Let's talk southern tier

Commercial Beer Reviews
1

One of the biggest boons to my local class six liquor store is the recent addition of southern tier beers to our selection.  And truth be told, the more I have from this brewery, the more I like them.  I have my favorites though.

We’ve got a plentiful supply lately of Oak Aged Unearthly Imperial IPA, and I really like this stuff!  The regular Unearthly is really good too, albeit a bit more bitey and oily on the hops.

The iniquity black ale is pretty damn good too.  It’s another one of my favorites from this brewery.

Choklat is a rather strange one for me.  I really like it, but rating it a 4.0/5 on beer advocate made my review of it 6.5% lower than average.  It’s super chocolatey, with nice roasty and a bit of lightly burnt character.  To me it’s like someone pumped hershey’s chocolate syrup into a beer, a lot of it, and came up with a good result!  (I love hershey’s chocolate syrup, BTW, best chocolate milk there is).  Whilst being very sweet, it maintains a slight dryness on the chocolate flavor (if that makes any sense, lol).

Their Pale Ale is simply lovely.  Simple, light, easy to drink, and flavorful.  Rates a 92 overall, 95 for style on ratebeer.  The 92 overall is amazing, given the beer is in a category that’s famously rated poorly by people who rate beers (they obviously favor highly hopped IPAs and imperial stouts).  My only criticism is that pale ale isn’t available in cans (at least not in my area), so you really can’t take it to the lake to go fishin’.

IPA and 2xIPA are also delicious, and regular selections of mine.

I’m not as fond of the 422 wheat, old man, Phin and Matt’s, and Eurotrash pils, although these are all fine beers.  But you gotta have your favorites when there’s lots of selections.

Anyone with hopinions on southern tier, please do elaborate in great detail.

2

I like most of their brews.  The Back Burner barleywine is a fave of mine as well as Oat and their IPAs.  I plan on going up there over the summer while we are in the Finger Lakes region (my old stomping grounds).

3

Pumpking is, seriously, my favorite category 21 beer.

4

Al, You seriously need to try to get Ft. Lewis as your next duty station. The class six has a microbrew room, not to mention being within 200 miles of somewhere around 400 breweries.

But, regarding southern tier. I like all of the regular beer I have had from them. However, once they start going off the beaten path, it gets too sweet and usually not drinkable.

5

Never had a bad beer from Southern Tier.  Their pilsner is one of my current favs, but their 2X IPA is probably my all time favorite from them.  That or their Amber.  I usually try to pick up some whenever I see it on the shelves.

6

The proper way to have Choklat is to order a German Hefeweizen and have the Southern Tier in one hand and the Hefe in the other and then switch from side to side. Yes indeed!

7

Creme Brulee = gag me with a spoon

Most of their hoppy stuff is good, but I’ll grab a green flash or firestone walker over them most of the time.  A lot of their beers are “big” in a way that I don’t enjoy as much as I used to.

I only had one eurotrash but I remember liking it.

8

LOL, it’s a bit over the top on the sweetness, that’s for sure.  We had it here for a few weeks till it sold out.  I rather liked it,  but agree that it was somewhat like drinking beer flavored chocolate cream syrup.  An oddity to be tried once, but would be better served in 7oz bottles than 22oz bombers.

Sadly, or perhaps not so sadly, this is my last duty station.  However, I’d still love to get up that way and hit every one of the local breweries!  It could happen!

I haven’t seen the barleywine here yet, but I’d love to try it.

Pumpking is pretty good stuff, although I think I like Schlafly pumpkin better.

9

I don’t mind the Creme’ Brulee.  My sister-in-law loves this stuff.

10

my thoughts exactly.  Not a fan.

11

Their 2x IPA has been one of my favorites since the first time I tried it.  My father-in-law isn’t big on hoppy beers, but I brought over a 6 pack of the 2x milk stout and he loved it.  I haven’t seen the oatmeal stout in a while, but it was also good.  They do a fine job of making very flavorful beers and keeping them smooth and clean on the finish.  I’m over beers that are hoppy just to be hoppy

12

Love:
IPA (had it at my wedding)
2XIPA
Phin/Matts
Hop Sun

Like but never drink:
Choklat
Moka

Don’t like:
Unearthly
Oak Aged Unearthly
Krampus

Despise so much that if you are drinking it and talking to me and I can smell it I will just walk away from you mid-sentance:
Creme Brulee

13

BTW I did get a chance to try some ST barleywine lately… it was ok but not on the top of my list of barleywines

14

Last winter, my cousin fished out a 4 year old bottle of back burner from his cellar and it was maginificent.

15

Well some aging might do it well.  I can’t do it right now because they have run out of backburner!  But they may get more.  I’ll buy a bottle and leave it for a few years and see what happens.  I have a few other beers aging in my extremely meager “cellar” so it can’t hurt to try.

16

Oh BTW I’m having some rumble IPA right now from southern tier…

Tasty.  Tons of vanilla.  Kind of smooth and slick and a little oily.  Nicely hopped.  Very obviously oak aged even though it’s not overpowering.  It’s pretty solid if you like oak aged IPAs.  Sometimes I think oak aging can clash with an IPA but southern tier’s unearthly oak aged IPA is good (although a little overblown, but I love it anyway) and the rumble is much more mellow and balanced and also quite good.

FWIW southern tier’s regular unearthly IPA is also quite good.

17

Rumble is Great Divide, isn’t it? or did southern tier release their own one? The GDBC beer is pretty tasty.

18

LOL… oh shit, you are right!  Well great divide is good stuff too :smiley:

19

Just had the imperial Oat.  I really liked it.  Very oatmeal-ish and a nice imperial stout.  More balanced than most of their imperial series beers.  Definitely worth a try.  I’m going to buy a few more bottles of it while I can.  Reviews are good too.

20

another sampling from the distributor i know
southern tier 2xipa.
poured golden with white head. persistent, not so creamy. somewhat turbid.  i expected more amber in color and am pleasantly surprised that the color was not typical of many of the style.  both strong hop, but crisp in nature and not so fruity, solid malt aroma.  the malt comes through, i think on the flavor more than the hops and is slightly sticky on the finish like sucking on a lollipop, but overall this was a pretty good beer, especially since i think so many of  the ipas seem to be hopped with asparagus.