Lackadaisical (PBUH) sent me a nice selection of upstate NY beers.
For some reason, the arrival of the BIF box got me thinking about something that has struck me as an odd inversion. It used to be that beer was the cheap/economical way to get your booze on (and it still can be, if you stick with mass market beers), but given the price for craft beers (which is still a little shocking to someone who started drinking beer back when the only thing on the shelf was cheap crap), I have been laboring under the perception that they are actually as or more expensive than cocktails.
However, I was moved to do the math. A six-pack of good craft beer costs me between $10 – 12.00, call it $1.75 a bottle. A bottle of beer has between .75 and 1.0 oz. of alcohol, so to be we’ll say craft beer delivers alcohol at @ $2.00 per ounce. Your typical fifth of booze is 80 proof, and so it has 10.25 oz. of alcohol. Now, there is crazy variability in booze prices, so we’ll take Bulleit Rye as our standard, which costs me $21.00 for a fifth, or . . . $2.05 per oz. of alcohol (before mixers).
Bottom line: there’s so much variability in price per oz. for both beer and booze that its hard to give a general rule, but the craft beer market (although it seems pricey to this old-timer) actually is pretty much equivalent per oz. to cocktails, maybe a little cheaper. I would say craft beer and cocktails both deliver the goods within about the same (broad) range.
I’m not the most critical beer drinker, and tend in general to enjoy pretty much whatever is in front of me at the time. With that in mind, my impressions:
Rohrbach Scotch Ale: Either this one or the Asylum Porter were my favorites. This is an excellent example of Scotch Ale, one of my preferred types of beer. Decently full bodied, nice caramel malt flavor with some roast, and the hops were behaving themselves and being good team players.
42 North Asylum Porter: Very interesting beer, probably more depth and more flavors around the edges than the Scotch Ale. I got a little bitter chocolate and maybe coffer, and just enough smoke, but not so much that it was getting into the stout range. The kind of beer that you keep working because you want to chase some of the flavors.
Rohrbach Patty’s Irish Ale: A good Irish Ale – very comparable to their Scotch Ale, not quite as much body, and a hair less roasted flavors, a little drier on the finish. No complaints, would drink again.
Genesee Octoberfest: Genesee in general takes me back to my college days, and this is a competent, if not too exciting, beer. Adequately malty, if not quite as much body as I might like. Decent flavor. I would say this is an excellent beer to take to a tailgating party to class it up a little, and not go broke when your friends (and their friends) go through your cooler like a Mongol horde.
Big Ditch Hayburner: An IPA, but not hop soup. I can tolerate a legit IPA, so long as the brewer hasn’t decided that adding hops is somehow going to compensate for certain . . . personal shortcomings. This is a good example of the breed – decent body, hops definitely there but a little more on the floral side (which I prefer) rather than tastebud-killing bitterness.
Big Ditch Low Bridge: Interesting beer – a golden ale (whatever that is). Kinda-to-pretty hoppy; in a blind test I would have likely said this was a pale ale of some kind, but maybe a little maltier than I expect from a pale ale. It went right down, I’ll tell you that. A good beer for moderately spicy food. May get the nod over the Genesee for a good session beer, depending on how you like the hopping.
Not a dud in the bunch. I would not be sorry to discover any of these in my fridge. Thanks, Lack (and Nephilium)! Will BIF again.
Comments
42 responses to “R C Dean Gets BIFfed”
Is rapid fire posts some sort of test, or something?
When everybody is first, no one is.
Ah. Communist plot then.
The commies are everywhere!!!
Even the primus inter pares?
The staff decided to make make it a theme day. The theme: Exclude Ted
Isn’t that what we’re normally supposed to do?
Hateful.
I think the site is getting more submissions from people. They will publish anything. For God’s sake they publish me.
The calendar may be getting crowded.
It’s a good thing.
Trying to squeeze in all the submitted beer reviews from the last BIF we had. Even though I am very thankful, I am not sending in reviews for the beers I received from The Hyperbole. I’ll comment on them in the comments, but I don’t plan to write an actual review as others are doing (and as I did last time). Hopefully that isn’t an issue (especially with The Hyperbole)
I do have to say, Hyperbole is an excellent packer.
Euphemism?
Does he have a son named Billy?
Ah man, I wanted to hear again about the sissy UPS drivers up in southern Canada.
Wow, I have never seen any of those down here in NYC but I want to try them all.
Just saw your reply now. A little less than two hours so not bad at all. Getting closer to home.
Btw, NYC alcohol laws suck. No booze before 7 according to the barkeep.
AM or PM?
Quorum.
