On LABW8 eve, I am looking back to LABW7 and the tart saison that I stashed from last year’s Unity brew from Smog City.
The 2015 Unity pours really clear with a little bit of bubbling around the edges of the glass. The tartness is still there but it softens quickly into a bit of a buttery flavor. A bit viscous on the tongue until the next sip washes it away. Little to no aroma at this point. But there is some lemon rind notes going on. I wasn’t expecting a wonderful experience after a year for a beer that is mid 5% in ABV. More an experiment than anything else but it is a great way to get into the LABW mindset.
Review – Botanical IPA from Dry River
This is my first IPA from the Dry River crew and I am excited to see what these botanicals add/subtract and how they have interpreted the style.
Bouquet is a “barrel fermented IPA “dry hopped” with locally foraged botanicals.” Which the brewer believes imparts spice, orange peel, grapefruit, white pepper, clove and sweet citrus.
Let’s see if it does…..
I will have to respectfully disagree about the IPA but this is made up for in the botanical part of the name. This is way spicy. Murky brown with a big earthy aroma to it. Cinnamon, nutmeg and just damn winter ale like to me. Like walking into a spice purveyor. More saison like to me. I am even catching some really rough pineapple notes too. But that is a deep cut.
I really like this but it is quite different from the “normal” beers out there.
Review – Jammer vs. Puff
Today’s taste-off is between two wildly different beer styles but by the same NY brewery, Sixpoint.
Jammer – “Bygone brewers, repping the Sixpoint star, provided the concept and our friends at Jacobsen Salt hooked us up with the key ingredient. It’s salty, it’s sour, and it’s slammin’. It’s Mad Science.”
Pours a light and clear orange. Good balance of an almost jello powder fruit with a really nice savory taste complimented by a solid sour tang. Very sharp on the palate initially but that fades off quickly.
Puff – “If you love Resin, try tasting it straight from the tanks. That’s PUFF – a hazy, unfiltered pour with an extra dose of dry hops… a new blend devised just for Puff.”
Hazy orange colo. Very dank in aroma. Some pineapple notes. A bit harsh on the tongue before a malt hop one two punch takes over. Harshness begins to grate as it warms. ABV shows up. Too much.
The Result – Jammer in a landslide.
Review – Unity 2016 on Cask
Next month, I will review both last years and this years L.A. Beer Week Unity collaborative beers in “from the bottle” form. But yesterday, I trundled down to K-Town to try a cask version of the beer first at Southland Beer.
The cask was tapped behind the curtain so I only saw a few tools head behind the bar but soon the beer was being pushed through the handle and I got one of the first pulls of the beer. There was a weird bitterness to Unity 2016 with some fruit notes too. Do I detect Watermelon? Certainly not very citrusy. I was expecting the cask to mute and round off the sharp hop edges but this beer is still a little too harsh with some woodsy back end flavors to it.
I was left trying to wonder what the cask presentation added/subtracted from what the beer will be in the most available forms. Will the fruit notes pop more? Will the carbonation add some zing? Time will tell since the bottles will be soon on the market.
The Other Half
The first 1/2 of the 2016 Beer Camp variety show was surprisingly good and now I move on to the darker, heartier side to see how they stack up and crown my “best of the box”.
Pat-Rye-Ot is an “old-meets-new” take on a pale ale by brewers all located in the original 13 colonies. It features rye and apples, which were among the first ingredients used by American brewers in the colonies, alongside bold American hops—hallmarks of our modern craft beer “revolution.”
The Rye Patriot pours a cloudy, light orange color. Very lip smacking juicy. Orange juice and tangerine peel come to my mind before the label promised apples but then again apple juice is used as the base for many juice blends so maybe my taste buds are used to “not” tasting it since it usually hides in the background. The Rye really works with the hops. It is such a great and easy pairing of ingredients. As the beer warms up, the apple juice character starts to come through.
Family Values showcases the cooperation and kinship of Midwestern brewers. It features largely Midwestern-grown ingredients: Minnesota wild rice, Indiana honey, Missouri oats, Michigan hops, and cocoa nibs from Illinois as well as Sierra Nevada’s estate-grown malt. This is our centrally located collaboration celebrating the best of the Midwest.
This is the biggest ABV of the bunch from the Midwest Division of the Beer Camp 2016. Pours a very dark brown with streaks of red and a tan head to it. Big smokey coffee-chocolate notes with a real sweet kick at the end. Very luxurious. Much like the Pat-Rye-Ot there is a lot of lip smacking going on here. bit of a fusel aroma that is a turn-off to me. In the end, too smokey and sweet for me. My least favorite of the six.
Stout of the Union hails from the land of sun, sand, and surf and proves that beach beer doesn’t have to be light colored and delicate. Stout of the Union is rich, roasty and full of deep malt flavor, creating a union of like-minded brewers together through beer.
Saved the SoCal beer for last. Kudos to Beachwood and Smog City for getting in on the Sierra Nevada action. The glass barely contains the big, billowy espresso head of this beer. Gonna be some cool lacing at the end here. Sorta hoppy on the nose but then that first sip is stout for sure. Very smooth. Getting some cigar like qualities off of the taste. Little bit of dried fruit too. Just a tiny touch though. A Christmas-y type of beer.
Now that I have sampled all six beers it is time to crown the winner. It is…..Pat-Rye-Ot! There was no wrong step on this one. Just a lovely beer with West Latitude, the Hibiscus beer coming in second followed by the Sunny South Table Beer.
Review – Scru Wit from Stone Brewing
I must say, that I get more excited by Stone releases that are missing hops. It is out of their wheelhouse and the chances of something exciting happening are heightened. Like seeing an actor in a comedy that usually does drama. (Crowe in The Nice Guys, see it.) So I was anticipating cracking open the media bottle that I received from Stone of the junior high school named Scru Wit.
