Half Acre (2019)

I’m just talking generally. I very much do not like pastry stouts and would take Big Hugs over most beers from a place like The Answer

 

My friend, let me introduce you to Maplewood's Cuppa stouts.... (Easy oversight, but their future BA releases are going to be nuts!)

 

Yeah, I figured there had to be something along the lines of pastry stouts that obviously divide some people's desires to drink or line up. I can't recall if I've had stouts from The Answer, and didn't realize there were lines for them. I'm becoming less and less plugged in with what is going on in other markets.

Oh yeah, I was out of town for the one instance, but certainly heard about it. And, I may find myself sucked in by their allure, depending on the circumstances.

 

I feel this way about almost every release, thanks to all the others. I went out of my way for Benthic this year because 1) it's a fave of mine and 2) I didn't get any variants last year, but it's easy to get shutout of any single release, and rebound with something else awesome. It's kind of freeing to be reaching a point where you can miss out on a bunch of great options and still feel like you have too much beer to drink.

 

There are literally too many world class barrel aged beers (mainly stouts but also barley/ryewines) for one person to be able to get to all of them for their own consumption.

 

Fixed.

 

If you value drinkability, big hugs is for you. If you don’t, you’ll enjoy the sludgy desert stouts being made by various breweries this winter.

Big Hugs to me is kind of in the same conversation as FBS, except it’s like 2 points bigger in ABV. It’s the stout you can go back for a second. Most of these desert stouts are a one time thing for even a lot of their biggest fans.

 

What kind of stouts do you drink???

 

Wet ones? (As opposed to the Irish Dry style.)

 

There it is!

W O R L D

C L A S S

 

Anything has high drinkability if you believe in yourself!

(I also only have one beer a night if I'm at home, so I just want whatever tastes best to me)

 

Yeah, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't still try!

 

My favorite imperial stouts are typically core 4 ingredient stouts. I love drinks that don’t rely on adjuncts. Those are the beers i grew up on

Historically, my favorite stout of all time has been Founders imperial stout.

my favorite BA stouts are typically ones that strive to show off the barrel. I love coffee stouts that make the base beer more refreshing through bright coffee flavors.

I understand the love for extremely expressive adjunct stouts, but it doesn’t impress me as much as beers that can achieve flavors without adjuncts. I respect beers that can achieve l flavors without the use of outside ingredients. Every once in a while I’ll love beers like benthic, but most of the time I’m more impressed by a brewer who can show off without the use of vanilla or maple. I love finding breweries that want to highlight the skill of their brewers rather than showing how many nummy adjuncts their breweries can add to a beer.

 

I had one of my cans of Vanilla Benthic last night. Holy crap, is that an amazing beer. I can't think of many beers I've had this year that were better, if any. Only problem is that now I will probably want this to now be the "regular" Benthic....and that I only have one can left.

 

hmm, is there not a high degree of skill involved with a highly adjuncted stout that;

1) delivers on all the flavors described
2) offers levels of complexity with how the adjuncts complement one another
3) still imparts great barrel character
4) remains highly drinkable

sure, pastry stouts are fun to try and garner hype, but a vast majority of them are mediocre or downright terrible. when they're done very well, i would say that's way more impressive than drinking an excellent non-adjunct BA stout.

 

I don't have an opinion on whether they're more or less impressive than a non-adjunct BA beer, but I'd definitely agree that you can't just dump fruit into a BA stout and expect it to mesh perfectly. And when it comes to flavors like coconut, I rarely find that a beer delivers on what I'm hoping for (which is lots of coconut).

 

Well, as long as you didn't say it's more impressive than an excellent non-adjunct non-BA stout. That would then be fightin' words!

 

the first part of this paragraph is the problem. Too many brewers fail. Even goose island fails, the king of the style fails. Sure, every once in a while we may find a masterpiece such as a prairie bomb! certain vintages of abraxas, 2014 Prop, ect... that achieve beautiful harmony, but overall we spend a lot of time, money and hope only to find beers that are less than we hoped for. Because of that I have stopped looking. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze and I’m happy just sticking to reliably delicious brands.

 

If you ain't pastry, your beer's a waste-ry

 

I feel like this is the smart move...yet I haven't broken free to do it yet.