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In addition to finally making it to the White Labs, me and beer buddy Richard also hit three other extremely, really close breweries near the Miramar area just north of San Diego proper.
And we still didn’t visit Alesmith or Ballast Point!
First stop was Hess (or Mike Hess) Brewing…..
Next stop was Rough Draft Brewing (some of their bottles are making their way to L.A.)
Last on the itinerary was Green Flash….
In this “every once in awhile” series, I either send a bottle to my mom and get her review or she sends me a bottle and we both review it. That way, she gets some L.A. beers and I get my Portland beer fix.
This time around, I sent her cans. 16oz Golden Road cans of their Point the Way IPA and Hefeweizen. And to add another twist, she grabbed some friends to get their reviews. Mom was partial to the IPA. Though she thought it was more a pale. Name aside, she liked it.
The Hefe got good marks. “nice light summer beer” and “very mellow” The citrus did not come through but the cloudy banana that are hallmarks of the style certainly did.
The IPA impressed at first but the vibrancy and flavors faded as it warmed. But the balance was done well.
As a bonus, the Ninkasi / 21st Amendment collaboration was also sampled. The dates didn’t shine through, in fact a creme brulee taste was noted as well as barley wine notes to it. Certainly an interesting addition to a tasting.
Now I have to decide what next to send to my Mom.
So the craft beer world was tilted towards Colorado, I didn’t sit on the couch grousing that I wasn’t there. Especially since my football team was winning (Go Linfield!)
I took to the road and visited 4 SoCal breweries. The first stop was Cismontane for the release of their Double Rainbow DIPA….
We got to sample the “regular” version of Double Rainbow….
Cismontane even grows a few hops outside their pleasant little industrial park tasting room….
Next stop is the fairly new Anaheim Brewing. Another pretty interior in which to drink beer and aside from me in the foreground…
I will have to sample more to make a complete assessment of their creations…
Richard and I sampled the Tavern Ale and the Oktoberfest both of which were underwhelming in comparison to Cismontane.
Our final stop was a quick jaunt to Eagle Rock Brewery to get a taster of Populist and to buy a small growler. Then home to sleep!
My beer buddy Richard and I traveled to Escondido for the pleasure of puckery sour beer at Stone Brewing. And at 10am no less.
We arrived and quickly received are elegant sampler glasses, our 15 taster tickets and the menu…..
I started with Sang Royal from famed (and often mentioned on this blog) Cascade Brewery in Portland which had (6) sours on the menu. Of which I sampled two. The Vine with it’s big white grape taste and milder acidity was my favorite. We found a rock wall to sit on at the lowest level and plotted our sour choices on the sunny day…
My plan was to alternate between fruit sours and barrel aged sours. Mostly to keep the acidity level in check. (Even though I brought some Tums in case). And because there were so many choices, 53 on tap plus 49 bottles, it was easy to do.
There were only a couple of duds in the 11 that I sampled but they were far outweighed by two from Cantillon that were simply amazing. The Lou Pepe Kriek and the Iris.
The kriek was like a spiced cherry pie. It was a cloudy red with excellent aroma. My number one choice of the day.
If you went this year or last, what were your favorites?
One of the announcements lost in the shuffle (a bit) on the Stone grand expansion plans was the addition of the Pour it Black festival.
More will be said later but for now, save the date.
One beer that might be in attendance is the latest collaborative brew….
On Saturday, Blue Palms put brown bags over their taps and for four hours, us lucky attendees, had to guess what beer they had in front of them. Out of 24, I got 0 exact matches which I expected but I picked 9 of the styles correctly. But I had only half of the beers before in my beer drinking life. And some beers like New Belgium’s Metric 10 defy easy categorization.
My favorite beer of the afternoon was the Green Hill Dry Hopped Blonde. It was sparkly and semi-sour at first but then this cloudy yellow beauty faded into a delightful grainy/oaty taste that contrasted with the sourness extremely well. I also heartily enjoyed Josh Jensen’s chamomile home brew. A really unique twist of a beer that was really well balanced. There were some truly distinctive brews. Ladyface Sauv Blanc Saison, Avery 18th Anniversary Rye Saison to name two.
On whole the IPA’s fared poorly in comparison to simpler brews like the Marin Chocolate Porter or Eagle Rock’s Yearling. Primarily because after one tongue scraper the bitterness can be too heavy. And a beer with bold but palate friendly flavors can really refresh.
As usual, Blue Palms has put on a good show. Time just flew by as people discussed what they were tasting and compared notes.
Here are the photos of the event…..
Last Saturday, I got to spend a lovely spring LA day drinking beer. Great craft beer at the ColLAboration pop-up Beer Garden. I partook of Stone Vanilla Bean, Bear Republic Double Rocket. Red Poppy from Lost Abbey but my surprise favorite was the habanero Sculpin from Ballast Point. So balanced that I imagine the technical skill it took to pull that trick off. I probably can’t do a pint of it because of my low scovill tolerance but the few sips I had were great. 2nd place went to Brouwerij West’s Blonde. Perfect on a summer day. I love both of their beers.
More analysis to come on FoodGPS on Thursday morning.
Eco friendly and craft beer go together like chocolate and peanut butter. You got HUB in Portland, New Belgium in Fort Collins and now the wind powered beer of Wisconsin, Dave’s Brewfarm!
Lupulo Noir is roasted malt and a boatload of hops.
Saison Farmfresh is an estate hop mashed up with French Saison list.
and check out RateBeer for some of their other fine beers!
One of your New Year’s Beer Resolutions can be to learn more about beer!
Even after a year filled with new beer and new breweries, there is still room to learn more.
That’s why I am excited to post today about an Oregon outfit that aims to teach and promote the great beer places in Portland.
The Oregon Beer Odyssey conducts “…. classes {that} aim to educate a broad audience about the diversity and quality of craft beer, both from the Northwest and around the world. In an intimate, small-group setting, customers can enjoy themselves, while sampling unique beers during one of our structured workshops. Our staff steward the events personally, assuring that customers’ needs are met and that these artisanal beers are presented with the class they deserve.”
Mark Dredge (who I had the pleasure to meet at the Beer Bloggers Conference) has come up with a great idea. A weekend where beer lovers open up their beer treasure chests and open up that craft beer they have been saving for a special occasion.
Here is the rationale behind the agenda:
“So here’s the idea: let’s create a special occasion. Let’s call this special occasion Open It! and let’s drink the good beers. Let’s find a bottle from the depth of the cellar and open it, drink it and then tell others about it (in blogs, blog comments or twitter or facebook).
Open it alone or open it with others; hold an Open It! party or take it to the pub to see what people think. Most importantly, get that bottle open and drink the thing and then tell everyone about it.
Open It! over the first weekend in December — Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th — and then blog about it in the week after. Use the #openit hashtag on twitter while you are drinking it and like the Facebook group. It’s just about opening something special and enjoying it.”
I am thinking about popping open the Monstre Rouge on one of those days.