BEER

[count2infinity]

The more I think about it, the gear grindier I get at "optimal drinking experience". Isn't optimal the way that you enjoy it best?

Jim has already ranted against the spiegelau glass, so I won't rehash that, but to me, a glass is a glass. As long as you're drinking from something you can get your schnozz into, what's it matter?

[grunthy]

A few things, but the bottom line is its just not an optimal drinking experience. The amount is generally insufficient to give the beer time to warm and open up. You've got the potential for mixing flavors. The glass is usually less than ideal.

Dancing Gnome eliminated flights a few months ago and got some backlash for it. I have no problem with the brewer of a beer dictating how it should be consumed.

A flight isn't supposed to be used for an optimal drinking experience. It's to taste new beers and then later you can decide to actually order one of them.

Why would a brewery want you to taste its beers in a suboptimal format? Breweries don't fill clear growlers because it could affect their product. Many breweries don't can/bottle hoppy stuff because it could be consumed well past its prime if it finds a dusty shelf. Some breweries provide glass selection information on their labels. All of these things come from the same place.

I think this same sort of behavior in a restaurant context is widely accepted. I don't think beer should be any different.

I know many breweries that serve flights. One just happens to have been rated the second best new craft brewery in the world. Another is considered one of the best in the country. Flights are samplers. if the breweries you go to don't understand that, that's their problem. The pretentiousness of some beer drinkers is beyond wine snobs. Lol

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Why would a brewery want you to taste its beers in a suboptimal format? Breweries don't fill clear growlers because it could affect their product. Many breweries don't can/bottle hoppy stuff because it could be consumed well past its prime if it finds a dusty shelf. Some breweries provide glass selection information on their labels. All of these things come from the same place.

I think this same sort of behavior in a restaurant context is widely accepted. I don't think beer should be any different.

what are your thoughts on wine tastings

[Kraftster]

I don't want to banish flights from the face of the earth. I personally do not order them because if I want to try a beer, I want to actually try it, and I think flights give a suboptimal drinking experience. It's not necessarily about creating the perfectly optimal drinking experience in all situations--I drink beer with a compromised nose, I drink beer that doesn't pair well with food I'm eating, and in plenty of situations, I drink beer from shaker pints, which is just about the worst glass ever. I think drinking beer flights appreciably compromises sampling of the beers.

So, I don't drink flights, and I wouldn't offer flights if I operated a brewery and had my sights set on making world class beers. And I can't think of many such places that would/do offer flights. Places that are brewing beer to just make decent to-style stuff and be a local watering hole should offer flights. New breweries, depending upon the location and styles, should probably offer flights. These new mega tap list places should probably offer them too to help them with the impossible task of moving all of that beer quickly enough to keep it fresh. I don't patronize breweries and bars 'tisking' everyone I see order a flight. I just figure they're drinking beer for a different reason than I am.

Also, 4 oz. can be enough beer to get a pretty quality impression. But not immediately next to four other beers, all of which are too cold and contained in a vessel you actually cannot get your schnozz into.

[Kraftster]

Why would a brewery want you to taste its beers in a suboptimal format? Breweries don't fill clear growlers because it could affect their product. Many breweries don't can/bottle hoppy stuff because it could be consumed well past its prime if it finds a dusty shelf. Some breweries provide glass selection information on their labels. All of these things come from the same place.

I think this same sort of behavior in a restaurant context is widely accepted. I don't think beer should be any different.

what are your thoughts on wine tastings

I don't have any. I think I've consumed like 3 good wines in my life.

[Jim]

If your product can't survive being offered in a 4 ounce glass without having catastrophic degradation before being fully drank... then you apparently put out a **** product and really need to revamp your recipe, process and equipment. Requiring multiple levels of controlled situations in order to be okay to be consumed is not a good thing.

And to refer back to the thing that I liked on the link/list: “Beer shouldn’t be taken so seriously and I think people are beginning to tire of the pretentiousness.” — Damian Brown, brewmaster at Bronx Brewery.

[columbia]

Miller High Life is my standard beer, so Damian Brown doesn't need to worry about me.

[UVM2003]

A few things, but the bottom line is its just not an optimal drinking experience. The amount is generally insufficient to give the beer time to warm and open up. You've got the potential for mixing flavors. The glass is usually less than ideal.

Dancing Gnome eliminated flights a few months ago and got some backlash for it. I have no problem with the brewer of a beer dictating how it should be consumed.

A flight isn't supposed to be used for an optimal drinking experience. It's to taste new beers and then later you can decide to actually order one of them.

Why would a brewery want you to taste its beers in a suboptimal format? Breweries don't fill clear growlers because it could affect their product. Many breweries don't can/bottle hoppy stuff because it could be consumed well past its prime if it finds a dusty shelf. Some breweries provide glass selection information on their labels. All of these things come from the same place.

I think this same sort of behavior in a restaurant context is widely accepted. I don't think beer should be any different.

I know many breweries that serve flights. One just happens to have been rated the second best new craft brewery in the world. Another is considered one of the best in the country. Flights are samplers. if the breweries you go to don't understand that, that's their problem. The pretentiousness of some beer drinkers is beyond wine snobs. Lol

I'm curious - which breweries are you referring?

[grunthy]

A few things, but the bottom line is its just not an optimal drinking experience. The amount is generally insufficient to give the beer time to warm and open up. You've got the potential for mixing flavors. The glass is usually less than ideal.

Dancing Gnome eliminated flights a few months ago and got some backlash for it. I have no problem with the brewer of a beer dictating how it should be consumed.

A flight isn't supposed to be used for an optimal drinking experience. It's to taste new beers and then later you can decide to actually order one of them.

Why would a brewery want you to taste its beers in a suboptimal format? Breweries don't fill clear growlers because it could affect their product. Many breweries don't can/bottle hoppy stuff because it could be consumed well past its prime if it finds a dusty shelf. Some breweries provide glass selection information on their labels. All of these things come from the same place.

I think this same sort of behavior in a restaurant context is widely accepted. I don't think beer should be any different.

I know many breweries that serve flights. One just happens to have been rated the second best new craft brewery in the world. Another is considered one of the best in the country. Flights are samplers. if the breweries you go to don't understand that, that's their problem. The pretentiousness of some beer drinkers is beyond wine snobs. Lol

I'm curious - which breweries are you referring?

Prairie Artisan Ales and American Solera.

[UVM2003]

I'm curious - which breweries are you referring?

Prairie Artisan Ales and American Solera.

Thanks!

If memory serves; Hill Farmstead has won the ratebeer "best brewery" for quite a few years, so tough to argue with the selection. I Haven't had anything from American Solera but I'll have to rectify that.

[grunthy]

I'm curious - which breweries are you referring?

Prairie Artisan Ales and American Solera.

Thanks!

If memory serves; Hill Farmstead has won the ratebeer "best brewery" for quite a few years, so tough to argue with the selection. I Haven't had anything from American Solera but I'll have to rectify that.

Unfortunately you'll have to visit Tulsa to get American Solera, as you can only buy it directly from the physical brewery or one bar that carries it.

[columbia]

re:Bell's Amber Ale

One of the few beers I've had claiming amber in the name, which is a repeat beer. Definitely a 2nd week of September purchase.

[tifosi77]

Picked up a sixer of Hanger 24 Betty IPA and got home to find that five of the six bottles had been swapped out with their Orange Wheat beer. Which is not nearly as delicious.

[MWB]

Going to Vermont next week and will hopefully make my first trip to Hill Farmstead.

[UVM2003]

Going to Vermont next week and will hopefully make my first trip to Hill Farmstead.

Summer at HF is awesome. The current draft list looks great with ephraim and Abner as standouts. Bottles of Mary (German pils) drop today. Enjoy! I hope you make it out. It's a really fun experience particularly if the weather is nice.

I'm going in just over three weeks, with @Kraftster nonetheless, for the festival of farmhouse ales.

Be sure to check out Foam in Burlington if you're in the area. It's right on the lake and they're cranking out great beers.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Going to Vermont next week and will hopefully make my first trip to Hill Farmstead.

it is an awesome state

[eddy]

dang, I need to get back up to Vermont.

[MWB]

Yeah, I lived my first 20 years there, so definitely agree it's awesome.

Thanks for Foam rec. I'm in the Burlington area, so that is definitely closer than HF, but I know HF will be worth it.

[Kraftster]

Yeah, I lived my first 20 years there, so definitely agree it's awesome.

Thanks for Foam rec. I'm in the Burlington area, so that is definitely closer than HF, but I know HF will be worth it.

It will absolutely be worth it. I know you are an IPA guy, and I think you'll be blown away with their hops, which you don't hear much about, but man, it's all so good. You are very limited in what you can drink on site in terms of quantity, so I'd take a cooler and plan to grab several growlers so you can try several of the IPAs.

That said, the amount of great saisons available in bottles right now is insane, and I really hope you grab a couple. At least a bottle each of Anna and Arthur. @UVM2003 recently shared Anna with me, and it--being all of $10 and unlimited bottles at HF--blew me away. Hill's saisons are the standard bearer for the style in so many ways, imo.

[MWB]

I'll definitely get some saisons, since that seems to be the gold standard.

[tifosi77]

Picking up from a few posts up..... considering where we live and what our plans are for our retirement, I don't want to live in a world without wine tastings.

[count2infinity]

Is anyone surprised by this?

[LITT]

Picking up from a few posts up..... considering where we live and what our plans are for our retirement, I don't want to live in a world without wine tastings.

but its not how it was intended to be drank

[LITT]

you cant get the right mouthfeel or bouquet.

[tifosi77]

At most places, true enough. But there are wineries that pour into the correct glasses depending on the wine.

But either way, wine tasting is fun and it is an integral part of our leisure time.