I Miss the Old Kanye (Stillwater Brewing)

Brewery recalls are typically a huge pain in the ass. We have beer scattered all over the market, sometimes in places that have detailed procedures on how they like these things handled. This recall however was very classic. Take no shit gypsy breweries like Stillwater, Evil Twin, and Mikkeller have fun with pop culture in marketing their products. They produce a lot of things as one offs that are often times more comical for their own sake than brewing art or experimentation.

When Stillwater decided to challenge any of the Kanye's by brewing an imperial brett porter. The joke began with the concept supposed to have the 57 flavors and be the Dr Pepper of the craft beer world. The old Kanye was a man of many flavors but it seems recently he has been a man of the law filing cease and desist movements with said brewer. So when the memo hit my desk I had to go out and get one for myself, if for nothing else the label. Well I did and the beer sucked, but I got the label off. 

Boston travels

My wife's best friend and her husband live in Boston Mass. I mean they don't live in a nearby suburb and have a Boston mailing address, they live right in the middle of the city. The kitchen window in their apartment looks out over Boston common and I think I am falling in love with this city. This blog post is chronicling the second time I have gone to visit. This time I was dead set on getting more into the craft beer scene by going to breweries and bottle shops to really dig into what's going on. I
was not disappointed.

Distribution

So Gigantic brewing seems to have captured the imagination of craft beer fans on the west coast so much, that I am aware of them, despite little distribution. Well I found this in Boston and it was amazing. Also the format is great, make big bottles great again. It's gotten far to risky to pick up random large format bottles in Richmond for fear of bad dates. I also was very psyched to see Almanac brewing in Boston, and this style of IPA is my current bread and butter. Look how those patriots glasses get the beer worked up into excessive foam. Go Bruins!

Local Breweries

I was able to get to two local breweries when I was there. Night Shift Brewing and Aeronaut Brewing. Man these two could not have been more different. Night Shift had a good variety of styles, and lots of super juicy fresh IPA's. Night Shift even packages in 16 ounce cans which seem to be a status symbol or flag in the ground that says "You are going to want more than 12 ounces at a time". The can pictured below is the Hefeweizen that I bought the girls who are devout blue moon drinkers. Look at the precious little owl, and they have a reserve society or club deal that is actually worth the years admission. 

Aeronaut on the other hand, was an example of what I avoid in my own local market. I should have know when we walked in to a projection screen playing vintage nintendo games on a wall in the tasting room. I'm a firm believer in the idea that the beer should above all be the reason people stay and return to your establishment. Breweries that host game nights, open mic nights, and have silly shit like video games are not breweries. They are bars that struggle to sell their own shitty beer. It's really become a thing and has hurt the business. Tasting rooms have largely cut into the on premise business which is in a way spiting the customer you are selling kegs to. Sorry for the rant. 

So a little over a month later, I went back with work on a Harpoon trip. Stay tuned to see if that post ever happens.