Biggest beer pet peeves

Yeah, I don't think I converted many novice beer family members to the world of high-end craft beer with that freak-out moment they witnessed.

 

4 year old threads! Ha!

 

Funny...I have more respect for bars that serve the hi-test stuff in smaller servings. It shows a bit more respect for the beer (and I think that despite the increasingly common availability of really great beer in recent years, true respect for it seems to be sorely lacking in the world of beer these days).

I really miss Anchor's Old Foghorn, which, back in the early-mid '90s, my 'local' here in Central NJ used to serve on draft... and they would serve it (quite appropriately, in my opinion) in wine glasses or snifters, usually an approximately 7 or 8 oz pour). And I even miss the 7 oz bottles of Foghorn that were commonly available in the better package stores here.
In recent years, I haven't even seen Old Foghorn anywhere in NJ on draft or even in bottles (whereas, other Anchor products are widely available). I don't even know if Anchor's NJ distributor even bothers with it on any level... When I've called to ask about availability, the answers have ranged from either having no idea what I was talking about, to outright claiming that Anchor doesn't even make Old Foghorn anymore.
It seems to me that most of the major beer distributors here in NJ are inept clowns who either don't know their product lines or (more likely) just don't really give a shit about what they are selling.

 

Interesting...but I think that the best so called "craft" breweries (and the ones of which I think more highly, and which tend to come off as far less amateurish) are the ones that have a more limited range, concentrating their focus on what they do best.
Different strokes, I guess....

 

Yeah, I don't think I've seen Old Foghorn on the shelves in NJ in nearly a decade (my last vintage in the cellar is '06). Anchor has 7 different NJ distributors - last time I had a retailer check in one of the counties I shop in (Monmouth), Shore Point didn't even list Old Foghorn as being carried by them on the CPL, nor is it among the Anchor beers listed on their website's Anchor page. I wonder if it's the brewery's decision in this case.

A sixpack of the old 7 oz. bottles was going for something like $10-12 back at the turn of the century - can't imagine what retailers would be charging for a sixpack of the 12 oz. bottles these days.

 

Frosted Glasses

frosted flakes ok, frosted mini wheats sure, frosted strudels great, frosted glasses nope

 

Old Foghorn is still around in Northern NJ. I just picked some up at Total Wine, actually.

 

Well that's some good news!
I'm working in a show in Chatham this month...does Total Wine have a store anywhere near there???
I needs me some Old Foghorn!

 

i'll one up this...at a brew pub, fine. at a brewery, where nothing is served but beer...not okay.

 

I just tried some sleuthing, and there's a store in West Orange. But unfortunately their website only lists Old Foghorn at the River Edge location in NJ.

However, according to Beermenus you can find it at:
Bridgeview Liquors
300 Highway 440 South
Bayonne, NJ 07002

which is about 15 miles from Chatham. Good luck, and hope you can land some!

 

on Route 22 east in Union

 

The distributors at my local supermarkets not getting anything new in. Always predictable.

 

A few peeves: as always undated bottles and cans.

Retailers who sell old beer, or don't, because it's nasty. Or maybe they're too lazy to pay attention to such things.

People who judge others on a beer they happen to enjoy. You see me sitting in a craft bar drinking a Coors light in a cold glass and they have 35 craft taps. Ok, you think what an asshat, there's great beers on tap why are you drinking that shit. What you might not know is I have a fridge at home full of great BA stouts, a few great Dipas , and as always a great Pils or two hanging around. I'm out and about, I'm driving and I want an ice cold low alcohol brew. That's it, I like AALs sometimes, but not all the time. I like great IPAs all the time too, but I don't even want to come close to a DUI. Sometime I like AALs at home, I have no real plan, I just drink what I feel like at the time. It's just beer drink what you like.

 

Would be nice if more bars would make their posted beer menu easier to read. My eyes aren't that bad, yet sometimes I'll go into a place and have a difficult time reading the menu because it's either posted way up towards the ceiling, or not very well lit, or lit so brightly that all you see is glare, or written by hand so badly it might as well be in Chinese.

In some cases there's no menu posted at all, you're supposed to be able to read all the tap handles, often which are located on the opposite side of the bar. Then when you ask for a printed beer menu they either don't have one, or it's out of date and some of the beers they do have aren't even on the list. Hey look guys, I'm trying to spend my money at your establishment, please don't make it a guessing game.

 

I know this has been brought up already, but there's a new (well, reopened) restaurant around here that'll where the beer list will just list Wasserhund or Assawoman Bay or Ballast Point. Hey guys, awesome... which ones? Though I'm probably the only one that asks... being the beer snob I am.

 

There was a restaurant here in town we went to right after Lagunitas started distro. They had Lagunitas IPA listed on tap. Me, being a beer snob asked which IPA? Lagunitas has many beers and I really like som of them.

. . .Lagunitas actually has a beer called IPA.

 

"Boss Pours" or pours where there is no head on the beer and the glass is full to the top.

 

When people spell Tree House "Treehouse". It's Tree House. Two words.

 

I like to imagine them slurping that quarter inch off the top while leaning over the table....What a way to enjoy a well-crafted beer, eh?

 

I've begun to grow increasingly disinclined to the use the descriptor "dank". As a reviewer, I am constantly challenging myself to provide new insights to and explanations of the beers I'm reviewing, and the word "dank" doesn't really cut it anymore. What does it really mean? Every time anyone asks you get a different answer. Does it smell like weed? Come on, be obvious. I understand why someone would be reluctant to say that for legal or ethical reasons...but come on. We all at least know how it smells. Does it smell like wet earth? Pine resin? Grass clippings? There are many more accurate descriptions of the word "dank" that aren't as ambiguous without being overly verbose.