Other Half (2019)

Have Grimm and OH every done an IPA?

 

No but that does remind me of this post which I think is my pick for the best of this year's thread.

 

our quest for #189 has really brought out the best in people as we close out 2019... and I for one love it.

That being said, peoples tastes are personal to them, not everyone can or will agree on everything. The statement @Feaor made about a large portion of the "craft beer" populous is relatively true IMO, unfortunately. Tons of people who have flooded craft beer have only done so somewhat recently and are enamoured by beer that really totes the line of what some may consider beer (recall my past post about this somewhat recently) and thats not an incorrect statement IMO. I love exploration and the boundaries breweries push but a rating system like Untappd is all relative to the people who are rating it and what their personal tastes are, people rarely agree 100% of the time.

I feel theres an onus in some of these peoples heads that oh this is a VIP BA JWake OH Collab its gotta be a 4.5 or more regardless of how it tastes, when it might not be that great. I also thought it tasted like bad medicine and at what point do people stop overrating beers they drink just because of who made it. If there's no constructive criticism how would/could a brewery really try to get better if everything they see is people shouting praises about everything they do, no matter how great or awful it may be.

#dointifor189

 

After thinking some more about this, I was being pretty flippant. I think maybe the better take is that ratings are more a barometer of hype than anything else (outside of truly bad products). I don't put much stock in ratings as a result.

 

Whether its stouts or sours, part of me wonders where we are? I mean I am firmly in the "If I like it then thats the prime thing", so I don't get all fussed about Cookie Kooks or the strange ingredients in many of the sours if I end up liking them. However, part of me also thinks this:
It is really cool when beers evoke fun flavors (juice, etc) without adding adjuncts. Similar to how wine can have tons of fun flavors to taste, and how we can differentiate different flavors from different hops. (What is the best citra beer?) For me that is part of the fun of the hobby.

When you start adding fruit or vanilla or maple or anything else, of course it should likely taste like these ingredients (often they are added after the brewing process!). However, in many bad stouts it actually doesn't, or the final product is not enjoyable to drink (and the last 4 ounces of of a stout may be the best verdict on that). How different is this than Mike's hard Lemonade, root beer? At some point maybe these are like beer or stout cocktails? And I guess when they taste really good, I'm up for it, but the bar is lower than pulling great flavors out of hops in my mind. And when these things are bad its really disappointing. OH got a lot of milage out of Blueberry Crunchee, but the followup "beers" maybe weren't quite so good and maybe the novelty wears off, at least it did for me as I want that style less than I did a few months back.

As far as "Whale ratings" go, it's buyer beware! Many of these initial ratings are by resellers or by people who just wasted a lot of time getting that beer and therefore probably want to like that beer! That's one great thing about this group is you can track individuals who seem to know and be unbiased, and assuming your preferences maybe line up with them in general, get a pretty good idea also of what is good. And while some styles are underrated (saisons) and maybe some are overrated (bigass stouts), you can keep that in mind too.

 

I looked back and I cannot find an OH stout that I really liked this year. Maybe my palate has changed, but whereas I think their IPAs have gotten better throughout the year, I think their stouts have gone downhill.

 

ROC cans available at open today.

 

The banananniversary stout was maybe my favorite beer from them this year. I also liked the snickers orbit.

Does anybody like Syrup Caddy? It just had way too much artificial sweetener flavor and was one of the very few beers I couldn't finish.

 

I didn't try the syrup caddy, but my friend who lives in MD near that liquor shop that always gets OH drops picked that up (it was all that was left a few months ago) and he loved it. Then again, it was his first foray into the whole "not beer" beer concept and I think that can go a long way into the way people like or don't like this stuff. Novelty/hype can be a bit blinding sometimes too, and are definitely propping these ratings up.

DDH vapor ringz (forgot to add that to my favs of 2019 list) has definitely changed my anti-tose stance, but I'll still pass on Mylar daydream everytime and wait for the untosed versions.

#189problemsbutanontosedIPAaintone

 

All three versions of conjoined triangles on tap, may have to do a quick comparison and wash it down with run w’us

 

Untappd ratings are great for investigating which Kane stout I should try from a given release if I only want to try one and they sound similar (with the understanding that it might result in the totally wrong outcome based on my personal preference), or whether to drop $$ on the Tired Hands IPA that has tasting notes of "freshly foraged mushrooms and benevolent death" or the one with notes of "treetops and fluffy birthday cake." It's not so good for determining whether a spumoni stout is objectively better than a pilsner, and I think pretty much all users get that.

 

FTFY
Yes, I'm going to stoop to correcting bad grammar and spelling in other peoples posts, even if it's likely the result of autocorrect, all so that #189isasgoodasdone.

 

The answer to the first two are just to try the beer yourself because taste is subjective as you pointed out. I've pretty much given up on buying packaged beer that I can't try first with only a few exceptions.

 

Do I have to get on line or in line to toe it?

 

I actually did this last night with all 3 cans (no run w'us however)

damn autocorret always gets me and I hate it!

 

Lots of good points about pastry stouts and adjuncts and whatnot in these recent posts. I, for one, have pretty much stopped buying the "gimmick beers" from whatever brewery. It's gone too far from beer for me. Some of these fruited beers are worse than wine coolers of the 80s (dating myself) and many a pastry stout is kind of too far into a dessert, and less of a dessert beer. Also, mostly done with IPAs with vanilla in them.

But hey, if that's what you dig -- and there is plenty of this stuff getting bought every week to suggest that it is -- that's cool. As long as I can still get beer-beers.

On a side note, y'all should check out the Revolution Brewing thread in Great Lakes. It's like stepping into a time machine and going back to the OH threads circa 2016.

oh yeah, #189isforlurkerstoo

 

hmmm, 80s you say? Is that 1880s or 1980s? Do you drink a lot of NE IPAs?

#thenewhazegramps?

 

1780s. the brewing revolution.

Drink NE IPAs? Sure, I helped form New England, I should drink the beers of the people.