Half Acre Brewing Co. (2024)

All you need is Rev
All you need is Rev
All you need is Rev, Rev
Rev is all you need

 

Beatles reference aside, I certainly need more than Rev.

Let’s be honest. Coconut Deth is not in the same league as 2x4 Benthic or even regular Benthic. Yes, Rev has its standouts, including a superior flagship BA barleywine and particularly has an advantage when going for an emphasis only on the wood, but Half Acre is the champ of maximal expression of barrel & spirit plus adjuncts.

I agree with the season pass sentiment for Half Acre though. Would be an insta-purchase.

 

Half Acre IPAs and Pales are in a league above Rev IMO and Ben Thick is on par with the Deep Woods so HA>Rev

 

I’m also in the corner of Benthic is in a league of its own against any BA stout Rev makes. To be quite honest, I really don’t understand the Deep Woods series hype. I know I’m in the minority, but I think the rev deep woods series is ok at best.

 

Be honest: this is your pr0n name.

 

There are those of us that really, really dislike coconut, so Benthic is an easy pass. While I’ve enjoyed the other Half Acre barrel aged offerings, they suffer a little when it comes to drinkability. One can is often more than enough, where with Deep Woods I’ll often have two or tree. The hype is irrelevant to my drinking experience.

 

I couldn't resist the temptation to expose my dumb sense of humor. I don't think Revolution is an objectively superior producer of barrel-aged malty beers, but for my tastes Rev is a no-brainer while Half Acre is usually a pass, mostly because of the adjuncts. There are certainly exceptions with both, but there's no doubt that HA is world-class.

 

I do wonder if a HA season ticket would be successful, since Benthic is produced in such quantities that you don’t really need to purchase the benthic box anymore. I 100% believe that is why there is little reason to purchase the Rev ticket now. I purchased the benthic box last year, mostly because I live out of state, and it becomes a bit challenging to try to just obtain the variants I want. I like regular benthic, but some of the variants I’d rather not purchase, and in some cases (eg hazelnuts) I am just allergic to.

At first I thought the ticket would be an instant purchase for me, but the more I think about it, I’m not sure if being guaranteed things like CH is enough to force me to buy the things I haven’t enjoyed, or the ones I didn’t know if I would like enough to justify a place in my beer/calorie budget. World of bog immediately comes to mind - I didn’t like that beer at all. But, again, I have also missed out on a fair number of releases, so…really quite the quandary.

 

August 14 Barrel Aged Stout Sale:
Before Land Shook 17% ABV
Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Madagascar Vanilla, Marshmallow and Sea Salt

It's time to hoist the Stout flag with a huge opening salvo from the barrel program. Before Land Shook has a jet-puffed mouthfeel elbowing your jowls with campfire bourbon dessert, vanilla chocolate chip sheet cake & sweet roasted cherry.

Online sale info:
Wed Aug 14 at 12pm CT on Oznr
Sold as 2-pack of 12oz cans
$24.99 plus taxes & fees
Limit 3 x 2-packs per order
Proxies are allowed

 

If they made as much as they did last time it isn’t even worth bothering with OZNR and the fees. Just go in at your leisure. Didn’t this stuff sit around for over a year?

 

Along with Sickle Through Sable and World of Bog

 

Sir, do you have a moment to speak about our lord and savior, barleywine?
I'll agree with ya on stouts, HA base BA stouts do have a leg up on Rev. Idk if base Benthic is that high up there for me though. I love the variants, but I can never really taste the coconut in the base beer. Variants are always spot on with whatever they're trying to do though.

 

Benthic is (imo) much more straight-forward than the DW series in general, thicker, sweeter than most, and very coconut-heavy by comparison. Rev tends to be a lot more subtle with additions like coconut, vanilla, etc., and at least in the DW beers I've had (vs. the Benthic series I've had, which I admittedly don't always go for anymore), you get more of the barrel/blending. I'd say it's a style preference more than anything, because there are days when I want are more diabetes-inducing stout, where I'll prefer Benthic, and then ones where I'm looking for something a little more subtle and complex, where I'll go for something from DW.

The one thing I'll give HA over Rev is that I'm a big proponent of the "more is more" when it comes to things like vanilla and coconut, so I do prefer Benthic, to, say, Deth by Coconut.

 

I generally agree and appreciate where you are coming from, but I'm not sure that it is always about "complexity". Not only do tastes differ, but what people taste differs.

I used to enjoy Rev a lot, but with overall consumption low I am very choosy about what I drink. I understand completely why people like the Rev beers. With the straight up BA Stouts/BW, they appreciate the non-adjunct (which is hard to come by overall, and at a very competitive price). With the adjuncted ones, they appreciate that it is incredibly nuanced/balanced (to them) - they are stouts with an adjunct rather than an adjuncted stout (e.g. a stout with vanilla, not a vanilla stout). For better or worse, I just don't taste much of anything in those, so I don't buy them. I like they extra-aged/DB SJ, DT and more interesting spirit-ba BWs (like Mindshaft gap), but don't care for wine-BA, don't like Ryeway, generally don't like rye-BA, and can do without basic DT/VSOD, or Cafe/supermassive. There are other versions of those beers I like better elsewhere, and running out isn't really the issue for me.

From all the beer consumers I've ever talked to, seems like most people are of the same mind - more about taste and what they taste than it is apples to apples.

 

Yeah, I mainly just wanted to answer the question of the "hype" from my perspective; I would not be surprised if the Benthic series "tested" better overall with the masses versus DW for a variety of reasons. I just assume that when people think about/get hyped for the Deep Woods beers every year are the "big" beers (the VSO releases, Supermassives and the variants on-tap at the event). I know there are people who would disagree, but I don't think it's Deth's Tar, Cafe, etc. that are moving the needle (and I am, admittedly, not even a big fan of either of those beers). I was obsessed with Benthic when it came out, but as years have passed I've personally started gravitating more towards the "weird" stuff that Rev does with DW both because I've got less tolerance for what I perceive as thick, overly sweet stouts and because I can generally scratch the Benthic itch (at least the OG version) with, for example, something from OIB's Krampus series in a pinch; when I want a profile similar to DW stuff it's harder for me to do.

With all that said, I do really like the Benthic variants I've had recently, so I don't want to sound like a hater; I specifically dropped by Bitter Pops two weeks in a row to grab some of HA's BA stuff, and they're still doing an excellent job.

 

Benthic is BBQ
Deep Woods is steak.
Both are amazing, but one relies on boldness the other on subtlety. There is no wrong answer when either is done world class.

 

On the Rev/Half Acre topic I thought On and On part 4 was phenomenal and merged the best of both worlds

 

This is good.

 

There are a few beers in the lineup that are must buys for me, but there are a few skips. And honestly, this year isn't a strong one. If I had known it would be this easy to get VSOJ I wouldn't have gotten the season ticket.