Toppling Goliath in Chicago (2018)

As someone who drinks canned Sue like water, I would never pay more than $10 for a 4 pack. It's good for what it is for now, but I'll await the day it's canned in Decorah again. Then I think it'll be TH level, assuming it's the same as the bombers now.

 

Well if you drink it like water, you probably have much better access to it than some of us.

I mostly agree, though; this was a one-time thing for me. Also, for what it's worth, it seems like at least some of the cans at the Field are bad; despite having been canned 12/20 (so not that old), I tried one can from each of 2 4-packs, and both tasted like they were months old (no citra taste, very malty, not good at all). Damn disappointing, especially at the high price.

 

That's too bad. I had an early-mid January batch which I believe is the latest batch and was very disappointed. I don't want this thread to turn into the "Florida Sue suxxx" thread again though so I'll leave it at that.

 

The Florida Sue thing shouldn't matter; it's all I've ever had, and these cans tasted old/bad, nothing like the ones I've had before. The best comparison I have is I had a fresh 6-pack of Fantasy Factory once, and a 6-pack that was 3 or 4 months old, and these cans remind me of the latter.

 

That's how Zombie dust tastes after a month also. It just falls off a cliff. Most IPAs I'm fine drinking 6 weeks- 2 months afterwards, but Zombie just tastes terrible.

Maybe it's the citra hop, and it's just especially volatile? They are very similar beers, being single hopped pales.

 

Interesting. I don't drink Zombie Dust often, and when I do it's on tap, so if that's why people are always saying "fresh ZD is completely different than 1 month old ZD" I get it. I don't think it's just citra, though, because I'm pretty sure I've had similar beers that didn't fall off this way (and my previous cans of PS weren't much less than a month old). Hell, I had my last Juice is Loose two days ago, and that was almost a month old, and tasted super fresh. I dunno what is it, but it's pretty problematic.

 

This just goes back to-> drink fresh-> drink local. We know about all the major players in the industry that are sought after, but in the ipa game there is a point that fresh beer from the local, mediocre upstart brewery is going to be more flavorful than a high rated IPA that has been on a shelf for 6 months (I'm looking at you Todd the Axeman I bought without looking at the dates before purchase...lesson learned).

 

Not speaking for ZD, but I feel like a lot of the problems we're having with canned Sue will be remedied once the new facility is up and going. Then Clark and co will have a constant eye on the process and it should be good. My dream is for them to just can DDH and go full TH on everyone.

 

In general I agree and have advocated this. I just happen to like PS more than the majority of citra-hopped IPAs I can get around here (exceptions usually being one-offs or limited release). If Beer Hates Astronauts become year-round like Navaja, we wouldn't even have this discussion. But at the moment I'm still looking for PS and KS as soon as they hit shelves here (and given that they'll be the Decorah versions, I assume they'll be fresher).

Yup, I think the disty from Florida is much slower, and aside from that, like you said, we'll benefit from TG's oversight. Can't wait for Decorah cans of PS.

 

Sorry, to be clear I'm talking about bombers in the first part, and yes, Decorah cans when they're up and running with the new facilities. I'll probably be skipping cans as soon as bombers hit here. Partially because I just blew $45 bucks on bad cans, and partially because either way the bombers will be better.

 

Same here. All my normal go-to spots keep telling me to check in Friday - so naturally I'm going to check in on Thursday

 

Pseudo Sue isn't in Binny's system yet and I know that, that's a pretty important first step. I mean if it doesn't take long for it to be entered after it shows up then maybe it is possible but I wouldn't hold your breath for any TG this week.

 

Can confirm. I just got back from lunch and the Binny's up here said the exact same thing, in that they're only expecting PS and nothing else, and only 2-3 cases of it.