Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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American Craft Beer Week!!!

I did my small part by having THREE American Craft beers at the lovely Blue Palms Brewhouse.

First I had the new Lagunitas Correction Ale – quite nice a bit hoppy upfront that melts into a nice wheat type beer. Very good summer beer. Makes me wonder what the next new beer, Sumpin’ Sumpin’ is going to be like.

Then I had Ommegang’s Flanders Red – Sooo good! Sour and fruity with a great aroma. I could drink alot of this. Makes me want to drive to Cooperstown.

Lastly I had a taste of Stone’s Vanilla Bean Porter on cask. Interesting but overpowering vanilla. Lost the beer to the vanilla. Easy to drink but tastes like I am in the kitchen making cookies.

As usual the good people at Blue Palms have an excellent list of beer to try.

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The Bottle Room

dscn51761

All I can say is Excellent!! The Bottle Room in Whittier is great. I had the Rosemary Chicken pizza along with Telegraph White Ale and the Maredsous 10. Then followed it up with my 1st ever beer float!! Very good with caramel and nuts and Downtown brown ale. Highly recommended!

dscn5179

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Guinness 250

I tasted the 250 from Guiness today.  Quite the odd beer.  The barkeeps were not enthused by it at all and I can see why.  It is the regular stout that is watered down with Irish spring water.  It is not bad at all.  But it does have a more carbonated/soda-esque taste to it.  With a nitro tap it might be even more pronounced.  Either way, I am not sure if it is a marketing ploy.

guinness250

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New Widmer!!

I have posted about how much I enjoy Drifter but now there are two new offerings from one of the big Portland breweries.  As part of their rotating W line is a Belgian beer but more interesting to me is the 25th anniversary double Alt beer.  For those who only know the Hefeweizen.  Widmer’s Alt was their first success and know they are returning and I for one can’t wait to try it.

medium_84-09-anniversary-alt

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Seaweed Beer

One of my favorite websites, The AV Club has a weekly article called Taste Test. Usually involving something unappetizing like green tea flavored Kit-Kats. This week to my surprise, they had included two beers in their tasting event. The Fraoch Heather beer which I have never had but I have heard good things about and Kelpie Beer made with seaweed.

This leads me to one of my annoyances. Extreme brewing. Now I love an Imperial IPA or a barleywine as much as the next person but, come on, seaweed? Are we to the point where we have fully mastered the brewing arts that seaweed is all that is left to use? There are times when I wish there was an American Reinheitesgebot. That way we can see if a brewer is stripped of tricks whether or not the beer will be solid and flavorful.

I am all for experimenting with brettamyoces or whiskey casks but when you start adding in non-beer related ingredients you might want to pull back from the cliff.

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Triple Hopped?

This is not meant to be a mean, snarky or rant filled blog. It is supposed to focus on great, craft brewed beer but I feel I would be remiss if I did not at least comment on the latest Miller Lite commercial. They claim to be triple hopped. Now this may be true, technically, but what raises my frustration is that, in spirit, they are lying. A triple hopped beer is Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA or Blind Pig from Russian River. If you can taste any hope bitterness in a Miller Lite then you have a much more sophisticated palate than mine. Instead of spending money on ads, I wish the talented beer makers at Miller were spending their time making good beer not marketable beer.