Thought about this as I put my last two bottles of Duck Rabbit Baltic Porter in the fridge for tonight. Do you or have you guys ever done anything special for beers that are no longer in production or breweries that have ceased to exist when you drink the last of their product in your possession? RIP Duck Rabbit. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9790/32180/
My experience and opinion: Not to be all deep or anything, but Life is impermanent . Nothing lasts forever so why make a big deal about something following a law of nature ? No attachment . Let it go. If you fulfill some internal peace by having a funeral for the beer and giving it a 12 gun salute then go all in, bud!
No, I actually haven’t. I understand your point and know you don’t mean to shed a tear about something like that, however I was genuinely saddened by the loss of Spencer. The one and only American Trappists. Near unavailable here but still got a hold of it quite a while back. They were good. Not Westmalle good but nice endeavors nevertheless.
Absolutely! Or they'd stay in my cellar forever. Instead, I'm going to honor them by drinking and enjoying them. Like I said, just had the thought and wondered if anyone did anything different or more involved. Maybe not a full on ceremony, but something cool.
I've celebrated the breweries in special BA threads like the Cellaruary review thread for aged beers that are no longer available. Most recently last month I had my last old barrel-fermented wild ale Ventus 2016 from a local Mystic Brewery that closed down in 2019. There are a few breweries that are no longer in my distro that I liked, not sure how many have closed down though besides Anchor. A lot of beers I've only had once that were limited and more expensive single bottles, so I always try to get the best out of it and leave a review or take notes if possible. Just try to enjoy them to the fullest and who knows, maybe one day you'll meet again somewhere for another experience. If it were me I would probably save a bottle to age a year if it's familiar and celebrate it next February in the Cellaruary review thread.
I like this thought. A lot. Helps that I tend to go beer hunting wherever I am. Cool to run into unexpected beers in random places!
I have saved a few empties of the breweries that have closed. I have a few from Pretty Things and Mystic. This was before they closed, but I got & saved a bottle of Anchor Steam Beer with the classic labeling soon after they rolled out the dumbed-down design.
Held on to the last couple of cans of English Barleywine from 3 stars for far too long, and it turned into cream sherry. The weren't my favorite DMV brewery, but them closing was a bummer. It seems I'm the only person to have reviewed that beer here. It was great both fresh and with a year on it. 2+ years was too much. Enjoy life. As Dril said "If the the zoo kicks me out for hollering at the monkeys again, I will face God and walk backwards into Hell."
Used to stay in DC at least once a year right off of Thomas Circle. Convenient because it was right down the street from Churchkey, but also awesome because I invariably would go to the Whole Foods and pick up some 3 Stars for the room. Was sad to hear that they shuttered.
Ghost was definitely in the rotation regularly for me when I lived there, but they had amazing one-offs. They never really recovered from the fire, the pandemic was the final nail in the coffin. They still put up a couple of good years of fight. Shows that they were in it for the right reasons.
Dang it. I usually don't know if a beer is being retired until its too late. A dollar short and a day late. But through the matrix of this site with announcements being posted and or regional conversations I can be more hip to the hip shake re if a beers final voyage is truly happening. Maybe I can find a last batch.
Yeah, usually between here and social media I can figure out a lot of closings and changes in a brewery's portfolio. While I certainly don't like when breweries close, when breweries get rid of certain beers with a cult following just because they aren't "profitable" that is probably more disturbing to me.
I wonder if @Chaz will do something since Carling Black Label has been canceled by the Pabst company? The irony (is that the right word?) is that the branding of Carling Black Label is reappearing in the UK: https://beertoday.co.uk/2026/02/13/carling-black-label-0226/ Cheers! P.S. When one door closes another door opens!?! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have been collecting beer bottle labels (and now days beer can labels) since 1999 (bottles and cans take up too much room). Loved the old classic Anchor bottle labels. IIRC, for a brief time Anchor changed their Anchor Steam label to a label depicting the Golden Gate bridge. I am certain I added that label to my collection.
Had a HUGE bottle collection when I lived in Denver and somewhere in boxes in the basement are labels that I removed from bottles that I used when I homebrewed. I'm sure that I'll find a use for them someday.
