Time to check in on what caught my fancy this month. Sometimes a low or no expectation beer or brewery can get a Best of… nod because of that surprise. That is what happened with new-ish brewery La Bodega whose Pale Ale wowed me because I didn’t know a darn thing about the brewery.
In other cases, a beer blast from the past can make a case. Nut Brown from AleSmith really hit the different from most of the beers spot and I had not had it in such a long time that it was fresh.
But the winner was a multi-player collaboration from Ogopogo Brewing in San Gabriel. It was an 8% IIPA that probably could have been called a double but that was the only mark against it. It was bright and crisp and straight down the middle hoppy.