NBS BIF #13: Peninsular Envy 2 (The Rocket-Ball Inception)

Alright, here's the pics:




That Tired Hands glass looks super cool, those meat sticks look super tasty (I'm pretty sure I've never had venison and know for a fact I've not eaten water buffalo!), and I'm stoked about these beers. Up til now Jay has been almost exclusively bombing me with hops but there all sorts of styles going on in this box, and they're all beers I've never had, mostly from a brewery (Wallenpaupack) I have never hear of that, from the look of things, is an adventurous one.

Thank you so much Jay! I refuse to believe any of the rotten things my fridge is beginning to say about you!

 

My first Twin Elephant Crooked Spoke Adjacent https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43698/322982/

Thanks @MacMalt

 

Nothing to do with this BIF, but I gotta relate what I recently witnessed while grabbing dinner and a beer on my way home via a post from the NW forum.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...drinking-now-2021.653008/page-37#post-7228109

 

Crooked Spoke Adjacent

Most Excellent @JayORear

 

WATER BUFFALO?!?!?!!!!!!


ISO!

 

Alright, I've finally fully investigated and documented this huge box from @LehighAce06 ! And then my dog Presto turned off the computer. So lets try this again.

This was easily the best packed box I've ever received - the vacuum sealed bags were a new twist! Also the styro box reminded me of years ago when I used to import and ship live tropical fish. When I first shipped beer I totally used my homemade styrofoam boxes. Now I'm lazy and just use plain cardboard.

Right, lets get to it the fun part:



Cans:
Forest & Main Comet Lager
Forest & Main Tiny Tim (English Bitter)
Forest & Main Blank Stare barleywine
Tired Hands Trendler Kölsch
Tired Hands DDH HopHands riwaka dipa
Tired Hands Auster Modular pilsner
Tired Hands DDH Eviscerated Pathway to Beauty dipa
Tired Hands DDH Oblivex dipa
Tired Hands Trendler Pilsner
Tired Hands DDH Nelson Sauvin Double Milkshake ipa
Mystery beer "new"
Mystery beer "old"

While neither brewery is new to me, all these are new ticks except for the Trendler pilsner, which to be fair I only had for the first time over the weekend. Stoked to have a fresh one to drink. I got some Forest & Main saisons recently and have had ipas and an English mild from them in the past, but I haven't had the styles in these cans. If you were worried about sending an English bitter, I've had plenty of pints of London Pride back in the day (when I could get it). I'm a big fan of Tired Hands, and particularly interested in the Riwaka HopHands, and well, all of them really. Tired Hands milkshake ipas are the only milkshake ipas I find to be acceptable representations of the style (since I believe they are the originators of it along with their collab partner Omnipollo?)

Both these breweries are pretty close to top of the list for revisiting once the world opens up again. Loved Forest & Main's original location, not so much the newer more sterile space. And the TH Brew Cafe is the perfect place to drink weird cask ales in a nice dark environment.



Bottles:
Bourbon County Brand Stout vertical (2015-2017)
Deschutes The Abyss 2014 stout
Jester King Hibernal Dichotomous 2014 Batch #1 (wild ale with lavender, rosemary, and spearmint refermented on watermelon juice)
Pipeworks Cinnamon Abduction stout with cinnamon, cacao, and vanilla
Tilquin Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l'Ancienne 2013-2014 lambic
Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout
Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #15 Russian Imperial Stout

I've had older BCBS, but don't really drink them anymore after the buyout. I know they are excellent beers, but I'm one of those people that spent a fair bit of time in the punk rock scene where selling out is the ultimate sin. Really interested in that Jester King bottle, sounds like nothing I've ever had before. Lambic is always welcome. Never got around to having a Sunday Morning Stout, so that'll be a classic tick I've missed. The Saint Arnold Divine series looks really interesting as well, new to me.



Swag:
Tired Hands Dudley bag (to match the teku I already have)
Tired Hands glass
Zitner's Butter Krak dark chocolate eggs
Peeps!

If I didn't already have an open bag of Cadbury mini-eggs, I'd be all over that Butter Krak. Peeps are only good if you douse them in Bacardi 151 and flambé them. My friends and I don't celebrate Easter, but we have an annual Peep Roast instead. You get a nice sugar crust on the marshmallow if you set them on fire.

