Barrier Brewing Co.

The Aslin collab is pretty good. I was hoping for more of a “Queen of Limes/Limes Disease” which was the lime west coast IPA they put out a few years ago for Queens Beer Week but it’s definitely still a solid beer. The coconut is a nice addition.

The experimental beer they has this week, a belgian breakfast stout with chocolate, vanilla and coffee, was fucking off the charts. The experimental beers get better by the week.

 

Went to Barrier the other day - first of all they have a shit load of cans, maybe 10 different kinds. But they are also doing some construction, expanding I think so the tap room was a bit of a mess this past Sunday.

I know it's a boring style to most of you but the Simple Cali Common is sublime. I've had it there on draft for years but this is the first time it's been canned - just a richness and depth to the malt but still easily really drinkable. Sad I didn't pick up more.

 

I didn't realize they had a cali common. Still need to make it out to the brewery at some point.

 

Yea I must agree here. They have their way with Coconut. Even their stouts with coconut have been killer.

 

Yep its a killer beer too. Their Kolsch (Icculus) is fantastic as well; great representation of the style.

 

Yes they make probably more traditional styles (not needlessly hopped up, imperial-ized, adjunct laden) in the NYC area.

Icculus Kolsch, Simple Cali Common, Imposter Czech Pils, Earth Brown Ale (not as good as Barnacle but still fine), Copernicus Cream Ale are all top quality renditions and all in cans for $14/4pk (except for Copernicus which is only served on nitro). They have a ton of proper West Coast IPAs too. They do make the new orange creamsicle milkshake styles lately but just for the markets sake.

 

I think Barnacle was the first growler I ever filled there. Loved that beer. Any idea why they replaced?

 

I don't know if it's completely gone, I think it was around maybe a year ago. At least I hope it's still in the rotation. There's always room for more brown ales.

 

I grabbed that Common on a whim a few months ago when it was just in bottles and I was so goddamn impressed. Just a really, really good beer.

 

Have either Icculus or Cali Common seen distro, or are they brewery-only?

 

East Meadow beverage barn has had both recently, within the last month.

 

Thanks. Did some looking, and Icculus is available at one of my go-to spots here in western Suffolk. East Meadow is a bit of a ride for the Common, no matter how good it may be.

 

Just a heads up, Brightwaters Beverage gets almost all of Barrier’s releases so if you have the time you should pop in there. I find that store to be kinda pricy though.

 

My main beer store. Although I'd say 75% of my purchases have been from breweries.

 

I go there too, but due to price and old stock issues it's not very often. I usually go to Bay Shore Bev instead.

 

Do you think their dates are better? Any time I've went there I've had to pass cause of old dates lol. This is the reason I get most beer from the breweries directly, and lucky for me my friends go to so many releases they just bring them back for me haha.

 

I think both stores are very similar. I think Bay Shore Beer is better mostly because I find their prices cheaper but I work closer to Brightwaters (I know they’re close but every minute counts when I’m on a break).

I bought a 4 each of Modern Times Orderville and Critical Band and Brightwaters charged me $40. I was like, are you kidding me? I really haven’t gone back since. I also tried to buy a 4-pack of Alvarado Street Cool Runnings (which I admittedly was shocked to see) and they told me it was limit one with a $7.50 price tag. Mind you, they were being stored warm and were six weeks old.

 

This may be an extreme case, but at Brightwaters once, I found a bottle of Young's Old Nick Barleywine on the bottom of the UK rack which had a 2007 best by date...and this was around 2014! Bottle cap had rust spots.

Bay Shore has an added edge in that a lot more of their stock is in cold storage.