Virtual Happy Hour (Brews & Spirits, Pics & Reviews)

3 litres of Russian beer. Fat pants, 28 degrees Celsius. Camping fun times.

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Siberskaya Korona normally a 7 generic macro lager in that day and heat about a 9/10. The fruity hoppy, coffee, toffee, milk stout etc beers just not required.
 

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Catching up...

Schofferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen. 50% Hefe, 50% carbonated grapefruit juice (2.5% ABV). Wow that's good, and the 80 Good (3.53/5) on Beer Advocate seems way low. I'm not usually a grapefruit fan, but this was really good.

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Pisgah Brewery's Chocolatized - a Russian Imperial Stout with raw cocoa nibs. 9.87% ABV with a 93 Outstanding, 4.2/5 on Beer Advocate.
Wow that's smooth. The chocolate is perfectly balanced, and while you can really taste the alcohol it isn't over the top and I think it's needed to balance everything. If you want both the chocolate and the taste of alcohol I'm not sure you could beat it.

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Here are two that I split with my dad over the Christmas holidays.

"Uncommon Stout" from Bent River Brewery in Moline, IL - an oatmeal stout infused with coffee. 87 = Very Good (3.86/5) on Beer Advocate. I might even rate it a bit higher. A very nice stout.

O'Fallon Chocolate Cream Cookie Stout - from Maryland Heights, MO. 3.6/5 on Untappd. Reminds me more of a soda pop than even Xingu... which seems really off for a Stout. Drinkable, but that's about it. Pass.

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Tucher Festbier - 88 Very Good, 4.04/5 on Beer Advocate. "This Festbier is brewed as a fuller-bodied Helles lager with a slightly louder presence of old world hops instead of a Marzen and is available to festivals year-round. Germany."
Very drinkable but not exciting.

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A picture catching up from Christmas Eve, with a bunch of beers out for tasting.

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Warlock and King Don's were my top two pumpkins from past reviews.
Sweet Baby Jesus was both seasonally named, and spectacular as always.
I'll have to get the Coconut and Old Man Winter again, because I'm not remembering them.

The Untitled Art S'mores Stout was divine for a dessert beer.
 
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Basically stopped buying beer for home use. Just have the occasional one like last night.

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Boring hazy APA, 5.2%. Nice enough but had better. $35 usd dinner for two plus beer thought it was reasonable.
 

Older Hickory Brewery's Photon Sphere. Imperial stout, bourbon barrel aged, with honey, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa, and habanero pepper. 12.3% ABV

4.2 on Untappd, 4.26/5 (93 Outstanding) on Beer Advocate. I don't know if I'd go that high - it blends the tastes really well I think, I'm just not sure they're the ones I want blended. Wouldn't turn it down, that's for sure, but would probably be better off splitting it with someone.

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Older Hickory Brewery's Photon Sphere. Imperial stout, bourbon barrel aged, with honey, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa, and habanero pepper. 12.3% ABV

4.2 on Untappd, 4.26/5 (93 Outstanding) on Beer Advocate. I don't know if I'd go that high - it blends the tastes really well I think, I'm just not sure they're the ones I want blended. Wouldn't turn it down, that's for sure, but would probably be better off splitting it with someone.

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You've got more variety perhaps. We have lots of apa/IPA and stout variants.

They're also quite pricey about $4.50 to $6 usd each for a 335ml can ($4.50 900ml can Baltika 6, $14 dozen Krombacher).

Half the time I think it's just add more hops or come up with some sort of coffee chocolate oyster brew and sell it for $8 or whatever.

Chilli beer not so great;). Think I lean towards imperial stouts, hazy APA's and generic macro lagers.

Or start on the expensive ones and switch to macro lagers. 2 imperial stouts doesn't matter to much after that;).
 

I also rate by three categories. Macro, premium and craft.

Premium is a cheap craft beer, macro craft beer or something that costs more than macro brew but still somewhat reasonably priced.

A few Russian beers fall into that category eg Baltika 6 (cheap porter), Gorkovskaya APA/IPA/Chocolate Stout.
 

Trip to one of the bigger beer and wine shops in the area. Hard liquor needs to be in a separate store.

This is the main singles area where it's mostly broken out from the four or six packs you can find somewhere else in the store (typically $2-6 per bottle/can depending). A lot more cider and sours than last trip.

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The other aisles have singles in some places too, but mostly the ones made to be sold as singles (and so some in the $10-12 a bottle range). An imported four pack I got was $9. $9-10 seems common for the craft or imported 4 or 6 packs.

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There's also a few more small shelves, and then a cooler that's half American mass produced stuff.
 
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Trip to one of the bigger beer and wine shops in the area. Hard liquor needs to be in a separate store.

This is the main singles area where it's mostly broken out from the four or six packs you can find somewhere else in the store (typically $2-6 per bottle/can depending). A lot more cider and sours than last trip.

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The other aisles have singles in some places too, but mostly the ones made to be sold as singles (and so some in the $10-12 a bottle range). An imported four pack I got was $9. $9-10 seems common for the craft or imported 4 or 6 packs.

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There's also a few more small shelves, and then a cooler that's half American mass produced stuff.

Looks good. Bought a couple of Baltika 6 (porters). They're in the fridge omw to a hike. Gonna be hot.
 
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