91 Comments
Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

Also Scott please let us run a questionably legal beer secret santa. please.

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I'll think about logistics! I think it could be really fun.

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Smokey and the Bandit, but with minivans and at least one Corgi. Do it and be legends.

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I have a hatchback, beer, and corgi. Is that close enough for me to help?

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I think so!

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(I'm not driving to Texarkana tho)

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Big note for shipping beer, it's illegal to ship beer via USPS. It is only against policy to ship beer using UPS or FedEx. Neither usually ask questions as long as the beer is properly packaged and the package is closed before you drop it off. Homebrewers ship beer for competitions all the time.

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I just tell UPS that I'm mailing kitchenware.

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OH MY GOD YES

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

This is in Ohio - Jackie O's in Athens is the BEST. Who Cooks For You is the greatest, most drinkable IPA to ever exist, and is soooo tasty. I share that favorite with one of the owners, who I get to work with every year as they throw a fundraising event for the Planned Parenthood health center in Athens because they are the aforementioned BEST. This year they made special flavors for us, including a Chai Latte of their Chomolungma (which has BIGFOOT ON THE CAN. Their art is unbeatable). They do a ton of cool sour stuff too, and just opened their first location outside of Athens in Columbus that will be opening for the general public soon with a ROOFTOP BAR.

Wolf's Ridge is amazing, and their food is even better than their beer.

Columbus, and Ohio in general, has EXCELLLENT BEER.

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Jackie O's is fantastic, and Wolf's Ridge is both my favorite AND my closest - and you're right, the restaurant is even better.

In the spirit of the theme, ACB, here's their Cosmo Canyon, which is a delightful holiday treat:

Style: Cranberry Sauce Berliner Weisse

ABV: 7%

IBU: 8

Description: Sour Ale brewed with cranberry, orange peel, and cinnamon. Cosmo Canyon is the hometown of Red XIII - a wolf-like character in Final Fantasy VII. As such, it's a loose reference to the red color of the beer.

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As someone who doesn't live there but visits a lot due to family/friends, Columbus is one of the best beer cities in the country, and in my opinion Wolf's Ridge is the best brewery in the city. I don't think I've had anything from them I don't love, and like you said their food is incredible.

I'm also a huge fan of Seventh Son and Land Grant especially when the weather is nice. Very excited for when the new Jackie O's taproom/patio finally opens up for onsite drinking.

Hoof Hearted is good too though kind of hit-or-miss for me as admittedly a lot of their stuff I'd consider experimental.

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Hoof Hearted is also a fart joke, which is excellent.

And also Brewdog has decided that they live here too, which I'm fine with because they also make tasty beer and food! I haven't been to the beer hotel yet, but I have friends who have - they had a tap their room and a beer fridge in the shower.

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I have not been there either but my aunt stayed there once and said the same thing

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Cbus's beer lineup runs DEEP.

My brother did the make-your-own-batch at North High for his wedding and did a killer Oktoberfest. Highly recommend, if you need like 6 cases of beer for something.

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Yes that is such a fun experience!! SOOOOOO much good beer here. So. Much.

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Jackie O's is excellent.

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Oh, and the Chomolungma makes the best chili you will ear - it is a honey nut brown ale.

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PLEASE let us do the questionably legal beer swap!

Also, for my corner of Central PA, I’m going to have to pick Troegs Mad Elf. It’s a Christmas Belgian aged on cherries, and it’ll knock you on your ass, but it RULES. Troegs is also big enough/distributes widely enough that you might be able to find it in your neck of the woods! (I would also like to take this moment to shoutout my favorite small Harrisburg area breweries, Ever Grain and Zeroday.)

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For anyone like myself who doesn't normally drink alcohol I am here to praise the burgeoning craft near beer scene. Athletic Brewing Company is a local brewery to me that I think only has a foothold in the CT, NY, NJ area but they have a great selection for anyone looking for better than O'Douls or a different taste than a Heineken Zero

https://athleticbrewing.com/collections/beer

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I got into beer brewing with my wife's grandfather and when he developed a heart condition he couldn't have alcohol any more but since he liked brewing beer with me he got into several craft NA beers so we could still discuss and partake! Good dude, he was...

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Athletic also distributes in PA - one of my friends loves beer but can’t drink alcohol anymore and he LOVES their Oktoberfest

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Ooh I haven't had their Oktoberfest. I am good for a can of Athletic's Golden Ale once a month or so. Having been on the NA train for a number of years I truly miss a good Oktoberfest more than any other seasonal, save for maybe Great Lakes Christmas Ale.

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Love a good holiday ale, and I'll have to keep an eye out for Mad Elf this year. Over in my neck of the woods, the annual release of Tidings Ale by Alexandria, VA's Port City Brewing is always cause for celebration! I must have brought a 6-pack to my mom's house in NY last Christmas, and was utterly delighted to find a rogue Tidings in her beer fridge a couple of months ago.

