Category: Beer Reviews

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MacLeod Ales – Part the 2nd

I had visited the newest LA brewery (love typing that) a couple weeks back, I only got to sample one beer, so I headed back with beer buddy Rich to see what the other beers were like.

Here is what I found during Round 2 at MacLeod’s Ale Brewing….

…a nice sized crowd. The bar stools all taken. Quick and attentive service. And three new beers to try.

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I hopscotched across the styles starting with the 60 Shilling, then the Ordinary Bitter and lastly the Brown Stout. The Bagpipe tune names, you can see in the above photo.

My favorite and my top choice is The Session Gap. It is ordinary in name only. Lots of grain taste here. Crisp with some citrus notes to it. And like all four beers, it is way easy to be halfway done with a pint before you know it.

The Kings Taxes and Jackie Tar are both on the darker side but are still worlds apart from other dark beers. Even with the added creamy mouthfeel from the hand pump, these two are not viscous or over chocolate/coffee tasting. I keep coming back to the fact that the malt bill is the star here. The Yorkshire yeast is background and the hops are off stage somewhere.

And that is a refreshing change for an over IPA’d LA market.

I strongly recommend visiting their taproom which is open Wednesday through Sunday and look for their beers to be on tap at places like Story Tavern and Glendale Tap in the coming months.

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Review – California Tripel from Ruhstaller

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I know that I sound like a broken record (or is it, broken streaming audio?), but I love the presentation of the Ruhstaller bottles (cans too).  I like the kid with the bad boy look, I like the netting on the neck of the 22oz bottle.  The marketing copy is not only readable but fun.  For their California Tripel, they talk about an artist, a curator and the brewer plus have room for the beer ingredients.  Cause that apparently is the most important thing if the blogosphere is to be believed.  Made with California Metcalf & Copeland barley and California Cluster hops, this Belgian Style Tripel comes in at 9.5%.

Which is a good thing because this is another of the unintentionally aged bottles from Total Wine.  This beer came out in July.  This being June, I assume that this beer is from 2013. The production was limited to 230 cases.

It pours a bright orange color with a disturbing amount of floaty bits in it. As you can probably tell from the photo. Tripels can be evil.  Their high alcohol masked until you finish the glass and this one doesn’t quite succeed in that.  You can get a little heat from it.  That is strike 2.  Which I am holding Total Wine accountable for, not the brewer.  There is some typical Belgian spice in there but the finish is a bit watery despite the alcohol.  I am getting some of the sweetness that you might sense as well which is good but overall, I would have to recommend buying this beer fresh and popping the cap then.  And do not buy it in June in hot Southern California.

 

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Up From the Cellar – Vintage Ale from Trader Joe’s 2011

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Earlier this month, I reviewed the gold embossed 2010 version of Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale brewed by the Canadian Unibroue and now we move on to the silver embossed 2011 and see how much (if any) differences there are.

To recap, here is what I said about this beer years ago, Aroma is not malty or roasted. Rich smelling. Pours dark brown close to black. Alot of plum type flavor in here. A faint touch of spice. The cheeks warm up but only after a few sips.

Every once in a while, you end up with a cork battle. This time the cork won. Various instruments of torture were used and I finally was able to get 1/2 of the cork out while the remainder floated merrily in the bottle.

After cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen, I brought the glass to my nose and smelled cola?  Yup, distinct cola notes in the nose and taste as well as the carbonation. Drastically different from the 2010. I also pick up rhubarb in there as well. Rhubarb pie to be precise. This us such a brighter and bubblier drink.  There are some candi sugar flavors in there which adds to the sweet overall profile.

As it warms, the clove and typical Belgian yeast components come out of hiding.

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The Verdict?  Strange and soda pop but I kinda liked it. Maybe the thrill of a fizzy aged beer has clouded my judgement but this year was fun.

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Review – Toasted Oak IPA from Innis and Gunn

First off,  I didn’t hold out much hope for this hoppy British beer.  Not because of fear of the Innis & Gunn brewery. But because the two previous IPA’s  that I had bought at Total Wine were old, old.  My fault for not checking the best buy date, but still you would expect a store to rotate the old beers off the shelves. And this beer was coming further than the other two.  And British IPA’s tend to be lightly hopped compared to American ones.