Must be AM because I’ve drunk before 7PM many times.
YES THEY DO! I moved here from New Orleans; the only thing that saved me were the NYC prices. Regular bar prices here are strip club prices in NOLA so i quit drinking for about a decade.
Glad you enjoyed them. I always get a little nervous picking for bif, as I sometimes send things that aren’t my favorite just to avoid broken glass. Breweries here are just starting to put things in cans so selection is more limited. Maybe I will ship glass next time, as others don’t seem to be having any issues in that area.
I sent you what I liked last year, I didn’t want to send anything I hadn’t tried in case you hated it, ah well
As far as I remember I liked everything you sent.
Bottles can be shipped, they just are more fragile, heavy, and more risky. I always run into the trouble of trying to narrow down my selections, especially as more of the locals get crowler machines set up.
Bottom line: there’s so much variability in price per oz. for both beer and booze that its hard to give a general rule, but the craft beer market (although it seems pricey to this old-timer) actually is pretty much equivalent per oz. to cocktails, maybe a little cheaper. I would say craft beer and cocktails both deliver the goods within about the same (broad) range.
And again I (drinker of Coors Light and sometimes Rolling Rock both ~4% abv) say, I drink beer because I like to drink beer, not to get drunk. If I wanted to get shitfaced, I could just go back to drinking Wild Turkey.
I yam what I yam.
* Speaking of whiskey- a couple of my friends were speaking approvingly of Jim Beam Black, last night. I have never had it, but we drank a lot of Beam in college.
Black or Devils cut are both decent. I’ll buy either when they’re on sale and that’s pretty often around here.
Ah. Communist plot then.
Fluoridation, Mandrake. It’s in the beer.
Now I feel guilty for not writing a review. Nephilium sent me some amazing stuff. The Citrapopotamus was the surprise hit of the bunch as I did not expect to like it but found it very very yummy; a wheat IPA. The chocolate – hazelnut was far and away the winner; I dream of more of that beer.
Not to worry. No one reads the articles anyway.
No guilt from me. Glad the chocolate-hazelnut stout from R. Shea was good, as that was the only one I hadn’t tried (but I’ve tried lots of other beers from them). The only beer from them I wasn’t a big fan of was my own fault for not reading the description closely enough. From one of the previous batches:
The mix of apple cider and beer was just strange.
The R. Shea was, quite literally, the best beer I have ever tasted. It was like drinking Nutella but without the sugar. Cider always seems like something I should like (I love Applejack, Apple Berentzen, Calvados, etc.) but I have yet to find a cider palatable.
I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone bring up the bullshit Syrian refugee waterboarding in the UK that was not at all a waterboarding. The Briths are losing their mind over this. It’s a matter to be commented on by people at the highest levels of government.
Despite no actual harm being done to the kid in question, there is a Gofundme account that has raised now over $170,000.
And then there’s this:
I wonder who these roving bands of men stalking the house could be?
The 16 year old “waterboarder” has not been charged for a racially motivated attack. His side of the story, as far as I can tell, is only in that Sun story I just linked to. And strangely enough, they felt the need to blur out the part of his note that actually included his own explanation for why he did what he did.
The Western world is doomed.
Also shown in the Sargon link – the “waterboardee” has a little sister who also seems to be have been bullied, and there’s a video of that. But less attention will be paid due to the fact that it involves black girls.
Not long ago I was berated by some Limeys. They were outraged that I would claim that crime in the UK was skyrocketing in a country that used to be patrolled by unarmed police. i am looking at the other links on that page and jebus christ….it’s not like we dont have crime here but that is incredible. And now they are thinking of going full commie? Their country is collapsing from what I can tell.
Airstrrip One is in rough shape. It’s been a long time coming.
Oklahoma wrap up the Big 12, so the playoffs should be:
Alabama/Georgia
Clemson
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
(Assuming Clemson don’t blow their game.)
And no, I don’t have the score of the Cal game.
I haven’t followed all the permutations, but I’ve heard some people argue that if GA beats AL, they both go into the playoffs with Clemson & ND.
The bright side is this should have eliminated tOSU.
Regarding the price of booze, I use $10 a pour as the marker for “premium”. Given a standard 750 ml (25.4 oz) bottle:
– 5 standard pours of wine (5 oz) is about $50 a bottle.
– 2 standard pours of beer (12 oz) is about $20 a bottle.
– 17-18 shots of whiskey (1.5 oz) is about $180 a bottle.
Fine whiskey is cheap.
My article is up. 😉
I’ve never paid anything close to those prices.
I have a couple hundred bottles of wine and three dozen bottles of beer in that price range.
I don’t do spirits.