My wife's friend used to live in Central PA, and Troegs might be my favorite brewery I've ever been to. Wonderful beers, wonderful kitchen, wonderful vibes. 10/10 would visit again.

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Troeg's Sunshine Pilsner is a delight on a hot summer day.

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A couple of people from Troeg's were at our brewery last week and dropped off some of that- it was delicious. I could drink a gallon of it.

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Honestly I’ve never had a bad beer from them. Perpetual was the first IPA i actually liked.

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Mad Elf is great- and the Grand Cru variant is well worth it if you can find it.

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Every year I stand in front of a bottle of grand cru at the distributor and ask myself if I want to spend that much on one bomber. So far the answer has been no, but this year the answer may change.

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I did the same for YEARS, and then when my dad hit his 1000th unique check-in on Untappd (yay, retirement hobby) the bar owner bought him a bottle of the Grand Cru to try.

The simple review of it vs. Mad Elf is that it's the same, but more?

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Mad Elf is real good. Have you ever been to the brewery in Hershey? There's some crazy good food there too

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I have! I like their food too (:

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

Philly is a hotbed for great beers. I'm about two hours north of Dogfish Head, which might be cheating, but I love their Sea Quench. If you want more local, I'm quite a fan of the 2SP Wawa Coffee Holiday Porter.

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My sister had Seaquench at her wedding, which allowed me to drink for like 12 hours straight and not have a hangover. It is truly incredible.

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I would replace my blood with Sea Quench if I could.

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I have tried to do so.

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Sea Quench is what I always wanted Bud Light Lime to actually be.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

While it is not legal to mail beer via the USPS you can send “yeast samples in a liquid suspension” and it’s is then perfectly legal.

That being said, Iron Duke in Ludlow MA makes a number of tasty brews from their 306 Apricot IPA to their Baby Maker Stout.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

I have also tasted the joys of a coffee beer that is not a porter or stout. Stable 12 Brewing in Phoenixville, PA (Philly adjacent, sort of) has a blonde coffee ale that's name escapes me but it was one of the wildest drinking experiences of my life. Looked like Budweiser, tasted like Guinness.

Elsewhere in the Philly beer scene, I have no choice but to mention Kenwood Light Lager. It's a beer from a bunch of guys in their 20s from Delco who made a beer that's not fancy but its better than the big boy domestic lights. Toss a pickle or a lemon in it and you're gonna have 3 or 4 of them with a smile on your face.

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going to Delco next weekend, will def check this out

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

For Michigan, it's something from Short's. Don't let the Bell's hype fool you. For summer, Soft Parade. Fruity, light, high alcohol content. Any other time, Bellaire Brown.

Also, I'm obviously on Cloud 9 for Michigan State, but Cincy should be ranked above us. End of story.

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I don't even mind Michigan State being ahead of us! They're a Big Ten undefeated. But Oregon and Ohio State above us is indefensible, and Alabama should not be #2.

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If Cincinnati wins out, I will storm the barricades if they don't get into the playoffs.

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Cristo-ball, as my Oregon alum brother refers to it, is mostly about dick-tripping into the end zone in just enough time to avert disaster. It is interesting, but that doesn't mean it should be rewarded.

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I say it because we struggled with Indiana while y'all did not, or not near as much. We should be next to each other in the top 4, in some order.

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I have to concur about Bellaire brown, love that!

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Being in their general area, I concur on Short's. Looking forward to juicy tree for the holidays (juniper/cranberry/spruce tip IPA)

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

Now that it's finally getting cooler, I'm starting to drink darker beers, and the Rocket Frog Wallops Island brown ale is a pretty good one. They also make some good sours, including a cherry limeade sour, though Virginia Beer Company's A Night In... sours flavored with different fruits are also good. Also a big fan of Vasen and Vibrissa's hefeweizens. It's nice to see German-style hefes get more popular, since for the longest time the biggest wheat beers on the market were all Belgian-style.

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Haven't had VBC since law school, and I miss it. Great pull

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

good news: the best local beer where i'm from is available where you are currently from, and that is the West Sixth Pennyrile Pale Ale. hop character, but not overwhelming. soft edges but not like, milky. plenty of melon and citrus notes. ideal around a campfire and a lake alike.

worse news: I can't believe you actually made that swill y'all call chili into something I would absolutely eat, you monster, how dare you

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This is *great* news because in stocking up on beer for the weekend, I bought a sixer of that yesterday! (I’ve had other West Sixth beers but not that.)

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

It is a delight. World Beer Cup (I think, maybe GABF, one of the big competitions) silver medal in American Pale Ale. full disclosure I used to work for them but I still absolutely ride for all their beers, and the spot down in Nulu is a good time and a great place to pregame soccer matches/park for free if you don't mind a bit of a walk to the match.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

There's so much good beer in Michigan, it's hard to pick. I love Perrin's No Rules Vietnamese Porter, but it's not an everyday beer. Unless you're Keith Richards.

