Let's Remember Some Beers (In Memoriam: Old IPAs)

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yeahnatenelson

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A thread to commemorate the palate wreckers, triple-digit IBU hop bombs and ruthlessly homered regional "Pliney killers" [sic] of yesteryear that have since faded from the craft beer discourse.

I'll start off with one that I almost certainly called my desert island beer back in 2011: Alpine Bad Boy.

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Tite. (photo stolen from evilc)

This beer ruled. For all I know it may continue to rule, but after having tried the Green Flash-era Nelson and Hoppy Birthday I had pretty much sworn off trying anything else. In either case this beer and every other beer that was at one time or another framed in contrast to Pliny the Elder in a petty beer forum argument is a total dinosaur with more in common with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale than the modern haze can.
 
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OG Alpine Nelson was my desert island beer. It's one of the first beers that blew my mind when I moved to San Diego 7 years ago. As goofy as it is, I setup a Google calendar reminder for fresh bottles/batches when Alpine was regularly producing Nelson, Duet, and Pure Hoppiness on a regular schedule. I still get those reminders...
 
A thread to commemorate the palate wreckers, triple-digit IBU hop bombs and ruthlessly homered regional "Pliney killers" [sic] of yesteryear that have since faded from the craft beer discourse.

I'll start off with one that I almost certainly called my desert island beer back in 2011: Alpine Bad Boy.

zSLbruJ.jpg

Tite. (photo stolen from evilc)

This beer ruled. For all I know it may continue to rule, but after having tried the Green Flash-era Nelson and Hoppy Birthday I had pretty much sworn off trying anything else. In either case this beer and every other beer that was at one time or another framed in contrast to Pliny the Elder in a petty beer forum argument is a total dinosaur with more in common with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale than the modern haze can.

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kern citra still kicking. how about hopslam, member the yearly freak out about that guy.
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Back in I'm pretty sure 2012, maybe 2011, some friends and I tried to get all of BA's Top 250 list and these first 2 posts are 2 of the 28 I never got to. Is Kern Citra distributed now??
 
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This beer was fantastic in 2010 or so. I was so excited when I’d go home to Philly because it would occasionally be on the shelf.
For much of my time in Syracuse, Ithaca Beer Co was THE best spot nearby. Flower Power was the one turd that could pull something in a trade. Agree that 2010 was definitely in the sweet spot. When I left Upstate in 2017 I wouldn't even get it fresh at the brewery if I was popping in for a pint and a bite after a hike. Man, those Chief years were the best.
 
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Back in I'm pretty sure 2012, maybe 2011, some friends and I tried to get all of BA's Top 250 list and these first 2 posts are 2 of the 28 I never got to. Is Kern Citra distributed now??
hill farmstead Nor ftw! :D

some of those you might still be able to get. stone irs? blighs, drie og? you must have ran into those guys since yea

sounds like kern is doing some distro down south, hasn’t made it up here, got the hook up from BigFrank, but their other cans make it up this way
 
So are the Alpine beers still totally borked?
Bought some Duet cans on a whim since it was only three weeks old or so but it is not the same. I thought the draft Nelson they did right after Green Flash purchased them was pretty good but once it hit six packs it was meh. I've had some good Windows Up on draft and one good sixer of Duet in bottles but I've been pretty consistently let down by "Alpine" beers. Growlers and bombers from the old brewery used to be so good.
 
Bought some Duet cans on a whim since it was only three weeks old or so but it is not the same. I thought the draft Nelson they did right after Green Flash purchased them was pretty good but once it hit six packs it was meh. I've had some good Windows Up on draft and one good sixer of Duet in bottles but I've been pretty consistently let down by "Alpine" beers. Growlers and bombers from the old brewery used to be so good.

This is sad. Green Flash shits the bed and their only enduring achievement is ruining Alpine.
 
Bought some Duet cans on a whim since it was only three weeks old or so but it is not the same. I thought the draft Nelson they did right after Green Flash purchased them was pretty good but once it hit six packs it was meh. I've had some good Windows Up on draft and one good sixer of Duet in bottles but I've been pretty consistently let down by "Alpine" beers. Growlers and bombers from the old brewery used to be so good.

This is sad. Green Flash shits the bed and their only enduring achievement is ruining Alpine.

They still brew smaller batch stuff and new recipes at Alpine, which are still good admittedly but not the same as the classics. It's a travesty that GF never figured out how to do those right. Proper Nelson in cans would have been amazing.
 
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Back in I'm pretty sure 2012, maybe 2011, some friends and I tried to get all of BA's Top 250 list and these first 2 posts are 2 of the 28 I never got to. Is Kern Citra distributed now??
Oh man, also on that list, Masala Mama. I remember tracking down a growler of that and being so pumped, can't even remember what I thought of it (I could look it up but meh). Does that brewery even exist any more? I don't think I've heard anything about them in 5 years or more.
 
Oh man, also on that list, Masala Mama. I remember tracking down a growler of that and being so pumped, can't even remember what I thought of it (I could look it up but meh). Does that brewery even exist any more? I don't think I've heard anything about them in 5 years or more.

Definitely still exists, with four locations now. Otherwise not much seems to have changed since that list was made.
 
