Beer shop finds.

I don't know, I think on the whole the ratings on this site are a decent barometer for which IPAs taste better than others. For Pilsners, not so much.

I think if there were comparable beers to Tree House and Trillium, you'd see it in the ratings. People's knee jerk reaction with a solid New England style IPA are to rate it highly.

While I completely agree (would love to see ANY mild on the shelves, although cask is probably the best vehicle for that style...but that's a story for another day), I think eventually anything distributed here that's not local will sit eventually. IPA or not.

The shelves are simply too saturated with beer in general. Now, if we received beers seasonally, I think they'd sell better.

Look at Urban Chestnut, they distributed multiple styles that aren't IPAs...and now they're gone from our shelves. When's the last time you saw Prima Pils?

 

I'm surprised to see you write this (I say this in good fun in terms of thinking I have a sense of where you stand on things generally).

You really think once you get above a certain level of competence that there are huge differences in "quality" that are separate from simple differences in palates? Once 300 breweries are making a style, the difference in quality between those within, say the top 10% are simply not going to be very large. Palates, habits, and reputation do the rest of the heavy lifting.

With so many breweries now I think there are numerous excellent examples of practically every style you can think of to be had, and I don't think NE IPAs are any different now that they've been around for a bit. When I went to Pittsburgh I drank at two different places that, if you'd served me those beers at Treehouse, I wouldn't have skipped a beat. ETA: same goes for when I was in Temecula (outside of San Diego), though it was only one brewery there not two.

 

I'm not well traveled enough in the US to speak to IPAs around the country, so perhaps I'm a bit off with my statement.

At least locally though, I think the ratings give me a good idea of what's good and what's not. Do I think there's a huge difference between an IPA rated 4.4 and one that's rated 4.6? Probably not.

Maybe this is just my palate, but I think many of the local New England style IPAs are far too hyped in the forums here. But their ratings are appropriate. I won't throw any of them under the bus, because I don't like doing that, but the majority of the breweries around Boston have IPAs that are noticeably a notch below Trillium (I'll leave Tree House out of it because my experience is limited with their beers).

There's a few here and there that are about equal to their IPAs, but they're few and far between. And the ones that are close, are rated much higher. It's the same in Portland, Bissell probably has the most highly rated IPAs in Maine, and I think their IPAs taste the best to me. And Dinner is the highest rated beer in Maine period, and it might be the best New England style IPA I've ever had (I've had it blind taste tested next to Lunch as well, there's a VERY noticeable difference).

I could even extend it to IPAs that are distributed here. Most of the beers from Pipeworks, Grimm, Finback, and Singlecut are rated much lower than Trillium. I gave them a whirl despite the ratings, and sure enough, they weren't as good as most of what Trillium puts out.

Basically, at the end of the day I'm not going to pick up an IPA that's rated 4.2 and expect it to taste like double dry hopped Congress Street.

But I'm also not going to tell someone that this is a fact, and that their palate is wrong. To each their own.

 

Anyone hear any scuttlebutt on when or if the most recent batches of 3F Hommage or (god help us) ZyF might make an appearance on shelves or at finer drinking establishments?

3F availability seems to be slowly ramping back up.

 

I don't think we're too far off then. I'm absolutely not someone who thinks ratings don't matter or that they're "just tracking hype" or anything simplistic like that. But I'm also someone who thinks the type of ratings utilized here embody any number of cognitive biases more than they control for them.

That was my only point in terms of it being reasonable to not be overly impressed with "the best example from region X" compared to "best example from region Y". At a certain point I think the differences get small enough that it's hard to disentangle all the messy human factors.

If we're talking Germany vs. U.S. where there are centuries of difference in experience that would be a different story of course.

 

Well, in that case I don't really pay attention to the ratings. Because some of the US examples are over-hopped, and therefore have higher ratings, and/or they're MUCH fresher.

I'd be curious what a New England style IPA in Europe tastes like, both from the perspective of it changing over time/travel, and simply how good they are at brewing that style.

 

I'd put our Mosaic Imperial Pilsners against any of those boring German versions any day

 

Julio's still has about 3-4 cases each of both Tuna and Daisy Cutter, think Publick House still has a ton of there stuff on tap too, seems like they flooded this area during EBF.

Ended up pulling the trigger on some BBA Really Old Brown Dog and BBA Really Old Brown Dog with Cinnamon/Vanilla. Both have been there for so long, but didn't realize they were bottled in Sept. of 2015.

Also, tons of Springdale at Julios, from hoppy offerings to Brigadeiro, and Pemberton Farms, who only had hoppy stuff. Great addition to the market though, limits at both stores.

 

From the most recent Half Acre drop, I thought Plane Wave was pretty good. Great body and hoppiness for its ABV.

Picked up some fresh Firestone Walker Nitro Merlin cans at Wegmans Chestnut Hill. $9.99 for the 6-pack.

 

Also, despite not being a big fan of Massacre of the Innocents (their DIPA), Burial’s stouts, Griddle and Skillet, were quite tasty. Especially Griddle.

 

Barrier/interboro collab Money Mad Fat ipa at total wine Everett.

Tasty juice bomb kinda thing. Really really tasty. Maybe a little thin compared to the big boys, dry hopped with mosaic lupulin powder which always leaves a bit of a harsh coating of aftertaste for me.

But a nice wee post EBF find

 

In general they taste like chalky, sweet, half-made homebrews. That being said, there are a few breweries doing the style well, but mostly these are breweries who have done other styles well. In my experience as a drinker and never as a brewer, the "New England" style IPA is a lot harder to master than many believe and that it's not just a matter of dumping oats into your pale ale and waiting right until the end to add your second-rate hops.

For some brewers doing the style well around Europe, I have found Cloudwater, Lervig, Vento Forte, Garage (Barcelona), and Kernel (though many of their IPAs are more in the "juicy" yet clear category). I'm sure there are many others but I've been burned quite a few times and tend to avoid these attempts...given how good, amazing really, other styles are here.

 

Not a “beer shop find” but Daisy Cutter in draft in Haverhill. I love that beer and disagree with anyone disappointed in it. I think it’s fantastic: low ABV, great balance in bitterness and bready sweetness. It’s a great lunch time beer.

Also, you all are crazy if you’re sleeping on the Sketchbook citra pale ale.

Someone a few posts ago said FW nitro Merlin and all I can say is, “Yup.”

 

I haven't had Massacre, but I had Surf Wax (SIPA) last night and thought it was pretty good. I've got Griddle in the fridge, just haven't had the right opportunity to crack it yet. Looking forward to it.

I wonder if Barrier flies under the radar in the greater NYC area beer scene. All of their IPAs have been very good to great for me. I enjoyed Money Mad Fat. I too get the harsh coating on some lupulin beers, but I did not from MMF.

 

I grabbed one of each at Rapid. OG was 22.99 and A&G was 15.25. Much cheaper than I thought they'd be...

You recall the prices at LJ? I'm just curious.

 

I read the first line and thought, "Sweet, I'm heading to Wakefield today"...then I read the second line.

Hmm, wonder if Rapid still has some...

 

Uh... Wow!

 

Not sure if already mentioned above, but saw OTWOA on the shelf: didn't realize DC Brau distributed to MA.