Skinsfan1311

In San Juan right now and the craft beer scene is non-existent. Went to Old San Juan yesterday and hit a microbrewery, (Old Harbor), and, with the exception of one of the stouts, the beers are weak. I'm so sick of Medalla Light and Magna right now..the Medalla is 4.2% and comes in 10oz cans...and the Magna is around 5.something%, but at least they come in almost 12 oz bottles...ugh! You can get some decent craft beers in stores, but no way I'm paying $14.00 for six-pack of Magic Hat. First thing I'm going to do when we get home is run to the kegerator, stick my mouth under the spout, and pull the handle!! ....and the flip side...the weather, the beaches, the resort, restaurants and people have been fantastic!

That's what I'm thinking. A buddy of mine gave me a case of Magic Hat #9, a few years back. It was over a year old when I got it. I tried one....it had lots of sediment and was terrible. I couldn even cook with it.

Yeah....it'll probably be closer to 1 1/2 years....but I don't know how they determine the "best by" date on the Loose Cannon. On another note, my son went to DuClaw and had one of my growlers filled. "Mad Bishop" is with their version of an Octoberfest. I'm not a big fan of the style, and it's definitely not like any Octoberfest I've ever had....too malty and sweet for my taste.

I'll be at brewery in a couple of weeks and, (if I manage remember...I'll put a reminder in Outlook), I'll ask one of the brewers what he thinks how a 1-yr old Loose Cannon will evolve, (or not!).

You definitely have to share the results from that one! I still have one more HeavySeas Below Decks from '07 Can't wait to try it this winter.

I had some on draft the other night and I think "mediocre" is giving this stuff too much credit. Maybe my expectations were too high? On another subject. I notice that you cellar a lot of beers, even beers that the brewers never intended people to age. I'm with you and understand that many beers improve with age. You really seem to like most of the aged beers. How about the flip side? I can't believe that every beer that you cellared benefited from aging. C'mon str0ker0ll, give us the scoop on the stuff that you aged, and ended up using as slug bait!

I'm enjoying a Victory Hop Devil, on draft right now. It has supplanted Heavy Seas Loose Cannon as my go-to beer, and has a permanent spot in the kegerator. It's hoppy, but very balanced and drinkable.

Victory Hop Devil

Anyone else going to this? http://www.hsbeer.com/events/pyrates-pigs-pints/ To paraphrase from the site, "Join us at the brewery to salute nature's greatest pairing: BEER & BACON!" We go every year. They have local restaurants serving up dishes made with bacon, plus they have several different varieties of bacon to eat. They serve many styles of beer, plus they brew special firkins, just for the event. It's an all you can eat & drink party. If anyone else is going, shoot me a PM and we can throw down some bacon and beer together at the brewery.

Yes. They're local, and have 4 restaurant locations. The Arundel Mills location is decent. I don't care for most of their beers, but the Venom is on the short-list of the ones that I do like. Years ago, during the hops shortage, they didn't have the variety of hops in enough abundance to brew the Venom, so they replaced it with something called Hellrazer, which used to be one of their seasonals. If you like hoppy IPA's, the Hellrazer is very good, much better,(IMO), than the Venom. Good enough, that it used to be a staple in my kegerator rotation. Since the Venom has been back, I think that the Hellrazer is now available only seasonally. They do offer a limited # of brews in bottles, but I'm not sure which ones. You can buy 1/2 kegs directly from them, with a couple of days notice. They'll also fill, (and sell), growlers at all of their restaurant locations, (but I'm not sure about the BWI location.)

Cool. I'll steal it forward!

That's some funny ****. Can I use that?

Can I get please get a moment of silence from my fellow hop-heads? My keg of Victory Hop Devil just blew, and I can't get another one until next week. Please keep me, (and my kegerator), in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you

This fall, when we get the first cold snap. I've drunk the 2006,( hands-down, the best vintage for the Below Decks, ever), next to a 2009, and the difference was amazing. I won't be doing that again, because my experience has shown that the aged Below Decks evolves very nicely. Now that it's only available in the more expensive bombers, I hate to crack open a fresh one for comparison, because it ages so well anyway and it's more expensive now.

I only watched the Budweiser one, (so far), but it was pretty cool and entertaining. I thought when you took the first sip of that 2 yr old American Ale, that you were going to go "Oh ****! That really, really sucks!" and spit it out. Glad it turned out well. I'll check out the other videos later. You should change your board name to "Nutty Malt" ---------- Post added June-26th-2012 at 08:50 PM ---------- I actually have an old dorm refrigerator and I store them at around 38. I let them warm up quite a bit before drinking.

Nice! I have one Heavy Seas Below Decks from 2007, and two bombers of Below Decks, but not sure how old they are...I'm too lazy to walk to the beer fridge....I know they're from the first couple of years from when they started putting them in bombers. The Below Decks ages beautifully...

Haven't tried it yet, but I'll snag some this weekend. How is the hop flavor, compared to their Harvest Ale? I'm sure that the HOPTIMUM, is hoppier, but does it taste like the same type of hops, but just more of them?

Agreed! :pint::cheers:

The Torpedo is $8.99 around here, (Glen Burnie, MD), but I believe that the Sierra Nevada is cheaper because they have a much bigger brewing capacity and production. If you've ever been to the Heavy Seas brewery, which is currently expanding, you'd see that it's a relatively small operation. I gotta agree to disagree here. I've had brewery fresh Heineken on draft, in Europe, as well as Becks and have been all over southern Germany. Brewery fresh beer on draft is always superior to beer in bottles. Heineken is an okay beer. Maybe you liked it so much in Amsterdam, because everything tastes better after hitting one of those "coffee" bars? IBecks,(which no self-respecting German that I know even drinks), is much tastier on draft. I'll concede that those German pilsners are damn good, (mainly the local ones that you get in those plain brown bottles), but I wholeheartedly disagree that all German beer kicks any beers ass here. It's simply not true. They have many superior pilsners, but American craft brewers produce amazing beers, that stand up, and kick the ass of, many beers, in any countries. I'm willing to bet that you would be very surprised, if you blind taste-tested American beers against German beers.

No offense taken. That's some crazy stuff. I'm truly sad to hear your story. Having lived in near Naples, back in the late 70's & early 80's, I have a soft spot in my heart for the area and the Neopolitans in particular. I guess that things have changed a great deal since then.....

LOL! I wouldn't call myself a good fan, because I don't follow really them that closely, except when my Italian friends on FB whoop it up when they play well. I attended many games, and the occasional riot, back in the day at stadio San Paolo.....

Forza Napoli!!!! Woot!!!!

Agreed, however, the only time I drink Caribbean is when I'm in the Caribbean! We put a hurtin' on some Presidente in Punta Cana!

I've noticed a difference also. Maybe it's the variety, or quantity, of the hops? I think either last year, or late '10, the ABV went down %0.25 Not sure why. A cost saving measure perhaps? In any case, it just doesn't have the same bite or flavor as it used to. At least that's the case in bottles. Had some recently on draft, and it was good.

We're in section 431, row 2, and didn't get the e-mail. I'm pretty sure that's because we love our seats and opted out of the upgrade option. We have the aisle seats. The first 4 rows in the uppers are next to the tunnels, so there is none of that annoying foot traffic going up and down the center aisle to contend with. We have seats 3 & 4, (they removed seats 1 & 2), so I have room to stretch out and even stand up. We attend the occasional game as guests as friends of ours, (in section 242), so that's enough lower-level experience for us.