Taking Advantage of Quarantine Beer Shipping Policies

The unexpected benefit of being quarantined and not being able to visit tap rooms is that breweries are empowered, by desperation and by the relaxing of strict rules against it, to deliver and ship beer. Even as some states have relaxed guidelines to allow us to visit and drink in certain situations, the ever-persistent pandemic has us drinking most of our beer at home. 

Early on I ordered either pick-up, delivery, or whatever I could get from local breweries to try to support them as they struggled. My locals make great beer, so this is not particularly onerous. Most recently I picked up two very interesting beers from the Alementary in Hackensack, NJ called Sweet Summa’ Child, and #Staycation. Sweet Summa’ is a ‘hot, honey wheat ale’. Honey, Cayenne, citrus, meant as an ode to summer cuisine. Amazing. #Staycation is a gose, slightly tart, with pineapple, coconut and ginger. The ginger really makes this next level, as it lends some spiciness but also a warming sweetness too. Couple that with the tart, and the fruit, and I’m starting to wonder if eight was enough.

There are other breweries out there of course, ones in a larger radius from my home that I either like to visit, or would like to visit when I have the time. Now that it’s somewhat irresponsible to just hang out in public with others, I’ve been taking advantage of delivery or shipping options. Most recently, Magnify Brewing in Fairfield, NJ. Fairfield is not far from me, in fact I used to work there, but it’s outside my usual routine and requires a special trip, but you better believe that when they started offering beers for delivery, I jumped. I’ve been a fan of Magnify since inception, I visited their brewery within a few weeks of opening, met the owner and both his parents, and enjoyed the first beers they produced. 

Magnify makes a lot of beer, especially a lot of New England IPA, and they do a good job of it. Specifically, they’re one of the breweries that are, and this is as of yet unverified by me, nailing the ‘fruited gose’ style. Fruited beers, due to the unfermented sugar in the can and therefore the potential for that can to ferment, create CO2, and explode, are the latest hot button issue in the craft beer world, if you don’t count the ongoing failure of the Brewers Association to adequately address racism, which is absolutely a thing that is happening, but also one I don’t feel fully versed in discussing, but still wanted to mention. 

Fruited Gose. Is it a good idea for breweries to sell a product that you HAVE to keep refrigerated or it will explode? That’s the debate. A lot of it comes down to how you think about beer–is it a fresh produce type thing, like milk, where the consumer is expected to keep it cold, be aware of it’s expiration, and take responsibility for that? Or is this a beer too far, and breweries should absolutely not be selling dangerous exploding cans to potentially un-aware consumers? I have some thoughts, but I’d like to taste one of these beers first, which brings me back to Magnify.

Coming today, to my house, is a shipment of Magnify beers that includes Pastry Proof, a variation of their Trade Proof series, because you can’t trade a beer that’s going to explode in an unrefrigerated USPS truck. Pastry Proof is a heavily fruited smoothie style Gose inspired by berry pancakes. Conditioned on blueberry, blackberry, boysenberry and maple syrup. Thick and fruit forward. Roll the can before cracking! Interesting. I mean, who can argue with that? That sounds delicious. I’ll let you know. 

New York is much better than New Jersey with the ordering beer for shipping. Luckily, my parents still live in New York and will happily, though I can’t say I gave them a choice, accept beer deliveries for me, as I did with a shipment from Plan Bee earlier this year. Recently, I was alerted to the fact that Threes Brewing, a great brewery in Brooklyn that typically has other locals on tap when you visit and was the host for at least one BeerGraphs meetup, would also ship other brewery beers along with theirs on their site. This was all I needed to hear, and I quickly ordered their Short Fuse, and Oak Aged Smoked Helles, their Thought Experiment, their Dare to Know, and then Greenpoint’s Please Stand By, Folksbier, who I’d never tried but wanted to, Cucumber Lime Glow Up (this is a pickle beer. I repeat, this beer tastes like pickles), and Wild East’s Temperance. 

