Drinking Thread: Three Sheets To The Wind

[MissThundercat]

Short's has a lovely hop water.

And I discovered that Liquid Death more than makes up for sparkling wine and champagne.

[RENCEB]

Got a bottle of Empress 1908 Indigo Gin from my sister in law for my birthday this summer. Excellent. Just enough juniper and makes a beautiful lavender gin and tonic.

[MissThundercat]

My roommate mixed Jim Beam and grape juice last night, then wondered why she didn't feel so well.

[MissThundercat]

I found a ginger beer from the UK that I like, good enough to drink as it is.

[Slap Shot]

Enjoying a single malt and stumbled upon a Bigfoot debate in which someone provided a classic Mitch Hedberg quote:

I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.

[dxmnkd316]

Not really?

Big cities are privileged because they've earned it. There are a dozen great breweries in MSP and I can't name a brewery in Alabama much less one in Birmingham. It's not a beer destination if you can't name a brewery in the state. It's a click hole ****post.

Put it this way, if you're going to put a list of 25 museums to see works of art, you aren't going to put a city on it that has one picture from the purple or red ninja turtle and leave off Madrid or Florence. Like, it's a bad list. Which is fine.

Could you find a good beer there? Yep! Is it a beer destination? Nope! It's a place you find a good beer in because you're there for another reason.

Boston has Trillium and is close enough to Tree House.
Grand Rapids has a million breweries.
Ashville is the brewing capital of the SE
Denver hosts the GABC.
Detroit has about a dozen breweries I'd make a trip for alone. Smooj, Schramms, HOMES, etc
the twin cities has Barrel Theory, Blackstsck, Back Channel, Falling Knife, and Surly (even if they've fallen off since Todd left). you could even include the someehat short drive to Rochester to get Forager.
San Diego has some of the biggest craft names
Hell, Vermont has about ten in a state the size of a county.

If you want a list, take the top fifty breweries on Untappd and draw 50-mile circles around each. Now do the next 150 breweries and find the ten circles with the most dots.

[Kepler]

I'd still out Denver, Grand Rapids, and Asheville a head above the rest. San Diego, Boston, and Detroit too maybe. That the twin cities wasn't included is absolutely laughable. I'd never include Indy, Birmingham, Columbus, Ithica, Charleston on my must visit beer lists. I couldn't name more than two breweries from any and Birmingham I couldn't name one.

You're privileging big cities, and that's not the point of this list. Obviously, big cities have many options -- this is about being surprisingly strong. Otherwise, the top 5 cities on every list, ever, would be: Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Los Angeles. For that reason I think Denver should be dropped.

Also, I'm not taking this as a list of the places with the breweries, but the places with the best beer culture. They aren't necessarily the same.

I've been to most of those places and I would put Portland far above all the rest. Indianapolis really surprised me when I was there, since it is one of the few places that is both a Dilettante and Mouthbreather paradise at the same time. I've heard San Antonio is like that, too.

The others I would include: Flagstaff AZ, Hood River OR, Frederick MD, Burlington VT, Santa Fe NM, Durham NC.

Michigan seems to suffer from having their breweries scattered all over the place, like Upstate New York.

[dxmnkd316]

Grand Rapids came up at my work as a decent place to find craft beers. Is this a real thing? When I hear Grand Rapids I think of (1) furniture, (2) Van Andel, and, thanks to reports on the Cafe, (3) racist hayseeds.

Edit: Huh. It is indeed noted here.

1. Portland
2. Asheville
3. Denver
4. Grand Rapids (?!)
5. Charleston
6. Indianapolis
7. Columbus
8. Austin
9. Birmingham
10. Ithaca

I'd still out Denver, Grand Rapids, and Asheville a head above the rest. San Diego, Boston, and Detroit too maybe. That the twin cities wasn't included is absolutely laughable. I'd never include Indy, Birmingham, Columbus, Ithica, Charleston on my must visit beer lists. I couldn't name more than two breweries from any and Birmingham I couldn't name one.

[Kepler]

Parent, a white man, participated in Dillard’s interview process and remembered former general manager Emily Habib “commenting that it would be ‘great optics’ to hire someone of color,” he wrote.

“I was shocked by the comment as I was employed throughout Founders’ previous lawsuit involving racial discrimination,” he wrote, referring to the lawsuit Founders settled with former Detroit taproom employee Tracy Evans, a Black man, in 2019.

Holy hell, they are stupid.

[MissThundercat]

You have my attention. Care to elaborate? Is this a noteworthy type of racism or just the type that is endemic between 80 and 120 degrees West latitude in the US?

They were slapped with a racial lawsuit in 2019 and again in 2023.

https://www.brewbound.com/news/found...ation-lawsuit/

[Kepler]

Founders (stay for the racism!)

You have my attention. Care to elaborate? Is this a noteworthy type of racism or just the type that is endemic between 80 and 120 degrees West latitude in the US?

[MissThundercat]

Grand Rapids came up at my work as a decent place to find craft beers. Is this a real thing? When I hear Grand Rapids I think of (1) furniture, (2) Van Andel, and, thanks to reports on the Cafe, (3) racist hayseeds.

Edit: Huh. It is indeed noted here.

Grand Rapids: Founders (stay for the racism!), Perrin, The Mitten, Long Road Distillery, Jolly Pumpkin, Atwater, New Holland (The Knickerbocker is great), and several others.

[Kepler]

Grand Rapids came up at my work as a decent place to find craft beers. Is this a real thing? When I hear Grand Rapids I think of (1) furniture, (2) Van Andel, and, thanks to reports on the Cafe, (3) racist hayseeds.

Edit: Huh. It is indeed noted here.

1. Portland
2. Asheville
3. Denver
4. Grand Rapids (?!)
5. Charleston
6. Indianapolis
7. Columbus
8. Austin
9. Birmingham
10. Ithaca

[MissThundercat]

A few months ago, Alt City opened up in Grand Rapids. It's an N/A spirit shop and I'm eager to get over there and check it out.

They're only open 4 days a week though.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Trying to come up with a mocktail for coffee and drawing a massive blank. Any ideas?

Espresso and tonic. It's not for everyone, but I think it is a surprisingly good, n/a brunch alternative to the classic G&T. It's also a highball, so really simple and easy to make.

I do want to try this though.