Tag: Best of the Fest

Posted on

FWIBF19 – Best of the Awesome

You have to try really hard to find a bad beer at The Firestone Walker Invitational. You also have to try really hard to highlight those that truly stand out because, well it is degrees of awesome. You could also highlight all pils, Kolsch and Helles or all IPA’s and the list would slap.

But here are the beers that punched through the general level of awesome to make me scramble to my notes to learn more.

Rare Barrel Cyboogie Sour IPA – Not super sour and more tilted to just hazy IPA with Citra, El Dorado and Nelson Sauvin, this was both soft and bitter with just a touch of tart.

Crooked Stave Sour Rose – Canned Rose is a thing but the results are all over the brewing map. This Colorado Rose was super light, super watery but that water was Rosewater and it was perfumey beer greatness.

Burial Beer / Visual Amaro – This cocktail styled beer had smoky blueberries, quinine, raisins and licorice flavors per the brewer. How that mixture works together is a mystery but this was a lovely spicy dark ale.

Great Leap Honey MA Blonde – 1st beer of the day from this Chinese brewery and it was a great choice. Bright with a big pepper note but still easy to drink. One of the most complex blonde ales I have had.

Side Project A la Table – a super low (under 3% ABV) table beer made with buckwheat, oats, pilsner and two different types of white wheat that is then aged in American oak barrels for six months.

Posted on

Beers Drunk -Sacramento

Enough of the other stuff, start talking about the damn beer!

Here are my impressions on what I drank at the California Craft Beer Summit.

Damn if Rare Barrel doesn’t just swamp the competition. Arrows of Neon with lemon and lime peel was amazing and the second beer that I tried of the quartet they were serving, Gifted Branch with stone fruits was almost in that lofty zone too.

Bagby Beer Co.’s Corn Star, their take on the malt liquor was a step different from everything else I tasted that weekend in a good way.

Kinetic Brewing and their HiHopAnonymous IPA had a fantastic aroma and the flavor came through too. Very complex swirl of flavors even for a month old!

Sampled two beers from the buzzed about Alvarado Street and came away less than impressed. Especially with their Super Rad pineapple beer which tasted like fruit juice. The Peninsula Pilsner was better but not a big winner.

From Sacramento I tasted the Device Integral IPA, the Bike Dog Mosaic, New Glory Hazy Session amongst others but none really lit my world on fire. The Rope Swing Cream Ale from Oak Park would be my pick of this grouping.

Lastly, Moonraker Yojo 33 1/3 Session IPA was unexpectedly good. Most IPA’s fell into the “OK” category but this one had me thinking of ordering another 1/2 pint.