NT, What Beer Do You Drink?

[Comparison Ford]

Oblivex by Tired Hands

Imperial IPA (9.2%). Brewed with Citra and Amarillo with the Tired Hands staple of oats. Notes of peach and melon

This one is creamy as all hell. Love the use of oats in IPAs, can't get enough of it. Bready, peachy smell. Bursts of melon on the initial pour. Creamy on the mouthfeel but has a nice bitter citrus bite at the end. ABV is extremely well hidden.

I love Tired Hands. Definitely biased because it's Philly but can't get enough of their stuff. Their use of oats is just my preference when it comes to achieving a creamy IPA

Nice reviews. My brother is residing in Philly at the moment and he gave me the breakdown of Oblivex>Soft Sphere>Pineal.

 

[crumps brother]

Some cans I got tonight

 

[af1 1982]

Some cans I got tonight

Is that Funk 365 on the right? Let me know how it is? I like how Funk is doing the same model as Tired Hands, Other Half, etc with the regular IPA releases

 

[af1 1982]

Nice reviews. My brother is residing in Philly at the moment and he gave me the breakdown of Oblivex>Soft Sphere>Pineal.

For me it was Soft Sphere>Oblivex>>>>>Pineal

Close between the Soft Sphere and Oblivex. SS is just fruit as hell as the coconut flesh as a very very nice addition but I can't ignore the creaminess of the Oblivex.

Pineal was just meh. Not my cup of tea. Could have done more with the oats and honey combo but ended up coming through too piney.

Got some OH 4th Anni, Idaho 7, Forever Simcoe, and Mosaic Daydream in a trade excited to try the Daydream since I got the regular dream a few weeks back and feel like the addition of lactose could really serve that beer well

 

[af1 1982]

Streaker by Funk Brewing

Local place that's starting to do the weekly IPA releases. Canned literally today. Not much info on the beer itself other than they added apricots and tangerine. Pours a super hazy color, pretty much orange juice. Smells strong of a fruit purree almost. Taste is pretty smooth, they definitely added lactose here. Fruit doesn't come through as much as I'd like. Definite hop burn here since it's so fresh, gonna let it sit a week before I attack the next cans. Not bad, would def drink again. Has the potential to be very good when I come back to it. Very miky

 

[crumps brother]

Is that Funk 365 on the right? Let me know how it is? I like how Funk is doing the same model as Tired Hands, Other Half, etc with the regular IPA releases

It’s real good, I’m not big on rye so I only took two cans of it

I had the release of prop and I liked that one a lot

 

[af1 1982]

It’s real good, I’m not big on rye so I only took two cans of it

I had the release of prop and I liked that one a lot

Get the cans of the streaker release if you're into the milkshake stuff. Really good and well balanced

 

[wallyhopp]

Anyone have any world class hazy ipas featuring centennial hops? Not sure why a local brewery would be featuring this hop and still be charging as If it's citra or mosaic.

 

[af1 1982]

Anyone have any world class hazy ipas featuring centennial hops? Not sure why a local brewery would be featuring this hop and still be charging as If it's citra or mosaic.

HopHands and Alien Church

 

[Comparison Ford]

Got some cool stuff to throw your way tonight:

Grimm Magnetic Tape. 6.3% IPA brewed with Motueka and Mosaic. This one is drinkable and soft, but lacks any specific characteristics that would keep my interest. Not a bad beer at all and definitely something I'd order if I was out at a bar, but there are better local options out there.

Tree House Old Man. Found this one at a local bottle shop by me. I guess with the higher limits at Tree House these days muling is gonna be a more common thing. This is...an ESB. Nothing special, nothing to write home about. Can't even say this is a particularly good ESB. It's fine. Stick to IPAs, APAs, and stouts. Leave the crisp/low ABV styles to Hill Farmstead and Suarez Family.

Barrier x Prison City Bug Juice. 6.8% DDH IPA brewed with Citra, Cascade, Idaho 7, Mosaic, and Lactose. You might know the name Prison City because their IPA Mass Riot was named #1 IPA in the country by Paste in their last IPA list. This one was fairly tasty. I don't think it's on par with a lot of OH's lactose IPAs, but it's approaching. Cool to see new breweries taking a stab at the style.

