Memorial Day Weekend

Sitting In Mickey Mantle's Bar on Park Avenue in NYC having an ale and fried calamari before the show started.

Pjk

You think that's funny? My local grocery store, a hole-in-the-wall place called Porcelli's Market, is asking $8.25/bottle for the 120-minute. Is that stuff good enough to spend that kind of money?

AN ale? "AN" ale? This is a beer newsgroup and you don't mention the brand? Especially since Mantle's career coincided with Ballantine's sponsorship of the New York Yankees, when the familiar "3 ring" logo was often found along side the Yankees' "NY" and a Mantle homerun was often described as a "Ballantine Blast" by announcer (and Ballantine spokesman) Mel Allen. Of course, Ballantine XXX Ale isn't what it used to be and Bass has long been the most common NYC ale but, still, tradition SHOULD count for something...

I think the 120-minute IPA is worth it. Beer will blow you away. Shell out for one bottle and tell us what you think. After my first taste of it, I just said WOW. Very intense beer.

Well, the price you're seeing has nothing to do with the "hole in the wall" source; that's pretty much what it goes for per bottle everywhere. The general opinion here has been "NO, the beer is way too sweet" but it's rated quite highly on ratebeer. I bought several bottles and will try it again after several years of cellaring.

As to being "worth" it- well, that's all relative. At 20% alcohol, it's

3 to 4 times as alcoholic as the average $2-3 a bottle beer (but if you're going for that sort of "value", buy store brand vodka.) I guess price concerns is the last thing that separates wine and beer lovers, in a way. No wine fanatic would ever worry about the *price* of a $8 or, comparatively, for a 25 oz $16 bottle of wine. I see folks here post about the difference of $1-2 a six-pack being a concern- 16-32 cents a bottle.

Worth trying out. But I'm not overly impressed by it. I'd much rather drink the 90 Minute. Or the 60.

-Steve

I was embarressed because it wasn't anything exotic, viz., Bass ale. But I did actually have 2. The Mick used to hang out there and he said that while he loved the place, it contibuted to his drinking problem. Everyone would come in and try to buy him a drink.

Thanks Pjk

I would too, but honesty compels me to admit that I went down to Dogfish Head last week, Sam sat me down with a bottle of 120, and it was markedly better than the shit I had last year, I mean a LOT better. I named it my most disappointing beer of 2003 on my website; this shit was worlds better. What happened, I asked him? Aged it longer, he says. Pretty good beer, eh? Well, yeah, Sam, and it woulda been in the first place if you hadn't let it out too damned soon!

Ha. That would be interesting to taste the difference. Although, I wonder if the stuff I had about a month ago or so wasn't effectively aged anyway. For whatever reason, the appearance of limited-run Dogfish Head beers lags by many, many months here in southern California.

Even if it was aged a bit by the time it got here (when's the last time they bottled?), I'd still hold the 90 or 60 above it. It was still a bit of a mess.

-Steve