Toppling Goliath in Chicago (2018)

Don't give the zombies time!!!!!

 

Never mind!! I found some at Binnys Orland Park.... No limit on how much you can buy lol

 

Just realized that lol but I found some! Thanks! Cheers

 

On the floor at Oak Brook Binny's. 1/5 canning date though....

 

Same at DG Binnys.

 

grabbed some 1/18 up in the north burbs today.

 

St Charles was 1/5 too so I passed

 

Does it really drop off that fast?

 

The 1/5 canning date was solid. The 12/20, not so much.

 

Citra hopped pale ales tend to like this and Zombie Dust. But also, these cans are sitting on the floor at Binny's. So cold storage is an issue too

 

For what it's worth, I'm not really a freshness snob in general, and I'm pretty sure the PS cans I've gotten in Wisconsin were about a month old. The 12/20 batch was pretty shitty even by those standards; nothing bad to say about any of the other cans I've had.

I'd personally stay away from the 12/20, myself. I wouldn't be worried about the stuff canned in January, though.

 

I actually did a 12/20 vs 1/5 vs 1/18 blind tasting tonight (my wife poured them). And I'll preface this by saying I've had a fair amount of Sue, King Sue, DDH Sue, etc.

All 3 poured clear, unlike say Zombie Dust, which turns cloudy after a few weeks. I easily picked out the 12/20. It wasn't horrible, but I could tell the hops were fading. There was a slight difference between the 1/5 and 1/18 batches and my wife forced me to choose one of them, so I actually picked the 1/5 batch. But I would definitely drink either one.

I'm not getting into the cans vs Decorah Sue debate, but these cans are pretty representative of Sue and very drinkable. The first drop of 12/20 cans wasn't ideal, but if we get stuff within 2-3 weeks, then it'll be another good option in the $10 per 4pk range.

 

I'm pretty surprised they decided to drop 12/20 cans on us at all. I mean, I bought 2 4-packs, so I guess they unloaded some "old" stock on me, but if they've got both 1/5 and 1/18 cans, the 12/20 ones should been given to a bakery to make beer bread with, or something.

 

Eh, TG is pretty weird with distro usually. Not consistent at all in my 3 years of drinking it. I'm not too surprised by this, but hopefully it gets better from here on out :/

 

I'm holding off all judgement until the new brewery is up, running, and cranking out product regularly. At that point, there shouldn't be any more excuses to off batches or questioning what came from where.

 

I don't think there's necessarily a reason to judge in terms of how distro will be going forward (for the reason you gave), but it still seems a little shitty to ship us cans from three batches back on our first shot. I'm not angry, but it's a little strange. It's possible that it's not entirely up to them though (in that the cans are coming from FL, so they may have little oversight as to the distribution process).

 

Maybe they just hired the same distribution consultant Cascade used when entering new markets?