What beer are we drinking this week? Episode 3

ben.schlomo

Ryath wrote: »

krustydoyle wrote: »

No it was well in date lads.. Just didn't get much flavour off it.. Maybe i got a bad bottle

I enjoyed it nice but no where near as good as the regular Torpedo

Just picked up two Leann Folain barrel aged in Supervalue bit pricey I thought at €12.99 it wasn't any where near that price last year was it? Has a €6 off voucher so took the sting out if it a bit.

Any other Imperial or aged stouts around in the shops? Will get 200 fanthoms when it appears and hopefully some Lagunitas Cappuccino stout and Founders CBS

Rascals have a barrel aged stout can available. I've never had anything good from them but bought this to see if my mind can be changed on them.

Ipso

krustydoyle wrote: »

Just had a bottle of Sierra Nevada Tropical Torpedo.. It was bland as feck

It’s a very nice beer, but calling it Tropical is very misleading.

krustydoyle

Ipso wrote:

It’s a very nice beer, but calling it Tropical is very misleading.

Maybe I was expecting something else so

Antrim_Man

sceach16 wrote: »

Spent a couple of days In Skibbereen last week. A craft beer desert in terms of pubs (in fairness, the Murphy's was very good) but Supervalu had good range of local bottles.


Anyway from the 9whitedeer brewery in Ballyvourney, Stag Saor is a range of gluten free beers, Trying them over a few days. First was their stout with double chocolate and Madagascan vanilla. 500 ml 4.2% 3 for 10 euro in offies in West Cork



It was lovely rich fullbodied. Enjoyed it very much.

Fantastic stout on tap

Antrim_Man

https://www.reddit.com/r/beer/comments/9z3iw5/former_trillium_employee_shares_secrets_of_the/


Former Trillium employee shares secrets of the company. From a deleted BA post
Former employee of trillium:


I thought about making an alt account to respond to this because trillium knows my username and actively monitors social media for employee posts. In fact, social media posts are part of the reason I was terminated. Hopefully I don't get sued lol. BTW you don't need to tag @JCTetreault, he and the social media team read this daily. You'd actually be surprised how much they pay attention and respond internally to issues addressed in this thread. Maybe this will will be the tipping point that improves quality of life for the employees. I doubt it.

I can say that everything posted about employee wages and benefits being cut is true. JC and Esther have absolutely no respect for the people working for them, all they care about is $$$. Guess you can't really blame them, it is a business after all. They are well aware of the fact that people want the "prestige" of working for a top brewery and are willing to be underpaid to build the resume. You can probably count on one hand the number of people who have lasted more than 3 years. Trillium started paying $5/hr instead of $8/hr to new retail staff right around the time the greenway first opened, so this isn't just because of the restaurant. However, any longstanding employees of the Congress st location were indeed given a pay cut for their years of service.

Let me say that again, after working for trillium for 3+ years, employees were (after interviewing for the jobs they already had) offered $3/hr less to work the exact same job across the street. That may not sound like a lot, but that is a 37.5% cut that would be ~$6000 a year for full time staff.

At the end of the day, this is not illegal, it's just ****ty. Trillium has however been involved with at least one blatantly illegal practice. Did you guys ever try the frozen Mexican sunrise beer? Ever wonder how they got that distinct tequila flavor? Lots of customers did too and let me tell you it was awkward as hell having to skirt that question or outright lie to the customers. At first we were telling customers that it was a wild ale aged in tequila barrels, but then customers started asking which barrels we were using. I asked the general manager, Matt Gartska what barrels we aged the beer in and his response, "Idk dude just make something up!" If you haven't figured it out yet, there were no tequila barrels. They straight up dumped tequila into the kegs. I'm no lawyer, but I know that us illegal. Trillium knows it too because eventually they just told us to stop acknowledging the tequila flavor or to tell the customers it was "brewers magic".

Speaking of those frozen beers, did you ever wonder how they made money on them? Probably not because you assume people ordered them, they didn't. Trillium wasn't concerned however because those slushies were made with leftover beer that had too much trub to sell in a glass. Hell some of the times it was just low fill bottles they couldn't sell (oxidation, etc.) but throw enough fruit juice in their and people will love it! Remember cellar Sunday samples? Those ended when they realized they could sell misfills as frozen bs instead. Yes those samples you tried were beers not good enough to sell.

While we're on the subject of beer not fit to sell, let's talk about growlers. Trillium growlers are almost exclusively filled with beer from trub kegs. For those that don't know, trub is the hop/yeast particulate that settles on the bottom of the fermenter. All the "good" beer goes into cans and taproom kegs. The last few kegs of each batch are full of trub and those get allocated to growlers.

Part of the reason that growlers are not for sale the same day as cans is that those trub kegs need to sit for a couple days so that the trub settles on the bottom. Then you can fill a good number of growlers until you hit the really gross stuff. How is it determined if it's good enough? A manager taste tests it until the burn goes away. Yes I'm serious. Hopefully this ends the can vs growler debate, the growlers are decidedly inferior product. I guess if you like a more raw hop/vegetal slightly astringent flavor then by all means go for the growlers.

This post is already long enough, so I'll end it here. If you have any more questions, AMA!

schemingbohemia

Eh - who are Trillium and why is this in this thread?