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Agreed, we've got it good in Michigan. Here in Ann Arbor, HOMES is definitely the best. While they do a lot of the trendy hazy IPAs and kettle sours, their more traditional beer is really great and much more consistent. They've been doing a series of lagers called Soaker that have all been excellent. But sometimes they kill it with something more experimental, and similar to Scott's coffee blonde, their coffee cream ale King Cold Brew rotates through using different coffee beans and is always outstanding.

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Michigan is rotten with amazing beer.

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On a more Detroit-local basis, I really enjoy Eastern Market Brewing Company and their associated Ferndale Project. I have really enjoyed their beers across the board and it was the first hyper-local brewery that I really got excited after moving to the area in 2018.

Good indoor/outdoor spaces at both locations, and (from the outside at least) seemed to take care of their employees during the worst of COVID-19 last year.

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As many times as I've been to Eastern Market, I haven't tried their stuff yet. Looking forward to it.

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I'm late but absolutely seconding Eastern Market's stuff, especially their stouts.

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This is gonna sound like a humblebrag, but it's really not- If I'm at home, I drink Two Hearted and Jolly Pumpkin. If' I'm out of town in MI, I drink whatever's local and fresh, and am seldom ever disappointed.

One more shout out: The Livery in Benton Harbor. If you're ever in the area, go. Ask for Wally.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

Having also received a care package from Beer Nye with some Daybreak in it, I can confirm that it's really good. And if you pour it into a glass, it looks nothing like what you'd expect a coffee beer to.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

Impossible question to answer as I’m from St. Louis, a city awash in fantastic breweries. (We have one in particular you may have heard of and, yes, despite the snobbery, it’s good too.)

That said, my *favorite* in town is a little joint called Civil Life, which puts out a best-in-class Brown Ale and, surprisingly as someone who shies away from hoppiness, a delightful Rye Pale Ale. In season, Schlafly’s pumpkin ale is one of the best examples of the genre, and 4 Hands is consistently great as well, particularly their Absence of Light, a peanut butter chocolate stout that currently inhabits my fridge.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

That deep fried football is a work of demented genius, sir. Please fax. And enjoy your return to campus. If your experience is like ours taking elementary schoolers down to Durham, your kids will love everything about that. (Also, don't forget to make your 529 contribution this month; you're out of state for UC tuition now.)

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I took my daughters for a stroll around SC's campus when we were in LA for spring break one year - they were, I think, 12 and 9 at the time? Anyway, their comment afterwards was "those kids sounded kind of dumb to be honest" and I was like "well you got the gist of it." (Some of the smartest people I've ever known are people I knew as an undergrad, but that didn't seem like the time to try and parse how people present themselves in southern California versus the odds that in fact the undergrads in question weren't so swift...)

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Here in Indiana I will put Three Floyd's Gumballhead up against anything. It's a fruity, hoppy wheat ale. Many espouse Alpha King as their best beer, but Gumballhead is where it's at.

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Nov 5, 2021Liked by Scott Hines

You probably have few subscribers from Ottawa, Ontario, but if any of them ever happen to be here, a local brewery, Beyond The Pale, produces a superb stout, The Darkness. I am a huge stout fan, and this is my favourite to date. It's only available locally, unfortunately for everyone else.

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FL has a ton of great beers and I am going to prattle on aimlessly about some of my faves here:

Bold City Brewery's Duke's Cold Nose Brown Ale, or simply Duke's. This is their most widely distributed beer and a perfect serviceable brown ale, but the Jacksonville based brewery makes a ton of unique beers at their downtown location, rotating taps about monthly. The best beer I've had at Bold City is their Bourbon Barrel-Aged Roxy Cream Ale. It is simply heaven in a glass. The bourbon is a punch, to be clear. You can't miss it. I love it so much. They do growler fills for for mad cheap too.

Veterans United Brewing makes several great beers (I have not had one I didn't love) but my favorite is their Buzzin' Bee Honey Rye Wheat Ale. It has a pinch of sweetness and a bite of rye and I could drink a dozen if 4 or 5 didn't put me on my ass.

There are tons of other Jacksonville breweries including many small new ones, but the other big player in town is Intuition Ale Works. I'd say they're more of the drinkable IPA type beer brewer and their Jon Boat epitomizes that.

I guess I should let that be enough now, and just list off some of my favorites.

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JAX, FL based brewers:

Bourbon barrel-aged Roxy cream ale from Bold City Brewery (original location only, not distributed)

Duke's Cold Nose Brown from Bold City

Buzzin' Bee from Veterans United

Ragin' Blonde from Veterans United

Count Shakula from Green Room

Other FL brewers:

Miami Weiss by MIA Beer Company

Floridian by Funky Buddha

Orange Blossom Honey Pilsner by Orange Blossom Brewing

Jai Alai by Cigar City

Maduro Brown by Cigar City

Margarita Gose by Cigar City

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