Official HB Good Beer Thread

Lucky Bucket's new Oktoberfest impressed me as well.
Hmm...must try this...

JJHusker, Latitude 48 is a thoroughly mediocre IPA. Of all the Sam Adams products I've tried, Octoberfest is the only good one.
The Octoberfest is definitely the best of their brews that I've had but Boston Lager and the Dunkelweizen are both extremely good beers IMO. In fact, SA Boston Lager and NB Fat Tire are the 2 beers that I refuse to run out of at home. For some reason I was not expecting much out of their Lat 48 IPA even before you said it was mediocre. I love really good IPA's but have had many more IPA's that weren't very good at all. I think a lot of a persons IPA preference has to do with the hops used. Of course the beer itself needs to be right but high hop brews are greatly influenced by a persons particular tastes for bitterness, aroma, and flavor. There are certain varieties of hops that I like and some that I just plain don't care for. Being a home brewer, it is amazing how much you can change a beer with the type, timing, and amount of hops used.

 
Boston Lager isn't bad for sure. Just not something I would go raving on about.

Fat Tire is my go-to pretty much everywhere

 
Is New Belgian Abbey worth driving 50 miles for?
I would say yes, especially if that 50 miles gives you access to more good beers that you can take home with you. IIRC you don't have ready access to many of the beers mentioned in this forum so, yeah, I'd make the drive. Abbey is pretty amazing. The only times I have ever had it were directly from the New Belgium brewery in Ft Collins so hopefully it doesn't lose anything in the bottling &transportion process. I'd feel bad if you made the trip and didn't like it but I don't think that's likely.

 
Anyone had Boulevard's new 80 acre wheat?? Just made it to Chicago this week but I haven't had a chance to grab one yet.

Brand_80_Acre_Hoppy_Wheat.jpg
Randomly ended up at a bar in Omaha the first night they had it and had a great deal on it. I liked it better than the Boulevard Wheat, which is pretty overrated in the region IMO.
I completely agree regarding Unfiltered Wheat. I like it but I remember thinking it was the best beer ever. That was before I moved to Chicago, an incredible place for microbrews. Very interested to try the 80 acre though. Thanks for the input.

 
boulevard-unfiltered-wheat.jpg


I drank this stuff all summer. And it is awesome!!

I see the post two above for Boulevard 80-Acre Wheat two posts above. Nice!

 
Tried Lucky Bucket's Octoberfest and Empyrean's Aries Marzen last night.

The LB is ok . . . but not nearly as good as Sam Adams Octoberfest.

Empyrean's Marzen was (I don't even like typing this! great company, good people) probably the worst beer that I've had in the last year. Just . . . bad. Yuck.

 
My go-tos, for the most part, are Empyrean Ale's Dark Sky Vanilla Porter (love the flavor) and Third Stone Brown, or more regularly, New Belgium's 1554. If 1554 is around, that's what I'm drinking. Smoothest dark I've ever tasted, and the chocolate comes across VERY nicely. Other than that, I'll give anything a go as far as beers at least once.

 
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