Stoneface is making an American Adjunct Lager

'Oh my god, there are only thousands of craft breweries, if XXXX Brewery makes [AAL/NEIPA/Other divisive beer style] then there literally won't by any [Insert favorite beer style] available in the marketplace.'

On a tangent, there is a unhealthy amount of hatred of NEIPA and fruited sours on the main board too, it's kind of weird. Even if I think it gets out of hand sometimes, the brewers making these styles of beer weren't going to brew all pilsners and saisons in the first place. If everyone had to stick to the Reinheitsgebot would the US have nearly 10,000 breweries?

 

I love me a good craft AAL *IF* priced accordingly. But many are and taste pretty good and work well with some sea salt and a lime.

 

An AAL has been, and can be, alot of different things. Say a circa 8% plato wort fermented out to 4.2% abv, and at around 0.1 lbs of hops per barrel. I.e a modern light beer. Or a circa 11% plato wort fermented out to 4.7-5% abv. Or a circa 12% plato wort fermented out to around 4.5-4.8% abv and using circa 0.5-0.7 lbs per barrel of hops (a circa 1930s American lager). Or a circa 13% plato wort fermented out to about the same abv using around 0.7-1 lbs per barrel of hops (a circa 1900 American bottled beer). And if one wanted to keep a low abv they could have a circa 10-11% plato wort and ferment it out to circa 4% abv and hop it at say 0.5-0.6 lbs per barrel (say a circa 1930s 3.2 beer). (having thrown a bunch of numbers for hopping rate around I would expect a range of maybe 20-40 IBUs being in play here, essentially the range for modern European beers, but this is a personal guestimate of mine)

The AAL has changed and the flavor has changed accordingly. What the craft breweries are doing isn't magic. Upping the original gravity and using more hops generates more flavor and a bigger flavor impact, this can easily be understood by everyone. Malt flavor is certainly lost in a light colored lager beer using around a third of adjuncts compared with a similar all malt recipe, but hops-wise and body-wise a 12-13% plato wort hopped with 0.5-1 lbs of hops and attenuated to 70-75% apparent attenuation is certainly a different beast entirely compared with a modern light beer or regular beer.

Recipe matters, recipe intent matters, original gravity matters, degree of attenuation matters, hopping rate matters, fermentation and cellar treatment matters. The use or non use of adjuncts is really trivial in comparison.

Now, if a craft brewery was to follow modern brewing standards in making an American adjunct lager beer, then I too would be asking the question why? Except for curiosity's sake, I don't see the point, or the value in it. Any value would instead come from rediscovering the heritage which the big breweries have left behind, and which in turn would necessitate a deviation from those same brewing standards. Such an undertaking should also be combined with a solid grasp of the history involved. I would welcome any brewery which made a genuine attempt at understanding the past and reimagined it to the best of their ability.

 

Maybe my favorite beer on my last trip down to MA.
Priced right and the Light Bright can art is wicked.

 

FWIW I discussed this beer last May in another thread:

"And even some craft breweries are capable of producing high quality AAL and Light Beers. I purchased a 12-pack of Night Shift Nite Heavy and those AAL beers were well brewed (and reasonably priced). I have yet to drink Nite Lite but I have heard good things about that beer."

Cheers!

 

Having one as we speak. Not bad. Carb disappeared almost instantly, but beer is decent.

 

Honestly, it seems like you have been lucky. I am quite a bit older than you so have had more opportunities for shit service I guess, but I by no means am a difficult customer an actually still tip well on the shit service, because, hey, we all have bad days, but it definitely happens. That said, I have never had a poor experience at Stoneface (again, someone could have been having a bad day..).

 

Ha, my wife, who is not a big craft drinker, loves that and the Lime one as well, as do many other folks we have served it to.

 

I'd be more upset at the price. While time intensive, unfortunately the big boys made AALs as cheap as possible. Props to Jack's Abby for working towards cheaper craft lager prices while maintaining incredible quality.

 

Unfortunately they discontinued it.

They were selling what’s left for $5 per 12 pack at the brewery recently. Maybe they still have some kicking around?

 

The online Everett curbside inventory has cases available for $18.00–and it looks like they’re 16 oz cans.

 

Fine with craft breweries making these beers, but I enjoy Miller Lite and to a slightly lesser degree High Life, Gansett and PBR enough that I can't imagine every ponying up for what amounts to a marginally tastier beer at 3x the cost

 

Has OP fallen completely off their high horse yet, or are they still on the way down?

 

Find it really hard to criticize StoneFace.

Perfect? No. Decent beers, lots of options, good food, yup.

The online ordering and curbside pandemic pick up of beer and food was superb

 

Weird, maybe they changed their mind?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO2_fe1Fbp2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

Judging by the price, I feel like they are trying to liquidate It. $18 is pretty darn cheap for a case of 16 oz. cans of anything.

 

Oh definitely. Same thing with the $5 for a 12 pack deal.

 

I mean you're probably right, there have likely been more instances of it than I recall, but like you I still tip well and am very pleasant to any customer-facing staff because I know what that's like and just because it's what a person should do anyhow.

 

Craft AAL's have been around (but not too long or successfully) since the first decade of the segment. Around 1987, Colorado's Boulder Brewing Co. - which was long the oldest of the "new" microbreweries, pre-dating Sierra Nevada - put out Boulder Sport, as noted in a New York Newsday article:

M. Jackson for one was not impressed, writing in the 2nd ed.of his Pocket Guide (1988) that the beer was a:

re: that Corona reference -(which the Newsday article even had to explain- given how recent the Corona phenomenon was "Corona, a Mexican beer, is a huge success, accounting for most of the jump in imports.") Boulder Sport even came in a clear bottle. You can see one - tho' for some !@#$ reason, it's split into 3 pics (?) - at Untappd https://untappd.com/b/boulder-beer-boulder-sport-beer/2792336 What it is doing there? Beats me.

 

Spend enough time drinking craft beer and eventually what was once not cool will become cool and what's currently cool will become uncool.

On another note, Stoneface is highly under appreciated. When they first started I wasn't overly impressed by them but I feel like their beer has gotten better and better. If you take into account their price and availability then they really shine.