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Beer snob thread!

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browniebob said:
Blue Door and Catalina's in Columbus are two of the best breakfast places I've ever been to.

I've been meaning to check out Crooked Pecker. Do they have a go to style, or a specific beer that I should try to get from them?

Masthead is such a cool spot. I grabbed some of their Jalopeno IPA early on in quarantine and loved it. It would have been so easy to overdo a beer like that, but the spice and jalopeno flavor were perfectly subtle. Great pizza too.
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I concur with TheLand that Crooked Pecker is thus far best with NEIPA, and they do it very well. But even overall I'm more hyped about them than any other smaller NE Ohio brewery currently. A long way from contending with Jackie O's as my favorite, but they're keeping me interested.
 
browniebob said:
Nice! Northern Brewer is where I've gotten most of my 1 gallon kits. I've found that after priming let the bottles sit for longer than the 2 weeks that they specify. 3-4 would be better. After only 2 weeks my beers usually have a thin, almost "cidery" feel to them. Going longer seems to really help carbonate the beers and the mouth feel really improves.

Craft a Brew has some kits that I want to try next. I really want to try my hand at a NEIPA after having some success with traditional west coast varieties.
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Hmm interesting. I will most likely give one a try after two weeks, partially because I am impatient and also because I am curious if I'll be able to notice a difference when I try one a few weeks later. 5 gallons made plenty of beer for us - 12 22-oz bombers and 26 12-oz bottles, so we will have plenty of beer that is properly carbonated even if 2 weeks isn't enough! Let us know how the NEIPA goes once you start on it!

I bought a 1-gallon kit and it should be arriving tomorrow as a matter of fact. Northern Brewer's Dead Ringer IPA. My favorite go-to beer is Two Hearted and based on what I read the Dead Ringer is supposed to mimic Two Hearted. I would like to try my hand at an IPA.

Question for both you and @bob2the2nd : Do you guys mostly stick with kits that come with all the ingredients already? Have you ever "freestyled" a beer where you picked out what extract, steeping grains, and hops you wanted to use? After a few more kits I've thought about making my own IPA where I pick everything out. I've looked up a few extract IPA recipes online and have an idea what DME would work well, but I thought I'd ask you both in case you have any tips for me.
 
selby56 said:
Hmm interesting. I will most likely give one a try after two weeks, partially because I am impatient and also because I am curious if I'll be able to notice a difference when I try one a few weeks later. 5 gallons made plenty of beer for us - 12 22-oz bombers and 26 12-oz bottles, so we will have plenty of beer that is properly carbonated even if 2 weeks isn't enough! Let us know how the NEIPA goes once you start on it!

I bought a 1-gallon kit and it should be arriving tomorrow as a matter of fact. Northern Brewer's Dead Ringer IPA. My favorite go-to beer is Two Hearted and based on what I read the Dead Ringer is supposed to mimic Two Hearted. I would like to try my hand at an IPA.

Question for both you and @bob2the2nd : Do you guys mostly stick with kits that come with all the ingredients already? Have you ever "freestyled" a beer where you picked out what extract, steeping grains, and hops you wanted to use? After a few more kits I've thought about making my own IPA where I pick everything out. I've looked up a few extract IPA recipes online and have an idea what DME would work well, but I thought I'd ask you both in case you have any tips for me.
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I've just done kits. Probably 5 to 6 total so far, so I'm by no means an expert. My most recent was the Dead Ringer actually and it was hands down the best one I've done yet. I think a lot of that is chalked up to learning from my past mistakes.

The only "freestyling" that I've done so far is adding the majority of the malt extract at the very end of the Dead Ringer boil instead of all up front. I was hoping this would lead to a lighter color and less caramel flavors to let the hops shine through easier. Without doing a back to back it's difficult to know if it did much but the resulting beer was good. It doesn't seem like it did much to the color in such a small batch, but the taste is great. It's not as hoppy as real Two Hearted, but very balanced.

There are a bunch of 5 gallon and 1 gallon recipes online, so that might be a good first step to tinker with before making one completely from scratch.
 
Couch said:
I concur with TheLand that Crooked Pecker is thus far best with NEIPA, and they do it very well. But even overall I'm more hyped about them than any other smaller NE Ohio brewery currently. A long way from contending with Jackie O's as my favorite, but they're keeping me interested.
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Once it warms up I'd really like to go try some stuff from them.
 