Thanks to quarantine I’ve gotten to try a lot of breweries and beers that I would’ve had to put extra effort into getting to otherwise, so I guess you could call this a silver lining. Hopefully testing ramps up, vaccines and treatments emerge, and we can all hoist a pint in person with our favorite breweries and people soon, but until then, appreciate the less-local breweries that will ship you amazing beer, and encourage them to keep doing it. 

 Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s finishing off a bottle of Japanese whiskey. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.

Beer Review:  Vanilla Bean Darkened Cherry Chai

This my weekly column of beer reviews. I try to give you a good taste of what’s out there and why I think it’s worth trying. This week I’m looking at the Glimpse of the Ocean beer from the new brewery in New Bern, NC. While the beer is a bit on the small side, it is a solid brew and well worth a try. I’m always excited to try new beers and so it was no surprise when Glimpse of the Ocean was one of the first beers to come through my door. When the beer arrived it was a bit of a surprise that the bottle was one-half of a double IPA. I’m not a huge fan of IPA’s but I do appreciate a good one so

 

Beer Name:Alchol
ABV 7.20
Style: American Brown Ale
Appearance: 3.5
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: DinahZAP
Review: Had a beer in a 3-ring bier glass. It was a dark brown color with a white head. It was VERY heavy and solid. Even though the beer contained about 2/3 of a pint. The head was almost a foot thick. The beer was almost falling apart. Most of the dank-ness in the nose was not detectable. There was so much stooppence to the smell I couldn’t smell it. The beer was creamy and smooth. I could feel the core of the beer as the brew became more solid and the head got thicker. The beer had a light taste to it. Overall, the beer was light but not off-putting. I would definately drink it again.

 

Beer Name:War of the Worlds
ABV 10.00
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Ithaca
Review: Wow! This was a really great beer. The beer is light in color, with a fairly large, fluffy, white head. This has a nice, sweet aroma of sour grapefruit. Even better, the ale feels a little bit like a sweet caramelly ales. The hop bitterness is quite pronounced with plenty of plum and grapefruit. This is a really good beer

 

Beer Name:Bitter & Twisted
ABV 8.00
Style: Belgian IPA
Appearance: 5
Aroma: 5
Palate: 5
Taste: 5
Overall: 5
Reviewer: Aromatic
Review: This is the second beer I really enjoyed from a beer company. I saw a few bottles in the Cantillon shop, so I figured I’d pop a few of these out after this. This is the first beer that I’ve tried that doesn’t qualify as a buttload of hops. The funky nose and flavor are not that impressive, but it’s got a lot going on. The spices and citrus juice notes with the hint of hoppy character are still quite present. The body is a bit thin, but it is well blended. Very pleasant and tasty.

 


note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together. I have not yet figured out how to train an algorithm to generate me beer photos.

Beer Review:  Northern Lights Miller Light Edge

This my weekly column of beer reviews. We are currently reviewing 14 beers in this column, ranging from Pilsner to IPA. These beers are all American-style ales, meaning they are brewed with American hops. We are not going to be reviewing an imperial stout, an imperial stout made with coffee, a wild ale, a lager, or a stout with coffee, because, well, they all suck. Instead, we are reviewing American-style ales, as that is what we like. These beers are generally easy drinking, easy to brew, easy to enjoy. The list is not exhaustive, but rather a starting point.
This week, we have a very strong one for you: Anheuser Busch

 

Beer Name:Aberdeen Porter
ABV 7.80
Style: American Porter
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: hellzmack
Review: This is the beer I drink when there’s a beer….gives a pictures

 

Beer Name:N’Ice Chouffe
ABV 5.00
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: TheMaestro
Review: This beer was definitely better than this, I had no idea this was a strong ale. I poured it in a Louis Vuitton tumbler glass (which was a good idea) and poured into a tulip glass (which was a bad idea). I was surprised that this beer featured such a cloudy nature. It was so dark that you could taste the alcohol but didn’t really know what it was.

 

Beer Name:Brewer’s Reserve Bourbon Barrel Barleywine
ABV 11.50
Style: Barleywine
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3
Overall: 3
Reviewer: Scotsman
Review: Got a big fat (but not very large) bottle and poured into a tumbler at a community meeting. Pours a dark pale with a big bevy of carbonation. Smells good, lots of bourbon, some banana and a light bit of dark

 


note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together. I have not yet figured out how to train an algorithm to generate me beer photos.

