What're you drinking right now?

[cratez]

Rounding out our time in Denver:

At Leevers Locavore, Denver's version of Farm Boy/Whole Foods, but with an in-house beer bar, arcade games, and full selection of to-go restaurants:
Diebolt Humble Jack IPA (draft)
Russian River Happy Hops (draft)

At Raices Brewing, a Latino-owned and operated cervecería with Mexican food truck fare:
Raices Raíz - Mexican Lager (draft)
Raices Nostalgia - English Barleywine (5oz sample)

At Hops & Pie, the best beer-focused restaurant in Denver:
The Lost Abbey Every Everything (draft)
Fort George Vortex IPA (draft)

At Hogshead Brewery, a top-rated brewery specializing in English-style beers and cask ale:
Hogshead Cook Lane Best Bitter (cask)
Hogshead Eldo IPA (cask)

The lack of food options was solved by Leroy's bagel shop next door, which serves excellent bagel sandwiches similar to Kettleman's in Ontario. I went for the Cuban and it did not disappoint.

First night in the Rocky Mountains, at a funky German restaurant called Ein Prosit:
Reissdorf Kölsch (draft)
Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen (draft)

[cratez]

Finishing off our Colorado trip in Vail, Boulder, and Fort Collins:

At Vail Brewing:
Vail Brewing Ri' Ra' Irish Export Stout (draft)
Vail Brewing Pete's Stash Hoppy Pale Ale (draft)

At Avery Brewing:
Avery Summer's Day IPA (draft)
Avery Highliner IPA (draft)
Avery Clear Horizons (sample)
Avery The Maharaja DIPA (5oz sample)

At otto PINT Fort Collins:
Zwei Brewing German Pils (draft)
4 Noses Mountain Wave Pale Ale (draft)

At Odell Brewing:
Odell Pils (sample)
Odell The Deets Apricot IPA (draft)
Odell Kernza Lager (sample)
Odell 90 Schilling Flagship Ale (draft)

At New Belgium Brewing:
New Belgium Mountain Time (flight sample)
New Belgium 1554 (flight sample)
New Belgium Voodoo Ranger IPA (flight sample)
New Belgium La Folie (flight sample)
New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Hazy IPA (draft)

Tomorrow will likely be an airport bar / brewpub at Denver International, as we are pretty toasted after hiking in the mountains, drinking our weight in beer, and surviving ~10 days of travelling with a 3-year-old.

[Cass]

Pretty awesome trip!

I went up to my family cottage this weekend and brought up a 12-pack of Moosehead East Coast IPA. I was pleasantly surprised, it was a nice drinkable beer. I would get it again for just casual drinking.

[Tapsucker]

Collective Arts Singular Vision.

Described as a singe hop (Simcoe) NEIPA. I'd say it's a bit different to what we have come to expect from NEPIAs. In a good way.

It's on the dry side, to my liking, yet still has a pleasant mouthfeel.

It does not have any acrid notes in the finish in some attempt to be 'juicy'.

The only negative I can suggest is a lack of great hop aroma, but I will forgive. Forgive.

I have to say this is well executed and hopefully a sign of things to come from CA. I don't know what distribution or long term rotation will be like. I bought direct, but I would be delighted to be able to buy this regularly from my local pushers.

EDIT: oh, and the delivery driver risked life and limb getting me this order (presumably in some rescue dinghy) in the midst of last Tuesday's apocalypse. Doing God's work...

[cratez]

A few extra pints in Denver thanks to the global IT outage:

In the hotel room at Gaylord Rockies Resort:
Denver Beer Incredible Pedal IPA (can)
New Belgium 1985 Mango IPA (can)

At Breckenridge Brewery DIA:
Breckenridge Funslinger Lager (draft)
Breckenridge Ridge Runner West Coast IPA (can)

At The Fortunate Prospector:
Telluride Face Down Brown Ale (draft)
Great Divide Titan IPA (draft)

First beers at home in Ontario:
New Belgium Le Terroir (bottle)
Avery Old Grumbler 2019 (bottle)

Now spending my Saturday afternoon reclaiming expenses from Delta and American Airlines. Silver lining is the place we stayed at when our flight was cancelled - the only option available near the airport - was hands down the nicest resort I have ever experienced. It will be interesting to see how much, if anything, the airlines cover for food, travel, accommodations, etc.

[Craig]

Any standouts from the stuff you tried?

[cratez]

Any standouts from the stuff you tried?

The Bierstadt lagers were among the best and most authentic-tasting Continental-style lagers I've had in recent memory, in the vein of the top offerings from Godspeed and Tooth & Nail.

