You even rotated the picture for reading ease. Beautiful outlet.

Getting my Dreams Crushed while brewing Double NEIPA.

swampstander said:

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Getting my Dreams Crushed while brewing Double NEIPA.

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I assume that's an old one? I miss that beer.

Really solid, but with everything else out there nowadays not sure if worth the price of admission.

Joining you on this one. Cheers!

This old garage outlet probably has a lot of great stories to tell. Figured I'd give it some time to shine.

Damn, I knew I was forgetting to look for something at HEB

Hope I come across a Willetized at some point.

Anyway.... here is today's Friday share beers. Unlabeled bottle is home brew saison.

I can do a mail trade with you and can include some Willettized along with other goodies, just let me know if interested.

I'm loving all the Saisons you post.

Seems like they've fallen out of favor in the normal places I go. Brooklyn Sorachi Ace was incredible but is long gone now.

Yea I love saisons as well. There's a local brewery that makes good ones but they're taproom only and it never sniffs their distribution unfortunately. Just multiple IPAs. /sigh.

Speaking of that though, having a Sierra Nevada celebration. One of the best beers of the year always.

Chipotlemonger said:

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I can do a mail trade with you and can include some Willettized along with other goodies, just let me know if interested.

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Thanks for the offer but I'm not interested enough to pay for shipping. Besides, my beer fridge is pretty much exhausted save a couple of Cheladas for my trips to the ranch.

Not west Ashley but still damn good.

Finally remembered to charge up my glass.

Changing things up a bit today. Started with a Focal and now moving on to Heady. Canned on 01/06.

Had this one tonight at a party. Shared it around between 4 or 5 party goers. Good but I prefer the Original. Had one of those too.

Fresh Monkish!

One of the best ba stouts I've ever had

Question for everyone: lately I've been seeing a lot of stuff on the shelves that would've been unheard of just a couple years ago. For instance SARA, side project, black Tuesday, Fremont BBA lasting months before they sell out, etc. Just curious as to if this is similar in other markets across the country. I think it's an indicator of just where the craft beer market is today.

Yes the craft segment has been getting hammered for a few years now. Covid just expedited the decline. Even pre-Covid, beer lines nationally were dropping annually since 2015.

The generation of drinkers that propped craft up for years is aging and no longer buying or drinking it as much, for various reasons. And the younger generations of drinkers are not replacing them at a large rate.

And we have also hit the saturation point with breweries so now everyone is just fighting for share. I think the influx in number of breweries starting to jump state lines to distribute is directly related to the business seeing some incremental sales elsewhere that may help stem the tide of their losses in their current distro. Not many craft brewers are growing right now.

People are jumping away from buying as much craft for a multitude of reasons. But one of them is sheer cost for certain beer. $20+ for a 4 pack of 16 oz beers can be a drag. I'd be hard pressed these days to jump into a beer I had never had before and go straight for a 4+pack at those prices.

I could wax poetic on this. Bottom line is craft beer demand is down across the board.

I think this thing you said is the key:

And we have also hit the saturation point with breweries so now everyone is just fighting for share.

So many bad breweries opened in the last 10-15 years and still succeeded due to lack of competition. They could get by being the only brewery nearby and having a cool vibe. The bad ones going under now is a feature, not a bug.

The good breweries are still doing great, and many are expanding. New brewers that make good beer succeed. There is still room for bad brewers to succeed in the short term in certain markets, but that is drying up.

steve00 said:

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I think this thing you said is the key:

And we have also hit the saturation point with breweries so now everyone is just fighting for share.

So many bad breweries opened in the last 10-15 years and still succeeded due to lack of competition. They could get by being the only brewery nearby and having a cool vibe. The bad ones going under now is a feature, not a bug.

The good breweries are still doing great, and many are expanding. New brewers that make good beer succeed. There is still room for bad brewers to succeed in the short term in certain markets, but that is drying up.

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Sadly some good breweries cannot hang in there either. The Outrider Beer Company that became my home away from home this summer closed after only 20 months. Very sad. They made fabulous beer and had an amazing venue and great food. I texted one of the owners when I heard the news to express my sadness about their demise but he did not respond. Not sure I blame him.... I don't know any of the details of their closing, I assume they took too big a bite of the apple and can't make the nut. There is (was) 4 breweries in that little town of 15,000 or so people. I wish them good luck in their future.

Anyway, drinking a Saint Arnold 30th Anniversary Grand Cru to celebrate Inauguration Day. I was a little worried about this one as it was a short fill bottle. Maybe slightly undercarbed but delicious just the same.

Cool weather & football, going to be a stout night.

1st is 6.7% abv, will be working my way up.

I don't drink coffee, but like espresso and usually find coffee stouts to taste watery on my palate. This one wasn't but seemed thin. Probably wouldn't seek this one out again.

I started with some IPAs earlier, but stouts will rule the day.

More Monkish from my wife's recent trip to Anaheim. Sadly, she had to cancel a trip to Connecticut where she was going to get more Tree House.

The spice was good, but i think I just don't like pumpkin in my beer. 7% abv.

Now we're talking. I love gingerbread cookies and this one checks all the boxes. 9.5% abv doesn't hurt either.

This one has lots of chocolate flavor. 10% abv.