Category: Beer Reviews

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Review – West Coast Double IPA from Sierra Nevada

I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations this month.  And this is the 13th or 1st of the 2014 Beer Camp Across America beers.  It is also Not in the Box / Not a Collaboration.  Simply a 24oz bottle of West Coast Hop-itude.

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The aroma is dank with a touch of cat pee (which I seem to be able to pick up where others don’t)  and a bit of citrus peel.  The bitterness is there for sure and it sticks around so it certainly is in range of the amorphous DIPA style guideline.  The flavor is a mixture of woodsy, which is the dominant component and tropical fruit which is the back-up singer in this equation.  This is a straightforward beer.  No bells or whistles.  Almost like a single-hop beer to a certain extent.  Juicy tasting but with plenty of hops to satiate the hop thirsty crowds.

Of the now 5 beers that I have tasted, this would be closer to the bottom.  Not because it is bad, just because the others one’s were more unique and complex.

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Review – Maillard’s Odyssey from Bell’s Brewery & Sierra Nevada

I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations this month.  I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and the next beer on the docket is from Bell’s Brewery, Maillard’s Odyssey.

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I think I have a contender for favorite. The MO pours similar to the previous Double Latte. A very dark brown with an espresso head. But then it veers off as I get a crazy mix of flavors. Coffee. Chocolate. Fig. And even a bracing dose of hops.

And it is very zippy. Not viscous or syrupy at all. At the end I start getting a slight burnt char flavor that just stacks on top of the rest to form a really interesting brew. This beer and the New Glarus were the most anticipated in my mind because we don’t get them here in LA and this works great.

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Review – Double Latte fron Ninkasi Brewing & Sierra Nevada

I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations this month.  I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and the third beer is from Ninkasi Brewing, Double Latte.

“Double Latte combines two of the greatest things in life: good coffee and great beer. Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing knows their way around a good cup of joe. Featuring cold-press coffee from the legendary Stumptown Coffee Roasters and a dose of milk sugar, this coffee milk stout is a rich and roasty treat.”

When scanning the list of beers, this was the one that made me nervous.  See L.A. has a premier example of a coffee milk stout.  It is Naughty Sauce from Noble Ale Works.  Even with Stumptown Coffee, how could this beer compare.

Time to find out.

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This Double Latte of a beer pours with a big, foamy espresso colored head to it.  That foam recedes fairly quickly leaving a ring around the glass and plenty of lacing.  The aroma is straight up coffee though milder than I expected.  The taste is a blend of coffee and a chocolate chip sweetness.  There is a sense of cream taste from the lactose but it isn’t pervasive.  It is almost a milk chocolate covered coffee bean flavor.  The coffee is certainly bitter.  There is also a bit of carbonated zing in the middle of each sip as well.  All of the flavors that I taste are fantastic but I don’t know if they blend into one beer that rivals the Naughty Sauce.  That is a tough goal and one that the Double Latte valiantly fights but doesn’t quite win.

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Review – Myron’s Walk from Allagash & Sierra Nevada

As threatened at the start of the month, I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations in August.  I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and the second beer is from Allagash, Myron’s Walk.

“Myron’s Walk is a Belgian-style pale ale combining the best of our two breweries. It features intense citrusy flavor and a complex aroma from the use of fruity and resinous whole-cone Citra and Mosaic hops offset by the complex spicy character of Allagash’s house Belgian yeast strain. ”

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I took one sniff and one sip and said, yup, that is Allagash all right.  Put this beer into a line-up of their beers and it certainly would not stick out as a collaboration.  That coriander and a faintly Indian spice profile is right up front.  There is a lemonade quality lurking in the background that makes this a bit more complex and is probably the Sierra Nevada 1/2 of the equation but I wish it was a bit more prominent because the battle goes to the Belgian yeast here.  And that is not necessarily a bad thing but when I think of collaborative beers, I hope for a beer that is redolent of neither brewery in total.  While still having components of each.  As the beer warms up, I start to detect a hint of tea tannin as well.

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As we progress through the box o’ beers, I will start to rank them but as of now, the first two are pretty even.  Both were very flavorful.

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Review – Chico King from 3 Floyds & Sierra Nevada

As threatened at the start of the month, I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations in August.  I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and we start here with 3 Floyds and the Chico King.

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“Chico King is a mash-up of our mutual passion for hoppy pale ales and combines a uniquely robust malt body with intense citrusy and fruity new school hop varietals.”

