Is DuClaw killing it lately?

They do barrel aging pretty well but their main line gets lost in the shuffle of other great brews out there. Devil's due is pretty damn good though. Definitely picked up a bunch of those and keeps my bba cravings at bay enough to not have to dig into my higher priced stash. My wallet appreciates them.

 

I take that as a "no Cricket Hill" thread forthcoming? Best thing about Cricket Hill are the fun cricket guy on the pint glasses.

 

I've only had sweet baby Jesus and I love it. 6.5% I think and super solid.

 

I thought retribution was the worst shit ever....

 

I've only had sweet baby Jesus and I love it. 6.5% I think and super solid.

 

Totally agree.

DuClaw beers for me seem like a good idea at the time and then are frequently a letdown. My brother bought me a Colossus as a joke, it was best described by someone as "old, foul mead."

 

Dunno about killing it lately, but last Dec I had both Dirty Little Freak and Sweet Baby Jesus. I'm not a fan of either brown ales or peanut butter, but I thought both were pretty damn good. So I'll try whatever else of theirs I can find.

 

Does anyone have an explanation on their name?

I immediately think of that weird, pseudo-toe on the back of a dogs leg that I avoid touching...but they can't possibly be named after that, right?

And then there's the label art...

 

What BA bombers are you referring to? I live fairly close to the brewery and Retribution and its variants were priced $22-26 /bomber. Needless to say they're still sitting around at local shops marked down to $16-17.

It takes a very special beer for me to fork over that kind of cash on one bomber, and I don' think they've earned the right to charge anywhere near those prices.

 

I can think of only one beer from them that I was really impressed by and that was Devils Milk.

A good portion of the beers I have had from them were also not that great. to mostly just ok.

I cant think of many of their beers I would personally want to have again for a repeat

 

It is $14-15ish here for sure. Also fwiw my brother lives right outside of Baltimore and we reguarly compare how he pays $3-4 more there vice VA beach for alot of the more popular bombers we've both bought.

 

Devil's Due is 50% Retribution (BA stout) and 50% Devil's Milk (non-BA barleywine). So I think it's a pretty fair comparison. I thought BCBW was way ahead of Devil's Due, but the price makes Devil's Due a damn good deal. I want to see if the heat will die down a little with some age.

I see the regular bombers of Retribution for $13-15, but the variants are usually $24+ like you said. I like Retribution and think $15 is a decent price, but I won't touch the variants at nearly double the price.

 

Retribution is damn good (even borderline great) at $15-16 a bottle. At $25+, it's a ridiculously tough sell - hi there, Pumpkin/Divine Retribution! I do like Guilty Filthy Soul, fresh Neon Gypsy, and Devil's Milk, but many of DuClaw's other 6-pack beers range from meh (Sweet Baby Jesus, Dirty Little Freak) to lousy (Naked Fish, Serum, Old Flame). I'm still not sure why Sweet Baby Jesus has the highest trade value out of any MD beer, either...

Come to think of it, DuClaw is fucking irritating because they can and HAVE brewed some great beer in the past (X-1 was freaking fantastic), but choose to crank out mediocrity on a constant basis.

As for other MD breweries, most HS products are bland rather than bad (though Deep Six kicked ass), and Flying Dog suffers the same rut of annoying inconsistency that DuClaw does - I never know if my next FD beer will be solid or crappy. Jailbreak is perhaps too young right now to generate hype, same with Calvert Brewing and Monocacy. Full Tilt and Union are both solid but not quite exceptional (Double Duckpin notwithstanding - or as I like to call it, The Great Red-and-Blue MD Hope).

There are some decent beers made in Maryland, but we really need an 'it' brewery in this state, and FAST. Or at least, have some of the 'it' breweries from other states distribute here (like Westbrook, Carton or Hardywood).

 

I mostly agree with you on the beers that you mentioned.

I did not like Devil's Due, but it was $4 around here. I'd trade that in for some Brimstone. I also got a Misery waiting for me in the cellar.

Cocoa Fuego was good enough. Kind of between SBJ (way at the bottom) and GFS (at the top).
Dirty Little Freak was also decent.

My recent favorites have been Hop Continuum #1 (Blood Orange Gypsy IPA), Grid Lock (for what it is), and Anti-Venom Centennial.

Neon Gypsy is also a nice cheap IPA, but on the malty side. Colossus is good, but is a bit of an acquired taste. I liken it to the high ABV DFH stuff, since that is how it is priced.

Finally, the only Retribution that was ever remotely worth the price was Cocoa, Cocoa Vanilla, and the early batches of Divine, like 1 and 2. The bottles are just way over-priced for what they are. Regular Retribution can be found at a good price though. Pumpkin is the most egregious of the bunch. It just tastes like they threw pumpkin spice into the tank.

Hell on Wood is brilliant and will be coming back out in February. I like it better than BCBW, at least fresh, since BCBW is still quite hot and bourbon forward.

 

Wouldn't suprise me if Duclaw was one of the next craft brewers scooped up by AB/InBev.

 

pretty sure I gave Colossus 1/2 a star on Untappd, and that's only because you can't give it a zero. I'd rather drink fermented garbage juice, which is actually what it reminded me of.

 

It's possible, but I think most people don't care enough about MD or its breweries to buy one of them out.

Was it the 2014 batch or one of the older batches?

 

good question, I have no idea. this was in fall 2014, so...sometime before then