Review – Liquid Breadfruit from Maui Brewing & Dogfish Head

Time to video review another beer and we head to Maui Brewing for their Liquid Breadfruit collaboration with Dogfish Head.

Here is part of the description from the brewery, “Dogfish Head superstar – Sam Calagione, will be our fearless collaborator! The result – a beer-epiphany never before innovated called Liquid Breadfruit!

To celebrate the cornucopia of a Maui-grown harvest, we will ingeniously combine local breadfruit (or ulu) & toasted papaya seeds into the recipe of an imperial golden ale fermented using Dogfish Head’s DNA ( Delaware-Native-Ale) yeast.”

Bottled in El Segundo

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Here is the information from El Segundo Brewing:
“El Segundo Brewing Company sent its first production beers out to initial accounts in May 2011. In 2012 we brewed over 1,000 barrels (1 barrel = 31 gallons) and now have over 150 accounts between Santa Barbara and San Diego, and as far East as Redlands. We doubled our original 60 barrel fermentation capacity in June last year, and will be doubling up yet again in March.

We take the next big step, on February 1st. We will be releasing our first bottles ever, White Dog IPA and Standard Crude American Imperial Stout, in 22oz bottles at the brewery.

At 5pm.. The bottles will start selling. We will be tapping a cask of Rum-soaked and Oaked Hyperion’s Double Stout we have been sitting on for the occasion. We will have savory pies (meat and veggie) from El Segundo Catering.

We will be here, drinking and celebrating. Join us! And buy some of our first run of bottles!

White Dog IPA has been our best selling hoppy beer of the past year, and has garnered acclaim across Los Angeles. We use 50% wheat in the malt bill, and the Nelson Sauvin hop from New Zealand which give it a very unique character that our customers have come to love.

Standard Crude is an American Imperial Stout.. since, why should the Russians get all the recognition! All malted barley with just a sprinkling of oats for texture. This beer is roasty throughout with many deep undertones of blackberry, cassis, tobacco and leather. The layers of malt reveal themselves one by one as the beer changes in the glass. Take your time with this one. Enjoy now, or lay it down in your cellar for a few years! This is a once a year release, and the first from our brewery..”
White Dog Bottle

Swag Brewery

So this is not an actual brewery. But the swag part is correct. Do you want some classy and cool craft beer items. Then Swag is a good interwebs stop.
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You can get some hop candy. (Weird and interesting)
You can buy some cool art prints with beer themes
and they even sell beer soap too.

Perfect for the beer geek in your life.

Home of the Brave Beverage Co.

You don’t need a holiday to celebrate the Armed Forces of our Country. And you can celebrate with a cheers via Home of the Brave Beverage Company.

“Since 1991, family owned and operated, Home of the Brave has carried on a proud tradition of supporting and honoring the legacy of America’s Finest— the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. Salute our troops while enjoying our delicious American hand-crafted beers and fire-brewed sodas.”

Currently this Hawaiian brewery only has one bottled offering but will hopefully be “branching” out in the future…
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“Pilot Pale Ale is craft-brewed with bread-like malt character so as to avoid sweetness, while still maintaining just enough body to balance out a delicate dry bitterness, fermented with an American Ale yeast strain. Taste the natural fruity esters from fermentation that harmonize with a generous aroma hop addition of spicy citrus floral American hops. Enjoy the light crisp dry finish that leaves just a breath of bitter bouquet.”

Craft Beer Connect

It appears that the buying craft beer from the internet thing is also taking off. I just ran across a California centric site that offers a new spin on buying by the name of Craft Beer Connect.
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Instead of buying single beers or six-packs, you select a tier that either A) fits your price range and B) gives you access to the beers you want. This way you can gift to various types of people on your craft beer list and not over or underwhelm people.

They have a good selection of California brewers. Hangar 24, Figueroa Mountain and other stalwarts but nothing from L.A. producers like Eagle Rock or Golden Road yet. But if you have friends somewhere else and you want to turn them on to Golden State brews. This is a good selection including Rough Draft and Manzanita which I have not even tried (yet).

