2017 Favorites

HIGHLIGHTS:

Lamplighter became a go to and was the highlight for 2017. Just really solid beers in all the categories.

I tried a few breweries I probably have overlooked like Fort Hill, Castle Island, and Relic.

Jacks Abby still kills it along with Springdale (BA Maple Brigadeiro was awesome)

LOWLIGHTS:

Night shift. I just haven't had a great beer from them in a long time. Too high a price for mediocre beers.

Foundation Brewing. worst stop on my Portland trip and Riverton Flyer is by far the worse craft beer I've ever had.

 

-Idle Hands - Six seam
-Bissell Brothers - Swish
-Bissell Brothers - Industry v Inferiority
-Winter Hill - Russian Ending
-Castle Island -Hi-Def
-Fort Hill - Fresh Pick

Not local
-Transiant - The Juice is Loose

 

- Lamplighter
- Fort Hill, especially Fresh Pick and Jigsaw Jazz
- Mystic cans
- Crooked Stave St. Bretta in cans; great beer at $7/375ml, amazing value for the quality at $10 per 4-pack
- Exhibit A

 

I'll still drive over for their weisse series bottles, but besides that I think I'm going to stop going to Night Shift. Every IPA that I've bought in cans had big diacetyl notes for me and even in beers that had some other big flavors to combat it (Fluffy comes to mind) it still was too much for me. I love what they're doing with Night Shift Distributing though.

 

Sure I'm missing a lot.
HF Juicy a billion times over.
Hudson Valley Multichorus
New Park Blender, Current
12% BP: Evil Twin "Once a Day Every Day..", Kolata, and Wabi Sabi.
Kent Falls Buddy Sprinkles
NS Fluffy was delicious at the anniversary party.
Fox Farm BA Witch's Meadow
Tilted Barn DDH Cactus (Tilted Barn in general made my birthday weekend super memorable)
TH HOTS
OEC Stramboozled
Non-regional randos: FO Batch 2, Big Bad Baptista

I've now visited about 40 breweries in CT, so here's a yearly summary for a few of them. Note: a LOT of the breweries in CT are really, really boring.
Kent Falls: Oddly, every KF IPA I've had before seemed to get worse or less interesting this year. I still love the new tap room, though, and the fact that they're willing to take risks.
OEC: held serve for sours but I just can't afford to hit up every release nowadays
Fox Farm: Everything that's been said so far is true.
Lock City: DEAR LORD LOWER THE PRICES ON YOUR 5 OUNCE TASTERS.
Counterweight: I expected nothing less. Although the whole "black label" "blue label" branding just doesn't work for me. They've done a handful of amazing beers regardless.
Nebco: consistency has been waning. I hadn't had a bad sea hag for years until recently. IST still doesn't seem right, but somehow the Choco/vanilla version blew me away.
Outer Light: quietly made a lot of good beers, especially collabs during CT beer month.
New Park: yep.
Fat Orange Cat: some of the beer is good, some is very good, but the vibe is amazing. Gonna miss this spot when it moves.
Kinsmen: Enormous space, fun vibe during the summer
Stony Creek: If you've ever been to stonebridge restaurant in Milford, CT, on a Friday night in the summertime, this is basically that experience as a brewery. At least the beer has improved.
Thimble: So glad 12% BP moved here.
Armada: They dropped the $11 750ml bottles of their DIPA, which is a huge improvement. Also, the beer is much better, but needs to get more diverse.

Yep. My first NS beer was batch 11 of Morph and I loved it. Every once in a while I'll grab a four pack at Yankee and they're just not doing it for me anymore.
Yep.
Stopped in 2016.

Sweet Jesus, I agree with all of this. I can give finback and OH a pass on their can prices given the rents they pay, but the singlecut stuff is just unbuyable locally at the price point.

 

Great North has been around for awhile now, but yes, their hoppy beers are wonderful.

 

Four Seam has been blowing me away. And I like it even better than Six Seam & Galaxy Four Seam.

Maple BA Brigadiero was killer as well.

 

this was my post in the other thread. Since then I've tried two more NE beers I'd add to the list:

Maine Dinner
Bissell Bros Reciprocal

Recip is unreal and I might prefer it over TH Green as far as southern hemipshere beers go. Maine Dinner I'm shocked I like so much after figuring it was mostly hype. Sure, not an over the top assault but just a perfectly balanced dipa.

 

Nice summary of some CT breweries.
With you on Nebco. Sadly, only made two visits in all of ‘17, both for Elm City.

 

My top beers this year were little beers... maybe because I live in the land of small beers (UT) or that I’ve started brewing a lot but I really really appreciate a damn fine low ABv beer. Mostly in part cause I know how hard it is to do..

IMHO there aren’t many that do it as well as HF

Had to go to NE twice for work and made it a point to make a trip to HF happen both times.

Really, really enjoyed a pint of Mary first trip. It opened my eyes to Pilsners. Might not be the best I’ve had but made me appreciate what they can be.

Second trip I thouroughly enjoyed a Shirley Mae (sunrise) in the tap room, and Marie. Then grabbed some cans of WOL Earl Grey and a few bottles of Clara. Such unreal beers for their level of booze. Was so so so impressed by all of them and appreciate the attention to detail for such small beers. Got my clone attempt of Clara priming right now with what I think is their yeast and their Brett.