Beer shop finds.

How’s the Long Trail VT ipa compare to limbo? Always felt like that was 90% of the way to a perfect cheap/everywhere Heady wannabe.

 

picked up a mixed 4pack from yankee spirits in swansea. Tried two so far.

Springdale/ATG Any IPA - the "clear" IPA. Striking appearance, I'll give it that, but oversold in terms of what it delivers. Muted bland hop flavor. Not a fan at all. Only drank half of it.

Commonwealth EveryWhen, galaxy DIPA: well, I'm wrong. Not all galaxy beers basically taste the same. It's def galaxy but it's missing the awesome tropical notes... more of the earthy side with a sugary sweetness. Not really a fan and at commonwealth's price point, probably going to pass on trying anything else from them.

0/2.

 

"Well, they can't all be winners. Can they?"

Saw some bottles of Galaxy Pseudo Sue at Ball Square yesterday. I think for ~$12.

It was also on tap at Five Horses and Olde Magoun's. Big price difference though. $10 for 10 oz. at Five Horses. I think either $6.50 or $9.50, but for 16 oz. at Magoun's.

 

Drastically different beers. VTIPA is good. I like the low abv for the style

 

I found bottles of Hubbard's Cave Chocolate and Cinnamon Pot De Creme today at One Stop. Anyone know if this is a one time drop or do they have distro to MA now?

 

Not sure, but saw they showed up at Redstone several weeks back too.

In other news, we've been blanketed with Pipeworks bombers. Selection varies store-to-store, but I've seen Emerald Grouper, Velocity of Light, Friday Night Dice, Grand Guignol: Act One, and Attack of the Devil's Lettuce.

 

Melvin Chuck Morris DIPA, ~3 weeks post-canning.. 4pck of 12oz cans for $14 at Bacon's in Hudson (meh). It was quite good but didn't really stand out in terms of flavor, just really tasty and well made. The thing that stood out most to me was the mouthfeel and how drinkable it was. I had it with dinner and it was down to a couple ounces left in short order.

 

The Melvin beers are incredibly stable, right up there with the big guys IMHO. They can be a little boozy/malty sweet for me but if their latest IPA called My IPA is around grab it, it’s pretty darn good. It’s all Lupulin Powder and it’s pretty rad. No burn, really well made, less malty sweet than their IPAs. Definitely tastes and smells like Lupulin Powder which Is unique. This is the first beer I’ve had with just the Lupulin Powder that is really well made.

 

What do you mean by stable, here? Consistent?

 

Shelf stable, they don’t degrade as quickly as your typical shelf IPA. I’m constantly amazed to find 2-3 month old cans that taste fantastic with zero signs of fall off.

These guys really do know how to make hoppy beers, as is evident with all their GABF/WBC hardware. I think the Double IPAs are too sweet for me but man they are an awesome expression of the hops they use in them. Yes they’re clear beers but they’re also rather soft for the level of IBUs they claim.

Sounds like they’re working on a few more Pale/IPAs instead of so many IIPAs which I’m excited about. Again if you can find their latest called Your IPA (I screwed up the previous post) it is an awesome representation of exactly what Lupulin Powder smells/tastes like but without the burn a lot of people associate with it. The powdered/cryo version of the Hop varietals is definitely a different profile.

 

Digging this one. First NEIPA I've had from them. Carb's a little prickly.

 

Big Bad Baptist reserve hit today in Boston. Only 600 cases of the stuff made, apparently. Snagged a bottle and pretty pumped to try it. Has a mean look to it with the black label and wax top. Plus Epic's stouts are top notch.

Also snagged a bottle of Harlan's Even More Jesus and have seen it a few places. I suspect that depending on the shop it'll either move over a few days and be gone, or stick around forever. The price tag is outrageous, but I was told that it's actually being sold for less than was expected by $10, or something like that.

 

How much was the Harlans EMJ? I still see bombers of the Evil Twin/Westbrook collab that was $30 sitting on shelves.

 

Rapid Liquors has a whole bunch of BA, Vanilla, and Mole framinghammers as well as a wild and a sour from Springdale. I think everything was under $10.

They also had a sign up saying that Cigar City is coming to MA soon and the guy told me it would probably be around the end of the month. I'm kind of surprised so many places are still willing to try expanding into our area with how crowded the field is. I did really like their pale ale when i had it, but if I remember Jai Alai correctly I think it's maltier and heavier than my palate is looking for these days in an IPA.

 

Speaking of Revolution and their barrel aged lineup - I’ve yet to see any of their cans in MA this year. Has anyone?

 

So - arriving around the same time as Bell’s? Where the hell’s all this beer going to fit & who’s going to drink it? Love Bell’s Two Hearted & Jai Alai is just OK , but there’s gotta be down-sizing at some point. I’d love to see some more price competition as well.

 

No cans of the barrel-aged stuff in MA yet as far as I've seen. Man, I'd love for some cans of Double Barrel VSOD to find their way here...

 

Speaking of overcrowding in the marketplace, if anyone is looking to buy about 700 of those Stone collaboration magnums, Marty's in Newton has you covered. Those things are like an invasive species lately.

 

Next time i throw a party and have like 20 people that like strong BA stouts i'll pick up a W00tstout magnum, but i doubt they'll move too quickly.

Martys also has a bunch of bottles of Big Bad Baptist reserve if anyone was looking for it.