Jack's Abby and Springdale (2022)

Yeah, I'm done with Framinghammer. The last few years have been really really bad. I'll stick to JA's pale beers.

 

I loved the original Framinghammer. Just a beautiful Baltic Porter. Then the BA Framinghammer was a step up that I also loved, even if I preferred the original. Once JA started with the marshmallow, graham cracker, salted caramel (a flavor I love) bullshit, I stopped buying it.

For a brewery that remained stalwart with lager production and an adherence to tradition in beer styles like Helles and Vienna Lagers, to add all the sugary adjuncts, it just seemed antithetical to the core tenets. I'm all for "fun" but this seemed to be pandering to a certain demo of drinker that didn't need to be pandered to.

 

I've had no problems with regular Framinghammer, it's the BA versions I'm talking about.

I remember that batch recall, my drainpour wasn't part of it, and that just added to my overall impression of the BA variants quality as of late.

Regarding Red Tape/SooB, that's interesting. I feel like Red Tape is more complex, a little more depth. I like the subtle dark fruit notes in it. On the other hand SooB doesn't do much for me. I don't dislike it, it's fine, but I'm not reaching for it.

I too thought that Christmas Bock was good!

 

I hear you about the BA Framinghammers. the '12-13 years were what kept me coming back.

 

I sort of doubt they use caramel malts in this beer. It's simply labeled as an "Amber Lager" generically now, but it's a Munich Dunkel.

They always lean towards tradition with styles like these, so I don't think they'd use caramel malts. This beer should be toasty (not roasty) with notes of dark breads. At least from what I know of proper Munich Dunkels.

 

FWIW I have heard that this fell through. Either the owner or previous tenants were supposedly doing some weird demo shit and JA backed out. Can't blame them.

 

It's a weird space and they would have had to do a lot to make it work. I used to make beer deliveries there and their walk-in was TINY. They only had taps set up for 3 or 4 beers too.

 

Your palate is your palate. However, people often confuse “caramel malt” flavor with melanoidin/bready flavors. Happens all the time with amber Oktoberfests.

Of course many American amber Oktoberfests actually do use caramel malts and can express that flavor. See Sam Adams Octoberfest.

 

Howdy, no plans this year for Conversation Piece unfortunately. As for porters & stouts, no immediate plan but there are a few pilot & specialty batches incoming in the next few months that might scratch the itch - a dark winter bock and a Bohemian dark among them.

 

I mean, their taproom-only beers for years have had things outside the circle of traditional styles. And one of their (by far) most popular beers for a long time has been an 8.5% double lager brewed with New Zealand IPA hops like Nelson and Motueka.

So taking umbrage with the adjunct BA Framinghammers seems an incredibly arbitrary line to draw.

 

There is a beer finder for Jack's Abby beers:

https://jacksabby.com/lager-locator/

Is there a similar beer finder for Springdale beers?

Cheers!

 

I need kiwi rising back.

 

Looking back at my ratings, 2014 was my first visit to JA and I revisited several times in quick succession to get their various Framinghammers and limited releases such as their Cascadian Schwarzbier which was out-goddamn-standing. Looks like I had Cocoa-Nut, Chipotle and PB&J for variants back then.

They did get more extravagant with the variants after leaving Morton Street to their new location, but JA made the decision into brewing more extreme beer styles pretty early on. The good thing is the limited stuff has made them enough revenue to push out the traditional styles further into the market. Post Shift and House Lager are always on shelves near me when I want it.

 

Given that Smoke and Dagger will be available year-round is there some other aspect that 'defines' a core beer?

Cheers!