Anyhoo, this was the first I&G beer that I have had,  the marketing copy says, “Its fervent hoppy character hails from the unique addition of large quantities of hops at three separate points during brewing. The result is a beer that’s rounded yet refreshing, with delicate floral notes and oodles of zesty freshness.”

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And here is what I think, or what I would have thought if this beer hadn’t been light years from prime condition. Though it is difficult to tell without any bottled on date. Thus my Total Wine trip was a total IPA loss. This beer, in poor condition, is sickly sweet with a light bit of hops and metallic notes in the background. The toasted oak isn’t clearly coming through but if you swirl it around your mouth a faint bit of it appears. And that is disappointing because toast notes and hops could really work well together.

Maybe if I had cellared it, the sweetness would have diminished and it would be better. As it is, I have learned a lesson. Big Box stores make you do the legwork.

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Review – 2 from Stone Brewing

First off, I am not even going to try to spell the name of the new series of beers from Stone.  Them’s the breaks when you choose a name like StocheeheenieWTF.  But I will try the beer.  The first in the series was the Grapefruit slam that I thought worked as a beer more than the marketing.  But I am a sucker for grapefruit and it worked well with the hops.  Now they have gone to the Belgian Quad and used Triticale which reliable Wikipedia (and other sources) describe as, “….a hybrid of wheat and rye first bred in laboratories during the late 19th century.”

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This beer was strange.  Not easy to drink.  It was sharp with an astringency to it that made me pucker, even though it wasn’t sour at all.  It also tasted thin.  I expect Quads to have a little heft to them.  Not viscous, per se, but have a solid malty backbone to lean against and this did not have it.  Their was also a lack of spice to it and it had more of a Belgian strong ale straightforwardness to it.  I couldn’t finish this one, to be honest.  I poured out a solid half a glass.  It did work better with the dessert than the main course in my testing but I think that was the sweetness of the fruit crumble that balanced out the strange taste that I will attribute to the Triticale or the yeast.

The second beer was the latest Enjoy By, with the patriotic date of 7/4/14 on it.

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Needless to say this is bitter.  And a little less fruity than past incarnations that I remember.  But it certainly is crisper and more direct than the usual Stone hop bombs.  There is mango and pineapple notes followed by a dankness and heaviness as the beer warms up and hits the back of the palate.  It certainly sticks around as well.  Not many scrubbing bubbles.  And at over 9% abv, this is probably more a Triple or Imperial IPA depending on your taxonomic leanings.  There is a bit of acrid bitterness but the ABV doesn’t heat you up.  But I wouldn’t put someone in charge of the 4th of July grill who has had one of these.  My personal palate would have liked a less heavy dankness and a brighter fruit note but I am not like most Stone fans so this is probably more in line with their tastes than mine.

 

 

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Review – The Ogden from Goose Island

There is a very herbal nose on this new to L.A. bottled offering from Goose Island of Chicago. Getting notes of licorice and vanilla intermingling in this bright orange drink that bears the name Ogden in honor of hizzoner William Ogden, the first mayor in Chicago. (Are they called that in Chicago, or is that just a New York thing?)

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I am also getting some rye and citrus background flavors here as well as I take in all the details of the well-designed and classy label.  There is almost a creamsicle essence as well. This saison does show it’s 9% ABV on its sleeve but there is such a nice mix of flavors here that it doesn’t cause a detriment to drinking it. The licorice and orange + tropical particularly really work well together.

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Review – Gold Brick Pale ale from Ol’ Burro

My local Trader Joe’s (and by local, I mean across the street) has upped it’s beer game in the past 5-6 months.  More options and newer options as well. But that hasn’t meant a stop to their “house” brands.  So my beer radar was up when I saw Ol’ Burro Brewing of Los Angeles on their shelves.

Now their house brands are pretty solid. Unibroue and Gordon Biersch with Firestone Walker doing some as well and now it appears Golden Road as well. No mention of it on the box.  Other than a mysterious “brewed in Los Angeles”.

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Since there are not many breweries in Los Angeles and not many at all that can. It is not much of a leap to Golden Road.  A cursory Googling found only an address.  An address on West San Fernando Road.  Which if you have been to Golden Road, is their street location.  After my Sherlocking, I asked the clerk where it was brewed and you can guess the answer I got.

