I saw that Rays in Tosa is having a tap takeover at their Growler Gallery for Green Flash/Alpine on Thursday, July 2. Has anyone heard about this? Is Alpine truly coming to WI?!?!
Green Flash has been in MKE for a while now. All the Alpine* beers that will be here are brewed/distributed by Green Flash.
Yeah, I know that GF has been here for over two years. What I am asking is if Alpine will really be in WI? Although, from the sounds of it, the GF brewed stuff isn't as good. Does anyone know what beers are coming? Nelson, Hoppy Birthday, etc...
Pretty sure we will be getting the GF-brewed Alpine* stuff, same as everyone else (outside of CA). Nelson, Duet, Hoppy Birthday...all brewed at Green Flash.
I've had nelson and pure hoppiness and wasn't all that impressed. However I'm not sure on freshness as they were extras.
We'll be seeing kegs of Duet, Nelson, Hoppy Birthday, Alpine Ale, Captain Stout, and McIllhenney's Red. These beers should be tapped as fresh as possible. Most bars in SD tap Alpine the day they receive it, and definitely within a few days. I know that many bars across the country don't think twice about holding a keg for 1-3 months. These beers just won't taste the same at that age. They've already spent 2-4 weeks making their way from brewery to bar, I say tap 'em when you get 'em! If you've ever tasted a fresh Duet next to a 2 month old Duet, you know what I'm talking about.
Duet and Hoppy Birthday were converted to 6 pack format a little while ago and we carry both, but there hasn't been much else available.
Check the dates. Tosa WF has a bunch of expired Apline on the shelf. Makes me sad to see world-class beer go by un-drank.
I know this is odd, but Nelson over 6 months old is fine (for me) as the spicy rye helps balance the sweetness. I really enjoy that beer and rye ipas in general.
I'm guessing that Alpine and GF tweaked all the recipes just a bit to give them more shelf stability. OG Alpine IPA's turned pretty bad pretty quickly (2 months-ish). I'll have to buy a few of the "expired" bottles to see what they taste like. Pretty sure GF changed up their recipes a few years ago to make their whole line-up a little more shelf stable once they started nation-wide distribution.