The Craft Beer Thread....

[Yellow Ledbelly]

I'm anxious to try the Old Foghorn as well after enjoying Bigfoot so much. Hopefully we'll be getting more and more stuff throughout the year as the state ABV increases to 10.2% July 1. Since Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama all get lots of stuff we currently can't here I'm expecting new breweries to be added regularly in the months to come....at least I hope so. The good thing is that we should immediately begin receiving the higher ABV selections from the breweries that already distribute here...Sierra Nevada being one


I live close enough to my home that I go home for lunch and some days...like today...it's hard for me to open the fridge at lunch and not grab one or two or three...I'm with you.

[Yellow Ledbelly]

Beer of the Day yesterday was the Victory HopDevil...after not liking the Golden Monkey much at all this was awesome....love the hoppy goodness...god I hope Victory brings their stuff to Mizzip just so I can indulge in this one at will.

My store has growler fills of Rogue Mom Hefeweizen and Lazy Magnolia Southern Hops'pitality which i'll be picking up tomorrow. Hopefully the newest edition of the Yazoo Hop Project (#65) will arrive today as well

[SVRDhand13]

Beer of the Day yesterday was the Victory HopDevil...after not liking the Golden Monkey much at all this was awesome....love the hoppy goodness...god I hope Victory brings their stuff to Mizzip just so I can indulge in this one at will.

My store has growler fills of Rogue Mom Hefeweizen and Lazy Magnolia Southern Hops'pitality which i'll be picking up tomorrow. Hopefully the newest edition of the Yazoo Hop Project (#65) will arrive today as well

Victory is a great brewery. You should try Hop Wallop too. I also love their pilsner and Golden Monkey (but I can see how others wouldn't).

[Yellow Ledbelly]

Beer of the Day yesterday was the Victory HopDevil...after not liking the Golden Monkey much at all this was awesome....love the hoppy goodness...god I hope Victory brings their stuff to Mizzip just so I can indulge in this one at will.

My store has growler fills of Rogue Mom Hefeweizen and Lazy Magnolia Southern Hops'pitality which i'll be picking up tomorrow. Hopefully the newest edition of the Yazoo Hop Project (#65) will arrive today as well

Victory is a great brewery. You should try Hop Wallop too. I also love their pilsner and Golden Monkey (but I can see how others wouldn't).

The store in memphis had hop wallop as well but in the interest of getting as much variety as possible I went with HopDevil between the two. Hopefully i'll have a reason to get back to memphis before long.
I know a lot goes into breweries opening up new distribution areas but i kinda feel like a kid waiting on Christmas waiting for announcements of what we will start getting this summer and the months to come. I would think that the breweries already available in neighboring states would be among the most likely to expand here but I'm guessing not all of them will....I can definitely say I hope for Stone and Victory even though Monkey wasn't my favorite...it was ok just a bit too much with the spices as I said.

[Horos]

Sasquatch Brewfest tonight!!!

[Horos]

Sasquatch Brewfest tonight!!!

Here's a list of what I sampled last night:

Boneyard Beer Hop Venom Double IPA 60 IBU, 9% ABV
Bridgeport Brewing Kingpin 65 IBU, 7.5% ABV
Double Mountain Brewery Das Boot Alt 43 IBU, 5.1% ABV
Draper Brewing Draper IPA 70 IBU, 6% ABV
Goodlife Brewing Co. Mountain Rescue Pale Ale 40 IBU, 5.5% ABV
Hop Valley Brewing Co. Infinite Hoppiness 100 IBU, 9.3% ABV
Lagunitas Brewing Co. Waldo's Special Ale 65 IBU, 8.5% ABV
Ninkasi Brewing Co. Babylon English Style Double IPA 100 IBU, 9.1% ABV
Pelican/Ninkasi Collaboration Danny's Black Gold 50 IBU, 10.5% ABV
Rogue Ales Dad's Little Helper Black IPA 70 IBU, 7% ABV
Sasquatch Brewing Co. Healu Heights Pale Ale 46 IBU, 5.5% ABV
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale 67 IBU, 6.7% ABV
Southern Oregon Brewing Holy Water Maibock 30 IBU, 7.1% ABV
Steelhead Brewery and Cafe Twisted Meniscus IPA 63 IBU, 7.3%
Wakonda Brewing Co. 7 Devils IPA 85 IBU, 7.8% ABV
Widmer Bros. Brewing Co. Smoke onthe Lager 25 IBU, 5% ABV

And lastly this was an anniversary brew by Ninkasi to honor the 10th year of the festival.

Saquatch Legacy 2012 Wheat Wine 80 IBU, 9% ABV

Usually they give us 4 oz glasses to sample from but being the 10th anniversary you were able to get a special pounder glass for $3 more and the larger glass resulted in larger pours.

[Horos]

Also forgot tonight is our Sunday Syndicate meeting and I'll be sampling another dozen beers.

I have 2 to offer:
Widmer Bros 2012 Imperial Raspberry Stout
He'Brew Jewbelation

[BIGDaddyWil]

Beer of the Day yesterday was the Victory HopDevil...after not liking the Golden Monkey much at all this was awesome....love the hoppy goodness...god I hope Victory brings their stuff to Mizzip just so I can indulge in this one at will.

