I’ve seen it in our local beer store, and occasionally in other stores. Usually citrus, but I’ve seen grapefruit, pomegranate, and strawberry. I’ve had a German brand a few times, can’t recall the name. (Hefeweizen, possibly)
@robcow Apparently it is still around but owned and brewed by a contract brewer after getting bought by a private equity firm. They sold the Burlington, CT brewery to Zero Gravity and laid off all of their employees.
Really? Private equity firms are huge entitled parasites! BOOO!!
A sad end. The Burlington brewery wasn’t their main one as I remember, but wow. It seems to have been a wave! Stone was bought out, Bell’s, Magic Hat. Who is left? Coors several years ago, etc… Sad. Trying to find a real small brewer that knows how to make decent beer is getting harder. (Had some fresh Red Stripe in a keg earlier this year. That was tasty. Sigh…
@robcow Seems to me that there are more breweries than ever but for fans of legacy brewers times have been tough as the newer guys have been really taking over the space. I am fine with it. I liked #9 but one brand that I really miss is Wolaver’s Stout - another VT brewer.
Sure PE has a bad reputation but if you are the founder and want to cash out it is probably an option that you have to evaluate. The PE firm ended up selling it to the contract brewer who cut costs further, sold the brewery to consolidate and now rotates the beers that it brews.
Contract brewers do serve a purpose - we wouldn’t see Pabst Blue Ribbon and other super legacy brands on the shelves without them. They buy up stuff that still has a market but that isn’t going to have much more growth in market share.
Contract brewers do serve a purpose, and many of them are not very well known for the brands they brew. Guinness is/was brewed by a contract brewer in the US. Red Stripe too, although the last I bought was actually imported from Jamaica. Fosters, hundreds of others. Some use contract brewers to allow their brands to reach the opposite side of the country fresher than trucking it hundreds of miles in hot sun.
Private equity forms serve a purpose too, but they do have a ruthless and disastrous reputation. The list of companies bankrupted by PE firms is incredibly long. Ampad, a company making paper and those legal pads that some love, was bought and bankrupted by Mitt Romney’s PE firm. I’m sure it was a little more complicated then that, but the end was the same, and that’s just one. ‘Greed is good’, the main line from a movie that seemed to cheer the parasites of the corporate world. (Even Pretty Woman had a parasitic subplot)
The Bell’s sale hit a friend pretty hard. They loved Bell’s perhaps a little too much. They were ‘blindsided’ by the announcement, and shocked that a Bell wasn’t stepping in to take over from their father. Running a brewery has to be difficult, with all of the variabilities. My wife wanted to retire to France and run a winery, until she talked to someone who did that, and sold out to a larger winery. The ‘juice to squeeze’ ratio wasn’t there she laughingly said. There is more flexibility in size, and with beer, more freshness to drinkers.
I do fear that we will get to the point where there are a few mega-brewers that own the incredible majority of brands, and they all end up tasting the same. Talk about fear… 
I had a Fat Tire last night. Haven’t had one in a few years. I’m usually quaffing their Voodoo Ranger IPA after having it fresh out of a keg at a function in Manhattan NY. There is something about an cold IPA from a fresh keg. Yum…
I think the consolidation is something that is very regional, and depends on the size of the brewery.
The Chicago brewing scene is much less mature than other places. I’m sure I’m missing some…but the only notable buyout I can think of is Goose Island being bought by Inbev…which was a bit of a shock/disappointment to many, being basically the first craft brewery here.
We’re in such a state of growth that I think most places are still too tiny to bother buying.
1 Like
I think that’s where Bell’s selling out was a shock. They were a large standout regional pumping out some really outstanding brews, and to announce they were selling to (can’t remember name) was taken hard by some limited number of people. It was funny to watch some react to it, but keeping smallish large was obviously not going to happen. Oberon, their most popular brew and Two Hearted, another very popular brew was what was bring people back to get it fresher. Now, possibly, those and others will be brewed in more areas and getting the exposure will spread the love.
Funny that the one buyout that effected me at the time was Ben & Jerry’s selling to Unilever. And there were some changes, but it’s been pretty good since. (Not a fan of some of their newer flavors, but oh well) Having visited B&J and seeing their ‘Flavor Graveyard’, I saw that some of the types I loved really did stop being sold, sadly. But the whole graveyard was funny… But capitalism marches on.
1 Like
Here’s an image I shamelessly copied from Google since I didn’t get my own picture yesterday:
Probably the best NA IPA I’ve tried. It’s rather fruity, fairly bitter, and has decent flavor. I much prefer it over Athletic’s Hazy. Though let’s be clear, it still tastes like diet beer.
6 Likes
I will look for it, just in case. Diet beer, to me is Coors Light, and was it Corona Light? Wow, that was a story not worth telling. Really thin, and hollow. THAT was a ‘diet beer’. Thin, tasteless, like a fart in a stiff breeze. No smell, nothing…
That’s a great recovery beer at 25 grams of carbs per can and I agree that its a great NA option.
1 Like
Same Orval as usual, but an action shot this time
4 Likes
ok, you convinced me to find Orval and try it. Maybe I had it back in 1995 when managing a small technical marketing team in Leuven? I can’t remember, but that looks good and I gotta support the Trappist monks!
1 Like
Enjoying an old favorite, Black Butte Porter.
Had a great easy-ish ride today, in wonderful weather.
Have a chain soaking in mineral spirits, getting ready to wax it.
And the pork shoulder is in the smoker and should be ready tomorrow PM.
Nothing to do but drink my beer and watch the smoker, as the sun sets.
7 Likes
Man, that is a long smoke…what temp are you using?
Looks wonderful.
1 Like
Smoker is set at 225F. It’s in a Weber Smoky Mountain, which isn’t super efficient. But, I have a temp controlled fan attached, so it holds temp well.
I’m smoking 17 lbs of pork, which takes about 20 hours to get to an internal temp of 203F. I’ve done this combo a few times, so I know what to expect.
4 Likes
Blasphemy putting that stuff in Guinness glass.
Guinness is a proper drink.
1 Like