Just saw on Beer News.org that Victory Yakima Twilight has become a regular seasonal, slotted into Hop Wallop's place as the big bearded one moves to year-round status. This is great news; I loved the YT when it came out last year, and though I do regret never following up on that promise to write more about it, it looks like I'll have another chance.
Dark IPAs were big in Montreal when I was there in June, and they're blooming along the West Coast. I remember getting my first a looong time ago, at the long-defunct Blue & Gold brewpub in Arlington, VA (anyone remember them? Some very good beers), where I sampled the Kali Ganga Dark IPA in the mid-1990s. Don't know why it didn't catch on sooner.
Only downside I see to this...given my preferences, I'd rather see YT in the year-round slot! Damn, I like that beer.
11 comments:
Just a general observation I really wish breweries would end the trend of naming beers in esoteric ways and just call it what it is. At least this one gives you a clue that it is a hoppy beer but for those of us with jobs and lives outside of beer it's getting increasingly more difficult to stay on top of these and to walk in to a bar that has 33 taps and figure out what to order. You look at the handle and it has some nondescript name like "utopian" or "bermuda triangle" or "LDP's grog" and then you have to shout questions to a bartender trying to get to 8 other people who may not have even poured one yet, over loud music or television .
On another website there's a lot of hype about weyerbacher riserva and I STILL dont know what that is. I guess I need to keep a card catalog with descriptions, but we shouldnt have to work to order a beer!
Good reason to drink more sierra nevada I suppose.
Some brewers view that as a bit of a straitjacket. You might also be seeing the title without the sub-title, like "Jim Bob's Electric Menace! a hoppy porter." Not that much room on a taphandle. And I think "Yakima Twilight" is at least as descriptive as some; it's hard to put a descriptive tag on some beers because they don't fit in.
I hear what you're saying, but that's what a good bartender should be doing for you: knowing what they're serving, and communicating that.
Yeah I have a friend in the brewing business and we go round and round on it I say let me know what a beer is and he says "we want customers to identify with it so it gets a cult status"
figured you'd mention "good bartenders" I agree to a certain point but I know a lot of good bartenders at good beer bars who dont have every answer just as sometimes my friends IN the beer business, who write for publications and brew or sell beer, always know what some of these brands are. Or they come up short describing it (we all know how difficult that can be). More times than not bartenders will just give me a taste and I can decide but 3 months later when I see it again I dont remember.
Generally I think this hurts the craft-curious consumer as I have seen people get overwhelmed. Remember, people dont want to work to order a beer, or want to carry cliff notes, so will be more likely to say something they know, like lager or newcastle brown ale.
I humbly agree the name fetish among American craft beer brewers is approaching silliness levels. I think it has a lot to do with how hard it is to differentiate one’s offering of a certai style from the 10 other breers who are vying for that tap with the same style. Brewer’s (unlike wineries or distilleries) only have so many levers they can pull, It is hard to be different and coming up with a quirky name is one really easy way to do it.
Rumor has it that this will be on draft tomorrow. (I just ate lunch at Victory, and that is what the Bar Tender said when I asked.)
Seems like the big, successful brands, for the most part use their name and their beer. Craft and non-craft alike: Bud, samuel adams, yuengling, bells, the aforementioned sierra nevada.
Next time i see a "name our beer" contest I will submit "imperial stout" or "india pale ale"
it's name comes from where the hops are grown (Yakima Valley in Washington state) and twilight because it's a dark beer
Lived in Arlington, Va in the mid 90's and Blue and Gold was my favorite bar. Very solid beers if memory serves me right. Sadly the space is now one of your generic sports bars that you see in every city.
I fondly remember blue and gold... and bouncing from bardos to blue and gold. nice place, classy, seemed like it was built to last not sure why it went under.
Way to go Jim_Mc for peeling the two thin layers of esoteric away to reveal the simple realities of Yakima Twilight's name. Well done.
Se, it's not that hard with some beers. We craft brewers do often drop clues. Cheers.
Yeah, and you actually read beer blogs, too. Jeez, Bill, you must be some powerful bored on a Friday evening...
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