Alpine Brewing Thread

Right, that's why HFS, High Kicks, Hop Boxed, and most of what's being brewed at Alpine these days is amazing - because GF infiltrated their brewhouse and ruined everything they produce, past, present, and future.

I get that everyone wants to bash GF, lord knows I don't love them, but Bad Boy is a prototypical west coast DIPA, in that it's got a stronger malt base, bigger bitterness, and a much more old school DIPA vibe. Not sure how Green Flash is to blame for that fact, but the shit people try to pin on them has gotten hilarious.

 

Dirty lines is also a tired excuse. No one wants to blame their own damn palate for anything.

 

The original poster listed a number of reasons and said any could have been at fault, so he wasn't exactly using that as an excuse. But I'm forced to ask a practical question when I see "dirty lines'. I realize you get build up and all that, but it seems to me that after a Bad Boy or two is poured from that tap, the lines are probably not going to impart much extra flavor at that point, are they?

 

It depends on how long the lines are and how often they get an actual cleaning, not just a flushing between beers. Line length matters in that with longer draws, you can have an entire pint sitting in the lines between pours, picking up very minor off flavors from buildup and leaving its own minor buildup for the next pint of the same beer to pickup. Flushing between beers also doesn't really imply a full cleaning with abrasive chemicals, it usually means a quick cleaning to get a clean enough line to throw another beer on and can leave microbial buildup behind. Some bars are really anal about doing a full line cleaning every week - Tiger Tiger and Blind Lady for example - while others will stretch it out a bit more.

I agree with @Sebowski that dirty lines are somewhat of an overblown excuse that people like to use, considering palate variation and batch variation are just as likely of an explanation in most cases of perceptions in difference between servings of the same beer.

 

Yeah, no knock on the OP. Just general bitching on my part.

 

I don't bash on anyone. I'm too old to give a shit. But facts are facts. And my taste buds tell the story. This is not religion.
Cheers.. By the way I find Hop Boxed and HFS to be rather mediocre. But that's me. No High Kick experience.

GF Duet=good, Pure Hoppiness=lame, Hoppy Birthday= excellent, Nelson=ridiculously variable.

Simply an honest perspective..

 

Your taste buds are broken, mate. Simply an honest perspective.

Cheers.

 

Not that it is either here or there, but I have heard a few Bad Boy fanboys say that the batch prior to the recent one seemed

They are probably one of those Willy Vanilly and Mandarin Nectar fans.

 

BLAH/TT do a full cleaning between every single different beer with more in depth draft maintenance happening once a week

 

Go Pats

 

I've actuallymade a point to go to Alpine and to drink Alpine beers of late. Not having high hopes at this point, The glory days are behind us. It is what it is.

 

I'm also BJCP certified.

 

And I brew beer. What is your story?

 

Hahahahahaha oh man. My story is that I drink beer, then I jump on BA to discuss beer. Well, I used to come here to discuss beer. Now I mostly come here to remind myself why I try to avoid talking to people at bars and breweries, and occasionally correct the misguided ramblings of people who obviously don't know what they're talking about, while hiding my contempt behind varying levels of sarcasm.

I have no doubt that you've homebrewed longer than me, and I'm sure your BJCP certification has allowed you to taste a veritable cornucopia of shitty homebrews, along with the occasional perfectly-to-style IPA that would've blown everyone away in 2002. Lord knows Alpine has had their fair share of quality control problems over the years and has put out some beers that would've been better served to meet a drain than a keg, but Hop Boxed and HFS are not among them. If you want to provide a BJCP certified analysis of one of them and point out the technical flaws that caused you to call them mediocre, I'm all ears. Otherwise, you're just attempting an argument from authority and doubling down on the logical fallacies by blaming Green Flash for beers that they had no part in producing.

 

What?!?

You aren't...no...he doesn't brew much beer AFAIK.

 

I am coming in from Texas later this week and plan to go to Alpine to explore their IPA's. I think I am damn good at knowing what I like to drink. But I have no certification of any kind. Will they still let me sample their beers?

Reading this thread, it seems that there is no way to know what they have on tap this weekend without calling them. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

If you are going to the brewery their website has a webcam with what they have available. You can sample all the beers they have on the board. If you are going to the pub then so far it seems like you have to call them to see what's available. I've always just had pints at the new pub so don't know if they do tasters but the old pub location did so I'd assume they do as well.

 

Maybe you can get a quick Cicerone certification before then?

Yeah, you'll be fine, the staff is very friendly and accommodating.

If you're visiting the brewery, there's a webcam with the taplist but that's just for tasters and growler fills. If you want to drink at the pub (a few blocks away), they periodically post a picture of the taplist on their Facebook page but it's not consistently updated.

 

"Tomorrow is going to be a hell of a release day! We are showcasing our new Single Hopped IPA series Singled Out... 6 percent of golden goodness featuring Galaxy Hops. We also have Rye'der on the Storm, our 6% Rye Vanilla Porter. How do you top all this? You throw Odin's Raven in the mix and there you have it!"

This was posted yesterday so tomorrow means today...at noon. But with these 3 going up I assume at least Bad Boy is coming off and will be available at the brewery. Typically kegs also float over to the pub. But potentially grabbing yourself a growler of Odins to take back to TX would be a rather good idea imo.