Mikerphone Brewing (2020)

There beers are decent when they leave out the heavy dose of maple syrup, Oreos, chicken, gummy worms, waffles, candy canes, Portillo’s chocolate cake, cheesecake, Powerade, pumpkin pie spices, rice crispy treats, and heavy doses of maple syrup.

 

Exactly. So why bother? Must be the patronage.

 

Mikerphone gets VERY few of my dollars over the course of a year. And by very few I mean none. Their stouts aren’t anything great, too expensive for the quality, and I don’t really like the 750ml format bottles either. Their IPA’s aren’t terrible but I can find better stuff at my local shop or the Binny’s up the road.

 

Even their lines sound super sweet.

 

Its interesting. Last time I was there was to pickup Drop The Needle. The hostess stand was inside and as others have said it was serving both onsite pours and to-go. The dude in front of me was looking over a draft list for a good minute or so before they noticed I was standing there. Once I said I was picking up they grabbed my order right away and I was out the door. Exact same way I came in.

I assume part of this is because of the weather. I used to work valet and standing outside in the freezing cold all day is pretty brutal. I did find it odd at the time as this was a month back and it was still pretty warm out.

I thought Mikerphone did a great job initially. One way for all to-go orders. Came in the North Entrance and went out the patio. You never interacted with staff directly they would place your order on a barrel by the exit. Obviously there is a reason for the change but yeah, they should probably switch this up a bit.

 

I think the people you're hearing that from are different from the people who are "sweating" them.

I like Mikerphone because they're close to me, and I like big, sweet stouts.

 

I do think their pickup system is beyond stupid though. There's no excuse in this day and age to not have curbside pickup, or at least some pickup system that doesn't require people to go inside. Unless they change their system, I don't think I'll be spending much more money there until I have a vaccine. I have an at-risk person in my household, and there are a lot of other places to get good beer that show a little more concern for their customers.

 

I haven't bought any of their beer for a long while. The BA Smells Like Bean Spirit I had a couple years ago was very good. I'd gladly drink it again.

 

And that’s fine. I’m not advocating for anyone to stop giving Mikerphone their money, I just can’t justify it with how many better breweries there are around.

 

Everything I am “hearing” this from is from this thread lol
I come to this thread when I need a chuckle and to watch all the lemmings jump.

 

I did want to try the chicken & waffles & beer. So I got a two pack. I drank my first can last night and could not get through it. This beer is so spicy. I love spicy food and often order a 9 or 10 at Thai restaurants. But this spice and the peppers in this beer are just too hot. Everything else is covered up, no maple, no stout flavors, nothing but burning peppers. It burned my mouth and I didn't get pallet fatigue, like I was hoping. You have been warned. I will not buy that beer again. Got S'More Cow bell as well and will report back.

 

Look out everyone, we got a badass over here

 

had a few beer bar patrons some years back that loved habenero sculpin. they'd pair it with hot wings and melt their faces off. so i suppose there is a niche of beer drinkers that just want to drink hot sauce instead of beer and thats... fine.

 

None of these hot beers are as hot as Ghost Face Killah, right? I've never had any other beers anywhere near that hot but I also don't exactly go out of my way to buy/order "hot sauce instead of beer."

Curious if that's still the best "joke" beer for me to trade for and introduce a tasting group to or if I should be on the lookout for something else. Not that I'm getting together with a tasting group anytime soon.

 

I had a flashback of pure agony just reading this.

How dare Twisted Pine drag the best Wu-Tang rapper's name through the mud with that beer.

 

This week I had bottles of BA Vanillanoize and Drop the Needle. Both were very good/great. With the note-able exception of Self-Titled, the barrel program had a really good 2020. The canned offerings have had their moments (one particular batch of Check 1,2 was as good as ever along with the first batch of CrushCrush) but I agree that they can do better in 2021.

 

I thought Ghost Face Killah has some really nice pepper flavor to it, if you could get past the heat, which I most certainly could not. Made me want to try whatever their less hot pepper beer was.

I don't see it now but there was a video online of a guy chugging something like 6 Ghost Face Killahs in a row (a few videos of smaller chugs are around though).

 

Yeah, that's the same it was the first time they brewed it, which is why I didn't buy it again. The sad part is that it could be a really interesting (possibly good) beer if they toned down the spice a little. Maple and spicy peppers are really tasty together if they're done right, but I've never had a beer where it was done right. Prop 16 didn't have enough maple, and this one had too much pepper.

 

Habanero Sculpin was very mild compared to the likes of Ghost Face or Crime/Punishment. It was on of my favorite BP beers. I miss those bottles.

 

Over the last couple weeks I've had Drop the Needle and 2020 Barrel Aged Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit. Both were very good, especially the 2020 BAISLBS. Most of the BA stuff they've released this year has been good, with the exceptions being where they used maple (Self Titled and Snap, Crackle Pop come to mind). Going forward, if they are releasing anything that has maple or honey in it I am probably going to pass but I'll try everything else.