Trader Joe's

[mediumsk]

Ive worked for trader joes for years.

Gordon Biersch does the josef brau brand,
firestone does red nectar, jumping cow, fat weasel and the mission street series of beers.
Goose Island does stockyard stout and black toad
Unibrue does the christmas anniversary Ale - (4.99 get this! )
im not sure about who makes our malt liquor canned beers.

Ive found that all the TJ beers are pretty quality brews..... buuut trader joes shits the bed big time when it comes to storage. they are stored warm for a long time with no rotation. we recently had a gordon beirsch brewed kolsch that was excellent for the first few weeks we got it and then it just dropped off a cliff quality wise.
I would reccomend the stockyard stout, mission st. beers, and the anniversary ale, black toad ale is worth a try too just because commercial examples of brown porters are hard to come by.

[andy77]

Nice mediumsk.

I remember when I first noticed the Unibroue cork in the Anniversary Ale bottle and realized I was getting a $10 bottle of beer for half off. Went to the store and bought a case! That was a good week. I think.

[mediumsk]

we just started selling this stuff called red oval (red awfull) lager the other day. tastes like hamms to me but at 2.99$ a six pack its hard to beat the price.

[nathanm]

Nice. Thanks for that line up. I've enjoyed the Black Toad a lot, as well as the Stockyard Stout.

I have last years Anniversary Ale that i've been keeping. Don't know if that was smart or not, but since i've kept it this long, i'll do a tasting when the new one comes out.


Just tried a Red Nectar. I was expecting something different and wasn't that happy with it. I also just had the Paulaner Oktoberfest/Marzen. I wasn't expecting anything with that and was very surprised - a pretty nice beer!

[Brandon]

I hear they have good pollo asado....

[Brew Swillis]

+1 to the Oatmeal Stout, that's delish. I had hard something about Unibroue doing some beers for TJ's but never followed up as to which ones... I think Im'a gonna go have a look at that this weekend.. hmmmm

[mediumsk]

yeah the anniversary ales are always pretty neat. never the same but always in the dubbel to quad color and flavor range. last years (december 2008) is the best one i have had in years, i would definitely hang onto your bottles of it.

it's funny, i have a super redneck co worker who buys cases of this stuff for the sole purpose of trading aged bottles for 48 packs of keystone light. still a killer deal

[Gnome Brewer]

The Dry Irish Stout is made by North Coast Brewing (Old Rasputin etc.), and it's great too! For 5.99 who can complain?