@LehighAce06 obviously did his homework to pick these beers for me, and I'm honored to be the recipient of the NBS BIF founder's box. This all looks excellent, and I can't wait to dive in and try everyone of these. Looking forward to the mystery beers this weekend. Thankfully a good chunk of the fridge beer got cleared out over the last week so I can fit all this in there. You're incredibly generous, Kevin, and the ghost sender thing definitely added even more fun to this already silly game. Thank you for starting this BIF - it's literally the only place besides the NBW thread that I actively participate on BA because quite frankly most of the forum is old men ranting about beer. The atmosphere in this BIF is one that genuinely does feel like sitting around with a bunch of folks just drinking and chatting about beer and random subjects. I still trade beer but BIFing stuff is far more fun and much more rewarding. You all make it the best part of having too much beer.

So question for the NBS BIF historians - has there been another female participant in this BIF besides myself?

 

Yes, several. But, they all had one thing in common (besides being one-and-done): they weren't very active during the BIF. Didn't seem to understand that participating is as fun as the beer. I always made sure to pair them with an established sender, who I knew would treat them right, and, well.....

But, I am not calling those ladies out specifically because, for every one of them, we've had a dozen (or more) doodz who just sent a bit better than minimum boxes, didn't participate, and seemed happy enough to receive a monster box and go on. I had some that wanted to join again, but I turned 'em down. Shrug. Humans gonna human.

You get this thing in the spirit intended, and that is not gender specific. That's just being a good, fun person. You rock!

 

Oh, wut? Presto doesn't have his own beer toy to play with? No blame doggo.

 

I've lurked around here mostly in the Pacific forum for years, and besides one or two posts plus a few from a female brewery rep, I've not seen any other women posting. So that's good to know they are around here, just maybe not in the dark corners where I hang out.

 

A few notes:
First of all, the peeps roast sounds delightful, I'll have to give that a try, I've always liked campfire roasted marshmallows (including in smores) as about the only way worth eating them and this sounds in that spirit.

The Hop Hands DDH with Riwaka is an American Pale, not a DIPA; HH is their flagship pale, and they've been DDH'ing it for years under the name "D2H3" (ie Double Dry Hopped Hop Hands) but this is the first time I've seen them use Riwaka hops. I saw you mention recently that you've been digging that hop variety, so I'm glad you'll get to try this version!

The Oblivex and Eviscerated Pathway of Beauty are both DDH'd with Citra; those ARE DIPAs.

I generally agree with you regarding Milkshakes being only drinkable from TH, and you are correct that in partnership with Omnipollo, Tired Hands created the concept. This one is a Nelson Sauvin Milkshake, which is a bit of an oddball since they almost always have either a fruit or some bizarre combination of adjuncts; having seen you write that Milkshakes aren't your thing (and I couldn't directly ask if TH was an exception, as it should be, though your Untappd ratings of others you've tried seemed a good indication), I thought this was a safe compromise for you. Knowing now that you do like TH's Milkshakes I wish I got you the fresher, much weirder, one that they had when I was ordering, this one is still damn tasty, just not as unique.

You really hit the nail on the head regarding both F&M and TH's spaces, F&M's original pub and TH's cafe are two of my favorite places in the world to drink beer, though both of their second locations tend to have a 'too sterile' feel (which I can get over easily enough once I have a beer in my hand, but it's not as ideal). Whenever you do make it back to PA, PLEASE hit me up to join you and your first round is on me.

The Jester King is definitely weird, and I have no idea what all these years of age will have done to it, so please tag me if you do a write-up, I'd love to hear your thoughts. JK is one of the very few breweries that does as much "weird" as Tired Hands does, and while I generally find TH to be more successful at it, JK does a great job too.

The Divine Reserve from St Arnold's that year was a RIS, now aged 6 years; no barrel treatment but it is still a solid beer. Oh, and it's a twist off if you believe it.

The Tilquin was a swap-in for my originally planned Cantillon Gueuze because I saw you have had Cantillon a couple times but had never had anything from Tilquin, and I couldn't let that stand. They don't have the name recognition that Cantillon does but they're every bit as good, and that bottle is from only a couple years after they started blending (they aren't a brewer, they only blend other brewers' lambic). Again, I'd love to know your thoughts on it.

