New England Whales?

I feel compelled to add this: A number of years ago, we did a blind taste test with WCIPAs. They were the heavy hitters of the time. Sculpin, Stone, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, Green Flash, etc. We were in California. They were all super fresh. This was maybe 2010/2011. At the time, I was a huge Sculpin stan. There was no way I was going to mistake that beer for another beer. Zip zero. I drank all those beers often. My least favorite, the one I bought rarely, if ever, was Lagunitas. Not my thing.

Blind taste results -- Winner? Lagunitas (for all three of the tasters).

Secondary result -- the realization that we don't know anything about anything (good lesson for life too).

 

From reading through the thread, it seems like you want to know the beers from Connecticut that would work well in a trade.
I would say Fox Farm is number one. They have highly rated DIPAs (amongst other beers) and they do not distribute. I am not sure if they are known outside of New England but I am assuming a trade partner would look up reviews and comments and be intrigued.
New Park could be number two. Again, highly rated DIPAs but also know for an expensive fruited sour line called Blender that I have seen sought out for trade (depending on the variation). They also do not distribute. They are probably even less known than Fox Farm but again a savvy trade partner might want some.
Both breweries seem to have cans lasting longer these days (not counting the thanksgiving rush). You should be able to walk in and get cans without too much of a hassle.

 

I don't understand your point.
Good for the people with the time, money, and ambition to spend their Saturdays trekking out to Portland to load up on dollies of NEIPA. I just know that, from where I live, by the time it took me to get out there, wait in even a short line, and have a beer, that I could be in Central Mass on beer #2 at a couple places that I regard more highly.

 

Generally, awareness trickles out to more and more people. So the mavens who have moved on are replaced by a more mainstream casual craft beer crowd. If the brewery stays incredibly popular, then maybe the profiteers enter and a gray distribution market occurs. But more likely the popularity growth wanes a bit and the business becomes more steady. Maybe the brewery enters distribution. Or it becomes a locals only haunt if the business is predictable and profitable.

 

You know that movie that came out recently about the guy who becomes the only person in the world who knows The Beatles song catalog? The thing about that is, if it really happened, I think a reasonable outcome is that you'd have to tour hard on that material for several years just to get a handful of music nerds to care about you, and you might never much more recognition than that. The songbook alone just doesn't get you that far, I don't think.

Ok, so same sort of idea, if everything else was the same, except that Tree House had never existed, and a brewery making Tree House's exact beers opened up today, do you think they would possibly get to the status of trade bait?

 

ummm, okay.

I’ll be more specific, I guess, about my response to someone else. There are a lot of people who choose to go to Tree House Brewing Co. and that’s a wonderful thing that they do. They go and wait (or not wait) for beers of a certain style. That, to me, takes time, money, and ambition considering the distance from which I live from that brewery (about 90-100 minutes). On the other hand — and this references the second part of my post — it would take me around 50 minutes from my driveway to the parking lot at Allagash or 60 minutes to Oxbow, two breweries that I find superior. Thus, I could be enjoying my second beer. That was my point ... in a conversation I was having with someone else.

 

That’s 90-100 minutes just to get there. Then you have to wait at least an hour to get a beer (on a Saturday). I stopped in a few weeks ago, saw the line, got back in my car and drove home and was drinking a beer long before I would have had a beer had I waited in line. No beer is that good.

 

Judging from the license plates in the Tree House parking lot, many people disagree with you . To each his own though. I have a soft spot for Tree House hop whales as I have used them to trade for otherwise difficult and expensive beer on a number of occasions, plus I also immensely enjoy their regular offerings especially the Sap and Green series.

 

His point is that NEIPAs are offensive to the beer world and we should all be drinking lagers and wild ales. I of course am taking liberties on interpreting this particular post of his, but based on his many posts railing against NEIPAs and "hazebois" while simultaneously assuming higher standing based on love of traditional styles, I feel it is a fair conclusion. To be honest, I am not sure what is more annoying, people complaining about people enjoying NEIPAs, or people giving NEIPAs all 5 star ratings and dismissing equally great beer of other styles. I appreciate just about every style of beer and would rather celebrate and respect all beers than talk smack about particular styles.

 

EXACTLY! Thank you, Dave.

 

I think we can have a little fun at the expense of NEIPAs. Too many newer breweries are making barely anything else. Two of my best friends drink 95% NEIPAS and 5% kettle sours and pastry stouts. I kid them about it all the time. They can take it. It’s not an indictment of their character as human beings.

 

This is a great reply!

 

OH for sure- and for the record I do share some of the concern about the total drift towards NEIPAs, but there will always be great examples of all styles as long as we don't ALL just start drinking white claw.

 

I guess I misunderstood. It seemed like he was saying people don't do the exact same thing at Portland breweries that they do at Tree House.

 

Sorry, I must have stumbled upon your DM conversation not a post in an open forum.

 

dude it’s beer let’s have fun. I call people haze boiz, I say all NEIPA taste the same. People call me basic, say all lagers taste the same. It’s all bueno, amigos. I’m drinking a Blue Point Winter Ale. Independent? No. Who cares!

 

I actually wasn't being sarcastic- you are a defender of tradition- it grates occasionally, but we need it. Lets just all agree to appreciate beer in all its forms.

 

Ah, the narcissism of small differences.

 

Please go on.....