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Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

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Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#121

Post by chrisdalke »

albedoa wrote: post #94
vb6sp6 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I won't drink any IPA that wasn't around 10 years ago just to filter out the garbage You might be missing out on some really goods ones with this strategy

No kidding! Tree House was founded in 2011. You won't find anyone calling their beers formulaic garbage. I understand the want to change it up. I seek out breweries that I haven't been to before or that have a deep catalog of beers that aren't found on shelves. Flights are a great way to try those beers, and their styles are usually of more variety. One of my favorite breweries is Hermit Thrush in Brattleboro, Vermon…

Hermit Thrush is an amazing brewery, and I stock up every time I’m in the area. I strongly agree with your comment, if you look outside of IPAs there are lots of really creative breweries in New England doing great things.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#122

Post by arprocter »

bsder wrote: post #107
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the last time IPAs where the major trend (where most of those 10+ year old IPAs come from). Honestly I feel this round of Hazy/NE IPAs is far less bitter than what was happening back then. Much more floral notes in IPAs and the focus seems to be much more on mouth feel. It's funny to see IPAs dominate again, I remember when the last fad ended because hops became scarce and that gave way to the trend of abs…

> I'd much rather have a bad IPA than a bad sour. That's why IPA dominates. You can "fix" a bad IPA. You can't fix a bad stout or lager.

Something else I've heard is that IPAs take less time to create, so new breweries with limited capacity start out with them to try to keep income steady

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#123

Post by wk_end »

snapetom wrote: post #72
polygotdomain wrote: post #15

As a craft beer lover, I'm really at odds with what to think about where the scene is today. There are so many breweries out there that are brewing some really great beer and coming up with some interesting styles. In many places there's a recapturing of what I'd call "beer as place" with beirgartens, brew-pubs, and breweries themselves having a more open and inviting experience to hang out and drink beer. It's tasty…

I've personally witnessed/been involved with the quality decline and the trendiness you speak of with two other "craft" markets - coffee in the mid 90's and liquor distilleries in the past 10 years. When I talk to tourists here in Seattle, of course they eventually ask about the best coffee places. If they're at least able to add "not Starbucks," I'm honest with them and tell them that there's really only two downtow…

Just curious - which two roasters in Seattle do you like?

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#124

Post by chipotle_coyote »

snapetom wrote: post #72
polygotdomain wrote: post #15

As a craft beer lover, I'm really at odds with what to think about where the scene is today. There are so many breweries out there that are brewing some really great beer and coming up with some interesting styles. In many places there's a recapturing of what I'd call "beer as place" with beirgartens, brew-pubs, and breweries themselves having a more open and inviting experience to hang out and drink beer. It's tasty…

I've personally witnessed/been involved with the quality decline and the trendiness you speak of with two other "craft" markets - coffee in the mid 90's and liquor distilleries in the past 10 years. When I talk to tourists here in Seattle, of course they eventually ask about the best coffee places. If they're at least able to add "not Starbucks," I'm honest with them and tell them that there's really only two downtow…

So which are the two downtown that you like? :)

I'm not in Seattle -- I'm in Silicon Valley, with a fairly high chance of ending up in Sacramento this time next year -- but I'm always curious.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#125

Post by x87678r »

astura wrote: post #77
x87678r wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hoppy IPAs I feel like that is pretty much all craft beer in the US is. I just wish we could get some good European style lagers that are ubiquitous in Europe but don't exist in the US for some reason.

Maybe on the west coast? Here where I live on the east coast there's plenty of high quality lagers, pilsners, and brown ales.