Beer Review:  Ortega Sulfur (Chocolate)

This my weekly column of beer reviews. If you are a beer geek, you will enjoy this column. If you are a beer snob, you will be in a state of confusion. If you are just a beer drinker, you may not understand what I am talking about. You can read about my review of the new Dogfish Head Sixty-Niner here .

Beer Name:Budweiser
ABV 4.70
Style: Saison
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3
Taste: 3
Overall: 4
Reviewer: RedWidow
Review: 12 oz bomber poured into a tulip. Pours a hazy yellow. Smells fish

 

Beer Name:Gouden Carolus Churchyard Porter
ABV 7.00
Style: German Porter
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: hooligan0478
Review: 12 oz bottle into a large New Belgium longneck glass. It pours a hazy copper, with a mocha head. The nose is dry, and hoppy. A little bit of a vanilla nose. There is a bit of a burnt toast taste to the coffee right from the start. The smoke is more of a nutty flavor, and not something that is something I would call a coffee flavor. It doesn’t have a great mouthfeel. The finish is dry, burning and a bit too much. This is a solid beer to sit alone in a glass. It is worth a try.

 

Beer Name:Swedish Nettle
ABV 4.70
Style: Session Beer
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 2.5
Palate: 3
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 3.5
Reviewer: rsraoney
Review: This beer looks like a Belgian lager. First off, the color is red, poison green, and has a large head. The head is nice, but the beer is split with a nice white lace, and the head is very tiny. The aroma is grainy and grassy with little nuttiness and light floral notes. The taste is sweet and malty, with a small, but large amount of grainy aftertaste. The mouthfeel is smooth, but the beer is thin and watery. Overall, this is a bad beer.

 

 


note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated via a machine learning algorithm. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together. I have not yet figured out how to train an algorithm to generate me beer photos.

Beer Review:  The ADK Ales by Kinetik

This my weekly column of beer reviews. You may have seen the little red flag above. That is the flag of an upcoming review. This week, I’m reviewing a beer that I’ve had several times, but never reviewed. The beer is My Favorite Thing From The Beer Store (MFTT). My Favorite Thing From The Beer Store is a 5.5% Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed by Goose Island. It’s a very different beer than the beer I’ve reviewed previously, but a good one. I’ll do my best to give it the full review treatment.

 

Beer Name:Union Farm Pale Ale
ABV 5.20
Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: BeerAdvocate
Review: 18oz brown bottle with a black label that has a picture of “Your Friend” underneath it all the time. Pours a nice amber with some carbonation. Lacing is good on this one. Smells a bit like a funky farm-beer. There’s some malty aroma but also some fruit like a spiced ginger ale. This flossy hop profile is there but not dominating. A bit of spice and zestyness are present

 

Beer Name:Let’s Get It!
ABV 12.00
Style: American Psycho
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Haddock
Review: You can tell this was the same beer that I had last night. I couldnt get any head on this beer, and I couldn’t get any lacing anywhere. The beer looks like a NON-tasted (at least from the bottle I had) beer, the head was somewhat thin and watery and only stuck around a little longer. The aroma was a definite hint of drugs, which I would expect from a strong beer that I had never had before. The taste was a bit oily, but also very sweet. The alcohol and the sweet beer really stopped me from enjoying it. The alcohol was noticable as I went down, and I could feel it. I like my beers to be a little on the watery side, but this one wasn’t much different compared to a sample bottle. The beer was a bit thin and much watery, and I don’t have a problem with it. I would recommend it to you guys however, I really enjoyed it, but I don’t know if you guys would enjoy it either.

 

Beer Name:Verche
ABV 5.00
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3
Overall: 3
Reviewer: Permafrost
Review: Pours a cloudy mahogany with no head, no lace. What little head there is is a little much, with some bubbly bubbles. The nose is strong and fruity

 

 


note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together. I have not yet figured out how to train an algorithm to generate me beer photos.