It might be spamming if I write about every new beer I try, but had this one today and it was fantastic. Apologies for the Ikea glass 
Just found this thread.
I moved to the Niagara region of Canada about 8 years ago (from the middle of Canada). Niagara has a very good alcohol scene.
Many fantastic craft breweries, a craft distillery, and a hundred or so wineries, all within about a 20min drive from my house give or take.
I’ve had a membership at the craft distillery previously. They mainly make a lot of gin and flavoured gins, but also make vodka, rye, absinthe and a bunch of other stuff. It’s all very good. This is them:
Luckily, my wife is also super into it, so we basically have a bottle of pretty much everything they’ve ever made.
I’ve frequented a lot of the craft breweries in the area. I have a membership at one of them. They’re all very good. some different styles. The one I’m currently a member at has a very good sour program, and I’ve been on a big sour kick for the last couple years.
For the wine lovers (especially the Pinot Noir guys), I implore you to check out some Niagara. If you like wines from Burgundy and Oregon, draw a straight line between the two, and you’ll see Niagara runs right through that line. I have a membership at two local wineries, but I’ve frequented a handful that I really like. I’ve tasted/toured at probably 40+ of the wineries here.
Niagara is definitely best known for their Pinot Noir, Chardonnays, Rieslings and Cab Francs (and ice wine). There’s a few other varietals that grow well here too.
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After the pubs had shut I used to often end up in a Mexican place called Break For The Border in central London because they made the most evil margueritas ever.
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This was posted in the CV thread but clearly belongs here too
https://twitter.com/ideasimprove/status/1238147829555757058?s=20
I purchase a lot of wine from a retailer in California and they hold it until the spring or fall shipping season when the temps make it safe to ship by ground. I currently have a shipment in transit worth several grand and I’m wondering if it’s going to make it here before everything gets locked down. I would rather lose the shipment and keep people safe, and probably should have just had the retailer hold the wines for another 6 months, but damn things have changed really fast in the last couple of days after I authorized them to make the shipment.
This was really wonderful.
Barrel-aged Barleywine aged on cherries. About 14% ABV and just fantastic to sip on while watching Frozen II with the family.
I think Revolution is probably one of the top 5 brewers in the country - just a killer line up of ales, stouts, and barleywines.
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Deth By Plums is one of my favorite bba beers ever. And I agree, revolution has easily surpassed goose island in Chicago and could certainly be in the running for top 5 in the US
Well my shipments made it safely here. I’m not going to even try to get them to my offsite storage which is 60 miles away, so hopefully my basement stays cool enough for a while as most of the bottles were purchased with the intent to age them. (And therefore a lot of them would not be very good if we drank them now.)
But in the big picture it’s hard to give a shit about what happens to these bottles considering what’s going on in the world ATM.
How many Frozen 2 viewings is it now?
Just one so far! General consensus was that it was fine, but I don’t think anyone wants to watch it again in the near future. Good news - Disney is releasing ‘Onward’ to Disney+ next month instead of putting it out in theaters.
Anyway, I have a feeling I’m going to be significantly eating into my stash over the next several weeks, which is a good thing. Especially if it means opening up “special” beers that I was holding for an unspecified special occasion. Last night, an absolute BANGER from 2014:
A lot of beers don’t hold up well to storing, so I’m sure I’m going to experience some disappointments in the near future. But this was the opposite - I’m so happy that I’ve got a ton of gueuze just sitting around getting older and better.
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We haven’t really been in the mood to drink much the past few weeks, especially since for us drinking is a celebration rather than a coping mechanism. In any case, tonight we decided to crack a few bottles.
For the first bottle, we decided to crack a bottle of champagne that was made in a simpler time, before we realized how fucked up everything was and when we still believed the USA was a force for good in the world.
Was delicious with a homemade flatbread pizza.
Trying to remember to be thankful for what we have. Rather than bitter and hateful and remorseful, which is my normal mood lately.
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Looks like a nice evening! 
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Tonight getting into one of our older bottles: 1989 P. Licht-Bergweiler Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Auslese
Honestly, Rieslings are not my thing. Especially off-dry to sweet examples. I prefer dry Rieslings from Alsace, France, WA or NY. I believe Germany has dry Rieslings as well, but trying to figure out the labeling is challenging. This one is off-dry and has the classic aged petrol profile with a decent level of acidity remaining but not much fruit left. It also may be very slightly corked (TCA) but I can’t seem to tell for sure. My wife says it isn’t corked but what does she know?
Second bottle will be 2016 Rhys Alesia Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast.
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I discovered, to my delight, that a local brewery does free home deliveries. This is my favourite brew at the moment so got 3 of these 5ltr beauties delivered.
They threw in a 50 question pub quiz as well
A couple of my buddies did the same and we had a zoom pub/games night yesterday. Worked a treat
Polished off a keg last night, feeling fairly low key this morning.
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Split a half bottle of Krug Grand Cuvee Brut (167 eme) with the wife for my birthday dinner tonight. Not one of the premier eme’s, but every vintage of this stuff is fantastic imo.
This quarantine experience has exposed the fact that I have a ton of beers I’ve accumulated that I really shouldn’t have. My basement office/beer room is basically filled with a bunch of stouts/old ales and Belgian lambics, but on most days I just want to grab a fresh IPA. Now that I’m not bouncing out to the store to get a 6-pack of IPAs at a moment’s notice, I’m going through the older stuff and it’s really been hit or miss. I think a big part of it is that I’ve really lost the taste/tolerance for high ABV beers.
A quick rundown:
2014 Parabola - a Hall of Fame barrel-aged stout. I couldn’t come close to finishing the bottle, despite the fact that it’s historically been one of my favorite stouts. Super disappointing. I don’t know if it aged badly or if I’m aging badly.
Struise Dark Horse Reserva - I thought this was revolting. I think it’s supposed to be a Flanders Red, but it was so sour that I couldn’t stomach more than a few sips. This was essentially me lighting money on fire since I had it shipped from Belgium. Oh, and I still have another bottle.
Drie Fonteinen Golden Blend Geuze - Bottled in 2014. Amazing. No ragrets.
Founders Espresso KBS - This sounds and smells good. Even the first sip is good. But it’s too much coffee. The base KBS is already a delicious coffee stout; I don’t think this is an improvement.
Drie Fonteinen Geuze - Another banger. I’m not upset at all with all the geuze I have in here.
Wolf’s Ridge Coffee Lil’ Nippert - A coffee, barrel-aged barleywine from my favorite Columbus OH brewery. This is about the only high ABV beer I’ve enjoyed recently. Super delicious.
2013 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot - A classic barleywine that’s just been sitting in my beer fridge forever as I grab something else. Surprisingly good!
Dechutes Anniversary Beers and a Barrel-aged Victory at Sea - 3 different barrel-aged stouts that I opened tonight and didn’t like any of them. So all got dumped down the sink after only a few sips each. Just a series of enormous disappointments, totalling more than 50 ounces of wasted expensive beer.
And my beer fridge appears to have kicked the bucket, which is super irritating, no matter how unimportant it is in the grand scheme of things.
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