Category: Beer Reviews

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Review – Two 6th Anniversaries

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Happy Anniversary to Eagle Rock Brewery. It is hard to imagine that I have been to 6 parties to celebrate another year of beer from my closest brewer.
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ERB shares a birthday with Ladyface (who had their own party going on in Agoura Hills) and the pair both brewed up a Belgian Golden Strong Ale for the day and you could tell both were related but they each had different notes to them.
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By a slight margin, I would take the Zes from Eagle Rock over the version from Ladyface, which I thought was a touch too sour and a little heavier on the palate.

What the future holds will be fun to watch unspool. I never would of thought that ERB would have a restaurant even just 2 years ago but now they are a mutli-location spot and growing.

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Featured Review – Jibe from Green Flash

Our second review stop with Green Flash is with Jibe Session IPA (the canned version).
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As you can see this pours out so very clear. Tilted to yellow on the spectrum with a bit of orange peeking through. This beer starts out a bit tropical with some pineapple notes to it but then fades more into tangerine before passing the baton over to a wheat/grain taste that cohabitates with the bitter remainder of the hops.

It does taste both a little watery but also a little on the viscous side. How that is accomplished, I don’t know. The tangerine is good but I just wish it either chose more of that or more wheat notes. As it stands, it isn’t bad but I can see myself drinking it without noticing (which may be the point of Session IPA).

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Review – Aspen, CA. from King Harbor

Straight from the silver crowler purchased at the pier location of King Harbor comes this golden ale with spruce tips.
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This is one of the yellowest beers that I have seen. Crystal clear. When first opened, the earthy pine notes are significant. As it warms, those tree notes fade off a bit but the beer retains a strong back end flavor of spruce tree. At 6.1%, the beer might be a skosh strong for a simple golden ale but the white bread toast notes bring it back into lighter territory.

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Review – Sparkling Berliner Weisse from Angel City

There are times when a special beer is required. Christmas, my birthday and New Year’s Eve.

This year, thanks to the generosity of Angel City, I was gifted a bottle of their grape infused Sparkling Berliner Weisse.

Did it start my 2016 off well?
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Yes, it did. The sparkler pours a hazy dark yellow. There is a solid taste of white grapes right from the start. This beer is bubbly but not in an aggressive way. It has a freshness and vibrancy to it. The end finishes dry but not puckeringly so. There is tartness in the mix but like the dryness it is a minor player. The grapes are in charge here and in a pleasing way.

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Review – Kosmic Mother Funk Grand Cru 2015 from Samuel Adams

I wanted to do something special for the first review of 2016, so I held onto a “media copy” of last year’s Kosmic Mother Funk Grand Cru from the cellar of Samuel Adams until now.  The Boston barrel-aged version of the Flanders Red pours a dark-ish brown with red streaking to it. There is a pie cherry note here of both the fruit and spice (and very nearly the crust) that I enjoy before the sour notes kick in underneath. There is a bit of wine barrel flavor profile here as well. I don’t know Hungarian oak but that must be what I am picking up. There is a slight viscosity as well a bit oily on the glass and tongue. Quite nice, especially with the sour being muted. Little bit of cherry pit aftertaste though.

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Featured Review – Winter White from Bell’s

Our final review of the year is another winter offering from Bell’s Brewing. It is the canned version of their Winter White Ale.
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WW pours a hazy muddled light orange color with little brown yeasty bits down in the bottom of the glass. The coriander really pops in the aroma almost to the point of being as strong as cinnamon. That spice carries through to the flavor where it is augmented by an orange juice note. This wit beer finishes very dry. Pretty much a by the guidelines wit. And that is a good thing.

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Anchor Merry Christmas – Happy New Year Vertical Tasting

For the past couple of years, I have raided the cellar for Anchor Brewing’s Merry Christmas – Happy New Year to taste test the changes in each year’s beers.
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Here is how this year’s vertical stacks up:
2012 – Cider aroma. Cider taste as well. Back end is not good. Some weird flavor notes. It is well past its prime.

2013 – Sawdust hoppy aroma. Prevalent hops here which is surprising. Still good fizz to it. Like an India red ale almost. A little spice as well. Some cola notes as well.

2014 – This year was the outlier with a sweet aroma. Almost milk chocolate. Cinnamon too as it warms up. The most Christmas-y of the bunch.

2015 – Malt and fruity. Closer to the 12 & 13. It is the lightest of the group. Some pine notes.

2013 is the clear winner with 2014 coming in second. 2015 is a distant third and 2012 is a DQ for being too old.

For a refresher, here are my posts from last year covering these same vintages. Check HERE For the older years and HERE for 2014.
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Featured Review – Christmas Ale from Bell’s

Well, if you brew a beer called Christmas Ale, it might as well be vivid red in color. That is what Bell’s has accomplished as you can see….
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Their Midwestern take on the holiday seasonal almost smells like fruitcake as well. Their is a definitive fruit note here that evokes the better aspect of the oft neglected cake. The jelly note and sweetness is here as is a tang of metallic swirling with the soft malts. There is a tiny touch of bitterness as well but it doesn’t linger for long. A lighter take that I would like to see bulked a little bit with some roastier malt but is an interesting viewpoint on what Santa might drink.

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Review – Marooned on Hog Island

Hog Island Oyster Company is a big deal.  Not being a fan of oysters or their effects on the anatomy, I only know that through hearsay.  The only way I can make any judgement is through the beer that 21st Amendment brewed using Sweetwater Oysters.
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This has a certain salinity in the aroma or maybe I have read the can too much and am expecting it to be there.  The beer is quite silky in mouthfeel at first then the taste morphs at the midway point and I detect honey and a bit of dryness.  Marooned has almost a Baltic porter base in my mind. At 7.9% it has a bit of heat to it.  A cheek warmer for sure.

A multi-faceted beer for sure and after my enjoyment of Toaster Pastry, I now want to find the Sully cans and try that beer as well.

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Review – Bourbon County Stout (2013 vs 2015)

OK, so it not a battle when it involves two great beers. But let’s take a look at my thoughts on the 2013 and the 2015 versions of the original Bourbon County Stouts from Goose Island.
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2013
The most notable part of my first sips of the 2013 is a biting sharpness in the middle. I was expecting a beer mellower and heavier.  And this BCS is both heavy and light with hot chocolate notes. As it warms the heat starts to show more throughout the taste instead of that spike in the middle. This stout is very dry. The Bourbon is tucked in there but not oppressive it is more 1/3 of the pie.

2015
The latest version starts with that same sharpness as the 2013 with more vanilla to it as opposed to chocolate. That vanilla fades though into more raisin notes that I associate with Quads and Belgians. Seems less complex than the 2013. And again the bourbon is just a member of the team and not the star.

These are my thoughts as I sipped from both beers.  The take-away is that these beers are extremely similar.  The shared DNA is obviously there but to each individual palate the flavors with the biggest bounce might differ from mine.