Five whales that you've recently caught.

The Simtra is worth it! One of my favorite TIPAs. If you get a chance to try Hoparillo...its amazing

 

Wow, you know, I actually had a handful of beers that I've been interested in just the past coupla months...

• Southern Charred - on my "wants" list, suddenly and randomly on the shelf - took the $$$ hit
• BOMB! - didn't even realize it was here!
• Velvet Merkin - last time, we had to chose between Sucaba or VM because of limits - I went with Sucaba; this year, guy had 'em behind the counter, offered to his favorite customers... (also a wants list item)
• Bo & Luke - very disappointed to have missed it a coupla years back when my beer guy committed a fail ...got it now! (another want list item)
• Depth-Charged Double Bastard - I had no expectations for seeing it around here when those Bastard Boxes showed up!

 

I haven't opened all of them yet, but these were the highest rated/rarest beers I was able to get/have this year:

Heady Topper
BOMB!
Pliny the Elder
The Dissident - 2012 vintage
Black Tuesday (not opened)

Rare draft pours had this year:

Parabola 2013
World Wide Stout 2013
Old Stock 2013
Stickee Monkee 2014
Uncle Jacob's Stout 2014

 

Finally caught this one!

 

All in 2015... tough to rank

Founders KBS (on tap and bottle)
Founders CBS
Founders Backwoods Bastard
Grimm Tesseract
Grimm Afterimage
Hill Farmstead Excursions #5
Prairie BOMB! (on tap and bottle)
Boulevard Love Child #5, Saison Brett (2014 and 2015), and Bourbon Barrel Quad (2014)
Other Half AGE, Nelson, Green Diamonds, and Citra
Finback Barrel Aged BQE
Pipeworks Lizard King
Logsdon P'nB
Stone Xocoveza, Japanese Green Tea IPA
BCBS
Knee Deep Breaking Bud, Hoptologist, and Simtra
Lawson's Super Session #2
Perennial Abraxas, Sump Coffee Stout, Suburban Beverage, Hommel, and Aria
Westbrook Mexican Cake and Gose
Crooked Stave Hop Savant
Lagunitas Scare City #3 - High Westified Imperial Coffee Stout, Waldo's Special Ale (420)
Maine Another One, Lunch, MO, Zoe
Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
Ballast Point Victory at Sea
Allagash Interlude, Currant Affair, Golden Brett, Monmouth Red, and Curieux
Midnight Sun Berserker Imperial Stout
Firestone Walker Anniversary 16, 17, and 18 (all on tap)
Bell's Hopslam
Alpine Duet

 

most definitely going back and picking that one up, judging from ratings i probably should have skipped Citra Extra this time around so I could try Simtra. But it is what it is, they will all be tried.

 

For me the top things I got to try in 2015 (in no particular order):

Pliny the Younger
Mornin Delight
King Sue at TG taproom
BC Bramble
DB Huna

Lots of honorable mentions (Fou Foun, King Henry, Alpha Kong to name a few)

 

Armand & Tommy
BVDL
Blabaer
BA Abraxas
Westly

 

Not necessarily The biggest whales out there but, all within a month's time

Prop Vertical 13'(x3), 14'(x2), 15'(x2)
Vanilla Rye
Bramble
Coffee Abraxas
Hawaiian Speedway

 

Last couple trades this month have included

Prop' 15
Parabajava
Bour-Bean BA 10-50
Apricot Stonington
Imperial Apricot Bu
Coffee Abraxas

I think I'm done trading for a bit...

I say that too often, with little resolve.

 

Hmmmm let's see

1. Utopias
2. Tactical Penguin
3. Chocolate Rain
4. Black Tuesday
5. KBS

 

BCBS
BCBBW
MOCHA WEDNESDAY
THE ELDER

 

Knee Deep is one of my favorite "Locals", I go to the brewery often. Get the Simtra next time. It is a great one, as was mentioned in a few previous posts.

Just a FYI, Jeremy Warren the Head Brewer/co-owner recently left KD. He is starting up a new Brewery called Revision Brewing in Sacramento that will open soon. https://twitter.com/doctorLupulin It will be interesting to see if Knee Deep is still able to come up with great new beers going forward. They do get to keep all the current beers.

 

Heady Topper
BCBS
Lawsons SOS
Tree House(whatever I could get hands on) Eureka w Mosiac and Sap
Alpine Duet

 

Boulevard Brewing Co. The Sixth Glass (aged one year)
Brouwerij Verhaeghe Duchesse De Bourgogne (aged two years)
Brouwerij Huyghe Delirium Tremens
Brasserie de Rochefort Trappistes Rochefort 8
Pabst Schlitz -- extinct beer back from the dead... that counts as a white whale at least

 

Let's see, assuming this is based on drinking them in 2015, I think this is the list:

- Goose Island Bourbon County Vanilla Rye
- Side Project Derivation 1
- Side Project Orviamo
- Funky Buddha Morning Wood
- Goose Island Bourbon County Proprietor's (2014)
- Cantillon Fou Foune

Sorry for listing 6, but I couldn't leave out Fou Foune.

Now, of these, I think that Derivation 1 was a bit of a disappointment, but still very good. Orviamo and Morning Wood were freaking awesome and somewhat of a surprise. And the Prop might win the best beer of 2015 for me. Overall, 2015 was a great year in beer for me.

 

going back to the store today with fingers crossed that they still have a bottle of it, then the next hunt is for Hoparillo, or those awesome new variety six-packs they are going to release soon.

 

I just caught one on Tuesday that I never thought I would:
CBS … it was phenomenal.

Went touring breweries for a couple of days in Michigan with the girlfriend and made a stop on Tuesday at Founders. Was hoping to just have some KBS on draft, which they had, and then low and behold they tap CBS also. What great timing.

 

Hawaiian Speedway
Abraxas
Bo & Luke
Cognac Jesus & DBJ
Peche N' Brett

Not bad in my book.