Now I don’t know why the subterfuge.  The beer geeks will find out and all they are fooling are people who may not understand the contract beer thing.  And that may turn people off if and when they find out.  I would put proudly brewed for Trader Joe’s by Golden Road on the label and if people liked this lower priced offering, they might reach for the higher priced Heal the Bay Or Wolf Among Weeds the next time they beer shopped.

That is a topic oft covered on this blog so lets get to the beer…..

It pours a dark amber brownish/orange color.  For a pale ale, there is not much hop nose at all.  45 IBUs doesn’t scream hoppy though it is more in line with a traditional pale ale.  The first sips mirror the aroma.  Primarily maltiness.  Super easy to drink.  Leaves a pretty lacing on the glass too.  Very quenching but more an ESB than a pale.  And if the box and can replaced pale with ESB, I would have been pleasantly surprised.  As a pale ale, it is no great shakes and could use a serious bitter boost.

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Obviously at a lower price point, you can’t expect Citra, Nelson or Rakau in your pale but you would expect more hoppiness to be there.  They also have four packs of a blonde ale as well.  Usually those don’t stray too far style wise.  That makes the choice easier.  If you want light, go for the blonde it will only set you back $4.99.  If you are in a malty mood then pony up an extra buck for the Gold Brick (ESB).

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Review – Collective Distortion IPA from Stone

In recent years, I have become more fond of the Stone Collaborations then there core line-up.  They can get a little too zany and pump up ingredients that should be bit players when simplicity might work better.  But their experimentation is a welcome switch from their usual flavor profile.  And though I was not a fan of WootStout or the R&R Coconut IPA, I liked that they were enlisting home brewers of both the non-celebrity and celebrity types in their creations.

And the latter continues with a musical (String Cheese Incidient / Alice Cooper) themed collaboration that adds a reliable hop like Nugget with somewhat newer varietal Comet and Calypso with dry-hopping of Vic’s Secret, a new Australian hop.  Then they added in coriander and elderberries.

That is the backstory, now here is the review…

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The “CD” pours a bright and clear orange.  Not much of a head to it.  Nice and bubbly looking though.  The smell is a bit non-descript with a hint of soapiness to it.  The first flavor that I get is grape.  Concord grape.  Grape jelly grape.  Then there is a really harsh bitterness that fades into a currant note. To the point where I Googled elderberry to see if that was what I was tasting. After a few sips this bitterness coats the tongue and the mouth and the grape notes fade to the back and one is left with the harshness only.  There is also an astringent and wood pairing of notes as well.  The former adds to the debilitating bitterness and the former tries to perk things up without much success.

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I don’t know if it was the mix of hops or the elderberry and coriander or the combination of all three but this is just too much and it becomes oppressive tasting.

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Review – Dixon California Nugget Ale from Ruhstaller

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I love the design on the Ruhstaller beers.  They are playful and simple.  The neck is adorned with fabric and tape and though the graphic is busy, it isn’t annoying.  It is like a piece of art that some may like and others may not.  Plus their backstory on the beer is simple and straightforward as well. This hoppy beer made with hops grown in Dixon, California at the Ruhstaller farm. It is part of their Rapid Fire R&D series.

That bodes well but what about the beer itself? It pours a really dark reddish/brown.  Akin to an imperial red, hence the lack of an IPA moniker in the name.  The initial aroma has balsa wood notes and some caramel as well.  It is one of those beers with a low ABV that taste stronger.  The hop character is mostly woody and herbal and is pretty strong without being overwhelming.  Their website alludes to a licorice taste that I don’t quite pick up myself. But I do get some toast notes here that balances the affair out.

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Review – Plan Check (Fairfax)

There are many, many L.A. craft beer spots that I need to visit.  My pace is slow for sure but thank to an invite from the folks at Plan Check, I was able to cross another establishment from the list while learning about their craft beer vision.

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What struck me first was the simplicity of the menu.  There weren’t 500 variations of burger and 100 taps.  Nope.  You had a few options and a special plus fries in a couple preparations and appetizers.  16 taps. But you could do a lot with that number as you can see below.

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And there tap take-overs aren’t one and done affairs.  They usually stretch over a course of days, so that if you day 1, you aren’t out of luck.  Though they did run through both 329 and El Hefe Anejo pretty quickly.

The space on Fairfax is roomy with booths on the edges and some cool industrial lighting.  The bar area is pretty cool looking with the bottles getting light on them and they have a hop vodka cocktail on the menu that I will be trying the next time that I am there.