I lived in Chicago for two years in the mid 70s, and possibly found a six pack once? I remember it as being excellent, but have no memory of where I found it.
Might get some hate for this, but St. Archer Gold. If they sold it at The Fresh Market or Lowes Foods instead of Wal-Mart and Kroger it'd probably still be around.
I don't know who I'm more disappointed in, them or Stone. They both were such a big part of my early craft beer journey now they're both, along with the likes of Founders, just another brewery that I basically ignore because they no longer brew, or regularly brew, the beers that made them interesting. You got me right in the feels there, mate!
Distribution was pretty limited. You could order from the website, but outside of a few markets back East and out West, HOTD stuff was pretty hard to find. Also, a lot of what Alan S. produced never left the brewery tasting room. So I'm not sure how many consumers ever had a chance to sample their beer.
Good point. Was in Denver in most of the 2000s, so I had pretty easy access to their wares. Probably my favorite. ^^^
One unique, local brewery during my beer youth of the 1980s was Saint Stan's located in Modesto, California. It specialized in German Alt beers and offered both a lighter and a darker option.
Maybe they still do something along these lines, but around 12 or so years ago DuPont used to do special releases with Monk's Cafe, and they were dope.
Their beers were quite good I thought. I moved to Sacto in 1989 and bottles of both were readily available. As I recall, AB illegally forced/coerced local distributors to stop carrying their beers, which came close to putting them out of business. They carried on and even flourished for a while, but I never saw their beer outside of the brewery after all that (St. Stan's subsequently sued AB, and eventually won a sizeable settlement from AB). I've despised AB ever since.
It’s fresh hop season and there are barely any harvest ales on the shelves in my area of western, pa. I miss the fresh hop harvest ales. Founders - Harvest Ale Fat Heads - Hop Stalker Sierra Nevada - Northern Hemisphere / Chico Estate Harvest Ale Troegs - Hop Knife Victory - Harvest Ale Weyerbacher - Harvest Ale Great Divide fresh hop pale ale
Two from August Schell: they made an outstanding Hefeweizen which for some reason has been absent for over a decade now. They also brewed an annual fall Fresh Hop/Single Hop IPA. Perhaps this one didn't sell well or was too costly but it was also well made and I looked forward to it each fall. The final release was perhaps eight years ago now and it featured Cascade hops. That was a good one.
I miss Harvest Ale as well. Then again I miss a number of Founders beers which are either no longer made or if they are still made, no longer distributed outside of MI. But Harvest Ale was always a repeat seasonal purchase for me when it was available locally. I think for at least a few years there we would even see it less than 2 weeks or so from packaging which was great. Here is the label for this year's release. Will likely only be direct to consumer via their website, however.
Don’t forget Olde Frothingslosh! LOL, J/K I really do miss the beers Anchor Brewing made, not easy to find on the East coast, let alone fresh. I always made it a point when I was in SanFran to try and make it to the brewery. Three times I took the tour and visited the taproom over the years. The beer was so much better when it was fresh at the source. Once I even got an extended “private” tour out into the open fermentation loft on a slow day. A place few got to experience. It’s hard to believe it may not reopen as we remember it, a lost piece of history. I also miss Yuengling Wheat beer, it was a decent and reasonably priced seasonal. Ironically I found out they were not going to make it again while I was on the brewery tour. They said poor marketing contributed to the decision. People in markets who wanted it found that it was difficult to find ( like me). And markets that didn’t care for it, where it was a slow mover were flooded with it.
Does anyone know what Sierra Nevada means by "wet hopping" anymore? I know what it means here in the PNW, but since SN starting calling celebration a fresh hop ipa, I've given up trying to figure out what they mean by "fresh hop" or "wet hop." I assume the harvest ale will be a well made ipa, wherein SN used reasonably fresh hops (either in the boil or via dry hopping).
