Chicago Stout Releases (2018)

I also went to a store that had multiple years, going back to 2011 I think. So there were multiple years of the same color, not just vaying colors. Super fucking fun.

Wax each year the same, and write on the god damn bottle what it is. How hard is that? Why is it cool to not do it? If it is not to be trendy somehow, I fail to see a logical reason. Make everyone's life easy. - FFS.

Did a I sound angry?

 

Considering how much those beers sit on the shelves, especially since they are pretty good from my experience, I don't think it's cool to not say what's on the bottle...

(and yes, I know some of it's price)

 

anybody seen hipster brunch and/or rye hipster brunch yet?

 

Eh, just because this site takes a bunch of subjective opinions and amalgamates them into a numerical ranking doesn't really make it any more objective.

IIRC, didn't all of the Noirs that were around back when PAA was waxing their bottles have infection issues at some point. I seem to recall that Prairie Noir, Coffee, Wine and Vanilla all had infection issues at some point. I wouldn't be surprised if that had an impact on the aggregate score.

Anyhoo - taste is subjective, but I find Vanilla Noir to be legitimately better than it's score. It's no Vanilla Rye, but it's the kind of vanilla bomb that people typically go apeshit for around here. I'm sure the price is affecting scores--either overtly or subconciously--since any more it seems like everyone's reaction to a beer comes with some sort of asinine disclaimer about how good it is relative to hype or price. Good, but not for the price. Good, but not worth the hype. Etc.

But I digress. Not really my intent to target you in that rant--your post just got me thinking and then I got on a roll.

 

Some Binny's got it last Friday. Not sure beyond that.

 

Noir, Vanilla Noir, Christmas Bomb and Bourbon Paradise at Whole Foods on Halsted downtown. 1 case of each. $10.99 each.

 

Hipster Brunch and Hazels Nuts at LP Binnys today. There was a lot of Hipster and not much Hazel about 2 hours ago.

 

Still had a few bottles of each when I stopped by around 5 or so.

 

Damn, I called both Whole Foods on Halsted, theyre out of the Prairie. Anyone know of any other places that have Vanilla Noir and or Bourbon Paradise left?

 

I'm about to go deep in some hipster brunch

 

Pollyanna is releasing Toasted Coconut Fun Size tomorrow $7/ each 16oz stubby.

 

On site at kedzie taproom presently....this VSOD is amazing. Barrel really shines. Going to try cafe deth then ryeway next. For the locals, their is still cans available for purchase of ryeway, cafe deth and VSOD. Deth by cherries will be tapped in the coming weeks apparently. Cheers everyone. Happy holidays

 

How's Drago this year? Grabbed a 4 on my way out of town.

 

probably my surprise hit of stout season so far. huge chocolate flavor, good body and bourbon character. and dangerously smooth to boot, little to no heat on the back end.

i'll pick this up every time going forward.

 

Just got back from Binny's Grand, and they've still got Darkness, Orin, Triple Barrel Baptist, and a bunch of other stuff. If Revolution is going to also kill it with their releases (quantity-wise), and Half Acre is going to up production again (like we saw with Big Hugs and to a lesser extent, Benthic), I'm going to have to seriously rethink my stout strategy in 2018, because it's really becoming less and less worth it to line up for good beer.

 

Then you will be swimming in drago. It's a great beer and does not get the recognition it deserves. It's at pretty much every respectable liquor store.

Until they start doing special release drago variants it will collect dust

 

Surprised VSOD lasted this long. Maybe because the other Deth release was just before it?

 

It sounds like a decent amount of people also preferred either Cafe or regular Deth, which lessens VSOD's appeal (since it's basically just more expensive, at that point). I'm a fan of the VSOD profile (actually haven't had a can of regular this year), so I'm happy to pay up, but I can definitely see passing otherwise.

 

I hear what you’re saying. Of all 4 cans, I preferred VSOD the most but I may be in the minority