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With a name like Populist and a style like IPA it was only a matter of time before Eagle Rock’s 7% ABV hop standard bearer would become a best-seller. Add the fact that it will also be in cans starting on Wednesday the 27th will make the 16oz can 4 packs even more popular.
The can sale starts when the taproom opens at 4pm.
This wine meets beer from Field Recordings Wines is more accurately a Chenin Blanc meets Gose. It pours a sharp pee yellow. To me this is wine with grapefruit rind. A rind that is accentuated by a liberal dose of sea salt. Two others tried it and said it was more hoppy and 50/50 wine to beer.
Either way, this experimental can that I was given when I visited the Paso Robles brewery last month is not boring at all. From the super cool koozie as label design with all the grape, vineyard (Jurassic!) , barrel and beer-y ingredients plus the canned on date on one side and some Keith Haring style art on the other, this is a thought out limited edition. I wish most beers had this detail with what they are made of.
When I hit the lottery, I am joining the can club for sure. Experiments like this may be polarizing but they are worth trying.
Another California brewer has entered the realm of canning….
…Almanac will be putting their Fresh Beer Series into cans with the really well designed Google Map-pish San Francisco designed labels.
I don’t think I have seen either the Pilsner or Mandarina yet but methinks a variety pack might be in the future. Or at least I hope so.
Sam Adams and their Nitro Project has finally started to show up in L.A. (though BevMo seems to hide it strategically through their Burbank store).
I purchased four packs of both the IPA and a White Ale to see which would win taste-wise and which best showcased the Nitrogenation process.
I started with the Creamy & Smooth White Ale. The sound of the can popping is like starting up an engine. The head is big and creamy. There is near milkshake quality to this. Almost like a horchata shake. Pie spice nutmeg-gy ness. It seems to me that the essential subtle shades of Wit Bier (AKA White Ale) are overwhelmed by the creamy nitro. As it warms, the navel orange notes really start to pick up which adds a missing dimension.
Next on to the Bright & Citrusy, the hops certainly do combat the nitro more. There is a pungent, piney hop kick to this beer that seeps through the foamy head. Lots of wood notes to this hop blend. As it stays cold the nitro half stays in effect. I sampled the beer straight from the ‘fridge and also after sitting at room temp and found it to initially be more citrus focused before settling into the woods.
Overall, I would take the White Ale since it held a little more nuance. The IPA fought through the Nitro and unleveled that playing field too much. Now I might have to try the third offering, the coffee stout/
Break out your backpacks and hashtags, Eagle Rock Brewery has teamed up with the National Forest Foundation to brew up some canned beers to take with you out into the Great Outdoors (for me it is the Great Indoors). Plus, as a bonus, portion of the proceeds of all sales will be donated to the National Forest Foundation.
The cans will be released into the wild tomorrow, 4/28 in time for you to hike or climb or (for me go out on the patio) and enjoy the #ERBdaytrip.
Rain doesn’t visit L.A. all that often but it came out on the day of the first canned release from Highland Park Brewery. HPB crew and brewmaster Bob Kunz were selling their beer in the cold and drizzle at the Hermosillo.
I got there three hours into the sale and was glad that they had four packs of there Hello LA IPA left. (They would all be snatched up by the end of the night, so sayeth social media.)
And for a first effort on can design the label is way cool. If these had been on a shelf, you could not have missed it. The white background wrap around is bright and cheerful and not only locally brewed but locally designed as well.
The beer itself is light and fruit forward and dare I say a sessionable IPA. The Mosaic and Citra hops really work well together and also pack a late punch of bitterness that adds a layer to the beer. A great combo of the lighter side of IPA (which I gravitate towards) but with a nice kick.
Bob has made one of my favorite pilsners, he won the recent LA IPA Festival and he does very inventive sours and now he does canned beers that are perfect for sending to other parts of the country to show off L.A. beer.
I don’t know how to get from the name Resin to Puff but that is the evolution of this new canned beer from Sixpoint Brewery. It is the unfiltered version of Resin. Would make for an educational side-by-side taste test.
Thanks to a windfall of breweries distributing in L.A., instead of bemoaning when a new beer was released (but nowhere near me), I now get to buy it. Which means that I can pick up a can of Bell’s Brewery newest addition, Quinannan Falls Special Lager Beer when it arrives in June.
Here is part of the backstory- “Quinannan Falls” pronounced “҆Kwi-ni-naan,” or Q-Falls as it affectionately known at Bell’s pub, has been an Eccentric Café favorite since 2009.”
And the beer description – “The end result is a dry-hopped lager that possesses a crisp, dry bitterness you would expect from a German pilsner, but the use of highly aromatic Simcoe hops from the Pacific Northwest, evoke the fragrant pine forests that inspired this beer.”
Up on Flint between Moda Center and Mississippi lies the 100% charity brewer, Ex Novo. And despite a Gose collaboration with Ecliptic that I didn’t cotton to, their beers were really well done. I would certainly re-visit.
And it was due to my Mom’s choice of the Single Hop Mosaic Pale which was my favorite beer of the trip. Close second was the Dynamic Duo Double IPA (brought a bottle home of that beer) Stiff Upper Lip their take on the ESB was solid but not spectacular, The Most Interesting Lager in the World could have dialed back the grain and toast and given a little more sparkle. Others may like their Vienna lagers like that though. YeastMode the Belgian Strong Golden fit into this B category as well. Below that (and surprisingly to me) was the Ecliptic Gose collaboration. It was dark and weird and a tad too salty. The balance was off.
The vibe inside reminded me a bit of a sunny McMenamin’s. A little hippy brewpub. But the fact that they are making a go of a charity brewery is fascinating and heartening to me. The fact that two of the beers struck me as so good is icing on the cake.
Looks like the Yeti has been contained in a can. Great Divide will be packaging their base Imperial Stout (that amazingly has 75 IBU’s) into 12oz cans.
It will make horizontal Yeti tastings a little easier and the storage of cans will take up less space.