Barrier 51631. 7.6% DDH IPA brewed with Citra, Amarillo, Mosaic, and Columbus. This one was brewed for Tap & Barrel, which is a very popular craft beer bar on Long Island (hence 516/631). This one was more drinkable than the Prison City collab, but I don't know if I would call it better. Equal, maybe? Nice citrus/apricot notes on this with a subtle bite from the Columbus. Nice stuff.

Tree House Bright w/ Simcoe & Amarillo. Nice crisp yeast bill on this one. Equal parts fruity and bitter. One of Tree House's lesser offerings, but still worthy of a shot.

Hoof Hearted Konkey Dong 4Up. Quadruple dry-hopped version of OG Konkey Dong. I literally bought this combo just for the label art. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the documentary King of Kong, but the can and teku both have drawings of Billy Mitchell on them, who was essentially the "villain" of the documentary. If you haven't watched it I highly suggest it. Doesn't matter if you're into video games or not (I'm not, for the record). It's just a big collection of secondhand embarrassment and douche chills for all parties involved . The beer itself is pretty good. Generically fruity and sweet with the 9.5% ABV pretty well-hidden. Very drinkable for what it is. I'm just glad I got the can and glass. Here's the Billy Mitchell drawing, for the record:

 

[wallyhopp]

Actually staying within my 'drink only on the weekend' parameters.

af1 1982 thanks. I actually researched centennial alittle more and made a trek to a local brewery releasing their hazy centennial smash dipa. I missed their last citra. Centennial has a fruity pebbles Skittles sort of flavor. This one lacking a bit overall. Smooth yet lacking in co2 and overall mouthfeel. Days like this I miss a true co2 bite.

La cumbre now hitting a perfect score on their hazy IPA releases. No true duds. All over 4/5

Great time to be alive.

And just when you think centennial would have no hype. Place is packed and people buying by the case. I can't comprehend this craft beer hop craze we are experiencing. Common sense sort of out the window. Not sure I'd drop $17 on this again. One and doner for me.

I was much more excited to have their Vienna lager today. Go figure

 

[af1 1982]

Mosaic Daydream by Other Half

I had the regular Mosaic Dream a few weeks ago and honestly thought it was meh. The addition of lactose in this version complements the Mosaic hops very nicely. Mango coming through much more prominently. The DDH, Dream, etc variations of their regular offerings gets out of hands sometimes but they really make damn good beer. Love what they've been putting out.

 

[imapizzaguy]

 

[troublebound666]

Rolled up to Fort Collins this past Thursday to catch one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters play...didn't have time to hit up the multitude of FoCo breweries, so instead the missus and I rolled over to Greeley on Friday on the way home. To hit WeldWerks for their Freshies Friday can releases, of course.

This one was pretty great. They dropped a surprise batch of Extra Extra Juicy Bits, an amped up Double IPA version of their legendary Juicy Bits NE IPA...with nearly 14 lbs of hops per barrel. And pulled four cases of their Coffee Maple Achromatic Imperial Stout (97 from my homies at Craft Beer & Brewing) from the cellar.

Drinking an Extra Extra right now...and my god, is it wonderful. So much tropical juice, crazy fruitiness and so smooth for 8.4%. Really glad we were up north for this release.

 

[af1 1982]

Got my hands on some focal and heady topper in a trade. Surprisingly never had either before

Cracked open the heady. It's good but I think I approached it with the wrong mindset. To me, ive been spoiled by breweries of the likes of other half and tired hands who view their beers as a culinary experience. Heady topper is just a regular IPA to me, nothing really sticks out. And I think that as time passed by, it didn't age as well relative to competition. 10 years ago I can see why this was groundbreaking.

It's very good. Very crisp and refreshing. But I'm looking for the depth that's just not there. It's just a beer that's very good and very crushable.

Looking at the hop profile, Im thinking I'll like focal better. I'm a sucker for Citra and Mosaic

 

[kngpin88]

Cherry St Brewing's Ninja Kick tonight, double dry hopped with amarillo hops. This brewery is a sleeper in GA. Between this, their push pop IPA and some of the barrel aged offerings I've had from them, they definitely move into my top 3 breweries down here right now.

