Category: BEST

best beer for….

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Best Beers of August 2024

This month it is the all IPA edition. Which is weird because usually I find most IPAs to be smack in the vast middle of pretty good land. I do my best to taste fresh IPA but even the most ardent hop hunter can fall prey to hops that just aren’t packing the same punch as earlier.

Two were draft and two were canned. In the runners up category was Smog City and their CCBA White IPA, the first of two of that sub-style that I tasted this month. It was bright and light without getting too thin and it had a real nice subtle character to it. The other draft was at Great Notion where I had their Orange Creamsicle IPA. Usually not a fan of the milkshake but this did not have the fake orange and too sweet. It tasted much like the ice cream treat.

The cans were from North Park Beer Co. and from Ambitious Ales and it was a tight call but North Park’s Dead as a Doornail DDH West Coast IPA made me sit up a bit straighter than the Gimme That from Ambitious.

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Label Love

Every once in a while, I like to give some flowers to label designs that show extra effort, are fun and just flat out rise above the cut.

Burgeon Beer Co. takes a diner ticket approach to Order Up.

There are loads of little details. The color is spot on and there is even a binder clip as well. All with enough space and room for the hop bill and the charitable causes logos too. Works on all levels.

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Best Beers of July 2024

I am going to start with two beers drunk later in the month starting in Mount Angel, Oregon at the Benedictine Brewery. Their St. Michael Helles was absolutely on point and very refreshing on a hot day. I do have to add that all their beers were good.

Dewey Beer Moelleux Au Chocolate Stout was the last beer of the trip and my first visit to Function PDX and their newer Alberta outpost. It was also my only “big” beer of the trip. It was super chocolately and very smooth.

Two other beers make the list of the month starting with the 2024 edition of Russian River’s Pliny for President. Not a surprising choice since Russian River hardly ever make a mis-step with hops. Lastly, El Segundo, also known for hoppy beers, came out with Crowner Kolsch which I think is one of their better “alternative” beera.

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Best Beers of June 2024

June is now in the books so it is time to review the best beers that I laid my hands on this month.

It is a tie for first and a tie for second. And each has an IPA and then a German beer style.

Tied for 2nd are Russian River Brewing’s RnD IPA #44 and Human Robot’s Hallertau Pils. The latter is my first beer from the Pennsylvania brewery and boy was it good on a steamy LA day on the Highland Park Brewery patio. And what can be said about Russian River, whenever I see an RnD IPA, I buy it.

Tied for first was the Hana Munich Helles from Headlands Brewing. When someone says malt makes a big difference, this is what I will point to as Exhibit A. A luxury of a beer, Lastly, Monkish Space Cookie IPA just should not be as good considering it is such a weird beer but boy was it, standing out from a festival crowd.

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Best Beers of May 2024

May brought a nice mix of new beers and new breweries and that is shown in the Best of for the month…

Santa Monica Brew Works Flecha Azul Margarita Sour – I have had a couple nice sours recently headlined by this SMBW that smartly combined margarita with sour in a Gose-ish way.

Trusted Gut Kristalweizen – clean and crisp but unmistakably weizen. Perfect for a summer day.

Ghost Town + North Park Ghost Park IPA – Cannot go wrong with North Park even if they are just half of the brewing team.

The big winner for the month is…..

Brouwerij West 8x8x Hazy DIPA – now this was a proper hazy. it was like drinking cream and pineapple and it had an impressive layer of murk to it.

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Best Beers of April 2024

Time to look back on the 30 days of April and come up with some best beers of the month.

I need to start with the stovepipe can of Imperial IPA from Lagunitas that is Tiki Fusion – Zombie. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. It had a plethora of ingredients to Tiki-fy it and although it was a touch too sweet it had the hallmarks of a cocktail inspired IPA.

Switching gears, if not ABV, the Infinite Wishes – Almond Joyous variant from Smog City was really good and a nice counterpoint to the Strawberry Whipped variant. Both had sweetness that was knocked down just enough to avoid being treacly.

Another winner was the 2024 American Reinheitsgebot Helles Lager from Enegren Brewing in collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus. Crisp and clean with just a wee touch of pear to it made for a really good Sunday starter.

The winner for the month came from an unexpected source. Not the brewery. Firestone Walker has been tagged in my monthly round-ups a few times. But it was the fact that it was Wookey Jack. A beer I have a few of in my life and liked but for whatever reason, on draft at the Propagator it really shined. The hops were there but the malt was not sidelined at all. Fresh on draft can sometimes make a big difference.

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Best Beers of March 2024

Time to get into the time machine and tab the top beers of March before we head into the April drinking session.

Honorable Mentions go to Long Beach Beer Lab for their Brewte (Brut) IPA, good to see this sub-style pop up on tap and this was a nice executed crisp, dry and pear version. Next to mention is the pilsner High 10 from Highland Park Brewery. The menu board had re-brews of past years and there were many High 10s to choose from but I really liked the West Coast Pilsner. I also quite liked the latest Short-Lived IPA from MadeWest brewed with Firestone Walker. Crisp and biting with nice fruit notes.

The March winners was the strawberry whipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City Brewing. Filled with berry notes and a slight touch of vanilla, it was luxury when paired with a bourbon barrel imperial stout.

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Best Beers of February 2024

Well, if you read any of my Portland beer posts in the last week, then you know that this post is all about Duality Brewing in Portland.

And it wasn’t that they smashed a West Coast IPA or Bourbon barrel stout out of the park. No, they put Bergamot tea and Satsuma tangerine into a wheat beer and both featured ingredients shined like a laser, Then they took a Saison through a gauntlet of barrel aging, pine needle filtering and blending in cider and it was really excellent. Get thee to Duality!

I will say that a couple other beers deserve honorable mention. Radiant Beer Co.’s 3rd anniversary TIPA – All the Things We’ve Done was top notch and Santa Monica Brew Works Low and Slow Helles in partnership with Bludso’s BBQ was the perfect brisket accompaniment.

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Best Beers of January 2024

Time to see what beers made an impression on me in the first month of 2024. My penchant for collaboration beers is certainly showing.

Here are my runners up:

Bagby Beer Co. wEYESsbier with Bierstadt Lagerhaus

Creature Comforts Winter Trees Cold Red IPA

Everywhere / North Park Retro Steps Forward DDH Hazy IPA

This month the most memorable was:

Brouwerij West / Harland Cosmic Gulp Tarted Fruit Ale – I guess I am a sucker for passion fruit which was strongly forward but what other than that, this sour was not puckery. I think I found a tart beer that doesn’t leave my stomach in backflips

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Hop Merchants Tops

North Hollywood bottle shop and bar, Hop Merchants unveiled their customer best of list for 2023 and it’s an interesting mix of hip breweries and locals…

Good to see HPB come out on top and a little weird to see North Park so low but an interesting snapshot in time and I hope they do it again in years to come so the lists can be compared.