Other Half (2021)

Oh man, I remember seeing that. He was so close to the checkout!

And +1 for in line

 

I'm in DC and picked up a few different things over the and it was by far my favorite.

Forever HBC 586 - excellent, actually tastes like an OH beer
Jumbo Slice - good, but not much going on here
Drippy Gems - just tastes like whatever shitty yeast they're using for this series. Little to no hop character. No clue how anyone could drink this and thinks it tastes good.

 

I remember that! I was a few people behind him.

 

Totally agree. Haven't had OH since March (and everything I had then was fantastic), but have gotten a few recently which ranged pretty significantly.

DDH Stacks / DDH DMDD from November and Space Broccoli from December - All pretty bad nothing like I remember. Totally muted and off color. Borderline drain pour.

Dusted from December - Much better than above three, total melon bomb, but I did enjoy it.

Not sure what's going on, but reminds me of Trillium where all the "classics" (Street series) are borderline undrinkable these days, but the "special" one-offs are all incredible. I hope OH doesn't go down this path!

 

So, how do we think they are going to approach this anniversary? It seems they are going to redo some collabs again leading into the actual release. I hope they do something similar to how they did some of the bottle releases lately where they will hold stuff through the weekend (or maybe even week). I will probably want to get some stuff they drop but I know I likely won't be able to grab it the same day every time.

 

When you say smoothest out of the gate - is that a good thing though? I feel like based on what I've tried it just means the hops are a lot less prominent, from first canning to 6 weeks later. Which is weird for a brewery that makes it's name on hops being front and center. I just can't understand what's happened with their "classic" beers, they don't taste anything like earlier this year or from years past from what I tasted.

To your point - I have not tried anything from DC, but did always like the stuff from Rochester.

 

sweet, went with the 586!

(just saw too that hill farmstead called it perhaps their favorite new hop since mosaic)

 

HBC 586 reminds me a bit of Mosaic.

 

This whole conversation only reinforces the weakness of my palate.

 

I guess the part that I'm finding weird about their beer now is kind of the smoothness you talk about, but to my taste it's just that everything kind of tastes similar, and not in a desirable way? Hops are muted or overpowered by the yeast, which has a much different aroma and taste now. I'd say it's just my tastes have changed but I've had some specific OH beers enough times to identify what they used to taste like.

I do remember liking the stuff I had from FLX earlier this year, and felt like it had more of that distinct hop presence I'm noticing is missing with recent OH cans I tried.

 

Maybe there's been a shift over the last few months, but it's been a LLLOOONNNGGG time since OH beers had in your face hop bite.

 

Not trying to come off like a total OH fanboy here but Ive been seeing a ton of negative comments recently about how cans have fallen off and "OH hasnt been good in months".

I dont drink any of the daydream or lactose beers, and I certainly havent had a large percentage of their cans in the past year, but I dont think their beers have gotten worse. I'm sure there have been some oxidation issues, and some bad beers, but they put out like 50 different beers a month. They cant all be the dankest shit ever.

Also enjoying the complaints coming out of DC. What else are people drinking down there that blows OH out of the water?

 

I think it's partially @rozzom mentioned, that (for a long time) there hasn't been much hop bite, but I think for a lot of people, especially those only having easy access recently during covid-19, that is possible they remember the handful they tried some time ago, and these beers don't live up to that nostalgia or flavor profile.
Also though, as I'm sure somebody said, there's so much on the way of quality NEIPAs coming out, even stuff that makes it to shelves, so I think OH naturally loses some luster, yeast/flavor profile aside. When I had space diamonds the very first time it was a revelation. Now? It blends into the landscape. Even ACE has been matched for me by some batches of King Sue and tired hands evicerated, even if they're all somewhat different (Citra) beers. I can't speak for DC though I guess Aslin apparently sucks now with their expansion, right in time to hit shelves in NJ, from what the BAers on that forum say.
Basically if it's not HF or Suarez, BREWERY X isn't the same, flavor profile is off, QC is down, all their IPAs blend together, etc. Not sure what the fix is, since I don't see OH going back with some recipes to the earlier greener out of the can days.

 

There's nothing in the DC area that is much better. Aslin used to pump out bangers but they have been incredibly inconsistent in the past couple of years, sadly.

Since they ship to DC, I've been getting stuff from Triple Crossing (Richmond, VA) and Tired Hands. I prefer both over OH.

 

This is probably the issue. If you only want dank shit, how are you supposed to pick that out of a menu of 50 beers when there's no way to try before you buy?

 

Simple:
Step 1 - pester the forum for their take on "xxxx"
Step 2 - hope it doesn't sell out before someone provides their melon feedback
Step 3 - too late it's sold out

Or just have a palate that can't tell the difference between most beer and buy ones based on label and hop combo like I do.

 

Dead Palates Society

 

It’s totally possible that everything tastes like crap now because we’ve all gotten covid and have turned into the Jon Lovitz critic character stuck in the asylum from that Simpsons episode...