I enjoy @wrenhousebrewing and they remain what child therapists and economists call “an ongoing concern.” Despite their clear abilities in the strong ale game, they continue to dabble in the pastrynomicon. Thankfully they always err on the thinner side and even their massive beers feel more akin to shredded Baltic porters in body and hip range of motion. It’s like those chocolate malt flab masters who love residual platos and ABv dead lifts, wren takes the pastry realm in more of a lean mass with roasted mallow, bakers chocolate , but it’s more dry and coffee driven [inb4 Georgia sts dipshits have a meltdown] it feels like the 85% Whole Foods checkout cacao that waxy oddly lip smacking with a touch of Nestle chip. It doesn’t feel like straight up adjunct because it’s lean and shredded, it feels more like a european counterpart: sans the disgusting black patent malt overload. [cf. prime sharpie offender @mikkellerbeer ] its very good and the barrel presence is nuanced and imparts a ZERO bar shellac to things. @horusagedales hands are felt and it’s a hilarious Punnett square of their Mendelian genetics and the cross pollination works due to Drew’s dialing in and Kyle’s pushing out. Fuck that sounds like some gross Motherless content.

Burial continues their odd K/D ratio with this unpleasant cone to the chest, hoptags retrieved. Triple IPAs are incredible difficult to pull off, push down on the malt stick and you crash your Dodo into the side of American barleywine mountain, don’t pull up enough and you get into an alpha acid driven free fall, as is the case here. The body is both insubstantially thin and yet too sweet to be enjoyable. It’s like honey brittle dipped into Ciroc. Intensely fusel like to a degree that makes far more alcoholic stouts seem tame, largely due to the tiny dry stage it presents. If you want To go this route it has to have something to beef up the nonfermentable character otherwise you hit this realm where you poured an air wick on some Challah bread and wonder why your yelp scores are struggling: ITS CALLED PINE FUSION HELLO. I know what this is for, dudes in North Carolina do shit like BBQ in the snow and suffer humid ass summers so if you put this Buffout in a can, the end result is a binary Harvey dent coin flip of “we rode a seadoo” or “officer the cuffs are too tight” with nothing in between. It’s pure mischief making or the highest order because it’s thin enough to be dangerous, hoppy enough to tolerate from the can, and alcoholic enough to get you suspended without pay. You’ve heard of Carolina blue now get ready for Carolina green and subsequent Carolina correctional orange.

The fuck do I know, last night I ate a “backwards salad” cf. it’s roast beef with kale on top. Don’t listen to me.

Ok. Listen, #dgm I get it. This time it’s for reals no tricky glassware. Thankfully my own nucleation negligence doesn’t have any detriment to the beer itself. This is far thinner and more dialed in than I expected from a classic donut appellation. There’s light cola tones at the edges minor legs and sheeting, at the core this is drinkable and balanced in that @cwbrewing ba stout realm. There’s a Rich drizzling of glaze and a sort of hazelnut coffeemate thing at the outset. The nose is fairly one dimension and does a 1000 hand slap of espresso and toasted rye bread, some melted tootsie roll, and like that Oreo center finish to the swallow. So much of this has a seattles best coffee meets Dr Pepper kind of thing happening but it doesn’t command your attention with distracting excesses in any spoke of the flavor wheel. The Mario of the StoutKart world.

@burialbeer coming in hot with skillets and donuts and TIPAs oh my. Like a caloric fusel load of espresso buckshot to the chest, gotta dig deep for these NC ballers. Petey Pablo on nonstop rotation

Good lort, hot on the heels of the @homagebrewing prickly Flanders comes this refreshing and endlessly ethereal gem from @omfbrewing and @cerebralbrewing . I don’t know who is responsible for this silver medal winning Brett beer but it is the most stripped down and focused brett experience this side of side project grisette. It’s nimble, svelte, intensely attenuated, and the bottle disappears almost instantly. There is a lack of depth due to the sheer crisp Anjou pear aspect that a drillable two syllable. There is no need to ruminate and crack a moleskin journal over this, but the elegance in simplicity is some bone dry Faulkner imagery whose power lies in the stripped down bridge between saison modernism and farmhouse post modernism, the cascading weight of WL565 awareness. Hats off to this fantastic sleeper gem, from silent ass Colorado. Typical.

