A quick question about Alpine Hoppy Birthday. I purchased a bottle of this today and was a little bit confused. Alpine label, Alpine pressure cap, and a bottle with Green Flash logo stamped in the bottle neck. So I did some digging and saw the Alpine and Green Flash merger that happened back in 2014. So this brought up a fundamental question that I am hoping some of you local Californians who are regulars at Alpine can answer to put my inquisitive mind to rest: Does Hoppy Birthday still taste the same as it did when it was under the Alpine label or have you found a noticeable a change in this beer? Looking forward to my first taste of Hoppy Birthday! Please discuss! Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say! Cheers!
You sir, have started a shit storm with this. Easiest answer is to just go read the alpine thread. This has been discussed at length.
Gottcha. Well, I dont frequent the pacific thread too often. So I am not sure what is going on in California since I live in Illinois. All I know is that I have wanted to try Hoppy Birthday for a long time...so I picked up a bottle today when I saw it on the shelf in Illinois. Yeah, Illinois was the last place that I expected to see a bottle of Hoppy Birthday on the shelf and thought it was a little wierd. But I will take a look and see what the Alpine thread says.
Since you've never had it before, I'd recommend just drinking your bottle tonight. That's the only way to form your own opinion without bias. If you like it, that's great. If not, there's plenty of other beer out there. Keep checking in on that Alpine thread to see if people think the Green Flash versions of the beer start tasting more and more like the original Alpine versions. Most people seem to think that the recipes are starting to finally come along with the bottles but there have been reports of significant bottle variation. Of course, that could just be people's expectations versus actual objectivity.
I am drinking the beer regardless of peoples opinion. Just curious to know what the locals think about the situation. Hence why I asked the question!
been reading the thread since I got the first reply of the thread from joshbeernow. But thanks for the hyperlink
It's…. a lot to unpack, I imagine. There are lots of strong feelings about Alpine, as you may have gathered, and this GF thing has been a whirlwind. Curious to hear what you think of HB, though.
Yes, it is alot to unpack. I will try to review the Hoppy Birthday if I get the chance to when I crack it this weekend.
I mean, it's like checking out Cindy Crawford right now. Sure, she's still got it going on. But man, how I miss those younger days that we'll never get back because Green Flash never figured out how to upscale her aging process. R.I.P. amazing Alpine beers.
This alpine merger with GF really messed up alot of peoples love for Alpine. I guess this would be the equivalent of New Glarus merging with Minhas; for me that would be the end of craft beer as I know it...
Have you had this batch of Keene Idea ? Bottles maybe, but if that means Shawn is brewing bigger batches of Bad Boy Expo and Keene Idea I'll take it as a consolation prize as long as they keep honing in on Nelson like this new batch. Cheers……..
Nope, have not been a huge Alpine fanboy personally. Hoppy Birthday has been a beer on my wants list for far too long. Perhaps I waited to long based on what everyone says about the GF merger. Sounds like they are still doing some things right at Alpine with Keene idea. Lots of positive things said about it.
Beers brewed at alpine by alpine people still think they are as great as ever. However, the bottles and kegs being distributed by green flash are falling short. I live @2 hours from Alpine so I don't know what is exactly going on at the brewery but until this most recent bottle run you could still get bottles of alpine beers brewed at alpine by alpine. I hear otherwise these days and that all bottles are now being brewed by GF. Chit, man now they are brewing 6 packs of pure hoppiness.
This whole thing has been like one sick episode of the Twilight Zone. Yeah, you make a wish to get Alpine more easily and available without going into the backwoods of San Diego. And the sick wish master grants it for you.... BUT AT WHAT COST?! BUT AT WHAT COST!?!?!?!?!?!?
Bad Boy, Keene Idea, and similar ilk are nice and all but I would give them all up for consistent on point Nelson on a semi regular release schedule as was the status quo before the "merger". At this point I think it is more likely the overlords will fall and the right process will default than for them to get it right.
Sorry to bump this thread, but does anyone know the most recent bottling date of hoppy birthday? Friends B-Day is right around the corner was debatting whether or not to search for a bottle for them...
Yep, I popped the bottle of Hoppy Birthday. I would say that it was pretty solid, but nothing that was memorable. It is more of an IPA than an APA in my opinion because it has a pretty big hoppy bite. It is kind of what I have always said about zombie dust, Three Floyds calls it an APA, but it is definitely too hoppy to stay in the APA style category. I am cool with one and done on hoppy birthday. As an outlier statement of my taste preferences, I very much prefer the "juicy" type hoppy beers from the east coast over dry and bitter west coast varieties. I gave it a rating of around 3.76 out of 5.
