Beer styles more breweries should consider making

Correction: They buy White Claw.

 

I wish there were a greater demand for lower ABV stouts/porters in the 4-5.5% range. Sierra Nevada Stout, a personal fave, is very difficult to find these days...same with their porter. It's virtually a dead zone in my area for American beers. There are great import options, which I'm happy to buy, but it would be nice to have some homegrown options.

 

Agreed. Whenever a local brewery makes something like this, I make an effort to get one. It happens too infrequently.

 

I'd also like a resurgence of the Black IPA\Cascadian wave that surged a few years back. I really, really enjoy that style and it is getting increasingly difficult to find them.

 

Of course, after that comes the thread:
Beer styles more beer geeks should consider buying (more than 1 bottle of).

 

If you haven’t had it, you should really try Greenport’s Black Duck. Unlike pretty much everything else (barring imports), it's actually in that ABV range and it's very good. I bet you can find a sixer... but the problem is that they don't date their bottles, and local 4.7% porters aren't exactly flying off the shelves. I always assume that beer is old. I was in CT last week and I found a store with 2 month old sixers of Sierra Nevada porter. I felt like I must have time traveled when I saw those (in a good way).

 

I’d say that from simple observations at the beach and pools that Bud light and either Truly or White Claw by a landslide the drink of choice. I happen to like the grapefruit White Claw if I want something refreshing and a little lighter. Goes for guys as well as gals.

 

Chris, I have a similar story. I was at a kinda local supermarket a week ago. I had zero intention of buying any beer but I figured I would browse just to see what they had on the shelves/floor. To my utter shock I saw Sierra Nevada Porter on the shelf. I ran over and picked one of the shelf and for my 'extra' amazement I saw that it was bottled only 4 months ago (this is damn fresh for Sierra Nevada in my area). I was tempted to purchase it but a couple of months ago I brewed a batch of Robust Porter (my version of Hill Farmstead Everett Porter) so I am presently 'full up' on Porter in my house. I also spotted cans of Firestone Walker Union Jack and was super-duper amazed to see that it was less than 2 months old. I did buy a 6-pack since this is about a once a year event for me obtaining fresh Union Jack.

Cheers!

 

Funny you say that. I bought it last year and it had a surprisingly sour note (sour like sour milk) that tuned me off, and I wasn't sure if it was a brewing error, because I previously enjoyed it and found it to be pretty satisfying for its weight..

Lots of people love SN for their hoppy beers...and while I love their Pale Ale, to me, their Porter, Kellerweiss and Stout are near perfect. In fact, the KW for me is the best American Hefe (and I recently had Live Oak in Texas), and can hold its own against some of the popular German ones available to us. I do think they are not regularly produced these days.

 

I’ve occasionally gotten acidity in some of their beers... the kind that felt a bit too prominent to be totally by design. Your beer could have been a QC issue exacerbated by age. I’m just spitballing though, and I’m not trying to make any negative claims about them.

 

Must have been the same store with the Sam Adams 3 Weiss Men

 

Ales 4.9% and under would be amazing. I am finding more of them but still not a lot not much of anything in the 3 percentage.

 

Yeah, a few stores by me recently had sixpacks of Sierra Nevada Stout, bottled in November, pop up on the shelves. (In Kramer's distro region, for NJ'ers). So, both are out there - the question becomes: How long will they stay on those shelves...un-bought?

 

Big beers - imperial stouts, barleywines, scotch ales, quads. Those styles are fairly common and popular at most good breweries now. At this point, I don't know how many breweries I've visited where I walked in, looked at the list for a while, and just walked out because everything was less than 8% and too light of a style for me.

 

I am still looking for an authentic Hefe Weizen brewed in the USA. As talented as our breweries are here, I have yet to have a Hefe that matches the quality of the German's wheat beers.

 

I'd like to see more brewers produce the darker German styles, especially doppelbocks, Munich dunkel lagers, and schwarzbiers. Getting them now requires a 20-mile ride to Cedar Springs; I'm thrilled that the brewery is planning to open a pub in GR.

 

Next time you visit Michigan, you should try this: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43130/201524/.

 

Have you been to Territorial Brewing here in Battle Creek (technically it's in Springfield)? I've been to Cedar Springs once and think their lager beers are equally as good as Territorial. But I don't have a feel for the rotation of Cedar Springs' beers to know if you get a wide variety. Territorial typically has 14 beers, and usually a nice variety that can include historical styles like a Kotbusser (I think it's coming in March). Here's their current tap list: http://territorialbrewing.com/beer/

 

I totally agree.