This Stone Spotlight is imperial for sure. And very well spiced. It is primarily Wit to me followed by Sahti and Gruit. I like the creativity of it. I would like to see it in a lighter ABV version as well where some of the spices could pop even more because this is a little too cheek warming. Balance is there but this is still a heavy beer. The spice really sticks with you and the malt bill is heavy. Sense a trend? Heavy.
1/2 a Camp
While perusing the shelves at my Trader Joe’s, I noticed that the orphan section had some of the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2016 beers being sold as singles. Sweet Sunny South, the Southern Table Beer, Moxee Moron, the Imperial Session IPA and West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus were available. Where the other 1/2 of the variety pack went, I do not know.
So, let’s delve into the lighter/hoppier side of this years collaborations….
Sweet Sunny South Southern Table Beer (4.9% ABV) – An easy-drinking, malt-forward beer with a tangy finish, featuring traditional Southern ingredients like peaches, tea, corn grits and honey.
A great start to the 2016 variety box. Aroma starts a little metallic but then the corn notes start popping and don’t really stop until tropical fruit (papaya, guava, prickly pear) step into the breach. There is a wine-like tannic finish that I wish was more tea like because I would call this beer more Sunny South and lose the sweet descriptor from the name. But this is a complex summer beer that I quite like.
West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus (5.5% ABV) – A Session Rye combining a Hawaiian influence of hibiscus with California’s love of hops.
Another beer and another winner. Hibiscus is usually too potent of an addition to a beer but due to the rye and darker malts, it is lessened. The potpourri aroma is really nice. A dry finish. The tea that I wanted in the first beer is really evident here. Just a touch of bitterness as well. Well done to the Bay Area + Maui Brewing.
Moxee-Moron Imperial Session IPA (7.5% ABV) – A style contradiction honoring the Pacific Northwest’s hop-bomb heritage.
This is a weird one. Probably my least favorite but not by far. It seems more Belgian than IPA. Almost a hint of Brett aged IPA + Weizen + Kettle soured. Quite a bitter punch at the end though. I can’t pin this one down which is frustrating.
This is a damn fine start to a variety box. I honestly don’t know if the other 3 can top this start from a weirdness and unique standpoint, these three really nailed it.
Review – Extrovert IPA from Left Hand
When I saw that Left Hand Brewing was releasing a Session IPA under the Introvert name, I knew that the Extrovert probably wasn’t far behind. And the much more assertive IPA with a blend of Jarrylo, Cascade, and Comet and expansive dry hopping is much louder.
The literature on the beer makes claim to tropical flavors, pineapple notes, mango, and orange blossom. Plus a bite balanced by biscuit malt. To me that initial bitter bite obscures fruit notes underneath. Creating more of a fruit peel taste as opposed to the juicy sweetness of the fruit. the aroma is the real puzzler here. It has a grassy top note with more of a spent grain profile to it. The aroma does not lead into the bitter taste. As the beer warms up, a serious grapefruit pith note takes hold leading to a quite dry finish which I like. I just wish that the aroma wasn’t such a mis-direction. In the end, this beer tastes quite stronger than expected and could probably easily slip into a Double IPA category.
Gracias Baja
To some, this is the week to explore Mexican craft beer. For me, I avoid the high holy drinking days which is why I was glad that I could head out a day early on May the Fourth to sample beers from Baja Brewing at Gracias Madre in West Hollywood.
I have had their Cabotella brand as well as the Baja (Peyote) Pale Ale. Neither lit my fire but I am still interested in the closest foreign brewing scene to us in L.A. and want to support further exports up to us.
Well the Peyote Pale on draft was much better. Brighter citrus notes and more effervescence dialed back the caramel malt notes and created a more balanced beer that showcased those three different notes.
Then I got to try the new Karl Strauss Collaboration “Dos Californios”. Karl Strauss Brewmaster Paul Segura and Baja Brewing Company Owner/Brewmaster Jordan Gardenhire created a perfect Cinco de Mayo beer, a Mexican Lager with a subtle green vegetal kick of habanero mixed with agave nectar, on a base darker amber lager. It really worked and I was glad to get to finish the growler.
But it was just as good to talk to Gardenhire about his beers, the Baja lifestyle, Mexican craft beer and their newly formed Guild as well as the issues with procuring supplies in Mexico.
It certainly made me want to schedule a trip to see what the beer is like, especially fresh.
Taste Showdown Nitro IPA vs Nitro Wit from Sam Adams
Sam Adams and their Nitro Project has finally started to show up in L.A. (though BevMo seems to hide it strategically through their Burbank store).
I purchased four packs of both the IPA and a White Ale to see which would win taste-wise and which best showcased the Nitrogenation process.
I started with the Creamy & Smooth White Ale. The sound of the can popping is like starting up an engine. The head is big and creamy. There is near milkshake quality to this. Almost like a horchata shake. Pie spice nutmeg-gy ness. It seems to me that the essential subtle shades of Wit Bier (AKA White Ale) are overwhelmed by the creamy nitro. As it warms, the navel orange notes really start to pick up which adds a missing dimension.
Next on to the Bright & Citrusy, the hops certainly do combat the nitro more. There is a pungent, piney hop kick to this beer that seeps through the foamy head. Lots of wood notes to this hop blend. As it stays cold the nitro half stays in effect. I sampled the beer straight from the ‘fridge and also after sitting at room temp and found it to initially be more citrus focused before settling into the woods.
Overall, I would take the White Ale since it held a little more nuance. The IPA fought through the Nitro and unleveled that playing field too much. Now I might have to try the third offering, the coffee stout/