Trillium Brewing Company (2019)

Had a chistmas party this weekend. Cooler was full with House Lager, Post Shift, Von Trapp Vienna Lager, Notch Session Pils, NEBCO Sea Hag, And Notch Raw Power. It was a nice mix for not much $$

 

It is almost as if people aren't aware of other breweries.... To be fair, I have enjoyed the Trillium pilsner, but hundreds of other breweries make better ones for less money. Trillium will likely never make a lager that is better than regular offerings by Jack's, Notch, and the like- their brew operations/business model simply isn't set up for it. And nor should they- its better if all the breweries put most of their time/money into their standards.

 

It is good, but there are better deals on quality lagers.

 

Things did not improve. I make a comment here and there, only reason being I miss the old Trillium brews, they were top notch. I guess the new flavor is not necessarily better or worse to the masses, but different to me, which equates to inferior for my specific tastes. I don't purchase from them anymore.

 

Same but it's also a beer that begs to be drank as a full pint in a nice imperial pint glass so I still usually opt for the $9.99/6pk.

 

Taste is subjective but I don't think Trillium's pilsner is worth drinking for free. I bought a can and couldn't finish it as it was metallic and overly bitter - this was months ago so maybe it has improved. Maybe I'll revisit, but there are far better value buys in the Northeast.

I did think they did a good job with Central Artery though, but again, I'd take House Lager 10 times out of 10.

 

That’s a wild take

 

On the topic of Pilsners... I found Castle Island’s Bohemian Shine to be pretty enjoyable although lacking a bit in the head retention department. Evidently it was a GABF gold medal winner. Whatever that’s worth these days...

 

Man - they are not - maybe in pockets - as in Gnome or BG CAN and DOES produce beers on par with Trillium, but not consistently. Their highs also aren't as high. Voodoo is a different story - they're certainly not their with their hazies.

 

I haven't had any of their hoppy beers, but Voodoo's barrel program is better than anything anyone in New England is doing (possible exception of HF, which I haven't had enough of to judge)

 

I don't disagree there - their BA stuff is fantastic, which is why i called it "a different story." It's also not really a Pittsburgh brewery - they have a location here now, but their original brewery was closer to Erie than Pittsburgh so I always kinda forget about them in a manner of speaking when talking about Pittsburgh stuff. Would be like calling Southern Tier a pittsburgh brewery because they have a brewhouse here.

 

Nothing about Trillium screams "value" to me. You want a value pilsner: Urquell is $8 a 4 pack (and is a better beer IMHO). Behind that I'd go for Notch.

 

These beer prices have made me a Pilsner drinker as of late myself. The four pack of ddh Congress I had was pretty good as compared to the last time I had it.

 

You guys seem to not really be familiar with brewing, guess I’ll rehash this

infection does not lead to dark fruit. It leads to tartness/sour/funk depending on the specific infecting bacteria. Also the base beer is different according to the website

the majority of flavor adjuncts are added post barre aging, ESPECIALLY ones like coffee that fade drastically over time

this is wrong in a couple ways. 1) “sugary” adjuncts used in pastry stouts are primarily lactose and maltodextrine which aren’t fermentable 2) trillium doesn’t bottle condition their beer. There would be apparent yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles if this were the case, also this wouldn’t be exact and could lead to variation between bottles

what you’re neglecting is that a lot of the base beers are different for these beers. Also, you’re coming off a bit as old man yells at cloud here, I’m sure German brewers said the same thing when people started violating the Reinheistgebot (or however you spell it)

THE MAJORITY OF COMMERCIAL BEERS ARE FORCE CARBONATED. There are rare exemptions. Certain styles (ie saisons/wild ales), and certain breweries (Sierra Nevada and Maine Beer Company).

First part is correct about trillium not bottle conditioning. The second part is incorrect. Beers can be shelf stable with residual sugar even without pasteurization or filtering. There are many types of sugars that normal beer yeast can not ferment, as well as a limit to the abv they can survive in. Even when bottle conditioning, brewers use yeast that can only eat simple sugars in order to not actually kick start a refermentation in the beer

SO in summary:
Trillium does not bottle condition their stouts

You do not need to bottle condition beer, force carbonation exists

the majority of flavor adjunct are added post barrel aging

Infections would not create a dark fruit/raisin character. Dark crystal/caramel malts do this, which is reflected in the two stouts having different grain bills

you do not need to pasteurize/filter years to keep a stable final gravity on a beer. The yeast remaining in the beer at this point are unable to continue fermenting due to the remaining sugar being unfermentable and/or the yeast not being able to tolerate the ABV. Pasteurization is primarily to prevent potential infection of beers (like the Cycle example)

source: I’m an avid homebrewer with friends that are pros

 

Yes I mentioned ABV limit as a factor in my post, and was aware of non-fermentable sugars as a way to add residual sweetness though I forgot to mention those (whether they're residual long-chain sugars from a high mash temp or something like lactose thats added), but the sugars in a lot of those adjuncts (chocolate, raisins, etc) are fermentable as far as I understand, and as long as the yeast isn't at its abv tolerance, some amount refermentation is likely to occur once those are added. It's a new source of at least some fermentable sugar for yeast that have the capacity to keep going. Maybe at those high ABVs the effect is minimal and doesn't present a risk of really producing much fermentation at all, or they allow a short period for potential fermentation activity between adding the adjuncts and packaging?

I would like to hear your thoughts on how you think stuff like the Seesaws are done, where you maintain a low abv with a lot of residual fruit flavor - is there is a significant portion of unfermented fruit in those beers, or has all of the fruit sugar fermented out and the base beer just had a very low abv to start with? Given their relative clarity compared to the refermentation-risk smoothie beers like Joose or Hydras I'm assuming the fruit additions are allowed to ferment rather than added at packaging - maybe I'm just overestimating the amount of sugar the fruit would add and it doesn't bump the abv that much.

 

Omgz, there was never a non barrel aged Peppermint Hot Chocolate stout. Must be another infection!!!

 

I believe they let it ferment out all the way since I haven’t heard of exploding or gushing cans like Joose or Hydra. My understanding is that when adding fruit the ABV doesn’t significantly change, and any refermentation that the sugar in the fruit causes in balanced out by the amount of water in the fruit addition

also seems like you do have a good understanding on the residual sugar thing. I just think you’re overestimating the amount of sugar these adjuncts have though. You usually see brewers add the unsweetened versions of these adjuncts, with the natural sugars in these being negligible for fermentation.

 

Is it me or is there no description of how long the peppermint hot chocolate was barrel aged and what it was barrel aged on?
I'd love a bottle of this non barrel aged for like half the price, but $26 is a bit much for me to gamble on this without knowing the base beer.

 

This is obviously the infected non barrel component of Perm 69 because Trillium has to follow the rulez! In case you didn’t know the rules are that the only barrel aged beers they are allowed to release are the ones they have done as a non-barrel aged beer about one year ago. They only deviate from this rule to release re-labeled infected versions.