 

[wallyhopp]

af1 1982
Focal seems to be the one to go for lately. But even then, their beers are a bit more west coast bitter than Ne Ipa soft/creamy/juicy. It's unique but none of those really qualify. It's a lot like Pliny the elder. That one is all citrus, clear, and dry finish. Old school smooth clean flavor. I honestly don't even know how heady got the hype it did. Was that area so starved for ipas? Now it definitely seems a bit more normal compared to everything else. But that's the NE and Nyc and east coast in general. Hype hype hype. They will also bury their own so I do worry about alchemist.

Even Lawson's sos used to be a shelf clearer. That one is more wc bitter too.

Alchemist had one called skadoosh that I had last August. Reminded me of some local highly bitter Wc style ipas. Nothing about them is really low bitter or juicy. It was more dank and grassy.

The hype has jumped over them unfortunately.

 

[Comparison Ford]

Braving the line tomorrow for the Other Half x Monkish collabs.

Pray for me, NT.

 

[af1 1982]

af1 1982
Focal seems to be the one to go for lately. But even then, their beers are a bit more west coast bitter than Ne Ipa soft/creamy/juicy. It's unique but none of those really qualify. It's a lot like Pliny the elder. That one is all citrus, clear, and dry finish. Old school smooth clean flavor. I honestly don't even know how heady got the hype it did. Was that area so starved for ipas? Now it definitely seems a bit more normal compared to everything else. But that's the NE and Nyc and east coast in general. Hype hype hype. They will also bury their own so I do worry about alchemist.

Even Lawson's sos used to be a shelf clearer. That one is more wc bitter too.

Alchemist had one called skadoosh that I had last August. Reminded me of some local highly bitter Wc style ipas. Nothing about them is really low bitter or juicy. It was more dank and grassy.

The hype has jumped over them unfortunately.

I'm almost amazed at how "normal" this beer tasted but I'm almost certain it's partly due to how spoiled I've been lately. Honestly, if you put this in a taste test next to a Two Hearted Ale (which is a personal favorite of mine), I probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. It had that malty backbone that I attribute to a lot of "off the shelf/distro" beers. But then again, I had just gotten done tasting the following Other Half beers this past week, some of which have been the best beers I've ever had: Mosaic Daydream, Idaho 7, Forever Simcoe, and 4th anniversary. All had wow factors to me

Comparison Ford , you are a brave man. Let us know how it goes! Should be well worth it. I might be headed to Aslin on Sunday so if you (or anyone in here for that matter) wanna trade, let me know

 

[purple sneaks]

Comp, be safe and stay warm. I loved the monkish when i went to LA back in the summer. Awesome stuff

 

[kngpin88]

I'm almost amazed at how "normal" this beer tasted but I'm almost certain it's partly due to how spoiled I've been lately. Honestly, if you put this in a taste test next to a Two Hearted Ale (which is a personal favorite of mine), I probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. It had that malty backbone that I attribute to a lot of "off the shelf/distro" beers. But then again, I had just gotten done tasting the following Other Half beers this past week, some of which have been the best beers I've ever had: Mosaic Daydream, Idaho 7, Forever Simcoe, and 4th anniversary. All had wow factors to me

Comparison Ford , you are a brave man. Let us know how it goes! Should be well worth it. I might be headed to Aslin on Sunday so if you (or anyone in here for that matter) wanna trade, let me know

I visited Aslin at the beginning of the month and was very impressed with what they offer. I'd be down to trade in here also, creature comforts has a release this week that I plan on picking up and willing to trade. A stout and an IPA.

 

[givemedap]

Got there around 6am and left around 10:30am. Overall was pretty seamless and chill. Cool people and I’m excited to give this a go. Never had a bad beer from OH and heard nothing but great things from Monkish. Packaging is awesome btw.

