the same Alpine HFS or a GF version? I haven't had a chance to try it at GF.

 

guess they are just transitioning everything to Alpine bottles. Makes sense from a marketing perspective. I didn't pay attention where it said it was bottled at on the label, which would have been the real clue

 

Anyone know the ABV percent for Great this year?

 

12%

 

Thank you.

 

Any comments on 13 vs 15 great? Sounds like 13 was aged 12 months and was 14% and 15 was aged 16 months and is 12%. Sorry, lots of numbers there.

 

Just came from Alpine. Singled Out Citra and Hop Box are pretty stellar. They also have draft only Exponential Hoppiness. The new pub is really cool. Very open space with renovated bathrooms And some nice landscaping in the back. Way more taps and bottles plus no limit on anything. I asked the limit on growler fills and they said the record was 60 fills! Hard to imagine someone filling that many growlers for personal use unless they have a lot of friends who love Alpine.

Apparently, the hop farm where they source their Nelson hops in New Zealand was sold to condo developers and the waiting list for Nelson hops is 5 years. As a result, Nelson will no longer be available year round. It will likely drop to a seasonal release. Can't say I'm terribly disappointed. There were at least 5-6 IPAs they had I enjoyed more than Nelson but it's still a bummer.

 

I've been lucky, because the few GF Nelsons I had were close to spot-on. Not the one I just opened. It's an absolute mess. Tastes nothing remotely close to Nelson. I was so excited to see Nelson on the shelves. But why would I waste $10 on a huge risk? So disappointing. Guess I'm done with GF-Alpine.

 

I am convinced there is a huge batch variation issue going on. I bought a bottle maybe 2 months ago, nothing close to Nelson in the slightest, not even a good IPA on its own regardless. One I had before that was pretty good. This past week I bought a Nelson bottle with the May expir. date and it was completely different (in a good way). Not perfect, but I'd keep buying that version for $6 or whatever at the brewery (however, I did not happen to buy that bottle at the brewery).

But at the end of the day, its over. We've lost the core line up, but at the brewery there are still a bunch of new and great beers to enjoy. For those of us that live close enough to enjoy it on a regular basis, great, for others, well....sleep tight.

 

believe it or not growlers go quick. I usually fill about 10 growlers , lasts me about 2 weeks!

 

What happened to the webcam @ the brewery? They post whats available for growler fills elsewhere?

 

You're right on with the batch variation comment. FWIW, the one from Monday is the "Best By May xx" batch. Granted I had only tried the 'real' Nelson 5-6 times (visited Alpine a year and a half ago, and via trades). Still, I thought the first few offerings from GF were extremely close, with one being nearly spot-on. So this wasn't me joining the masses and flaming away. For $5.99, I would be willing to give it another shot, but not at the $8.99 price point. I'll stick with a local offering, since I know what I'm getting. I do still have one more Nelson in the fridge (bought the last two at Binny's over the weekend). Here's to hoping it's not like the first one!

 

They are in the process of moving it to the pub.

 

BTW, the webcam has now been shifted to the new pub, so you can spy on them all day and see what is available for growler fills.

 

It just lists the style.