Eagle Rock Brewery celebrated the Deuce yesterday. Both the anniversary and the anniversary beer. It was a bright sunny day with a big crowd ready to sample a wide spectrum of Eagle Rock’s brews.
Beer Buddy Richard and I waited in line and quickly grabbed our taster glasses and tickets. I started with Tarte Noir a lovely sour beer with big dark fruit tastes and then went bigger with the Deuce.
This anniversary edition (in bottles too!) is an amped up version of their classic Solidarity. Which has also spawned a vanilla bean nitro version which I also had a glass of too. It is big and defies easy adjectives. It isn’t super chocolately or roasty and it is almost more Belgian-y than English. Dark fruits and some light coffee notes.
Oddly enough, the biggest line was for the taps that housed Stimulus and Red Velvet instead of the new beer. Then I tried the Red Velvet which had been run through a randall and tasted why. It was lighter and less hoppy than I remembered the original award winner being and it had a lovely tea taste infused all the way through it.
It was my favorite even though I went back for seconds on the Deuce and bought a bottle later at the brewery.
Thanks to Jeremy and the hard working Eagle Rock crew who had to man the tap room right after the party. And also a big shout out to Ryan Sweeney and the Verdugo folks for hosting.