A bit late to the 2024 party but when I saw an October canned San Diego Brewers Guild IPA, I thought it would be a good opportunity to review a hoppy beer a couple months on and if anyone could do it, it would be six San Diego breweries.
You have Black Plague, Ketch Brewing, Blah Brewing, Hoponymous Brewing, Fall Brewing and Hodad’s Brewing involved this time.
The Beer pours a light orange color with a dried citrus aroma and a pineapple note. There is a nice creamsicle taste to this with a firm malt backing to it. Nice and light but not anywhere near watery.
SoCal has had a tiny not cold spell which has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy darker, heartier beers like Lifeblurred, an imperial brown ale from Stone Brewing.
Per Stone, this is a biggie. 11% to be exact and though at first it doesn’t seem alcohol heavy, by sip three, you feel it. I would describe this as British ale seen through a Black IPA glass, then bulked up. Very woodsy and oaky with an ever so slight citrus hop note. It is a russet and brown colored ale with a hint of a dark caramel taste to it.
I have only had the murky side of Pure Project up to this point so when I saw a Cold IPA on the beer shelf, I plucked it to review.
Cool River pours a super light orange color or dark yellow. Very crisp on the palate with grain notes being the first to make themselves known. The hop kick is quite potent. I get honeydew melon and some dankness as well. Tastes stronger than 6.5% as well.
Gotta powerhouse hype combo for the review today, ISM Brewing in Long Beach have paired up with Portland’s Brujos Brewing on a straight up West Coast IPA, Mere Visions.
This has got to be one of the lightest straw yellow IPAs that I have come across. Hopped with an impressive roster of Columbus Cryo, Mosaic Cryo, Strata, Simcoe and Chinook. Very well balanced overall. That Simcoe smell comes through. There is a medium hop hit before a soft bed of wheat notes. You could call this a White IPA as well.
We start this N/A duo with Best Day Brewing and their Galaxy Ripple, which they call an Imperial IPA maybe as a joke? From my experience, imperial denotes higher abv, but non-alcoholic should be under .5%, so not quite getting that designation.
That label mis-step aside, there is a goodly hop aroma when you pop open the can. And to my surprise, this doesn’t taste super worty like many in this category. And for once, there are plenty of hops here. Probably my first actual hoppy low alcohol IPA. There is a bit of tropical fruit here too making this way more complex than average.
Next up is the Double Hopped Hop Water from, well, HopWtr. Most of their waters have jumped the hop shark and tend to be just fruity sparkle water, sorry Wtr, but this one caught my eye because of the hop double down. There is a weird grassy cat pee aroma when the can is opened. Once vented, this does have a better taste than smell. Getting a grassy cannabis vibe from it.
I recently had the Winter Welcome from Samuel Smith and then I saw their Yorkshire Stingo (with a super classy logo) which I have not had in many moons and decided it was high time to review to see if I get the same notes of “fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours”.
The last item on that list certainly comes through but the rest, not so much but despite that adjective failure, this is a real classic of a beer. There is a slight hint of future souring in the taste in the amber coloured ale. I taste grass and wheat and pea shoots myself. Complex and strange for sure.
I dare not type this winter ale’s name for fear of unleashing the wrath of Santa and Mrs. Santa so this review is posting safely after. Frogtown Brewery debuted Christmas is Cancelled this year and it has a very cool retro Palm Springs look to it.
Now on to the liquid inside. The Cancelation pours a dark brown and a bakery spice pours out when the beer is poured. Lovely nice light brown foam as well. This tastes like a classic British Winter Warmer just with amped up American spice and hops. If it pops up next year, I will get it again.
I was reading one day, when I suddenly realized, I had not added the 2024 Firestone Walker Anniversary Ale to my rolling five year collection. I do not know why I had not recognized that deficiency earlier as each year I review the new edition. So I dutifully headed to the FW website only to find that XVIII is a Brewmasters Collective only release which was the second crappy thing that life had handed to me in November.
But when I calmed down, I reached out to learn, to my relief that the barrel-aged blend would indeed be purchasable by the likes of me and now I can review it!
Before we dive into the newest blend, let us cast our taste buds back to 2019 and the XXIII and see what five years has done for the beer.
The 2019 pours a close but not quite black color. The nose on it is cola, dark berry and a touch of chocolate. The first sip is giving me barleywine vibes as there is both a lightness on the palate with a bit of hop still there but that gets taken over, slowly, by the more roasty and cocoa hits so that the finish becomes quite smooth. Only at the end does a little alcohol burn poke out s little bit.
Now on to 2024 / XXVIII, headlined by 37% Stickee Monkee and 28% Bravo, both bourbon barrel-aged. In fact only 11% was not bourbon rested and that 11% was Rye barrel-aged. The other noteworthy bit is that a collaborative stout blend with Colorado’s Weldwerks makes up 7% of the beer.
And this blend pours a pitch black, not seeing through this. Smells clean with pops of vanilla. This is very smooth and has a nice combo of vanilla and caramel. Almost an ice cream swirl. I say this a lot but especially, in this case, how will this soft flavor age? As the glass warms, the bourbon notes start to assert themselves which gives me more hope.
Of the two, the new one is more my speed and more 2024 craft beer as well.
There are not to many beers nowadays that get the social media talking, but one that has bucked that trend is the Costco Vintage Ale brewed by Deschutes Brewery.
I am lucky enough to know someone with the magic card and so I got to get the boxed barrel-aged beer to try.
I am amazed to see an old school 22oz bomber bottle when I wrestle the bottle out of the packaging. In the first few sips, I am getting a woody bitterness that hides the light bourbon note underneath. The aroma has a green almost peppery note to it which is at some odds to the flavor. That and the viscosity belie the 12% abv. It is almost like a coffee cocktail.
