Craft Beer anyone?

Anyone else on the forum dabble in the craft beer world? My hubs and I have been getting into the community more and more - living where we do, we have a few really good breweries nearby that we like to visit often. We recently went to a new beer release event at a local brewery in which we arrived at 3AM in the MORNING and were still 191 and 192 in line. Super chill crowd though, everyone sharing tastes and swapping different beer, and all there to enjoy the time.

I didn't like IPAs until about a year ago, and have had to develop the taste, but really enjoy the community and the people we've met. Plus, we enjoy travelling and we've found we really enjoy searching down breweries in the places we travel to. Some are great, some are not so great, but again, usually it's the people that make it fun.

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I looooove beer! My waistline, not so much. You’re in a better area to find breweries than myself. Mississippi is way behind the times but working slowly to catch up. I usually have to drive to Tuscaloosa or Birmingham if I want to do some hop shopping or hit any breweries


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Before I got sober I started getting into craft beers. Working as a bartender at a private country club I had a lot of experience with wine, which I really enjoyed. Then the craft beer market started to boom (This was probably 10-12 years ago).
I always loved beer, but to see people enjoying and appreciating the craftsmanship that goes into certain styles and flavor was a no-brainer. I was in!
I was always a stout and porter guy, with milk stouts being my go-to whenever possible.

My brother has been working with beer directly for probably 8 years now. He was also a bartender before working at a few breweries and then getting into sales, where he specilzes in craft beers. He was the brand ambassador for MA for one brewery for a while.

So I kinda keep up with the trends through him. That market has EXPLODED in the 6+ years I've been sober. Within the last few years I've felt comfortable having ONE sip of a few of his beers, just because I still enjoy the taste of a great beer. Evey time I see him he's drinking something different. Apparently brand loyalty is a thing of the past, people want to try everything rather than stick to a brand they love. It's a very interesting and fickle market.

Enjoy a stout for me! Salut!

The culture and community are something else.

My hubs and I actually do a lot of trading. Most of that in the pic is from our local brewery, but we’ll probably only drink one or two of each. We trade around with folks from New York (Other Half Brewing), Massachusetts (TreeHouse), Denver (Weldworks), and the northern part of our own state... we love to drive up to Windmill and Three Floyd’s when we get the chance, of over to Ohio for Rhinegeist or Hoof Hearted... and almost forgot but LOVE Southern Grist in Nashville, TN.

Each location is super unique and has its own vibe, and once folks know you’re interested, you’ve got a conversation going. We met some folks at the recent 450 release who were there at 3AM with us... never even got their names but they offered us cans and we offered back and talked beer and music and everything else under the sun.


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ALWAYS!

My wife and I love the brew pubs.

Here in MN they are popping up everywhere.

We started exploring them in Colorado a few years ago. We just went to and finished in Breckenridge a few days ago.

How's this for a background?
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My wife and I completed a long mountain hike and stopped for a little "hydration" LOL!
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I rarely if ever respond to non-snake related posts, however you have found another hobby I enjoy, well done.

Also I agree about the IPA acquired taste. AND,,, once you get into them, a lot of the other beers just don't stack up.

We do like raspberry and other fruit beers and some sours.

We just had a great coconut IPA yesterday back her in MN.

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Originally Posted by Gio

Also I agree about the IPA acquired taste. AND,,, once you get into them, a lot of the other beers just don't stack up.

We do like raspberry and other fruit beers and some sours.

We just had a great coconut IPA yesterday back her in MN.

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I've found a few sours I enjoy and lately the Berliner Weiss (particularly from 450 North) fruit beers. Sorry Craig... stouts are a wee bit heavy for me, though we just tried a cookies and cream that wasn't bad at all. :)

usually not for me but i had a sour beer a few weeks ago...not bad at all!

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We have an artisan /local deli type store called "Brown & Green" on site in the garden centre where I work and they sell some amazing local produced food and drinks including a large selection wines/spirits and beers
Yes they not the cheepest but make great presents
They used to have a beer called rock python, that was really nicehttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...c70370bc88.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a8d6dd355c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6604ead318.jpg

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i <3 beer! we have plenti-o craft beers and microbrews in the Pac NW. my favs are browns and ambers and i work my way up to IPA's b/c i don't wanna blow out my taste buds too fast. i just got back from Montana and sampled some of their stuff. they are big into huckleberry and smokiness over there and their breweries can't serve u more than 4 drinks each before 8pm lol.

When I was a kid growing up in Milwaukee, we always took the out of town visitors to one of the big three breweries (Pabst, Miller, Schlitz). As part of one of the tours, they always talked about the number of breweries in the US before Prohibition versus the number of present day (1970s & 1980s back then). With the craft brewery explosion of the past 10-20 years, the brewing industry across America is much akin to what the landscape was before Prohibition. Kind of simiar to what I experienced living in Germany...there were a lot of local breweries in the small towns that would be akin to a craft brewery today.