Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
“Petit Obscura is a new sour ‘wild ale’ made with the second runnings of a batch of the Rhinoceros Rye Wine… it’s a small beer with a twist, available in 750-ml bottles only, starting in February.”
Good to see this Santa Barbara brewery expanding the line-up.
Ugh! Politicians make me want to scream.
Mississippi (home of the fabulous Lazy Magnolia Brewery) is losing the ABV restriction battle it seems. Check out this ARTICLE for the info.
All the politicians have to do is raise the limitation. And it isn’t even a big ask. from 5 to 8%. Mississippi would still be excluding alot of beer (if that is their goal). But more breweries might open if the cap was at 8% and Lazy Magnolia would be able to brew and (gee whiz) sell more beer too!
So check out the website for Raise Your Pints and support from wherever you are.
“Made in collaboration with fellow brew masters at Republic of Tea, Peach Pit ale is a truly unique beer. It is a light rosy-gold color and has a satiny malt background which works to display rich flavors and aromas of bright spices and fruit from the use of whole-leaf Ginger Peach tea in the brew. The natural sweetness of the malt and peach is balanced by a light dry spiciness from the ginger and black tea.”
For all of you session beer fans or flavored beer category judges this may be one of those beers that you will either have to determinedly seek out or luck into. And if you are one of the imperial porter crowd then this beer is probably not going to be for you. I have had a chamomille beer from Rogue (Many years ago) and was surprised by how well it worked. Tea and beer should work as well together as coffee and beer in my mind so let’s hope more examples head our way.
Expect to see it under the name Sierra Nevada Tea Ale and not Peach Pit.
The wine world has sommeliers and us craft beer geeks have ciccerone’s. And if you want to learn about craft beer from a certified ciccerone and really funny guy then head to the Craft Beer Class.
And when you are done watching the video, head to the main Drink Eat Travel site for food and beverage tidbits from the LA area. All good stuff.
This month, I am focusing my e-brewery tour focus onto New Zealand. And our first stop is Auckland’s Epic Beers.
Here are some of their unique offerings:
PORTAMARILLO
“A collaboration, a Festive brew and the world’s first tree tomato beer. A sorta-Porter fermented with New Zealand grown Tamarillos, which were smoked using wood chips from the sacred Pohutakawa tree (also know as the NZ Christmas tree).”
PALE ALE
“You can only drink so many beers in a lifetime, so you better make each one count. That’s where we can help. Because at Epic we’re obessed with creating big hop-fuelled beers. This takes a shed-load of skill. It also takes a shed-load of hops. In fact there are 23 crammed into this bottle. Many brewers would call that ‘insane’. We call it flavour.”
ARMAGEDDON IPA
“In the beginning, there was nothing. Then an impish brewer piled a ludicrous amount of hops inot a batch of beer. This zymurgical big bang is Epic Armageddon, an apocalyptic assault on your preconceptions and taste buds. It may be too huge for this fragile planet so enjoy this beer like it was the last one on Earth”
Check out the ERB website HERE
Here are some photos from the release party of the new Kona Brewing beer, Koko brown named after (and seen in the label) a distinctive part of Hawaii.
…or your expanded brewery!
The brewery explains…”The first beer out of our new brewhouse is Brooklyn Main Engine Start, a burnished gold ale in the rare “Abbey Singel” style, reminiscent of the un-filtered beers that Trappist monks make for themselves. It’s dry and biscuity on the palate, with a lilt of spicy Belgian yeast character and a snappy hop bite. Judicious dry hopping with Slovenian Aurora hops lends an appetizing herbal note. It’s tasty enough to stick with for the whole evening, and at about 6% ABV, it won’t have you tripping over snow banks after just one.”
A quick video on what went down in Whitefish over the weekend….
Thanks to the Beer Wench for alerting me to this bit of Northern Cali beer news…..
“After a short absence, brewmaster Steve Altimari and John Anthony burst back onto the craft brewing scene with the launch of a new brewery called High Water Brewing and the promise of some “seriously good beers.”
Award-winning brewmaster Steve Altimari has begun production on the flagship product for his new venture, an artisanal craft brewery, High Water Brewing.
The flagship brew – dubbed “Hop Riot IPA” and described as an “American IPA with a definitive ‘Left Coast’ attitude” – will be among the first offerings from High Water Brewing. It will be joined by “Retribution Imperial IPA” and “Old and In the Way Barley Wine”.
“Our goal is to pour High Water’s first beers, Hop Riot and Retribution, at the San Francisco Beer Week’s Gala opener on February 11,” said Altimari.
He promises the initial offerings “will be followed by other innovative and exciting brews.” Beer fans can expect that promise to be fulfilled because creatively brewed beers with playful flavor surprises are hallmarks of Altimari’s style.”
“Altimari will craft High Water beers at Drake’s Brewhouse in San Leandro, CA, and fermentation will occur in High Water tanks at the same location. High Water beers will be available in 5.0 and 15.5 gallon kegs and also bottled in 22 oz bombers.
Building on a relationship that Altimari and the Anthonys have developed over a number of years with that brewery, “Drakes seemed a natural fit for us because each of us has worked with them in one capacity or another, from distribution to collaborative brewing,” said John Anthony. “When Drakes owner John Martin agreed, we were ecstatic.”