The Half-Acre thread (2018)

Sticky Fat in cans this year!!! Yes!

I love this beer. One of my favorites from them.

 

I've never had Sticky Fat. Is it like a black ipa/cascadian dark ale?

 

HA describes it as a wet hopped dark ale. It is pretty sticky and dank.

 

Does this usually see distro or is it brewery locations only?

 

It sees distro, yeah.

 

Picked up cans of Dungeons and Sticky Fat today. Had both on draft and both were delicious. And the Sticky Fat cans are awesome. Love the artwork on the purple cans.

Also I was pumped to see them carrying Ipsento coffee!

Might have to check out the Balmoral taproom tonight.

 

Got a chance to try the Balmoral tap room officially, even though I went to the Big North event in August - fully operational kitchen station means some good eats are pumping out now... we had the bread/butter app which for $4 is VERY filling. Heads-up: seems like everything comes with bread, so unless you are carb-starved, no need to do the bread app then something else, because the something else will come with bread. Had the brussel sprouts and the chicken which we found juicy, perfectly roasted, and well-seasoned. Just awesome. Beer was solid too, though nothing that we tried blew me away--- the Sticky Fat is good, but I didn't get much flavor or dankness from it, oddly - did like the Tomorrow People IPA, and the Orin BBA brown is just gonzo good but huge at 13.5% - get there.

 

I went last night. That bread and herbed butter was delicious. I definitely ate and drank too many carbs. Overall a good experience. Me and my buddy had to wait around 10 minutes for seats at the bar. Seats are pretty much first come first serve. Food is only in the taproom, and not to be consumed outside in the beer garden. At first we thought the food seemed a bit pricey, but it was delicious and worth it. I'll be back for sure.

 

That roast beef sandwich...so good...The prices for beers are pretty good so I feel like the cost of food balances out given the high quality.

 

Finally got to check out Balmoral this weekend. That lot is massive, the building is like a fort surrounding the parking lot. The outdoor space is cool, but in a month or two will be useless until next summer. Inside is a different story. I was expecting a gargantuan space like Revolution's tap room. Instead, it was a much smaller space that felt like they went with the designer who finished 3rd in the Olive Garden design bidding process....They have a nice industrial space (which unless something happened yesterday that I don't know about still seems to be the hippest style going in urban environments), but went for an indoor gazebo look rather than using what was already there. Lincoln is such a cool, hip location while Balmoral seems to be the mom in sweatpants....The food was either overpriced or the portions were too small...or both. Didn't find any value in it, or rather I can get much better for those prices elsewhere. The beer however was fantastic as always. Plenty of options on tap, something for everyone. The staff there is awesome, attentive and nice, though I felt like everyone working there was in the band Weezer at some point....Summary: I'll stick to Lincoln Ave. unless I need the convenience of being able to park easily when I need a great HA brew.

 

I agree that the interior is....interesting. There are some cool interior design bits like the carved, grooved wood behind the bar, but I do agree that it looks like a half-finished Pinterest board, hopefully they will make some light additions to give it more character over time.
Still think the food is a good value compared to what it could be; plus any place that can nail good bread wins my heart, every time, but again... I'm half-French, so it's congenital. SorryNotSorry.
But Lincoln Taproom still has my heart. "I wish I knew how to quit you, Half Acre."

 

...also, they need to put that Sticky Fat in the Firkin' - beer has settled down and is a lot more interesting now (a week later) and with some warmth.

 

Happy to contribute to the echo chamber here - this Friday 20th, HA is releasing a new IPA, an IPL, and Chub Step Porter ...(Lincoln Taproom news)... haven't seen the announcement other than here: http://www.halfacrebeer.com/events/2017/10/17/cape-dune-chub-step-release, so... there you go.

 

I love a good vienna lager, so I'm curious about this IPL.

 

Cape Dune has been very tasty in the past

 

Cape Dune is very solid. Confirmed.

 

Per HA Twitter Orin will be released this Friday at 11am. IIRC this was released at least once in the past—based on that how long can these bottles be expected to last? TIA.

 

Orin Lasted 2 days. I just went back to page 19 of this thread to look.

I’ve had it on draft multiple times since it was released.

Not my favorite.

 

Couple days last time. Amazing beer. One of the best the put out IMO.