My store has growler fills of Rogue Mom Hefeweizen and Lazy Magnolia Southern Hops'pitality which i'll be picking up tomorrow. Hopefully the newest edition of the Yazoo Hop Project (#65) will arrive today as well

If you get a chance, try Victory's Prima Pils........fanastic!

[shep]

I went to a new craft beer specialty bar here in houston on friday... and it was beautiful...

Right as I walked in the front door I noticed that they sell growlers and 1/2 growlers for take out, and I was immediately in love.. this is the first place in Houston I've found that does that. I also met the curator of their belgan beer list, and a bunch of their staff... they had a TV on the NHL network (and there wasn't even a game on! - this is shocking to me, especially here in Houston), and dart boards... needless to say I'll be headed back soon...

Anyway recent tastings in the last weeks:

Draft:
Victory Prima Pils
512 IPA (Nitro)
512 Pecan Porter (Cask - which gives it a completely different mouthfeel)
Lazy Magnolia (who just recently got label approval in TX) Souther Pecan
Karabach Rodeo Clown - Merlot barrel aged (as opposed to the regular)
Sunner Kolsch

Bottles:
Sierra Nevada Hoptimum (fantastic)
Sam Adams Baltic IPA

And when I was at the beer store yesterday I picked up a 4 pack of Palate Wrecker (can't wait to try in) and Full Sail ALT (limited release)...

it's been a pretty good week!

[strilo]

Yesterday I had Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier, Kona Koko Brown and Anderson Valley Summer Solstice. Love all three of those beers.

[Yellow Ledbelly]

Friday evening I had the Abita Jockamo IPA...not super hoppy, good, but could've been a bit more hoppy for my taste
Got those growler fills Saturday and had the Rogue Mom's Hefeweizen that evening...very unique flavor with the rose petals...thought it was pretty damned good
Last night had the lazy magnolia Southern Hops'pitality, their first IPA...hopefully they'll bottle that one next year. Good and hoppy.

Still have a fridge full of new ones to try this week in honor of American Craft Beer Week

[Yellow Ledbelly]

Also...they've announced the first slate of new beers we'll be getting down in Mizzip come July...
Abita Andygator
Abita Jockamo IPA
Abita Save Our Shore
Abita Abbey Ale
SN Torpedo
SN Bigfoot
Leffe Blonde
Redbrick Vanilla Gorilla
Redbrick HopLanta
Leinenkuegel's Big Eddy Russian Imp Stout as well as the Big Eddy Wee Heavy
Sam Adams Infinium
SA Imperial Stout
SA Imperial White
SA Imp Pilsner
SA Wee Heavy
Samuel Smith's Imp Stout
Rochefort 8
Orval Trappist
Westmalle Tripel
Spaten Optimator
Rogue...double dead guy, double chocolate stout, imperial IPA, Russian Imperial Stout, Morimoto Imperial Pilsner, John John Double Dead Guy
Previously unavailable Yazoo Brews as well

Also Lazy Magnolia will be releasing Timber Beast (an imperial rye IPA at 8% or 10% depending on the website) on July 1, the day the law changes

[strilo]

Rogue beer is overrated. I feel like that brewery makes too many beers. They are Jack of all trades and master of none.

[Yellow Ledbelly]

so we had a bomber of Stone Ruination last night...wish we had had two...especially after idiot buddy spilled half of it...HIS HALF!...i'm an idiot for then sharing the rest. Man that was a delicious beer but oh so little of it.
We followed it up with one of Yazoo's hop project beers, which are typically pretty damn, hoppy and it was like drinking dirty water as compared to Ruination

[Yellow Ledbelly]

Also...they've announced the first slate of new beers we'll be getting down in Mizzip come July...
Abita Andygator
Abita Jockamo IPA
Abita Save Our Shore
Abita Abbey Ale
SN Torpedo
SN Bigfoot
Leffe Blonde
Redbrick Vanilla Gorilla
Redbrick HopLanta
Leinenkuegel's Big Eddy Russian Imp Stout as well as the Big Eddy Wee Heavy
Sam Adams Infinium
SA Imperial Stout
SA Imperial White
SA Imp Pilsner
SA Wee Heavy
Samuel Smith's Imp Stout
Rochefort 8
Orval Trappist
Westmalle Tripel
Spaten Optimator
Rogue...double dead guy, double chocolate stout, imperial IPA, Russian Imperial Stout, Morimoto Imperial Pilsner, John John Double Dead Guy
Previously unavailable Yazoo Brews as well

Also Lazy Magnolia will be releasing Timber Beast (an imperial rye IPA at 8% or 10% depending on the website) on July 1, the day the law changes

In addition to these, a fella has started www.msbeer.org and emailed various breweries about their possible expansion here....
North Coast a definite yes
Schlafy has "yet to make any final decisions"
Founders said "we hope to make our way in your neck of the woods in the future."
Green Flash plans to expand here in 2013

Several others responded that they don't have the capacity to open new markets now. Not surprising.
The president of www.raiseyourpints.com said NOLA Brewing and Lagunitas sound promising as well