[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUoVLo0N2Ho]
More IPA!!!!
Liquid Solutions
If I had unlimited funds, I would spend a chunk on Liquid Solutions website. They have a great selection of Oregon and Washington beers plus foreign and California as well.
Let me give one example of how great Matt Maples and his staff are to customers. I needed Berliner Weisse for a beer & dessert tasting. None of my local spots had any. Now I could have driven to the Bruery for some growlers but I do not have the room to store it. I check Liquid Solutions and they have two types of Berliner Weisse, I had shipping questions that Matt answered and he even held off shipping to avoid excess heat!
I cannot recommend Liquid Solutions highly enough.
100th Beer Post!!
Thanks to the advice of Tomm Carroll, I checked out BoHo in Hollywood. Open since March of this year, it is a odd spot. Great big picture window but on the inside it is eclectic old boy’s club / library. Very interesting and very busy.
I had two vastly different beers. First off was Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA. Very interesting. This is a strange observation to make but it tasted thick but not in a stout or porter way. Not something that you drink fast. For an IPA, not a hoppy aroma or taste but you can really tell you are drinking a big beer. I will have to taste the 60 minute to compare.
Secondly was the Rogue Chocolate stout. Oh was this good. Great Aroma of chocolate and malt. I could spend hours just taking in this great smell. And it was so easy to drink. This is a really good beer. Great with dessert.
Widmer '09 Belgian golden ale
The 2nd in the Spontaneous Beer Tasting series….
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8JSXwIZGpk]
My current beer wish list
These are the (4) breweries that I cannot get out here in Southern California but really want to try…..
Three Floyds
Magic Hat
Cigar City
and most of all…..NEW GLARUS!
What brewery do you wish distributed to you?
Tasting notes
Here are my notes from my tasting at 55 Degree Wine & Beer Store and from BJ’s.
The Foret really was alcohol from aroma to taste. Kind of tinny and not as complex as Saison Dupont which is the gold standard for Saisons. Between the two, I would always go for Dupont.
Ahh! St. Bernardus. Their Wit is the gold standard in this category. Sparkling. Effervescent. Tasted like oranges. Pitch perfect. In comparison, I also had BJ’s seasonal Nit Wit. Great name. Mediocre beer. Not much flavor. Just sort of sat there. Unfortunately, that is pretty much the same review I could give for every BJ’s beer. Nothing remarkable.
The McChouffe Brown was good. Nice and solid. Not much aroma. Nice earthy flavor though. A little chewier than most browns.
Mission IPA. I saw that it was made in San Diego and thought HOP BOMB! But this is restrained. You can really smell the hops but when you take a drink, it is a balance of malt and hops. Very nice.
Lastly, the St. Peters Old Style Porter. Very nice Porter. I liked it. Nice and drinkable. Not too smoky but not too light either. Another balanced beer.
Abita Andygator
You can go to my YouTube video to see me spontaneously taste the new Abita Helles Dopplebock.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctbe_fkvNPY]
Sour Wench
I was in the celebratory mood because Eagle Rock Brewery passed another permit hurdle today so I went over to the nearby Verdugo. I tried the Sour Wench from Ballast Point.
This is a beer brewed with blackberries. Sam Adams also has a new Blackberry Wit so I guess that blackberries are the hip fruit. This offering isn’t particularly sour nor is it super fruity. It is right in the middle. Thanks to the berries it is more interesting than other beers and it does have an awesome red look to it.
Not really to my taste however, but I can see how this would be an excellent starter for someone who wants to try fruit and/or sour beers.
new Abita beer
This is a nice looking red-amber ale. As you may have figured out by now, I am a sucker for brewery special releases. This one is a nice Belgian dubbel. With part of the proceeds going to the St. Joesph Abbey. Not much aroma but it does carry an alcoholic punch. Not bad but it could use a little more spice to counteract the alcohol and malt.
The Daily Pint
I made my first trip to the Daily Pint this Memorial Day weekend and it was well worth it. Very similar to Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena. Old (in a good way) with the smell of casks past. Really nice selection of good beer choices though I must say there were two customers who ordered BMC that made me wince.
On to better news, the beer! I started with the Sublimely Self-Righteous from Stone.
They really do dark IPA’s well. Probably better than anyone else. This pours a beautiful dark black with a great head. Easy to drink but heavy. This would be great for a late fall BBQ.
Second up was the Einhorn Spezial Pilsner.
Another beer that looks really good. Now, I am not a big pils fan. But this one is pretty good. I could have done with just the pint instead of the boot.
Lastly, I had a combo. A mixed beer cocktail so to speak. Youngs Double Chocolate with Raspberry lambic.
This was sooo good. Like a candy bar. The mixture was just right. I highly recommend this. Great for dessert instead of ice cream.