Are You Spoiled?

I'd really like to be spoiled with widespread availability of one (or more) of my favorites. But it's not happening these days. I venture out occasionally to buy six packs or twelves of favorites for home. But when I go out for dinner or drinks, I often find the selection doesn't really offer me good options. Too many high alcohol beers, flavored or barrel aged options, and hazies crowd out the traditional styles I like. I'm not spoiled, but I'm pretty satisfied anyway.

 

Once, yes once, I came across 3 different Trillium beers here in Austin. I didn't want to be greedy so I grabbed a 4 pack of Olmsted figuring this was now a thing in the ATX, I could come back to this well at a later date. They were also a bit pricey, hence my hesitation. Wrong. Never seen them anywhere since. I can't even tell you what the other two beers were. I just know I have two regrets.

 

I am an incorrigible ticker. I am unspoilable because I always have something new to try. We have several great breweries in Iowa that are always coming out with new stuff. My only hope is that someday they'll find someplace other than the beer cooler to stuff all of those ciders, seltzers, and alcopops so that we can get our singles shelves back.

And apropos of nothing, Belgian Red >>> Spotted Cow.

 

According to BA, Spotted Cow is a saison, not a cream ale, and according to New Glarus it’s “Wisconsin’s original Farmhouse ale” (another term for a saison). I’ve had Spotted Cow once, 15 years ago, as a result of a trade. I gave it a 3.52, which is low for me but only a -6.6 rDev from its average BA rating of 3.77 (which I would consider a good but not great beer). So, based just on the numbers, I’m not sure how overrated it can be since it’s not all that highly rated in the first place.

Compare it, for example, to Two Hearted, another standard-bearer in neighboring Michigan, which has a 4.26 average. I’d say that’s a bit high as well (and in fact I do just that in my review/rating, giving it only a 4.09—and I’ve had Two Hearted a lot more often than Spotted Cow, so I can stand more firmly behind my opinion on that one). But yeah, point taken I guess if you are saying that if you consider yourself spoiled because you have ready access to Spotted Cow, then maybe you aren’t as spoiled as you think.

 

If it's a farmhouse ale, I'd classify it as a Biere de Garde, not a Saison. There is nothing Saison-like about it.

 

I’m not saying I think it’s a saison—I’m just pointing out that that’s what the BA collective has decided.

 

Threads will do that. Once you post your OP it’s up to the people who respond to decide where it goes.

However, you did say about Spotted Cow, “It’s really good. Like REALLY good.” So to revise that statement now is a little disingenuous. Just saying. You’re better off standing by your original assertion.

Around here the most ubiquitous beers are probably Manny’s Pale and Mac ‘n’ Jack’s. Most people outside of Washington have probably never heard of them. I never drink them. They are fine, but there’s almost always something better available and if there’s not, I’m probably in the wrong place.

And that’s why I consider myself spoiled to live here. There’s always great beer readily available with almost no effort. The beer culture here is probably as strong as almost anywhere else in the country. We don’t refer to craft beer as “craft,” it’s just beer.

 

I can get Schell's Brewing beers here, easily (very easy yesterday when I was in New Ulm). I have a huge demand for them when I go out to Montana to visit friends, and my trunk is loaded with Grain Belt (Premium and Nordeast).

You can get great beer pretty much everywhere now. When I was in Jamaica I was totally into Red Stripe. When I go out west, I totally am into Rainier beer. I am a Yuengling fan, and am stoked that I can, and have gotten it in Wisconsin.

 

Ah, the continual ‘mystery’ of what sort of beer is Spotted Cow.

Back in the day (e.g., a decade or so ago) corn was part of the grain bill but contemporary Spotted Cow no longer has corn as an ingredient.

The ‘advertising’ is this beer is a Wisconsin Farmhouse Ale. You can listen to Dan Carey discuss the genesis of this beer in the below video. He makes mention that the ‘inspiration’ for this beer was how maybe some Wisconsin farmhouse brewer would have produced a beer like this 125ish years to ‘emulate’ an American lager of those days (e.g., golden colored).

It sure sounds like a Cream Ale to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/erKL1pZ77q0?feature=share

 

This thread is confusing.

That is all.

 

I think we're all a bit spoiled compared to how things were even just a decade ago. There's at least something worthwhile almost everywhere you go. Fast casual spots, chain restaurants, casinos, concert venues, etc. For a long time you were basically given 3-4 choices and all but maybe 1 of them ended in "light."

 

Perhaps you should try again with a thread entitled "Do we take good beer for granted if it's readily available?"

 

I wish Spotted Cow was on tap near me. I wouldn't say spoiled though, just lucky.

 

I worked for a Wisconsin company for a few years, so I was up there pretty frequently. While having Spotted Cow almost everywhere is great, I never thought it was particularly amazing. Especially considering the other stuff they brew. On the other hand, I found that pretty much any place that had the Cow also had at least 1 other New Glarus option. Usually Totally Naked, Two Women, Moon Man, Pils, or Bubbler.

 

I feel this way about Odell IPA, which I’ve had twice this week out, once at a biker bar and once at a cool little neighborhood Italian spot where the only other beer on tap was Peroni. The distributor (Breakthru) has done a great job getting this beer EVERYWHERE, but…it’s good.

 

After we were out last Memorial Day weekend, I left feeling like it was/is the best readily available IPA in the Denver area. Which surprised me. And it wasn't even close.

 

Many would say I am spoiled, as Fox Farm, Jack's Abby, Notch, and Treehouse are all an hour's drive away from me.

But I'm a Rhode Islander, and an hour drive is a fucking day trip, so I ain't spoiled .

 

When I joined this forum ten years ago, we were far from spoiled. These days, we are pretty spoiled. We have an authentic & quality German brewery which has not sold out its identity - they even have a large system to produce authentic eisbocks! We're also fortunate to have a couple breweries making top lists and consistently winning GABF awards.

From the local large brewery, it appears Duvel has allowed Boulevard to live on (and it's actually expanding their patio, investing more money). Tank 7 is always good and on tap almost everywhere.

 

That's pretty awesome!

IMO, my hometown of Pittsburgh seems to be going the opposite way. Not that we don't have a handful of breweries doing cool things, but the rest are essentially lost in a sea of mediocrity. It's sad, really.