New to Ohio (2018)

I mean, getting back to one of the earlier arguments, this isn't milk. It's not curdling after a week. If everyone purchased Jackie O's beers with the mindset that you must drink within 15 days, there would be dozens of bottles of Vanilla Black Maple sitting on shelves at every ACME in Akron, because people don't buy high power shit like that with the thought of pouring it on their cereal every morning.

And FFS there are bars and breweries selling these beers, right now, for consumption, in-house. Go down to Jackie O's they still have some of these bottles available to go at the taproom.

Listen to what you're saying, this is ridiculous. Are you advocating Jackie O's destroys all unsold bottles of every stout they ever make if stock is not exhausted within a month? Regardless of the health of the contents inside?

When a beer has been tainted, the rapidity of consumption isn't going to alter that.

I agree you should always try to enjoy at least one bottle as fresh as possible, for a baseline. But if it does not contain coffee, which I usually prefer fresh (but actually found, if uninfected, I enjoy BCBCS better aged), I've always been able to safely cellar and thoroughly enjoy big strong ales at a later date. Not to mention, I really haven't run into that many infected brews. And they almost always turn out to be Bruery bottles anyway

 

New year... same ol' 'New to Ohio' thread.

Anyways... Homestead is releasing two new beers today and if you need a new local NEIPA fix DankHouse in Newark is doing it right. Few samples in and I'll take Couch Kush'n x100 times over the Saison tasting IPAs produced at HH kitchen.

 

One of my favorite beers from MadTree, Identity Crisis should be hitting shelves around the state this week!

 

I've tried to make this point, no less than 3 times, and it still seems you're the first person to get it.

I love JO's. I do not advocate purposefully aging their beer, because it's usually quite great fresh. I am also in the group who usually buy more than I can "quickly" drink, so I have some older bottles. At the end of the day, the beers they have NOT had issues with will taste great for YEARS, but the few beers they have had issues with will taste off within WEEKS (still "fresh").

It's not the consumers fault, as many have been pushing, and to a point, it's not the brewers fault either. They're putting out tons of great product, and the literally 1% (or less) that has been off, they will fully offer to rectify... because at the end of the day, shit happens, and they understand that.

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Now, on topic, but another one people here will love...

Hoppin Frog is putting out another "extended" BA BORIS tomorrow. No matter how much people love to hate on the absurdity of much of their marketing and business practices, the extended BORIS variants have been some of their best BA beers they've ever done.

Also, next weekend they're releasing a Maple Bourbon Barrel BORIS. They recently released a cinimon/bourbon BORIS for the club that turned out fantastic, much like a cycle cin/nilla dos or a ba GBS. The maple one should be equally as good and for the public.

 

New to Ohio...

Brink Brewing Company is releasing Barrel Aged Armored Heart Imperial Stout and variants tomorrow.

 

Is this the one that was aged in the barrel selected by Cleveland Bourbon Club? I know that one is coming out soon.

 

If anyone has bottles of A Token of Our Extreme and Oaky Golder Pucker that they are afraid to open because they are old, please send to me for proper disposal. Grassyass.

 

That one is called Gazebo or something odd like that...going to be draft only I believe, very small quantity. Can't access my email right now.

 

Ah okay. I was just making sure that wasn't the same as the extended barrel aging one since I know that the Cleveland Bourbon Club got them that barrel in August.

 

Funny thing is... that IS the Extended one lol. Oh Fred and his marketing. Good to know it's only been a few months. If it's good though, it's good, so I'll give it a shot at least. Didn't realize it was draft only though. The maple one I'm pretty sure is bottles though.


Maybe that beer is technically "Extended" just not "5X LONGER!", but then because it's a single barrel it's 5X more rare, so that makes up for it? Either way, it's probably delicious, which is mildly annoying.

 

And the CBC said that this is when they gave them the barrel and that they do not know when the beer actually went in. So the barrel aging could be even shorter than since August, but who knows.

 

Is Columbus going to see any Willettized Coffee Stout of did I miss it already?

 

I was not being serious. It's crazy to me that, from what I'm reading, some people passionately believe that an imaginary variable count down clock exists for when you should consume a beer by (mostly high abv malty styles in this context) or have any unintended consequences be the fault of the consumer.

 

My bad, looks like "Gazebo Barrel-Aged B.O.R.I.S." will be released as bottles as well as draft. They are using "extended" in the email campaign, but as you mention, the "5x longer" part is notably missing.

 

Having been told that Backwoods Bastard is now available year round, I'm not seeing it at my usual east of Cleveland beverage stores. Anyone seen it?

 

It is, in fact, going year-round, but not until March.

 

The Gazebo was actually pretty good. Thought it had more barrel character than their regular ba stuff, yet was less hot and boozy than the other Knob Creek aged brew I recently had, BCBS Reserve. I actually didn't like that as much as regular BCBS, and the Gazebo had way more body and silkiness than Reserve. I also got a note of what almost seemed like cinnamon bark from the oak--definitely a first for me with a non-flavored ba stout.

 

After reading the description of Gazebo Boris, over again, I believe the extended aging that it's referring to is the 1st use aging, not the 2nd use aging. Must just be aged the regular 3-4 months or whatever they normally do.

That being said, I enjoyed it a lot and agree with the description that @Sabtos gave. Barrel was very prominent and melded with the base really nicely.

 

Stopped into Masthead tonight on the way to a Russian Orthodox Christmas party. Even with it being as cold as an ex-wife's heart the joint was jumping, although the cute barmaid (if you don't like that description, get a mod or STFU; btw the rest were regular guys or dumpster fires) said the place was completely dead on Friday. I had the barrel aged Tiramisu milk stout which was very enjoyable. Nice place which I'll be returning to in the future.

 

So I was perusing some local menus to see about hitting a place for lunch. It seems even Hansa Brewery has a "New England" IPA, on nitro no less. Have we jumped the shark yet?