From looking over the list, the beer geek would get a bit of deal depending on shipping with the tier 2 if you could find 6 noteworthy beers. Tier 3 is a little better selection but the price per bottle goes up into the $8 a bottle range versus $6 for the Tier 2.

An interesting concept but I will still prefer Let’s Pour and Beer Jobber for sheer national selection.

Breathe into the App

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If you use your phone for everything then maybe you will be in line to try the Breathometer app.

Basically, you get a small device that plugs into your phone, talks to the app and makes presto, you can breathe into it and get an alcohol reading. A reading that will be kept in a history of every time you blow into the device.

It will cost $20 which could get you a crappy, low-end breathalyzer test since most are in the $100 range.

Truth be told, I have seen people do weirder stuff with their phones.

Review – Proximity from Blue Moon

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I saw Proximity made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes and the red wine version, Impulse in the Burbank Bevmo and I took a flyer. Thought, “Why not?”. Blue Moon is so much better than Coors.

Well, I will not be buying Impulse for one thing. Even though it got a slightly better bad rating than the Proximity did. Plus, the names are horrible. They don’t differentiate the grape varietal or beer. They add nothing.
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Which is, unfortunately, like the beer. It pours a light yellow with lots of tiny bubbles. No head at all here. Aroma is primarily grape juice or really young wine. The carbonation is good but then this white grape juice flavor takes over and does not let go. Not getting much beer here. Maybe a heartier style like a Tripel would have held its own against the sweet juice.
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This is in Bartles & Jaymes territory here. One could also call it an alcopop considering how grape juice forward it is. This has to be filed under failed experiment.

First Brewer in born in America*

I am slowly but surely working my way through the entire Oxford Companion to Beer. All 986+ pages of entries alone and every once in a while, I come across little gems…
“The first non-native American is born in New Amsterdam, (perhaps the first non-native American male born in the New World) in Block & Christiansen’s brewhouse. Jean Vigne grows up to become the first brewer horn in the New World.” (this quote from Fulkerson.org)

*granted this may seem inconsequential considering that the America’s were already populated and beer was being brewed (though in less quantity than Europe) but until such time as we (mostly me) learn more about Native American brewers and techniques, it is a nice nugget of beer history to know and I pass it on to you.

Ohana Pint Night

City Tavern in Culver City has a great line-up of beer nights and Thursday’s Ohana Brewing night was epic.
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You see correctly, that is 9 big tasters of the full Ohana range (minus the sours, which I will talk about later). It looks even prettier with the glasses full.
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Of this group, my top three would be the Accomplice Belgian Style Golden which had a really soft edge to it and a lovely vanilla spice note at the end, followed by the Grateful Hophead which had a wonderful aroma and nice kick of bitterness and then in third place the Noir with Coffee. Third because the coffee taste was fabulous but ran roughshod over the IPA part of the bill.
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It is good to see that the Ohana taphandles are getting space. They are distinctive. You can’t miss that tiki vibe but also it means that all the hard work that Andrew and Chris have put in is paying off with great beer.
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I also got to sample three of their sour beers. Blueberry, wine grape and cherry. The wine grape offering was the least sour and the one with more toasted grain notes and I really liked it but the cherry had a tart hit to it plus had the aroma of a cherry pie out of the oven.

Thanks to Ohana and City Tavern for a grand introduction to Ohana’s full set of beers.

Editor’s note : the two better photos are from Rich Rosen

Smith Rock Brewing

from the Smith Rock website
from the Smith Rock website

When I check out a brewery that is new to me and see this posted on their Facebook page, “Since putting our own beers on Jan 2, we have sold out of oyr firts IPA, our first Pale, and our working on our first Black Ale!! Come check it out next Tuesday, before it’s all gone too!” It makes me smile. I love to see that the beers are finding homes.

And even with Redmond, Oregon having 3 other breweries in town (Cascade Lakes, Phat Matt’s, and Shade Tree Oregon), Smith Rock seems to be doing well for a nano start up.

This is a prime example of a town being aware of craft beer and supporting the locals.