Other Half Brewing, October 2017

Looks like it will be a fairly mild release

 

Looking forward to that Cloudwater one. Really like their beers, their collabs with OH, and already a big fan of DDH ACE

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=492934204408286

 

You honestly think the most well trained and dilligent police force in the country goes out of their way to ticket people for open containers to be petty and waste tax payer money? How dense are you? They get called their by local residents and business owners who are sick of people drinking in front of their businesses and homes between 6-10am every fucking Saturday. Every single time ive been on line at OH on a Saturday there has been some douche in front of me slugging beers out of a cooler at 9am. The whole beer culture now is pathetic with all these people that feel is totally normal and acceptable to line up for 3 hours and drink beer on the street while waiting for more beer.

 

Harsh on our friend from Philly. But I agree with you

@CharacterZero why did you delete your comeback though?!

 

I felt that it would be best to just let him vent and not reply. I drove up there yesterday and drove home after the release, so I didn't drink in line. It being my first time, I don't really have an opinion either way.

 

That's great. I love Now and Later. Awesome staff there. Do this again when I go back home for good so I can get my fix!

 

Finally cracked a can of Smoke Screen & Oil Spills. Oh god lord, this is hitting all the right notes for me. The smoke flavor is pretty subtle initially, followed rapidly by a rush of dark chocolate and cherry, which fades back into a more emphatically smokier flavor. Ugh are there still cans of this left? I split a 4-pack with a guy I met on the line.

 

Yes, it is a thing. Makes no sense to me though. How is a 10% IPA too old at 5 weeks? I know of people that think IPAs "fall off" at 3 weeks, which is crazy to me. I feel as though beers start to settle and become what they're supposed to be at that amount of time. I always hold at least 1 can for 6+ weeks to see what happens.

I was actually having a conversation about this on line at OH once and the guy I was chatting with said that DDH beers can't go past 4 weeks because they are "delicate". Was very confused by that when he said it and still to this day I don't know what he meant by that.

I don't know, to each their own.

 

the "fall off" thing is true to an extent, generally applies to lower quality breweries/beers (there are some exceptions - looking at you Kane Wave Tank). The fall off thing generally comes into play for breweries who just use a ton of dry hops to mask a bad base beer or haven't really nailed the hopping ratios, or use lower grade hops that may not linger as long. I've had a handful of Magnify beers that got pretty bad in 10-14 days. Fortunately all the OH beers I have had are holding up quite well. In fact last weekend I found a Centennial (8/24) in my fridge and it was like pineapple juice.

 

All the challenges / nuances of the DDH and/or NEIPA brewing process aside - if you can’t make a beer that’s still enjoyable 5 weeks in, then tough titties. It may not be at its absolute peak, but the drinker should still be able to judge whether it’s a good beer or not. If the peak is 10 days old, the 5 week tasting vs the 10 day one should be the difference between very good and very very good.

 

I was really talking about the opinions of falling off within 3 weeks referring to Other Half beers, but I neglected to mention that so you are right with other brewers beers not holding up well. But to me, Other Half beers hold up very well. I've had beers from them at 8 weeks and were still good. Also Carton 077xx stays great for a while as well.

One in mind that I would only drink their IPAs within 2-3 weeks is Grimm. IMO, their IPAs fall apart at 4 weeks and become unenjoyable (to me).

 

Carton generally holds up well, I did notice a bit of a drop off on SS Hief but that was after 3 weeks. Kane's Sneakbox and Head High are great for holding up as well.

As for Grimm, I have only had their Awoogah in cans, and drank both within 3 weeks so I can't speak to their fall off. Depending on the cans, there can also be quite the lag time between the beer being canned and when it hits a shelf for them as well. Hopefully once they start brewing in their own brewery, any "fall off" issues go away.

 

Grimm cans are generally two weeks old when they hit the shelves so they should start to fall off after a few weeks. Other Half beers hold up really well and DDH All Enigma Everything started to hit its peak after a couple weeks.

AZ wilderness tap takeover at the brewery tomorrow which is pretty cool.

 

I rarely leave any given set of beers in my fridge for over 1.5 months, but in my experience, Other Half cans tend to hold up after a month. Some beers of theirs, I've found, get slightly better with age, others slightly worse. Same is true for LIC Beer Project. I generally try to get four cans of Grimm IPAs, but I usually drink them within a month (maybe I'll leave a recent released can over a month to see how it holds). I think Grimm cans generally get better with age, particularly the 2-3 week sweet spot. Singlecut definitely falls off after 3 weeks, so I try to drink them up.

 

All the beer I buy from OH is still cold-ish from their storage and goes directly into a refrigerator when I get home.

I expect anything that goes through distribution spends some time at room temperature or higher before it gets into my hands.

 

I've actully had the opposite experience with Grimm. Sometimes I find them too sweet at first and then they tend to mellow. Although it definitely depends on the beer - some, like Awoogah are excellent right out of the gate.

 

How can anything hopped 100% with Centennial taste like pineapple juice?

 

it doesn't totally make sense, but it was like drinking dole pineapple juice. It would have been perfect with some rum, coconut cream, and an umbrella