Other Half (2019)

what about Grimm though? says founded in 2013 though I don’t think I saw anything until later in 2014. Physical brewery opened in 2018

 

True 'nuff. But in addition to the various points made in the respective entries for OH and Grimm (and despite OH's talent for driving hype), perhaps it might also be because Grimm sees some retail distribution throughout the NYC area while OH does not. The vast majority of the breweries on the list are distributed. But, short of emailing the writer of the article, we'll never know the most important deciding factors behind the rankings.

 

8 breweries ranked ahead of Hill Farmstead is the real travesty of that list

 

preach brother

 

The importance of the blind taste tests aside, their ranking could really go either way. On the one hand they are now one of the best hazy ipa makers in the country. They've done a great job of marketing themselves and expanding. They probably easily have the most collaboration beers in the last 5 years.

On the other hand were they the first to do anything innovative with the beer styles they make? They do one style really well(which the article points out), but possibly nothing else unless you want to count their pastry stouts(which they started doing two years or so ago).

I'm also split on their contributions to the local scene. They no doubt made breweries race to keep up with their ipas and release schedule, but there are probably good hazy ipa breweries in nyc with or without them. They've also focused way more on self-distro and marketing of cans than keg distro and growing their brand locally for a brewery of their size. I'd say Threes has done a better job of that.

As for the Grimm ranking it's hard to defend that. I think Grimm is a better brewery now, but there's no way you can say they've been better this decade.

 

I'm honestly more annoyed at how slow Paste's site is, I've pointed it out to them before one of their reddit threads.

 

Just catching up on all this as I’m on a fight home from Mexico and I care not for rankings... I’d gladly take a beer from any brewery ranked from 1-200 as the beer down here sucks.

hoping the Medusa HS lasts a wee bit longer.

 

Well that article hates us South Brooklyn locals more than OH does.

Funny now I get to tell my brother who moved to Wisconsin I don't need to pack a suitcase of OH since he has the much better Toppling Goliath at his local grocery store.

 

Anyone know the story with this? Is it a Three Chiefs release at OH or something else?

 

This. Not worth discussing or feeling any sort of way over that list.

Scrolled through, said "okay," and kept it moving.

 

The Hop Showers Index (HSI) dropped another 360 points today, continuing last week's plummet following the petty annoyance over a Veil pop-up, as multiple members were docked points for caring far too much about another stupid fucking listicle.

for anyone with a short memory ^

 

Other than you and @guinness77, does anyone else check other subforums? My BA bookmark goes straight to mid Atlantic. In true NY fashion, this thread is the center of the BA universe and it doesn't matter what happens elsewhere on the forum.

 

I don’t even check the other sub-forums that often. This is the forum my phone defaults to. I do post in WBAYDN a lot but I tend to stick to this forum more than any other one.

 

Grimm ahead of Other Half, not a chance. Grimm didn’t even have a brewery and tap room until a year ago. Since 2014 Other Half exploded, multiple new locations, they have their own festivals, everyone in the world wants to collaborate with them. They make some of the best hazy IPAs in the world. The pastry boizs love their stouts. Grimm makes some good sours and stouts, some good IPAs but OH blows away Grimm for IPAs.

 

My favorite posts in this thread continue to be those complaining about complaining. Nothing petty about that at all.

 

How was the East/west tasting tonight?

 

Having gone with a few friends I had a lot of fun, definitely don't regret it. Most of the information portion, mostly the introduction, was pretty generic, though I do give credit for the cicerone (blonde lady who apparently bartends at OH but I swear I can't remember seeing her there) saying off the bat that the whole theory of extra hops preserving beer for the trip to India is probably apocryphal.

The most interesting stuff definitely came from Anthony, and towards the end when everybody started to naturally loosen up from the beer the questions got a little more interesting.

The beers were Hill Farmstead Double Citra, Julius, Monkish Foggy Window, Green Down the Socks, Russian River Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder, Racer 5 and Union Jack, so nothing to complain about.

I heard that the next one would be an overall style session.

 

Yeah, I am all steeped in the the NE and Atlantic threads. Kane, Tree House, Trillium, HF, Grimm to name a few. But everything starts and stops in OH.

 

Right but the ny beer laws changing had the effect on the beer scene changing. OH have always made an effort to distribute kegs and grow their local distro, but that became less of a focus once they started canning regularly and the brewery began to grow.

Threes brewing at IA is part of why they’re in nyc more. It’s helped put their kegs in more bars, and it’s put their cans in more stores while still being a smaller brewery. That has only helped them grow locally. They’ve also, along with presumably Finback, opened up other local locations before OH who instead expanded to Rochester.

I don’t blame them for any of their decisions. I think their Williamsburg spot will be great. Their local contributions though given their size and years aren’t what I’d point to as a reason for them to rank higher in an obviously very subjective paste ranking.