I've long hinted at "Cheese industry shit" behind me not being a Hill Farmstead fanboy. Today, I will finally tell the story. If you're not familiar with US cheese regulations, any raw milk cheese sold in the US must be aged for 60+ days before shipping, which means that a lot of classic washed- or bloomy-rind European cheeses can't be sold here, as they'd be trash by the time they make it to market. So they make pasteurized versions for the US that are shadows of what they can be. One in particular is Vacherin Mont d'Or. Enter intrepid US cheese makers! They can make a cheese based on raw milk Vacherin Mont d'Or and have it for sale legally without it turning into trash. One such cheesemaker is Jasper Hill, located in Greensboro, VT, just down the road from Hill Farmstead. Their version is known as Winnemere. It started out with being washed with a homebrewed lambic, but regulators told them that they couldn't do it. So they reached out to Shaun about using one of his saisons, and he agreed. This arrangement went on for a few years, but abruptly stopped one season (and this is a very seasonal cheese, not just because it must be made from cows only fed on hay, but also because no one is spending the money on it outside of the holidays) for them to announce that they are just using a straight up salt water brine for "consistency". Real cheeseheads know that it was because Shaun's girlfriend left him for one of the cheesemakers at Jasper Hill and he got all up in his feelings and refused to give them a deal on beer. Amends seem to have been made, however. Visiting Jasper Hill was one of the most amazing experiences I've had working in cheese. Visiting Hill Farmstead was underwhelming. Best part was the stinky golden retriever that lived on the farm next door.
I thought Bud Light Mixxtail Long Island was pretty good and I don't respect anything at all about it or where it came from. I bought it at a gas station back in November 2015 because I needed a malt liquor tick.
There is no clear demarcation between beer and malt liquor. Tradition has it that malt liquors are stronger, but there's no hard rule. Some states used to have rules allowing for malt liquor, ale or stout to be stronger than beer. But in 1973 in Colorado, I went into a 3.2 (abw) beer bar that poured me a Schlitz Malt Liquor of 4% abv (or possibly lower!). Bohemia Beer from Mexico was labeled "ale" in CA because its alcohol was higher than the beer limit (4% abw). Fewer states in the east had restrictions. Maximus Super Beer was a 70s or 80s product of Matt/WestEnd that was strong (probably stronger than most "malt liquor" of the era). .
I thought the same, though I gather this level of candidness is frowned upon. It was a pain getting there (and I went in April), the taproom was a madhouse, and there were only 6 beers available to sample the day I visited (only 4 of which could be purchased by the glass - it was all stuff you could obtain down in Waterbury without any problem). You have to use HF glassware if you want a growler fill (750 ml and 2 liter bottles), and it's a crapshoot as far as what's going to be available in the bottle shop (luck was not with me the day I visited). The on premise bottle selection in the taproom is great, but only if you have the time to hang out and enjoy a bottle or two. HF beers are great. I'm a big fan. All the more reason why I also found the brewery, store and taproom underwhelming.
I had better luck than you in the tasting room, IIRC there were 10 beers available on draft- 8 pales, IPAs, or DIPAs, a pilsner and a black IPA. The much lauded porters and saisons were only available by the bottle. If they're the trendsetters, no wonder we see it so much elsewhere, just not as well made.
Agreed especially on the Founders bit that many have chosen to just plain boycott after what transpired a good several years ago. BrewDog beers for me. Some I like, and whilst I don’t know it all about them I read enough here and there about their apparent piss-poor management.
Yuengs and Wings nights were so awesome back when I lived in Pittsburgh, before the price of wings took off.
You can't really "not respect" a beer (it's just a beverage)--only, for whatever reason, the people or company that brewed the beer. You can "not respect" them for any number of reasons--they're kind of ethically "off" like BrewDog, they represent monopoly (or oligopoly) capital (AB Inbev, MillerCoors), the politics of their leaders/owners are unacceptable (Coors, Yuengling), etc. So for me, when I lived in PA, it was Yuengling--old Dick didn't seem worthy of much respect--his politics, his environmental record--but Lager and Porter struck me as refreshing beers well above the AAL average and at a good price. And I was ambivalent; Dick himself was a turn-off, but I admired how he had saved the company at the last moment from the same fate that overtook so many regional brewers.
It's pretty easy to not respect a beer. For me, things like the smoothie sours that are basically a whole bunch of fruit juice and purees added to kettle sour beer are easy to not respect as a beer. Same goes for heavily flavored stouts that use a bunch of artificial flavors. As a beer I don't respect those products because they chose to avoid the process of drawing those flavors out of their actual ingredients, the part that requires some measure of brewing skill. That doesn't mean a person can't enjoy them. And it doesn't mean that I can't have respect for the chemists that are able to synthesize the flavors of pistachio or strawberries from whatever other source.
Fruited smoothie sours are absolutely ridiculous and stupid. Just the dumbest form of "beer" ever created. Wilhelm IV is doing cartwheels in his grave over this shit. I love them.