Any recommendations? I usually end up with Mexican beer, Presidente or Imperial.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#127

Post by jnurmine »

dvtrn wrote: post #35
chrisseaton wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fresh beer ideally lasts about five days. Are these places getting through a whole cask of all their forty beers every five days? Doesn't seem likely to me. I'm guessing that they're using shortcuts like putting it into kegs rather than casks, Pasteurising rather than keeping it fresh, and using carbonation instead of pumping it naturally, in order to support their huuuuuuge ranges. If they focused on a smaller numbe…

There are several styles of beer that can be stored such that they continue fermenting in storage and become a final, drinkable product by the time it gets connected to a tap-so this is HEAVILY dependent on what kind of beer you’re making, it’s not really applicable as a universal statement for the storage of several kinds beer. IPAs for example can last quite a long time if properly store (up to four weeks I believe…

On a slightly related note, I've had a bottle of Russian Imperial Stout (from Courage) in the fridge for over 6 years now. The intent was to do an experiment in bottle aging and also to time the opening to celebrate a birthday.

I do hope the cap hasn't leaked badly and oxidized everything. The bottle's been in the cold all the time though.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#128

Post by nkozyra »

linuxftw wrote: post #86
pessimizer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a firm believer that most of the major brands of beer are big due to taste, other than the economy beers. I guess I agree with this in a way, in that what most people are looking for are water substitutes that will give you a low-level buzz. I don't think most people want "good" brews, they were just told that's what they should want, and since the mass-market beer prices rose to nearly meet small brewery price…

> I guess I agree with this in a way, in that what most people are looking for are water substitutes that will give you a low-level buzz. This is not really what I meant. I mean to say, for instance, I prefer Sam Adams over 90/100 microbrews I've tried. Name the top 6 non-economy beers in the supermarket, I enjoy most of them more than 75/100 microbrews. Taste-wise, I think most microbrews are a bad product, even if…

> I mean to say, for instance, I prefer Sam Adams over 90/100 microbrews I've tried.

All a matter of taste, of course, but I've always found Sam Adams to be on par with Magic Hat as the worst of the Big 'Craft' group. They tend to produce the most inoffensive option of any style, typically devoid of any of most palatable of its respective flavors.

After years of drinking these kinds of beers and being consistently disappointed, I'd rather reach for a macro lager or a small brewery's pale ale, gose or berlinerweisse. I think this is because they tend to appreciate what makes each style work and demonstrate that.

Sam Adams pale ales are basically post hopped, skunked lagers.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#129

Post by beezle »

coldpie wrote: post #69
beezle wrote: post #21

Never really got into most of the Magic Hat offerings. Single chair was ok. I was surprised they never really did much with the tap room, instead keeping it to just to small samples and merchandise rather than going full tap room like everyone else

> I was surprised they never really did much with the tap room, instead keeping it to just to small samples and merchandise rather than going full tap room like everyone else I guess I'm not sure what you mean here. I was at their taproom in Burlington a year or two ago, and you could get full pints of everything they had on tap. I think when I was there, they even had a keg of something they didn't bother to bottle.…

You are probably right, though I know I never had a full pint and don't recall seeing others with them when I was there.

Re: Magic hat leaves behind a transformed craft beer industry in Vermont

#130

Post by dvtrn »

jnurmine wrote: post #127
dvtrn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several styles of beer that can be stored such that they continue fermenting in storage and become a final, drinkable product by the time it gets connected to a tap-so this is HEAVILY dependent on what kind of beer you’re making, it’s not really applicable as a universal statement for the storage of several kinds beer. IPAs for example can last quite a long time if properly store (up to four weeks I believe…

On a slightly related note, I've had a bottle of Russian Imperial Stout (from Courage) in the fridge for over 6 years now. The intent was to do an experiment in bottle aging and also to time the opening to celebrate a birthday. I do hope the cap hasn't leaked badly and oxidized everything. The bottle's been in the cold all the time though.

I’ve heard that if you’re going to do this put them in a cool area away from light exposure. So if you’re storing them in your kitchen fridge that gets opened and closed frequently that may or may not affect the aging and final taste.

THAT BEING SAID I’d love to experiment with this and see for myself and see if there’s any truth to this. Store one Imperial in my kitchen fridge for a year and one in my basement fridge where I’ve got other alchemy experiments (Read: homebrews) going on that very rarely gets opened, and is slightly warmer than the kitchen fridge, ask doctor girlfriend to do a blind taste test, submit results to the local home brew club for a fun beer chemistry discussion.

mad scientist grin

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