Foothills from NC Winston-Salem

I'm pretty sure that's a picture of a growler.

 

I couldn't quite tell, I've only seen the Wicked Weed sour bottles in eastern NC

 

My all time favorite beer from Foothills (well, its kind of a colab with Olde Hickory Brewery and Duck Rabbit) is definitely Olde Rabbit's Foot BBA Stout. They stopped producing it a few years back due to certain techinical difficulties from a certain brewery *cough cough*. But I hear they plan on starting it back up in the future, so thats exciting. If you can get your hands on it, its definitely worth it.

 

Rumor has it that WW is going to can Freak starting Fall '15. Jade is bottled in bomber periodically beginning Jan '14. IMO, the bombers aren't nearly as good as fresh Jade on tap.

 

When the bombers of Jade are super fresh they are every bit as good if not better than Jade on tap IMO.

 

We started getting Jade on tap up here in NoVA and DC. I was quite happy

 

Bottled/canned Freak would be phenom.

 

That's their 32oz growler. FYI.

 

Jade is a shell of what it used to be before they started filtering it....rumor has it that they don't even use Jade hops anymore...I used to love this beer but it's just an average IPA in its current form....

 

BBA People's Porter usually comes out sometime in the winter. For my money, it's the best offering by Foothills.

 

Do you also like the base beer? I'm not a fan but this wouldn't be the first that improves substantially as bba. I read somewhere that the goose island innovation guy called their bourbon county base "unremarkable".

 

I believe you're quoting the Esquire article, where the Goose Island base stout is described as "unremarkable" by the brewers. Some folks from Illinois said that Goose Island brought it to a couple festivals as Cook County Stout but it's never been sold to their knowledge

 

Thanks for weighing in. I had a Jade draft this afternoon that was very good!

 

They did bottle it once. Cans coming by the end of his year, hopefully.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/wicked-weed-to-bottle-freak-of-nature-dipa.130446/

 

Although they released a label for it, I don't think it was actually bottled.

 

The base porter is good, but not outstanding IMO. The barrel aging really elevates this beer into another class. That said, I appreciate barrel aging that complements the base beer and doesn't wash it out completely.

 

I like Hdr a lot more than Jade or Freak, not even close. A good batch of Jade is tremendous but I think it's inconsistent, some batches are EH. Freak is ok, not mind blowing in any way. I do like Foothills BA Porter quite a bit too, lots of bourbon, sane Abv.

 

I've had the pleasure of drinking Sexy, Jade and BA Porter on tap and I must say that I've enjoyed them all. Looking forward to trying more of their offerings

 

Jade was amazing, as @HopDropTheElder pointed out, it's a shell, filtered twice now before it is finalized and the rumor of not using Jade hops just makes the beer off of what it used to be. HDR is better to me than Jade is now, love freak, isn't WW lusus naturae, basically freak with Brett?

Rumor is freak is gonna be bottled, wonder if the quality will keep up with the draft vs bottle comparisons...

 

I've seen a couple of Foothills beers around here (in and around Lexington VA area)--the Hoppyum IPA and Torch pilsner--but haven't tried them; the only place I've been recently that had either of them is Wal-Mart, and for some odd reason they keep them on the (non-refrigerated) shelf right next to the refrigerated beer section rather than actually in the refrigerated section.

Would they have held up pretty good as long as they haven't been sitting there too awfully long, or is that probably a "don't risk it" situation? I know I've read over and over that beer, especially hoppy beer, holds up much better when refrigerated...