Always mill the barley but never over crush em, I’m just tryna move this @marblebrewers weight over customs. In an ironic twist, a British barleywine by national heritage ends up hitting an American execution. It feels like a transatlantic Behemoth, or like a raw dog non barrel aged helldorado. It’s lightly resinous, malty, toasted honey, creek brûlée shell, resin closes out the swallow and it’s so well integrated that there is zero fusel presence. Pairs well with Floribama shore, just steeped in this faux American realm by way of a long time U.K. Baller. Exceedingly drinkable and a lightly phenolic closer that aligns like a massive Triple, it’s husky Curieux frame is showing and I’m totally ok with this maelstrom of smackerels.

Flanders reds are a really tough style to hit. You have to massage things to get out of the sickening sweet cherry and red grape sweetness, or if you don’t get enough wood n wild culture you end up with a trifling Amber with a sun roof. If ou go too apeshit you get an acetone Korean nail salon disaster like some of those highly questionable oud bruins from the later @thebruery canon. This however threads the needle magnificently in the way that @caseybrewing and @hillfarmstead does with Norma. Sadly it doesn’t hold true to the truly Rodenbachy sort of classicism. It engages in Flanders-adjacent behavior and comes away stellar in that way that @embracethefunk is the absolute champion of the Flanders realm. @homagebrewing continues to excel in the wild and saison realm in a way that hasn’t impressed me as a newcomer since the old @sideprojectbrew days. They continue to slay, albeit within a samey segment. The frothy pillowy sustain and sheeting lacing buttress the light grapefruit and brett L aspects of this beer. I don’t care if their Hop game isn’t mind blowing, they could crush the game just raising A frames and decking out farm houses.

Fresno summer swallowed us whole, we waited for @tiogasequoia to come out, sound from sources hits close to home. It’s been a series of steps and evolutions but god damn if this isn’t the pinnacle of what they are capable of and it is staggering in nuance, poise, and complexity. Understand how hard this is to achieve in an IHOP cunnlingus genre of flapjacks and short stacks. The blend, the barrel presence, the restrained body coupled with the absolutely massive single origin Ethiopian[?] profile, pour over on the nose and a faintly acidic deeeep roast on the swallow like toasted pumpernickel. The maple is this knowing overseer like a janitor in a John Hughes movie, silently supportive without directing the action. The carb is a touch lacking and it fizzles away leaving a sort of tepid Dr Pepper mouthfeel, which would be my main neg to this absolute stunner. The finish has such a piledriver of v60 and almond roca from the barrels that you don’t miss the heft or viscosity from more excessively flabby entries. I absolutely urge you to seek this out, it is simply phenomenal and those stoic sun scorched fog soaked people in Fresno need your support, they live a life of crushing dry cold and half the year in triple digit punitive subsistence. You wouldn’t wish the 559 life on your least favorite high school teacher. From Central Valley pain, greatness is derived.

On paper this seems to check all the typical oat/dry Hop/floccboi tropes but then the swallow comes and it is a wallop of mid 2000s vape oil. It’s resinous and juniper, crushed leaves, conifer bark and aserose sap. It is anomalous and I’m not a fan of this side of @wrenhousebrewing . It is certainly different but it is reaching this oddly specialized consumer who enjoys the throwback cut lumber of a decade ago, with the aesthetic and creamy mouthfeel of the current trends. No thanks Jeff, I wait for the busses but the busses won’t come.

@omfbrewing are saison masters based on prior showing, but the same thing that makes them shine in the farmhouse negs them like Mystery in the Life realm. It takes a deft hand to not roll out some flabby saccharine or in this case, something stitched too tightly, hitting routes too tight and outpacing their barrel coverage. It’s thin but in that amiable @cwbrewing sort of way where you nod and run the camcorder during the barleymentary school recital. It’s too gentle, it’s the soft spoken right swipe that doesn’t compel a second date. No means offensive but this gentle almond and Pinot noir, some watery nougat and currant. It’s far more red fruit than sticky pudding, and there is room in Life for all existence. This would be an absolutely excellent entry to a baby palate who is maltcurious because it is such a soft blankie out of the dryer that anyone could apprehend and snug with. Very good but not [Alpine] Great.