Holy ****, I did not know this was now in cans
The cans have been hit and miss. Not necessarily of Citra, I'm not sure I've had that, but I had a six-pack of something else (JO maybe) where some of the cans were completely different from the others, not even like super oxidized so I'm not sure wtf. But it has scared me off of Kern a bit.
 
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This beer was fantastic in 2010 or so. I was so excited when I’d go home to Philly because it would occasionally be on the shelf.
Drank so much of this in college!

Also drank a crap load of this and it was the first brewery I ever visited. Not exactly a hyped beer but it was the very first review added to Beer Advocate back in '96 courtesy of Tawwd.
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Drank so much of this in college!

Also drank a crap load of this and it was the first brewery I ever visited. Not exactly a hyped beer but it was the very first review added to Beer Advocate back in '96 courtesy of Tawwd.
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One of my earliest craft beer favorites. I loved them so much. I had a bar that always had that one on draft, it was my favorite bar. Loved picking up the prefilled growlers at every liquor store that had a craft beer selection. We used to go to parties and walk around swigging from the growlers. I was so ****ing cool.
 
Oh man, also on that list, Masala Mama. I remember tracking down a growler of that and being so pumped, can't even remember what I thought of it (I could look it up but meh). Does that brewery even exist any more? I don't think I've heard anything about them in 5 years or more.

Town Hall still exists. From what I understand, they don't particularly make an effort to keep up with the hype styles, but some of their barrel aged beers are phenomenal (I believe they are released in pre-filled growlers once annually).
 
One of my earliest craft beer favorites. I loved them so much. I had a bar that always had that one on draft, it was my favorite bar. Loved picking up the prefilled growlers at every liquor store that had a craft beer selection. We used to go to parties and walk around swigging from the growlers. I was so ****ing cool.
Ha, used to do the same thing! Gas station near my dorm sold the growlers. That was a totally new concept to me. They were pretty cheap too, like $9 plus deposit?
 
Oh man, also on that list, Masala Mama. I remember tracking down a growler of that and being so pumped, can't even remember what I thought of it (I could look it up but meh). Does that brewery even exist any more? I don't think I've heard anything about them in 5 years or more.
Just went not too long ago and struggled to be wowed by anything they had on tap. And I tried a bunch.
 
yeahnatenelson w/ another cool thread to make us old timers reminisce :)

Ironically, this morning at the Hudson Valley Brewery release, I got the last pour of Triple Sunshine from Lawson' s in a 12oz can. Now that they have their own spot you can actually visit & easily buy beer in large numbers, plus several years go by, flavor of the month shifts...madness subsides.

Never went to any of them, but I remember when they would do those pop-up sales at the Waitsfield VT farmers market every 2-3 months with really strict limits and anytime that Triple Sunshine was available it would sell out quickly & if you wanted to trade it, you could get something ridiculous like St. Lam for it. (people were also letting go of their lambic more easily then, in general)

I never went to those farmers markets, where vendors w/ their jam, honey & veggies were mostly envious, annoyed at that tall craft beer guy drawing giant lines before the market even officially opened. Don I believe likely went to some of them. On one occasion, I did make it to the Warren General Store. They used to drop a smaller variety there , 1 or 2 styles. I got Knockout Blonde, no hype on that one, had to actually drink it. Anyways, here is a photo of the old bomber with that fancy foil. Sorry for all the words.

triplesun.jpg
 
yeahnatenelson w/ another cool thread to make us old timers reminisce :)

Ironically, this morning at the Hudson Valley Brewery release, I got the last pour of Triple Sunshine from Lawson' s in a 12oz can. Now that they have their own spot you can actually visit & easily buy beer in large numbers, plus several years go by, flavor of the month shifts...madness subsides.

Never went to any of them, but I remember when they would do those pop-up sales at the Waitsfield VT farmers market every 2-3 months with really strict limits and anytime that Triple Sunshine was available it would sell out quickly & if you wanted to trade it, you could get something ridiculous like St. Lam for it. (people were also letting go of their lambic more easily then, in general)

I never went to those farmers markets, where vendors w/ their jam, honey & veggies were mostly envious, annoyed at that tall craft beer guy drawing giant lines before the market even officially opened. Don I believe likely went to some of them. On one occasion, I did make it to the Warren General Store. They used to drop a smaller variety there , 1 or 2 styles. I got Knockout Blonde, no hype on that one, had to actually drink it. Anyways, here is a photo of the old bomber with that fancy foil. Sorry for all the words.

triplesun.jpg
Lawson's Fest was a hell of a time! Getting some triple sunshine and BA Fayston's seemed so crazy since those beers were so elusive.
 
yeahnatenelson w/ another cool thread to make us old timers reminisce :)

Yesterday someone had replied to a nine-year-old fb post my old BA acquaintence ShogoKawada had made about Haverhill Leather Lips IPA, which got me thinkin':

1) that beer was great,
2) No new brewery would even consider making a beer like it in 2019, and
3) the whales thread was posted about a year ago.
 
Zombie Dust.

Yes, it’s listed as a Pale, but it’s 6.2% and basically an ipa. It’s still an amazing beer.

I just wanted to reminisce about how hot it once was. Getting growlers of it (for a very short time) was almost like a DONG back in the day. They when they started bottling you could get a case of it for $30. And trade that case for almost any beer back in 2012/2013. I’ve got a dozen stories of people pulling whalez with a simple ZD case.
 

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