twelvepoint wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:52 pm

Krev wrote: Sun Dec 11, 2022 7:18 pm I have a bottle opener for some old Boston beer called Haffenreffer. Anyone ever try it? Pretty sure it went under before my time.

When I knew about it in the late 80s, it had transitioned into some truly awful malt liquor (with rebus puzzles under the caps!), and apparently it was contract brewed by Narragansett. Also by that time Sam Adams had taken over the brewery in Jamaica Plain, which was the first brewery tour I'd ever been to, though even then Sam Adams had outgrown the JP location and mostly just used it as a taproom.

There was another Boston beer called Brubaker that came in 16oz bottles and was most famously sold at Theater District drag bar Jacques.

Does anyone remember Glacier Bay (or maybe Arctic Bay?) - who had bottle openers built into the underside of the bottles?

I remember Haffenraffer as a god awful malt beverage "Brewed With Rum" with the rebus caps. Not great beer but they had a 1-800 number on the side of the box you could call if you couldn't figure out the rebus. We called it once just to see if anyone would really pick up, and indeed some lady answered at 3am and looked up the number code from a book.

I also remember the Glacier Bay with the built in openers!

Bell's made a great holiday beer called Sparkling Ale ages ago. It was really crisp and tasted like it was brewed with champagne yeast, but it clocked in at 9%. Haven't seen it in many years, maybe they still have it in Michigan.

Krev wrote: Sun Dec 11, 2022 7:18 pm I have a bottle opener for some old Boston beer called Haffenreffer. Anyone ever try it? Pretty sure it went under before my time.

Nope, but I have a couple of those “church key” type openers too. They’re branded for Philadelphia’s Ortlieb’s, which folded when I was a child, and Camden, NJ’s creatively-named Camden Beer, which I think was out of business well before I was born.

I’ve got an uncle who has an entire room devoted to Falstaff memorabilia.

Does Olympia still exist? I spent the better part of my twenties guzzling Oly.

Tree wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 4:30 pm Chainbreaker by Deschutes. It was a white IPA (AREN'T THEY ALL) and the first time I had a hazy IPA I thought it reminded me of Chainbreaker. Anyway, it's now a Heartbreaker as I certainly miss it.

I miss that too.

In Sudbury Ontario Canada there was a terrible brewery called Northern Brewing. They would, however, sell beer to a 17 year old as long as he showed up in a truck. This brewery had what we thought was normal everywhere, in what was called a 'Draft Ball'. It was a large plastic ball with a tap on it. You would see them discarded in ravines in the morning, or dragged by the hose late at night.
Apparently they were everywhere but I can't find that much record of it other than this
https://www.newyorkupstate.com/brewerie ... party.html

TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 9:50 pm In Sudbury Ontario Canada there was a terrible brewery called Northern Brewing. They would, however, sell beer to a 17 year old as long as he showed up in a truck. This brewery had what we thought was normal everywhere, in what was called a 'Draft Ball'. It was a large plastic ball with a tap on it. You would see them discarded in ravines in the morning, or dragged by the hose late at night.
Apparently they were everywhere but I can't find that much record of it other than this
https://www.newyorkupstate.com/brewerie ... party.html

Chicago had the Coors Party Ball. In high school one exploded in the back of my friend's car as we were cruising around Dazed and Confused-style searching for a kegger. Big mess.

These were a couple other "party ball" brands as well. I'm drawing a blank, but I remember buying them.

Been craving a Uinta Dubhe black IPA. Looks like they stopped making it. Also loved Pete's Wicked Ale as an underage drinker.

Urban Chestnut in St. Louis had a witbier called Pierre's Wit that they had on tap and sold in cans, but they don't make it anymore. It was one of the best beers I've ever had.

There is a brewery right down the street from my house. Troon Brewing. They make the most amazing hoppy IPAs, stouts, a few other things. They have a 5 barrel capacity, and the only put it in large cans (crowlers) or kegs. All the kegs go to the fancy bar/restaurant which owns the building they are in. All the cans are sold on a first come first served basis on the day they are released. They typically sell out in an hour, and you can only buy 2 cans per person.
Every release is a different beer, they never repeat. So every time you have a beer, that is the only time you can ever have that beer unless you buy 2 cans and save one for later. When the keg is gone in the bar, its gone.

Their list of beers in Untappd is absurd - it shows 321 beers, and I think that is just for the last 3 years.

Honorable mention to the Curiosity series by Tree House Brewing. The ones I have had were outstanding, but they keep moving forward. Also, their Juice Machine was one of their first big hits. They do bring it back once in a while (that's how I got it) but usually you can't get it.

motorbike guy wrote: Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:02 am Their list of beers in Untappd is absurd - it shows 321 beers, and I think that is just for the last 3 years.

I work for a brewery that will finish the year at about 170 different beers produced, so I feel their pain.

River North brewery in Denver used to bottle this imperial farmhouse called J. Marie and it's maybe my favorite beer ever. When I worked in Denver, they were on the way home to a point that stopping there meant turning my steering wheel 45 degrees to the right and applying the brake and I'd pick it up there, though it was in stores as well. To show how serious it is about gentrification, the city kicked them out to make room for luxury apartments; that's right, they removed one of the landmarks of gentrification to make way for an even bigger one. Anyway, as saisons began disappearing from shelves, they stopped bottling J. Marie. They moved to an industrial park, then back to the original street about ten blocks up and I guess it's on tap, but I don't work down there anymore so it's basically dead to me.