Other Half Brewing, Then & Now

Many, many years ago All Green Everything was the best beer I had at brewfest in Boston. I live in NH but am a Yankee fan so get to the city a couple times a summer for Yankee games and always hit up Other Half (which is easier than ever with the new Rockefeller location, though I enjoy it much less than the Brooklyn venue). Like every place who has ramped up, they have definitely had some hits and misses. To me they still have times when they make crazy good stuff and others that are just a miss for me. But I always enjoy hitting their locations and trying stuff and have not personally had anything I would rate as terrible. I can't say that about too many places. To my tastes, they do an especially good job with Citra, which you think should be easy but I have had a lot of bad Citra beers in my time... I will be in the city in July and August and definitely plan to hit them up.

 

I'll have to give OH lagers another shot it I see them on draft, but not commiting to any 4 packs. Schilling didn't do themselves any favors by putting their name on that anniversary collab can.

 

That's a shame. I've liked the snaps and the rothaus collab but maybe I'm overestimating them. In fairness when there is Schilling on shelves cold everywhere by me, I'm not buying lagers and pilsners from many other places these last few months or so. I did like the batch of Gotham gold from a few months ago or so I had. Solid beer. But I wouldn't be surprised with significant batch to batch variation. I think most of the lagers are DC in origin though. That said I can get the most popular Schilling at 13 to 14 bucks a 4 pack (usually helles and pils) 10 minutes down the road, or go a whole half hour to a huge store and get any distro stuff, including the less popular stuff like ambers. OH lagers on the shelf are usually a couple bucks more, so usually it is an easy economic decision. A blind tasting wouldn't be the worst idea, but I'm far too lazy for that.

 

No, they are rice lagers but they are more Japanese style so think like Asahi/Sapporo/Kirin, more dry and crisp than AAL.

 

I enjoy many of the lagers they produce. MFL, the corn lager on now was very tasty with no noticeable flaws. The Snaps and Crickets I also enjoy.

I guess they may not be on the same level as Suarez or Schilling, but not a vast separation.

In BK specifically I’d probably only have Wild East lagers rated higher on an overall basis.

 

Was this Extreme Beerfest? I remember having the same experience with All Green Everything there. I think it was either 2015 or 2016. I talked about that beer for weeks afterwards. About a year ago, it was distributed in my neck of the woods. I enjoyed, but not close to as good as I remember. Seemed to be missing the crazy dankness.

Since then, I think the best OH beer I've had is DDH Oh...Forever. Still a big fan. Ordered the Green City Package to be delivered this week. Pretty Excited.

 

That sounds about right to me..I just remember it was easily the best beer I had there and there was no line at all to get it. I just kept getting more and more!

 

I think I was drunkenly talking to random people about it. Really hyping it up. And you're right, these was no line. I felt bad for them!

 

I think part of what made them stand out at that EBF was that it was a rare festival where there was a dearth of IPAs. The OH IPAs were really freaking good, but not having as many beers in that style to compare it to made it stand out big time on the night.