Other Half (2019)

Went through about 10 pages of the three chiefs thread based on your previous recommendation, no regrets

 

No. That was a tongue-in-cheek reply. While I’m sure there are a select group of people that skip work to go to these releases (or don't have a job at all), I kind of resent the narrative of “don’t these people have jobs?!” whenever people line up on weekdays or that these types of releases are “unfair to people that work.” I work day shift, but my shifts are 13 hours long and many of them are on weekends. I often find myself missing out on a lot of popular beer releases for this reason.

I'm not talking percentages, but a very large chunk of the workforce doesn't work bankers' hours. Lots of people have flexible schedules, work from home, own their own businesses, or work nights/weekends. To say "what do these people do?" is a little silly to me when you consider how many fields are 24/7/365.

 

I will say, of all the bottles I've been able to get/try from Kyle, only one I was kinda of meh on, everything else was great. I still was pretty let down with the Horus/Kane collabs though

 

At that price point there is no middle ground.

 

(we won’t talk about seeing each other very close to the front of a timed release line for a Horus beer at green city)

 

How much time do you spend on here that you're reading threads for West coast breweries? I should have gotten a job in *checks thread* commercial real estate.

 

a) I spend far too much time - I can’t argue with that. But also;

b) I seek out only the most drama-filled threads. I’m only interested in quality content.

 

I mentioned the other day that his stamina was unparalleled. When you consider that he does it all while holding down a real job—in addition to being a husband, a father, a regular exerciser, etc...—the productivity is really quite breathtaking.

In fact, I'm beginning to think that incident with the "lactose" at the previous meetup was indeed confirmation of a more worrisome habit.

 

The first rule about Green City....

 

So has anyone here actually tried any of the Snowbirds variants yet?

I made the fatal error of getting 4 oz. pours of each after purchasing my (cut back) allotment and I was pretty underwhelmed with just about everything I had. The new Almond Joy one was my favorite of the bunch, but it wasn't exactly stiff competition. The carrot cake variant reminded me of those shitty holiday Coca Colas between the carbonation and the overwhelming spice. By the time I got to the barrel-aged ones my palate was completely shot and I couldn't really distinguish one from the other. I give my girlfriend a lot of credit, though. As someone that doesn't drink beer, she was able to pick out the "wild Thai banana" one and articulate to me just how disgusting she thought it was (along with all of the others, but that one in particular did her in).

Overall recap of my experience goes as follows: meal at Ugly Baby>>>strawberry jalapeno kombucha at OH>>Almond Joy variant>>indistinguishable BA Snowbirds>Carrot Cake variant.

 

I haven't had the Almond Joy one but I didn't like the BA Banana one at all, the other BA variant was good but probably not worth $24, the carrot cake was very sweet but not terrible. Kinda a shame cause Snowbirds 1 and BA Snowbirds were both excellent.

 

I had the BA Snowbirds 3 VIP variant and thought it was just ok. Didn't get a lot of bourbon and the adjuncts were underwhelming compared to the original.

 

Having said everything I just said: this batch of Forever Simcoe is fantastic.

Fingers crossed for a time where strolling in whenever and picking up however much of their flagship beers is a given.

 

Can’t go wrong with ugly baby

 

Since we have @horusagedales in house already we figure we would release our original collab, barrel aged. Coming Friday, 12/13, at noon in the tap room. ———————————————————————
Double Drupe Imperial Stout(16.3%) Aged 18 months in maple bourbon barrels with pecans, coconut, and cacao nibs. We brewed this incredible beer one and a half years ago with our buddy Kyle from @horusagedales After an 18 month slumber we pulled this from barrel and conditioned it on tasty pecans, cacao nibs and coconut. $24 per bottle, 2 bottles per person.

 

I work overnights a lot now. This year I probably worked midnight-8am 35-40 weeks this year. And I work Saturday almost every weekend now. One of the few plusses, and thank God I have a decent enough job to afford this shit, is the ability to go to a release mid-day, if I please. It always cracks me up when something like that is written or said. I was lucky enough to have consistent 11am-9pm hours for almost 2 decades, with weekend off, and sleep in my bed with my wife every night. Would I rather do that or go to a beer release at 3pm on a Tuesday?

 

I, too, tried all 4 yesterday. And I, too, found this year's Almond Joy to be the best of the bunch. I'd also add that 4 oz of each was more than enough, and 0 oz would've been just as good if not better. It was my first Snowbirds release as a New Yorker. And probably my last. Lesson quickly learned, I suppose.

Throwing adjuncts, ABV, spirit barrels, and a boldfaced collaborator's name against the wall and hoping that some combination of them sticks doesn't a better beer make. For all that OH does well, brews like this aren't one of them. Not yet, not consistently, and not in my opinion anyway. Too often, they're muddled, treacly messes; and whenever oak casks are involved, that element is at best an afterthought in the final product. I appreciate that they're constantly innovating and pushing the envelope in a hyper-competitive and expensive market like NYC, but they still have a long distance to travel before they're up to par with the best of the rest in this category.

And to those who missed out on bottles yesterday because they had to work, tend to family, or do something/anything more important (and that's a long list, mind you), you should not be tinged by regret in the least. You were spared this temporary nonsense. You're also surrounded by superior stuff each day at your local bottle shop & taproom whether you've come to believe it or not.

We can keep repeating this exercise ad nauseam, "limited" release after "limited" release, or we can finally embrace the idea that FOMO is a concept whose time has long since expired in our world of plenty.

 

are the Horus stouts sicky sweet like the pastry stouts? Think I might just try and find another $35 2 year Bourbon Country instead of these...

 

Not sure if serious