West Coast IPA highlights were the Bull & Bush Sumo Mandarin, Russian River Happy Hops, Fort George Vortex, Avery Highliner, and Hogshead Eldo. The Odell IPA, while not in the upper tier of what I drank, was markedly better than when I tried it on tap in Minneapolis. I think buying fresh cans at the source made a difference.

The Bull & Bush Tower ESB and Hogshead Cooks Lane were spot-on English-style bitters, and it was fun to try the latter on cask. I also enjoyed quaffing some good German beers on tap (Ein Prosit) for the first time in years.

The tastiest "out there" beer was the Great Divide Peanut Butter Yeti. It was also cool to try some styles that I don't always see in Ontario, like the California Common, English Barleywine, and barrel-aged Old Ale.

Colorado's beer scene is strong and diverse. I haven't really thought about where it ranks vs. other states and provinces I've been to, but at a minimum you can say there's no shortage of great beer to be had.

[lagerale]

Visited Meuse Brewing the other day and started with the Chévere - Belgian Stout w/ Coffee. Lovely beer and the coffee was balanced nicely.

[MatttthewGeorge]

I went to Caledon last night to see the Sam Roberts Band - free concert at "Caledon Day".
Caledon Hills, Goodlot, and Sonnen Hill all had booths, two each actually with one one each side of the area which was convenient. What I found interesting is that Caledon Hills and Goodlot had line-ups, but Sonnen Hill did not.
I had Sonnen Hills pilsner, IPA, and an English Ale - enjoyed them all.

I've been thinking about Sonnen Hill's direction, recently. The eliminated their charitable donation on their bottles, which I am in favour of (rather pick my own charities and don't like this kind of marketing). They changed their discount from 6 bottles/a case to particular order number.
To why they may not have been busy, my guess is that there are people that like to buy cases or who buy more on price than what Sonnen Hills offers. The other two also sell tall cans, unlike Sonnen Hills' standards.
If they were bigger, I think that they'd do well with hip Toronto taproom. Though I think their quite respected, given their strong international availability.

Jumping on these old(ish) comments as Sonnen Hill has been on my radar lately. I think their non-funk beers (I don't drink that shit, lol) have been very good-to-outstanding and I don't mind the small cans, but it drives me crazy that there's no discount for a 6 pack or larger. $4+ for a short can x12 cans gets pretty pricey pretty quickly. Godspeed does the same thing, however their beers are (just) slightly cheaper, and there's usually a case discount available as well. This has definitely made me purchase way less than I otherwise would... to the point that I'm driving right by SH this evening on my way camping and will be stopping at Caledon Hills instead (tho granted I've never been to Caledon Hills so I do have an ulterior motive to stop in).

[anthony9]

First off, sorry for all the spelling and grammatical mistakes.

I think quite highly of Sonnen Hill, but their location seems tough for anything other than a stand-in-line brewery. They remind me of a smaller Suarez Family. The latter sells their cans in four-packs.

I think it might be Caleb doing all the brewing, himself.

[Craig]

I just had a split rail Pilsner on their patio on Manitoulin Island and it was great. That might have been mostly due to the sunny weather and my thirst, but I'm pretty sure the beer was actually good too.

Pretty nice little spot they have, patio with views of the water. Very good chocolate factory sharing the building.

[sofakingdrunk]

Leftfield Mr Oktober.

I really enjoy Fest beers, and normally love Leftfield no matter what style they do, but I don’t love this. I’ve had it in the past and enjoyed it much more, but for some reason not this year. I grabbed 4 cans 2 weeks ago, this is now the 3rd one I’ve drank. First I thought maybe my palate was off that night. Second one, a few days later I was of the same opinion….and after cracking the 3rd tonight, it’s the beer not my palate. It’s sweet without any of the nice caramel/roasted barley notes. More wet cardboard and corn syrup flavours than anything. Just not enjoyable. I’m wondering if it’s a case of piss poor handling on the lcbo part? These are labelled as being canned mid July, so maybe they sat in the nice warm lcbo warehouse for far too long.
It’s a shame, because I normally have this beer in rotation as one of my fall staples.
For context, also had both the Creemore and Muskoka Fest beers today and both were far far superior.

[cratez]

My wife and I just got back from a barbecue and blues tour of St. Louis and Kansas City, to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary. Craft beer and good wine were also part of the focus. This is what I drank on our trip:

At Chicago Street Pub in Joliet, IL:
Founders KBS Spicy Chocolate 2023 (draft)

At Bogart's Smokehouse:
4 Hands Incarnation IPA (can)

At 4 Hands Brewing:
4 Hands City Wide Light Lager (flight sample)
4 Hands City Wide American Pale Ale (flight sample)
4 Hands Divided Sky Rye IPA (flight sample)
4 Hands City Wide Stout (flight sample)

At International Tap House Soulard:
Urban Chestnut Zwickel Bavarian Lager (draft)
Xingu Black Beer (bottle)

