What’s the Difference? Share your Side-by-Side (2021)

Yeah, Black River Traders is a statewide distributor and you might see a few of their beers at any retailer (I saw the 12 pks at a Bottle King) but that's a big portfolio of both imports and craft brands - including a handful of locals- they carry, so not very common to find a lot of them in one place. But, that also means most every "good" NJ retailer buys some beer from BRT, so they can order their brands for customers.

Now, whether you want to play Date Code Roulette?

 

My local Gary's carries it too.

@jonphisher , be sure to include Sunshine Pils if you're going to do another tasting. It always performs really well in mine.

 

With Covid I can’t get back home until this is about over, but I really like shopping at Joe Canals in Lawrenceville. Damn it’s a warehouse of booze in one building and much cheaper than Pa. they also have a Growler club which would be interesting to help with side by sides as well. NC does singles which is cost effective for testing, PA not so much, I don’t ever remember seeing singles, or growler stations. But times change.

 

The last time I had it it was zippy as ever. That was back in the fall, though.

 

Ya unfortunately no dating on the box. I've gotten comfortable buying them because they've always been fresh but I'm just a few hours from the brewery and its a popular brand around here

 

Dale, yes they have. I can purchase single beers at my local beer retailers - both Beer Distributors and beer stores within supermarkets (Wegmans, Giant, Acme,...).

My local Beer Distributor has been selling crowlers for quite some time (over a year); below is a photo.



Cheers!

 

How 'bout the cans, themselves? I've been threatening to get a dollar store roll of clear packing tape and add it to my "beer shopping kit" - so I can pop open 6 and 12 packs that aren't coded, check the cans and tape them back up ('cause I don't want to annoy the workers and make them pick up the rolling cans...). Of course, the only other thing in the "kit" are powerful reading glasses for date code viewing and most of the time I forget them.

 

Yep the cans are clearly dated and they actually have a functional date printer that seems to never smear or distort the date unlike many other breweries

 

PAs out of the dark ages, where beer distributors made millions.

 

Is Vaukt any good, my parent are about 15 minutes away from Yardley.

 

Dale, I am sad to report that I have zero experience with Vault Brewing.

Over the past 2-3 years (and longer) there has been an 'explosion' of new craft brewery openings in the greater Philadelphia area (and plenty of new breweries in the city as well). I am waaaay behind in checking out these places. Just too many choices (a good problem to have?).

Cheers!

 

Here too, well not here here, but Raleigh, Winston, Charlotte, if there’s a college close by there’s lots of bars.

 

I'm seriously considering doing the same thing. Hopefully that Scrimshaw is reasonably fresh...

 

Let me add new bars that specialize in Pitchers of Yuengling and or Bud Light, the Craft bar thing here in Burlington about died with Covid. There really is about 1/4 a craft bar, they went from 30 plus taps to 6, a few of them are AALs for the kiddies. Anyone opening a new bar is nuts in this environment.

 

An unusual collaboration: UK breweries Cloudwater and Left Handed Giant each took the same malt, hops and water profile, and seperately brewed a hazy DIPA.

Cloudwater 12+1 was slightly darker in colour and had a fruity, dank taste profile. LHG 11+2 was lighter and tasted hoppier and more bitter, with the Nelson Sauvin very much in evidence.

After tasting seperately, there was only one thing left to do...enter 26(?)

 

I have bought a few 4-packs of Vault's at my local store over the past couple years. Most recently their nitro Bear Hug oatmeal stout, which was quite good. Previously their similar Breakfast Stout was pretty good too. Their 5 C's IPA was decent but nothing special.

 

I suspected as much, no matter how small the operation if your producing great beers people will talk. There’s a small brewery in New Hope that’s invisible as well.

 

Total wine cherry hill had bottles. Assumed they were old