I get what you mean about BCBS, I'm pretty outspoken about my hatred for all things AB InBev, but for a long time made an exception for BCBS because it's just so damn good, though in the last couple years I've finally stopped buying that as well. Alas, the BCBS I already have has already been paid for, so it might as well be drank. That said, be careful of the 2015 bottle, that's the infection year and frankly I have no idea if that one is affected or not. Good luck!

Enjoy the Sunday Morning Stout, it's a solid beer even with a few years on it, the coffee isn't as strong as fresh but it's mellowed out a little as a trade-off. I didn't see The Abyss on your Untappd either, which I found strange for someone that lives so close to the source; I hope it's not something you either just don't like or anything, hopefully at the least it being so old is a unique experience.

If you didn't notice, the bottles are ALL at minimum 4 years old, I concede on my end it was a bit of cellar clean-out, but I did put a fair bit of effort into respecting style preferences and picking beers that you both hadn't had and I thought you'd like, so I hope it doesn't come across as 'just some old junk'.

Well... the length of that post got away from me a bit. Long story short, enjoy your beer!

 

Wallenpaupak is surprisingly good, they've been picking up a bunch of medals lately. The only thing I'm not happy about is the age on a couple of those cans. They're directly from the brewery, so as fresh as they can get, and perhaps in styles where it doesn't matter so much. You mentioned in your review of Field you couldn't tell how old the New Trail cans were . . . it's true they don't date their cans, but I always get them within a week of canning. Their cans hit a couple of local spots every week (including those four collabs, part of what they call their "Expedition Packs"), and they sell out almost immediately. Those stores send me texts as soon as they get them, and I run out and get them. Anyway, enjoy! One more box coming!

EDIT: That TH glass is my new favorite, which means it's only a matter of time before the GF appropriates it as a wine glass. It happens every time . . .

 

You captured exactly what's so great about the BIF and NBW. WBAYDN is like being in a crowded bar where you can't hear what anybody is saying or have an actual conversation. The BIF / NBW threads are more like hanging out in a quiet pub having a few beers and talking about whatever other random crap comes up.

I need to check out both places. My sister lives within a mile or two of Tired Hands, and my mom still lives in the house I grew up in in Villanova, so I really have no excuse not to visit TH when I visit either of them. I've picked up beer to go, but never had a beer in the cafe. Forest & Main is a little further away, but sounds like the original spot is worth a visit.

Wait, Christine you've never had any Tilquin? How did I miss this? I've been trying to figure out the last couple beers to include in the box I said I'd send a long time ago with the two bottles of Poet's Walk. A couple Tilquin varieties may be just the thing to round out the box.

 

Great hit by @JayORear! I love that glass! I have one in the same style, and it works great with a variety of styles. Speaking of variety of styles, those Wallenpaupack all sound really interesting.

This is not the first time you've posted a wild story about something you've witnessed during dinner/drinks, right? I'm starting to think that every taproom/restaurant in Spokane offers a never ending montage of hijinks just outside of their windows.

Great hit by @LehighAce06! The artwork on that Pipeworks bottle looks really cool.

I totally concur with the rest of your thoughts in your post as well. There are certain areas of the forums where every conversation seems to devolve into the same complaints about the same styles from many of the same voices. This thread and the weekly thread feel like a real beer family, and provide a place where we can gather and share without judgement.

I did not know this about Tilquin. That's really interesting.

Totally agree on the glass. It's such a great shape for really concentrating the aroma.

Those Expedition Packs are a super fast sellout on this side of the state, too. I haven't tried to get any yet because my fridge has stayed well stocked, but it's a great idea and they seem to offer a nice variety of styles in each.

I totally agree with your thoughts on the NBW and BIF threads. I feel a certain kinship with you and @Dimidiata because I believe our BIF timelines have taken very similar paths, and it's nice to see we've all had similarly great experiences.

I also need to make it to Tired Hands in person. All of their beers that I've had have been consumed on the opposite side of the state. My mother-in-law lives within walking distance of the Frankford Ave location. I really have no excuse.

 

I knew nothing of this beer until last year. Bodhizafa is one of my staples in the summer, awesome beer!

 

Totally possible, I just drank a lot of Revision while in L.A., and it seems weird I never would have sent you, say, Reno as Fuck, if only for the name.

 

I'm also definitely going to try some guava and good Cuban food because of this BIF!

Side note, box 2 is on truck for delivery, ahead of schedule!

 

ok, I have been hit again by @ovaltine ... Will have to check the damage in a little bit.