At Hammerstone's in Soulard:
Schlafly Dry-Hopped American Pale Ale (draft)
The Civil Life American Brown Ale (draft)
Rockwell Beer Now Streaming IPA (draft)

At Salt + Smoke:
Modern Little Hollywood West Coast Pils (draft)

At The Schlafly Tap Room:
Schlafly Oktoberfest (draft)
Schlafly Pumpkin Ale (draft)

At Urban Chestnut Brewing:
Urban Chestnut O-Katz Oktoberfest Lager (draft)
Urban Chestnut Stammtisch German Pilsner (flight sample)
Urban Chestnut Old Maibock (flight sample)
Urban Chestnut Count Orlock - Black Pumpkin Wheat Ale (flight sample)
Urban Chestnut STLIPA - Imperial IPA (flight sample)

At Sugarfire Smoke House:
4 Hands City Wide Pils (draft)

At The Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar:
The Civil Life The Angel & The Sword ESB (draft)
Toppling Goliath Peacharine Pseudo Sue (draft)
Urban Chestnut German Porter (draft)
Crooked Stave Sour Rosé (sample)

At Perennial Artisan Ales:
Perennial Pils - Hoppy Pilsner (draft)
Perennial Perpetual Waves - West Coast IPA (draft)
Perennial Vermillion 2024 - English-Style Barleywine (sample)
Perennial SDC Members Blend #2 - Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (sample)

At Side Project Brewing:
Side Project Ludwig - German-Style Marzen (side pull/slow pour)
Side Project Beer : Barrel : Time | Van Winkle 2023 (draft)
Side Project & Cycle BVC Blend #2 (draft)

At 33 Wine Shop & Bar:
Iron Hops India Pale Ale (draft)

At 1860's Saloon:
4 Hands Single Speed - American Blonde Ale (draft)

At Boulevard Brewing:
Boulevard Fancy Livin' - White Sangria Sour Ale (flight sample)
Boulevard Bob's 47 Oktoberfest (flight sample)
Boulevard Tropical Tank 7 - Island Saison (flight sample)
Boulevard Chardonnay Cask Saison (flight sample)
Boulevard Pale Ale (draft)

At Beer Kitchen KC:
Martin City Fall Back - American Brown Ale (draft)
Martin City Coastline - West Coast IPA (draft)

At Q39 Kansas City BBQ:
Martin City Hard Way IPA (draft)

Hard and soft beverages were also consumed at Venice Cafe, Joe's Kansas City BBQ, and The Phoenix, per the BBQ and blues theme, but they're not relevant to a craft beer discussion.

Leftfield Mr Oktober.

I really enjoy Fest beers, and normally love Leftfield no matter what style they do, but I don’t love this. I’ve had it in the past and enjoyed it much more, but for some reason not this year. I grabbed 4 cans 2 weeks ago, this is now the 3rd one I’ve drank. First I thought maybe my palate was off that night. Second one, a few days later I was of the same opinion….and after cracking the 3rd tonight, it’s the beer not my palate. It’s sweet without any of the nice caramel/roasted barley notes. More wet cardboard and corn syrup flavours than anything. Just not enjoyable. I’m wondering if it’s a case of piss poor handling on the lcbo part? These are labelled as being canned mid July, so maybe they sat in the nice warm lcbo warehouse for far too long.
It’s a shame, because I normally have this beer in rotation as one of my fall staples.
For context, also had both the Creemore and Muskoka Fest beers today and both were far far superior.

You are not imagining things. This was my impression as well, and I had always enjoyed Mr. Oktober prior to this year's release.

[Philip1]

St. Ambroise Baltic Porter

It's been a long time since I saw St. Ambroise beers at the LCBO. Today they had the Pumpkin Ale and this Baltic Porter which I'd never heard of from this brewery before. Very strong tasting, almost jarring - licorice, roast, and, yes, alcohol - when you haven't had a strong porter/stout for a year or so, but I'm liking it.

Local TBS only sells SA IPA but stopped selling the Pale Ale & Oatmeal Stout some time ago.

[sofakingdrunk]

St. Ambroise Baltic Porter

It's been a long time since I saw St. Ambroise beers at the LCBO. Today they had the Pumpkin Ale and this Baltic Porter which I'd never heard of from this brewery before. Very strong tasting, almost jarring - licorice, roast, and, yes, alcohol - when you haven't had a strong porter/stout for a year or so, but I'm liking it.

Local TBS only sells SA IPA but stopped selling the Pale Ale & Oatmeal Stout some time ago.

The Baltic Porter has been part of the SA mixed packs we’ve been getting at Xmas time the last couple of years, at least in the Guelph lcbos. I enjoy it a lot, and to be honest the entire mix pack is quite good and a nice value.