Alchemist Drop in Colorado

especially when you realize it doesn’t taste anything like a “NEIPA”

 

I was just bitching about how when I trade we get drops of what i traded for. Now if i could only get some HF hops on our shelves

 

Wow. This almost seems too good to be true. What's the catch? And next week? Dang.

 

I still really Heady Topper a lot. I never would have guessed in a million years we'd see it on CO shelves. Hopefully I'm able to grab a couple cans before it's gone.
Focal Banger can die in a fire, though. It might look like Heady and the like, but it tastes like salty onions and ditch weed.

 

So gubna rebranded?

 

Kind of like a super hazy blend of old school Alpine Duet and one of the slightly better versions of the Gubna. More weedy than oniony, but I don't like either flavor much.
I bet a lot of the NEIPAs that people dislike and breweries get defensive over are based on Focal Banger.

 

Will probably be on the shelf next to thr 'Loons

 

I'll look but I'm not holding my breath

 

We did randomly get a (real) Cantillon drop a few weeks ago. 3F is now on a lot of shelves around town...although mainly the pricy and/or large bottles. People are discussing pilsners and Royal Oil seems to be well known all over the country now.
Strange times, man, strange times.

 

Hey now, I feel personally attacked.

 

3F is at Applejack. Large and small bottles...and mongo-size

 

3F is everywhere it seems. The south side is loaded.

 

First alchemist drop happened yesterday... Mr B's said they sold out of 15 cases in an hour.

 

Both these beers are malty AF compared to how I remember them. I dig it, and not sure there's another beer like these available in the Colorado market, or anywhere for that matter.

Crazy how much the concept of what a NEIPA should taste like has changed in 5ish years. Maybe my taste buds have changed also or the beer has changed, but I honestly think it's just expectation vs. reality. I was expecting something like Juicy Bits from my mental archive, but got a mouth full of grain instead of juice (again in a good way...)

Anybody else have this experience?

 

Alchemist beers happen to be brewed in New England. That’s the only thing that resembles what most people think a NEIPA should be. They’re closer to something from Lagunitas or Stone than they are to anything from your favorite haze factory.

 

That makes more sense. It's been so long since I last had them that I was definitely expecting/remembering a different beer.

I see the similarities with Stone and definitely more West Coast than NE style, but I'm still thinking these are uniquely malty and feature a different flavor profile than your "typical" IPA from either coast.

Either way, digging the drop and happy to revisit these classic brews. Cheers!

 

My recollection of Heady is that it was ugly AF, had a fruity edge, peach esters, and some pine in there as well. Not the New England juice bombs of today.

 

Yeah, Heady is really more of a WC IPA with some slight haze to it, in my opinion. The super dialed-in blend of hops and malts and good water really makes it its own thing though. But if you gave it to me blind, I'd call it a WCIPA.

I haven't lived in New England for a while, but I'm from there and visit often. My first memory of a real NEIPA was having a Trillium Congress St. or maybe Fort Point. That was the first beer I had where it looked like orange juice, and I remember there was some serious disagreement about whether this was acceptable or not in the beer community.

I'm not sure who first brewed a hazy IPA, but if I had to put $ on it, it'd be Trillium. A lot of the original IPAs from New England that people think started the NEIPA craze: Alchemist and Lawson's would really be described as WC style these days, I think. I've never had any of Hill Farmstead's hoppy beers, so I can't comment on them.

But I also remember that even before the haze craze there was a somewhat playful feud b/w WC and NE IPAs, but I can't really remember what the distinction was. I'm vaguely remembering something about WC IPAs having more tropical notes and NE IPAs having more pine or something, but maybe I'm wrong. Probably someone else here knows better than me.