Riverlands (2021)

It was nice to not get shut out on a beer release for once! Riverlands is doing things well!

 

BA Campfire is fire. Love the barrel presence and all the adjuncts present in harmony. The Riverlands barrel program has to be the most underrated in Chicagoland (even after BA Kamoho got late hype)

 

Lebron is out of the playoffs and I just scored 2 bottles of BA Campfire Tales.
Life is good.

 

Just playing devil's advocate by saying it's easy to be underrated when they've only produced 6 BA beers (unless I miscounted).

I've loved every one I've had so far, and I'm really looking forward to BA Campfire Tales.

 

That’s fair I suppose. Not many breweries of any size have had their batting average through the first 6 (I haven’t had Googly yet myself)

 

Stopped by on Sunday to pick up my allotment, and I really appreciate that Fisherman's Breakfast and Old Fashioned Googly were also available; I picked up two each of those. BA Campfire Tales was excellent on draft, and I also left with a mixed case of cans. Would love to see Kolschipa canned to-go in future.

I just cracked a Fisherman's Breakfast, and it is niiiiiice. I don't typically like maple in beers, but it plays so well with the other flavors in this one. The coffee is extremely earthy and rich, so the maple and cacao nibs aromas balance out what could have otherwise been too strong of a dark roast. I primarily get the coconut as a subtle accent near the finish. With my usual aversion to maple and my wife's inexplicable hatred of coffee, I only grabbed two bottles, but I'm starting to regret that decision. Well done, @RBCBrams17 and other Riverlands folks; thanks for making the three-hour drive worthwhile.

 

Thank you Riverlands! @RBCBrams17

 

Came to say the same.

 

When I was at Riverlands last week to pick up my two bottles of BA campfire tales, I got a Crowler of pulp tart lemon blueberry. I got to say this is one of the better fruit at Berlinner Weiss I’ve had in a long time! Shared the growler with multiple people at a barbecue last weekend and everybody raved about it and was asking where is this brewery at?

Pulp tart doesn’t get a whole lot of praise, but I’m here to say that is one extremely well crafted beer!

 

Now I wish I had tried that one! I got the crowler of Acid Rainbow: Beermosa, but I didn't try that among my draft selections. In retrospect, my wife would probably love anything with lemon and blueberry, so an own goal on my part there.

In other news, I cracked an Old Fashioned Googly last night, and it was also excellent. Really nails the concept with strong orange pith and cherry flavors, but it also highlights the barleywine. I don't know which stout previously sat in the bourbon barrel, but psychosomatic or not, I definitely got some subtle chocolate notes that seemed consistent with that character. Very clear inspiration from the cocktail while still bringing something beer-centric and unique to the table, rather than trying to clone a cocktail in beer form.

 

Yeah, I saw that and clapped my hands. I've heard all the arguments in favor of selling beer on the secondary market, and I get that the entire purpose of money is to facilitate transactions between parties who can't make a fair trade work. I know there are some people out there who "sell to buy" because it's efficient, instead of going through the work of finding a trade partner. But I think those people are in the small minority. Most are profiting off of others' work and talent. It's infuriating to strike out trying to buy a beer I want to drink and seeing people post bottles for sale at 500-1000% markups before they even have the bottles in hand. Good for Riverlands, I wish I was closer so I could go there more often.

 

So apparently this blew up and they took the post down. Here is the replacement post.

Selling secondary is illegal so IDK why riverlands had to apologize but what do I know

 

gets the people going

 

As a Blades of Glory fan, AND a Watch The Throne fan, I cherish your post, scribe.

 

There are some serious self righteous dbags in this beer game. It’s frustrating watching nobody in the industry weigh in the comment section for fear the mob will come for them.

 

Hey all, figured I should comment directly here as I appreciate this community and this forum and have been a forum lurker here way before I was in the industry.

Thanks for the support. As I said in my statement on FB, I hate when people try and rip other people off. I'm all for people trading beers so they can try breweries they'd never normally be able to, but the insane secondary mark ups for cash get me.
I do think our social media manager let his frustration with this issue, and this person in particular, get the better of him. We don't need to call out an individual customer to make the larger point, hence my apology to that person. I don't condone what he was doing, but that was the wrong approach.
Anyway, thanks again to you all for posting here, always please feel free to say hi anytime you're at the brewery!

 

I approve of Riverlands, and their social media manager. Most here know my opinions on the secondary market.

 

BeerMosa is excellent as well!

 

I support the decision to revise posts to avoid putting individual resellers on blast... that said, I also support a decision to exercise your right not to sell to those individuals in future.

 

I think the only fault was naming the person. A business should refrain from doing that even if they have cause. That is the only thing I would take exception to. But, they've apologized (twice) and hopefully the world will move on. That being said, beer bros are insufferable. I know of at least one person who is saying "I'll never go back" because of this. This same subset of the beer crowd are the ones who put a brewery on blast when they miss out on a lottery for whatever BA stout...because they wanted to sell it for $150. Yet had no issue about a certain brewery in Indiana selling 4% beer they labeled as 8%. Why? Because they were selling said beer for $10-15 a can.
If these sensitive beer folks are this upset about this I really think they need to reevaluate their relationship with alcohol. And take a P/T job if money is that tight (and not drink $7-10 beers).