The King pours a dark but still luminous orange color with quite a bit of foam and lacing to it.  The aroma is split between a toasty malt note and grapefruit pith with the toast coming out more and more as you smell it.

The taste is bright and carbonated.  Lot of bubbles rising in the glass as you watch it.  Bitterness sticks everywhere and, for me, primarily on the front of the tongue.  I keep coming back to toast but this is almost like having good bread with a tart marmalade on it.  The peel note isn’t there but this has that type of flavor mix going on.  The beer tastes heavier than the 6.5% noted on the label.

I have not had a pale quite like this though I would guess you could call this an IPA without anyone batting an eye.  Good start to my randomized journey through Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp.

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Review – Doppel Dinkel Bock from Deschutes

For some reason, I am enamored of the random releases and random styles of the Conflux series of collaborations from Deschutes.  # 2, a white IPA brewed with Boulevard came out before # 1 which was still being aged with Hair of the Dog.  Fast forward and now # 3 has slowly come out and it is a bock with Distelhauser which is on the Tauber River in Germany.

That being said.  How does DoppDink taste?  (OK, that is a horrible short name).  This is like a mixture of pie and an amped up hefeweizen.  It pours an almost reddish color and the nose has a bit of sawdust to it.  Very pleasant woody-ness with a bit of pepper.  But then you get a hit of clove mixed with bubblegum and a small dose of banana.  But it has a bigger malt profile and sticks around.  Very hearty this drink is.

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It is such a change of pace from the lighter beers of summer and will probably leave Session IPA fans in the dust.  As it warms up in the glass, notes of cola and caramel start to expand and add to the flavor profile.  I could easily picture this beer with a beef stew or maybe a non-BBQ presentation of pork.  This is a big beer but also one with delicate flavors that you don’t want to stun with a spicy meal.

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Review – Mexican Logger from Ska Brewing

Hot days in L.A. will be the norm and I am glad that I will have a supply of Mexican Logger from Ska Brewing to turn to in the heat.

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This Colorado brewed lager pours a very light yellow.  It is neither bubbly (on the tongue, certainly is in the picture) or creamy but in the middle of that spectrum.  It is very flavorful.  I get grapefruit pith, floral accents and a nice amount of cereal grain as well.  This is an impressive set of flavors for such a light beer and puts the Saaz hop right in the spotlight.  It certainly made me wish it was in a 16oz can instead of the 12.  And it once again disproves the lager is boring myth

The only downside being the design, which is certainly striking but not the type of artwork that I prefer on a can.  It does make me wonder if there is a differently hopped version out there.

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Review – Decadent Imperial IPA from Ska Brewing

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Every once in while in craft beer world, you take a sip of a beer and it is so unexpected that you pause before the next sip.  And that happened with Decadent from Ska Brewing.  It wasn’t due to the creepy Hop Chompin’ skeleton in hipster attire.  Or to the wax around the neck and cap.  This was a grape bomb while still holding on to the taste profile of an Imperial IPA.  There is a lovely viscosity to this beer as well. The website claims citrus notes that I do not get at all but the caramel malt is surely there.  It tastes the full 10% of alcohol and it has the bitter punch to it but there is a serious amount of concord grape sweetness here that really adds an unusual layer to a beer style that can sometimes (let’s face it) get a little boring.

Imperial IPA’s are big but they lack the complexity (usually) of a barley wine and they usually don’t have the pop of a regular IPA.  But Decadent is totally different. With Session IPA’s hogging the spotlight currently, it is nice to have a grown up big IPA that isn’t afraid to showcase a big fruit taste as well.

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Review – Oneida Session IPA from Modern Times

Even translated to bottles, the design of Modern Times is still striking. And despite the Session IPA moniker or hoppy XPA, as I call them, this was a beer high on my want list.

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For two reasons: I wanted to know how the brewery was growing. Could the quality stay high? Secondly, I was intrigued by two of the hops being showcased. Hallertauer Blanc and Experimental 05256.

And this beer delivers. Very similar to Easy Jack from Firestone Walker but with a drier white wine finish to it. There is a bit of unripe melon in the mix as well. The bitterness really lingers but not in an overbearing way. As it warms, a little bit of astringent lemon.

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I still think that Fortunate Islands is my favorite but this is up there. When next I am in San Diego, I will have to explore the beer list at their Fermentorium.