 

[Comparison Ford]

Other Half was a tremendous success today. Decided to save myself from the sleep deprivation and ridiculous wait times by hiring a line sitter from 4:00AM-8:00AM. Fortunately another friend of mine did the same, only asked for 3AM-7AM so he told me to meet him on line when I got there which allowed me to get even closer to the front of the line. They were set to open at 10:00, but they opened early which allowed me to get back on the road by 10:15. The best part of everything was that the Monkish crew was there and they started giving golden bracelet tekus to randomly selected people based off of their bracelet number. I was one of the lucky few that got one. Not too sure how many they made, but it looked like an extremely limited amount. Seeing them going for anywhere between $100-200 on the grey market. Might use mine to recoup the cost of my line-sitter .

Anywho...onto the main attractions:

Other Half x Monkish LGA 2 LGB. 10% ABV hopped with Simcoe, Nugget, Citra, and Galaxy. Imagine a dank/hoppy screwdriver. Extremely juicy and easy-drinking for the ABV. Alcohol isn't totally hidden, but given the freshness of this can it should benefit very well with time. Liking this better than Other Half's 3rd and 4th Anniversary beers.

Monkish x Other Half LAX 2 JFK. Another 10% IPA brewed with Simcoe, Motueka, and Citra. Apparently this one was actually brewed at Monkish and shipped out to NY. Out of the two this is the initial winner. Big candied fruit notes. A little less dank and more easy-drinking. Again, booze is prevalent, but that presence should change in a week or two. Probably the best double-digit ABV I've had to date. Gonna be fun doing side-by-sides with the Anniversary beers.

Cheers, NT!

 

[af1 1982]

Went to Tired Hands on Saturday and Aslin this morning. This weekend's haul:

Aslin:
Johann and the Mango Thief
Hazy Orange Tears with Pineapple
Neutrino DDH
Laser Raptors

Tired Hands:
We Are All Infinite Energy....

Glad I opted to pick up extras of the "hype" Aslin stuff. Seems like their beers last through the weekend and garner interest in the trading market. Allows me to get my hands on Tired Hands (releases during the week) and Other Half (too far away) which are otherwise impossible. Already got a trade lined up for some TH Shakes

Sidenote: I love it when people treat beer like....beer and not investments. Certainly there are exceptions (prime example being OH x Monkish) but cats were trying to do one shake for two aslin cans locally

 

[af1 1982]

Other Half was a tremendous success today. Decided to save myself from the sleep deprivation and ridiculous wait times by hiring a line sitter from 4:00AM-8:00AM. Fortunately another friend of mine did the same, only asked for 3AM-7AM so he told me to meet him on line when I got there which allowed me to get even closer to the front of the line. They were set to open at 10:00, but they opened early which allowed me to get back on the road by 10:15. The best part of everything was that the Monkish crew was there and they started giving golden bracelet tekus to randomly selected people based off of their bracelet number. I was one of the lucky few that got one. Not too sure how many they made, but it looked like an extremely limited amount. Seeing them going for anywhere between $100-200 on the grey market. Might use mine to recoup the cost of my line-sitter .

Anywho...onto the main attractions:

Other Half x Monkish LGA 2 LGB. 10% ABV hopped with Simcoe, Nugget, Citra, and Galaxy. Imagine a dank/hoppy screwdriver. Extremely juicy and easy-drinking for the ABV. Alcohol isn't totally hidden, but given the freshness of this can it should benefit very well with time. Liking this better than Other Half's 3rd and 4th Anniversary beers.

Monkish x Other Half LAX 2 JFK. Another 10% IPA brewed with Simcoe, Motueka, and Citra. Apparently this one was actually brewed at Monkish and shipped out to NY. Out of the two this is the initial winner. Big candied fruit notes. A little less dank and more easy-drinking. Again, booze is prevalent, but that presence should change in a week or two. Probably the best double-digit ABV I've had to date. Gonna be fun doing side-by-sides with the Anniversary beers.

Cheers, NT!

Congrats on the pickups I've only had the 4th anniversary beer from Other Half but it was incredible.

They really can't miss for me, been liking almost everything I've tried from them. Haven't liked a beer like I've liked Mosaic Daydream in a long long time. Probably since the first time I tried Two Hearted Ale years ago when I first started getting into craft beer