Review – Sweet Crude from Beach City

The second Huntington Beach brew to review is Sweet Crude Stout. And though I don’t like comparing beer to petroleum products, I am glad that Beach City bottles their scaled down or small version of their Imperial Stout.
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Now, on to the review: Dark chocolate and a smokey roast greet the nose from the Sweet Crude. There is a sharp tinge with some metallic note to it that is the dominant take-away from the beer.  Underneath is a coffee ground taste that would play well as a brunch beer if there wasn’t also a smoke note there as well.  A well-carbonated rauch meets stout.

For me, there is too much of a spike to this beer where it needs to be velvety.  Also the taste really sticks to the top of the palate and makes me want a drink of water to release it.  Nothing technically wrong here, it just doesn’t have the flavors that I desire, in the right balance, for me to really enjoy it.

In the Tap Lines for March

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Here’s to hoping that the little bursts of rain that California has been getting continue into March so that we don’t have to import water from Alaska via the H20 version of Keystone. Another reason to pray for rain is that I have quite a few stouts in the ‘fridge that drink better with cold/wet weather. Anyway, here is what is coming up this month on the BSP blog….

~ e-visits to three breweries from new-ish brewers in San Diego (yet again!)
~ special reviews of beers from Beach City of Huntington Beach, CA
~ Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ Beer-centric podcast review
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world
~ … and Session # 97 will converge bloggers onto a single topic, this month it is who and where is Up & Coming

Here are two events to get your March started in the Los Angeles craft beer world:
1) March 9th BEER TALK – Cold Beer, Hot Pizza, Industry Pro
2) March 11th Crazy Harry’s taps the Maltose Falcons / Firestone Walker collaboration