Fullers ESB New Belgium Abbey Sam Adams Boston Ale Goose Island Honkers Ale (I have not had nor seen the re-release)
Results were the same, but not quite the same history. ...the Dodo became extinct less than 80 years later because of deforestation, hunting, and destruction of their nests by animals brought to the island by the Dutch. BBC and Whitbread had been partners since the mid-90s, when Boston licensed the UK brewery to brew "Boston Beer" (a different beer than Samuel Adams Boston Lager, called a "hybrid" in BBC's Annual Report) for the UK and Ireland. Not sure when the beers were first brewed in the US - previously H-S subsidiary, Royal Imports LLC, had been an importer of the Whitbread brands. Of course, the bottle labels showed the actual brewing city, but tap handles almost never do.
I miss all those big malty beers and Barleywines like He'Brew Jewbelation brewed by Shmaltz Brewing Co., long departed.
I moved from North Carolina to Texas two and half years ago. Unfortunately, there are several NC breweries I miss due to not being distributed here. Duck Rabbit Brewing is one I miss the most
Great Divide does not seem to ship to my state or any neighboring states. I find myself missing the whole spectrum of old school Yeti variants.
I kinda gave up on Duck Rabbit when they had all those infection issues a decade or so ago, but when they were on, they were really good.
Dogfish Head Aprihop. Man that was a nice, fruity IPA before the world went crazy with sour/hazy beer.
I guess I can't technically "miss" something I haven't experienced before, but from what I've read...I would've loved to taste Dogfish Head's Ancient Ales series. I'm a sucker for unusual beer styles and experiments, and a lot of them sound delicious. I do hear that they pop up now and then as taproom exclusives, but I'd love if they launched one of them for large scale distribution again so I could get one easily. They were before my time, sadly.
I preferred the regular Bender myself, but... I thought Bender and Coffee Bender were still made by Surly. Not so?
It’s strange to hear that Whitbread was everywhere, I never saw it once out here on the West Coast, and I regularly looked for English ales.
Agreed. I was living in Sacto in the 90's and tended to frequent some of the better English style pubs in town. I rarely ever saw Whitbread on tap (and I would have noticed, as I was a big fan). Maybe every once in a while, but it was uncommon. Maybe it was everywhere in other parts of the country, but not in Northern California.
Surly Bender was discontinued around 2018/2019. It was a fantastic brown ale by Surly, and their very first beer IIRC. Surly Coffee Bender was discontinued late 2023 and replace with Nitro Coffee Ale which is a major step down. I loved Bender but there are lots of decent brown and black ales to scratch that itch. Not nearly as many coffee ales/stouts/porters, etc.
SN shipped so much volume to the SF Bay Area this year that I still see it around. I bought a 6-pack a couple weeks ago that was canned in late October. It still tasted great.
