Many have said before this before me . A shout out to @Roadsnakes for starting this thread. This a great thread and love reading the stories.
I have a record of the beer -- packed away somewhere. And I have some bottles from the 80s in storage. They are definitely drinkable, and one of the darks is pretty good. But I'd have to dig out my log books to get the specifics. I know that the beer was an extract based ale, fermented at basement temperatures. I added whole hops, and usually added some black or amber malt grain. I alternated between ambers and darks. The ambers could be a red ale. The darks I would compare to a black IPA. Alcohol was about 5%.
Wow, I can't match these great stories. I look at this from three angles. One is "the beer that tasted great b/c I needed it worst". That was nasty Buds at the Coach Room across from my slave-labor job at a patio cushion factory just under the tower of the old International Harvester building. They had the best burgers, and there wasn't a day you couldn't get through if you knew there was a cold Bud waiting down the street. Second is the "First time I knew beer could be really good" angle. That was the first time I opened a Victory Golden Monkey. The Banana and spice, the layers of flavor- the monolith that had been 'beer' crumbled away. Third is, "Best beer ever". Three beers really took my breath away. First was Founders CBS. I didn't think you could make a better beer. Then I had a KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge. I was sure that was what they served in heaven. Then I had a Trappist Rochfort 10. I'm not sure I'll find a better one in this life.
My story involves a great beer that was made even greater because of the following circumstances: I had been reading in these forums all of the accolades about Pliny the Elder, a fairly new beer at the time, and badly wanted to try it. I discovered in the forums that it was occasionally distributed to the Denver area. I had planned a trip to Oregon with my wife to visit our daughter and had been monitoring the Mountain forum that usually had someone create a post when a Pliny drop was made to the Denver stores that were lucky enough to get it. Our planned overnight stop one day was Cheyenne. When we checked into the hotel I discovered that a post had been created that day that said PtE had dropped that day in Denver. I decided that a drive to the northern suburbs was in order on the chance that I'd find a good store that had received some. I don't recall which city just north of Denver was my destination, but it was about a 45 mile drive to get there. Once I arrived and stopped at a good store that I had chosen from the BA places database, there was no Pliny on the shelf. (I think there were a couple other Russian River beers, but no Pliny.) I asked an employee whether they got it, and he told me to check with a cashier at the check-out. Pliny was being kept in a cooler a the front of he store, and the cashier informed me that here was a two bottle limit per person. I told him that my wife was outside in the car, so he got four bottles and told me that he'd have to ring up two transactions/bottles at a time. So I walked out with 4 bottles, hightailed it back to the hotel in Cheyenne, re-chilled one bottle as quickly as I could, and opened it for the sweetest beer experience that I'd ever had. P.S. Our trip to Oregon wasn't exactly planned to be the most direct route. In my quest to get some Pliny, I had planned the itinerary to go thru Santa Rosa with the hopes that I'd be able to try Pliny at the brewery, and hope that they had some bottles to go. Sure enough we had lunch with some Pliny at the brewery, and I walked out of there with a case of it to haul back home. Then it was happily on to Oregon. P.P.S. Great thread!
During the early days of the pandemic, Los Angeles Ale Works in Hawthorne, CA had a champurrado stout. It was magnificent. I’ve yet to try a stout as delicious as that one. I’m wishing for the day they bring it back.
My best beers ever were the ones that I shared with my long since departed dad. Occasionally on a Sunday, at the picnic table, under a shady tree, in my parents backyard. Just me and him. There was six of us kids, but I was about the only one that actually sat and drank beer with him outside of family gatherings.
Remembered on the subject.... When you miss the warm sea, sea air and food a lot, as an accentuation of pleasure, the vietcongovian serve beer with the taste of the sea (from seaweed) to tourists. The beer is so-so, but memorable.... Even don't have to make it green or blue.....
I gotta add here. I loved sharing a few Lucky Lagers with my dear Grandpa when I was about 16. Loved solving the puzzles on the underside of the bottle caps.
