The Kick Box - On Hip!

Went out with the girlfriend to Harry G's Deli for lunch and had three different beers...

Swiftwater IPA 9 - a nice, locally based IPA. Lots of citrus and grapefruit hops with a smooth, easy drinking body.



Jack's Abby House Lager - Very flavorful Munich Helles lager with a bready malt backbone and grassy, herbal hops.



Singlecut Billy 18-Watt IPA - Incredible hazy orange appearance. Hop profile is awesome, with lots of earthy, grapefruit hops.

 

Now drinking a beer with a Pink Floyd inspired name -- 'Softly Spoken Magic Spells' by Singlecut out of NY. It's a double IPA @ 8.6% ABV. Lots of pineapple and grapefruit in the nose. The hop profile is citrusy upfront, with a slightly bitter, piney finish. Really awesome double IPA.

Scores a 97 on BeerAdvocate.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30452/221622/

 

Hanging outside with my girlfriend and a couple friends on this beautiful Sunday evening, sipping on some Prairie Gold. This is an incredible sour ale (6.5% ABV) from the renowned Oklahoma brewery, Prairie Artisan Ales. There is a sour punch that hits you upfront, with some grassy lemon flavors and a dry spiciness in the finish. The beer is very effervescent with a champagne-like mouthfeel. Lots of funk in the aroma from the brettanomyces yeast. Really unique and awesome beer from one of the top breweries in America. Highly recommended if you like funky, sour beers. The downside is the cost. This bottle alone cost $11.99.

 

Now drinking 'Steal This Can', an IPA from Lord Hobo Brewing Company out of Massachusetts. Very easy drinking IPA with very low carbonation. Lots of juicy citrus hops in both the aroma and the flavor. Very low hop bitterness, which I like.

 

Moving on to yet another ale from Prairie, and another sour, this time one that is dry-hopped, it is their Funky Gold Simcoe (7.5% ABV). It's basically a dry-hopped version of the previous Prairie beer posted above, Very nice sour accentuated with some herbal hops in the finish. Another one of many awesome brews from Prairie.



Cool psychedelic artwork on the label.


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Now drinking Mikkeller's Simcoe Hopped India Pale Ale. This beer is very much a simcoe hop bomb. If you like simcoe hops, you will love this beer. If you find simcoe to be overpowering like I do, you probably won't like it. This is a very intensely flavorful IPA, but not my cup of tea. Simcoe hops have a very odd flavor. Some describe these hops as smelling like cat urine.

While the previous beer also contained simcoe hops, they were much more lightly used.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBrv40rcpvc

 

Cracked open my growler of 077XX I got from carton brewery when I was in nj.

 

not sure where you got your numbers from but i know i saw this article a while ago and just found it again. to be fair to all involved there was actually recently a court case about the term "craft beer" and the result was that there is no specific definition of the word.
anyway...
https://www.brewersassociation.org/press-releases/brewers-association-lists-top-50-breweries-2015/

edit: ok maybe my bad as i guess there is a difference between "craft beer" and "micro brewery" i still have many problems with the line drawn by either word/definition though.

 

Microbreweries would be the local breweries that don't distribute or only distribute within a very limited radius. Sierra Nevada and the like are craft breweries.

 

which is why i have a problem with the borderline of the definitions, sierra nevada is a local brewery to some people. for a few people it is their local brewery.
where as yuengling is annoying to me because they only have a handful of beers, i mean a local micro near me that dosnt even bottle yet has more varieties of beer than yuengling does.
are they really a craft beer when they are known for their walmart section full of cases of (a decent but nothing special) lager?

when i think craft beer i think something different, tastes that you have not likely tasted before.
micro and macro are easier to put numbers on but i would like to hear reasons on why certain numbers are the guidelines.

 

By local, I meant breweries that distribute only locally. There are lots of breweries that distribute only in a 25-mile radius.

 

Drinking Prairie Standard, an awesome dry-hopped farmhouse saison. Very crisp, effervescent mouthfeel with an upfront sourness and dry hop backbone. Awesome saison.

 

Drinking an imperial IPA from Evil Twin Brewing, this is their Molotov Light. Nice balance of citrus and piney hops. Medium body with very light carbonation. Very solid DIPA.

 

Jack's Abby Hoponius Union IPL (Imperial Pale Lager)

Sets the standard among beers of this style. Has the crispness and body of a lager, and the hop profile of an IPA. Citric hops upfront with some grassy, herbal notes in the finish. Very quaffable, easy drinking beer despite being full-flavored.

Receives a 94 on BeerAdvocate.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26520/71820/

 

Back to Evil Twin Brewing, it's their Sour Bikini, a sour pale ale. Wow, this is incredible and very unique. This has a very low ABV at only 3%. This beer has a very tart bite upfront which combines with the hops to create a beer with both sour and bitter qualities. Effervescence is assertive. Very refreshing beer in this hot weather. You could almost call this a session sour.

 

I went to the store hoping to get my hands on this awesome Toasted Coconut Porter from Caldera Brewing today, only to find out the only two places I used to get it from don't carry it anymore >_<



I was never a fan of coconut, until much later in life. Now I love it.

 

^Just saw this beer on the shelves today.

 

No kiddin'? I'm surprised it went out as far as the East Coast considering how small the Caldera brewery is. Then again I shouldn't be, because most microbreweries are shipping their products nationwide in select beer stores. I recommend it if you're into dark black beer.

 

I guess I should really go back to my beer storerather than the grocery store to find ANYTHING remotely close to the beers being posted in this thread

Here's what it looks like: