Did you go anywhere else? I leave in a few weeks for SD as well.

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Didn't have time. We were visiting a friend and had a few days planned so we hit the taproom on the way to lunch.

Picked up some more Maine Beer Company's Another One today. Love that beer.

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I love when I get boxes from Vermont, I love them even more when they contain Heady Topper and Ephraim.

I'll take a Heady!

Fathead's Head Hunter took silver tonight in the American IPA category at the World Cup of beer.

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I saw Horse Thief Hollow and Piece had decent placings too, including a gold in the pale category for the latter. I've never had beers from either; are they worth tracking down?

Haven't been to Piece yet.

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Piece you can get at the place. They have the best pizza I think I've ever had - a white pizza with clam and bacon. Wow.

Local Italian place now has Solemn Oath's Butterfly Flashmob on tap. I suck at describing flavors so here's their blurb -

Copious amounts of piney, citrusy American hops make a light malt sweetness their bitch in this full-flavored Belgian IPA. Aggressive bitterness, massive hop flavor and super fruity Belgian yeast.

And it's damn good. I've been there twice for lunch in the last week just for the beer. I've seen in it for sale in the bottle but haven't tried it. Not sure if it would be quite the same.

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You know me like that.

Speaking of Piece, I'm staying in the city Tuesday night, and my buddy and I will be going there for dinner. Sweeeeeeeeet.

And I agree with you, Doc. Big fan of that beer. I've only had the bomber version, though. Guessing it's even better on draft.

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Went to Piece last night. The Weight is worthy of the awards/hype. Had too many of them. Pizza is pretty good, too. Good place to watch a game.

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Buy as much of their pizza as you can. You won't be able to find it next week.

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I'll find it next week. And I'll only have to wait in line for 2 hours.

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Sounds like they don't just imitate a New Haven pie, but also the experience of getting one.

Does anybody who frequents the Rev brew pub know if they sell glassware like the Half Acre one does? Trying to expand my snifter glass collection and want a Rev Brewing one.

Went to few breweries in SD over the weekend. I too wanted to expand my snifter/tulip collection. Not a one for sale. I did bring back an 82-lb. suitcase full of beer though

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I created an entire snifter/tulip collection at a festival in SD 10 or so years ago. I had a ton of tickets leftover from the tasting and they were selling glassware. They really should have considered printing their own tasting tickets instead of getting them from party city.

Beer stores are actually pretty good for glassware.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Ok, this question will require you beer experts to be reasonable here. I enjoy a good beer and love to experiment and try new stuff. But by no means do I go through the effort of exchanges and penpals that some beer lover maniacs do.

So in June I'll be visiting Montreal for a long Friday-Tuesday weekend. Vermont is next door and the Alchemist Brewery is 2.5ish hours away. Is their beer that good that I must visit the brewery?.

I went there last year and loved it. It's not just the Alchemist. Hill Farmstead and Lawson's (though you can't buy directly from them, I believe) are also great breweries in the area. If anything, visit Waterbury and enjoy the amazing beers on draft at Blackback and a couple other places whose names escape me. I would go back in a heartbeat.

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It depends on how much you like IPAs; if you're a huge fan, I'd say definitely try to procure Heady, but if you're not a hophead it's likely not worth it. One thing to keep in mind is that Heady Topper is no longer sold out of the Alchemist and the brewery is now closed to the public, so visiting specifically for that probably isn't worth it. Waterbury does have several outstanding brewpubs which will generally have it, in addition to other great Vermont brews, but if you want cans of Heady, you have to now get it at stores (here's a list of places and delivery dates). If you're looking to minimize travel time, you may want to try to go to Burlington instead, as The Farmhouse is apparently as good as the bars around Waterbury and Heady gets distributed to multiple stores there.

I'm one of those maniacs you refer to so I'm definitely inclined to recommend a Hill Farmstead trip too, but it's in the middle of nowhere and only open Wednesday-Saturday (and frequently a mess on Saturdays), so that might not be the most desirable option for you.

Closer to where you'll be, I'd recommend a visit to Dieu du Ciel as well, particularly if you enjoy darker beers.

Jut so happens I have a 4-pack of Heady in my fridge right now

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Fuzzy Baby Ducks lives up to the hype. Only Julius competes with it in terms of northeast IPAs. It's been ages since I've had Duet and I've never had Nelson but I think it beats the former. Definitely prefer it to Susan, Lunch, and Sculpin.

Very helpful advice Zeph & rsg. I'm getting pushback from other participants to the day trip to Vermont even with trying to bribe them with Ben & Jerry factory tour or Teddy Bear factory tour. So probably won't get to hit up those places but I'll definitely visit the brew pub in Montreal.

I tried seven beers at Alpine. Nelson, Pure Hoppiness, and Baby Face were all great. The rest were so so. I would LOVE to try Fuzzy Baby Ducks. The one beer I've never been able to get my hands on is Double Sunshine.

Where do you live again, Zeph? We need to grab beers over discussing beers.

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Here's the San Diego haul, in all its glory:

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I wish I could get into the hoppy beers.

My photo would be all stouts and porters.

And you'd Cooley your penis in there, somehow.


Those are all bombers, too, except for the Russian River stuff on the right.

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I'm in eastern Mass at the moment which is how I was able to try FBD, but I'm hoping to be back in the midwest if not Chicago by the end of the summer. I was actually in Oak Lawn for a wedding this past weekend but didn't have the time to do anything particularly fun beer-related. I did load up on Simcoe Ninja and Ninja vs Unicorn at Kenwood though. It sucked not being able to grab Zombie Dust as well on the way back but I wasn't going near Munster due to the DLD shitshow.

If I make another trip to Vermont before I move back, I'll definitely try to grab you some Double Sunshine. I'm not particularly crazy about it, but I suspect it's more a product of inconsistent batches than anything else, as many of my friends here prefer it to pretty much everything else from VT.

This 2 newborns thing is really messing with my beer tasting. I've got some Black Note and Immort Ale downstairs that is in dire need of tasting.