I guess another one. It was after Hurricane Irene had devastated not only Vermont, but the Mid Hudson Valley area in which I live (Lee that year actually hit us worse) I had read that my favorite Pub, The Alchemist and pretty much all of downtown Waterbury had been under up to ten feet of water, and now I read some time later the remarkable story how two beers had been saved in sealed fermenters found floating in the basement brewhouse. He'd bottled them at another brewery that still was able to operate, and was desperate for cash so he was putting them up for sale, along with a bunch of cases of glassware that had survived the flood. Of course I had to go. I made plans how to get there, since many roads had yet to fully re-open and my older son and I left late the night before to try to make it, which still wasn't certain due to roads opening and closing constantly.. Normally it's a 3 1/2 hour trip but we planned on it being more like a 9 hour trip considering the zig zaggy way we needed to go. It ended up to take about 7 hours and as we got closer and closer the magnitude of the tragedy came revealed. Unbelievable. Apocalyptic. There were about 15 people out front of The Alchemist, and my son and I set up our chairs and our cooler and I got out my to go mug (Vt. police aren't big on line drinking). It was a somber mood and drinking some righteous brews with other folks who'd managed to make it into this destroyed town,so as to be there to help out Mr. Kimmich made it infinitely better. As far as best beer, definitely not, but it ranks up there with the three most memorable beers of my life. I never will forget the look of abject sadness on Mr, Kimmich's face as he stood behind two fold out tables and handled the sales personally. The place was empty except for that, and the water line was visible around the place two feet over head height. I stll think of that water line every time I go to Pro Pig. I still have one last bottle of Luscious from that day.
Back in 2012, my wife and I made the climb up to half dome, our 2nd attempt to climb the beast after 4 years of actively hiking. Cans weren’t popular yet so I lugged a what felt like 10lb bottle of beer to the very top. Drinking it at the top with our success, it was pretty damn glorious! the beer was Firestone solace, average beer but was perfect for the occasion. And not get me too tipsy for treacherous climb down and long hike back to camp. any beer at Yosemite is fantastic, place is magical
My best beers were shitty AALs enjoying life with friends and strangers when I was young. I’ve since had a handful of “wow” beers that I remember specifically for the beer itself. One was Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse at Nodding Head in Philadelphia back when few, if any, others were making the style for sale North America. That easy-drinking, refreshing tartness was a revelation.
Cuvee de Tomme, blew me away what can be done as a wild. Then Tommy himself through a manager had me drink one when in a PP and only drinking that and it was even better. Second best, was Heady Topper the night before it was released and the brewery opened, and partially because of that back story.
Honeymoon in Playa del Carmen... long arduous flight and ride to the resort. Check in and get to the room. The wife and I pull 2 ice cold Tecates out of the fridge and take slow sips as we look at the ocean off of the balcony. Unforgettable..
I used to work at a brewpub that supplied incorportated restaraunts with their beer, just so happens one of their restaraunts was a 2 minute walk from my workplace. I was working doubles and getting 3 hour breaks at the time. I vividly remember all the times I would walk down on my break, order and pay for my breadsticks and a pitcher of beer. Sit down, get hammered, clean up, and walk back to work. I would usually get the blonde ale or one of the sours. Every sip was as divine as Vanessa Lengies.
Entry number 2 here for me. This is one of the beers that absolutely changed my life, and certainly sent me further down the rabbit hole of seeking out hard to come by beers! It was the beer that opened my eyes to the importance of freshness in hoppy beers. Up until that point I had drank plenty of IPAs/DIPAs, and while I liked many of them I often found there to be inconsistency in flavor profiles. When Stone established the Enjoy By series in (I believe) August/September of 2012 I was fortunate enough to live in one of the two states it was distributed to (NJ)! They made a HUGE deal about how this beer must be consumed within 37 days of being bottled because the volatile oils from hops simply don't preserve well. I was intrigued by the premise and novelty, so I sought it out, and back then it was QUITE LIMITED, with most stores only getting one 12-bottle case! The first time I cracked open a bottle I was utterly blown away! Some excerpts from my review of this beer include "The aroma is what I would imagine heaven would smell like" and "This beer is just perfectly balanced, and quite frighteningly drinkable at 9.4%!" I ended up going to every store and bar I could find that had it available! At the time it was the perfect beer to me, and while I think later batches (after the 3rd, where they really started to ramp up batch size) haven't matched that level, and of course my palate has changed over time, I will never forget the beauty and perfection of that moment, standing in my parents' kitchen, when I first opened, smelled, and sipped that incredible liquid!
I feel like I remember this trip, I remember you sharing quite a few pictures maybe over in NBW, in fact this one, with its long flat beach looks familiar.