OOnegative

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Eh - who are Trillium and why is this in this thread?

https://amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/11/trillium-brewing-co-is-being-raked-over-the-coals.html

schemingbohemia

Can we even get Trillium beers here and is anyone drinking them this week?

ianob7

schemingbohemia wrote:

Can we even get Trillium beers here and is anyone drinking them this week?

Only ever seen a Collab once before with cloudwater.. it was a glorious triple IPA

BaZmO*

ianob7 wrote: »

Only ever seen a Collab once before with cloudwater.. it was a glorious triple IPA

Beavertown had a collaboration with them last year, Beaverillium

ianob7

BaZmO* wrote:

Beavertown had a collaboration with them last year, Beaverillium

Good shout Bazmo ..forgot about that one

VW 1

O Brother Joe and a Firestone Walker IPA in Rathmines Taphouse.

Lovely stuff.

Had a 2017 KBS and a 2017 200 Fathoms the other night, was too late to make the off licence so had to dig into the reserves.

I love stout.

JoeLapira

Had a can of Ranchero Rauchbier from Wicklow Wolf last night, it smelled and tasted like a bag of Smoky Bacon Tayto which I found a little weird but also quite enjoyable.

Have Mechanical Turk and Shanco Dubh, from Brehon Brewhouse, lined up for the weekend.

BeerNut

VW 1 wrote: »

Rathmines Taphouse.

Ranelagh?

Insect Overlord

Anyone able to suggest where I might be able to pick up this year's barrel-aged Leann Folláin in the Limerick area? I tried asking O'Hara's on Twitter but haven't had a response yet.

Also interested in the latest specials from 8 Degrees if anybody knows their whereabouts too.

BaZmO*

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Anyone able to suggest where I might be able to pick up this year's barrel-aged Leann Folláin in the Limerick area? I tried asking O'Hara's on Twitter but haven't had a response yet.

Also interested in the latest specials from 8 Degrees if anybody knows their whereabouts too.

8 Degrees specials are in Molloys

VW 1

BeerNut wrote: »

Ranelagh?

Indeed, southside geography isnt my strong point apparently!

Hotblack Desiato

Had an 8 Degrees Hurricane, 8 Degrees Full Irish and White Hag Bran & Sceolan last night.

Wasn't too impressed by any of them.

OOnegative

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

8 Degrees Full

Wasn't too impressed by any of them.

Would be one of my favourite beers, different horses and all that.

VW 1

Went all belgian this evening, rochefort 10, straffe hendrik, st bernardus 12, delirium red, brugse zot dubbel and a kwak 750ml.

The missus is getting into beer and conveniently she loves everything belgian but not ipas or stouts. Having fun watching her taste buds and range of likes grow.

OOnegative

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30540/115718/

Could get used to these stouts/porter as this one calls itself. Toffee taste from it, very very drinkable.

Insect Overlord

Winter has finally arrived! By which, of course, I mean that stouts and porters are back on tap.

Tonight I've sampled Winter Stout (Porterhouse) and West Coast Speedball (Galway Bay). Both lovely, although I think I prefer the coffee flavours of the latter.

Might have a glass of 8 Degrees' Blowhard as well before the night is over.

the beer revolu

VW 1 wrote: »

Went all belgian this evening, rochefort 10, straffe hendrik, st bernardus 12, delirium red, brugse zot dubbel and a kwak 750ml.

The missus is getting into beer and conveniently she loves everything belgian but not ipas or stouts. Having fun watching her taste buds and range of likes grow.

Sounds like it's time to introduce flemish red./browns! In my experience women are far more open to beer being sour than men are.

Hotblack Desiato

OOnegative wrote: »

Would be one of my favourite beers, different horses and all that.

I have a bad cold at the moment (actually for weeks now ) so the old taste buds may not be at full efficiency!

VW 1

the beer revolu wrote: »

Sounds like it's time to introduce flemish red./browns! In my experience women are far more open to beer being sour than men are.

She's tried some geuze beers when we were in Bruges that didn't go down well at all at all, may revisit at some point though.

Still remember my own journey, cider to carlsberg, to english ales, stouts and then to IPAs.

Still don't have any fancy for sours or smoked stouts, and can very much take or leave saisons or wheatbeers.

Given a deathbed choice it would be a barrel aged imperial stout.

kev1.3s

Had a couple of bottles of blacks rocket ship and was a little dissapointed, nice enough flavour but not as robust as expected, poor head retention.

Insect Overlord

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Might have a glass of 8 Degrees' Blowhard as well before the night is over.

Didn't get to try it on draught yet, but from a bottle it's majestic. They toot their own horn in the description on the label, but gawd-damn-it they've earned the right to do so. A super Imperial barrel-aged stout.

colly10

I’ve been drinking 2 New England IPA’s by Lervig for most of the year. Looks like O’briens stopped stocking them. Would anyone know of any New England IPA’s that they’d recommend?

BeerNut

colly10 wrote: »

Would anyone know of any New England IPA’s that they’d recommend?

Rascals Foggy Juice is worth trying.

schemingbohemia

Had the Redmonds/Dot Brew Mad Imperial Stout - really liked the Madeira aspect, would have liked a bit more bitterness to the stout element but very nice, would get again.