Bells coming to NJ this summer

Two Hearted is an American classic, and unlike many erstwhile "great" IPAs, remains worth drinking to this day.

How many awful taplists over the years have been saved solely on account of having Two Hearted as the lone craft option? Who can say??

 

Two Hearted will always have a special place in my heart. Can't say the same for any year round PA brewed IPA. Although when I was buying cases of it in 08/09/10 we would get it within a week or two of bottling every delivery, every time.

 

Five

 

Five lol five at the same bar the same week.

 

While I agree with you on two heated whole "hearty", the one part I find surprising is your use of the word "any". Between say, Victory, Troegs, Neshaminy Creek, hell even tried hands, do any of these breweries brew an IPA that you respect as much as two hearted Ale?

 

all of the above a year round IPA no. Not even close. Neshaminy would be tits if they could just fucking put a canned on date on their shit, until then fuck em.

 

I have noticed they use a Julian date sticker on the top, right on the plastic can holder.

 

Well played, sir. Well played.

 

A lot of love for Two Hearted and I was also a fan back in the day and used to bring it home whenever I was in Michigan visiting my son in school but there are better options IPA wise nowadays locally where I probably won't buy it. I put it in the class with Sculpin, DFH 60, Racer 5, Union Jack, and all the other great IPA's of yesteryear whose heyday has passed.

 

Was a little Disappointed with Bells Oberon.

It's a Decent American Pale Wheat Ale but just seems to be very underwhelming over all. Although it does have a wonderful spicy and bitter hop character that I really dig.

Bottled on 5/15

 

Agreed. Same with two hearted. Hasn't held up (and I like more classic stuff; hate the "juice" bomb neipa).

 

On to my final bottle out of the two 6-packs I bought. A great American Beer, a classic, the original OG IPA whale!

 

At Bottle King in Ramsey yesterday
Two Hearted bottles dated May 30
Two Hearted cans June 12

Freshness is becoming a thing of the past

 

I think it’s the norm for larger breweries. I don’t think it’s logistically possible to expect super fresh beer from them. Hunterdon orders too much then it sits in their warehouse and that’s what they send out to stores. Lager of the lakes has become my favorite beer lately, it dethroned prima for me. I think the only way to get large brewery stuff fresh is new release stuff or when they first get distro.

 

This is what seems to be happening to most new brewers that come to NJ, At first everyone buys them but after some time people move on and they start becoming shelf turds.

Bells looks to be getting there faster then I imagined.

Most retailers ordered a hell of alot of Bells with the May 25-30th date because I guess they were new and fresh and expected them to fly off the shelves asap. But in all my liquor stores near by me, I still see that same Bells Two Hearted that I bought over 2 months ago still on the shelf, same date code, same beer, only difference is a layer of dust that beginning to form.

 

Saw Oracle on shelves yesterday; is that a new arrival?

 

I have been enjoying Lager of the Lakes as well . Nice beer

 

any word if we will be seeing black note?

 

This situation really does seem to be on the distributors, but it's the brewers who eventually take the heat.

On a related note, I was recently in communication with our FW rep about finding some fresh Union Jack. (Really nice guy, btw) From his perspective everything is going great, he's bringing in fresh product every two weeks, etc. But I could never find it at the stores, even the ones who place frequent orders. I'm sure that the disconnect is happening at the distributor level, where the fresh stuff goes to the back of the line and they are still shipping older stock.