An astounding amount of liquid joy in those pics, Raul- Nearly brings a tear to my eye Brings back some great memories of a bygone era - Cheers
I miss going to a brewery and there were 5 or 6 styles on tap. Pale ale, IPA, Stout, Porter, Amber ale...I miss the days before the haze craze and IPAs were more creative...I miss every good beer coming in a 22oz bottle...i miss breweries being more adventurous releasing six packs of really different stuff like the Anchor Small beer or Stone Pataskala Red or Sierra Nevada brown...I miss the days before so many good breweries sold out and disappeared...so many things are different now
Back in the glory days, a regular trading partner would send me fresh bottles from Alpine. Ah, the memories....
I've stopped into a Total Wine in Eatontown several times recently and pretty sure they Sly Fox beers they had (only 2 or 3 labels) were old. I did notice that Sly Fox now lists their NJ distributor as Monty - to which I thought to myself "Who?" After leaving Hunterdon, their NJ distributor was Regal Wine. I haven't kept up with the new NJ beer wholesaler licensees.
Anchor Small Beer was only around NJ for a short time - I decided I was going to start buying it by the case and make it my everyday beer and when my local retailer tried to start ordering it for me, it was gone from the distributor's list. Anchor's "big" bottles were 22 ouncers (aka "1 PINT, 6 FLUID OUNCES" in TTB approved terminology) - so "Bombers" but not in the typical long-neck version that most US craft breweries used. They put their wheat beer in that bottle, too, for a time (can't say I recall seeing it on the shelf, tho'). Seems like it would have been a nice package for Steam Beer, too. Maybe they did?
I think about it all the time. While there are more breweries and beer options on the market than ever before, it feels like true variety has actually diminished. The current landscape is dominated by breweries either competing to sell the most IPAs or pushing out extreme, gimmicky creations, leaving little room for the subtle, well-crafted beers that once filled our beer fridges. I miss the days when walking into a beer store meant encountering a full spectrum of styles where you could discover something genuinely unique without it needing to be over-the-top just to stand out.
Since we are talking Sly Fox: In a couple hours I will be at the Sly Fox Phoenixville location to get on a 'party bus' to head to today's Phillies game. We will be tailgating at FDR park before the game (4:00 start time). There will be plenty of Sly Fox beer to drink but even better there will be a case of homebrewed beers: Motueka IPA, Bohemian Pilsner, Oatmeal Stout, Classic American Pilsner, English Bitter Ale and Belgian Dubbel. I doubt the game can match the excitement of last nights game but I have my fingers crossed here. Cheers to the two B's: baseball and beer!
Must have been the shape that made me remember it as a bigger bottle than it was. I do like it when breweries have unique packaging, but I understand why most don't.
My wish is number 1 for a good/ exciting game. It would be my personal preference for a Phillies win but I admire the Tigers so:.. Only one bottle left of the homebrewed beers I brought. Will somebody drink the last beer? Cheers!
when brewers made the decisions and the fucking bean counters just paid the bills for them when workers actually cared and took pride in the many different styles instead of not giving a shit and making hazy ipa #899 for the year when it was about what was in the can/bottle instead of what the label looked like or what so cool for school look how clever we are name it is i can go on but i wont aloha
I definitely miss going to the store and finding all these new and different beers and beer styles from breweries all over the country. The mid to big size breweries like Stone, DFH, Victory, Sierra Nevada, etc used to release so many different things all year long. The trade off is that I now have so many more small local options.
OK, now just stop it..STOP IT!!!!! The mind boggles as far as waaay too many great, long-forgotten-brewed beers...just STOP IT now...DON'T make me remember what I can't get anymore..
