Bad Second Fiddle Batch? (5/22/15)

Is Fiddlehead's regular IPA available in cans or is it draft/growler only?

 

Fiddleheads regular IPA is draft or growlers only. IMO way below either 2nd Fiddle or Mastermind.

 

Mine are 5/14, picked up in VT, not MA. Tastes great. Better than Mastermind in my opinion. It's not a citrus/juice bomb. It's more heavily malty than is common in the "Vermont Style" DIPA, and hops are more dank/gree, but not pine resiny. As a flavor profile, it strikes me as similar to Dirt Wolf.

 

I agree, that is a pretty good description. Although, I think Dirt Wolf has more leaning toward the juicy side but it has been a while since I've had it.

 

So what's the deal with Fiddlehead and Mass going forward? Was this a one off given their ACBF permit, or are they testing the waters for eventual distro expansion? Hodad was arguably the best beer at the entire festival, it'd be awesome if that hitting MA stores/bars again was an eventual possibility.

 

Just wanted to chime in here and say the owner Matt is a super nice, friendly dude. Saw me drinking a SF @ Stoddards and came up to shoot the shit for 10 minutes. Was also very forthcoming with ingredients, technique , etc when discussing brewing.

 

That's intersting considering Sap is almost exclusively Chinook, and 2F is only Simcoe/Citra. Everyone's palate is different.

 

Maybe a similar "resinous" taste. I'm not sure.

 

Just tried the 5/22 and it tastes terrible compared to the April batch and February batch I had. Absolutely something wrong with the 5/22 cans. Previously this was up in my top 3 IPAs but this 5/22 batch doesn't even crack the top 20. Really disappointing.

Mine also says T for Texas for some reason.

 

Terrible, but you reference top 20? Depending on how long you've been drinking top 20 IPAs is pretty solid IMO

 

Terrible compared to the previous batches of second fiddle. I didn't say terrible overall.

 

I have been wondering the same thing. I know there were a lot of one-time distributions due to ACBF from places like DC Brau and Rhinegeist, and I figured Fiddlehead was the same deal. Then I saw this article from earlier this week and it made me think Fiddlehead might be coming our way more often. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/resta...collective-new-distributor-brewery-incubator/ Here's to hoping.

 

I've had several batches of Second Fiddle and thought it was fantastic. A great citrusy, pithy VT IPA.

But I had the 5/22 'T is for Texas' today and definitely noticed off-flavors. Honeydew melon/green apple, and not in a good way.

I got it in a trade, so I'm gonna chalk it up to handling during shipping. Glad I didn't buy a case of this batch.

 

Did you actually contact the brewery? If so what did they say?

 

Had a couple cans from the 6/5 batch yesterday that were absolutely awesome, no issues.

 

As far as I know it's only the 5/22 batch that was affected.