What beer are you drinking now? #2317

No vinyl at my house and I need some coffee before we ski this morning. I will see you later with one Flagship beer for sure. Cheers all and let’s see some serious pages today. Oh and this stuff is as good as it looks!

 

I only have one vinyl album, so I will pull that out later. First, I am going to have breakfast.

 

Incredible as usual this year. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, apricot, mango, melon, berries, citrus peel/rind, peppercorn, and pine hops; with moderate honey, white bread, light caramel malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation, medium-full bodied, and fairly crisp finishing. Balanced creamy/bready malts and sticky/resinous/rindy hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter resin/rind dryness, no hop astringency. Amazing classic Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe profile. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hop complexity; with a great balanced malt backbone. Not overly sweet or bitter, extremely well balanced. Lightly boozy alcohol, but dangerously easy drinking. Never disappoints. Feels less sweet than last year. Also a lot easier to find.


Cheers

 

I always look forward to visiting family in Florida, because that's when I get to drink Jai Alai. It was 10 years ago that I first had it. Cigar City's flagship beer.

 

I am taking a break from the CBS I was sipping on, as I am too excited to try this Mikerphone beer. It is delicious! @Greywulfken, I bought the Lords of Chaos movie. If the amount of times I read these books is an indication, I will be watching the Lords of Chaos and The Dirt movies over and over, for many years.

 

Good morning Beer Advocates!

I see folks are eager. Thanks @dcotom for setting the tone.
Today is the day to celebrate the pillars of craft beer. Flagships they call them. Are they dead? Let's hope not. Show them some love. They built an industry. They made breweries what they are today. They are iconic. Most importantly, they bring us joy.
What makes a Flagship you ask? Is it a brewery's first beer? A brewery's highest rated beer? Is it a best sell? We would like to hear your thoughts.
I have had a few discussions about these beers over the last few weeks. Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold and Edmund Fitzgerald. Thanks to @LeperJim for getting these to me.

Great Lakes on their website say Dort is their flagship. However, Edmund Fitzgerald seems to be more beloved. When it comes to a Flagship, does a brewery have the last word?

Of course I have to debate which of these albums is AC/DC's Flagship. Both great, but which is the best? I know which one pays their bills.

Cheers, all.

 

2016 is tasting incredible. Flavors of huge caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, vanilla, bourbon, toasted oak, coconut, brown bread, raisin, plum, fig, cherry, and date; with lighter notes of chocolate, leather, tobacco, smoke, herbal hops, and yeast earthiness. Light herbal bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness against sweetness on the finish. Very creamy/silky/velvety medium-full body mouthfeel. Lightly slick, sticky, chalky, and tannic. Lightly increasing bitter/tannic dryness; no cloying sweetness. Very smooth, minimal warming 11.2%, no barrel booze. Amazing barrel balance, perfect integration. Really glad this is going year round, but I always love it more with age. Still have plenty of this vintage left.


Cheers

I love the new LP. They just got a new vocalist, sounds like a perfect replacement for Fabio Lione, who will be making another band with Luca Turilli later this year.

 

Two solid Flagships I would say. Good morning fellas. Cheers.

 

Back in Black is the flagship of the Brian Johnson era.

Highway to Hell is THE flagship!

Great beers, by the way!

Looking forward to getting into a couple flagships myself later this morning.

 

That is a good way of putting it. See you soon.

 

Athletic Brewing All Out Stout

 

Good morning, BAs!! I have one of those albums on vinyl, @PatrickCT. However, I own one album that had to be my first of the day, though after I post it, let's not speak of it again:


Well, the album is not even halfway a Flagship, musically at least. The beer is most certainly a flagship. Deschutes even states of Black Butte, "This is the beer that started it all." I am not sure what portion of their sales come from this beer, but it is one of the first to hit and stick around when Deschutes came here for good about four years ago or so.

Ugh - that's enough, even JT thinks this album sucks, judging by his pained expression:


Luckily, I won't have to listen to this album again, though I am even more lucky that I will be able to drink this beer again and again.

Cheers to all who join in the theme today! Well, cheers also to those who don't, I guess

 

Is that a rainbow trout that seagull has? The picture implies that it is an ocean with the open water, the records and beers adrift, and the gull. There are plenty of seagulls around the Great Lakes, but those tend to be the ring billed gulls and that one doesn’t appear to have one.
It could be a steelhead trout which is the same species that relocates from river mouths into salt water. They tend to be larger though and it would be difficult for a gull to pick it up. Plus they don’t usually have as much color.
Birds are migratory though so seagull could have traveled from the coastline to an inland river or body of water in search of food during the offseason.

 

It's like you are reading my mind!

 

That is a flagship beer. Maybe the poster boy for one.

This is definitely a flagship beer.

I would argue that Red Chair is theirs. What do they say?

 

I am you. This is a dream. Go do whatever you want. There are no consequences.

 

Betty's getting some Pale tonight. I hope she finds it closer to the original than I do. I remember after my first drink of this flagship thinking that it was bright and clean, but over the top bitter. Now, granted, 20 or more years later the palate will experience change and become accustomed to the bitterness, and SN has acknowledged recipe tweaks (I believe), but this remains a flagship even with the attenuation.



Cheers to our reluctant hosts @joe1510 and @cjgiant

 

Looks like this theme day is in full swing, and I'm ready to join in. I was discussing what makes a beer a flagship beer with our illustrious host from CT the other day, as I told him I had selected a half dozen beers that were all the most rated on this site from their brewery because, as I see it, flagship meant "when I think of (Name of Brewery), I think of (Certain Beer)." Now I may be completely off base with that opinion, but what the hell, it will be a great reason to drink some great beers.

First off, a beer that needs no introduction.


I'll get to vinyl in my posts eventually. As I said yesterday, I just can't get the portable record player in the basement to work. It's fine when my wife plays her old records for the kids, but I'm not starting the vinyl portion of the day with 45's of Sesame Street songs. Bad enough somebody already posted James Taylor.
So here's one about records.

Happy Saturday, flagship beer drinking and record spinning virtual bar brethren!