TheLand1287 said:
I preordered a couple 4pks from Crooked Pecker and went there for the first time yesterday as well to pick them up. They do NEIPAs really well, it’s mainly what they’re known for. Had a few stouts from them in the past and they’re ok but nothing special. Unfortunately, due to how tiny their taproom is they’re not open due to covid. Just cans to go.
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Don't you know you're not allowed to be at Crooked Pecker and not notify me?! I mean, who doesn't want to meet an RCF stranger?? :chuckle:

Seriously, though.. I live like 8 minutes away from Crooked Pecker and their tap room is open again now. Being in Chagrin, I've been getting to know their owner/brewer and his family pretty well.
 
browniebob said:
I've just done kits. Probably 5 to 6 total so far, so I'm by no means an expert. My most recent was the Dead Ringer actually and it was hands down the best one I've done yet. I think a lot of that is chalked up to learning from my past mistakes.

The only "freestyling" that I've done so far is adding the majority of the malt extract at the very end of the Dead Ringer boil instead of all up front. I was hoping this would lead to a lighter color and less caramel flavors to let the hops shine through easier. Without doing a back to back it's difficult to know if it did much but the resulting beer was good. It doesn't seem like it did much to the color in such a small batch, but the taste is great. It's not as hoppy as real Two Hearted, but very balanced.
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Thanks for the tip. I'm excited about trying the Dead Ringer - I'm debating if i should begin brewing on Saturday since the waiting process is so long, or if I should try one of my ambers first to learn from any mistakes I may have made.

browniebob said:
There are a bunch of 5 gallon and 1 gallon recipes online, so that might be a good first step to tinker with before making one completely from scratch.
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That is what I've been doing for the last few days. I've found quite a few 1-gallon extract IPA recipes and most of them seem to have the same basic malt extract which is a good starting point. It seems from there it varies on what steeping grains and hop varieties are used. Perhaps I'll take one of these recipes and just pick out a few common hops I find in some of my favorite IPA's and go from there.
 
I had a Hazy Jude from Platform last night. I forgot how good that beer is. If you enjoy citrusy, juicy IPA's definitely add it to your list. I'd be curious to know how the AB acquisition has changed things behind the scenes there.
 
Brewed the Dead Ringer kit on Saturday. I was surprised how quick it took me to make it - the whole process took just over two hours. Fermentation has started, so now we wait. Good thing my amber ale is bottled and ready for drinking on Saturday!
 
selby56 said:
Brewed the Dead Ringer kit on Saturday. I was surprised how quick it took me to make it - the whole process took just over two hours. Fermentation has started, so now we wait. Good thing my amber ale is bottled and ready for drinking on Saturday!
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Hell yeah! I ordered a Hazy kit from Craft a Brew. It uses a dry malt vs the liquid extract so I'll report back on how that goes.

I think I'm going to swing by Crooked Pecker for the first time this weekend for some takeout beers and I want to get to Noble Beast to try their new smoked Helles Lager.
 
Have any of you made the drive to Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Fresno, Ohio? It's one of the most unique spots I've been to. They're a small, family owned brewery that specializes in traditional German beers and the whole spot is situated on a farm with, you guessed it, wooly pigs.

A lot of places overlook, or struggle with the simplicity of a good German lager, but they knock them out of the park. It's a great place to bring a lawn chair and relax in the summertime.
 
Soda said:
Don't you know you're not allowed to be at Crooked Pecker and not notify me?! I mean, who doesn't want to meet an RCF stranger?? :chuckle:

Seriously, though.. I live like 8 minutes away from Crooked Pecker and their tap room is open again now. Being in Chagrin, I've been getting to know their owner/brewer and his family pretty well.
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Haha! I would've for sure hit you up. Wouldn't be the first RCFer that I've met up with. Their taproom wasn't open at the time when we stopped there. Just stopped in to get some of the Straight out of Crooklyn cans to go. Which, that beer is delicious. I did see their taproom is now open which is surprising because it's tiny in there. I'm glad it's open though.
 
Still one of my favorites. Go grab some of the new Hop JuJu batch before it's gone.
 
browniebob said:
Bad look for Platform in their Columbus location. I'm curious if these issues were always lurking there, or if they're a result of the InBev acquisition

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I'm eager to see their response.

Hopefully the employees get positive change out of this. With such a small ownership/management structure, there are almost no barriers to change to speak of. They can put forward whatever policies they want.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
I'm eager to see their response.

Hopefully the employees get positive change out of this. With such a small ownership/management structure, there are almost no barriers to change to speak of. They can put forward whatever policies they want.
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They posted a written response on their social media pages, but it's the standard "we're actively looking into this, we take these issues seriously blah blah" template response. Curious to see their next steps.

When the acquisition was announced I was disappointed, but I thought it would at least be a good step for the employees. I assumed that they'd receive access to better benefits like healthcare, 401k plans etc with a huge company like InBev running the show. Apparently not which is super disappointing.
 
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